Weekly Movie Recommendations

This week on The Movie Gourmet – new reviews of the engrossing study of high-stakes decision-making Pressure and the delightful dramedy Power Ballad. I also previewed the 50th Frameline film festival, which open in a week or so.

This week I watched Marty, Life Is Short on Netflix and found it engaging. Although it’s feature length and directed by noted documentarian Morgan Neville, I’m not publishing a separate review because it’s more of a celebrity profile than a biodoc. Martin Short is a genius of sketch comedy, and his upbringing, personal attitude and career path are interesting, with the strongest element being his longtime marriage. We get to see his iconic Jiminy Glick and Ed Grimley characters and Short hosting family get-togethers with his best friends Eugene Levy and Steve Martin. Again, it’s a good watch.

CURRENT MOVIES

• Pressure: engrossing study of high-stakes decision-making
• Power Ballad: what (and who) makes a ht song? In theaters.
• Marty, Life Is Short: an engaging profile. Netflix.
• Sirat: gripping, hypnotic and devastating. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango and included with Hulu.
• The Christophers: twisty, watchable and disposable. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
• Omaha: in the best interest of the children. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
• The Drama: the darkest romantic comedy that I’ve ever seen. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
• Heads or Tails?: a spaghetti western goes off the rails. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
• A Great Awakening: good religion and bad history. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.

This week on The Movie Gourmet – the first MUST SEE of 2026 is the extraordinarily well-written revenge thriller Is God Is. I also posted about the unusually impressive slate of recent movies now on Hulu and a new review of the Steven Soderbergh dramedy The Christophers.

I’m looking forward to catching the WW II epic Pressure and the heist film Tuner in theaters this weekend.

CURRENT MOVIES

• Is God Is: an extraordinary new story-teller. In theaters.
• Sirat: gripping, hypnotic and devastating. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango and included with Hulu.
• The Christophers: twisty, watchable and disposable. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
• The Last One for the Road: the party never ends. In art-house theaters.
• Omaha: in the best interest of the children. In theaters.
• Two Pianos: he doesn’t know what he should want, but the women do. In theaters.
• The Drama: the darkest romantic comedy that I’ve ever seen. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
• Is This Thing On? uncoiling the bewilderment of a break-up. Hulu (included,) Amazon, AppleTV.
• Heads or Tails?: a spaghetti western goes off the rails. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
• A Private Life: a shrink and her own issues. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube.
• A Great Awakening: good religion and bad history. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
• Magellan: slower than the slowest slow boat. Criterion.

ON TV

On June 4, TCM brings us something COMPLETELY different, the 1955 Pete Kelly’s Blues, directed by and starring Jack Webb, who we all know from TV’s Dragnet.   Made at the downturn of the Big Band Era, Pete Kelly’s Blues is set at during Prohibition in the infancy of Big Bands.

It’s a fairly routine drama about a small time bandleader on the outs with a dangerous crime boss, but Jack Webb loved jazz and worked hard to get the music in the movie right, resulting in quite the period document.  Peggy Lee received a Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for portraying an alcoholic vocalist.  There’s an unforgettable cameo performance by Ella Fitzgerald at the top of her game.  The house band includes many real-life musicians who played with Benny Goodman, Bing Crosby and the like, including  Matty Matlock, Eddie Miller and Jud De Naut.

Webb, who played characters with some goofiness in Sunset Boulevard and He Walked By Night is only okay here, but the rest of the cast is excellent: Janet Leigh, Edmond O’Brien,  Lee Marvin, Andy Devine, Jayne Mansfield and Harry Morgan.  Not a great flick, but worth a look for the music.

This week on The Movie Gourmet – a new review of the harrowing and bleak psychological thriller Sirat, now on VOD. I’ll be writing this weekend about the revenge thriller Is God Is; don’t wait for my review – it’s the best movie that I’ve seen in 2026 so far,

Note: Last year’s wonderful Train Dreams is currently included on Netflix.

