Casting By

Movies to See Right Now

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THE SPECTACULAR NOW

This week’s MUST SEE is still the powerfully authentic coming of age film The Spectacular Now – don’t miss it. Better yet, take your teens!

Along with The Spectacular Now, the emotionally powerful Fruitvale Station is also on my list of Best Movies of 2013 – So Far.

I haven’t yet seen the British farce The World’s End or the indie criminal-on-the-run story Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, which open today. You can read descriptions and view trailers of upcoming films at Movies I’m Looking Forward To.

My other top recommendations:

  • The jaw-dropping documentary The Act of Killing, an exploration of Indonesian genocide from the perpetrators’ point of view, is the most uniquely original film of the year.
  • Woody Allen’s very funny Blue Jasmine centers on an Oscar-worthy performance by Cate Blanchett.
  • The very well-acted civil rights epic Lee Daniels’ The Butler.

My other recommendations:

  • The droll indie comedy Prince Avalanche.
  • The rock documentary 20 Feet from Stardom, essential for music fans.
  • Another rock doc, A Band Called Death with the story of three African-American brothers in Detroit inventing punk rock before The Ramones and The Sex Pistols – and then dropping out of sight for decades.
  • the satisfying shocker The Conjuring.
  • The HBO documentary Casting By, which reveals an essential ingredient in filmmaking.

Also out right now:

  • I Give It a Year – a British rom com with a twist.
  • The American porn star biopic Lovelace, more of a soap opera.
  • The British porn kingpin biopic The Look of Love.
  • The Irish horror comedy Grabbers, which fails to deliver on a great premise.
  • The astonishingly bad shocker The Rambler, with its 58 second vomit scene.

My DVD/Stream of the Week is the funny and sentimental Canadian indie Cloudburst, with Oscar-winning actresses Olympia Dukakis and Brenda Fricker.  Cloudburst is available on DVD from Netflix and streaming from Amazon, iTunes, Vudu and other VOD providers.

Movies to See Right Now

by
THE SPECTACULAR NOW

This week’s MUST SEE is the powerfully authentic coming of age film The Spectacular Now – don’t miss it.  Better yet, take your teens!

Along with The Spectacular Now, the emotionally powerful Fruitvale Station and the compelling Danish drama The Hunt are on my list of Best Movies of 2013 – So Far.

The droll indie comedy Prince Avalanche opens today (and is also streaming on VOD).   I haven’t yet seen Lee Daniels’ The Butler, a major release which also opens today.  You can read descriptions and view trailers of it and other upcoming films at Movies I’m Looking Forward To.

The jaw-dropping documentary The Act of Killing, an exploration of Indonesian genocide from the perpetrators’ point of view, is the most uniquely original film of the year.

Woody Allen’s very funny Blue Jasmine centers on an Oscar-worthy performance by Cate Blanchett.

My other recommendations:

  • The rock documentary 20 Feet from Stardom, essential for music fans.
  • Another rock doc, A Band Called Death with the story of three African-American brothers in Detroit inventing punk rock before The Ramones and The Sex Pistols – and then dropping out of sight for decades.
  • the satisfying shocker The Conjuring.
  • The HBO documentary Casting By, which reveals an essential ingredient in filmmaking.

Also out right now:

  • I Give It a Year – a British rom com with a twist.
  • The Irish horror comedy Grabbers, which fails to deliver on a great premise.

My DVD/Stream of the Week is the intelligent drama The Place Beyond the Pines with Ryan Gosling and Bradley Cooper.  The Place Beyond the Pines is available on DVD from Netflix and streaming from Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, GooglePlay and other VOD providers.

On August 21, Turner Classic Movies will air the iconic Sam Peckinpah Western The Wild Bunch, with stellar performances by William Holden, Robert Ryan and Ernest Borgnine.  Watch for two of my favorite character actors – Warren Oates and Ben Johnson – as the Gorch brothers.  Other beloved members of Peckinpah’s repertory company in The Wild Bunch include L.Q. Jones, Dub Taylor and Strother Martin.

Movies to See Right Now

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FRUITVALE STATION

This week’s MUST SEES are The Hunt – the best movie of 2013 so far – and the emotionally powerful Fruitvale Station.  The Hunt is likely out for only one more week.

Woody Allen’s very funny Blue Jasmine centers on an Oscar-worthy performance by Cate Blanchett.

