Well, we’ve made it about halfway through May… the year is flying by isn’t it? While movies are about to come in droves for the summer season (personally I’m looking forward to The Green Knight on my birthday), but please still get outside now that it is warming and people are getting vax’d up. Enjoy the outdoors!
But enjoy this week’s recs. If you need to turn the brain off and watch something entertaining, this week is for you. Also, Zach Snyder’s Army of the Dead comes out on Friday.
New or noteworthy…
Golden Arm
Mary Holland (Happiest Season) stars in her own little indie buddy comedy, Golden Arm, but it should be called Golden Heart, with how cute this tale is. Turning in her baking supplies for a costume to compete in an arm wrestling contest at the behest of best friend played by Betsy Sodaro. Narratively no boundaries are being pushed, but it’s great to see actors really having fun, a subculture gets spotlighted, and Eugene Cordero gets to play the love interest. $7 might be steep, but if you want to wait until it hits a streamer in a few months, at least give it a play then! Trailer. 91 mins. Rent on Amazon Prime ($6.99)
Shadow in the Cloud
Look, ymmv on Chloé Grace Moretz (I like her, don’t love her choices), but looking for a dumb, b-movie action thriller where you can just eat some popcorn and not think about the social commentary? Then this is for you. It’s not new (it came out in January) but it just hit a streamer, so wanted to let folks know. Oh, it’s about a female pilot breaking the glass ceiling during WWII despite her crew’s casual sexism, but there’s also some gremlins derailing their top secret mission! Trailer. 83 mins. Stream on Hulu. new to streaming
Turn your brain off and lose yourself…
Rush
Set in the 1970s amongst one of the fiercest rivalries in sports, F1 drivers Niki Lauda (Daniel Brühl) and James Hunt (Chris Hemsworth) battled it out for supremacy in the richest sport in the world. What could have devolved into dad-movie fare, was deftly handled by director Ron Howard to create a tension-filled, evocative journey. It definitely got underplayed due to Hemsworth and Brühl’s other work (Thor & Inglorious Basterds). But you don’t have to be a sports fan to enjoy this one. Trailer. 123 mins. Find it on Netflix.
Portrait of a Lady on Fire
It’s been in the newsletter before, but director Celine Sciamma’s sumptuous film of forbidden love and desire (and started the modern lesbian drama SNL fodder) is one you can get lost in. Gorgeous visuals from Claire Mathon underpin co-lead titanic performances from Adèle Haenel and Noémie Merlant. It is quite simply, one of the most beautiful films I’ve ever seen.Trailer. 121 mins. Find it on Hulu now.
Force Majeure
A Danish family drama about what happens when a family is put in danger, and how everyone reacts… and what ripples that creates in the familial relationships. In Force Majeure the event is an avalanche on a ski trip, and is so very Scandinavian in its brevity, poignancy and dark comedy. It inspired a Hollywood remake with Will Ferrell and Julia Louis-Dreyfus, which would have been great… if Force Majeure weren’t better. Trailer. 120 mins. Watch on Hulu. (Downhill is on HBO Max).
TV!
Full disclosure, I’ve only seen one season but am hooked.
Search Party
What happens when you have a group of millennial Brooklynites who are selfish, a little aimless, and obsessive compulsive about finding a missing woman they went to college with? You get Search Party. An awkward and quirky (and sometimes dark) look at NYC millennial ennui through the prism of escapism and self aggrandizement. It’s the anti-Girls. I’ve only seen one season, but will be binging the other three immediately. S1 Trailer. Watch four seasons on HBO Max.
For last week’s recommendations, check it out here.