The Friday High Five

Rogue One is the prettiest and also best-acted Star Wars movie

Walt Disney Studios

Every Friday I share 5 things I enjoyed this week. Also, high fives are inherently cool, and I think we can all agree Friday is the bestest day. Hence the Friday High Five. 🙏🏻

Spoilers for Rogue One. Which you really should’ve seen by now.

Rogue One (2016) was the first Star Wars anthology film, distinct from the Skywalker Saga by an “A Star Wars Story” suffix and an utter lack of Bantha poodoo. The film seemed to be the vanguard of a bright future for the franchise. If we couldn’t escape the narrow confines of the same 40-year window, at least we could get stories about people we’ve never heard of.

Sadly, Solo (2018) put the new anthology series in carbonite. It made just under $400 million against a budget of $275 mill, which frankly sounds like a nice profit to me. Disney was not impressed.

To be honest, I was sorta relieved.¹ Had Solo been a rousing success, Lucasfilm would’ve buried us in origin stories for other characters who needed no introduction. Disney’s contract to buy Star Wars had barely dried before there was talk of Yoda and Boba Fett spin-offs. Lucasfilm openly had dreams of an MCU type of universe, with the accompanying proliferation of films and also profits.

It just boggles my mind that of all the things you could do with Star Wars, the best idea Disney had was to repackage older material in new configurations. Studio executives have all the creativity of a square trying to navigate a round hole.

Which is why Rogue One feels like such an anomaly. It follows a bunch of new characters who by sheer grit and moxie manage to steal the plans for the Death Star. And then they all die! That takes some serious guts. It’s something not even George Lucas could bring himself to do; Return of the Jedi was originally going to have a bittersweet ending, but he feared the impact on toy sales.

Starting your anthology series with such a bold choice signaled there was a new sheriff in town. Even if that sheriff had a boner for characters we’d known for 30 years, the willingness to put story first was remarkable.

Rogue One is tragic only because we care about the characters. The movie is built around an ensemble that’s the very definition of rag-tag: wary scoundrel, uncompromising spy, sarcastic droid, defected pilot, blind monk, stoic fighter. No character has a ton of screen time. But the script gives everyone their moments, and the performances seal the deal. It’s a far cry from the Prequels, which in 3 movies failed to make me feel anything for Anakin other than irritation.

Rogue One is also just a gorgeous movie. I could explain why but this is one of those instances where pictures do a much better job.

Walt Disney Studios

Every time I watch Rogue One, I like it more. It’s the rare movie that gets better over time. Like a fine wine. Or that feeling when you have the house all to yourself.

I have a lot of thoughts about this movie. Fortunately—or not, depending on how you view such things—I’ll be sending them soon to a mailbox near you!

This week I had an amazing conversation with Justin Cox about Rogue One. We went over an hour and probably could’ve gone even longer. That podcast episode will be coming soon, most likely on July 10th.

I’m also toying with some ideas for an article I’d drop the same week. You have been warned.

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The Bear

FX

Stress as entertainment. Who knew?

I am super late to The Bear bandwagon. I’ve been hearing for literal years that it’s an exceptional show, but you know how these things go. There’s just too much to see. I don’t know if this era is Peak TV so much as it’s Peak Content (which you probably won’t even watch on a TV). Even knowing the good eggs from the bad, it’s sometimes hard to get around to them.

This week we finally cracked the cellophane on The Bear and watched 3 episodes in the course of 7 days. Some shows beg you to binge. The Bear is not such a show. Or at least is not yet such a show. Like the characters at the end of the day, I need a breather afterwards. And the episodes are only 30 minutes long!

If, like me, you’ve been sleeping on this show (intentionally or not), here’s a brief synopsis: The Bear is about an uber-talented New York chef who returns to Chicago to run his dead brother’s Italian sandwich shop, which was only being kept aloft via some shady business dealings. The kitchen is a hot mess. The staff are somehow worse. But our hero is determined to make it work, either out of obligation to his dead brother or maybe just because he’s a masochist, it’s not exactly clear after 3 episodes. But it’s fun to watch!

