Movies to See Right Now

Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt in ONCE UPON A TIME…IN HOLLYWOOD

Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood is a marvelously entertaining masterpiece. I’m just going to keep beating this drum until I run out of friends who haven’t seen it yet (including The Wife).

OUT NOW

  • Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood is a Must See – one of Quentin Tarantino’s very, very best.
  • The family dramedy The Farewell is an audience-pleaser.
  • You can find, if you look hard enough, Jirga, an indie parable about atonement that was Australia’s submission to the Academy Awards.
  • Here’s my rant on the latest Olivier Assayas film, Non-Fiction.

ON VIDEO

My Stream of the Week is The East, a smart and gripping thriller that explores both our response to corporate criminality and the unfamiliar world of anarchist collectives. The East is available on DVD from both Netflix and Redbox and streaming from Amazon, Vudu, iTunes, GooglePlay and other VOD outlets.

ON TV

Kirk Douglas in SPARTACUS

On August 31, Turner Classic Movies offers Kirk Douglas’ testosterone exploding across the screen in Spartacus, The Vikings and Gunfight at the OK Corral. The latter is the John Sturges 1957 version with Douglas and with Dennis Hopper as Billy Clanton; (I prefer the 1946 John Ford version of the same story – My Darling Clementine, with Henry Fonda, Victor Mature, Ward Bond, Walter Brennan and John Ireland.)

Kirk keeps his shirt on in OK Corral, but Spartacus and The Vikings are filled with shirtless virile charisma. There’s really nothing to The Vikings except action adventure (and a scary contact lens), but it’s been a guilty pleasure of mine since the first time it played on TV.

Kirk Douglas in THE VIKINGS

Movies to See Right Now

THE TWO FACES OF JANUARY
THE TWO FACES OF JANUARY

The successful period thriller The Two Faces of January sets a dark-hearted and shadowy story in sunny Greece. The Two Faces of January is in theaters and also available streaming on Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube, Google Play and Xbox Video.

Also in theaters:

  • The poignant and compelling documentary Last Days in Vietnam with its story of folly, desperation and heroism.
  • The startling documentary Art and Craft, about an art fraud of prolific scale by a diagnosed schizophrenic.
  • The exceptionally well-acted dramedy The Skeleton Twins contains several inspired moments.

I also recommend The One I Love – a relationship romance, a dark comedy and a modern-day episode of The Twilight Zone rolled into one successful movie.  It remains available streaming from Amazon Instant, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube, Google Play and Xbox Video.

My DVD/Stream of the Week is the funniest movie of the year, the Canadian comedy The Grand Seduction. It’s a MUST SEE howler. The Grand Seduction is available on DVD from Netflix and streaming from Amazon Instant, YouTube, Google Play and Xbox Video.

There’s a varied set of classics on Turner Classic Movies this week.

  • On October 21, there’s the especially nasty noir Detour, in which poor Tom Neal is practically eaten alive by Ann Savage as perhaps the most venal and vicious of film noir’s femmes fatale.
  • On the 22nd there’s one of my favorite manly adventure sagas, The Vikings from 1958; a one-eyed Kirk Douglas and Tony Curtis bare their chests over Janet Leigh and swill mead with full-bearded Ernest Borgnine – it’s rip-roaring and silly and just a whole lot of fun.
  • Then on October 23, TCM airs the chilly Nicole Kidman ghost story The Others from 2001.

Ann Savage and Tom Neal in DETOUR (Hint - she's trouble!)
Ann Savage and Tom Neal in DETOUR (Hint – she’s trouble!)