The Monthly Movie Report – June 2024

June 28, 2024

As I covered last month, Hollywood was pretty stressed out about the tepid May box-office results, especially with underwhelming performances by The Fall Guy and Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, two movies I liked a lot.  But, this month saw a collective sigh of relief with a strong performance by Bad Boys: Ride or Die and a mammoth result for Inside Out 2, the latest Pixar movie.  Alas, it’s going to be a bumpy ride the rest of the summer – for instance, I don’t expect a big showing from Kevin Costner’s new Western epic, Horizon: An American Saga this weekend.  But that’s ok, we knew this year was going to be a rough one with the delay in production following last year’s work stoppages which pushed major releases into 2025.  While I worry about the quality of a film more than box-office results, the better the movies do at the theater, the more confidence studios have in taking chances on movies going forward.  And that’s what I care about the most.  First up this month, we’re going to cover a film that you probably haven’t heard of, but is one you should seek out.

An Inspiring True Story – Young Woman and the Sea

Daisy Ridley (who portrayed Rey in the latest Star Wars trilogy) is magnificent in the true story of Trudy Ederle, the first woman to swim the English Channel.  As the film unfolds in 1920s New York, the Ederle family are German immigrants supported by their father’s butcher shop.  Trudy and her sister take an interest in swimming, with Trudy emerging as a true talent with a lot of potential.  She eventually begins formal training for the Olympics and latches onto the idea of swimming across the English channel.

On the one hand, there is not much suspense in what happens (once you know what Ederle is famous for), but the appeal of Young Woman and the Sea is in how the story is told.  Ridley portrays the lead character with a fierceness and determination that was necessary for her character to overcome the obstacles in her way, primarily a lack of opportunities for women swimmers at the time.  The supporting characters, particularly her family members, are very good, as is the production design of 1920s New York and the swimming sequences.  The drama and danger of the 21-mile swim are presented in a way that creates effective tension, even knowing the outcome.  This is a classic “crowd pleaser” movie – a feel-good story that will leave most viewers smiling (and maybe crying) by the end.  Some might call it “Disney-esque.”  Speaking of which.

The background of this film is kind of interesting.  I had this one on my list for a while and initially heard it would premiere on Disney+.  But following the success of The Boys in the Boat (the George Clooney-directed film about the 1936 U.S. Olympic rowing team that was pretty good), Disney decided to put the movie in theaters.  Unfortunately, it received virtually no marketing, and was only in theaters for a short period of time, so it earned very little at the box office.  I’m reading that the current plan is to launch this on Disney+ in late July to coincide with the Summer Olympics.  When it does show up on your streamer, I highly recommend it.  Young Woman and The Sea is expected to be streaming on Disney+ in late July. 

The Gang’s All Here – The Bikeriders

All vibes baby.  You have to hand it to writer-director Jeff Nichols.  His new film, The Bikeriders is based on a 1968 book about a Midwest motorcycle club.  But here’s the thing – the book was only of photographs – there was no story in it.  Nichols created a group of characters, put them in a compelling storyline, hired a top-notch cast, and pulled off one of my favorite movies of 2024.  The motorcycle club is led by Johnny (Tom Hardy), with his good friend Benny (Austin Butler), who get their thrills from riding around on their bikes, hanging out, drinking beer, and talking about their love of motorcycles.  The two lead actors are excellent, bringing a coolness and 1960s Marlon Brando vibe to their characters.  Nichols created a world on screen, with locations, costumes and a fabulous soundtrack, that take you back in time.  With all of that great work from Nichols, Hardy and Butler, there was one clear winner in the film for me – the magnificent Jodie Comer.

Comer is probably best known for her Emmy-winning performance on the excellent television show Killing Eve, but she has movie-star chops, as demonstrated in the underrated Ridley Scott  picture The Last Duel.  In The Bikeriders, Comer plays Kathy, the narrator of the film, who relays the origin story of the club, her relationship with Benny, and how things unraveled as the group got older.  The recipient of her tale is a photographer documenting the history of the club for a book he is developing and is played by Mike Faist (recently seen in the excellent Challengers).  Faist doesn’t have a huge role in the film, but it’s always nice to see him on screen – I am a big fan of his after his excellent performance in 2021’s West Side Story.

