Best! Summer! Blockbuster! Ever! (That Was Released This Week): ‘Moulin Rouge!’

Two Pixar classics, 2003’s Finding Nemo and 2009’s Up, were released during this timeframe in years past. Of the two, Finding Nemo just barely edges out Up, which opens with a sequence so remarkable — and heartbreaking — that the rest of the (very good) film can’t quite match it. Finding Nemo balances adventure with heartstring-tugging from start to finish and features memorable performances from Albert Brooks and Ellen Degeneres. Point: Nemo (but just by a fin).

Where to stream Finding Nemo

Brian De Palma’s filmography breaks down pretty evenly into films chock-full of his personal obsessions (voyeurism, violence, and the ways those two are wrapped up with moviegoing and moviemaking) and those that sublimate his obsessions into popular entertainment. The Untouchables, an adaptation of a TV series that pitted lawman Eliot Ness against Al Capone in Prohibition-era Chicago, falls squarely in the latter category. Scripted by David Mamet and featuring the perfectly cast Kevin Costner and Robert De Niro as, respectively, Ness and an especially sadistic Capone, it mixes memorable tough-guy dialogue with stunning set pieces, including a Union Station shootout designed to stop hearts. As a seen-it-all Irish cop who schools Ness in local customs, Sean Connery gives the film its heart (and walked away with a Best Supporting Actor trophy for his troubles).

Where to stream The Untouchables

Before comedies about late-to-mature men became a cliché they were refreshing, particularly this 2007 film about a professional layabout (Seth Rogen) forced to get his act together when he impregnates a woman (Katherine Heigl) with whom he has a one-night-stand. Writer/director Judd Apatow mixes broad jokes (it’s undoubtedly the funniest film featuring pinkeye ever made) with a serious consideration of what it means to grow up and take responsibility (or at least try). A game cast that includes Paul Rudd, Leslie Mann, Jonah Hill, Craig Robinson and others also helps a lot — Apatow’s ’00s comedy bench ran deep — even if at least one character doesn’t quite get her due.

Where to stream Knocked Up

Tweaking his image — at least for a while — Tom Cruise stars in this sci-fi thriller as a cowardly PR specialist forced to do battle with alien invaders. Then, thanks to a time loop, to do it again and again each time he’s killed. Adapted from a Japanese graphic novel and directed by Doug Liman, the film keeps tossing up clever variations on the central premise as Cruise’s character teams up with Emily Blunt’s tough sergeant, working with her to bring an end to the alien threat (even though he has to reintroduce himself with each new cycle). At once a satisfying action movie and a compelling exploration of the nature of war, memory, and the experience of playing video games, the film underperformed at the box office but has found a second wave of appreciation as viewers caught up with it at home.

Where to stream The Edge of Tomorrow

The film that transformed Tom Hanks from the amiable lead in goofy comedies into a full-fledged movie star, Big finds Hanks playing a little kid in a grown-up body. Working with director Penny Marshall, Hanks plays his character as alternately scared, thrilled, and ultimately saddened by the experience. There’s a reason it’s the only one of the (surprisingly numerous) late-‘80s kids-in-adult-bodies) movies that’s endured.

Where to stream Big

A good movie teaches you how to watch it, but some have to do more teaching than others. Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge! didn’t look or sound much like other summer blockbusters in 2001 (or, for that matter, since). Released at the start of the 21st century, it’s a gloriously excessive musical set largely in the final year of the 19th century and featuring characters who sing songs from the 20th. It’s boisterous, romantic, and intoxicatingly hallucinatory until it become unbearably tragic. It works in part because Luhrmann simply acts as if all movies did this sort of thing and expects audiences to catch up.

Or, maybe more accurately, he’s fine with them getting a little lost amidst all the sensation and not caring. After releasing a version of Romeo & Juliet (or, to use his version’s preferred conjunction, Romeo + Juliet) custom-made for a generation raised on MTV and movie violence, Luhrmann looked to Bollywood films and opera for inspiration. With those reference points, he needed a story with the biggest emotions imaginable. Hence this tale of doomed love played out between a writer (Ewan McGregor) hoping to find inspiration in Paris’ bohemian quarters and a courtesan (Nicole Kidman) who falls for him even though this endangers both of their livelihoods.

The film succeeds beautifully in part because it never stops. Luhrmann’s camera swooshes and swirls around elaborate sets, the songs pile on top one another, and, in the middle of it all, McGregor and Kidman convincingly create two characters who have no business falling in love with one another but can’t help themselves. Both are great, but the way Kidman channels a century’s worth of vamps and sex symbols — a touch of Marilyn Monroe here, a hint of Madonna there — is close to magic. It’s the movie Luhrmann was born to make, and one he’s had trouble topping ever since.

Where to stream Moulin Rouge!

Bafflingly ignored when it played theaters in 2016, Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping features the Lonely Island crew of Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer, and Jorma Taccone as The Style Boyz, a boy band going through some changes. The film parodies any number of recent music docs, but the team’s absurd humor, and ridiculously catch songs, makes Popstar work even if you’ve never seen any of them.

Where to stream Popstar

This Colin Trevorrow-directed reboot of the Jurassic Park series dumbs down everything that made the original films so compelling. It made a lot of money, but even Chris Pratt’s charm can’t make it work. (Weirdly, and unexpectedly, last year’s Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom improves on it just about every way.)

Keith Phipps writes about movies and other aspects of pop culture. You can find his work in such publications as The Ringer, Slate, Vulture, and Polygon. Keith also co-hosts the podcasts The Next Picture Show and Random Movie Night and lives in Chicago with his wife and child. Follow him on Twitter at @kphipps3000.

Where to stream Jurassic World