Vintage Lust
An American icon is cast in a new light, and another round of Stream It or Skip It
Happy Sunday, Streamers.
This week, a rare combo: a passionate retrospective on the greatest American actor couple of all time, coupled with explicit descriptions of how said couple liked to screw (in their own words). Hubba hubba.
We also have the results from last week’s Stream It or Skip It, plus a fresh new round of trailers for you all to weigh in on.
Now let’s get to it.
This Week’s Rec: The Last Movie Stars
What It’s About: In this docuseries, Ethan Hawke uses transcriptions of unreleased audio tapes to map the journey of superstar couple Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward from struggling actors to movie stars.
Why You Should Watch: For nostalgia, eye candy, voyeurism, and actors speaking passionately about acting.
Don’t get me wrong - I have a healthy respect for the films of the 50s and 60s, but I’m not the guy spending his afternoon watching marathons on TCM. After watching The Last Movie Stars, I might become that dude. Ethan Hawke’s enthusiasm for this era of moviemaking generally (and for Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, specifically) is positively infectious. He masterfully weaves the story of how they first came to be a couple and later movie stars over a library of classic film clips, lost photos, and audio recordings as if he’s been producing documentaries for years (this is only his second). The story is further brought to life through the help of Hawke’s famous friends, who narrate the story using the actual words of Paul, Joanne, and dozens of their family and friends (all taken from transcriptions of tapes initially recorded for an unreleased Paul Newman memoir that were mysteriously destroyed). Adding to the fun is how absolutely stacked that cast of narrators is, some of whom you might be familiar with: there’s George Clooney, who plays Newman, Laura Linney as Woodward, as well as Sam Rockwell, Zoe Kazan, Vincent D’Onofrio, Martin Scorsese, and Billy Crudup (to name a few).
Hearing all these Hollywood luminaries wax poetic about acting might sound pretentious (and there is a theater kid moment with D’Onofrio that is both impressive and a little cringeworthy), but it’s brought down to earth as you learn about the human struggles Joanne and Paul endured as part of their life journey together. These include Woodward’s eventual concession of her career to be a mother, Newman’s divorce from his first wife (after a five-year affair with Joanne), and the lingering resentments among Newman’s “first” family who had to watch their father celebrated in pop culture as he built a glamorous new life without them.
That all being said, this doc makes it hilariously clear what a lot of that divorce was driven by: Joanne Woodward’s insatiable appetite for Paul. By all accounts (which, again, are first-hand), Paul and Joanne spent most of the ‘50s going to town on each other wherever and whenever they could: at home, in their trailers, on the beach, on a park bench, you name it. At one point, it’s even revealed Joanne had built a self-described “Fuck Hut” (!!!!!) in their backyard, which they would sneak off to multiple times during the day to fool around. So even if you’re not a boomer and may not have an appreciation of the acting arts, The Last Movie Stars is still a worthwhile watch for the second-hand rush of listening to beautiful famous people reading the words of other beautiful famous people describing exactly how, when, and where they shtupped.
Who’s In It, and Where You Probably Know Them From:
Ethan Hawke - Training Day, Gattaca, The Dead Poets Society, Reality Bites, the Before series (Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, and Before Midnight), and most recently, being the father of Maya Hawke from Stranger Things.
George Clooney - E.R., The Ocean’s Franchise, Michael Clayton, Up In The Air, O Brother Where Art Thou, and those Nespresso commercials.
Laura Linney - The Truman Show, Ozark, and breaking your heart in Love Actually.
Vincent D’Onofrio - Men In Black (he’s the bug!), Law and Order: Criminal Intent, and Full Metal Jacket.
Sam Rockwell - Charlie’s Angels, Napolean Dynamite, Galaxy Quest, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Iron Man 2, or his dancing in general.
Zoe Kazan - The Big Sick, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, The Deuce, It’s Complicated
Maya Hawke - Stranger Things
Billy Crudup - Almost Famous, Big Fish, The Morning Show, Watchmen, Spotlight, Eat Pray Love
Who Made It, and What Else Have They Done: The series was created and directed by Ethan Hawke.
Where You Can Watch: HBO Max
Stream It or Skip It?
First, the results from last week: The Idol took the top spot, with 83% of you voting to Stream It, followed by Welcome to Wrexham in a surprising second with 71% of votes, and The House of the Dragon with 67%. 60% of you voted to skip The Rings of Power, results that don’t bode well for Bezos’ multi-billion dollar investment into the series.
This week we’ve got three pieces of content below we want to get your thoughts on. Use the polls to tell us - are you going to Stream It? Or Skip It?
A League of their Own
The TV reboot of the early ‘90s classic will be coming to Amazon Prime Video on August 12th.
Blonde
The upcoming NC-17 (!!) Marilyn Monroe biopic starring Ana De Armas has the attention of full-blooded straight men everywhere, and comes to Netflix September 28th.
Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio
Guillermo Del Toro’s sure-to-be-weird animated Pinocchio film comes to Netflix this December.