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The comedy that launched a raunchy franchise
The Ringer’s Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Sean Fennessey continue “Wait, That Movie Made HOW Much Money?” Month by rewatching a movie as good as apple pie: the 1999 hit comedy American Pie, starring Jason Biggs and Seann William Scott.
Producer: Craig Horlbeck
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Bill Simmons
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Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson’s performances as Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark defined the original Hunger Games movies. But the prequel movie, set 64 years before Katniss and Peeta’s story, needed a new set of actors who could hold their own.
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes is an origin story for Panem’s dictator, President Coriolanus Snow. It takes fans back to a time when Coriolanus was just an ambitious young student who had not yet become the cutthroat politician we see in the main books and movies. His story is entwined with that of Lucy Gray Baird, the District 12 Tribute he’s assigned to mentor, whose natural flair for showmanship and captivating songs inspire him to turn the brutal Hunger Games into more of a flashy spectacle.
Director Francis Lawrence tells Polygon the filmmakers were looking for fresh faces when it came to the lead roles. A lot of actors auditioned for the role of Snow, specifically, but Lawrence says Billy the Kid star Tom Blyth immediately “blew everybody out of the water.”
“Part of it is physical,” he admits. “He has those great blue eyes — [you] could see in his face, Okay, I could buy that maybe 65 years later, he could turn into Donald Sutherland.”
Image: Lionsgate Films
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Image: Lionsgate
But it wasn’t just about how feasibly Blyth could look like a younger Donald Sutherland. Whoever landed the role had to walk a line between being charming and conniving, someone you want to root for, yet aren’t surprised when they end up turning into a villain. Blyth brought his acting chops to the role, and Lawrence was continually impressed throughout filming.
“Telling a story about a young man’s descent into darkness, you have to have somebody that can earn the audience’s empathy, but then believably also descend into that darkness,” Lawrence says. “[Blyth] is really, really good. This sort of charisma continued to astound me. His sense of control in his performance and nuance also astounded me. That really caught me off guard and surprised me in a fantastic way.”
Blyth stood out in auditions, but when it came to casting District 12 songstress Lucy Gray, Lawrence had a first choice in mind from the get-go. Rachel Zegler’s acting and singing in Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story made her Lawrence’s top contender for the role.
“So she and I met, I think, for four hours or something the first time, and had a great chat about the book and about the character and about the music,” Lawrence says. “I just knew she was the one right away.”
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Photo: Murray Close/Lionsgate
A big part of Lucy Gray’s character involves music. She’s a member of the Covey, a traveling band of musicians inspired by similar performing groups from turn-of-the-century America. Her passionate outburst of song at her Reaping immediately sparks something in Snow, who recognizes that her performing talent is key to getting her to survive the games. So Lucy Gray’s singing had to be life-savingly good and fit in a specific genre.
“I had high expectations, because I think she’s a great actor and a great singer, but the singing blew me away,” Lawrence gushes. “The fact that she could shift right from theatrical kind of singing — something you would do in West Side Story or on stage — into the exact genre of country bluegrass that we were doing in this movie that feels like it’s from the turn of the century to the [19]20s-30s Appalachia. To be able to hit that style and do it so effortlessly, and sing live every day, that was pretty mind-blowing.”
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes is out in theaters now.
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Petrana Radulovic
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Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay are joined by Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, former mayor of Baltimore and current executive director of the NBPA, to discuss activism and philanthropy in the NBA (3:13) and serving as mayor during civil unrest following the death of Freddie Gray (21:38).
Hosts: Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay
Guest: Stephanie Rawlings-Blake
Producers: Donnie Beacham Jr. and Ashleigh Smith
Subscribe: Spotify / Apple Podcasts / Stitcher
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Van Lathan
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Bakari Sellers is joined by director Gelila Bekele to discuss her journey from modeling to filmmaking (1:10) and her new documentary chronicling the life of Tyler Perry, Maxine’s Baby (6:49).
Host: Bakari Sellers
Guest: Gelila Bekela
Producer: Donnie Becham Jr.
Executive Producer: Jarrod Loadholt
Subscribe: Spotify / Apple Podcasts
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Bakari Sellers
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Thanksgiving in the United States comes with a number of traditional televised events, but maybe none as seamless and low-key entertaining as the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
This year marks the department store’s 97th parade down the streets of New York City, and the event once again promises floats, musical numbers, and big cartoon balloons, albeit with an extremely 2023 touch. Here’s what to know — and a few things you may never think about while watching.