The story of The Bikeriders feels a little predictable at times and there was a slight drop off in the second half, but that’s a testament to the dynamite opening half of the movie.  I wasn’t too bothered by that – instead, I was riveted by the lead characters and the 1960s Midwest vibe that Nichols brought on screen.  He is not a household name filmmaker, but his other movies are very strong.  In particular, I’d recommend 2012’s Mud and 2016’s true-story Loving as some of his finer work.  With other big titles in theaters this month, I’m hoping that people find their way to The Bikeriders, as it’s well worth the investment of time to see it.  The Bikeriders is now playing in theaters.

Ordinary (Theater) People – Ghostlight

As an avid (but not so good) golfer, I can confirm that everyone who subjects themselves to this mental-torture-chamber of a sport will inevitably have a terrible round.  The swing feels off, you miss easy putts, you lose a few balls, make an embarrassing swing, or maybe all of the above.  But usually you have one memorable shot.  One great hole.  Maybe a chip-in birdie.  Maybe a perfect drive.  Maybe a clutch putt to win a few bucks off your friends.  And the terrible golfers all say the same thing – “you just need one good shot to keep you coming back.”

I watch a lot of movies and see many of them in theaters.  Most of the time, I have a decent idea what to expect before I go in, calibrating my expectations based on the plot, filmmaker, stars, and early reviews.  Admittedly, I try to avoid lengthy trailers so I don’t see any spoilers, but I’m usually not surprised in a meaningful way.  I went into Dune Part Two expecting a masterpiece (it was).  I went into Night Swim (about a haunted pool – you read that right) expecting a preposterous horror movie (it was.)  But every once in a while, you experience a film so moving and tender (especially for a sap like me) that you remember why you are a movie addict, always chasing that next memorable experience.  Such was the case last weekend when I saw the independent family drama Ghostlight. 

As the film opens, we meet a family of three – parents Dan and Sharon, along with their rebellious teenage daughter, Daisy.  She’s just been kicked out of school.  The couple’s marriage is fragile, and they are all dealing with a recent tragedy that we soon learn about.  Dan works construction and while on the job one day, he encounters a woman who invites him into her community theater group.  He is far from the theater type of guy, but he appreciates the craft, given Daisy’s participation in high-school plays.  He soon realizes that joining the group of misfits gives him a way to get away from the grief he is dealing with, and become someone else for a while, specifically a cast member of the group’s production of Romeo and Juliet.

I knew very little about Ghostlight going in.  I saw the trailer once and read some strong reviews and I expected a paint-by-numbers family drama.  But something kept hitting me very hard throughout the film.  In fact, I don’t think I felt like this about a family drama since I saw my favorite movie of 2021, which just happened to win Best Picture that year.  Ghostlight also made me think of Ordinary People, the 1980 Best Picture winner about a family dealing with the aftermath of their son’s death.  Speaking of which.

The film industry lost a legend earlier this month with the death of Donald Sutherland, who played the father in Ordinary People.  Much of the attention of that movie was on the breakout performance of Timothy Hutton (who won an Oscar for his role) and the against-type casting of Mary Tyler Moore, who was outstanding as his ice-cold mother.  But Sutherland is just as critical to the movie’s success, playing a father simply trying to keep the family together.  His acting career spanned over fifty years and I won’t pretend to be an expert on his best films, as I have only seen a handful.  In addition to Ordinary People, I loved him as the arsonist in Backdraft, the lead character in Invasion of the Body Snatchers (including the film’s iconic closing shot), the goofy professor in Animal House, the conspiracy-minded government official in JFK, and (of course) as Hawkeye Pierce in Robert Altman’s MASH.  I wonder if Alan Alda had a drink in Sutherland’s honor when he heard the news.  Whatever kind of role he played, Sutherland was a legend that will be remembered for a long time.

Back to Ghostlight.  What stood out for me in this movie is the genuineness in the performances of all of the actors, particularly the family, portrayed by Keith Kupferer, Tara Mallen and Katherine Mallen Kupferer.  Undoubtedly, you’ve never heard of these actors, but if you did a double take at the names, you’d be right to question if they are related.  In a brilliant move, Kelly O’Sullivan, the writer and co-director of Ghostlight, cast a real family for these parts.  While it may seem like they have an easy advantage since they know each other, this is a very challenging story to depict onscreen, and I was truly impressed how they pulled it off, particularly Ketih Kupferer as the father.  Ghostlight is the type of indie film that comes and goes with very few people seeing it, but if you are willing to join this family on a difficult, but inspiring and heartwarming journey that also pays tribute to the love of theater, I highly recommend it.  Ghostlight is now playing in theaters and should be available to rent on demand in July.

