That’s it, stick a fork in June, it’s done. And while Paramount+ knocked out some solid hits, from Scream 7 and a new season of The Agency to Beavis and Butt-Head to, oh yeah, the UFC at the White House, there are still some solid movies in its formidable library to get you through the month’s final week.
For the week of June 29, I’ve lined up three films worth your time on the couch: a deep and cerebral sci-fi that asks some questions about how well we’d fare if visitors from beyond were to try to talk to us, gloriously goofy underdog story full of spandex and cool masks, and a classic ’80s war comedy with a late-great legend.
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Arrival
Amy Adams navigates first contact with an alien species
One of the most haunting alien films to come out of the 2010s, Arrival does it all without the need for face-suckers or exploding chests, and instead teeters on more dramatic and existential lines. In the film, Dr. Louise Banks (Amy Adams) is going about her life as a linguistics professor when the Earth is visited by several large, menacing floating alien spacecraft that have set up shop in regions around the world. Banks is called upon by the U.S. government to try to decipher the alien’s language in hopes of learning why they’re here.
As panic sets in around the globe and world leaders begin to splinter from their united effort to understand if the visitors are friendly or hostile, Banks develops a deep connection with the extraterrestrials, and with the help of physicist Ian Donnelly (Jeremy Renner), she must make the world understand, too, before the hot-heads in the room decide to open fire.
A stunning visual masterpiece, the Deni Villeneuve-directed (Dune, Dune: Part Two) film delivers nail-biting drama with terrific performances by Renner and Adams, who earned a Screen Actors Guild nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role. Arrival has a powerful 94% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Arrival
Release Date
November 11, 2016
Runtime
116 minutes
Director
Denis Villeneuve
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Nacho Libre
Jack Black’s sweet Mexican friar has a masked secret
After watching Jack Black in High Fidelity recently, I suddenly had a craving to go back and watch him in this underrated (and critically-lambasted) goofy comedy while it’s still on Paramount+. Directed by Jared Hess (Napoleon Dynamite) and co-written by future White Lotus creator Mike White (who was no stranger to working with Black from School of Rock and Orange County), Nacho Libre stars Black in all his glory as Ignacio, a gentle, modest friar and cook at the Mexican monastery orphanage where he was raised.
Desperate to feed the kids something better than slop, he secretly moonlights as a masked luchador called “Nacho,” recruiting a scrawny street thief, Esqueleto (Héctor Jiménez), as his tag-team partner—all while pining for the lovely Sister Encarnación (Ana de la Reguera). The story is loosely inspired by Fray Tormenta (Friar Storm), a real-life Mexican priest who wrestled for decades to fund his orphanage.
A box-office hit greeted by mixed reviews, Nacho Libre has since become an endlessly quotable (“These are my recreation clothes”), and memeable cult favorite. Arriving on the heels of School of Rock and King Kong, it remains one of Black’s most beloved comic showcases, but pay no attention to its 39% RT score—pfft, what do they know?
Nacho Libre
Release Date
June 16, 2006
Runtime
92 Minutes
Director
Jared Hess
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Good Morning, Vietnam
Robin Williams turns wartime radio into comedy gold
In a role he was born to play (it scored him a Best Actor nod at the 1988 Oscars), in Good Morning, Vietnam, the late-great Robin Williams stars as Armed Forces Radio Service DJ Adrian Cronauer, an airman stationed in Saigon in 1965 during the Vietnam War. Cronauer’s loose and comedic broadcasts and rock music are a hit, and he quickly makes a name for himself with his colleague Edward Garlick (Forest Whitaker) and among the uplifted troops who tune in to his show, religiously.
But his controversial commentary on the war and sarcastic musings start to become a thorn in the side of his superiors, especially the buttoned-up and politically-charged Lieutenant Steven Hauk (Bruno Kirby) and Sergeant Major Phillip Dickerson (J.T. Walsh), who threaten to take him off the air, or worse.
When Cronauer falls for a local Vietnamese woman and befriends her brother, he begins looking at the war from different points of view, which he starts bringing to his broadcasts, threatening his job as well as his life. Still one of Williams’ most memorable performances, Good Morning, Vietnam arrives on Paramount+ on July 1st, and still has an incredible 90% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Summer sizzle continues
Stuck on what to stream this week? These Paramount+ movies deliver brainy sci-fi, big laughs, and an underdog worth rooting for. But if that’s not what you’re after, head to How-To Geek’s streaming section for more guides.
Subscription with ads
Yes, $8/month
Simultaneous streams
3
Live TV
Select live sports (NFL on CBS & UEFA Champions League)
Price
Starting at $8/month or $60/year
