Favorite First Time Watches of June 2024
Here again with more recommendations. Another month another batch of films that are worth everyone’s time. There are only four this month.
Going in Style (1979) – Martin Brest
Martin Brest made two of the best action comedy films in the 1980s. Then he made a bloated Oscar-friendly film, which gave Al Pacino his Best Actor Oscar. Then he made two films that inadvertently became a laughing stock (Meet Joe Black, Gigli).
Before Martin was essentially pushed out of Hollywood, he made a film about the people we push out as a society daily. Going in Style follows three friends who are of retirement age and bored. George Burns, Art Carney, & Lee Strasberg.
They are just going through the motions of life in retirement. Until one day, George Burns concocts a plan to rob a bank as something to do, to feel something again. You’d think from there hijinks would ensue, but it’s much more nuanced than that.
There was a remake in 2017 that was much broader in its comedy. It's not surprising, but it misses the point of Martin Brest’s first film. It’s a tender film about old age, connection, and proving that even in old age you can offer the world something, even when the world is done with you.
The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994) – Stephen Elliot
Watched this for an Oscar podcast about the 1994 Best Costume Design race, yes, I’m that big of a nerd. Seems like a random race to cover in Oscar history, but in doing so made me watch this little gem of a film.
Two drag queens and a transgender woman travel across the Australian desert to perform their drag show. It’s a road film compiled by three people doing their best just to keep it together. It stars Guy Pearce, Hugo Weaving, and Terence Stamp.
A film released 30 years ago covering subjects of homosexuality, drag queens, and transgender people would age terribly, at least one would assume. I was surprised by the care this film takes its subjects and its characters.
The major change now would be a transgendered actor would play Bernadette. However, Stamps’ performance is caring and empathetic, not a caricature. The screenwriters and director took the time to study the world of drag shows and you can tell.
It won the Oscar for costume design which is surprising because one, it’s a contemporary film. Two, the costume budget was only about 15,000. The costumes look like they are handmade for a drag show. It all works inside the film. The film is joyous, but it’s also honest. A real portrait of people getting through life.
Two Lovers (2008) – James Gray
Last month I had Elaine May’s The Heartbreak Kid from 1972 on this list. James Gray constructed his version of The Heartbreak Kid but intentionally with no comedy. A devastating portrait of someone who is destined to never be happy.
Leonard (Joaquin Phoenix) is an aspiring photographer who after a failed engagement moved back home with his parents. He meets Sandra (Vanessa Shaw) and they seem like a good match. Then Leonard meets Michelle (Gwyneth Paltrow) and Leonard’s world is turned upside down.
Like Elaine’s masterpiece, James Gray’s masterpiece Two Lovers is a portrait of a man who is destined never to be happy. Whether knowing or not Leonard wants to get into a relationship that he knows will never work.
Pining for a woman who will never return the sentiment. As if a self-fulfilling prophecy, knowing things will not work out so he’ll seek a relationship that won’t work from minute one. It’s an all-too-honest film with one of the saddest endings I have seen in a while.
Them! (1954) – Gordon Douglas
My whole life I thought this was a B-movie. Something of a joke. “AHHHH GIANT ANTS!” That sounds stupid, as does the premise. But I am here to tell you that this movie is in fact great!
Two Officers in New Mexico come across a little girl wandering alone in the desert. They call it in and search for her family. What they discover are giant ants living below the desert.
They alert the FBI and scientists who discover that two queens hatched and left. It becomes a race against time before thousands of giant ants hatch and take over the world.
The film is taken very seriously, and it’s good enough that it’s not ironically funny. A procedural science fiction film has plenty of thrills to keep you invested not just entertained. Its special effects still hold up 70 years later.
Interesting that Hollywood remade Godzilla many times when we made our allegory for World War II and what nuclear weapons have done and could do to humanity.
The ending is poignant for this, saying “If this was the result of the first nuclear test. What is the result of the other test?” What have we done? What will be the results of those actions?
