First Time Watches of February - Part 1

Looking for something the stream on Netflix, Hulu, Max, or Disney+? This is what your favorite film critic watched last month. [3/19/25]

At the beginning of February, I decided I would write a little blurb, even if it was only a couple sentences, about every new movie I watched this year. I didn’t realize how personal of a project this would end up being, if only because you can track a lot of my time by looking at these films. Most of them were watched alongside my family or my girlfriend. Those that were watched alone were typically extremely 2024 watches I wanted to get in before my end-of-the-year list, which will definitely totally for sure certainly happen soon. And finally, there were random outliers, usually brought on by my watches to keep up with the podcast Blank Check, which you can check out here on Substack. Curse them for making me watch Mickey Blue Eyes.

With so many viewings I had to make some rules around what I would post in this monthly space. If you want to hear about the viewings I do weekly of films in the Criterion Collection (usually four a week!) you should of course check out my comedy/criticism podcast Always See Everything, as I will not review them here. And of course these are only first time watches… I will not add the 19 movies I rewatched this February to this increasingly out-of-my-hands project.

I had to split this whole thing into TWO separate articles as I am still left with a massive undertaking. This month I saw 22 movies outside of both my Criterion watching and my rewatches. Yes, that is a lot. But have you seen the name of my podcast?

Summer Camp

We're not kicking off this month very well, but I oddly have a lot to say about this one.

Summer Camp belongs to the modern comedy subgenre of "older women being wacky" that has given us such modern hits as Book Club, 80 For Brady, Poms, Thelma, and Book Club: The Next Chapter. The queen of the genre is Diane Keaton, who appears here as one of the three women (Kathy Bates and Alfre Woodard) reuniting for a camp reunion in the 70s. For those used to a compliment sandwich (hello millennials), I had to start off with Keaton. She's the stressed out friend overwhelmed with work who needs to relax and enjoy this part of her life. She could play this role in her sleep and yet surprisingly doesn't do so. Opposite Gene Levy, who is so wooden you could blow sawdust off of him, she makes for a charming psuedolead. Bates and Woodard certainly function, with the former having a comedy secret which must be revealed in the third act and the latter handling a much heavier emotional workload involving a controlling husband.

But it is a testament to the need for a good director. The lighting in this movie is so garishly corporate in contrast to the script's themes of returning to a rugged, adventurous time of your life. Every indoor scene looks like it was shot in an IKEA, while the outdoor scenes would be passable if the cinematography didn't constantly try to sell the titular Camp like a bit of real estate. At any point the HGTV logo could have appeared in the corner and turned the film into House Hunters without feeling out of place. I expected nothing better from Castille Landon, director of the critically panned After sequels clogging your Netflix recommendations and probably lowering your tweens’ IQ and standards for a healthy, mature relationship as we speak.

I long for the days of Nancy Meyers, a director who focused her talents on rom coms with this same energy yet did so with a precise eye for detail that singlehandedly kept our standards high. The 75-year-old director behind Something's Gotta Give, The Holiday, and The Parent Trap reportedly can't get her latest picture made while this slop arrives microwave fresh in our Netflix troughs. Don't you just love the state of streaming?

1.5/5
Currently on Netflix.

Mickey Blue Eyes

Watching this movie is like watching a fish flop around on a dock. There's desperation, then panic, then inevitable desperate acceptance of fate, followed by slow and unfunny death. Overall, it's an experience that stinks.

What if a British man (Hugh Grant when he was still stuttering all the time) wanted to marry a woman, but -uh oh!- her father (James Caan) is part of the mob! No don't worry he's not like the Godfather, but you know he's like a goodfella or whatever we won't go into details because most of the movie will be about art auctions. Also, every joke will take scenes to set up and build to, and Caan should have less energy and menace than his character in Elf.*

I pride myself on being able to find nuggets of gold in litter boxes like this. Joe Viterelli, who you may know as Jelly from the Analyze This movies, has only about a dozen lines in the film and I guarantee at least one is liable to charm a smile out of you. There is also a scene in which it looks like Caan is about to shoot Grant, only for the audience to realize the film itself has played a trick on us through clever framing and well phrased dialogue. It was the only real joy I felt while watching Mickey Blue Eyes, and I've spoiled it for you. Go watch Analyze This.

1.5/5
*I stole that observation from David Sims

The Wild Robot

So many people have been excessively praising this movie as a masterpiece and a real turnaround for DreamWorks. True that the sensitivity of this picture about a robot left with only animals on an island of wilderness is a far cry from the culture steeped farts of the studios biggest creation, Shrek. But I am unwilling to praise the film for what it is not.

That which it is gives us plenty to work with. This is a story of reckoning with the purpose of technology in a brutal world of survival. Roz, this film's main character, learns to love and care for the forest and its inhabitants, while they learn that technology can help bring them together into a community rather than a competitive ecosystem.

I found the film delightful, but perhaps not up to the levels of hype it received. The third act becomes another "comedic characters suddenly use their differences in an action scene" a la Robots, Hotel Transylvania 2, or Beauty and the Beast. The funny quirks and talents of each side character suddenly become weapons as they each get to say some triumphant "take that" kind of line. It all feels a bit standard. But I did enjoy my time with the wild robot and highly recommend the rest of the film for its ability to make raw emotional moments break your heart.

3.5/5
Currently on Peacock

Fresh

Dating as a woman brings you into direct awareness that your body is a commodity with inherent capitalist value. Daisy Edgar Jones (the better [?] Dakota Johnson from Twisters and Where the Crawdads Sing) stars in Fresh as a woman navigating the world of dating to horrific results. The picture has the style of a young filmmaker aiming to impress; director Mimi Cave pulls out as many fun tricks as a magician, most of which are insanely effective. If you're looking for a film that's fun for form's sake, then you'll love Cave's playful camera as it explores a space or creatively shoots drugged out moments. She's almost as hungry as Sebastian Stan, whose charismatic performance is the film's greatest special effect. When he's in Cave's sizzling lensing the movie fires on all cylinders, even while feeling having that first film feeling of being fun for fun's sake.

