In theaters:
- The smart and hilarious The Trip to Italy showcases the improvisational wit of Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon, along with some serious tourism/foodie porn.
- Alive Inside: The profoundly moving documentary showing Alzheimer patients being pulled out of isolation by music.
- Feedback from my readers is almost unanimous – Richard Linklater’s family drama Boyhood is a special movie experience – and possibly the best film of the decade.
- The mesmerizing drama Calvary, starring Brendan Gleeson. Gleeson again teams with John Michael McDonagh, the writer-director of The Guard.
- I really liked The One I Love – a relationship romance, a dark comedy and a modern day episode of The Twilight Zone rolled into one successful movie. It’s also available streaming from Amazon Instant, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube, Google Play and Xbox Video.
- Don’t miss Philip Seymour Hoffman’s explosive final performance in the John le Carré espionage thriller A Most Wanted Man.
Boyhood tops my list of Best Movies of 2014 – So Far, and Alive Inside and Calvary also make the list.
Poor writing and directing sabotage the delightful performances of Alfred Molina and John Lithgow in the romantic drama Love Is Strange. I was also disappointed by the tiresome Frank Miller’s Sin City: A Dame to Kill For. I nodded off during Woody Allen’s disappointing romantic comedy of manners Magic in the Moonlight.
Here’s my preview of the upcoming Mill Valley Film Festival.
My DVD/Stream of the Week is the unusually thoughtful romantic comedy Words and Pictures.
On September 16, Turner Classic Movies plays the unforgettable Bogart and Bacall thriller Key Largo. And the next day, TCM will air the overlooked film noir masterpiece The Narrow Margin, a taut 71 minutes of tension. Growly cop Charles McGraw plays hide-and-seek with a team of hit men on a claustrophobic train. Marie Windsor is unforgettable as the assassins’ target.
