Time to get picky

Jun 30, 2021

"All you have to decide,
is what to do,
with the time that is given to you."

PINNED: this newsletter is supposed to be a friendly recapping of the movies in, and coming to, theaters. But things be real weird right now. So until that changes in earnest, I'll either be suggesting old favorites to revisit, pointing out recent flicks you may have missed or calling out notable new VOD / streaming options.

Y'all ever been in a situation where you had so much to say, but the circumstances necessitated you to hold your tongue? That's what it feels like for movie makers this week as I'm featuring five of the eight movies that are being released this weekend. That is to say, like a douchey finance bro, ya got options.*

Btw, the three I'm not highlighting are a Boss Baby sequel, which is in theaters and on Peacock | the next Purge movie, The Urge to Purge the Great Scourge (ok fine, it's called The Forever Purge), which is also in theaters | and finally The Tomorrow War, the Chris Pratt sci-fi action flick that looks blander than a night out at The Cheesecake Factory (but reviews are still tbd so I'm open to being proven wrong!) which is on Amazon Prime.

In keeping with my recent trend of discussing notable industry news, I thought it'd be interesting to highlight an article that isn't exactly news or new, but I've seen popup a few times in the past week. It's a Vulture piece from (waaaay) back in May that digs into Netflix's recommendations and lists. The assumption for many, is that these are just a ranking of the most popular shows and movies by some "viewed" metric. Not exactly (but in some cases!). Netflix isn't doing anything nefarious, in fact, if you believe them (and I mean this earnestly, why wouldn't you?) they're just trying to make their recommendations as helpful as possible because in the end, it helps you and them - by keeping you around (yes, I can still hear you skeptics scoffing).

Anyway, the reason I find this interesting is because streaming dominates much of how people watch content (in fact, it now accounts for 26% of the time people spend on TV) and viewers are often frustrated, or suspect of the now almost evil sounding "algorithms." Netflix specifically says they don't manipulate the lists to promote shows, but even with this in the open, I'm sure people will still be suspicious. I'm more of a chose before I open the app kinda person, so it applies a bit less to me, but if you're a peruser, I'd encourage you to give it a read and stay informed.

*I also could've said when it rains it pours, but well, I live in California. Oh, and I disdain cliches.

(from top, left to right)

Zola: "Y'all wanna hear a story about why me & this bitch here fell out??????? It's kind of long but full of suspense. 😂😭"

This is the opening line of Zola's source material - but that source is not a book, or even a play. Oh no, this the first movie based on a tweetstorm, aka a bunch of tweets. The social media posts themselves are based on a bat-shit crazy weekend an actual human person, Aziah King - who also goes by Zola, hence the title - experienced (once you read the thread or watch the movie, you'll understand my emphasis). The story starts at Hooters, takes place in Florida (of course), involves sugar daddies, stripping, pimps, prostitution, guns, money and an oddly observational protagonist who should not be as calm as she is while madness swirls around, and looks to envelope, her. In short, it's perfect movie material.

Vibe: craziest night of your life x10 (x100?)

Out  Today!
Watch  Theaters
The Trailer | 1 hr 30 mins | R | 🍅: 88%

No Sudden Move: Director Steven Soderbergh is like that kid in high school who enjoyed tests so damn much he'd get up nonchalantly ten minutes after you started and still get an A. That is to say, he's not only fast, but also obnoxiously good at what he does. Both of which allow him to recruit some of the best actors working to star in his movies. For No Sudden Move he pulled together Don Cheadle, Benicio Del Toro, David Harbour, Amy Seimetz, Jon Hamm, Brendan Fraser (and more) to tell a sort of noir story about a small heist that starts out as one thing, but quickly unravels for those involved, as well as the viewer. But jolly gee, lucky us, far more enjoyably for the latter.

Vibe Be Like: old school "movie" movie with experimental direction and twinges of societal awareness

Out  Thursday
Watch  HBO Max
The Trailer | 1 hr 30 mins | R | 🍅: 90%

Fear Street Part One - 1994: the first in Netflix's horror trilogy experiment, which, by all accounts (see reviews) has turned out quite well so far. This first part of the story, based on the books by popular author R.L. Stine, takes place in the 90's, but is also an homage to them, with references to horror movies made in that decade - which in turn inspired this movie. Critics say the first effort may not surpass any of the classics it calls back to, but does a solid job of crafting an enjoyable, almost Stranger Things-esque journey.

Bears noting that Part One is self contained, but as mentioned, part of a larger narrative that will continue next weekend with Part Two, set in the 1970s (and Part Three the following weekend - time jumping even further the seventeenth century). All three films were made by the same director and continue Netflix's boundary pushing (I know, I'm stroking their ego pretty hard, but I think it's cool!).

Vibe Be Like: omg, I totally had those shoes! ....oh shit, run girl, ruuuuun!

Out  Friday
Watch  Netflix
The Trailer | 1 hr 45 mins | R | 🍅: 86%

Summer of Soul: in his first movie as a filmmaker, one could say multi-talented artist Questlove is on a (don't say it, don't say it) *ahem* ...journey to tell people about a heretofore widely unknown music festival (at least as the filmmakers present it - but I sure as hell wasn't aware) that took place right around the same time as Woodstock. It was called the Harlem Culture Festival and featured numerous notable Black musicians over six weekends, playing to massive crowds. The doc retells its story mostly by showing "lost" footage of the performances, but also works to connect it to the modern day with commentary from those involved and added cultural context.

It was a standout at this year's Sundance and is easily one of the best reviewed movies of the year.

Vibe Be Like: how the hell did I not even know all this? *while nodding in affirmation and dancing in parallel*

Out  Friday
Watch  Hulu & (Limited) Theaters
The Trailer | 1 hr 57 min | PG-13 | 🍅: 98%

Werewolves Within: At some point last year there's a good chance you heard of the game Among Us. It's the app that destroyed friendships... I mean became very popular for it's combination of blind accusations and murderous rampages (for real, it's fun). In short, the goal is to discover the killer amongst a group of people (us?), before the killer kills all the killables. But Among Us is actually just a variation of the party game Werewolf, which is itself a modification of Mafia. Point is, Werewolves Within is loosely based on this very amusing genre of games. Turns out, they also make for an enjoyable movie, in part because the filmmakers cast a bunch of great comedians (including: Sam Richardson and Milana Vayntrub - aka the AT&T woman) in a story about a small town terrorized by something during a blizzard - which of course forces them together in one space where the insinuations and allegations will fly faster than the blood that's splattering against the walls.

And while the obvious question may be who's the monster, probably the better question to pose is, how much fun am I going to have finding out? Per reviews, quite a bit!

Vibe Be Like: the super sus nerdy cousin to Knives Out's more mainstream whodunnit

Out  Friday
Watch  VOD
The Trailer | 1 hr 37 min | R | 🍅: 84%

NOTABLES
(from top, left to right)

The Harder They Fall - revenge western starring Jonathan Majors, Idris Elba, LaKeith Stanfield, Zazie Beets, Regina King and Delroy Lindo.

Halloween Kills - sequel that picks up right after the end of Halloween (2018) - which itself was a direct sequel to the 1978 original.

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings - second trailer for the next Marvel movie. Make sure an peep that flash of The Abomination from The Incredible Hulk.

The Many Saints of Newark - it's a prequel to The Sopranos, or rather, it's the Tony Soprano origin story.

Clifford the Big Red Dog - pretty self explanatory!

What's In Theaters +

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