THREE new 2020 movies for the price of one
No Content for Old Men
with Matt Craig
Hey readers, sorry for the late send! I'm working on a special project I can't wait to share with you all in a few weeks. Until then, and as always, thanks for reading and sharing with your friends!
In this week's newsletter: This is, by far, the most good movies I've ever recommended in a single edition. I'll help you sort through three recent releases: an indie hit, a studio comedy and a glitzy show-biz drama. Then I'll share my thoughts on two recent TV drops, "Space Force" and "Love Life," and give my whole-hearted endorsement of the incredible movie library on the new HBO Max platform.
Then, while acknowledging my own inadequacy in describing the racial unrest of the past week across this country, I offer a couple streaming suggestions that really moved me on the topic of race in America. This newsletter is the last place to come for insightful social commentary, but for what it's worth I want to show my support for those protesting and condemn the racism and police brutality that has plagued this nation for entirely too long. Reach out to those you know, educate yourself, and if you want to donate alongside me you can do so HERE.
The Vast of Night
First time director Andrew Patterson lives in Oklahoma City, but I promise you this endorsement goes beyond my home state bias. Don't just take it from me. Steven Soderbergh watched this movie at last year's Slamdance Film Festival and sought out Patterson immediately. It was the first Hollywood meeting Patterson had ever had. He had no agent, no producers, just the commercial video business he had built up that allowed him the budget to make this indie. Within a week of the Soderbergh meeting, he signed with William Morris Endeavor.
Patterson's stylish direction is immediately clear, including a how-the-heck-did-he-do-that tracking shot, but rarely is a visual artist so adept and making his camera serve his storytelling. He's captured the detail of this 1950s small town in New Mexico so specifically, in a way that is recognizable to anyone who has spent any time in small town subcultures at any point in history. The story is part radio drama, when the pace slows to a crawl and you're meant to lean in and pay attention to every word and detail, interrupted by fast-paced action sequences that are as coherent as any you'll find.
All of that craft winds around an intriguing narrative following a disk jockey and a switchboard operator investigating extraterrestrial activity across a single night. It's questions build an interest level that may not be paid off in full with its conclusion, likely a product of limited budget, but with the prodigious talent Patterson showed here I doubt that will be a problem for long.
The Lovebirds
Comedy two-handers are just about the easiest movies in the world to program. Take two incredibly likable and entertaining people, throw them together and then make crazy stuff happen to them.
In this case, Issa Rae and Kumail Nanjiani's force of personality carry the project over the proverbial Mendoza line. These are people with whom you'll go anywhere, including an ill begotten adventure to clear their names for a crime they didn't commit. Along the way you'll find more than a couple laugh-out-loud moments. But the movie lacks the polish one might expect from a studio comedy (or what's left of that genre). It's tone is scattershot, like a movie searching for an identity (you'd think it would be a romantic comedy but it's not), and it's unable to nail down which moments are to be taken seriously and which are slapstick. Ultimately, for me, it's fun but forgettable.
The High Note
You all know how I feel about music movies. And about Los Angeles movies. And about Waves star Kelvin Harrison Jr.. Short answer, I love all three. So there wasn't even a question that I was shelling out the money to rent this glitzy music biz movie when it dropped on-demand this past week. For most people my age, the Streaming Generation, the thought of paying a-la-carte for a single movie is inconceivable no matter how good the movie is.
Dakota Johnson (great, as always) plays an assistant for an Aretha Franklin-esque aging pop star dealing with the epitome of champagne problems. Johnson's protagonist wants to be a producer, but is stuck running errands. Until she meets Harrison's character, a prodigy, and they start making music and falling in love. The whole movie is so sepia toned that it looses all stakes and doesn't really earn the good vibes it provides, including perhaps the most obvious plot twist of all time. But we're talking about beautiful voices, beautiful people, beautiful L.A. houses and landscapes. It's a fantasy land that I wish I could spend more than two hours inside.
Streaming Suggestions!
Something New
Space Force (Netflix): Steve Carrell is back playing a boss in a workplace sitcom helmed by Craig Daniels (showrunner of "The Office" and "Parks and Recreation'). Which is to say, the worst case scenario for this show was still going to be above average, which is probably right where I'd place it. I won't lie and say I haven't burst out laughing once per episode, but the show feels more like strung together comedy bits than a tight interconnected ensemble. And Carrell's accent is a bold choice, one that is defensible but pigeonholes him to only a certain kind of gruff comedic persona. He's back to playing confident ignorance, his comfort zone, but has risen to the point where he doesn't want to make himself the butt of many jokes. Plus, each episode attaches an overly sentimental kicker that feels exploitative, rather than the slow attachment we built to the characters in "The Office."
Love Life (HBO Max): The release of HBO Max came with very little in the way of new original programming (the signature of the launch was supposed to be a "Friends" reunion which got cancelled due to COVID). Perhaps that put undue pressure on this well-funded Anna Kendrick limited series. Each episode tells the micro story of a different boyfriend, as we trace the macro arc of Kendrick's character's relationship to love. Having seen the first three, I'd endorse the show for reaching beyond the obvious stereotypes and finding great supporting actor performances, which, dare I say, push Kendrick to the limits of her acting ability.
Something Old
HBO Max!!!: Simply put, the new HBO Max streaming service has instantly become the greatest streaming movie library in the world. If you're one of those people that asks me what the greatest movies ever made are, or you don't know where to start if you want to catch up on the classics, here's what you'll find: Citizen Kane, Casablanca, Gone with the Wind, Singin' in the Rain, An American in Paris, The Wizard of Oz, North by Northwest, Ben-Hur, Rebel Without a Cause, Once Upon a Time in the West, and so many more. As you move forward in time the all-timers don't stop coming: Jaws, Die Hard, Apocalypse Now, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Bonnie and Clyde, and The Outsiders. It's got tons of romantic comedies, all three incarnations of A Star is Born, and the Coen Brothers first two movies (Blood Simple and Raising Arizona). Dig in!
Something to Stream
13th (Netflix): Ava Duvernay's 2016 documentary is poignant and convicting, as much of its footage from the 2015 Ferguson protests, not to mention the Jim Crow-era protests, is exactly what we're still seeing now in 2020. But few people have as plainly laid out the systematic racism that has been propagated by the criminal justice system over the past 50 years in such painful detail. It's essential viewing.
If Beale Street Could Talk (Hulu): Barry Jenkins' adaptation of the iconic James Baldwin novel is one of the most beautiful love stories on screen in recent years. My full review from 2018 is . It's unflinching in its condemnation of white people ("the white man has got to be the devil" says a scene-stealing Brian Tyree Henry), but it does so a level of empathy that makes the experiences of its main characters all the more heart-wrenching. The movie is a work of art and I cannot recommend it highly enough.
Trailer Watch: Irresistible
Written and directed by Jon Stewart, former host of "The Daily Show," this political satire has shades of the Will Ferrell-Zach Galifinakis comedy The Campaign but seems to replace slapstick comedy with biting commentary. Steve Carrell, who got his career break as a correspondent on "The Daily Show," looks so much more comfortable here playing the man who thinks he's in control but has no actual power (a la "The Office) than the man who has all the power but shouldn't (as in "Space Force"). I can't wait for this to be out on-demand video at the end of June.