CURRENT MOVIES

• Sirat: gripping, hypnotic and devastating. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango and included with Hulu.
• The Last One for the Road: the party never ends. In art-house theaters.
• Omaha: in the best interest of the children. In theaters.
• Two Pianos: he doesn’t know what he should want, but the women do. In theaters.
• The Drama: the darkest romantic comedy that I’ve ever seen. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
• Is This Thing On? uncoiling the bewilderment of a break-up. Hulu (included,) Amazon, AppleTV.
• Heads or Tails?: a spaghetti western goes off the rails. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
• Heel: don’t try this at home. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
• La Grazia: it’s time to get past his malaise. Amazon, AppleTV.
• The Bride!: a funnier Bonnie and Clyde, with monsters. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
• A Private Life: a shrink and her own issues. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube.
• A Great Awakening: good religion and bad history. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
• Magellan: slower than the slowest slow boat. Criterion.

ON TV

Each year, I look forward to the Memorial Day Marathon on Turner Classic Movies – three straight days filled with war movies. This year, however, I couldn’t find any overlooked war movies to shine a light upon. Of course, there are plenty of well-known films like The Best Years of Our Lives that don’t need a recommendation from the likes of me.

So, yesterday, I posted about Time Limit, an underseen Korean War gem. I originally watched it on TCM, but it’s not on this weekend. Stream it anyway from Amazon or Apple.

This week on The Movie Gourmet – after a very rewarding movie-going April, especially with the SLO and SFFILM film festivals, May has been disappointing, with the likes of Heads or Tails? and A Great Awakening.

REMEMBRANCE

Ted Turner was only minimally a filmmaker, but he was a giant in making films available to all of us. He pioneered in a cable television movement that resulted all of those channels that cablecast movies, as well as the premium channels that made original films and episodics. Most essentially, he created Turner Classic Movies, which, with its core from the Warner Bros, MGM and RKO libraries, presents classic American movies, along with international and silent films to the broad North American audience. If you like watching movies at home without commercial interruption, thank Ted Turner.

As to filmmaking, Ted Turner did act as a Confederate colonel dying in Pickett’s Charge in the very best Civil War movie, Gettysburg, and then produced and cameoed in its prequel Gods and Generals (one of the worst Civil War movies).

CURRENT MOVIES

• The Last One for the Road: the party never ends. In art-house theaters.
• Omaha: in the best interest of the children. In theaters.
• Two Pianos: he doesn’t know what he should want, but the women do. In theaters.
• The Drama: the darkest romantic comedy that I’ve ever seen. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
• Is This Thing On? uncoiling the bewilderment of a break-up. Hulu (included,) Amazon, AppleTV.
• Heads or Tails?: a spaghetti western goes off the rails. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
• Heel: don’t try this at home. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
• La Grazia: it’s time to get past his malaise. Amazon, AppleTV.
• The Bride!: a funnier Bonnie and Clyde, with monsters. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
• A Private Life: a shrink and her own issues. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube.
• A Great Awakening: good religion and bad history. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
• Magellan: slower than the slowest slow boat. Criterion.

This week on The Movie Gourmet – new reviews of the genial Italian comedy The Last One for the Road and the French melodrama Two Pianos.

CURRENT MOVIES

• The Last One for the Road: the party never ends. In art-house theaters.
• Two Pianos: he doesn’t know what he should want, but the women do. In theaters.
• The Drama: the darkest romantic comedy that I’ve ever seen. In theaters.
• Is This Thing On? uncoiling the bewilderment of a break-up. Hulu (included,) Amazon, AppleTV.
• Heel: don’t try this at home. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
• La Grazia: it’s time to get past his malaise. Amazon, AppleTV.
• The Bride!: a funnier Bonnie and Clyde, with monsters.In theaters and VOD.
• A Private Life: a shrink and her own issues. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube.
• Mercy: not as good as the premise. Amazon (included with Prime), AppleTV.
• Magellan: slower than the slowest slow boat. Criterion.

ON TV

On May 10, Turner Classic Movies offers Born to Kill (1947). Lawrence Tierney (no cupcake in real life, either), plays the nastiest, most predatory and savage male character in film noir history. Set in the world of Reno quickie divorces, the characters seem to compete in demonstrating the most venal behavior; (spoiler: the psychopath played by Tierney wins.) Claire Trevor, the Queen of Noir, often wore flamboyant hats, but she just keeps topping herself in this film. Walter Slezak and Elisha Cook, Jr., play dregs of the underworld.

This busy week on The Movie Gourmet – new reviews of the emotionally gutting indie Omaha and the playful, dialogue-free Gondola, plus a remembrance of the great French actress Nathalie Baye.

