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Happy Saturday, Happy Valentine’s Day, happy three-day weekend if you’re in the United States. Whatever you’re doing — whether you’re with someone you love, you’re hanging out with girlfriends or you’re solo — I hope you’re indulging and I hope it includes something sweet.
Here’s what we reviewed on our Breakfast All Day YouTube channel and podcast. We offered a little taste of everything this week — kind of like a box of chocolates.
This old thing? I just threw it on.
WUTHERING HEIGHTS. Emerald Fennell has put the title in quotation marks, our first indication that the writer-director is making a major departure from the classic Emily Brontë source material. Her film is a visually ravishing example of style over substance — see it for the costume design alone — but while Jacob Elordi and Margot Robbie are a gorgeous Heathcliff and Cathy, there’s not much tension between them. In theaters.
I’d follow Sam Rockwell into battle.
GOOD LUCK, HAVE FUN, DON’T DIE. This movie is a total blast, starting with Sam Rockwell bursting into the Norm’s diner on La Cienega to deliver a killer monologue. He’s a man from the future, he says, and he’s come to warn us that AI is going to destroy civilization. This is a wild and twisty dark comedy with something serious to say. Haley Lu Richardson, Juno Temple, Zazie Beets and Michael Peña co-star. In theaters.
He’s a friend from work!
CRIME 101. Movies for grown-ups! They’re back! This is a well-crafted, well-acted heist thriller in the vein of “Heat,” with a great cast and a variety of LA locations. Chris Hemsworth is a jewel thief who targets stores along the 101 freeway. Mark Ruffalo is the police detective on his tail. Halle Berry is an insurance broker who gets caught up in one of his schemes. Alonso and I don’t totally agree on this one. In theaters.
MOVIE NEWS LIVE! Two weeks in a row — feels like we’re getting back into a groove. Among the topics we discussed were Sunday’s Spirit Awards and the state of awards season in general, celebrities leaving Casey Wasserman’s talent management company, and the “Sinners” exhibit on the Warner Bros. lot. Join us Fridays at Noon Pacific, we always love seeing you and hearing your thoughts.
We discussed all these movies and more on FilmWeek with Larry Mantle. Once again, I had the pleasure of sharing the air with my brilliant friend Lael Loewenstein. The goal is always to make folks feel like they’re listening in on the kind of conversation we’d have while walking out of the theater. Lael and I know each other so well that I think we achieve that. You can take us with you in podcast form here.
James Van Der Beek, 1977-2026
James Van Der Beek died this week of colorectal cancer. He was only 48 years old. If you watched every single episode of “Dawson’s Creek” like I did, or if you enjoyed his later work on shows like “Don’t Trust the B in Apartment 23,” where he played a douchey version of himself, you know what a compelling screen presence he had. Van Der Beek often seemed willing — eager, even — to make fun of his teen heartthrob image. This was especially true recently during his brief run on “Overcompensating,” where he played an obnoxious finance bro who’s an alum from the show’s fictional university. My good friend Tim Grierson posted a clip of Van Der Beek on Tig Notaro’s Funny or Die talk show “Under a Rock,” where she interviewed celebrities she didn’t recognize and had to ask them questions to figure out who they were. I had no idea this series existed — it’s a genius concept — and in this setting, he was warm, engaging and effortlessly funny. That he died so young is heartbreaking, but the fact that a GoFundMe has been set up to support his wife and six children, because his medical treatment depleted them financially, is another devastating blow. (Van Der Beek also sold “Dawson’s Creek” memorabilia to pay for his care.) Our country’s health care system is so out of whack. Rest in peace, James.
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“Moonlight” and “Andor” composer Nicholas Britell.
Finally, I know I mention the Roger Deakins podcast a LOT, but he and his wife and collaborator, James, have so many great guests and get into so much nitty-gritty process stuff that I always want to share it. This week on Team Deakins, they interviewed Nicholas Britell, the Oscar-nominated composer who works frequently with Barry Jenkins and Adam McKay. He also wrote the music for “Succession,” including that thunderous opening theme. I loved hearing him talk about how he got into this line of work and what kinds of conversations he has with directors before he begins writing. And I was fascinated to learn that on “Jay Kelly,” director Noah Baumbach brought him out to Italy to play pieces of music for the cast as they were acting, which is totally unusual. If you love movie and TV scores, you’ll really enjoy this conversation.
That’ll do it for me for this week. Despite the holiday, it’s a busy Saturday: I have a Palos Verdes Peninsula Land Conservancy event this morning, a shower this afternoon for a dear friend who’s about to have her first baby, and then a movie premiere that I’m dragging Chris with me to see tonight. If you’ve got a lot going on this weekend, too, I’m thankful that you’ve chosen to share a few moments here with me.
If you’ve enjoyed my newsletter, I hope you’ll share it with someone else. And if someone shared it with you, I hope you’ll subscribe. Have a great week, and I’ll see you back here next Saturday.
