Written By When To Stream
Tuesday, July 9, 2024
THE BIKERIDERS - $24.99 Sale / $19.99 Rental
What we like:
Director Jeff Nichols delivers a compelling drama with a talented cast that’s an oasis in a summer that’s light on adult fare. And while it hasn’t broken out at the box-office, it’s by far Focus Features’ hight grossing film of the year.
In an interview with The Wrap, Nichols discusses the film’s move from 20th Century Studios to Focus Features, explaining that the production company that financed the film, New Regency Productions, chose to switch studios. Specifically, they cited the financial success their perceived flop The Northman enjoyed when PVOD was factored in with box-office. It’s an interesting example of Universal attracting a project for their PVOD strategy.
What we don’t like:
At a reported production budget between $30M-$40M, and a worldwide gross currently under $30M, this will have to do huge PVOD numbers to break even.
THE EXORCISM - $24.99 Sale / $19.99 Rental
What we like:
Writer-director Joshua John Miller is exorcism-related royalty. His father is Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Jason Miller, who memorably portrayed Father Damien Karras in the 1973 horror classic The Exorcist.
Fans of Russell Crowe will be feasting, as this is the first of three of the actor’s films to hit streaming this month. Land of Bad hits Netflix on July 18th, and Sleeping Dogs debuts on Hulu on July 26th.
What we don’t like:
Last year’s The Pope’s Exorcist, while not being very good, at least delivered some campy thrills and Russell Crowe on a Vespa. The Exorcism did not seem to engender the same goodwill from critics, who panned the film when it hit theaters.
THE GARFIELD MOVIE - $24. 99 Sale / $19.99 Rental
What we like:
Lasagna! That grumpy cat Garfield sure does have a point. It’s delicious.
A stellar voice cast that we hope got nice paychecks: Samuel L. Jackson, Hannah Waddingham, Ving Rhames, Nicholas Hoult, Cecily Strong, Harvey Guillén, Brett Goldstein, and Bowen Yang.
What we don’t like:
We have nothing against Chris Pratt. But his movie-star persona is such a far-cry from his television persona as Andy on Parks and Recreation. Pratt as Andy was goofy, doughy and lovable. Pratt the movie star persona is chiseled, heroic, and kinda mirthless. In other words, Pratt as Garfield is about 10 years too late.
KINGDOM OF THE PLANET OF THE APES - $19.99 Sale Only
What we like:
The mo-cap technology in the 21st century Planet of the Apes movies continues to astound. It’s a travesty that none of these films have won Oscars for visual effects.
Lead actor Owen Teague capably takes the reigns from Andy Serkis, who memorably played Caesar in the previous three Apes films. Teague even inspired some ‘Are the Apes hot?’ discourse online, to which we say…sure. But he’s no Helena Bonham Carter:
What we don’t like:
As impressive as they are as technical achievements, these latter day Apes films are all seeming a bit same-y. Still, you can’t argue with their success.
Thursday, July 11, 2024
THE ANIMAL KINGDOM - Hulu
What we like:
Thomas Cailley’s French sci-fi drama received a leading 12 nominations for the César Awards, including Best Film, Director, Actor (Romain Duris), and Original Screenplay. It won for Best Cinematography, Sound, Original Music, Costume Design, and Visual Effects.
Cailley cut a 2 minutes epilogue between the film's screening at the Cannes film festival and its official release. According to him, "in the end [he] felt like it was more interesting not to answer all the questions that the epilogue answered. To leave them open."
What we don’t like:
The US poster for the film really doesn’t convey how visually inventive the creature effects are in the film. Sell it, marketers!
TYLER PERRY’S DIVORCE IN THE BLACK - Prime Video
What we like:
‘Written, Produced, and Directed by Tyler Perry’ is pretty much all we need to check out this melodrama. Perry’s brand of moralizing can be cringey, but we’re rarely bored. Even if we’re rolling our eyes and chuckling.
Veteran character actor Richard Lawson plays the protagonist’s father, and it’s always good to see him. He played one of the parapsychologist helpers in 1982’s Poltergeist.
What we don’t like:
We’re a little disappointed the main character’s name isn’t Divorce. Perry loves to slip in his characters’ names in his titles (see: Good Deeds, A Fall From Grace, Mea Culpa)
THE PEASANTS - Netflix
What we like:
Written and directed byDK WelchmanandHugh Welchman, The Peasants is an adaptation ofWładysław Reymont's Nobel Prize-winning novel ofthe same name, and was produced using the painted animation technique similar to the pair's previous film,Loving Vincent. That film was Oscar-nominated in 2017 for Best Animated Feature.
The film was initially shot with actors, and then more than a hundred painters in four studios in Poland, Lithuania, Ukraine, and Serbia paintedoil paintingsbased on the shots, which became frames in the film. Animators then worked to supplement the paintings to make the whole film seamless. The artists spent over 200,000 hours in total working on the project.