And my coverage of both the SLO and SFFILM film festivals:

• Best of the 2026 SLO Film Fest
• Discoveries at the 2026 SFFILM Festival
• Surf and Skate at the SLO Film Fest
• Getting Ready for the 2026 SFFILM Festival
• First Look at the SLO Film Fest

CURRENT MOVIES

• The Drama: the darkest romantic comedy that I’ve ever seen. In theaters.
• Is This Thing On? uncoiling the bewilderment of a break-up. Hulu (included,) Amazon, AppleTV.
• Heel: don’t try this at home. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
• La Grazia: it’s time to get past his malaise. Amazon, AppleTV.
• Omaha: in the best interest of the children. In theaters.
• The Bride!: a funnier Bonnie and Clyde, with monsters. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
• Fackham Hall: silly, low-brow, and that’s okay. HBO Max (free), Amazon, AppleTV.
• A Private Life: a shrink and her own issues. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube.
• Mercy: not as good as the premise. Amazon (included with Prime), AppleTV.
• Magellan: slower than the slowest slow boat. Criterion.

ON TV

On May 2, Turner Classic Movies presents John Huston’s under-appreciated Fat City (1972). Stacy Keach plays a boxer on the slide, his skills unraveled by his alcoholism. He inspires a kid (a very young Jeff Bridges), who becomes a boxer on the rise. Keach and Susan Tyrrell give dead-on performances as pathetic, sad sack barflies. Tyrrell was nominated for the Best Supporting Actress Oscar. Filmed in Stockton.

This week on The Movie Gourmet – a new review of the historical epic Magellan and my continued coverage of the film festivals in San Francisco and San Luis Obispo – both under way now:

• Best of the 2026 SLO Film Fest
• Discoveries at the 2026 SFFILM Festival
• Surf and Skate at the SLO Film Fest
• Getting Ready for the 2026 SFFILM Festival
• First Look at the SLO Film Fest

CURRENT MOVIES

• The Drama: the darkest romantic comedy that I’ve ever seen. In theaters.
• Is This Thing On? uncoiling the bewilderment of a break-up. Hulu (included,) Amazon, AppleTV.
• Heel: don’t try this at home. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
• La Grazia: it’s time to get past his malaise. Amazon, AppleTV.
• The Bride!: a funnier Bonnie and Clyde, with monsters.In theaters and VOD.
• Fackham Hall: silly, low-brow, and that’s okay. HBO Max (free), Amazon, AppleTV.
• A Private Life: a shrink and her own issues. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube.
• Mercy: not as good as the premise. Amazon (included with Prime), AppleTV.
• Magellan: slower than the slowest slow boat. Criterion.

ON TV

On April 27, Turner Classic Movies presents a sadly forgotten 1965 neo-noir, Once a Thief. In his first American movie, French leading man Alain Delon plays Eddie, an ex-con trying to go straight. He’s a got a wife (Ann-Margret), a daughter and an apartment in a downscale San Francisco neighborhood. Supporting his family is hard because an obsessively vindictive cop (Van Heflin) is harassing him and causing him to lose job after job. As Eddie becomes more and more desperate, his estranged brother Walter (Jack Palance) shows up with two equally scary confederates, trying to enlist Eddie in a heist.

You might reasonably think that Once a Thief is all about the dream pairing of Delon and Ann-Marget, then the two most gorgeous human on planet earth. Indeed, we see the two adoring each other in various states of undress, but their love is very innocent. It’s the supporting performances that elevate Once a Thief:

• As his cop persecutes Eddie, the usually relatable Heflin makes Inspector Javert look kind.
• Character actor John Davis Chandler, unsurpassed at playing weaselly psychos, plays the most unhinged fiend since Richard Widmark’s Tommy Udo in Kiss of Death.
• Screenwriter Zekial Marko plays a dodgy beatnik who casts off lines like, “Lickity split talk talk jazz“. and, grilled about heroin use at his apartment, says “If they want a shoot a bit, that’s their bag, not mine. I’m clean. Check my lines. Just boo, grass, juice, straight, you know.”

The ending is suitably noirish. Along with the Anthony Quinn/Jackie Gleason/Mickey Rooney version of Requiem for a Heavyweight, Once a Thief is probably the darkest film directed by Ralph Nelson (Lillies of the Field, Father Goose, Charly). The French movie title translates as Killers of San Francisco.

