The Queue

The 2023 Hasty Pudding Woman of the Year will be back in Boston this month. Here are five essential Jennifer Coolidge titles to watch.

You’re reading The Queue, Boston.com’s guide to streaming. Sign up to get the latest industry news, free streaming movie and TV recommendations, and more in your inbox every week.

On May 11, Jennifer Coolidge will deliver the commencement speech at Emerson College, completing a journey that started at the school back in the 1980s. The Norwell native only briefly studied performing arts at the college before dropping out, but she’ll finally receive an (honorary) degree from the school during the Sunday ceremony.

Being honored on Mother’s Day is fitting for Coolidge: Her breakthrough role as Stifler’s mom in 1999’s “American Pie” changed the English language, and a clip of her “White Lotus” character saying “Oh mother, mother mother” is part of the internet’s memetic language.

Coolidge’s career is a story of perseverance. She spent years waiting tables while performing with the Groundlings improv troupe, was rejected by “Saturday Night Live,” went to rehab, and didn’t score her first on-screen role (on an episode of “Seinfeld”) until she was 31, around the time she learned her mother was dying. 

Since turning 60 in 2021, Coolidge earned her first two Emmys, was named the Hasty Pudding Woman of the Year, and starred in the biggest movie of 2025 to date in “A Minecraft Movie.” 

In honor of a very funny woman finally finding the spotlight, here are 5 essential Jennifer Coolidge titles.

5 Jennifer Coolidge favorites

“Seinfeld” (1993): Coolidge’s first on-screen role is nothing like the comic persona she developed later in her career, but it’s still worth watching her as one of Seinfeld’s many girlfriends in this Season 5 episode, playing a masseuse who refuses to give Jerry a massage. (Netflix)

“Best In Show” (2000): The first of many collaborations with mockumentary director Christopher Guest, Coolidge is perfectly cast as a dog show competitor and trophy wife to her aged husband, with whom she has so much in common. (The Roku Channel)

“Legally Blonde” (2001): Probably her most well-known role until “The White Lotus,” Coolidge plays a hairdresser who learns from Elle (Reese Witherspoon) the secret powers of self-confidence and the bend-and-snap. (Peacock, Prime Video, Tubi, The Roku Channel)

“Promising Young Woman” (2020): Coolidge has played her part in a fair share of dramas as well, including the disappointed mother of Cassie (Carey Mulligan) in Emerald Fennell’s revenge thriller. (Prime Video)

“The White Lotus” (2021): Coolidge has frequently spoken about what a blessing it was to work with a director (Mike White) who understands her strengths, and she has never been better than playing Tanya McQuoid, a wealthy but troubled woman visiting the resort to spread her mother’s ashes. (Max)

Play or Skip

Have a show you can’t stop watching? Email me about it at [email protected], and your recommendation may appear in a future edition of The Queue.

Press play on these new movies and shows:

“Black Bag”: Steven Soderbergh’s spy thriller takes its sweet time, letting its secret agent couple (Michael Fassbender, Cate Blanchett) build tension first at a dinner party with coworkers and then in the field. (Peacock)

“Conan O’Brien Must Go”: Conan O’Brien is back with a too-short second season of his travel show, bringing his awkward but endearing energy (and his belittling of sidekick Jordan Schlansky) to Spain, New Zealand, and Austria. (Max)

“Conclave”: Since newer Catholic cardinals reportedly watched Edward Berger’s papal drama to learn about the sacred process of selecting a new pope, why not join the fun? (Prime Video)

“Taskmaster”: Nahant native Jason Mantzoukas has become one of the first Americans to compete on this British hit, which forces five comedians to complete a series of absurd, often frustrating tasks devised by the show’s creator and co-host, Alex Horne. (YouTube)

But go ahead and skip this one:

“Another Simple Favor”: I enjoyed Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick’s twisty 2018 mystery comedy “A Simple Favor,” but the film’s two best qualities — the Kendrick-Lively frenemy dynamic and the soap opera twists — are stretched beyond thin in this direct-to-streaming sequel. (Prime Video)

End Credits

That’s a wrap on this edition of The Queue. If you’re a fan, please consider recommending this newsletter to your friends.

Until next time, good stream hunting, everyone!

— Kevin

Source