The official telecast of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade will air on NBC and be simulcast on Peacock. Today’s Savannah Guthrie, Hoda Kotb, and Al Roker will be back per usual to yap about the floats. A Spanish language simulcast will air on Telemundo, hosted by Carlos Adyan and Andrea Meza.
This year’s parade starts a little earlier than usual: the simulcast runs from 8:30 a.m. ET to 12 p.m. ET., but will also begin at 8:30 a.m. in all time zones, so no need to wake up at the crack of dawn. NBC will also air an encore of the parade at 2 p.m. ET.
Photo: Macy’s, Inc/Getty Images
This year’s balloon lineup sees a number of returning Giant and Novelty favorites, including Spongebob, Grogu, Bluey, and Smokey the Bear. The commerce of it all means a number of unfamiliar faces will join the lineup, too, including Leo, Adam Sandler’s 74-year-old lizard from the upcoming Netflix animated film; Uncle Dan, the mallard main character of Illumination’s new movie Migration; and Blue Cat & Chugs, the mascots of the Web3 company Cool Cats Group and the winner of a Macy’s contest to decide which NFT brand should earn a coveted character in the parade. 2023, baby! Anime continues its mainstream takeover as well, with legacy balloons Goku and Pikachu joined for the first time by One Piece’s Monkey D. Luffy.
Time has not just modernized the balloon characters, but the process itself. Kathleen Wright, Macy’s director of production operations, tells Polygon that the journey of devising a balloon, rendering it in inflatable form, then parading it along Central Park has taken on the quality of a Seal Team 6 operation. Computers allow designers to test balloon concepts in various weather conditions to determine the appropriate center of gravity and lift, all while minding the dimension requirements that allow it to float through New York.
In the week leading up to the parade, Wright and her team walk through the route with various city departments to size up potential hindrances for the buoyant stars, including any protruding lamp posts, which are manually swung in the opposite direction by city workers on the eve of the parade. On the day-of, the balloons — once made of rubber, but now built as modular polyurethane pieces that are heat sealed together and painted — are inflated with a combination of helium and regular air, based on required lift. Ninety handlers are assigned to each balloon, with 40-50 people securing the handling lines at any given time (and you thought pop stars were needy). By the time you watch the parade at home, a balloon’s “flight envelope” has been completely broken down and considered. There is no room for error, and based on Wright’s description, they don’t leave any.
Along with the balloons and fleet of floats (including a sadly inedible Wonka one), the Thanksgiving Day Parade will once again tout a ton of talent shivering in their knickers while performing on the street. The show kicks off with a performance by Jon Batiste, with expected performances by Bell Biv DeVoe; Brandy; Chicago; En Vogue; David Foster and Katharine McPhee; Drew Holcomb and The Neighbors; Jessie James Decker; Ashley Park and the monsters of Sesame Street; Pentatonix; Paul Russell; Amanda Shaw and Alex Smith; and Manuel Turizo. Oh, and ENHYPEN will be there — so if you hear an inordinate amount of screaming from the crowd, it’s because the parade has gone full K-Pop, bless.
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Matt Patches
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Sean, Amanda, and Chris explore the high highs of Ridley Scott’s Napoleon—in particular the battle scenes—while trying to sort through their feelings on why the movie doesn’t come together as a whole quite how they hoped it would (1:00). Then, they try to place Napoleon in the historical context of “great men” movies and share their top five in the genre (40:00).
Hosts: Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins
Guest: Chris Ryan
Senior Producer: Bobby Wagner
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Sean Fennessey
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Saltburn has the slick intrigue of a Gothic thriller and the icy wit of a comedy of manners. The eponymous estate at which bookish University of Oxford loner Oliver Quick (Barry Keoghan) works to ingratiate himself is a museum of decadence, its splendor concealing a depravity that only the wealthy can disregard. But the movie’s target isn’t straightforward. Felix Catton (Jacob Elordi), the bewitching classmate who invites Oliver home with him for a rambling summer, starts out as a token of desire but becomes a heedless lodestar. Felix inherited his savior complex from his mother, Lady Elspeth (Rosamund Pike), a wannabe do-gooder with a vampy cruel streak. She’s married to a daffy lord (played by Richard E. Grant) whose lack of self-awareness rivals her own. As for Oliver, he spends his days at Saltburn currying favor among the Cattons, only to enact extravagant subterfuge.
