Milk Money

Good morning Consumers. This is Please Consume, the newsletter that loves movies more than Nick Cage loves taking a paycheck.

This is what we got for today 👇️

• We kick off Coming of Age Week!

• We have a new #1 at the box office!

• All the latest news and notes from this weekend.

Let’s get rolling…

This past weekend's release of Blue Beetle, and the upcoming release of Bottoms and Gran Turismo, it made us think about how the coming-of-age film has never and will never go out of style. It’s a fundamental type of storytelling throughout history. So this week we’re focusing on the films that make us who we are and make us reflect on who we were.

Stand By Me (1986)

Written by Tom Fortner

This is going to seem like an obvious choice for Coming of Age Week because it is. In fact, it is the choice if you ask me.

The film is Stand By Me, and it’s obvious for good reason.

So, let’s get into it.

Daddy Issues

First conceived as a short story by Stephen King called The Body, the script for Stand By Me wound up in the hands of Rob Reiner, director of such classics as This Is Spinal Tap, The Princess Bride, When Harry Met Sally, and many others.

Reiner calls this the first film he was able to make that he felt connected to, that really reflected what he loved.

He was drawn to the main conflict in the film, which is between a young budding writer named Gordy (Wil Wheaton) and his father (Marshall Bell).

Gordy’s more talented, athletic older brother, Denny, was killed in a car accident and his parents have taken it hard. They had always been prouder of Denny and now it feels like they wouldn’t have minded if it had been Gordy in the car instead.

Some people might say the journey Gordy and his friends embark on, to see the dead body of a missing kid in the woods, or the chain-smoking, mailbox-demolishing bullies on their tail, is the main conflict. But these are simply obstacles along the path of the true heart of the film: a boy wrestling with the imperfect love of his father.

This is what Reiner was connected to. In many ways, including the conclusion that Gordy and his friend Chris (River Phoenix) come to, the relationship between Gordy and his father was the same as Reiner and his father’s.

The result is a film that not only feels more personal, but also realistic.

The Kids Are Alright

Stand By Me is a character driven film. For it to succeed, the performances of the central actors had to be strong and believable. And they are.

But what makes it so much more amazing is that they’re performances from kids, two of whom had never acted before (Gordy and Vern).

Reiner remembers how he set up what was basically acting class for all four main kids and had them go through lots of acting exercises together.

The result was their transformation into a tight knit group of actors who were comfortable with each other. Reiner called them a “machine”.

And let’s not forget Kiefer Sutherland’s chilling performance as Ace Merrill, the bully with no soul. Sutherland and Reiner agreed the character could have no sympathetic qualities if he was truly going to work as a hateful villain.

The real stand out performance, however, is River Phoenix. Here we get to see that his early death was a tragedy not just because he was young, but because he truly had talent. He nails every emotional beat as a boy who’s accepted his lot in life because of the hardships he faced, but also learned from them and has wisdom to share.

We miss you, River.

Today’s Scene

This Weekend’s Top 5

2023’s Top 5