Happy Saturday From Dreary Gotham City

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Happy Saturday, friends. As you read this, I’ll be at the Manhattan Beach 10K, a longtime tradition here in the South Bay. I’m not running again just yet, even though rehab from my knee surgery is going well and I feel like I’m close. Instead, I’ll be there cheering on Chris and Nic and our running club friends, as well as handing out medals to the top finishers at the end. It feels good to remain a part of this community in some capacity, and it takes the edge off the FOMO.

Also, it feels like we’ve entered fall movie season in earnest this week, with screenings in LA nearly every night and the arrival of the first For Your Consideration screeners — for “Hit Man” and “His Three Daughters,” both on Netflix, both very good.

We’ll stay on top of all of the big movies at our Breakfast All Day YouTube channel and podcast. For now, here’s what we reviewed this week.

• JOKER: FOLIE À DEUX. Todd Phillips’ follow-up to his Oscar-winning 2019 drama “Joker” finds Joaquin Phoenix returning to the Batman villain role, this time with Lady Gaga by his side as Harley Quinn. But now they’re terrorizing Gotham in song! I kinda hated this movie and couldn’t wait for it to end, but I admired the craft on display. In theaters.

• SATURDAY NIGHT. Jason Reitman’s rollicking recreation of the first “Saturday Night Live” episode is a lot of fun, with famous people playing other famous people. (J.K. Simmons is Milton Berle! Matthew Rhys is George Carlin!) I enjoyed it while I was watching it but ultimately found it empty. In limited release now, opening nationwide on Oct. 11.

• THE SUBSTANCE LIVE SPOILER CHAT. We had to get into it with our viewers about all the insane stuff that happens in the Demi Moore body horror drama. “The Substance” is the kind of movie you definitely need to talk about afterward, and we were delighted to see that so many people felt the same way and joined us. In theaters.

• MOVIE NEWS LIVE! Among this week’s topics were the trailer for Nicole Kidman’s “Babygirl,” Jonathan Majors’ “Magazine Dreams” being released, “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” getting a second season, and everything Alonso ate last weekend at the Texas State Fair. Join us every Friday at Noon Pacific.

With “The Substance” and “A Different Man” in theaters these days, we got to thinking about “Seconds,” the 1966 John Frankenheimer thriller, which we revisited for our Patreon subscribers and channel members. Rock Hudson stars as a miserable, middle-aged man who undergoes a drastic procedure to alter his face and start a new life. He wakes up looking like … well, Rock Hudson. But he finds that changing from the outside in doesn’t necessarily guarantee happiness. Hudson is riveting in a rare serious role, one he hoped would put him on a different career trajectory. But “Seconds” was a flop — despite its trippy, Oscar-nominated cinematography from James Wong Howe — so that was not to be. But you can (and should) catch up with the film at Kanopy or The Criterion Channel.

Also on The Criterion Channel (and several other places, including Max), you can watch back September’s Off the Menu movie. (We just made it in time with a review on Sept. 30.) We wanted to pay tribute to the late, legendary Gena Rowlands by offering a poll of several of her greatest roles, and this is the one our Patreon subscribers chose. It’s her most famous and acclaimed performance, and an excellent example of the kind of raw, intense work she did with her filmmaker husband, John Cassavetes. Rowlands’ Mabel Longhetti is a force of nature — sometimes tender, sometimes terrifying — in a world that would rather drug her up and stuff her away than understand what’s truly tormenting her. This 1974 indie can be a tough watch, but it’s a must-see.

On a much lighter note on our Patreon, we’re recapping season 3 of “Heartstopper” on Netflix. The queer teen series is a total charmer, and we’re glad to be back with Charlie, Nick and their friends. The whole season is out there for your binging enjoyment, but when that happens, we like to take it two episodes at a time. So we have recaps of the first two episodes now, and we’ll keep doing that for the next few weeks. If you’ve never seen “Heartstopper,” it’ll put a huge smile on your face. Joe Locke and Kit Connor have lovely chemistry with each other, and they’ve both been busy with other projects lately — Locke on “Agatha All Along,” and Connor in “The Wild Robot” and playing Romeo on Broadway opposite Rachel Zegler’s Juliet. Hope you’ll check it out.

If you haven’t gotten your tickets yet for our screening of John Carpenter’s “The Fog” at The Frida Cinema in Santa Ana, there’s still time. Come join us on Sunday, Oct. 27 at 2pm Pacific. Then stick around after the movie and watch me and Alonso record a podcast review of the film. We’d love to see you!

Thanks so much for sharing part of your weekend with me. If my newsletter was helpful or entertaining or just a decent way to kill time, I’d be delighted if you passed it along to a friend or family member. Have a great week, and I’ll see you back here next Saturday.