The Greatest Beer Run Ever
SimilarBrubaker (1980), Fried Green Tomatoes (1991), Mississippi Burning (1988),
Primal Fear (1996) What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993),
Watch afterBullet Train (2022),
“What is Vietnam?” is not a question with an easy answer, but The Greatest Beer Run Ever tackles the challenge anyway. Like the plethora of media featuring the country—in any capacity—Peter Farrelly’s film runs headlong into the notion that what is an S-shaped piece of land in Southeast Asia can also be a dream after the Fall of Saigon. Or that the starry banner that international bodies recognize is not the triple-striped one flying overseas. Or that any example henceforth will possess the same gist: try to ring up nuance when discussing Vietnam. Continue Reading →
The Phantom of the Open
StarringRhys Ifans,
StudioBBC Film, BFI, Ingenious Media,
In 1974, a crane operator named Maurice Flitcroft watched the Piccadilly World Match Play Championship (a golf tournament) and decided that he would take up the game. Not as a fun new hobby, though. No, he intended to play at the British Open. Supported by his wife Jean, Maurice did indeed enter and play in the qualifying round of the Open after fibbing on his paperwork that he was a professional. He scored 121 and ended up summarily banned. Over the years, Flitcroft would attempt to re-enter the Open, using costumes and pseudonyms. If this all sounds handcrafted for immortalization on film, then you’re in luck. Continue Reading →
The Valet
Eugenio Derbez has followed all the proper steps for any comedic leading man, including breaking out with a movie whose success nobody saw coming (Instructions Not Included) to side roles in long-forgotten blockbusters (Geostorm). Now he's taken a cue from many other modern stars of the genre like Adam Sandler or Melissa McCarthy and moved to 'streaming service A-lister' with Hulu's latest, The Valet. Continue Reading →
Good Luck to You, Leo Grande
SimilarAlmost Famous (2000), Léon: The Professional (1994), Lost in Translation (2003),
Emma Thompson and Daryl McCormack weave effortlessly through a sizzling, intimate two-hander about the therapeutic nature of sex work.
(This review is part of our coverage of the 2022 Sundance Film Festival.)
There’s a moment early on in Sophie Hyde’s Good Luck to You, Leo Grande in which one of its leads says to the other, “Desires are never mundane.” It’s a simple line, but one that defines the film and the relationship at its core well; Nancy Stokes (Emma Thompson) desires a new experience and Leo Grande (Daryl McCormack) exists to fulfill that desire. Their interactions are awkward at first, as with any arrangement between a customer and someone providing a new service, but gradually shift with time and further interaction. Continue Reading →
Demonic
SimilarRosemary's Baby (1968),
Neill Blomkamp’s films have always been interested in the ways technology allows humanity to leap forward, but not enough for us to overcome our inherent nature. Demonic is his latest and most perfect example of this. Not because of anything that happens in the film, but because watching this dull movie will test audiences’ willpower not to constantly check their phones. Continue Reading →
Pelé
Pelé is the kind of sports figure it feels like you’re just sort of born having some knowledge of. I couldn’t tell you why I know who Pelé is, particularly as an American with a serious aversion to sports, but I knew he was one of the greatest, if not the greatest, soccer players of all time. I seemed to have absorbed the information out of the ether. But the new Netflix documentary Pelé (not to be confused with the 2016 biopic) corrected that. Continue Reading →