This week on The Movie Gourmet – I’ve been previewing both of next week’s film fests – San Francisco International Film Festival (SFFILM), the longest-running film festival in the Americas, and the San Luis Obispo International Film Festival (SLO Film Fest), a brilliantly curated regional film fest, with what may be unique surf and skate film elements. Both SFFILM and SLO Film Fest are screening Power Ballad, the latest from John Carney, writer-director of Once, Sing Street and Flora and Son, and Sender, .an absurdist psychological thriller fresh from SXSW, starring Britt Lower (Severance), Rhea Seehorn and Jamie Lee Curtis. Here’s my pre-fest coverage:

• Getting Ready for the 2026 SFFILM Festival
• First Look at the SLO Film Fest

CURRENT MOVIES

• The Drama: the darkest romantic comedy that I’ve ever seen.In theaters.
• Is This Thing On? uncoiling the bewilderment of a break-up. Hulu (included,) Amazon, AppleTV.
• Heel: don’t try this at home. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
• La Grazia: it’s time to get past his malaise. Amazon, AppleTV.
• The Bride!: a funnier Bonnie and Clyde, with monsters.In theaters and VOD.
• Fackham Hall: silly, low-brow, and that’s okay. HBO Max (free), Amazon, AppleTV.
• A Private Life: a shrink and her own issues. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube.
• Mercy: not as good as the premise. Amazon (included with Prime), AppleTV.

ON TV

Robert Mitchum and Jane Russell in HIS KIND OF WOMAN

On April 18 and 19, Turner Classic Movies presents another of my Overlooked Noir and one of the most fun to watch: His Kind of Woman. A down-and-out gambler (Robert Mitchum) is offered a deal that MUST be too good to be true; he’s smart enough to be suspicious and knows that he must discover the real deal before it’s too late. He meets a on-the-top-of-the-world hottie (Jane Russell), who is about to become down on her luck, too. Witty entertainment ensues. Bonus: this will be on TCM’s Noir Alley, with intro and outro by Eddie Muller, the Czar of Noir.

This week on The Movie Gourmet – new reviews of the darkest rom com I’ve ever seen, The Drama, and the 1996 John Sayles masterpiece Lone Star. If you missed Lone Star on TCM, you can stream it from Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube and Fandango.

And I’ve also posted my First Look at the SLO Film Fest, with its very promising program.

CURRENT MOVIES

• The Drama: the darkest romantic comedy that I’ve ever seen. In theaters.
• Is This Thing On? uncoiling the bewilderment of a break-up. Hulu (included,) Amazon, AppleTV.
• Heel: don’t try this at home. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
• La Grazia: it’s time to get past his malaise. Amazon, AppleTV.
• The Bride!: a funnier Bonnie and Clyde, with monsters.In theaters.
• Fackham Hall: silly, low-brow, and that’s okay. HBO Max (free), Amazon, AppleTV.
• A Private Life: a shrink and her own issues. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube.
• Mercy: not as good as the premise. Amazon (included with Prime), AppleTV.

This week on The Movie Gourmet – new reviews of the distopian AI thriller Mercy and the unusually thoughtful romantic dramedy Is This Thing On?

Note: The engrossing indie family drama East of Wall and the historical psychodrama Nuremberg are now both on Netflix.

CURRENT MOVIES

• Is This Thing On? uncoiling the bewilderment of a break-up. Hulu (included,) Amazon, AppleTV.
• Heel: don’t try this at home. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
• La Grazia: it’s time to get past his malaise. Amazon, AppleTV.
• The Bride!: a funnier Bonnie and Clyde, with monsters.In theaters.
• Fackham Hall: silly, low-brow, and that’s okay. HBO Max (free), Amazon, AppleTV.
• A Private Life: a shrink and her own issues. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube.
• Mercy: not as good as the premise. Amazon (included with Prime), AppleTV.

ON TV

Set your DVRs to record the 1996 John Sayles masterpiece Lone Star on April 9 on Turner Classic Movies. It’s a great multi-generational story of mystery, corruption, racism, forbidden love and redemption, and the screenplay was nominated for an Academy Award. The cast is also phenomenal: Chris Cooper, Matthew McConaughey, Kris Kristofferson, Elizabeth Pena, Francis McDormand, Miriam Colon, Joe Morton and Ron Canada.

I love and admire this film so much, and I was amazed to see that I hadn’t written about it in the 15-year history of this blog. So, on Monday, I’ll be publishing a full review.