Movies to See Right Now

Photo caption: ROADRUNNER: A FILM ABOUT ANTHONY BOURDAIN

This week – a contemporary Australian bodice-ripper on video and a whole mess of great television recommendations. The best two movies in theaters are still Summer of Soul and Roadrunner.

IN THEATERS

ON VIDEO

Kelly MacDonald in DIRT MUSIC. Photo courtesy of Blue Finch Film Releasing.

Dirt Music: A sweeping romance amid Australian coastal vistas, but with an ending that wants to have it both ways. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube.

The most eclectic watch-at-home recommendations you’ll find ANYWHERE:

  • Riders of Justice: Thriller, comedy and much, much more. It’s the year’s best movie so far. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu and YouTube. #1 on my Best Movies of 2021 – So Far.
  • No Sudden Move: Steven Soderbergh’s neo-noir thriller has even more double-crosses than movie stars – and it has plenty of movie stars. HBO Max.
  • Neutral Ground: the supremacist legacy of old statues. PBS.
  • The Courier: amateur among spies. Amazon, Vudu, YouTube and redbox.
  • Truman and Tennessee: An Intimate Conversation: Two gay Southern geniuses, revealing themselves. Laemmle.
  • The Dry: a mystery as psychological as it is procedural. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • My Name Is Bulger: Two brothers, two paths to power. discovery+.
  • About Endlessness: Damned if I know. Streaming on Amazon, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.
  • Brewmance: barley, hops, yeast and underdogs. Amazon (included with Prime), AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.
  • Louder Than Bombs: An intricately constructed family drama. Amazon (included with Prime), Vudu and YouTube.
  • That Guy Dick Miller: Putting the “character” in “character actor:” Amazon (included with Prime).
  • Sword of Trust: comedy and so, so much more. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.
  • Run Lola Run: you’ll never see a more kinetic movie. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.

ON TV

Marianne Jean-Baptiste and Brenda Blethen in SECRETS & LIES

Well, here we are in the August doldrums and Turner Classic Movies is turning up the heat with some great choices.

First, on August 1, there’s Secrets & Lies, which I considered the very best movie of 1996. Written and directed by Mike Leigh (Life Is Sweet, Naked, Topsy-Turvy, All or Nothing, Vera Drake, Another Year), this is Leigh’s masterpiece and his most acessible film.

Hortense (Marianne Jean-Baptiste) is an accomplished young British woman who has been raised by middle-class adoptive parents. She decides to track down her birth mother, who turns out to be the working class hot mess Cynthia (Brenda Blethyn). This triggers Cynthia’s emotional damage from giving up baby Hortense, her panic at explaining this to her family – with the complicating factor that Hortense is Black. All kinds of family complications ensue. Cynthia’s underachieving daughter (Claire Rushbrook) is not at all comfortable with the emergence of an over-achieving sibling. Cynthia’s sister-in-law (Penelope Logan) faces this through her own child-related anguish. And Cynthia’s brother (Timothy Spall), who has clawed his way to respectability, has to juggle these developments.

There’s a searing emotional authenticity to Secrets & Lies, but there’s plenty of humor, too. (The montage of the brother’s portrait photography clients is hilarious.)

This is a career-topping performance by Brenda Blethens (TV’s Vera) and she was Oscar-nominated.

Blethyn’s fine performance is the showiest, but this is the movie where I recognized the greatness of Timothy Spall (Mr. Turner and Wormtail in the Harry Potter franchise),

The rest of the cast is brilliant, too, including Logan (Lovejoy and Mrs. Hughes in Downton Abbey) and Leslie Manville. Claire Rushbrook is especially good as the gobsmacked daughter.

Secrets & Lies, Leigh, Blethyn and Jean-Baptiste were all nominated for Academy Awards (and this was a little British indie back when they only nominated 5 movies for Best Picture). Secrets & Lies and Fargo lost the Best Picture Oscar to The English Patient (only because The English Patient was far, far more pretentious). This is a film of uncommon humanity and one of my Greatest Movies of All Time.

Bette Davis and Warren William in SATAN MET A LADY

On August 2, TCM airs Satan Met a Lady, an earlier version of the 1941 The Maltese Falcon. I’ve written about all three versions in Three faces of the Maltese Falcon. This 1936 version is more of a screwball comedy than a whodunit, and the ensemble acting is magnificent..

Finally, on August 4 , TCM plays Pushover, one of my Overlooked Noir. Tracking a notorious criminal, the cop (Fred MacMurray) follows – and then dates – the gangster’s girlfriend (“Introducing Kim Novak”).  It starts out as part of the job, but then he falls for her himself. He decides that, if he can double cross BOTH the cops and the criminal, he can wind up with the loot AND Kim Novak. (This is a film noir, so we know he’s not destined for a tropical beach with an umbrella drink.)

