"A heart is not judged by how much you love;
but by how much you are loved by others."
PINNED: this newsletter started as a way to highlight movies coming to theaters (see: the name). Then, "the bullshit" happened. And I started featuring movies in theaters, VOD or streaming (see: the +). Point is, if there's a movie worth checking out, you'll probably find it here.
Good news. Dune is getting its (very necessary) Part II.
As for this week's movies, going to keep the highlight descriptions tighter. Well, I'll try to.
I'm visiting the midwest to honor the birthday of one those to whom I owe my life (literally), so want to make sure and maximize that most precious resource (cookies, duh).
Oh, if you didn't get the quote, you should give it another look. In part because it's a good one, and also so I refocus your attention as I borrow its sentiment in describing "one of those," aka mom. ❤️
Extra Credit Movies: A prequel to the zombie / heist movie, Army of the Dead, is hitting Netflix this weekend too. But since it's a prequel there aren't as many (any?) zombies, so its more just a heist movie. It's called Army of Thieves (key: not directed by Zack Snyder).
LAST NIGHT IN SOHO
Edgar Wright, the director who broke out sending up the zombie genre has gone off and made himself a proper horror movie. Well, maybe not proper proper, this is still Wright, a filmmaker known to do his own thing.
The movie stars Thomasin McKenzie (from OLD) who starts having dreams about a couple in the 1960's Anya Taylor-Joy (Queens Gambit) and Matt Smith (The Crown, lots of other stuff). They're glamorous, sexy, and a fun adventure, until she realizes they're not dreams at all, and the past she's been viewing starts to become her present.
Reviews say the first chunk of the movie shows off the best of Wright's penchant for sumptuous style and attention to detail, but that the ending segment starts to feel a bit too much like a typical horror movie.
Vibe: Styled to a D - for Death
Out Friday
Watch Theaters
The Trailer | 1 hr 57 mins | R | 🍅: 73%
ANTLERS
This movie, more than many, feels like it's been delayed foooooorever. Hell, the "final" trailer came out in December of 2019. By now the young boy in the movie is probably old enough to have his own tiny child, ripe to be terrified and terrorized by a creature based on Native American folklore, just as his father before him (and his father before him?).
But "the bullshit" happens, and we move forward. Oooor do we? Because you can't always move forward when the bullshit is still happening.
I'm trying to get all heady here because that's the territory reviewers say director Scott Cooper heads in as he tries to build a story around generational trauma. Which is not a surprise when you know it's helmed by Cooper, as he's known for harsh dives into the more uncomfortable aspects of humanity (Out of the Furnace, Black Mass, Crazy Heart).
The movie was also produced by Guillermo Del Toro, and critics often added that while Cooper builds a strong sense of place, it is a fairly slow burn, and could have benefited from a bit of Del Toro's inventiveness, but that it's still an atmospheric experience.
Vibe: a creepy path of body parts which leads you to the message at the end
Out Friday
Watch Theaters Only
The Trailer | 1 hr 39 mins | R | 🍅: 67%
THE FRENCH DISPATCH
Can someone make a pastiche using the style they created and have honed over a couple decades?
If yes, that is how I would describe The French Dispatch. If not, I would just call this, "a Wes Anderson movie." Which, honestly, is kind of enough.
Because at this point, you see a single image from one of his movies and your internal Wes Anderson radar instantly jumps to a rating of 100 (that's how radar works, right?). This of course assumes you already have a base understanding of Anderson's Andersonisms (TM), like: static perfectly geometrically organized shots, a faded almost early Instagram filter, and of course his favorite Andersonism, Bill Murray.
This one is assured to have all the director's greatest hits as you follow an American journalistic publication in Paris, and watch vignettes of sorts of some of the stories they told. Reviews are positive overall, but not many saying it's his best effort. In part because many found it hard to build a connection with the many many (many) characters in the film (seriously, look at this list of famous people).
But remember, this is a Wes Anderson movie (cuz, I'm sure you were under real threat of forgetting), and that can be the film's strongest selling point, or its highest hurdle.
Vibe: a Wes Anderson movie
Out Friday (Everywhere - Limited, Now)
Watch Theaters Only
The Trailer | 1 hr 47 mins | R | 🍅: 74%
(called out from top, left to right)
You might care more or less about Tom Holland as video game character Nathan Drake if you've played the game this movie is based on.
Will Smith is King Richard. "King Richard" is the father of two of the greatest tennis placers ever. Second trailer.
Michael Bay doing an unintentional parody of Michael Bay. Parody is very different than pastiche!
Pixar doing a parody of... wait, nope, this is legit too! It's the "real" Buzz Lightyear, or it's? Wait, what is it again...?
Sandra Bullock gets dramatic.
Copyright © *|CURRENT_YEAR|* What's In Theaters, All rights reserved.
Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.
*|IF:REWARDS|* *|HTML:REWARDS|* *|END:IF|*