A Missed Opportunity – Brats

As a certified Gen X-er, I was the obvious target demographic for Brats, a documentary about the 1980 group of actors dubbed “The Brat Pack.”  The film was directed by Andrew McCarthy, a member of that group, who also wrote a memoir (titled Brat, naturally) three years ago.  On the surface, this seemed like a great concept – a movie about the actors who starred in some of the most iconic films of my youth, especially The Breakfast Club, a movie I saw multiple times in the theaters and adore. 

First, some background.  The term was coined by a writer with New York magazine who interviewed Emilio Estevez in 1985 while he was filming St. Elmo’s Fire (which I have somehow never seen and I worry that if I watch it now, the cringe factor will be too much to handle).  One night the writer joined Estevez and two of his co-stars (Rob Lowe and Judd Nelson) at a bar in New York City and decided to change the focus of the piece to be about the next generation of successful young actors, giving them the moniker that was a (not-so-clever) play on the nickname given to Frank Sinatra’s crew in the 1960s.  As a co-star in St. Elmo’s Fire, McCarthy decided to reconnect with members of that group and discuss their feelings about the label they were burdened with, how it affected their careers, and how they look back on that time in their lives.

Now, on the one hand, any journey back to the nostalgia of 1980s movies is something I am there for every single time it’s offered up to me.  Seeing clips of iconic films from that time – Class, Pretty in Pink, About Last Night…, Sixteen Candles, Some Kind of Wonderful, and many others, was a joy.  However, there were a few issues I had with McCarthy’s movie.  First, the filmmaking style was rather scattered in terms of style, including seeing members of the crew in background shots while he was interviewing people, which must have been intentional (even if I didn’t understand it – I found it distracting).  Second, as the main focus of the movie, we are with McCarthy all the time, so we see everything through his viewpoint – there is no objectivity, and he’s not a good interviewer. 

Lastly, I would have liked a lot more movie talk, and less focus on the “trauma” the actors experienced.  I get it – the label they were given wasn’t very nice, but the “suffering” here feels a little overblown.  That being said, it is fun to see some faces from the past, including Estevez, Lowe, Demi Moore, and Ally Sheedy.  Unfortunately, McCarthy couldn’t convince Molly Ringwald or Judd Nelson to participate, but we do see them in archive interviews.  And I particularly like the debate of who was in The Brat Pack and who wasn’t.  It’s not like they had membership cards.  If you come to Brats looking for some good 80s nostalgia, I might recommend watching the classic films these actors appeared in, and take a pass on the group therapy in this documentary.  Brats is now streaming on Hulu.

Portrait of a Genius – Jim Henson: Idea Man

Now, this is how you do a documentary.  Considering it is directed by Ron Howard, it’s no surprise that Jim Henson: Idea Man is a wonderful look at the creative genius who gave us The Muppets and was an instrumental creative force during the early days of Sesame Street.  Everyone knows Howard’s exceptional filmography (Apollo 13, Backdraft, the Oscar-winning A Beautiful Mind, and the overlooked 2022 picture Thirteen Lives), but many people may not realize that he has also branched out into documentaries in the last ten years.  Three years ago, I covered his excellent look at the California wildfires in Rebuilding Paradise.  He also directed a wonderful film about the Beatles’ touring years, Eight Days a Week, in 2016.  Next year will see the 30^th anniversary of Apollo 13 – sounds like a good time for me to write a Ron Howard filmography retrospective.

With Jim Henson: Idea Man, Howard was given incredible access to his subject’s career, through television and film archives and interviews with his family members and collaborators, including the most notable one, Frank Oz.  I was particularly impressed by Howard’s work here for a few reasons.  First, I learned a lot about Henson’s career beyond The Muppets (which is covered extensively).  I didn’t realize that his wife Jane was instrumental in the early projects he worked on, particularly the development of The Muppets.  Also, I had no idea about the extensiveness of his creativity, particularly the short films he made before he gained notoriety.  Lastly, the background of how The Muppets came to television was really interesting from a business standpoint. 

One other point about Howard’s film – usually a look at the life of someone famous can sugarcoat the rough patches.  This one doesn’t.  We hear (primarily from his children) about Henson’s difficulty as a parent and the conflicts that led to their parents’ divorce.  We also hear how his creative drive was both a benefit and detriment to his career choices.  But don’t worry, there are plenty of fun behind-the-scenes clips of The Muppets.  And who doesn’t love that?  Before you check out Howard’s new documentary, I highly recommend watching Street Gang, the excellent 2021 documentary about the creation of Sesame Street.  You can find where to watch that on JustWatch.com and you can stream Jim Henson: Idea Man on Hulu now.