Fred MacMurray and Kim Novak in PUSHOVER

Movies to See Right Now

Saoirse Ronan and Laurie Metcalf in LADY BIRD

The prestige movies are rolling out in theaters and I’ve already added two Must Sees to my Best Movies of 2017 – So Far:

  • Lady Bird , an entirely fresh coming of age comedy that explores the mother-daughter relationship – an impressive debut for Greta Gerwig as a writer and director.
  • Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri a powerful combination of raw emotion and dark hilarity with an acting tour de force from Frances McDormand and a slew of great actors.

Other choices:

  • My Stream of the Week is Louder Than Bombs, the intricately constructed family drama from writer-director Joachim Trier (his new film Thelma is rolling out). Louder Than Bombs is now available to stream from Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube, Google Play.

    On December 3, Turner Classic Movies presents Pushover, which is highly recommended on my list of Overlooked Noir. Tracking a notorious criminal, the cop (Fred MacMurray) follows – and then dates – the gangster’s girlfriend (“Introducing Kim Novak”) as part of the job, but then falls for her himself. He decides that, if he can double cross BOTH the cops and the criminal, he can wind up with the loot AND Kim Novak. (This is a film noir, so we know he’s not destined for a tropical beach with an umbrella drink.)

    Fred MacMurray and Kim Novak in PUSHOVER
    Fred MacMurray and Kim Novak in PUSHOVER

Movies to See Right Now

Walton Goggins in THE HATEFUL EIGHT
Walton Goggins in THE HATEFUL EIGHT

You can see five movies from my final list of Best Movies of 2015 in theaters this week.  This is a list of the very best 21 of the 155 2015 movies that I’ve seen.

  • The Revenant, an awesome and authentic survival tale that must be seen on the BIG SCREEN.
  • Creed, the newest and entirely fresh chapter in the Rocky franchise; it’s about the internal struggle of three people, not just The Big Fight.
  • The Irish romantic drama Brooklyn is an audience-pleaser with a superb performance by Saoirse Ronan.
  • Spotlight – a riveting, edge-of-your-seat drama with some especially compelling performances.
  • The Big Short – a supremely entertaining thriller – both funny and anger-provoking.
  • (a sixth top film, 45 Years, will be released in the Bay Area next week.)

Two more choices:

  • The Hateful Eight, a Quentin Tarantino showcase for Samuel L. Jackson, Walton Goggins and Jennifer Jason Leigh, but a movie that’s not for everyone.
  • Carol – a vividly told tale of forbidden love.

I’m not a fan of Joy or The Danish Girl.

My DVD/Stream of the week is the space adventure The Martian – with all the best that a Hollywood movie can offer.  You can rent The Martian on DVD from Netflix now and from Redbox on February 9.  You can stream it on Amazon Video, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.

On January 26, Turner Classic Movies screens Spike Lee’s debut feature She’s Gotta Have It. Watch for Spike himself supplying the comic relief as the unforgettable Mars Blackmon. I still remember going to the theater in 1986 on the recommendation of Siskel & Ebert and feeling so excited about discovering a talented new auteur.

Tracy Camilla Johns and Spike Lee in SHE'S GOTTA HAVE IT
Tracy Camilla Johns and Spike Lee in SHE’S GOTTA HAVE IT

Movies to See Right Now

Leonardo DiCaprio in THE REVENANT
Leonardo DiCaprio in THE REVENANT

I’ve now seen ’em all and my list of Best Movies of 2015 is now complete – you can see five of these in theaters this week:

  • The Revenant, an awesome and authentic survival tale that must be seen on the BIG SCREEN.
  • Creed, the newest and entirely fresh chapter in the Rocky franchise; it’s about the internal struggle of three people, not just The Big Fight.
  • The Irish romantic drama Brooklyn is an audience-pleaser with a superb performance by Saoirse Ronan.
  • Spotlight – a riveting, edge-of-your-seat drama with some especially compelling performances.
  • The Big Short – a supremely entertaining thriller – both funny and anger-provoking.
  • (a sixth top film, 45 Years, will be released in the Bay Area in two weeks.)

Two more choices:

  • The Hateful Eight, a Quentin Tarantino showcase for Samuel L. Jackson, Walton Goggins and Jennifer Jason Leigh, but a movie that’s not for everyone.
  • Carol – a vividly told tale of forbidden love.

I’m not a fan of Joy or The Danish Girl.

My DVDs of the Week celebrate the late cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond. The Hired Hand is one of his overlooked masterpieces. Visions of Light is a documentary about his art of cinematography. Both are available on Netflix DVDs.

On January 21, Turner Classic Movies is playing Pushover, one of my Overlooked Noir. An amoral cop (Fred MacMurray) decides that, if he can double cross BOTH the other cops and the criminal, he can wind up with the loot AND the gangster’s girlfriend (“Introducing Kim Novak”).