Sweet & Short 🍭
Sometimes people appreciate a bit of brevity. Hopefully you will!
In This Week’s Edition: Wonka \ Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget \ American Fiction
Movie Quote of the Week 🎬 💬
“I need your help. I can't tell you what it is, you can never ask me about it later, and we're gonna hurt some people.”
hint: the star and director has become a meme factory for his “enthusiastic” paparazzi shots
THINK THOUGHTS 💭
No “column” this week and had to keep the overviews particularly short.
Should be a proper outting next week with looooooots of movies.
Get excited.
Note: the excellent looking Zone of Interest from director Jonathan Glazer - about the banal contrasted with the horrific - is releasing in limited theaters this week, but I’m going to feature next when it should be in more theaters.
NEWSY BITS 👾
Netflix shares viewer data on top shows, movies for the first time (Full Article): Netflix will release a report on viewing hours for nearly all their shows and movies every six months, which is a big move for the company which has historically kept it’s data close (as have other streamers). Here’s the first full report from The Flix. Note: the first season of The Night Agent was the most viewed piece of contet - The Washington Post
EXTRA CREDIT MOVIE(S) 📝
The Family Plan - look, Mark Wahlberg is a man on a schedule. And it doesn’t wait for reviews… or fresh ideas? Streaming Friday on AppleTV+
NOTABLE NEW RELEASES 🎟 & 📺
A musical prequel that’ll bend more heart warming than the original’s childhood transforming, on account of the sweet sensibilities of director Paul King who made the beloved family movies Paddington and Paddington 2 (the former “best movie of all time”).
But don’t worry, your favorite cranky bastard Hugh Grant is around to play an Oompa Loompa which should add a little spice to the life of Timothee Chalamet’s chocolatiering William.
Out: Friday
Where: Theaters
1 hr 56 mins | PG | 🍅: 83%
Stop motion movies take a veeeeeeery long time to make, but still not the near quarter century it took to craft a sequel to the original Chicken Run, which brought the Aardman animation house - of Wallace and Gromit fame - to a larger US audience.
Whereas in the first one they broke out, this one… they break in.
😵
Out: Friday
Where: Netflix
1 hr 37 mins | PG | 🍅: 77%
A struggling writer with family and money problems authors a book about his “black experience” out of anger at the commoditization of an identity which helps solve the latter, but may complicate the former on account of the fact he made the entire book up and now must portray the character who he says actually penned the novel.
One of of the more emphatically reviewed movies recently.
Out: Friday
Where: Theaters
1 hr 57 mins | R | 🍅: 95%
TRAILERS! ⏯ “It’s…”
Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F - It’s… the the return of the role that helped turned Eddie Murphy into a mega-star
Dune: Part 2 - It’s… the more action centric halves of the epic sci-fi.
Miller’s Girl - It’s… student Jenny Ortega gaining a crush on teacher Martin Freeman in an unhealthy way.
The Settlers - It’s… an artsy and beautiful looking contemplation on colonialism.
Civil War - It’s… Ex Machina director Alex Garland channeling the current political strife into a post fracture dystopian action commentary. Or something, I dunno, looks kinda suspect.