This kind of youthful spark in a picture can be detrimental. A few times the script gets a little too overt about it's message. One character brings down the picture a half star by yelling to a villain that "B*****s like you are the problem" as if we didn't get it. Perhaps a more seasoned director would have cut this and other moments that too directly state the film's main purpose. But blemishes and all, Fresh is honest and intentional without being meticulous, and still stands as one of the better horror pictures of its year.

3.5/5
Currently on Hulu

Goodrich

Hallie Meyers-Shyer has brought us her second picture Goodrich nearly 7 years after her bizarre debut with the Reese Witherspoon picture Home Again. Like her first movie, Goodrich can easily be seen as the director contending with the legacy of her mother, Nancy Meyers, the filmmaker behind Something's Gotta Give, The Holiday, and The Parent Trap of '98. But this film has more of the director’s own identity, as she approaches the typical protagonist of her mother's work... A very rich person in the midst of a mental breakdown... With her own Meyers-Shyer spin that I like to call Meyers Dark Mode.

As demonstrated by Goodrich, Meyers Dark Mode starts in the same place as a film like It's Complicated or The Intern, but swaps out a non-complexly charming lead we can root for like Meryl Streep or Robert De Niro for a more complicated one in Michael Keaton's titular character. Meyers-Shyer's shot choices seem as intentional as her mother's but with soft edges and strong focuses. Her environments exist for mood only, not to showcase luxury. Its darkness also must be attributed to her, as the call to action isn't a divorce or a job or a simple feeling of unfulfillment, but the protagonist's wife calling from checking into rehab for a pill addiction he didn't even know she had. Humor breaks moments in the movie, like a scene where our Mr. Mom tries to stop his two kids from flying their drone in the house until it turns into an honest conversation about the absence of their mother. Nancy Meyers wouldn't have pulled off something like this, but her daughter is willing to explore new spaces.

Goodrich belongs to airplanes everywhere as the kind of disposable movie that might make a red-eye more tolerable. And that's okay! A movie star-driven dramedy for adults doesn't come around every day, and I was happy to spend a little time checking it out.

3/5
Currently on Max

Emilia Perez

I don't really want to engage with the pretty toxic discourse around this film, especially because I think my opinion is one that will be inflammatory; it's alright. Nothing about it makes it worthy of its Best Picture Nomination but I can see what attracted people to believing so. In concept, it's exactly the kind of bizarre nominee I want to see from the Oscars, but its execution is clunky. Also, I'd probably like it better in the theater Netflix!

3/5
Currently on Netflix

Smile 2

I will talk more about this film in my upcoming Best of 2024 list but here I'll only mention its contrast to the film I reviewed above this one. Smile 2 is a terrifying and powerful film in which every detail of every moment is chosen with such sincere intention. It's thrilling from top to bottom because it is full in a way that Emilia Perez is hollow, and knows how to bring the audience along through its orchestration. These are REALLY the kinds of movies that make Best Pictures of the year, not simply doing something weird to be different.

4.5/5
Currently on Peacock

Cleaner

It's only February and yet Cleaner might end up being my worst movie of the year. We will have to wait a bit for the delight of something as fun as Cleaner like an Election Year or global pandemic so in the meantime spend a couple hours patting yourself on the back for not watching Cleaner.

.5/5

Girl in the Shed: The Kidnapping of Abby Hernandez

Do you ever care about someone so much that you'll watch a tv movie about a real-life kidnapping starring Ben Savage that has the production value of a local real estate tour video? Ladies, I am living proof that if he wanted to he would. It is what it is; a Lifetime picture about a kidnapping with the exploitative title beginning with "Girl in the...". Not worth thinking about, except to say Savage is probably not talented enough to break outside the sitcom mold.

.5/5
Currently on Hulu

Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl

I grew up saying "cheese" with my knuckles on full display because of the Wallace and Gromit films. The very British stop motion duo returned this past year with a 2024 entry that's just fine. I made the mistake of introducing my sister to the franchise with its best entry, The Wrong Trousers, seconds before putting on this new one. Making a direct follow-up to that film just highlights how Vengeance Most Fowl just doesn't hold a candle to the original picture. There's some fun to be had when Wallace's latest invention, a garden gnome robot that standardizes gardening into a cold affair, becomes a stand-in for artificial intelligence generation and other next-gen technology. The movie follows the metaphor well but its gags are simple. As unabashedly Wallace and Gromit as this film is, it remains just short of the original films' brilliance and artistry.

3/5
Currently on Netflix

Flamin' Hot

Have you ever actually wondered where Flamin' Hot Cheetos come from or were you just bored on a streaming service one day? Either way, I can write a prescription for Flamin' Hot if you promise not to actually take it to your local CVS.

The true (maybe) story of a Mexican American dream that turned into a huge brand, Flamin' Hot follows the family man who works his way from a janitor's closet to an office with the invention of the Flamin' Hot Cheeto. You can practically feel the humming under presence of the word "bootstraps" in every scene of this picture. Don't get me wrong; it's a fun story that uses some cliches in a cool way but if you're not a fan of capitalism you could reduce this thing to rubble at the whisper of the word "propaganda". Then again, there's a lot of cuteness from the film and passion from the cast led by Jesse Garcia that I can appreciate in a breezy Sunday afternoon movie with the family kind of way. Perhaps, like the Cheetos themselves, films like this are fine in small quantities but would give most with real taste a stomachache in large quantities.

3/5
Currently on Hulu & Disney+

To Be Continued…