Emerald Fennell, the writer and director of Saltburn, calls it a “vampire movie.” Oliver is the ultimate bloodsucker in question, yet his drive remains a sympathetic one. He wants what everyone wants: to belong. When Felix embraces Oliver, who talks of drug-addicted parents and a life without spoils, Oliver quickly leeches on to the most popular guy at school. Can you blame him? Grandeur is an aphrodisiac.
“It’s the same as constructing any love story. I mean, it is a love story,” Fennell tells The Ringer. “Can you completely believe why these two people would come together?”
Part of the seduction scheme that eventually leads Oliver to acquire Saltburn involves sex—the sex he witnesses, the sex he wants, the sex he initiates. If he has something to gain beyond corporeal pleasure, nothing is off-limits. That includes semen-streaked bathwater, menstrual blood, and grave fucking. With the movie hitting theaters, Fennell and Keoghan walked The Ringer through Saltburn’s three outré sex scenes, the ones meant to shock and titillate in near-equal measure.
For the movie’s first kink to land, Fennell had to plant a few crucial seeds. Casting the right Felix was the first. Keoghan is well-known for playing shifty oddballs like Oliver (see: The Killing of a Sacred Deer, The Green Knight, The Banshees of Inisherin), but Feilx is all about surface-level élan. Fennell needed an actor with a magnetism that leaps off the screen, someone so striking his mere presence can melt hearts—not unlike Bo Burnham in Promising Young Woman, her 2020 directorial debut. Felix, whom Fennell compares to Brideshead Revisited aristocrat Sebastian Flyte, doesn’t have a whole lot to offer beyond beauty, charm, and money.
Fennell was pleased to discover that Elordi, the Euphoria and Priscilla heartthrob, shared her take on the character. “Felix does something shitty in every scene,” Fennell says. “He’s casually misogynistic, he’s fickle, he’s snobbish. I was always saying to Jacob, ‘He’s not a good kisser. He’s not good in bed. He’s never had to be.’ When Jacob came in to audition, he [played Felix as] kind of a dope. The thing that’s important is that so much of what makes him interesting is Oliver looking at him.”
Oliver certainly can’t stop looking, first through a dormitory window where he watches Felix holding court amid a tribe of admirers. Felix’s poise screams privilege, which immediately beguiles Oliver. When he watches through another window at night while Felix has sex with a young woman, it’s blissfully unclear whether Oliver would rather swap places with Felix or the girl. (For whatever it’s worth, Fennell says Oliver is “absolutely bisexual.”) By the time he enters Saltburn’s imperial gates, he’s completely enthralled, only seldom betraying his underlying desperation. After growing acquainted with the family and their ostentatious house, which Fennell and cinematographer Linus Sandgren (La La Land) sought to shoot “like a fetish object,” he spies Felix masturbating during a bath.
The camera, mirroring Oliver’s eyes, lingers on Felix’s long torso and aroused face. But it’s what follows this voyeurism that’s most erotic. When Felix leaves the bathroom, Oliver slinks into the tub and guzzles the last of the ejaculate water as it drains, as if he’s harvesting Felix’s fluids and social status at once.
“The moment where he rubs his face along the plughole and wants to be in it, it’s sort of like, ‘I want to feel it, I want it to be part of me, I want it to change me,’” Keoghan says. “It’s a total obsession. He’s confused and lost. I don’t think he knows what he’s actually chasing.”
Keoghan says he channeled some combination of fox and snake while descending into the tub, and the sound team blended his slurp with the effects of raw octopus sliding against oil. Oliver’s animalistic excess was one of the first images Fennell thought of while brainstorming Saltburn. “It’s the impulse,” she says. “The moment he does that, it imbues him with this kind of wicked power. It also just felt, to me, so profoundly true of vulnerability, desire, and class envy: All of us can only ever really hope to lick the bottom of a bathtub. So there’s something pathetic, funny, incredibly sexy, and incredibly real.”
