August just might be the hottest month on the calendar for HBO Max. House of the Dragon wraps one of its best seasons ever this coming weekend, Lanterns finally lights up mid-month with Kyle Chandler and Aaron Pierre, Anne Hathaway does something decidedly non-Devil Wears Prada-ish in Mother Mary, and Bob Odenkirk keeps his ass-kicking movie career going with Normal.
Meanwhile, though, HBO Max has also refreshed its movie catalog for the month, too, including the three below—a music doc that will wreck you, a drug cartel thriller with a stacked cast, and my top pick this week, a classic coming-of-age journey named after a famous song.
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Amy
The definitive, and intimate, portrait of Amy Winehouse
Fair warning: Amy is a tough watch. Not in the kind of shocking, turn-your-head kind of way that, for example, true-crime documentaries can be. But almost worse, because it has the impact of watching a gorgeous, colorful flower slowly wither and wilt under the weight of its environment. You wish you could do something about it, but it’s too late.
Quiz
8 Questions · Test Your Knowledge
The best music documentaries and biopics
Trivia challenge
From Woodstock to Walk the Line — how well do you know the films behind the
music legends?
BiopicsDocumentariesMusic IconsFilm FactsBehind the Scenes
Begin
The 2015 documentary Amy, about Amy Winehouse, was directed by which filmmaker?
AMorgan NevilleBAsif KapadiaCNick BroomfieldDAlex Gibney
Correct! Asif Kapadia directed Amy, crafting the film almost entirely
from archival footage and audio interviews. The documentary won the Academy Award for Best Documentary
Feature in 2016.
Not quite. Amy was directed by Asif Kapadia, who is also known for his
documentaries Senna and Diego Maradona. The film won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature in 2016.
Continue
In Walk the Line, which actor portrayed Johnny Cash and won a Golden Globe for the
role?
ARussell CroweBEd HarrisCJoaquin PhoenixDJosh Brolin
Correct! Joaquin Phoenix played Johnny Cash in the 2005 biopic and won
the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy. Notably, Phoenix and co-star Reese Witherspoon
performed all of their own vocals in the film.
Not quite. Joaquin Phoenix portrayed Johnny Cash in Walk the Line. He
even performed all his own singing, which impressed June Carter Cash’s real-life family enormously.
Continue
In the 2004 film Ray, Jamie Foxx portrayed Ray Charles. Which major award did Foxx
win for this performance?
ABAFTA Award for Best ActorBAcademy Award for Best ActorCScreen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding CastDGolden Globe for Best Actor in a Drama
Correct! Jamie Foxx won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his
portrayal of Ray Charles. Remarkably, Foxx was also nominated for Best Supporting Actor that same year
for Collateral, making him one of very few actors nominated twice in the same ceremony.
Not quite. Jamie Foxx took home the Academy Award for Best Actor for
Ray. His performance was widely praised for its physical and emotional depth, particularly his depiction
of Charles’s blindness and struggles with addiction.
Continue
Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck was released in 2015 and directed by Brett Morgen. What
made it particularly unique among Cobain documentaries?
AIt was the first documentary to feature interviews with surviving Nirvana membersBIt was the first documentary officially authorized by the Cobain estateCIt was shot entirely using Super 8 home footage from Cobain himselfDIt focused exclusively on Nirvana’s In Utero recording sessions
Correct! Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck was the first documentary to be
officially authorized by the Cobain estate, giving director Brett Morgen unprecedented access to
personal diaries, home recordings, and family footage. This made it a uniquely intimate portrait of
Cobain’s life.
Not quite. The defining feature of Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck was that
it was the first documentary officially authorized by the Cobain estate. This gave filmmaker Brett
Morgen extraordinary access to private materials, including journals, artwork, and home videos.
Continue
Taylor Swift’s documentary Miss Americana, released on Netflix in 2020, covers a
pivotal period in her life. Which major personal decision is a central theme of the film?
AHer move from country music to popBHer decision to speak out publicly on political issuesCHer choice to leave her longtime record labelDHer recovery from a serious vocal cord injury
Correct! Miss Americana documents Taylor Swift’s decision to break her
long public silence on politics, particularly her endorsement of Democratic candidates during the 2018
Tennessee midterm elections. The film explores the personal and professional risks she felt came with
that choice.
Not quite. A central theme of Miss Americana is Taylor Swift’s decision
to speak publicly about politics for the first time, including endorsing candidates in the 2018
midterms. The film reveals how she wrestled with breaking from her carefully maintained public
neutrality.
Continue
Summer of Soul (2021), directed by Questlove, focuses on a legendary 1969 music
festival. What is the festival’s official name?
AThe Newport Jazz FestivalBThe Harlem Cultural FestivalCThe Wattstax Music FestivalDThe Atlanta Pop Festival
Correct! Summer of Soul centers on the Harlem Cultural Festival of 1969,
a series of free concerts held in Marcus Garvey Park. The footage had been locked away in a vault for
over 50 years before Questlove brought it to the world, earning the film an Academy Award for Best
Documentary Feature.
