The Best Newsletter of the Century

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Happy Saturday and Happy 5th of July. If you’re in the United States, I hope you found reasons to gather and celebrate on the 4th — or at least grill something in a way that was cathartic — and that your pets have recovered from the noise of the fireworks. We are currently keeping an eye on our neighbors’ new kitten while they’re out of town, and he seemed pretty clueless about the cacophony, which was nice.

As for movies, we’ve got some blockbusters and some throwback reviews for you at our Breakfast All Day YouTube channel and podcast. Let us keep you company as you’re traveling over the holiday weekend.

• JURASSIC WORLD: REBIRTH. You’d think by now that people would have learned not to mess with science and create hybrid dinosaurs that will try to destroy us all. But no, it’s summer, so here we are again. Scarlett Johansson, Mahershala Ali and Jonathan Bailey are all wildly overqualified for this. In theaters.

• IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE. One of the the best movies ever made is back in theaters for its 25th anniversary. If you’ve never seen Wong Kar Wai’s achingly gorgeous 2000 masterpiece, now’s your chance. Find our here whether it’s playing near you. And then once you’ve seen the film, please enjoy this extremely thorough blog post that breaks down every dress Maggie Cheung wears.

• THIS IS SPINAL TAP. Another classic movie is back in theaters for a big anniversary, but this one goes to 41. Rob Reiner’s OG mockumetary from 1984 has been remastered so you can enjoy all those insanely catchy songs the way David St. Hubbins and Nigel Tufnel intended. “This Is Spinal Tap” remains hilarious and infinitely quotable. Tickets are available here July 5-10.

• THE BEST MOVIES OF THE 21ST CENTURY. Now that we’re halfway through 2025, several outlets have put together lists of the best movies of the century so far. The New York Times has a fun interactive survey of hundreds of film experts. Rolling Stone similarly polled its critics and contributors. So Alonso and I did our own version of this, too. We each chose 10 favorites from the past 25 years, and approached this assignment in different ways with very different results. It’s a fun but impossible task: Ask me tomorrow and I might pick 10 different movies. Mine are in no particular order — I just listed them as they occurred to me, and of course I forgot things.

If you’re a member of our Patreon, you still have a couple of days to vote for July’s Off the Menu. This is a fun monthly thing we do where we offer a poll on a certain topic and our members decide what we review. Subscribers at the $5 level and up get to vote, but everyone can enjoy the video. This time, Alonso curated a selection of Summer That Changed Everything movies. We already did “Dirty Dancing” for a different poll earlier this year, but you get the idea. Currently, “Crooklyn” is in the lead, but “The Opposite of Sex” has a chance. We always love seeing what our folks pick, so if this sounds intriguing to you, come join us!

Did you see “Elio” when it came out a couple weeks ago? Probably not. The latest from Pixar Animation opened dismally with just under $21 million domestically, and has only made about $80 million total worldwide. Alonso and I reviewed the animated adventure and thought it was beautiful and quite charming (if familiar) in its storytelling, but we also discussed the fact that it seemed to be hinting at a queer undercurrent that it never fully explores. Now, an in-depth story in The Hollywood Reporter outlines exactly what happened with the film’s tortured path to the screen. It’s a shame, too, because there was a lot of potential here. “Elio,” about a misfit boy who dreams of having aliens abduct him, is a gentle movie for our stressful times, and it’s the rare film in theaters right now that the whole family can enjoy together. But it also seemed more geared toward kids, compared to the best of Pixar (“Inside Out,” “Up”) which works for viewers of all ages on multiple levels. Have you seen the movie? I’d love to know your thoughts.

That’s going to do it for me on this holiday weekend. It’s time to head over to our friends’ house to take care of Copernicus, which basically consists of me scooping out the litter box while Nic sits on the floor and plays with Copernicus. If you’ve enjoyed my newsletter, I’d be honored if you’d share it with the folks in your life who love movies, too. Have a great week, stay safe if you’re traveling, and I’ll see you back here next Saturday.