PicoBlog

Hey movie lovers!

As always, you can find a podcast version of this newsletter on Apple or Spotify. Thank you so much for listening and spreading the word!

This week: A surprisingly good streaming comedy gives me hope for the genre that’s been dead for years. Also, did you know Adam Sandler has a new Netflix movie out? Probably not. I’ll explain why before diving into my streaming recommendations for the week. In this week’s “Trailer Watch,” let’s talk about what sells a horror movie.

There may be no more Peter Farrelly of a premise for a movie than Ricky Stanicky. The guy who came up with Dumb and Dumber, There’s Something About Mary and Hall Pass was certainly the right one to direct this story about a group of dudes (and make no mistake, these are dudes) who invent a fake friend in order to spend less time with their wives.

It’s the kind of blast-from-the-past movie idea that hasn’t existed in the past decade. Farrelly himself hasn’t touched the genre since 2014, instead opting to make more sentimental crowdpleasers like Green Book. The wisdom of that decision was proved out by its Oscar gold (x3).

Now, don’t misunderstand what I’m saying as the classic “comedy was ruined because it got too woke” line, because that’s simply not true. The comedy genre tanked over the past decade because audiences stopped showing up to watch them, instead turning to six-second videos on their phones for a never-ending supply of laughs (and let me tell you, not all of those are woke jokes either).

But, like the first bluebird of spring, Farrelly’s return to caveman comedies may signal a thawing ice in the comedy landscape.

Why? Because Amazon wrote out a check for a reported $50 million to make a down-the-middle, classic, cookie-cutter studio comedy WITH stars — Zac Efron in the main role and John Cena as the actor who gets hired to impersonate the Stanicky character. And it works!

That’s mostly thanks to Cena, who once again proves himself to be 100% willing to do anything to entertain or get a laugh (this time around, even without stripping down naked). I didn’t realize he was this funny. He’s a ham, yes, but he’s also a comedic powerhouse here, putting the entire movie on his broad shoulders with each over-the-top acting choice and lending his excess color to the bland, blank canvases of the other characters.

Is the story obvious? Absolutely. But it relishes that, rather than trying to outsmart itself by being self-referential and clever. The destination is besides the point, an excuse from which to attach an endless supply of gags, jokes and comedy bits. Juvenile as this style may be, when journey is fun and the metaphorical plane lands safe and sound, it’s a success.

My theory is that streaming services, particularly Netflix, are going to lean in harder to pure genre movies like comedy. We already saw it with something like Players, though you could call that a rom-com, which also fits my hardcore genre theory. The reason for this theory (and maybe I’m being optimistic) is that the economics of a big blockbuster movie have proven not to make sense in streaming (why pay $200 million for two hours of engagement time when you could pay $50 million?), and for their overarching effort to de-risk their investments, they can count on fans of a genre to be more willing to experiment with something that fits into a preexisting box they like. If they end up liking a comedy for example, they may even watch it again, doubling that engagement time.

If I’m right, it’ll mean a lot more work for Cena. I’m not kidding, this entire movie is worth checking out just to see him cook. If you’re like a lot of my friends whining wondering where all the comedies went, behold! I give you Comedy Shaped Thing starring Rhinoceros Shaped Man. You’re gonna love it.

Spaceman (Netflix): The crazy thing about Netflix is that when a movie or show pops on the service, it feels inescapable. I didn’t know a single person who hadn’t heard of “Squid Game,” for instance. But because the streamer doesn’t event-ize its original programming pre-release, it’s truly incredible how easily a new project can come and go. If a new Adam Sandler and Carey Mulligan movie falls in the forrest and no one is there to hear it, does it even make a sound?

Then again, maybe there’s a reason this one got put out in Dumpuary with little fanfare. A space adventure about a man (Sandler, yet inexplicably eastern European?) embarking on a solo mission (why did it have to be solo?) to the outer reaches of space to figure out the science behind this pink star material visible from earth’s sky. After a year away, his wife (Mulligan) decides to leave him, which sends him into a mental tailspin of existential dread. If this sounds similar to Ad Astra or Interstellar or, hell, 2001: A Space Odyssey, it’s because this movie has nothing new to say about all the tired old space sci-fi themes — what if the really important discovery isn’t extraterrestrial life and it was really *gasp* LOVE all along?!

Sandler is legitimately great when he wants to actually try at acting, you’ll never hear me say otherwise, but taking one of the most charismatic humans on the planet quite literally off the planet and not having him in the same room as other humans is a bonkers decision. Unless you’re a true Sandler completist, you’ll probably be better served rewatching one of his dozens of back catalog movies on Netflix rather than firing up this one (as I reported for Forbes, Netflix customers streamed 500 MILLION hours of Sandler movies in the first six months of 2023).

My Cousin Vinny (1992, Hulu): This movie comes from the time in American history when the perspective of cultural America was broadcasting straight out of New York City. The entire punchline of this admittedly very funny movie is that the Italians and Jews from Brooklyn couldn’t possibly understand the lifestyle of people in the deep South (and visa versa). That’s a problem for Ralph Macchio (the karate kid!) and Mitchell Whitfield, who get accused of murder in Alabama while roadtripping to college, and call their cousin to defend them.

Of course, anyone who’s seen or heard of this movie knows the reason you’ve tuned in is to see the dynamic between that cousin, played by Joe Pesci, and his girlfriend played by Marisa Tomei. It’s a courtroom “drama” played 100% like a screwball comedy, though again because this is the Earnest 90s, no one in the movie knows they’re in a comedy. The whole thing is sweet and funny and well worth the watch.

Marcel The Shell With Shoes On (Netflix): When this movie came out in mid-2022, I called it “the most wholesome and life-affirming piece of content I’ve seen in a long time,” and how could it not be, following the life of a 1-inch tall mollusk who’s trying to find his place in the big bad world. It’s basically constructed like a documentary that our behind-camera protagonist is making about Marcel, and as ridiculous as that sounds, the movie actually manages to pull you into the stakes of its story. About halfway through you realize you’re very invested in whether this tiny mollusk finds his lost family members, and by the end you may even be fighting off a tear for him.

It’s sweet, innocent, and really well done. Props to Jenny Slate and Dean Fleisher Camp, who were married while creating the original internet videos of Marcel, then got divorced and THEN teamed back up to write and create this movie. Now that deserves a round of applause, and a stream.

The best way to sell a horror movie is to make it seem not just scary but dangerous. I remember, when the first The Conjuring movie came out, there were news stories about catholic priests and nuns waiting outside of some theaters to talk to people because they were so disturbed by the movie. That’s about as good of a marketing ploy as you can have.

So for this little indie movie about a seance gone wrong on live television, it’s captured almost as if it’s found footage. Maybe this is the new trend (see: The Holdovers), where period movies aren’t just set in a past generation but actually made to look like a “present day” movie released in that year. If this movie is as scary as the trailer makes it seem, I could easily see it over-performing at the box office.

ncG1vNJzZmilkanBpL7Aop5nq6WXwLWtwqRlnKedZL1wvsicorJlo6mur7XCpLBmop%2Bdu26vxKeYZpmemXq1tMQ%3D