What's New To Streaming In February 2024
Today we bring you Stanley Kubrick and Nancy Meyers in the same newsletter
For this month’s new to streaming picks, we couldn’t have picked two different movies for you. I mean, anytime you can recommend Stanley Kubrick and Nancy Meyers in the same newsletter, you have to do it. How many other movie newsletters have this range?
Fill up that watchlist for your weekend, and stay tuned to the DYLA Podcast. We didn’t release a new episode this week, but our new miniseries kicks off next week. Look out for an announcement on that!
Billy recommends…
Full Metal Jacket
Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket is the most scathing movie of his career in a filmography that is full of mean, off-putting, and controversial filmmaking. It begins in boot camp where a squadron of Americans have been drafted into the Vietnam War, a war that met at the intersection of political unrest and media coverage unlike any before.
That shocking combination's effect on our country is still being studied to try and understand how it changed a generation. Kubrick finds almost nothing redeemable about this war. Full Metal Jacket focuses on Pvt. Joker (Matthew Modine) and Pvt. Pyle (Vincent D’Onorfio) and the tragedy that sends Joker “heroically” off to war. The boot camp portion of this movie is some of the strongest and effective filmmaking ever put to screen. The dynamics of our two leads and their squad mates being emasculated, taught lies, and psychologically manipulated is equally entertaining and off-putting. Gny. Sgt. Hartman, played by R. Lee Ermey, is instantly iconic upon your first viewing. A character archetype that has been inserted into every genre you can think of. Parodied in movies like Toy Story (Ermey voices the green army general) and updated into modern stories like Terence Fletcher in Whiplash. The energy starts off with laughs. A master of insults that is not zany comedy funny, but tingles your senses to a point where the only possible response is at least a chuckle.
The amusing threats eventually become a reality when we see a lot of the squadron immediately become violent towards Pvt. Pyle. Pyle is the chosen punching bag. He is holding everyone back and he must pay. Our only sense of this not being right is the very loose empathy that Joker has for Pyle. Clearly not comfortable with this behavior, but he assimilates for the cause. Once in Vietnam the rest of the movie doesn’t quite get back to the heights of the first part, but the structure continues. Some fun dynamics instantly turn destructive. Kubrick is a master of almost making a mockery of the genre he enters by taking what has come before it and perverting it into a captivating time capsule that romanticizes nothing. It has ruined all other war movies for me.
Streaming on Max
Drew recommends…
Something’s Gotta Give
The characters in Nancy Meyers movies are not known for their relatability, and that’s part of their charm. In The Holiday, It’s Complicated, and The Parent Trap, the houses are magnificent and the lifestyles are lucrative. Her upper-class characters are famous wedding gown designers and fashion start-up CEOs. And yet, it’s this unrelatability, this unreachable status and income, that makes them so watchable and memorable.
In her 2003 romantic comedy Something’s Gotta Give, Meyers matches up two of the most famous movie stars of the second half of the 20th century. Jack Nicholson plays Harry Sanborn, a 63-year-old record company owner and infamous playboy. Diane Keaton plays divorced famous playwright Erica Barry. What gives this setup its extra magic is that Nicholson and Keaton don’t exactly disappear into these characters so much as bring their real-life celebrity personas to the table. It’s notable that on the movie’s poster the names “Jack & Diane” are as big as the title.
It’s no surprise that Nicholson and Keaton are wonderful together, both because of their movie star magnetism and Meyers’ deep understanding of this aspect. But Something’s Gotta Give also succeeds due to the excellent casting in supporting parts. Keanu Reeves is an inspired choice as a handsome Hamptons-area doctor and Erica’s younger love interest. And Frances McDormand is delightful as Erica’s sister, a women’s studies professor that takes a wry interest in the peculiar love triangle and gender dynamics at play between Harry, Erica, and Erica’s daughter.
These characters spend most of the movie in the Hamptons and Paris, so no, most of the audience cannot relate. However, the sheer star power and Meyers’ skills at navigating the middle-aged rom-com landscape make Something’s Gotta Give a total joy to watch. We can’t help but be entertained and invested in these rich folks’ love lives.
Streaming on Netflix
New To Streaming In February 2024
Netflix
Anaconda
Enough
Fury
The Great Gatsby
It
Magic Mike's Last Dance
Moneyball
Pacific Rim
Resident Evil
X
Ready Player One (February 3)
Everything Everywhere All at Once (February 23)
Amazon Prime Video
12 Angry Men
Annie Hall
Basic Instinct
Cop Land
Enron: The Smart Guys in the Room
Event Horizon
Get Out
Ghost World
Grown Ups
Hot Fuzz
I Am Not Your Negro
In the Cut
Red Rocket
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
Talladega Nights
The Elephant Man
Strays (February 6)
Bottoms (February 13)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (February 21)
Hulu
The Cabin in the Woods
Call Me By Your Name
Hitch
Jason Bourne
Judas and the Black Messiah
Jumanji
Knight and Day
Mr. and Mrs. Smith
Pretty Woman
Twilight
12 Years a Slave
Predator (February 4)
Romeo + Juliet (February 8)
The Abyss (February 9)
Next Goal Wins (February 15)
Prometheus (February 15)
Max
The Bling Ring
A Ghost Story
The Lego Movie
Midsommar
The Notebook
Se7en
Up in the Air
The Visit
Wedding Crashers