As the summer continues and his stature among the Cattons swells, Oliver starts to see everyone as a potential dupe. If he can embed himself in the fabric of Saltburn, maybe he’ll never have to leave. He gives Felix’s catty American cousin (Archie Madekwe) a hand job as a sort of vengeful come-on after the cousin embarrasses Oliver at a dinner party. He even flirts with Elspeth, attempting to appeal to her affinity for waifs. She sees him as a sapling to protect, so Oliver then directs his persuasions to Felix’s troubled sister, Venetia (Alison Oliver), seizing on her fragility. As a self-conscious idler with an eating disorder, she’s anxious to find esteem within a family where Felix is the star.
Aware that she’s uncomfortable in her own body, Oliver uses lusting after Venetia as his ace card. Late one night, when he spots her stalking the garden, Oliver pounces. He treats her like a delicious talisman, fingering her on the fog-soaked lawn and smearing her menstrual blood across both of their faces. This act of demented flattery confirms Oliver’s mounting sense of power. Look at how far I’ll go for you.
“So much of the dom-sub thing is about taking care of the person,” Fennell says. “We see him giving people what they want, and that’s just being a good acolyte. What turns him on … is having control of the situation.”
Keoghan takes that sentiment a step further. “He’s abusing her, and he’s a master manipulator,” he says. “He wants to see how far he can take it: ‘I own you. You’re going to do what I say.’ He knows he wouldn’t get away with that with Felix.”
Oliver’s quest to become an honorary Catton falls apart when Felix arranges to take him home to visit his parents on his birthday. Discovering that Oliver is nowhere near as Dickensian as he’s led on, Felix sours on his summer guest, sending Oliver into a spiral. If he can’t worm his way into Saltburn by feigning victimhood, he’ll go for the second-best option: killing the Cattons one by one and taking the whole thing for himself. Anything to avoid feeling once again like an outcast.
After poisoning Felix’s champagne during a blowout party, Oliver enacts a final act of longing: He leaves the funeral to return to the cemetery, pulls down his pants, and fucks the dude’s gravesite. For Fennell, the gesture is more about grief than sex—a visceral version of Heathcliff digging up Catherine’s body at the end of Wuthering Heights. It’s his last chance to touch Felix. Oliver can never have him back, and although he tells himself he wasn’t in love, the intensity of his sobs suggests otherwise.
Initially, Fennell imagined Keoghan rubbing his face in the grave and fondling the dirt, blending the bathtub scene and the garden scene into one showstopping desecration. But upon discussing it with the actor, they decided to be less coy. “I wanted to see what the next step was,” Keoghan says of Oliver’s farewell to Felix. “It wasn’t to get a wow factor. It was quite sad, because he’s lost at that moment.” Keoghan requested a closed set, meaning only essential people like Fennell and Sandgren were present. Shot from behind, he did the deed in one take, hoping to avoid the “sheer embarrassment” of needing to repeat it.
With the Catton clan eventually gone, Oliver is alone at Saltburn, having convinced Elspeth to will the property to him. He can dance naked through the house’s halls all he wants, but Oliver’s victory is hollow. After the movie fades to black, he’ll be left without companionship or a clear purpose. What was it all for? “I’ve always believed that what he wanted was very simple, which was just to be there with [the Cattons],” Fennell says. “The framing narrative makes it seem like he was always in pursuit of this specific end goal, but what he’s most interested in, even if he doesn’t know it himself, is the game of power. That’s why he’s interested in Felix from the beginning. It’s not just that he’s beautiful. It’s that he’s in the middle … That’s what Oliver’s preoccupation is: with being special. And aren’t we all preoccupied with being special?”
Matthew Jacobs is an Austin-based entertainment journalist who covers film and television. His work can be found at Vulture, Vanity Fair, The Hollywood Reporter, HuffPost, and beyond. Follow him on X @majacobs.
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Matthew Jacobs
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After five to six years of podcasting, The Ringer’s Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Amanda Dobbins head to podcast therapy to reignite their stagnating love of podcasts. To keep the spark alive in “Wait, This Movie Made HOW Much Money?” Month, they rewatch the 2005 action-comedy Mr. and Mrs. Smith, starring Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.
Producer: Craig Horlbeck
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Bill Simmons
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Shocked witnesses have described hearing a “bang” as a mobility scooter and motorcycle collided in central Rotorua.
A spokesman said police were called to a two-vehicle crash about 10.20am.
