Movies to See Right Now

Warren Oates in BRING ME THE HEAD OF ALFREDO GARCIA
Warren Oates in BRING ME THE HEAD OF ALFREDO GARCIA

Yesterday I wrote about the actor Warren Oates and the biodoc Warren Oates Across the Border. On Monday, August 24, Turner Classic Movies will show seven, count ’em, SEVEN Warren Oates films: Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia, The Wild Ones, Chandler, Badlands, There Was a Crooked Man, The Thief Who Came to Dinner and The Split.  Of these, the best two movies are Sam Peckinpah’s The Wild Bunch (Oates plays one of the treacherous but moronic Gorch brothers)and in Terence Malick’s Badlands (Oates plays Sissy Spacek’s father, blown away by teen punk Martin Sheen).  But the iconic Warren Oates lead performance is in the Peckinpah neo-noir Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia.  (TCM will not be screening Two-Lane Blacktop, Cockfighter, Barquero or Peter Fonda’s The Hired Hand – more about the first two on Tuesday).  Set your DVR for Warren Oates.

In the movie theaters, we are in the dreaded Mid August Doldrums, but there are some good choices:

  • The End of the Tour is the smartest road trip movie ever, starring Jason Segel and Jesse Eisenberg. It opens today more widely, so be sure to see it.
  • Joel Edgerton’s The Gift is a satisfying thriller – and much more.
  • I really liked Amy, the emotionally affecting and thought-provoking documentary on Amy Winehouse.
  • Listen to Me Marlon is the excellent documentary with Marlon Brando’s own words revealing the keys to his life.
  • In Mr. Holmes, Ian McKellen is superb as the aged Sherlock Holmes, re-opening his final case.

My DVD/Stream of the Week is the inventive, scary and non-gory It Follows – a rare horror movie choice from The Movie Gourmet. It Follows is available on DVD from both Netflix and Redbox and streaming from Amazon Instant Video, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube, Google Play and Xbox Video.

Movies to See Right Now

Jesse Eisenberg and Jason Segel in THE END OF THE TOUR
Jesse Eisenberg and Jason Segel in THE END OF THE TOUR

The End of the Tour is the smartest road trip movie ever, starring Jason Segel and Jesse Eisenberg. It opens today more widely, so be sure to see it.  Other top recommendations:

  • The chilling and powerful documentary The Look of Silence is not for everyone, but it’s on my Best Movies of 2015 – So Far. It’s unsettling, but it’s an unforgettable movie experience.
  • Joel Edgerton’s The Gift is a satisfying thriller – and much more.
  • I really liked Amy, the emotionally affecting and thought-provoking documentary on Amy Winehouse.
  • Listen to Me Marlon is the excellent documentary with Marlon Brando’s own words revealing the keys to his life.
  • In Mr. Holmes, Ian McKellen is superb as the aged Sherlock Holmes, re-opening his final case.
Alicia Viksander inEX MACHINA
Alicia Viksander inEX MACHINA

My DVD/Stream of the Week is one of my Best Movies of 2015 – So Far, the intensely thoughtful Ex Machina. It’s available on DVD from both Netflix and Redbox and streaming from Amazon Instant Video, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube, Google Play and Xbox Video.

On August 16, Turner Classic Movies will present the 1957 Elia Kazan classic A Face in the Crowd,a cynical political thriller.  In his first feature film, Andy Griffith shed the likeability and decency that made him a TV megastar and became a searingly unforgettable villain.

Andy Griffith is the dangerous Lonesome Rhodes in A Face in the Crowd
Andy Griffith is the charming, phony and venal Lonesome Rhodes in A FACE IN THE CROWD

LISTEN TO ME MARLON: the pain and the truth in his own words

LISTEN TO ME MARLON
LISTEN TO ME MARLON

In the documentary Listen to Me Marlon, we hear Marlon Brando relate his life story in his own words – and we ONLY hear Brando’s words. Director Stevan Riley received access to hundreds of hours of audio tapes – self-recording made by Brando while he was alone – and never heard until now. These recordings, along with recorded Brando interviews and clips, are artfully assembled by Riley, and, together, amount to a deep and apparently truthful self-portrait.

Brando was playful and mischievous and often self-important, and the content of his interviews with journalists aren’t that reliable. But it’s clear that he isn’t BSing in these solitary recordings. He is open about his character flaws and their origin in his family background – a brute of a father and a sweet but erratic alcoholic mother.

