Summer means popcorn movies – and Rocketman fills the bill – but smart adult movies like Booksmart and The Fall of the American Empire are in theaters, too, and are at least as entertaining.
OUT NOW
- The wildly successful comedy Booksmart is an entirely fresh take on the coming of age film, and a high school graduation party romp like you’ve never seen. Directed and written by women, BTW.
- The Fall of the American Empire is a pointed satire cleverly embedded in the form of a heist film.
- Rocketman is more of a jukebox musical than a filmbiography, but it’s wonderfully entertaining.
- Charlize Theron and Seth Rogen are pleasantly entertaining in the improbable Beauty-and-the-Beast romantic comedy Long Shot.
ON VIDEO
My DVD/Stream of the Week is the documentary Stories We Tell, the brilliant director Sarah Polley’s exploration of her own family’s secrets. Which secret is more shocking, and which family member’s reaction is more surprising?
You can rent Stories We Tell on DVD from Netflix and Redbox and stream it from Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.
Elisabeth Moss’ powerhouse performance as a monstrously narcissistic and drug-deranged rock star Her Smell is the acting tour de force of 2019. The movie could have been a great one if shorter, but Moss makes it worthwhile watch nonetheless. Her Smell is out of theaters, but it’s already streaming on Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play, an available on DVD from Redbox.
And I just caught up to the hypnotically compelling Burning. This 2 hour, 28 minute slow burn begins as a character study, evolves into a romance and then a mystery, and finally packs a powerful punch with a thriller climax. It’s a superb achievement for director and co-writer Chang-dong Lee. You can stream Burning from Netflix, Amazon, iTunes and Vudu.
ON TV
On June 10, Turner Classic Movies brings us the especially nasty noir Detour, in which poor Tom Neal is practically eaten alive by Ann Savage as perhaps the most predatory and savage female character in film noir history. One of the few Hollywood films where the leading lady was intentionally de-glamorized with oily, stringy hair.
