That’s it, stick a fork in June, that’s it. and while Supreme+ knocked out some solid punches, from Shout 7 and a new season of the agency to Beavis and Butt-Head For, oh yeah, the UFC at the White House, there are still some solid movies in its formidable library to get you through the last week of the month.
For the week of June 29, I’ve prepared three movies worth spending time on the couch: a deep, cerebral sci-fi that raises some questions about how well we’d do if visitors from beyond tried to talk to us, a gloriously silly underdog story full of spandex and cool masks, and a classic ’80s war comedy with a great late legend.
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Arrival
Amy Adams navigates first contact with an alien species
One of the most disturbing alien movies of the 2010s, Arrival does it all without the need for face-suckers or exploding chests, and instead staggers along more dramatic and existential lines. In the film, Dr. Louise Banks (Amy Adams) follows her life as a linguistics professor when Earth is visited by several large, menacing floating alien spaceships that have taken up residence in regions around the world. The US government asks Banks to try to decipher the aliens’ language in hopes of learning why they are here.
As panic grips the world and world leaders begin to break away from their joint effort to understand whether the visitors are friendly or hostile, Banks develops a deep connection with the aliens and, with the help of physicist Ian Donnelly (Jeremy Renner), must make the world understand too, before the hotheads in the room decide to open fire.
A stunning visual masterpiece, directed by Denis Villeneuve (Dune, Dune: Part Two) delivers a gripping drama with terrific performances from Renner and Adams, who earned a Screen Actors Guild nomination for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role. Arrival it has a powerful 94% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
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Nacho Libre
Jack Black’s Sweet Mexican Friar Has a Masked Secret
After seeing Jack Black in High fidelity Recently, I suddenly had the desire to go back and watch him in this underrated (and critically panned) silly comedy while it’s still on Paramount+. Directed by Jared Hess (Napoleon dynamite) and co-written by Future white lotus creator Mike White (who was no stranger to working with Black since school of rock and Orange County), Nacho Libre It stars Black in all his glory as Ignacio, a kind and modest friar and cook at the Mexican monastery orphanage where he was raised.
Desperate to feed the children something better than garbage, he secretly works as a masked wrestler named “Nacho,” recruiting a skeletal street thief, Esqueleto (Héctor Jiménez), as his tag team partner, all while pining for the lovely sister Encarnación (Ana de la Reguera). The story is loosely inspired by Friar Storm, a real-life Mexican priest who struggled for decades to finance his orphanage.
A box office success received with mixed reviews. Nacho Libre It has since become an endlessly quotable (“These are my recreation clothes”) and memeable cult favorite. Coming hot on the heels of school of rock and king kongremains one of Black’s most beloved comic book showcases, but don’t pay attention to its 39% RT score: pfft, what do they know?
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Good morning Vietnam
Robin Williams turns wartime radio into comedy gold
In a role he was born to play (which earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Actor in 1988), in Good morning Vietnamthe late Robin Williams plays Armed Forces Radio Service DJ Adrian Cronauer, an airman stationed in Saigon in 1965 during the Vietnam War. Cronauer’s loose, comedic broadcasts and rock music are a hit, and he quickly makes a name for himself among his colleague Edward Garlick (Forest Whitaker) and among the hyped-up troops who tune in to his show, religiously.
But his controversial comments about the war and sarcastic musings begin to become a thorn in the side of his superiors, especially Lieutenant Steven Hauk (Bruno Kirby) and Sergeant Major Phillip Dickerson (JT Walsh), who threaten to take him off the air, or worse.
When Cronauer falls in love with a local Vietnamese woman and befriends her brother, he begins to look at the war from different points of view, which he begins to bring to his broadcasts, threatening his job and life. It remains one of Williams’ most memorable performances, Good morning Vietnam arrives on Paramount+ on July 1 and still has an incredible 90% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
summer continues
Stuck on what to stream this week? These Paramount+ movies offer smart sci-fi, big laughs, and an underdog worth rooting for. But if that’s not what you’re looking for, head over to How-To Geek Streaming Section for more guides.
- Subscription with ads
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Yes, $8/month
- Simultaneous currents
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- live television
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Select live sports (NFL on CBS and UEFA Champions League)
- Price
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From $8/month or $60/year
