Before I start the newsletter in earnest, here are the movies I caught up with in June:
It was a pretty light month due to gaming (Tears of the Kingdom and Street Fighter 6) and watching FX’s The Bear Season 2. Ahead of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, I rewatched the previous four movies which I’ll talk about in some detail on the It’s the Pictures podcast and maybe post about here after I catch up with the new film in the next few days.
I think I talked about Across the Spider-Verse already, but if I didn’t, it’s easily one of the year's best movies. I’ve been listening to the soundtrack pretty often since seeing it and I think the only thing that could possibly beat it for my favorite animated feature this year (for me) is Hayao Miyazaki’s How Do You Live? (which has been developing for the last seven years!) or Disney’s Wish. Although Across the Spider-Verse is brilliant, there was a recent article on Vulture about the working conditions during production and how there’s zero chance that the anticipated Part 2 comes out next year.
If you’re interested in Asteroid City, I’ll be talking about it on the upcoming It’s the Pictures podcast. Wes Anderson fans will love it, everyone else will probably be bored.
It was on Father’s Day that I had the opportunity to take in The Flash and Transformers: Rise of the Beasts as a double feature at the local drive-in. Yes, there’s a drive-in theater in Rhode Island and it’s awesome (The other people watching the movie, less so). I mentioned in my most recent newsletter how The Flash was a financial disappointment for Warner Bros., but the movie itself was fine. I haven’t really enjoyed any of the movies in this era of DC movies outside of Aquaman (stupid fun), Shazam! (pleasant surprise) and Wonder Woman (a legitimate good superhero movie).
The Flash is a sequel to the Justice League appearance of The Flash, but also an origin story of sorts. It continues the current superhero obsession of multiverses, so in this movie, there are two versions of The Flash and an older version of Batman (Micheal Keaton). There are a lot of other cameos and changes, but the most important thing you need to know is that The Flash discovers he’s so fast he can travel back in time. He uses his newfound ability to try to undo his mother’s death. She was killed by someone (the police suspect The Flash’s father, but the true culprit is never revealed), and he believes changing one small detail won’t alter future events too much. Oops! The Flash would probably be better received if not for its star Ezra Miller who has gotten into lots of trouble over the past year or so. They give an entertaining performance, but that doesn’t forgive what they’ve done outside of the movie. Ultimately the movie proves that there is room for another Keaton Batman movie. Make that one James Gunn.
Not going to spend a lot of time on Transformers: Rise of the Beasts because I fell asleep during some of it and then decided to leave with about twenty minutes left (shows how much I was invested.) Any nostalgia I had for the Transformers brand has evaporated by this point and I’m just not excited about giant CGI machines punching each other. Our lead this time is Noah Diaz (played by In the Heights lead Anthony Ramos) and he’s gotten involved in a battle for the magical MacGuffin. While writing this I looked up the cast on Wikipedia and apparently, they hired some decent actors for the VO work (Ron Perlman, Peter Dinklage, Pete Davidson, Michelle Yeoh, and Colman Domingo as Unicron). If you like the previous entries in this franchise, chances are you’ll be happy with this. I found it absolutely tedious.
Links
has an article on Goodreads and how that website can definitely be exploited.Over at
, Aidan Moher has a piece on Final Fantasy XVI well worth reading.A guide to the June releases on Blu-ray and 4K UHD from RogerEbert.com. Time Bandits from Criterion, Dungeon & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, and John Wick: Chapter 4 all get my recommendations. I imagine that Avatar: Way of the Water 4K is demo-worthy material though. If you aren’t ready to buy that one it’s now streaming on Disney+ and MAX.
The Playlist offers an update on the TCM drama. Warner Bros. Discovery is trying to placate people, but after cutting 70 people from a 90 people staff, that isn’t likely.
The FTC and Microsoft are in court over Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision. There have been plenty of interesting documents and information that have come to light due to the trial. One of the most intriguing was a document Sony submitted that detailed the costs of AAA video game development. A game like Horizon Zero Dawn or The Last of Us: Part 2 takes over $200m to make.
Streaming companies are dumping shows off of their platforms left and right. I believe that when HBO/MAX canceled and removed Westworld was the biggest example. Vox has an article on why these shows are being removed (spoiler alert: $$$)
One of England’s biggest concerts was last weekend in Glastonbury 2023. Elton John performed a ten-minute version of Rocket Man that’s well worth watching.
A new trailer for Dune Part 2 has been released. Easily one of my most anticipated movies of the year.
What I’ve Been Watching on TV:
As I mentioned at the top I’ve been watching The Bear Season 2. Or should I say I watched it since I binged the 10-episode season in two days? I have a new article for Paste Magazine about one of my favorite episodes of the season “Forks.” Give it a read and catch The Bear on FX and Hulu.
The Bear Season 2 Spotlights Richie in a Cathartic and Inspiring Episode
Thanks for the love, Max!