Netflix may be cracking down on password sharing these days, but they still have some good content. Shockingly enough, they do offer more content than Stranger Things, so you can maybe keep your subscription service for now. There’s a whole round of new movies getting ready to leave, and you should jump on them before they go.
We’re here to talk about the best of the best, though. Plenty of garbage movies are leaving in addition to these few noteworthy ones, all leaving at the start of June. A benefit here is that most of these are pretty good crowd-pleasers. You can sit almost anyone in front of these films and they’ll probably have a good time. Let’s discuss.
Galaxy Quest (June 1)
Please watch this movie. If you like Star Trek, you’ll love this movie as it almost passes for a Mel Brooks treatment of the subject matter. It’s a comedy with a sci-fi flair, but it’s approachable enough even if you don’t like the genre. The basic pitch is that the cast of everyone’s favorite sci-fi series, “Galaxy Quest,” is living off the revenue from the cons that keep them relevant about 20 years after the show has ended.
The wrinkle comes in when they get abducted by aliens who need them to save their planet, much like an episode of their TV show. It’s a pretty perfect comedy that’s even getting a miniseries here very soon, which may be interesting. Everyone in this movie is cast perfectly, with Tim Allen doing shades of Buzz Lightyear, Sigourney Weaver doing the opposite of her character in Alien, and Alan Rickman just there to make wisecracks and generally look down upon everyone.
Flushed Away (June 1)
Kind of a box office bomb on release for Aardman’s first CGI movie. It’s underrated, though, as it holds up better than most animated films of that same timeframe. The script is what really carries this movie here, with lots of clever humor tossed into a story about a rat in England trying to make his way back to his luxury life in an apartment after being unceremoniously ‘flushed away’ down the toilet into the sewers. It’s one of their funnier cartoons that carries the film in the absence of their trademark claymation mastery.
Inception (June 1)
Just in time for Oppenheimer. This is a pretty perfect primer for anything Nolan related. Everyone knows the BWAAAAAAAH sound effect. Everyone knows the plot as being extremely complicated, but it’s less so than you’d think. The pitch is that a team goes inside another man’s dreams to plant an idea in his head so it will seem like he thought of it himself.
Many people get confused by the fact that they then travel into deeper layers of his subconsciousness to plant the idea deeper into his mind to not arouse his suspicion. Bear in mind that each layer of consciousness is decorated differently, with a van for the first layer, an elevator for the second, a snow scene where everything is white for the third layer, and ruined buildings for the fourth. Watch it with this in mind. It makes a lot more sense than you’ve been led to believe.
The Alpinist (June 1)
If you saw Free Solo, this is sort of like a sequel. It talks about a similarly crazy climber named Marc-Andre Leclerc, who decided years ago that regular rock climbing wasn’t nearly cool enough and thought he should instead use ice picks and climb in freezing cold temperatures. Jokes aside, it’s an incredible story and a testament to where dedication can get you. It’s got some beautiful cinematography behind it to boot.
The Founder (June 1)
Any movie with Michael Keaton is worth at least one watch. Always a delight to see him on the screen, and here he stars as the guy who took a small burger stand called McDonald’s to total cultural domination and global relevance. Maybe a bit by the numbers, but it is an interesting look at the early years of what would become an icon in the world of fast food and a heartbreaking look at when you could get a cheeseburger for twenty cents.
The Quick and the Dead (June 1)
This was a rather unique addition to the Western gunfighter genre. Directed by visionary Sam Raimi, this film starred a woman gunslinger out in a town of vagabonds run by Gene Hackman. It’s something different, to be sure, with Sharon Stone looking far more stern and brooding than her psychotic performance in Basic Instinct just a few years earlier.
It also stars Leonardo DiCaprio before he was anyone of note as well as Russell Crowe before he won an Oscar or tried to launch a music career. The film, though, is of a simple idea, high concept variety where it won’t win any awards for originality, but it’s executed impeccably well as Raimi films so often are. The draw here is how it’s filmed and carried out, which makes it so entertaining to watch.