I haven’t yet seen Amanda Seyfried and Peter Sarsgaard in the porn star biopic Lovelace.  You can read descriptions and view trailers of it and other upcoming films at Movies I’m Looking Forward To.

My other recommendations:

  • The rock documentary 20 Feet from Stardom, essential for music fans.
  • Another rock doc, A Band Called Death with the story of three African-American brothers in Detroit inventing punk rock before The Ramones and The Sex Pistols – and then dropping out of sight for decades.
  • the satisfying shocker The Conjuring.
  • The HBO documentary Casting By, which reveals an essential ingredient in filmmaking.
  • Another HBO documentary, The Cheshire Murders, which takes us beyond the familiar police procedural.

Also out right now:

This week, there’s no DVD/Stream of the Week – get out to see The Hunt and Fruitvale Station!

On August 11, Turner Classic Movies is featuring Henry Fonda movies, including his iconic performances in Mister Roberts and The Grapes of Wrath.  But I also like the oft overlooked comedy A Big Hand for a Little Lady, where Fonda plays a pioneer who has lost almost everything in a poker game and then becomes ill just when he is dealt a very promising hand; his wife (Joanne Woodward) must decide whether to hold ’em or fold ’em.

Casting By: revealing an essential piece of filmmaking

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Marion Dougherty (left) and some of her discoveries in CASTING BY

Every serious movie fan should see the fine HBO documentary Casting By, which reveals the importance of the casting department, chiefly by focusing on the pioneering work of New York casting director Marion Dougherty and her Hollywood counterpart Lynn Stalmaster.

In the hey day of the Studio System, studios would simply typecast actors plucked from their list of contract players,  But Dougherty, casting for the early TV dramas shot in New York, picked the most promising stage actors and cast them AGAINST type.  When the Studio System collapsed in the early 1960s, Dougherty and Stalmaster were able to bring this approach to the movies, especially for former TV directors like Sidney Lumet and George Roy Hill and young up-and-comers like Martin Scorsese.

It’s really difficult to imagine American cinema from the past 50 years without Al Pacino, Dustin Hoffman, Gene Hackman and Robert Duvall – and Dougherty is the person who cast them for their breakout credits.  Not to mention James Dean, Jack Lemmon, Warren Beatty, Rod Steiger, Jon Voight, Christopher Walken, Glenn Close, Martin Sheen and Diane Lane.  And she pushed for Danny Glover to be cast in his Lethal Weapon role, originally written for a white detective.

Stalmaster’s story is just as compelling, including his advocacy for then unknown John Travolta and his casting of the very odd kid in Deliverance.

Casting By also takes on the turf war with the remarkably ungenerous Directors Guild, which results in grudging credits and no Oscars for casting directors.

Casting By is now playing on HBO.

June movie doldrums

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FAST & FURIOUS 6

Yeeesh.  The pickings are slim in theaters.  For example, take this one local multiplex that usually offers some appealing films for adults.  This week, it is devoting all sixteen of its screens to the 2D and 3D versions of After Earth, Epic, The Hangover: Part III, The Great Gatsby, Star Trek Into Darkness, Fast & Furious 6, Now You See Me and Iron Man 3.  I’ve seen the flashy, hollow and lame Gatsby.

I don’t want to see any of the others.  Fast and Furious 6 is supposed to be pretty entertaining, but it’s just not my kind of movie.  Same with the fantasy Epic.  Now You See Me is getting critically trashed, but nothing like After Earth and The Hangover: Part III, which are battling for recognition as the year’s very worst film.

The indie that is opening widely this weekend is Frances Ha, but after Greenberg and Damsels in Distress, I am never sitting through another annoying Greta Gerwig movie.

Alas, Sarah Polley’s superb documentary Stories We Tell is gone after a mere two week run in local theaters. Thank God for The East.

So, what is a movie junkie to do?  Fortunately, there are some fine choices on TV, especially with TCM’s June noir festival and HBO’s upcoming summer documentary series (including Casting By), plus some promising films coming out on VOD.

And we can wait for some good stuff later this summer, among them the indie heartbreaker Fruitvale Station, the Brie Larson star-maker Short Term 12, Pedro Almodovar’s I’m So Excited, and Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine.  I’ve already seen the brilliant teen coming of age film The Spectacular Now, which is on my Best Movies of 2013 – So Far.  You can read descriptions and watch trailers of upcoming films at Movies I’m Looking Forward To.