It’s already the end of June, and that usually means one thing – planning your 4th of July vacation.
But before you hit the road or fire up the grill at home, Watch With Us recommends you access your Netflix subscription to watch some good movies this weekend.
The streamer just added several under-the-radar films, like the Depression-era boxing pic Cinderella Man, starring Russell Crowe and Renée Zellweger.
Netflix is also streaming another biopic, Piece by Piece, but this one is told primarily with Legos to chronicle the life of musician Pharrell Williams.
Last but not least, we suggest you check out the crime drama 5lbs of Pressure, which features Luke Evans and a Culkin brother not named Macaulay or Kieran.
‘Cinderella Man’ (2005)
James J. Braddock (Russell Crowe) is an Irish American boxer whose good with his fists and bad with his wallet. His wife, Mae (Renée Zellweger), wants him to quit, which he reluctantly does out of love for her – and the growing fear that he’ll die in the ring. But after the Great Depression causes him – and many others – to lose his job, BRaddock reluctantly accepts an offer from his longtime manager, Joe Gould (Paul Giamatti), to return to do what he does best: knock people out. But how long before Braddock pays the price of his profession with his life?
Cinderella Man is based on the real-life story of Braddock, but it’s told in an old-fashioned style that would’ve made Frank Capra proud. Directed by Ron Howard, the movie is unabashedly sentimental, with an underdog sports narrative so shameless, it’d make Rocky Balboa wince. But dammit, the film works, and that’s due in part to its stars. Crowe and Zellweger evoke Old Hollywood actors like James Cagney and Jean Arthur, while Giamatti steals every scene he’s in as someone who believes Braddock can beat anyone – even the heavyweight champion of the world. Cinderella Man lives up to its title – it’s a real-life fairy tale, and it’s so good, you’re sorry when it’s over.
Cinderella Man is streaming on Netflix.
‘Piece by Piece’ (2024)
Music biographies are typically pretty routine, rags-to-riches stories (ahem, Michael), but there’s nothing routine about Piece by Piece. The 2024 film documents the life story of musician and fashion icon Pharrell Williams, but instead of live-action, it uses animated Legos to portray Pharrell’s unique worldview.
Even from an early age, Williams knew he wanted to make music. Inspired by artists like Steve Wonder, the Virginia Beach native didn’t wait to realize his dreams, landing a record deal as a founding member of the rap/pop production duo The Neptunes before he graduated high school. The Neptunes are good enough to work with such major acts as Justin Timberlake, Gwen Stefani and Snoop Dogg, but Williams doesn’t want to spend the rest of his career in the studio working for others. He wants to create and sing his own music, but becoming a solo artist isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be.
Piece by Piece’s main flaw is that it isn’t dramatic enough. Pharrell doesn’t encounter any of the pitfalls that major music stars like him usually experience, so the dramatic stakes are a bit muted. But the film remains compulsively watchable because of its obvious visual flourishes. Seeing recreations of Pharrell’s interview with Oprah Winfrey and winning a Grammy with Daft Punk is a hoot and gives Piece by Piece a watchability factor it wouldn’t otherwise have if it were a run-of-the-mill biopic.
Piece by Piece is streaming on Netflix.
‘5lbs of Pressure’ (2024)
Adam (Luke Evans) is a murderer. When he was a teenager, he killed another man in a turf war, and he’s paid the price. Now, after serving 16 years in prison, he’s at the end of his probationary period, and he’s ready to start a new life. But he makes the mistake of going to his old Brooklyn stomping ground, where his family – and his enemies – still live. Adam is desperate to connect with the son he barely knows, but he has to first deal with Eli (Zack Adams), the brother of the kid Adam shot all those years ago. Eli still nurses a grudge, and he won’t be satisfied until Adam is six feet under.
5lbs of Pressure (the title refers to the force of a handgun’s trigger) is a crime film that runs on the fumes of other, better pictures like Martin Scorsese’s 1973 masterpiece Mean Streets or James Gray’s underrated 2000 film, The Yards. That doesn’t make it bad; I’d take a copycat of a great film over a mediocre original film any day of the week. The film paints an interesting portrait of desperate New Yorkers who turn to crime to improve their lives. Adam knows that’s a mistake, but he’s helpless to stop those around him from repeating the sins he committed – and atoned for – years ago.
5lbs of Pressure is streaming on Netflix.