The crash closed the road near the Tutanekai St and Amohau St intersection but it has now reopened.
Hiria Pohutuhutu was working at Colombus Coffee across the road when she heard a “bang”.
She “looked straight up” and saw that an elderly man on a mobility scooter was involved.
Pohutuhutu said she immediately called the ambulance, and ran outside and saw the motorcycle nearby.
She said the elderly man was lying on his side.
A passerby began administering urgent first aid.
Emergency services then arrived on the scene and took over.
She said the incident was “traumatising” and everyone was concerned about those involved.
“I did a little prayer for him.”
Another witness to the incident, who asked not to be named, said he was facing a window when the crash happened.
The man said a small motorcycle came through the intersection.
”I didn’t even hear the bike until I heard a bang.”
He saw other people by the intersection “freaked out” and heard screaming.
”I rushed out and called an ambulance.
“When I got outside the first responders had started showing up.” .
St John responded with one ambulance and one rapid response unit, but…
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MMP News Author
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Target is hosting one of the best promotions we’ve seen yet during Black Friday — and that’s saying something, given how good these early Black Friday deals are. Through Nov. 25, virtually all books, movies, and music in the retailer’s catalog are buy two, get one free. Just add three items to your cart, and the least expensive item is free. The only exceptions are pre-order items and new releases that came out this week.
There is a wide array of products that are eligible during this sale, including 4K movies, manga box sets, art books, and vinyl, so we’ve rounded up some recommendations from each category we think you’ll like. However, if you’re not moved by our picks, you can head over to Target’s Black Friday deals page to check out the wares yourself.
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Alice Newcome-Beill
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Black Friday is here, and it needs no introduction, right? We’ve already gotten warmed up with heaps of early Black Friday deals, but now the main course has arrived first at Amazon and Best Buy before other retailers get fully underway at various points throughout the coming week. We’ll be updating this article frequently with new products, and as many more retailers (both online and in the real world) begin to slash prices with the hopes that you’ll do your shopping there. Who’s next? Target and Best Buy each have some new deals starting this weekend, so stay tuned.
There’s a little something for everyone below, and unsurprisingly there’s a lot more on the way next week for actual Black Friday. But in case your interests are more specific, we’ve got you covered with dedicated posts on board game deals (featuring dozens more than is listed below), and the best deals on gaming hardware like SSDs and monitors.
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Image: Capcom
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Image: Microsoft
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Image: Insomniac Games/Sony Interactive Entertainment via Polygon
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Nintendo
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Photo: Amelia Holowaty Krales/The Verge
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Alienware 34-inch QHD AW3423DWF
Prices taken at time of publishing.
Alienware’s AW3423DWF gaming monitor features a curved QD-OLED screen, which provides amazing picture quality and contrast. Its fast 165 Hz refresh rate works with PC games, and it supports up to 100 Hz with consoles.
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Prices taken at time of publishing.
There’s currently no better wireless VR headset at this price point.
The higher-end UB820-K is also on sale. In terms of hardware, it’s virtually identical to the 420-K model, except it can display Dolby Vision HDR in addition to other HDR supported by both models. Normally around $500, this model is $349.99 at both Amazon and Best Buy.
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Prices taken at time of publishing.
Own a copy of The Super Mario Bros. Movie so you can watch it as many times as you want.
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Lego Super Mario Starter Course
Prices taken at time of publishing.
This is the Lego Super Mario set you need if you want to add all of Lego and Nintendo’s exciting expansion sets at a later date. This set includes an interactive Mario figure, a Goomba figure, Bowser Jr., and a buildable course.
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Alice Newcome-Beill
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Rachel Lindsay and Jodi Walker begin today’s Morally Corrupt with a breakdown of The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City Season 4, Episode 10 (00:53), before recapping The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills Season 13, Episode 4 (33:07). Then Callie Curry joins to chat about The Real Housewives of Potomac Season 8, Episode 2 (56:58).
Host: Rachel Lindsay
Guests: Jodi Walker and Callie Curry
Producers: Devon Manze
Theme Song: Devon Renaldo
Subscribe: Spotify
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Rachel Lindsay
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Ian is joined by Musa Okwonga and Ryan Hunn to chat about the return of the Women’s Champions League, which saw great wins for Ajax, Lyon and Barcelona and two very controversial decisions during Real Madrid’s 2-2 draw with Chelsea (04:59). Then, following last week’s Loki Season 2 finale, they dive into a long discussion about one of Ian’s favourite TV shows (12:32), the highs, the lows, the lessons and much more!