Not quite. The festival featured in Summer of Soul is the Harlem
Cultural Festival, held in 1969. Remarkably, the footage sat unseen in a basement for more than five
decades before Questlove used it to create this celebrated documentary.
Continue
In the biopic Walk the Line, which legendary musician and close friend of Johnny
Cash is portrayed as a major influence on his early career?
AElvis PresleyBJerry Lee LewisCCarl PerkinsDHank Williams
Correct! Elvis Presley appears as a significant presence in Walk the
Line, depicted as a peer and inspiration to the young Johnny Cash during their shared time at Sun
Records. The film portrays Cash’s ambition as partly fueled by seeing Elvis’s explosive early success.
Not quite. Elvis Presley is portrayed as a major influence on Cash in
Walk the Line, with both artists having recorded at Sun Records in Memphis during the same era. The film
depicts their camaraderie as part of Cash’s formative years as a performer.
Continue
Which of these music documentaries won the Academy Award for Best Documentary
Feature?
AKurt Cobain: Montage of HeckBMiss AmericanaCSummer of SoulDBillie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry
Correct! Summer of Soul, directed by Questlove, won the Academy Award
for Best Documentary Feature at the 2022 ceremony. It also won the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award
at the Sundance Film Festival, making it one of the most acclaimed music documentaries in recent memory.
Not quite. Summer of Soul is the Oscar winner in this group, taking home
the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 2022. Directed by Questlove, the film also swept major
awards at Sundance, cementing its place as a landmark music documentary.
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Winner of the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature, Asif Kapadia’s masterpiece is the definitive account of singer Amy Winehouse’s meteoric rise from wickedly funny North London teenager with a once-in-a-generation jazz voice, through her mega-stardom that came too fast and too intensely, to her heartbreaking fall and death from alcohol poisoning in 2011 at the age of 27. Built from home videos, archival footage, and voice-only interviews with Winehouse herself, the doc is a ride through her turbulent life.
Amy delves into the making of her albums Frank and the Grammy-sweeping Back to Black, playing out alongside her struggles with bulimia and addiction, her turbulent marriage, and pressure from all sides, including father Mitch Winehouse. It’s a must-watch for Winehouse fans, and has a 96% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Amy
Release Date
July 2, 2015
Runtime
128 minutes
Director
Asif Kapadia
2
Sicario
Emily Blunt descends into the drug war’s moral fog
2015’s Sicario has the distinction of being helmed by two monsters of movies and TV, earlier in their careers. Before Denis Villeneuve was knee-deep in sandworms, he was building drug cartel dread in Sicario, from a script written by a pre-Yellowstone Taylor Sheridan (his first ever produced).
OK, so what’s it about? Idealistic FBI agent Kate Macer (Emily Blunt) gets recruited by mysterious government spook Matt Graver (Josh Brolin) for a secret task force into Juárez, Mexico, to capture and bring back a Mexican cartel lieutenant. The wild card is Alejandro (Benicio del Toro), a soft-spoken “consultant” whose real agenda comes into focus as the team crosses the border. The infamous Juárez convoy scene, with its racing lineup of black SUVs, showcases the gorgeous camera work of legendary cinematographer Roger Deakins’ (Blade Runner 2049, No Country for Old Men), and is worth the watch alone.
Sicario is an intense and action-filled film that scored three Oscar nominations and has a 91% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Sicario
Release Date
September 17, 2015
Runtime
122 minutes
Director
Denis Villeneuve
1
Stand by Me
Four friends, one long walk into growing up
My top pick this week is a classic that I’ve seen a half dozen times, but not in a while, so it was a nostalgic trip to revisit, and bittersweet since its director Rob Reiner’s tragic death late last year. Stand by Me is a master-class in how to make coming-of-age movies.
Adapted from Stephen King’s novella The Body, it adds the viewer as a fifth silent member of a group of best friends in 1959 Castle Rock, Oregon. The story centers around Gordie Lachance (Wil Wheaton), whose older self narrates (voiced by Richard Dreyfuss), as he tells a remarkable tale of the bittersweet summer that he and his pals Chris Chambers (River Phoenix), Teddy Duchamp (Corey Feldman), and Vern Tessio (Jerry O’Connell) set off along the railroad tracks and into the woods to find the body of a missing boy. The trek serves up so many classic moments burned into my brain, like the leech-filled swamp, Chopper the legendary junkyard dog, a near miss while crossing the train bridge, and a run-in with switchblade-flicking greaser Ace Merrill (Kiefer Sutherland) and his gang.
The ensemble cast is one of the most memorable in movie history, and the film was nominated for best adapted screenplay at the Oscars that year.
Stand by Me
Release Date
August 22, 1986
Runtime
89 minutes
Director
Rob Reiner
Hot August movie nights
Keep the tissues close—at least two of these movies will have you welling up. And when the credits roll, How-To Geek’s other streaming guides are full of picks worth lining up next.
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