Thanks (I guess?) Netflix – Hit Man

Look, I won’t sugarcoat it.  I am a big critic of Netflix, particularly some of the schlocky stuff they dump on their streaming service, which is largely forgotten about a few days later.  I rarely like one of their “originals,” unless it comes from a talented filmmaker who knows what they’re doing (see David Fincher’s Mank and The Killer.)  But, they have deep pockets and are willing to put their money where their mouth is to purchase films as a competitive advantage – it brings viewers to their service and keeps them out of theaters.  And that’s where (as an avid theater lover) I am not a fan of their approach.  I was fortunate to see 2022’s Glass Onion: A Knives Out Sequel and 2023’s Maestro in a theater at a film festival.  Both films worked much better with a crowd than from the couch.  Netflix does the bare minimum for theatrical release for their movies.  It’s usually in a few dozen theaters for one week before it goes on the streaming service, and that is just so their movies qualify for the Academy Awards.  I was bummed that the closest theater screening The Killer last year was over an hour away from me.  Which brings us to their latest acquisition, Hit Man.

Richard Linklater is in the category of “directors who know what they’re doing.”  When you direct Dazed and Confused, Boyhood, the Before trilogy, and Everybody Wants Some!!, you have street cred.  Linklater co-wrote Hit Man with Glen Powell, who was attached to star, and the movie premiered to strong reviews at last year’s Venice Film Festival.  Netflix swooped in and bought Hit Man for distribution on its streaming service, with its typical limited theatrical run.  So, I’m glad that the movie exists, and that it’s available for people to see it.  I just wish Netflix would be more willing to give their films some breathing room in theaters, like Apple and Amazon are doing.  Oh well, let’s push aside the business bullshit and talk about the movie.

Glen Powell is slowly but surely moving up the charts towards becoming a full-fledged movie star.  Although he’s been in the business for over twenty years, most people didn’t know who he was until they saw him as Hangman in 2022’s Top Gun: Maverick.  He was also very good in Devotion, a World War II movie that was released and forgotten that same year, and had a huge box-office hit with Anyone But You, which was released late last year.  Now, one could argue that bombshell Sydney Sweeney brought her Euphoria fanbase to the theater, more than Hangman acolytes, but they were the lead co-stars of a romcom that was pretty good, even if it was not exactly groundbreaking.  With Hit Man, Powell shows that he has leading man talent and we’ll see him next on the big screen in a few weeks with Twisters, which looks like an outstanding Summer popcorn action movie.

Hit Man is based on a 2001 magazine article about a college professor who works undercover with the New Orleans police department.  He pretends to be a hit man who meets with people looking to hire him, leading to their arrest.  Throughout the film, we see nerdy Gary (played by Powell) transform himself into different characters to convince his targets he’s the right man for the (killer) job.  The costumes, accents, and wigs are a pretty funny bit throughout the movie. 

One day, while playing macho-confident Ron (decidedly NOT like Gary), he falls for a woman who wants her husband dead.  He convinces her to call off the job and the two soon begin a relationship.  What transpires are some wonderful cat and mouse scenarios that keep Gary on his toes as he balances his multiple personas.  Much like The Fall Guy, what works best for Hit Man is the chemistry between the two leads.  Powell is fantastic – charming, funny, and versatile playing the different personas.  Adira Arjona plays his co-star in a breakout performance.  The two of them play off each other very well, not just with the romance scenes, but the scheming that occurs once Gary’s identity comes into question.  There is one electric scene near the end (involving communicating via Notes messaging on a cell phone) that was a great demonstration of how well they interacted on screen.  Hit Man is a wonderful romcom / action movie, a perfect one for a Friday night on the couch with a bowl of popcorn.  I wish I was able to see it in a theater, but beggars can’t be choosers.  Hit Man is now streaming on Netflix.

That’s all for this look at my favorite movies from June.  I’ll be back next week with a look at a special year in movies.  Thirty years ago saw an amazing crop of films, including five excellent nominees for Best Picture.  I’ll break it all down to provide you with some reading material for the holiday weekend.  Thanks for reading and if you’d like to be notified of future posts, you can subscribe below.