Greetings again, friends! After a sprint through the Oscars, I took a little bit of a step back to breathe … and gear up for the kick-off of the 2024 movie season in earnest.
But first, I forgot to mention — my second podcast appearance on Flixwatcher dropped last month! Listen to me (along with friend of the newsletter Rafaela Sales Ross) as we once again say #JusticeForWidows.
But below is what you really came for — 10 movies worth watching before they flee their current stateside streaming homes at the end of the month.
Akeelah and the Bee, Amazon Prime Video
I was telling a friend last weekend that I had the pleasure of attending Laurence Fishburne’s one-man show, which led to us rattling off any number of his great credits. She mentioned one that’s not among the usual suspects but leed to an emphatic seconding from yours truly: Akeelah and the Bee. Fishburne plays a great Mr. Miyagi-type coach to a baby-faced Keke Palmer in the titular role as an aspiring spelling bee champion. I still remember what the final word is in the competition, which ought to tell you how sticky this movie is in my mind.
Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, Netflix
Many were upset about Lily Gladstone missing out on Best Actress for her role in Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, a film that never really shook the suspicion that she wasn’t really a lead. It ties into a larger (and wrong) conversation that Scorsese has some kind of problem telling the stories of women, which is ludicrous considering that he’s one of only four people to direct an Academy Award-winning performance in every acting category. That Best Actress win belongs to the inimitable Ellen Burstyn in Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, a spunky tale of a widow who finds herself again while on the road.
Belle, Hulu
“Costume design porn” (if that’s not a phrase yet, I call dibs on the trademark) rarely satisfies for me, but I’ll admit, Belle came as a pleasant surprise. Amma Asante’s 18th-century set period piece focuses far less on the threads and refreshingly more on social values of the period in England. And for once, I felt like I should care far more about what the characters had to say than what they wore.
Beverly Hills Cop, Netflix
We’re getting another Beverly Hills Cop movie this summer on Netflix, so naturally, the platform is relinquishing the rights to stream the first movie. Makes total sense! Though Eddie Murphy’s star-minting performance is now forty years old — and some elements of the film’s humor has certainly aged accordingly — this film is still breezily watchable. Few things compare to a comedian in their prime really cooking like Murphy is here.
The Favourite, Hulu
I realized that I’ve somehow never officially recommended The Favourite here? Wild, because I think it’s probably the best movie made in the last five years. Here’s my full review for /Film from 2018, a rare perfect score from me.
In a World…, Amazon Prime Video
Lake Bell will always hold a special place in my heart as the first actor I ever interviewed. (You can read the decade-old piece over on my old WordPress blog.) In a World… is not without some first-time filmmaker flaws, but Bell’s comedic tale of a woman trying to break into the male-dominated world of trailer voiceovers provides an opportunity to discuss a wide array of topics around gender disparity. If nothing else, come to learn how to diagnose the “sexy baby vocal virus” that beats the hell out of Bell’s character.
Kicking and Screaming, Amazon Prime Video
Noah Baumbach’s debut feature presents the lives of four male pals from their graduation night onward, letting us watch as they bicker pithily at each other to delude themselves of their own importance while doing relatively little with their newly printed degrees. Sure, the sniping is incredibly pretentious, but at least they are educated and self-aware enough to realize that. So long as you can find their pathetic musings palatable, Kicking & Screaming will have you hooting and hollering. (And, perhaps, cringing in recognition.)
Meshes of the Afternoon, Criterion Channel
Want to watch a film that was ranked among the top 20 in the most recent Sight & Sound poll of the greatest movies of all time … but have less than 20 minutes to watch? Fire up Maya Deren and Alexander Hackenschmied’s influential avant-garde short Meshes of the Afternoon, which clearly has enough to occupy you given that it ranks above epics like Apocalypse Now and Seven Samurai. You’ll see Deren’s surrealist fingerprints everywhere (especially in David Lynch films) once you experience this landmark of cinema for yourself.
Rookie of the Year, Max
Baseball season is almost here! Warm up with Rookie of the Year, the other kid-friendly movie made about the same sport by 20th Century Fox from the year 1993. (That second film is, of course, The Sandlot.) This wish-fulfillment fantasy for a young boy to miraculously gain the ability to play among major league giants might not hold the same cultural cachet. But say the phrase “funky buttloving” in front of any millennial male and see if his face doesn’t light up remembering this movie.
Training Day, Apple TV+
Psst … did you know Apple started supplying some library titles on their streaming service? I’d be lying if I said I understand the strategy or logic behind what they picked, but if you’re already paying to watch Ted Lasso, you might as well watch Training Day while you’re at it. Denzel Washington has never been better channeling his dark side as a crooked LA cop initiating the young gun played by Ethan Hawke into his world of moral relativism. This film provided the legendary actor his second Oscar, and I don’t think it will be his last, either.
A new film from Focus Features dropped this weekend to minimal fanfare, probably because most reviews of The American Society of Magical Negroes did not read anywhere remotely as kindly as mine did. Here’s what I said about it at Sundance for The Playlist.
I also wrote about the film in conversation with American Fiction and Spike Lee’s Bamboozled in last week’s (delayed) subscriber newsletter.
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