Movies to See Right Now

Andrew Garfield in HACKSAW RIDGE
Andrew Garfield in HACKSAW RIDGE

It’s Memorial Day weekend.  Scroll down for my recommendations of current and classic movies on video and television that honor military service.

Recommended movies to see in theaters this week:

  • Opening this weekend, The Commune, looks like comedy of errors, but it’s a family drama with a searing performance by Trine Dyrholm.
  • The Lost City of Z, a thoughtful and beautifully cinematic revival of the adventure epic genre.
  • In Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer, writer-director Joseph Cedar and his star Richard Gere combine to create the unforgettable character of Norman Oppenheimer, a Jewish Willy Loman who finally gets his chance to sit with the Movers and Shakers. This may be Gere’s best movie performance ever.

My DVD/Stream of the Week is last year’s Oscar-winning Hacksaw Ridge, about American Army Medic Desmond T. Doss, who single-handedly rescued 75 fellow soldiers at the Battle of Okinawa and became the first Conscientious Objector in American history to be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. You can rent Hacksaw Ridge on DVD from Netflix and Redbox or stream it from Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play and DirecTV. If you’re going to see one war movie this year, make it this one.

Yesterday I wrote about Turner Classic Movies’ uncommon slate of thoughtful Korean War movies airing Saturday, including Men in War, The Steel Helmet, The Rack and The Hook.

On Sunday May 28, TCM will present the definitive Pearl Harbor movie, Tora! Tora! Tora! from 1970. Featuring great American and Japanese casts, Tora! Tora! Tora! tells the story from both American and Japanese perspectives. It’s a suspenseful minute-by-minute countdown. Tora! Tora! Tora! is one of the very best movies ever made about a well-known historical event.  And on Monday, May 29, TCM will broadcast the fine WW II submarine warfare movie The Enemy Belowwhich I wrote about last month (scroll down.

TORA! TORA! TORA!
TORA! TORA! TORA!

Movies to See Right Now

Casey Affleck in MANCHESTER BY THE SEA
Casey Affleck in MANCHESTER BY THE SEA

Don’t miss the Casey Affleck’s career-topping performance in the emotionally authentic drama Manchester by the Sea.  The other Must See is Isabelle Huppert in the perverse wowzer ElleManchester by the Sea is #2 and Elle is #4 on my Best Movies of 2016.

Another, lighter top choice:

  • Mascots is the latest mockumentary from Christopher Guest (Best in Show) and it’s very funny. Mascots is streaming on Netflix Instant.

Also in theaters or on video:

    • Despite a delicious performance by one of may faves, Michael Shannon, I’m not recommending Nocturnal Animals.
    • Arrival with Amy Adams, is real thinking person’s sci-fi. Every viewer will be transfixed by the first 80% of Arrival. How you feel about the finale depends on whether you buy into the disconnected-from-linear-time aspect or you just get confused, like I did.
    • The remarkably sensitive and realistic indie drama Moonlight is at once a coming of age tale, an exploration of addicted parenting and a story of gay awakening. It’s almost universally praised, but I thought that the last act petered out.

My DVD/Stream of the Week is one of the year’s very, very best films, the character-driven crime drama Hell or High Water. It’s now available to rent on DVD from Netflix and to stream from Amazon Instant, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.

This December 7th, a date which will live in infamy, is the 75th anniversary of the Japanese surprise air attack on US naval forces at Pearl Harbor, the event which immediately plunged the American people into the all-consuming four years of World War II. Fittingly, Turner Classic Movies is airing the definitive Pearl Harbor movie, Tora! Tora! Tora! from 1970. Featuring great American and Japanese casts, Tora! Tora! Tora! tells the story from both American and Japanese perspectives. It’s a suspenseful minute-by-minute countdown. Tora! Tora! Tora! is one of the very best movies ever made about a well-known historical event.

TORA! TORA! TORA!
TORA! TORA! TORA!