Host: Ian Wright
Guests: Musa Okwonga and Ryan Hunn
Producers: Ryan Hunn, Roscoe Bowman and Jonathan Fisher
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Ian Wright
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Still buzzing from last weekend’s UFC 295, Ariel, Chuck, and Petesy have a lot to get into on today’s show. First, the guys discuss this weekend’s final Bellator card and why the energy (or lack thereof) surrounding Bellator 301 is symbolic of the promotion’s entire existence. Then, the guys break down their latest pound-for-pound rankings before taking Discord questions about Alex Pereira’s legendary run, Ian Garry’s beef with Team Renegade, how the Saudis could convince Dana White to make the fight of the century, and more. Plus, a classic game of Buy or Sell.
To enter into our lovely Discord community, click this link.
TOPICS:
Hosts: Ariel Helwani, Petesy Carroll, and Chuck Mindenhall
Producer: Troy Farkas
Subscribe: Spotify
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The Ringer’s Bill Simmons is joined by Chris Ryan and Sean Fennessey to rewatch the 1982 romantic drama An Officer and a Gentleman, starring Richard Gere, Debra Winger, and Louis Gossett Jr.
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Bill Simmons
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Matt is joined by journalist and former chief media correspondent for CNN Brian Stelter to discuss the unique business behind Fox and its relationship with Hollywood moving forward in the post-Rupert era, including how it continues to generate billions in profits every year, its lucrative deal with the NFL, and its ad-supported TV service, Tubi. Matt finishes the show with a prediction on Tom Brady’s media career.
For a 20 percent discount on Matt’s Hollywood insider newsletter, What I’m Hearing …, click here.
Host: Matt Belloni
Guest: Brian Stelter
Producers: Craig Horlbeck and Jessie Lopez
Theme Song: Devon Renaldo
Subscribe: Spotify
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Matthew Belloni
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The Ringer’s Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Sean Fennessey rewatch the 1982 classic An Officer and a Gentleman because they’ve got nowhere else to go! They continue “Wait, This Movie Made HOW Much Money?” Month by rewatching the romantic hit starring Richard Gere, Debra Winger, and Louis Gossitt Jr. and directed by Taylor Hackford.
Producer: Craig Horlbeck
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Bill Simmons
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The Lost Boys’ poster made the prospect of becoming an undead creature of the night pretty attractive: “Sleep all day. Party all night. Never grow old. Never die. It’s fun to be a vampire.” But the movie’s story is full of teenage terrors: an older sibling in the grips of addiction, divorced parents, starting over in a strange new place, and contending with adults who won’t listen to your real, valid teenage problems.
Released in 1987, The Lost Boys isn’t particularly terrifying as a horror film. With its gaudily dressed vampires and long-flowing mullets — plus its iconic, extremely sweaty saxophone man — it reads more camp than straight horror three decades later. And despite its R rating, it’s fairly tame. Its single sex scene is pretty chaste and the film’s gore is limited to gushes of blood from dying vampires.
The Lost Boys succeeds as an enduring piece of vampire fiction because of its stars, with Kiefer Sutherland standing out as vampire gang leader David, and the strong bones of its story. In that story, recently divorced single mom Lucy (Dianne Wiest) moves to the fictional Southern California town of Santa Carla, “the murder capital of the world,” the film tells us, with her teenage sons, Michael (Jason Patric) and Sam (Corey Haim). The displaced family moves in with Lucy’s dad, an eccentric taxidermist known only as Grandpa.
Image: Warner Bros./Everett Collection
As they settle into the town, which appears to consist primarily of a densely trafficked beach boardwalk, Lucy gets a job (and a potential boyfriend) at a video rental store, while Michael and Sam seek new friends — Michael’s comes in the form of a group of young vampires, while Sam bonds with comic book store geeks Edgar (Corey Feldman) and Alan Frog (Jamison Newlander). When Michael falls for Star (Jami Gertz), a seductive vampire in the making and apparent partner of David, peer pressure compels him to become a vampire himself.
