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Good morning to all you wonderful Saturday people. So good to see you. And welcome to the many new folks who’ve subscribed in the past week or so. I promise not to clog your inbox with nonsense!
Besides, it’s really really officially summer movie season now that there’s a new Steven Spielberg blockbuster in theaters, so there’s a ton of good stuff to talk about. Here’s what we reviewed this week on our Breakfast All Day YouTube channel and podcast. Take us with you on your way to the multiplex.
DISCLOSURE DAY. Josh O’Connor and Emily Blunt are on a collision course to find out their connection with each other, and with aliens. Shadowy forces are trying to stop them. It’s a Spielberg movie, so all that top-notch craft is on display, and the man still knows how to stage a thrilling action sequence. Blunt does some of the best work of her career in a technically demanding role. Alonso and I differ as to how well this movie works as a whole, but we both agree the ending is terrible. We’ll get into that and so much more during our LIVE spoiler chat on Tuesday at Noon Pacific, so join us and share your thoughts. In theaters literally everywhere.
THE FURIOUS. A truly insane action movie that lives up to all its hype. Director Kenji Tanigaki, who also did the stunt choreography, consistently blows us away with the inventive, athletic martial arts sequences on display. If you liked “The Raid,” you’ll love this. Xie Miao and Joe Taslim co-star as two very different guys who team up to infiltrate a child trafficking ring in an unnamed Southeast Asian country. You will say ooh and ow and wow a lot. In theaters (and if you can see it with a packed audience, even better).
CAPE FEAR (1962). In preparation for the “Cape Fear” series on Apple TV, which we’re recapping on our Patreon, we went back and reviewed both film versions of this classic revenge story. I’d never seen the original 1962 movie, starring Robert Mitchum as a quietly chilling Max Cady. The violent ex-con shows up in a charming Georgia town to torment a lawyer (Gregory Peck) and his family. The iconic Bernard Hermann theme over the opening titles evocatively sets the tone. This is rentable online if you’d like to rewatch or catch up with it, too.
CAPE FEAR (1991). Martin Scorsese’s version is more famous, and it’s become indelible in pop culture thanks to “The Simpsons” episode that’s such a detailed, loving homage to it. Robert De Niro is gloriously over the top as Cady, and Scorsese’s depiction is operatic in its pervasive sense of menace. I prefer this version, both for its lurid style and for the more complex characterization of the family at its core. Juliette Lewis is incredible here, and she earned an Oscar nomination for her supporting performance as the teenage daughter on the brink of womanhood. Also rentable in a variety of places.
MOVIE NEWS LIVE! So much to discuss, including early “Disclosure Day” reactions, our top 5 Spielberg movies, the trailer for “The Social Reckoning” and more. Join us on Fridays at Noon Pacific.
Also this week, I was on FilmWeek on LAist with my friend and neighbor Maureen Lee Lenker, as well as animation expert Charles Solomon. One of the many movies we talked about was the documentary “Boy George & Culture Club,” which is about … Boy George and Culture Club. If you grew up in the ‘80s, you heard their songs constantly on the radio, and “Do You Really Want to Hurt Me,” their first major hit, was in heavy rotation on early MTV. The film from director Alison Ellwood (“The Go-Go’s”) explores the band’s rise and fall and features candid interviews with all four members. They all have entertaining stories to tall, but the main revelation is the passionate, secret romance between George and drummer Jon Moss, which was the inspiration behind many of their songs.
George is still gorgeously flamboyant and retains his cheeky sense of humor, but he’s also serious about the effect his heroin addiction had on the band’s success. The Gen Xer in me really enjoyed this movie, which made me realize just how many great songs Culture Club had. I’m hoping Alonso and I can catch up with a review of this on the channel. “Boy George & Culture Club” is playing in limited release theatrically and streaming on Apple TV, Prime Video and other platforms.
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Also on the latest FilmWeek, my good friend and fellow critic Manuel Betancourt came on to discuss a recent ranking of the 25 best documentaries of the 21st century. This appears in Documentary magazine, where Manuel is the assistant editor. They asked 300 members of the documentary community to make their picks, and the choices are an eye-opening cross-section of what’s possible within the medium. Plus lists are always fun because they’re a great topic of debate: “How is that not higher?” “How could they omit that one entirely?” But this one’s pretty unimpeachable, including works by masters like Errol Morris and Agnés Varda as well as younger filmmakers like Bing Liu and Sarah Polley, whose “Stories We Tell” from 2012 is a movie I still think about all the time. Ezra Edelman’s seven-plus-hour “OJ: Made in America,” which came in at No. 2, may seem specific to Los Angeles but it’s essential to understanding America. We love reviewing documentaries and have discussed several of these films over the years, either on our current channel or in our previous incarnation, What the Flick?! Check it out and let me know which ones you’ve seen.
That’ll do it for me for this week. I have to drive up to Hollywood this morning to see “Toy Story 5” at the El Capitan. Look for an out-of-the-theater reaction later today, plus our full review on Tuesday. If you enjoyed my newsletter, I hope you’ll share it with someone else. And if someone else shared it with you, I hope you’ll subscribe. Saturday Matinee is always free. Have a great week, and I’ll see you back here next Saturday.
