Happy Saturday from the Sea to Sky Highway

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Happy Saturday, all. This week’s newsletter is coming to you from on location. It’s spring break, so we’re heading back to Whistler, B.C. — we’re probably on the road there from Vancouver as you’re reading this. It’s a stunningly beautiful drive: winding and mountainous, with incredible views of the sparkling sound, dotted with little islands.

This will be my first time skiing since I tore my ACL and MCL in Mammoth last April. I have a custom brace to wear, and I’m planning to take it easy this time (not that I was hiking up to the hardcore powder before my injury). But while I’m psyched to get back out there, and had major FOMO watching Chris and Nic ski Crested Butte over New Year’s, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little nervous. Will my knee hurt? Will I remember how to ski? Will I do something stupid getting off the lift because I’m anxious? No amount of Googling “skiing after ACL surgery” will answer these questions. It’s been a year — I just have to get out there and do it. Wish me luck.

You are here for movie reviews, though, and movie reviews you shall have. Here’s what we talked about this week on our Breakfast All Day YouTube channel and podcast.

• THE FRIEND. A 150-pound Great Dane named Apollo, played by a magnificent creature named Bing, upends Naomi Watts’ life (and takes over her entire bed) in this warm and wise drama, based on the novel of the same name. Watts does beautiful, soulful work here, and the supporting cast is terrific, including Bill Murray, Carla Gugino and Ann Dowd. Plus it features a rich sense of place in its depiction of New York City. Alonso and I don’t totally agree on this one. In theaters.

• FREAKY TALES. Where were you on the night of May 10, 1987? If you were in the Bay Area — Oakland specifically — you were probably enjoying watching Golden State Warriors guard Sleepy Floyd drop 29 points in the fourth quarter alone on the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA playoffs. This anthology from the writer-director team of Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck (“Half Nelson,” “Captain Marvel”) features four intertwined stories that take place around that night. It’s hit-and-miss but has a shaggy charm. Co-starring Pedro Pascal, Ben Mendelsohn, Jay Ellis, Dominique Thorne and rapper Too $hort, whose song gives the film its title. In theaters now. (I also reviewed “Freaky Tales” for RogerEbert.com, if you’d like to read my thoughts there.)

• HOLLAND. Yet another movie that explores the seedy underbelly of seemingly genteel small-town America. This one takes place in the titular Holland, Michigan, where Nicole Kidman’s character is the perfect wife and mom. Despite its efforts at offering twists and turns, the thriller from "Fresh” director Mimi Cave goes exactly where you think it will. Matthew Macfadyen and Gael García Bernal co-star. Streaming on Prime Video.

Sunday night is “The White Lotus” finale on Max, which also has me Googling: “How to watch The White Lotus in Canada.” We’ve been recapping season 3 on our Patreon, and I’m so bummed to see it end. The first season is still my favorite, but this one was pretty great, and it gave us infinite Instagram reels of Parker Posey saying “tsunami” and “Piper, nooooo,” which I’ll miss. The finale is reportedly 90 minutes long, and I can’t imagine waiting until after I get back from my own vacation to watch it and talk about it with my honey Alonso. So we’ll have a recap for you on our Patreon Monday morning, if you’d like to join us there and share your thoughts. Who will die? Who will be the killer? I’ve thought from the beginning that just because we hear gunfire, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the victim has been shot. And that teaser at the end of the last episode heavily hints at something nefarious going on with Saxon’s blender. What’s your theory? I’d love to know.

This week, we learned the heartbreaking news that Val Kilmer had died. The last decade of the actor’s life had been physically hard on him: He was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2015, which took away most of his ability to speak, and he died on Tuesday of pneumonia at age 65. Kilmer was truly one of the modern American greats: a handsome and swaggering leading man with the deep commitment of a character actor. Many will point to his performances in “Top Gun,” “The Doors” or “Tombstone” as their favorites, but I look back at “Real Genius” as the total embodiment of everything that made Kilmer such a magnetic screen presence: the confidence, the comic timing, the thrilling rhythm of his delivery. Plus he’s just so young and beautiful in the role. (And speaking of “The White Lotus,” I was today years old when I figured out that Jon Gries, who plays the villainous Greg/Gary, is also the mysterious Lazlo in this 1985 classic.) In 2021, Alonso and I reviewed the documentary “Val,” which consisted of Kilmer’s decades of home movies and behind-the-scenes footage as well as newer, illuminating interviews. And we’re honoring Kilmer with our April Off the Menu poll on our Patreon, so come join us and vote for the movie you’d like to see us review.

Thank you so much for starting your weekend with me. I’m more thankful than ever that you’re here. If you’d like to pass my newsletter along to the movie lovers in your life, I’d be honored. Have a great week, spring break forever, and I’ll see you back here next Saturday.