![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Technology had advanced enough that audiences could relate to a guy who was seduced by his Siri, and hipster grooming habits had regressed enough that Brooklyn audiences could relate to Joaquin Phoenix’s mustache. When “Her” came out in 2013, Spoke Jonze’s whimsical and lightly Vonnegut-esque romance about a man who falls in love with his phone (or its operating system, to be specific) felt like it was set in the world of tomorrow. Regardless, the sooner you accept the brilliance of “The Princess Diaries,” the sooner you can make peace with the fact that there will inevitably be a sequel called “The Queen Diaries” within our lifetimes.Īvailable to stream on July 1. It all makes for the only other Garry Marshall movie that can match the charm factor of “Pretty Woman,” and an argument could be made that Héctor Elizondo - and a makeover montage for the ages - put this one over the top. Hathaway tries her damnedest to play a dorky high school kid, Heather Matarazzo steals the show as her sensitive best friend, and Julie Andrews delivers an impossible degree of grace as the royal grandmother who turns everyone’s lives upside down. Princess of Genovia! Forever to be remembered as the event that formally introduced the world to Anne Hathaway, “The Princess Diaries” is the kind of movie they don’t really make anymore: Smart, sincere, live-action family entertainment that features Mandy Moore as the villain (and a shaggy Coppola as the love interest).Ī pre-9/11 film if ever there was one, “The Princess Diaries” is a mall-era fairy tale that whisks us back to a magical time when Ross and Rachel were still figuring things out, and Phantom Planet was about to become every tween’s favorite band. Her Jenny Mellor is a perfect foil for Scherfig’s classic rendering of the ’60s London - few movies have better captured the friction of coming into yourself in a world that seems to be set in its ways.Īvailable to stream July 22. Mulligan delivers a raw, bright-eyed turn as a teenage schoolgirl who’s in a hurry to grow up, and it’s easy to appreciate why her work set the actress on a path towards stardom. The best of the many breakthrough performances that define Netflix’s latest crop, Carey Mulligan is so vibrant as the young heroine of Lone Scherfig’s “An Education” that she allows this old-fashioned coming-of-age drama to completely transcend the trappings of its genre. He captures every scene with grit and intelligence he sees these tragic characters more clearly than he may be able to see himself.Īvailable to stream July 12. It works because Affleck - the one behind the camera - doesn’t get in the way of a solid genre story. Amy Ryan’s career-best performance as a drug mule who loses her daughter is still a wonder, and the film’s devastating final moments seem to hit a little bit harder every time you see them. “Gone Baby Gone” was the movie that sold the studio on Affleck’s potential as a solid actor-director with room to grow, and revisiting this bitter (and very Boston) neo-noir certainly helps to explain what they saw in him.Īdapted from the Dennis Lehane novel the same name, and starring Casey Affleck as a mealymouthed private investigator who gets in way over his head, “Gone Baby Gone” is engagingly grim from the start, and only grows more compelling as it downshifts away from crime and towards moral drama. ![]() In the wake of “Live by Night,” “Batman v Superman,” and that infamous back tattoo, it can be easy to remember that - just a few short years ago - Ben Affleck was being groomed by WB as their next Clint Eastwood. ![]()
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