The Crying Game

Movies to See Right Now

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Eller Coltrane, Ethan Hawke and Lorelei Linklater in BOYHOOD
Eller Coltrane, Ethan Hawke and Lorelei Linklater in BOYHOOD

OK – it’s the Labor Day weekend – we all have three days off and a need to seek an air-conditioned theater.  So there’s just no excuse if you haven’t yet seen these movies on my list of Best Movies of 2014 – So Far:

  • 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. Don’t miss Philip Seymour Hoffman’s explosive final performance in the John le Carré espionage thriller A Most Wanted Man.

I was 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.

My DVD/Stream of the Week is Go For Sisters , a border thriller with three more great movie characters from master indie writer-director John Sayles.  Go for Sisters is available on DVD from Netflix and streaming on Netflix Instant, Amazon and Vudu.

On September 1, TCM is airing The Crying Game – with one of the great movie plot twists of all time and one of my Best Films About the Troubles (Northern Ireland).

An alternative movie fest for St. Paddy’s Day

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James Nesbitt in BLOODY SUNDAY

Happy St. Patrick’s Day. Now, tonight you CAN go out and drink green beer with all the amateur drinkers. Nothing wrong with that, if that’s your thing.

OR you could settle in for some top shelf cinema set in recent Irish history – The Troubles of Northern Ireland. For eight fine films about The Troubles, see my Best Films About the Troubles (Northern Ireland).

Best Movies About The Troubles (Northern Ireland)

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James Nesbitt in BLOODY SUNDAY

Sparked by my pick of Shadow Dancer as this week’s DVD/Stream of the Week, I’ve posted a new movie list: Best Movies About The Troubles (Northern Ireland).  The Troubles was the conflict in Northern Ireland between nationalists and unionists that lasted from the late 1960s until the 1998 Good Friday Accord.

2002’s Bloody Sunday tells the story of one of the most significant moments of The Troubles, the 1972 shootings in Derry, from the perspective of a key participant – Ivan Cooper, the leader of a movement to achieve a united Ireland through non-violent means. Northern Irish actor James Nesbitt is brilliant as Cooper, a man who is trying to do the impossible – lead a mass demonstration into a tinderbox and keep it peaceful.  It’s possible that either or both the unionist paramilitaries and the IRA may provoke violence to further their own aims.  The British are supposed to protect the marchers from the unionists, but they’re on edge and trigger-happy.  Cooper is forced to play a desperate game of Whack-a-Mole to prevent violence.

Besides Shadow Dancer and Bloody Sunday, I discuss a number of other outstanding movies about The Troubles. One film contains one of the greatest surprise plot twists in movie history. You can see the list at Best Movies About The Troubles (Northern Ireland), find out how to watch them on DVD or stream them.

Movies to See This Week

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I can’t speak to the three most promising new films, because I haven’t seen them yet: The Kids Are All Right, Inception and The Girl Who Played With Fire.  But that should be remedied by next week’s recommendations.  In the mean time, I can say that the “must see” films in theaters remain Winter’s Bone and Toy Story 3.  Winter’s Bone has been out for a while, so, if you haven’t seen it in a theater,  you’d better see it soon.  For trailers and other choices, see Movies to See Right Now.

My DVD of the week is Tortilla Soup.  It’s the closest thing to a chick flick that I’ll be recommending for at least a month.   For the trailer and other DVD choices, see DVDs of the Week.

      

John Ford's The Searchers

 

Movies on TV include The Searchers and Bad Day at Black Rock, coming up on TCM.   The Crying Game and Before Sunrise are still playing on IFC.

Movies To See Right Now

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The “must see” films in theaters remain Winter’s Bone and Toy Story 3.  Winter’s Bone has been out for a while, so, if you haven’t seen it in a theater,  you’d better see it soon.  For trailers and other choices, see Movies to See Right Now.

It’s summer vacation, so I am letting people catch up with my most recent DVD recommendations:  Eight Men Out, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl on the Train, John Adams and The Deep End.   For the trailers and other DVD choices, see DVDs of the Week.

 

 

The Crying Game

 

 

Movies on TV include The Crying Game and Before Sunrise on IFC this month.  Freaks, Soylent Green and 12 Angry Men are coming up on TCM.

Tod Browning and his cast for Freaks