The Bear feels like a slow-moving car accident where the driver is on the verge of a panic attack and the pedestrians are ignorant of the danger because they’re too busy cursing one another. At the last minute the driver pulls some Jason Bourne shit to avoid catastrophe but now they’ve veered into oncoming traffic. The stressful situations multiply like Gremlins.

You can get the sense that redemption is on the table, for both the restaurant and the motley crew of characters, but it’s gonna be hard-won and also real. The Bear feels less like a show and more like watching flawed people try to be less flawed.

I’m told the kitchen scenes are true to life. That it really is that stressful and chaotic. It’s frankly a modern miracle we have restaurants at all.

Streaming on Hulu.

The Big Sick

Amazon Studios

The Big Sick came out in 2017 and has been on my watchlist for nearly as long. I don’t quite know why it took so long to pull the trigger. Kumail Nanjiani is hilarious and a fun rom-com is great way to start the weekend.

I think part of the problem was the title. It doesn’t exactly suggest a good time.

The Big Sick is a heartwarming, reaffirming movie that will make you laugh. (There’s a 9/11 joke that totally slayed me.) It’s also closely based on the real story of Nanjiani’s relationship with a woman he met while doing stand-up, a relationship his traditional Pakistani parents did not approve of. I don’t want to say much else at the risk of ruining anything. But much like Long Shot, this was a rom-com that delighted me, and I think you’d like it too.

Streaming on Prime Video.

Grape Mike and Ike

On the candy / chocolate divide, I come down firmly on the side of sweet and colorful. I tend to always have a box of something in the house. Dots, Skittles, Sour Patch Kids. It’s like buying candy to sneak into the movies and never actually going to the movies.

Mike and Ike is OG candy, always part of the rotation. Last week, my wife brought home this delightful zig on the formula, which she came across at the dollar store.

Wow. Total game changer. It’s like the first couple of chews of Grape Bubblicious, but without any of the stale gum hangover. The funny thing is I’m content just eating a couple of pieces, which is not at all how I typically eat candy.

Apparently these are going for $10 for 2 boxes on Amazon. And people are paying for them! I’m half tempted to give up this writing thing and just mark-up dollar store candy.

Beverly Hills Cop

Paramount Pictures

Beverly Hills Cop is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, an occasion that will be marked by the release of the 4th film in the franchise, Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F.

More on that in a minute.

In case you haven’t seen the original in about 40 years, here’s the best parts:

1. Eddie Murphy. Eddie is the GOAT of comedians, and this movie came at the apex of his stardom, when everything was still on the table. He ended up detouring into movies like Harlem Nights, Boomerang, and a prolonged run of kid’s movies that has never really stopped. Watching a 23-year-old Murphy effortlessly carry Beverly Hills Cop is a glimpse into a future that never quite arrived.

2. The soundtrack. The peak of 80s synth somehow produced an all-time classic. The theme song, also titled “Axel F,” climbed as high as #3 on the Billboard 100. Can you imagine people cruising around in 84-85, jamming an instrumental track in which a synthesizer does all the heavy lifting? Because I cannot.

3. Serge (Bronson Pinchot). It’s basically a glorified cameo but Pinchot steals every scene he’s in, and all those scenes include Eddie Murphy.

I originally watched this thinking I might write about it, given its 40th and the new film on the horizon. But nothing in this movie stirred my pot. I really enjoyed it—it’s one of the classic buddy-cop movies for a reason. But sometimes I watch something and don’t feel compelled to write about it. Which is honestly a weird feeling.

As for Axel F, the new film… it’s dripping with nostalgia bait, against which I have no natural antibodies. It’s also a Netflix film with Michael Bay sensibilities. This movie has been bouncing around since the 90s, which also doesn’t exactly inspire confidence.

I’ll obviously be watching it.

1. I actually really like Solo, even though I question its existence. It’s a fun heist flick with scoundrels and not a Jedi in sight. Which is progress where I’m from.