Gun Crazy

Movies to See Right Now

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IT FOLLOWS
IT FOLLOWS

There’s a good movie choice for everyone:

  • If you haven’t seen it yet, run out and watch the hilariously dark Argentine comedy Wild Tales, a series of individual stories about revenge fantasies becoming actualized.
  • The harrowing thriller ’71 is exhilarating.
  • Going Clear: The Prison of Belief, documentarian Alex Gibney’s devastating expose of Scientology is playing on HBO;
  • I also really like the Belgian romance Three Hearts – the leading man has a weak heart in more ways than one.
  • If you’re looking for a scare, try the inventive and non-gory horror gem It Follows.
  • The music doc The Wrecking Crew is for those with an interest in music of the 1960s. It’s both in theaters and streaming on Amazon Instant Video, iTunes, YouTube, Google Play and Xbox Video.

Insurgent, from the Divergent franchise is what it is – young adult sci-fi with some cool f/x. The romance 5 to 7 did NOT work for me, but I know smart women who enjoyed it.  I found Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter to be droll but tiresome.  The biting Hollywood satire of Maps to the Stars wasn’t worth the disturbing story of a cursed family.

My Stream of the Week is Inherent Vice, a funny and confused amble through pot-besotted 1970 Los Angeles. It’s available on DirecTV PPV, Amazon Instant Video, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube, Google Play, Xbox Video and Flixster.

On April 13, Turner Classic Movies has something for everyone:

    • The screwball comedy What’s Up Doc?, with my all-time favorite chase scene;
    • Hitchcock’s unsettling The Birds;
    • And if you like your film noir tawdry, then Gun Crazy (1950) is for you. Peggy Cummins plays a prototypical Bad Girl who takes her newlywed hubby on a crime spree.

On April 15, there is a real curiosity on TCM, the 1933 anti-war movie Men Must Fight, which predicts World War II with unsettling accuracy.

Movies to See Right Now

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WILD TALES
WILD TALES

Okay, here’s the first Must See of 2015 – the hilariously dark Argentine comedy Wild Tales,  a series of individual stories about revenge fantasies becoming actualized.  The Russian Leviathan, which I’m gonna see tonight, has been universally praised.  Both Wild Tales and Leviathan were nominated for this year’s Best Foreign Language Picture Oscar.

If you can make it to Cinequest, there are some great movie choices. Here is my extensive Cinequest coverage.

Other choices in theaters and elsewhere:

  • Clint Eastwood’s thoughtful and compelling American Sniper, with harrowing action and a career-best performance from Bradley Cooper.
  • The cinematically important and very funny (and, of course. Oscar-winning) Birdman.
  • And the movie that is better than all of these: Boyhood. It’s available on DVD from Netflix and streaming from Amazon Instant, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube, Google Play and Xbox Video.

Here are some great choices for movies coming up on TV this week – all on Turner Classic Movies on March 8.

  • Billy Wilder’s 1957 Sweet Smell of Success contains Tony Curtis’ most subtly acted role.  Curtis is a Broadway press agent who is completely at the mercy of Burt Lancaster’s sadistically nasty columnist.  Many of us have experienced being vulnerable to the caprice of an extremely mean person – Curtis perfectly captures the dread and humiliation of being in that position.
  • To Kill a Mockingbird, with the iconic character of Atticus Finch and its great courtroom scene.
  • If you like your film noir tawdry, then Gun Crazy (1950) is for you.  Peggy Cummins plays a prototypical Bad Girl who takes her newlywed hubby on a crime spree.

Coming up on TV: a feast of crime movies

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BULLITT

Here’s a treat – on November 26, Turner Classic Movies is celebrating Cops and Robbers with a feast of crime movies. I especially recommend:

  • The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974): A criminal mastermind (Robert Shaw) and his gang of commandos capture a NYC subway train and ransom the passengers; the transit authority police commander (Walter Matthau) must match wits.  Excellent cast includes Hector Elizondo and Martin Balsam.  I prefer this original to the 2009 remake.
  • Every police procedural from 1948 through today’s Law and Order and CSI owes something to the prototypical The Naked City (1948). Tenacious New York City cops solve a murder amid gritty streets and shady characters. Unusual for the time, it was shot on location.   Directed by noir great Jules Dassin, The Naked City won Oscars for black and white cinematography and film editing.
  • Bullitt (1968) features Steve McQueen and one of cinema’s most iconic and influential chase scenes.  McQueen’s 1968 Ford Mustang Fastback  and the bad guy’s 1968 Dodge Charger careen through San Francisco, taking almost 11 minutes to race from Fisherman’s Wharf to Brisbane.  Classic.
  • The French make really good crime dramas, and Rififi (1955) is a standard-setting heist film.  After the team is assembled and the job is plotted, the actual crime unfolds in real-time – over thirty minutes of nerve wracking silence.
  • In The Asphalt Jungle (1950), the crooks assemble a team and pull off the big heist…and then things begin to go wrong.  There aren’t many noirs with better casting – the crooks include Sterling Hayden, Louis Calhern, Sam Jaffe and James Whitmore.  The 23-year-old Marilyn Monroe plays Calhern’s companion in her first real speaking part.  How noir is it? Even the cop who breaks the case goes to jail.  Directed by the great John Huston.
  • If you like your film noir tawdry, then Gun Crazy (1950) is for you.  Peggy Cummins plays a prototypical Bad Girl who takes her newlywed hubby on a crime spree.
THE ASPHALT JUNGLE

Movies to See Right Now

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Adèle Exarchopoulos in BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR

The French drama Blue Is the Warmest Color explores first love, capturing the arc of a young woman’s first serious romance with remarkable authenticity and a stunning performance by 19-year-old actress Adèle Exarchopoulos. It’s three hours long, justifiably rated NC-17 and currently tops my list of Best Movies of 2013 – So Far.

Other good choices include the flawless true story thriller Captain Phillips and the space thriller Gravity – an amazing achievement by filmmaker Alfonso Cuarón with what may be Sandra Bullock’s finest performance. 12 Years a Slave is an unsparingly realistic depiction of the horrors of American slavery. The Motel Life is a solid character-driven drama. Joseph Gordon Levitt’s offbeat comedy Don Jon offers both guffaws and an unexpected moment of self-discovery.

Check out my new feature VOD Roundup, where you can find my comments on over twenty current movies available on Video on Demand. There are some good ones, some bad ones and some really, really good ones (including How to Make Money Selling Drugs).

Here’s a treat – on November 26, Turner Classic Movies is celebrating Cops and Robbers with a feast of crime movies. The menu includes The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, Naked City, Bullitt, Rififi, Asphalt Jungle and Gun Crazy.  I’ll be writing more about these films on the weekend.