Opposite Michael’s path, Sam throws in with the Frog brothers, who warn the new kid in town that Santa Carla’s whole murder-capital-of-the-world problem stems from a nest of vampires. The Lost Boys doesn’t shy away from established vampire fiction with the Frog brothers; they use horror comic books as a field manual to identify and kill vampires. (Refreshingly, unlike far too many modern zombie genre stories, which refuse to use the word “zombie” at all, vampire fiction isn’t afraid of calling its monsters what they are.)
While Michael’s story of becoming bewitched by both Star and David is at the center of the film’s story, The Lost Boys is also Sam’s story of watching his brother slip into a metaphorical addiction during the “just say no” era of the Reagan administration’s war on drugs. It’s also a story set during an era of skyrocketing divorce rates; The Lost Boys plays masterfully on the fear of watching your parents split and the inevitable replacement father figure coming into the picture.
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Photo: Warner Bros./Everett Collection
Sutherland and Patric hold The Lost Boys together as rivals ostensibly competing for Star. As David, Sutherland channels Billy Idol as a spiky trickster, making Michael hallucinate that he’s eating worms and maggots — when, in reality, he’s eating Chinese takeout — before David presents him with a taste of real vampire’s blood. As Michael, Patric plays it both cool and disaffected, but also earnest in his love for Star and terrified of his new vampire powers. There are strong set-pieces involving the two male leads, including a moment where David and his vampire gang convince Michael to hang out underneath a moving train, compelling Michael to let go and embrace his ability to fly. It’s the movie’s strongest allusion to its inspiration, J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan.
Despite strong performances and great character twists, The Lost Boys rushes toward its ending in clumsy and unsatisfying ways. Dianne Wiest’s Lucy has too little to do outside of reacting to the men in the film, and Grandpa seems to have much more going on than the film reveals. Its 98-minute run time needed a little more time to breathe.
But The Lost Boys, much like ’80s kid-heroism movies E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and The Goonies, is about its young people. As an oft-campy time capsule of ’80s-era hopes and fears, it will never get old.
The Lost Boys is currently streaming on Max.
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Michael McWhertor
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Happy Friday, Polygon readers!
Each week, we round up the most notable releases new to streaming and VOD, highlighting the biggest and best new movies for you to watch at home.
This week, The Killer, David Fincher’s latest psychological thriller, finally arrives on Netflix following its brief theatrical run. Charlie Day’s satirical comedy Fool’s Paradise comes to Hulu, while a new documentary on actor-director-comedian Albert Brooks premieres on Max. There’s a ton of other new releases to choose from on VOD, including the biographical comedy-drama Dumb Money starring Paul Dano, A24’s Dicks: The Musical, and more.
Here’s everything new to watch this weekend!
Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix
Image: Netflix
Genre: Action thriller
Run time: 1h 58m
Director: David Fincher
Cast: Michael Fassbender, Arliss Howard, Charles Parnell
Based on the 1998 French graphic novel, David Fincher’s latest stars Michael Fassbender as a professional assassin who becomes the center of an international manhunt after his latest assignment goes wrong.
From our review:
In theory, The Killer could be seen as a film about the ruthlessness of the gig economy, disguised as a crime thriller. It sends the Killer through a Russian nesting doll of missions until there’s little delineation between his personal life and his profession. But Fincher and Walker have little to say about anything they present on screen, or the fleeting thematic subtext they introduce. The film is airtight in its construction, but slight in its artistic objectives. Beyond Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’ nerve-wracking score, there really isn’t that much to it.
Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix
Genre: Art documentary
Run time: 1h 41m
Director: Anton Corbijn
Cast: Paul McCartney, Roger Waters, Jimmy Page
Dutch photographer and director Anton Corbijn (The American, A Most Wanted Man) makes his second straight doc about the music industry here after 2019’s Depeche Mode concert movie Spirits in the Forest. This time, he turns his eye on the album art design studio Hipgnosis, with the help of some rock ’n’ roll luminaries.
Where to watch: Available to stream on Hulu
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Image: Lionsgate
Genre: Satirical comedy
Run time: 1h 38m
Director: Charlie Day
Cast: Charlie Day, Ken Jeong, Kate Beckinsale
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’s Charlie Day makes his feature directorial debut in this satirical comedy about a mute amnesiac (Day) who is abducted by a desperate publicist (Ken Jeong) to impersonate his client — a method actor who refuses to leave his trailer to film a biopic about Billy the Kid. It gets even weirder than that, trust me.
