Two-time Academy Award nominee Scarlett Johansson stars opposite Channing Tatum in the romantic comedy Fly Me to the Moon. Set in the 1960s amid the space race, the film centers on the unexpected romance that blossoms between a marketing executive preparing a fake moon landing in case the real one fails and a NASA executive preparing for the Apollo 11 mission.
2024 has already produced several great movies, and while Fly Me to the Moon doesn’t break any ground, it remains a sweet and surprisingly clever period piece with a compelling story and a fantastic performance from Johansson. Those who love the film’s unique blend of satire, comedy, and romance will surely want to check out these other movies that share similar themes, comedic approaches, and even a fair share of romance.
Two-time Oscar winner Renée Zellweger stars opposite Ewan McGregor in Peyton Reed’s 2003 period rom-com Down with Love. It tells the story of Catcher Block (McGregor), an infamous womanizing writer, who seemingly meets his match in Barbara Novak (Zellweger), a staunch, no-nonsense feminist who threatens his approach to carefree, casual sex.
A campy pastiche that pays homage to Rock Hudson and Doris Day’s “no-sex comedies” of the 1960s like Pillow Talk and Lover Come Back, Down with Love wears its inspirations on its sleeve. It’s funny, silly, delightful, absurd, and sexy, benefitting from Zellweger and McGregor’s committed, exaggerated performances. Down with Love really has everything: stunning fashion, scene-stealing supporting performances from Sarah Paulson and David Hyde Pierce, campy humor, and even a closing credits musical number in service of a classic battle-of-the-sexes story that will leave audiences grinning from ear to ear.
Down with Love is available to rent or purchase on Amazon and other digital vendors.
Speaking of ’60s-set rom-coms, let’s talk about How to Steal a Million. Audrey Hepburn stars opposite Peter O’Toole in this crime comedy about the relationship between the daughter of an art forger and a cat burglar. When experts threaten to ruin the lavish lifestyle of art forger Charles Bonnet (Hugo Griffith), his daughter, Nicole (Hepburn), hires the services of renowned thief Simon Dermott (O’Toole) to steal the fake sculpture her father just sold.
Like Fly Me to the Moon, How to Steal a Million is 20 minutes too long. However, Hepburn’s irresistible charm is a perfect match for O’Toole’s devilish appeal, turning an otherwise straightforward comedy into a work of true comedic genius. This crime caper defies expectations and logic, but it excels as a showcase for its well-matched stars, acting as a time capsule that perfectly captures the swinging ’60s in all their zany, stylish glory.
How to Steal a Million is available to rent or purchase on Amazon and other digital vendors.
The biting satirical political comedy Wag the Dog is among Barry Levinson’s most underappreciated efforts. Two-time Oscar winner Robert De Niro plays Conrad Brean, a political spin doctor hired by presidential adviser Winifred Ames (Anne Heche) to do damage control after a sex scandal threatens the current president’s re-election campaign. Deciding the best way to change the narrative is to provide a distraction, Brean hires Hollywood producer Stanley Motss (Dustin Hoffman), who fabricates a fictional war in Albania to capture the media’s attention.
Wag the Dog is a pitch-black political satire that depicts the media’s ability to distract the masses and shape the narrative. It is absurdly funny yet uncomfortably accurate, especially in today’s political context. Witty, biting, and ruthless, Wag the Dog is a clever and wickedly humorous yet sobering film that reminds us just how easy it is to fabricate a piece of news — and how easy it is for a lie to become a reality.
Wag the Dog is available to rent or purchase on Amazon and other digital vendors.
China just gave Hollywood a cautionary tale about AI filmmaking. Sanxingdui: Future Past, billed as the country's first fully AI-generated movie, hit theaters on October 23 and bombed at the box office.
According to Futurism, the film's reported $1.5 million production budget landed on more than 10,000 screens. Yet it pulled in only about $181,000, averaging roughly $20 per screen, making the budget difficult to recover.
Some of the best shots in Grok Imagine’s AI-made Odyssey don’t contain actors. Ancient landscapes stretch into the distance. Close-ups of grimy hands suggest people who have touched something rougher than a keyboard. For a few seconds, the illusion holds.
https://twitter.com/imagine/status/2113712964419063911
YouTube videos could soon look better without eating quite so much data, right? Thankfully, the platform plans to introduce a new video format called AV2 on its web player in early 2027, promising more efficient streaming and potentially fewer playback hiccups on slower internet connections. The big headline is a roughly 30% improvement in compression efficiency over AV1, YouTube's existing video format. That doesn't guarantee every video will use 30% less data, but it could make streaming a little easier on both internet connections and data allowances.
What is AV2, and why should viewers care?