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Good morning, my wonderful Saturday people.
Alonso and I took Friday off to support the nationwide May Day work stoppage, but we’re back to kick off your weekend with all kinds of reviews. It’s going to be a big one at the movies, between people dressing up to see “The Devil Wears Prada 2” and enjoying impromptu dance parties at showings of “Michael.” And while I don’t love either of those movies, I do love the idea of people actually going to the theater — buying popcorn and soda, packing into auditoriums and enjoying time together in that shared space. Now if we could just do something about all the annoying cell phone use …
Anyway, here’s what we reviewed this week on our Breakfast All Day YouTube channel and podcast. Take us with you as you’re shopping for the perfect hat to wear to that Kentucky Derby party.
THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA 2. Twenty years later, everyone’s back at Runway magazine, but Runway magazine is a shell of its former self. This is a sad movie about the state of modern journalism, but the clothes are still great. Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Stanley Tucci and Emily Blunt return. This is going to be huge. In theaters.
Also, please enjoy this enormously entertaining “Saturday Night Live” promo, teasing this weekend’s Olivia Rodrigo episode. The delivery and attention to detail are perfect. Meryl would be proud.
THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA (2006). Of course we had to go back and review the original film, which was a massive, crowd-pleasing hit that remains infinitely meme-able. It’s the definition of the breezy, escapist rom-com. The sequel is very different.
HOKUM. Adam Scott stars as a misanthropic writer who travels to Ireland and stays in a charming, countryside inn. Weird things start happening. Writer-director Damian McCarthy’s film is deeply atmospheric, and Scott is great in it. In theaters.
MILE END KICKS. I’ve wanted to catch up with writer-director Chandler Levack’s movie for a while, so I’m really glad we finally did. Barbie Ferreira is totally delightful as a young music critic who moves to the Mile End neighborhood of Montreal to cover its burgeoning indie music scene in 2011. I’ve spent a lot of time in this area, so it was a joy to see it captured on screen. This is a great summer-that-changed-everything movie, one of my favorite subgenres. In theaters.
I also had the pleasure of discussing these movies and many others on FilmWeek on LAist alongside Tim Cogshell and Charles Solomon. Take us with you as you’re out running around this weekend. FilmWeek is also available in podcast form.
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Over at our Patreon, we discussed “Punch-Drunk Love” for our April Off the Menu review. We offered several early Paul Thomas Anderson films for our members to vote on, now that he’s finally an Oscar winner for “One Battle After Another.” It was a close one, but this 2002 drama was the winner over “There Will Be Blood.”
“Punch-Drunk Love” is the movie that put Adam Sandler on the map as a serious leading man. There would be no “Uncut Gems” or “Funny People” without it. PTA saw something in an actor who was best known for comedy (and goofy, broad comedy at that) and took a chance on him to carry a heavier weight. It’s still one of my least favorites in the Anderson pantheon — and he’s a filmmaker whose work I adore — but it is interesting to go back and look at it through the prism of his other movies. So many of his hallmarks are there: the San Fernando Valley setting, the whip pans, the emotional intensity, and an unmistakable undercurrent of danger within a seemingly mundane setting.
Sandler stars as Barry Egan, a sad-sack bathroom supply salesman who finds himself the target of an extortion plot. At the same time, he’s finding love for the first time with Lena (Emily Watson), who works with one of his seven sisters (Mary Lynn Rajskub). The scenes with PTA regular Philip Seymour Hoffman are the strongest, and get closest to what it seems Anderson is aiming for with its mixture of anxiety and absurd humor. It’s fascinating to see Sandler stretch in this way, but I never bought the romance at the film’s core — and that’s a problem, because we’re supposed to believe it’s transformative. Still, as a curiosity, I was glad to have the chance to revisit this movie, which I hadn’t seen since it debuted over two decades ago.
Thanks so much to everyone who voted, And if you’re a member of our Patreon at the $5 level and up, make sure to vote in our May Off the Menu poll, where we’re honoring Marilyn Monroe on what would have been her 100th birthday.
That’ll do it for me for this weekend (or as Miranda Priestly would say, “That’s all …). Thank you so much for sharing some of your time with me. If you’ve enjoyed my newsletter, I hope you’ll share it with the movie lovers in your life. And if someone shared it with you, I hope you’ll consider subscribing. Saturday Matinee is always free. Have a great week, and I’ll see you back here next Saturday.