What we don’t like:
Critics were a little less enthusiastic than they were for Loving Vincent, and the film failed to get an Animated Feature Oscar nomination.
Friday, July 12, 2024
ARCADIAN - Shudder, AMC+
What we like:
It feels unnatural that we haven’t had a new Nicolas Cage movie to talk about in the last few months. Here, the prolific actor stars as the father of two teenage boys, all trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic world.
The film was met with generally positive reviews, with many critics praising the creature effects and genuine unsettling tension.
July 12th will be a big day for Cage fanatics, as his buzzy new serial killer thriller Longlegs also opens in theaters.
What we don’t like:
We fear the Nicolas Cage pipeline is drying up. The actor has one completed film without distribution (The Surfer, which premiered at Cannes), and four films in various stages or pre and post-production. But with nothing on the schedule beyond Longlegs, we’ll have to make do with the eight Cage movies released in the past year or so.
THE CONVERT - $16.99 Sale / TBD Rental
What we like:
New Zealand director Lee Tamahori is back on home soil with this historical drama, which stars Guy Pearce as a lay preacher at a British settlement in New Zealand who gets caught in a bloody war between Māori tribes in the 1830s.
Tamahori’s 1994 film Once Were Warriors was an international sensation, and led to a Hollywood career that included directing 1996’s Mulholland Falls, 1997’s The Edge, and the 2002 James Bond film Die Another Day.
What we don’t like:
Tamahori’s post-Bond films yielded diminishing returns, with XXX: State of the Union, Next (another Nicolas Cage!), and The Devil’s Double putting him in figurative Hollywood movie jail…
…which is always preferable to actual jail. In January 2006, Tamahori was arrested on Santa Monica Boulevard when, according to Los Angeles police, he entered an undercover policeman's car while wearing a woman's dress and offered to perform a sex act in exchange for money.
IF - Paramount+, MGM+
What we like:
A non-IP driven story for kids. This one’s from the mind of John Krasinski, who wrote and directed. Good for him for using his A Quiet Place juice to make something original.
Krasinski has clout. A sampling of the big stars that lend their voices to this film: Steve Carrell, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Emily Blunt (how’d he get her?), Awkwafina, George Clooney, Bradley Cooper, Matt Damon, Bill Hader, and Blake Lively. Oh, and Ryan Reynolds stars.
What we don’t like:
Although the SVOD streaming premiere date has not been formally announced we’re including IF in our weekly preview. The film has been listed by MGM+ as premiering on linear TV on Friday evening, so July 12th seems like the latest it will become available. When the date is confirmed, we’ll let you know.
THE LONG GAME - Netflix
What we like:
We love an inspirational sports drama. The film tells the true story of the San Felipe Mustangs, a group of Mexican-American youths located in Del Rio, Texas. In the 1950s, the group set out to play golf at a white country club in town. Despite prejudice, the Mustangs overcame these obstacles to become the 1957 Texas state champions.
We love Latino talent telling a Latino story. The Long Game is directed by Julio Quintana and stars Jay Hernandez, Julian Works, Jaina Lee Ortiz, Brett Cullen, Oscar Nuñez, Paulina Chávez, Gregory Diaz IV, José Julián, and Cheech Marin.
What we don’t like:
We have to admit we don’t get very excited about golf movies, and more specifically, golf dramas. Comedies can work: Happy Gilmore, Tin Cup, Caddyshack. But dramas? A tough sell.
WILDCAT - $14.99 Sale / TBD Rental
What we like:
This Ethan Hawke directed biographical drama tells the story of American novelist Flannery O'Connor struggling to publish her first novel. Hawke’s daughter Maya portrays O’Connor.
The film’s strong supporting cast includes Rafael Casal, Philip Ettinger, Steve Zahn, Laura Linney, and in his second screen appearance (after Licorice Pizza), Cooper Hoffman.
As regular readers know, we’re fascinated with Nepo Baby discourse. It’s always revealing when an actor with famous parents responds to the designation. We loved Maya Hawke’s response when asked: ‘I’m Comfortable With Not Deserving It and Doing It Anyway.’ Perfect! That’s all you need to say!
What we don’t like:
The film received middling reviews out of the 2023 Telluride Film Festival.
Saturday, July 13, 2024 (8p ET)
FAYE - Max
What we like:
We love a deep-dive Hollywood documentary, and this examination of the life and career of Faye Dunaway looks like a doozy.
Dunaway’s run of classic films in the 60s and 70s stands with the elite in Hollywood history: Bonnie and Clyde, The Thomas Crown Affair, Chinatown, The Towering Inferno, Three Days of the Condor, Network, Eyes of Laura Mars.
What we don’t like:
Dunaway’s reputation as ‘difficult’ reeks of sexism, though we’re interested to see how this documentary unpacks the many stories of her prickliness.
Happy Streaming Everyone!
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