Hello, everyone. Happy Friday! I’m back to give you some Pop Culture recommendations for your weekend. This week I vent about the terrible Netflix original THE GRAY MAN and the state of big-budget flicks on the streaming service. I share some thoughts on the HBO Max series, THE LAST MOVIE STARS which is much better than I was expecting. I also rave about the super fun and entertaining film NOPE. And as always, there is a playlist with five songs I listened to a lot during the week. Anyway, the heat wave is still a thing here in Europe so I’m off to the beach. Gilby out!
QUICK THOUGHTS
THE GRAY MAN is directors Anthony and Joe Russo’s new Netflix spy thriller starring Ryan Gosling, Chris Evans, Ana de Armas, and Billy Bob Thornton. Well, this is not good. And at this point, I think I’m running out of patience with these Netflix big-budget movies. They are all mediocre at best. No matter who is directing, starring, or how much it cost. They are always mediocre or straight-up terrible (I’m looking at you RED NOTICE). Despite having a budget of more than $200 million, THE GRAY MAN is a basic and uninspired action movie. And it contains all the typical and tired cliches of the espionage genre. Gosling and Evans have good chemistry together, but their potential was clearly wasted. The flick does contain a few well-done action scenes, such as the one that takes place in Prague. However, the script is incredibly simple in both its dialogues and its plot. You can see that Evans is having fun, but his lines are so terrible and cringe, that it is almost embarrassing. And don’t let me get started with Ana de Armas’s character. I can't think of any motivation or back story for her character. She’s just there for the sake of kicking ass. Another wasted talent. Overall, THE GRAY MAN feels like a bad remix of better spy/revenge movies. And it serves only as a pretext for extravagant action scenes and destructive stunt work. It is not engaging or even entertaining. Just skip it, this is not worth your time.
THE LAST MOVIE STARS is a very interesting tribute to the legendary careers of Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward as well as their long-standing relationship. In this comprehensive account of their love lives, director Ethan Hawke gives their charitable endeavors life and color. I’m not an old Hollywood fanatic however, this six-part, six-hour HBO Max series really managed to get my attention. The power couple is shown in a fresh perspective characterized by honesty and love. Although it initially bothered me that the actors did this over zoom, I can totally understand why they had to do it this way. And in the end, it was also nice to hear many relevant performers that I respect to go and talk as highly about Paul and Joanne as they did. THE LAST MOVIE STARS really made me appreciate and respect how much good the Newmans have done and how they did it out of pure goodness.
NOPE
This is one of the most anticipated films of the year for me. I’m a big fan of Jordan Peele’s work and he has written, directed, and co-produced NOPE. With GET OU and subsequently Us, Peele subverted and reimagined the horror genre. And now he is back with a bigger budget and a very entertaining film.
NOPE, which stars Daniel Kaluuya, Keke Palmer, and Steven Yeun, is undoubtedly a different kind of horror than Peele's last two films. And I enjoyed it throughout. But I really don’t want to spoil anything about it. Everyone involved in it has been doing a great job keeping people in the dark and I don’t want to be the one ruining your experience. So, I will keep this review very vague and give you guys just enough information to make you intrigued and excited to watch it.
The film follows two siblings played by Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer. They are in charge of a horse ranch in California and things get very weird when they come across mystical energy that has an impact on both people and animals. Kaluuya’s character which is called OJ is mysterious. He is chill yet never dull. You can feel that there's always something happening behind his piercing eyes. Palmer's Em, on the other hand, is a bundle of passion and perseverance and similarly fascinating.
NOPE is a great combination of extraterrestrial thriller and Hollywood satire. It delivers all the thrills, jokes, and high concepts one would anticipate from a Jordan Peele production. It has a compelling setup and a ton of surprises. I enjoyed the excellent sound production and cinematography as well as the countless references to movies and pop culture that are included in everything from the dialogues to the characters’ wardrobe.
Peele has once again proved that he is amazingly good at creating suspense and doesn’t settle for easy or simplistic conclusions. I highly recommend checking this film out. Unfortunately, NOPE has a terrible release strategy (thanks, Universal Pictures) and is only available in North American and a few European countries’ theaters at the moment. The film will have a wider release in August.
TOP 5 SONGS
These were the 5 songs on heavy rotation in my house last week. You can listen to them on Spotify and YouTube.