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ty burr

Movies to add to your queue

Ian McKellen in “Mr. Holmes.”Roadside Attractions

The most confusing, poorly designed information system you contend with on a regular basis? That would be your cable company’s On Demand movie menu, a mind-numbing list of titles sliced by genre, release month, general theme — everything but actual quality. I personally get brain-fog after thumbing through three page-downs, and I’m a professional movie critic. This column, then, inaugurates an occasional roundup of movie and TV offerings that are, in my opinion, good and that have recently arrived on Comcast, iTunes, Amazon, and other platforms. (Some of them are still in theatrical release as well.) Given that we’re now deep into the season of holiday gatherings, I’ve tagged each suggestion with its prototypical family member target demo; by all means rearrange to fit your own clan.

For mom: “Ricki and the Flash,” in which Meryl Streep ditched her family years earlier to follow her rock ’n’ roll dreams and now comes home to deal with the fallout from her daughter’s disintegrating marriage. Streep’s daughter Mamie Gummer plays the latter with acid charm and a perfectly restrained Kevin Kline is the dad. Plus Rick Springfield as a love object for the over-50 set! Plus Jonathan Demme directs! What’s not to like?

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For dad: “Danny Collins,” in which rock star Al Pacino ditched the son he had with a one-night stand and comes back decades later trying to do the right thing. Shamelessly sentimental, absolutely irresistible, with a deep cast that includes Annette Bening, Bobby Cannavale, Jennifer Garner, and TV’s new Supergirl, Melissa Benoist. It’s the movie equivalent of pecan pie. With ice cream.

For your action-movie-addict brother: “Chappie,” a clever, revved-up “Robocop” riff from “District 9” director Neill Blomkamp, with Sharlto Copley providing the voice and body movements of a South African police droid that acquires a human AI soul and suddenly has to think for itself. Comes with the Sigourney Weaver seal of sci-fi approval; i.e., she’s in it.

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For your arthouse-movie-loving sister: “Clouds of Sils Maria,” starring Juliette Binoche as a movie star grappling with middle age, Kristen Stewart as her mousy assistant, and Chloe Grace Moretz as a Hollywood brat. Wonderfully talky and rapturously visual, with an ambiguous late-inning twist that will have action-movie brother throwing things at the screen.

For the reprobate uncle: “Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead: The Story of the National Lampoon,” a fond and funny (and sad) documentary tour through the history of the late, great 1970s humor magazine. Just be careful if he serves brownies with this.

For any cousins looking for a smart scare: “The Gift.” You know the guy who played John Connolly in “Black Mass”? That’s Joel Edgerton. He’s from Australia, and he’s a fine director, too. His latest movie, promoted as just another psycho-stalker affair, went nowhere in theaters, but it’s a cut or three above, with solid performances by Jason Bateman, Rebecca Hall, and Edgerton himself, and creepy curveballs that keep coming.

For the relative who prefers books, thank you: “Mr. Holmes,” an engrossing period drama that imagines an aged Sherlock Holmes (Ian McKellen) trying to solve a final mystery before his big, brilliant brain fails him. With Laura Linney, so it’s classy stuff, and surprisingly moving.

For the family daredevil: “Meru,” a literally breath-taking documentary about three climbers’ ascent of the Shark’s Fin on Mt. Meru in Northern India, 21,000 feet straight up. An audience-award winner at last January’s Sundance, it’s guaranteed to have you clutching the sides of your Barcalounger and experiencing vertigo on the way to taking out the trash.

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For anyone arguing against immigrants at the dinner table: “Mediterranea.” Jonas Carpignano’s debut film follows the fictionalized journey of two African men (Koudous Seihon and Alassane Sy) from Burkina Faso to Italy with low-key neorealism rather than Hollywood melodrama, and it puts a human face on an issue that Americans tend to consider in the abstract. Watch the movie, then have the discussion.

For your “Downton Abbey”-obsessed grandma: “Indian Summers,” a British miniseries just winding down on PBS’s “Masterpiece Theatre.” Set during the final, clueless days of the British Raj in India, the show has an attractive cast, meaty performances, and enough high-toned soap opera to rattle grandma’s teacup. And it doesn’t toady to the Brits like “Downton.”

For the family fashion hound: “Iris.” The penultimate film from Albert Maysles, the great documentarian (“Grey Gardens”) who died this past March, simply allows us to spend time in the presence of Iris Apfel, the 93-year-old New York style maven and full-time life force. Has the downside of making everyone in your family seem exceedingly dull by comparison.

For your battling brothers: “The Mend,” a feature debut from writer-director John Magary that explores the relationship between two dysfunctional bros, played by Stephen Plunkett (the putatively normal one) and Josh Lucas (the rageaholic loose cannon). Edgy, kind of amazing, and made with a genuinely original sensibility; if you have brothers or uncles who can’t stop arguing, this will shut them up.

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For the college student gamely plowing through “Infinite Jest”: “The End of the Tour,” in which Jason Segel plays late author David Foster Wallace, cringing articulately and vulnerably under the attentions of a Rolling Stone journalist played by Jesse Eisenberg. It’s Wallace lite, but that still makes it heavier than 99 percent of anything else out there.

For the childless couple who dote on their dog: “White God,” a sort of Hungarian “The Incredible Journey” crossed with “The Birds” in which a girl’s beloved mutt is mistreated by the world before banding together with other strays for apocalyptic revenge. Not a horror movie so much as a thought-provoking allegory on how we treat our innocents, four-legged and otherwise. A suspenseful vigilante flick for animal lovers — enjoy the rib roast!

For modern romantics: “Catastrophe,” a deliciously funny British series about a very tall American (Boston’s Rob Delaney) and a flibbertigibbet Irish woman in London (Sharon Horgan) who share a raunchy random weekend, accidentally get pregnant, then try to make it as a couple. The charming leads, who also write, put it over. The first six half-hours are available on Amazon Prime; if your relatives are really boring, there’s three hours taken care of.

For the whole family (except the kids): “Tangerine.” Just your basic comedy-drama about transsexual streetwalkers (played by Kitana Kiki Rodriguez and Mya Taylor) in LA during Christmas. Shot on an iPhone. Really? — for the whole family? All I know is that I watched this with my father-in-law, an 85-year-old retired gastroenterologist from Florida, and he thought it was the best movie he’s seen in ages. I don’t disagree.

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Ty Burr can be reached at ty.burr@globe.com.