Speaking in the third person, Brando describes himself as “a troubled man alone…confused”. Listen to Me Marlon is filled with nuggets:

  • On his upbringing: “My father is never going to come near that child (his first son Christian) because of what he did to me”.
  • On his art: “you want to stop that motion from the popcorn to the mouth. The Truth will do that.”
  • On the womanizing that broke up his first marriage “The beast aspect of my personality held sway”.
  • On the execrable Candy: “the worst movie I ever made” (drawing knowing chuckles from the audience).

Some of the tapes even record self-hypnosis as he battles obesity. And there’s a VERY COOL digitized talking Brando head, swirling around in blue pixels as he expounds.

There are also two outtakes where we SEE Brando’s womanizing in action as he comes on to attractive interviewers. We can recognize the instant that, as he says, he starts “thinking with his penis” and launches his flirtatious charm.

I saw Listen to Me Marlon at the San Francisco International Film Festival, where it will screen again this week. Director Riley spoke at the screening, as did noted film historian David Thomson and Brando’s children, Rebecca Brando and Miko Brando.

Rebecca Brando credits Riley for the film’s “humanity” as it treats Brando’s “childhood pain”. Miko Brando pointed out that the flashing lights in some clips came from the bio-feedback machine that Brando used at night. “He went to work as a movie star and came home – not a movie star – just a father”, said Miko, who had just seen the film for the second time.

David Thomson spoke of Brando’s “momentous” and truthful Method as the birth of “genuinely American approach to acting” and its effect on cinema: “the method is made for the close-up” because “if you are agonizing over what to say”, the audience needs to be close enough to see it.

Stevan Riley made the most of his access to the tapes – it’s a masterful job of selection and editing.   Listen to Me Marlon opens tomorrow in theaters, and I expect it to eventually play on Showtime.

LISTEN TO ME MARLON: the pain and the truth in his own words

LISTEN TO ME MARLON
LISTEN TO ME MARLON

In the documentary Listen to Me Marlon, we hear Marlon Brando relate his life story in his own words – and we ONLY hear Brando’s words.  Director Stevan Riley received access to hundreds of hours of audio tapes  – self-recording made by Brando while he was alone – and never heard until now.  These recordings, along with recorded Brando interviews and clips, are artfully assembled by Riley, and, together, amount to a deep and apparently truthful self-portrait.

Brando was playful and mischievous and often self-important, and the content of his interviews with journalists aren’t that reliable.  But it’s clear that he isn’t BSing in these solitary recordings.  He is open about his character flaws and their origin in his family background – a brute of a father and a sweet but erratic alcoholic mother.

Speaking in the third person, Brando describes himself as  “a troubled man alone…confused”.   Listen to Me Marlon is filled with nuggets:

  • On his upbringing: “My father is never going to come near that child (his first son Christian) because of what he did to me”.
  • On his art: “you want to stop that motion from the popcorn to the mouth. The Truth will do that.”
  • On the womanizing that broke up his first marriage “The beast aspect of my personality held sway”.
  • On the execrable Candy: “the worst movie I ever made” (drawing knowing chuckles from the audience).

Some of the tapes even record self-hypnosis as he battles obesity.  And there’s a VERY COOL digitized talking Brando head; Brando tried out very early scanning technology, resulting in moving imagery of his head in swirling blue pixels as he expounds.

There are also two outtakes where we SEE Brando’s womanizing in action as he comes on to attractive interviewers.  We can recognize the instant that, as he says, he starts “thinking with his penis” and launches his flirtatious charm.

I saw Listen to Me Marlon at the San Francisco International Film Festival, where it will screen again this week.  Director Riley spoke at the screening, as did noted film historian David Thomson and Brando’s children, Rebecca Brando and Miko Brando.

Rebecca Brando credits Riley for the film’s “humanity” as it treats Brando’s “childhood pain”. Miko Brando pointed out that the flashing lights in some clips came from the bio-feedback machine that Brando used at night.  “He went to work as a movie star and came home – not a movie star – just a father”, said Miko, who had just seen the film for the second time.

David Thomson spoke of Brando’s “momentous”  and truthful Method as the birth of “genuinely American approach to acting” and its effect on cinema:  “the method is made for the close-up” because “if you are agonizing over what to say”, the audience needs to be close enough to see it.

I expect Listen to Me Marlon to get a theatrical release in the second half of 2015 and then play on Showtime.