Prime Time: Drugstore June (2024)

Whenever movie fans look back over a year just gone by, it's a chance to catch up on all of the overlooked titles that seem to appear in the lists of recommendations from others. Most of those will be things that you were at least aware of - a blockbuster you missed at the cinema, a horror that wasn't showing anywhere near you, or a worthy drama that you just didn't have the energy for - but some fine films remain surprisingly overlooked. Drugstore June is one of those films. I am especially surprised, considering how I view this and Babes (which I have yet to review here) to be up there with some of the best comedy films in recent years.

Esther Povitsky is June, a young woman who ends up with a surprising sense of purpose when the pharmacy that she works in is robbed. June thinks that she has the skills to solve the crime, but she's barely got the skills to remain aware of how she affects other people around her. Or so it seems. The plot winds from one bizarre encounter to the next, including a running storyline about June refusing to let her ex, Davey (Haley Joel Osment), move on from their relationship, but there's always a focus on June trying to finally achieve something that isn't just tied to her usual interests.

I wanted to see Drugstore June since I first saw a trailer that made me consistently chuckle. If you check that out and enjoy it, rest assured that it almost perfectly represents the film that you're going to get. June is a comedic creation to rival the very best, and Povitsky is genuinely brilliant in the role. The fact that she can be so unrelentingly . . . June while somehow not making you want to always throw her into a very deep ocean (although you may well feel that way sometimes, especially in the first act) is a testament to the writing and performance.

Director Nicholaus Goossen helped to work on the screenplay with Povitsky, and it's clear that both of them have a solid grasp of the vibe and character. There are a few neo-noir tropes played with here, to great effect, but the personality of June overshadows everything else going on around her, whether she's trying to get a perfect pic for her Instagram or exaggerating her status as an online influencer to anyone who has a conversation with her. The film couldn't work if that was all she was though, and the satisfaction really comes from seeing just the tiniest amount of growth, in both her detective skills and her maturity.

Povitsky is a star. Although I've not taken note of her in anything else she's done before this, I'll now be keeping an eye on everything else that she's doing. Her turn here is pitched perfectly in between the monstrously narcissistic and the sweetly naive, and it's hard to imagine anyone else getting the balance so right. Bill Lee is amusing, playing June's boss, someone who seems to have a great deal of patience and optimism . . . or maybe just a complete inability to find anyone else to hire in her place, and both Beverly D'Angelo and James Remar are entertainingly exasperated parents. Brandon Wardell is an irritating brother, Al Madrigal and Jackie Sandler are the two detectives trying to do their job properly, despite encountering the whirlwind that is June, and there are fun cameos from Matt Walsh, Bill Burr, and Bhad Bhabie. Osment is also very good in his small role, and Miranda Cosgrove incurs the wrath of our lead by simply being Osment's new partner.

I admit that I might be heaping a bit too much praise on this, trying to do my bit to tip the scales in favour of something so sorely neglected when it came and went last year without anyone really taking note of it, but I also know that I could happily watch this on a loop for an entire day and keep finding different little moments and lines of dialogue to laugh at. It's brilliant, and, in my opinion, should have appeared on numerous lists mentioning the very best films of 2024.

9/10

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Blue Beetle (2023)

I'm not going to try to convince you all that you need to give Blue Beetle a watch because it's a different kind of superhero movie, and I'm not going to make ridiculous claims about it being a reinvention of the many other movies we've already had from Marvel and DC in recent years, but I am going to go to bat for it. It follows a standard formula, granted, but it actually feels like something fresh and energetic at a time when other films in the same wheelhouse all started to stagnate.

Xolo Maridueña is Jaime Reyes, a young man who ends up becoming inextricably entwined with an alien scarab entity/device that gives him superhuman powers. His family all try to help him get the hang of things, but that becomes a lot trickier when Jaime is hunted down by the powerful Victoria Kord (Susan Sarandon), and her main henchman, Carapax (Raoul Max Trujillo). There's also the presence of Jenny Kord (Bruna Marquezine), the woman who actually caused the scarab to end up on Jaime in the first place, which allows for a potential blossoming romance amidst the expected action beats.

Directed by Ángel Manuel Soto and written by Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer, this shows what can happen when you don't throw a team of people on to one project, having them all trying to put extra ideas in the mix and running the risk of too many cooks spoiling a recipe. Soto and Dunnet-Alcocer know what they need to do, and they also know how to make the most of their opportunity to depict some Latinx representation in blockbuster fare. The Reyes family (parents, uncle, sister, etc) bring their own unique perspective to the unfolding events, and the strength of their familial bonds becomes a major strength for our hero. The life lessons here are obvious, but they're no less enjoyable, and come as something of a relief after seeing so many features in which a hero has to sacrifice parts of his life in order to be a saviour of the people.

Maridueña is a really good lead, easy to like and easy to be amused by as he tries to get to grips with his new powers. I know he's been in other things before this, but this might be my first time seeing him onscreen. I'll happily look out for him in anything else. Marquezine is also very good, pairing up nicely with our lead, but the real delights come from those playing the rest of the Reyes family. George Lopez is as much fun as you'd expect, Belissa Escobedo is the typical fun/annoying sibling, and Damián Alcázar, Elpidia Carrillo, and Adriana Barraza are a perfect fit for their respective roles. Sarandon is a very entertaining villain, Trujillo delivers physical menace for almost every minute that he's onscreen, and there's also room for Harvey Guillén to show his face in an enjoyable cameo.

The special effects are consistently excellent, the score (by Bobby Krlic AKA The Haxan Cloak) is fantastic, and the soundtrack is full of great choices, not least of which is the use of a Cypress Hill hit accompanying a satisfying action sequence in the big finale. Pawel Pogorzelski delivers clear and beautiful cinematography that keeps the whole thing more colourful and visually appealing than the majority of the DC films that tried to stay more in line with the "Snyder-verse" portfolio, and there's something to be said about the joy of watching someone fighting against enemies who aren't threatening to destroy Earth. Blue Beetle has his own life threatened, as well as the lives of his loved ones. That's more than enough to motivate him to keep battling against overwhelming odds. Sometimes a whole world isn't the planet that we live on. Sometimes a whole world is made up of the friends and family around you.

This deserved much better than the fairly lukewarm reception it received, although I know the other factors that all contributed to the unfortunate situation. Do yourself a favour and check it out now. You don't need to have swallowed a whole encyclopedia of comic book characters, you don't need to worry about spotting connections to any other movies, and you can just enjoy an excellent standalone superhero story with characters who actually feel like real human beings, even when surrounded by all of the special effects and advanced tech on display.

8/10

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