Where to watch: Available to stream on Max
Genre: Documentary
Run time: 1h 28m
Director: Rob Reiner
Cast: Albert Brooks, Judd Apatow, James L. Brooks
Framed as a dinner conversation between actor-director Albert Brooks and director Rob Reiner, this documentary charts Brooks’ career from his early work on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and his mainstream acting debut in Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver to his meteoric rise to fame starring in such films as Private Benjamin and Broadcast News. Guests include Larry David, Conan O’Brien, Sarah Silverman, and Jonah Hill.
Where to watch: Available to stream on Shudder
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Image: IFC Films/Shudder
Genre: Horror
Run time: 1h 38m
Director: Laura Moss
Cast: Marin Ireland, Judy Reyes, Breeda Wool
This horror-thriller follows a morgue technician who performs a miracle by successfully bringing the body of a dead girl back to life. Unfortunately, this miracle comes at a price, forcing the technician to hunt down pregnant women in order to harvest their biological material to keep the girl alive.
Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
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Photo: Claire Folger/Sony Pictures
Genre: Biographical comedy-drama
Run time: 1h 45m
Director: Craig Gillespie
Cast: Paul Dano, Pete Davidson, Vincent D’Onofrio
Remember the GameStop short squeeze of 2021? No? That’s OK — admittedly, it was a very hectic and wild time, what with the whole… everything going on. In case you’re looking for a refresher, this biographical comedy-drama about a middle-class financial analyst who struck big during squeeze might be just what you’re looking for.
From our review:
Where The Big Short was patronizing but still hugely entertaining and legitimately informative, Dumb Money’s creators seem uninterested in explaining what the hell happened with the GameStop scenario, or how the hell it happened. The script assumes that the audience is either already familiar with the story, or doesn’t much care about the financial specifics and just wants to see the news reenacted by people they know. Most of the jargon goes unexplained, and the series of events that facilitated the saga is just shrugged off in favor of a simplistic “isn’t this crazy?!” tone.
Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
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Image: A24
Genre: Musical comedy
Run time: 1h 26m
Director: Larry Charles
Cast: Josh Sharp, Aaron Jackson, Nathan Lane
This musical comedy follows two longtime business rivals who inadvertently discover they are identical twin brothers separated at birth. Concocting a scheme to get their divorced parents back together, they switch places in order to orchestrate a reunion. Think The Parent Trap, but with more musical numbers, dick jokes, and Megan Thee Stallion.
From our review:
Dicks takes shots at different kinds of modern movies early on, starting with other A24 movies. A24’s logo is accompanied by grandiose music, and its signature elevated horror threatens to become a tongue-in-cheek thematic inspiration when Trevor and Craig wonder whether their predicament meets the qualifications for abuse and trauma. The film’s New York-set, American Psycho-esque corporate saga is clearly filmed in Los Angeles, with the seams of several sets and stages showing in the margins, while the stock footage it uses of NYC is all distinctly anachronistic.
Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
Genre: Drama
Run time: 2h 15m
Directors: Adil El Arbi, Bilall Fallah
Cast: Aboubakr Bensaihi, Lubna Azabal, Tara Abboud
Rebel follows the story of Kamal (Aboubakr Bensaihi), a Moroccan-born Belgian rapper who chooses to travel to Syria to aid victims of a war. After being abducted by the Islamic State, Kamal is forced to work as a cameraman filming the group’s skirmishes against the military. While trying to find a way to escape, Kamal must find a way to save his impressionable younger brother, Nassim, who is being groomed as an Islamic State recruit.
Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
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Image: Amazon Studios
Genre: Sci-fi drama
Run time: 1h 50m
Director: Garth Davis
Cast: Saoirse Ronan, Paul Mescal, Aaron Pierre
Saoirse Ronan and Paul Mescal star in this sci-fi psychological thriller about Henrietta and Junior, a married couple whose love is put to the test when Junior is called to work on a large space station orbiting Earth. In his stead, Henrietta will be left in the company of a robotic replica of her husband. Remember that one episode from the sixth season of Black Mirror that starred Aaron Paul and Josh Hartnett? This sounds kind of like that.
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Toussaint Egan
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