Weekly Movie Recommendations

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: Jessie Buckley (center) in HAMNET. Courtesy of Focus Features.

This week on The Movie Gourmet – new reviews of Chloe Zhao’s glorious Hamnet and the insightful, thought-provoking biodoc Paddy Chayefsky: Collector of Words.

My list of Best Movies of 2025 – So Far has solidified to the point where I have taken off the So Far. I plan to see No Other Choice and probably Marty Supreme before New Year’s, but those are the only two films that could still make my year-end top ten. I’m still having a very hard time ranking the top four films: Frankenstein, It Was Just an Accident, Caught by the Tides and One Battle After Another. It may end in a four-way tie.

REMEMBRANCES

Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal in Rob Reiner’s WHEN HARRY MET SALLY.

In the period between 1984 and 1996, few directors had as impressive and as varied a body of work as did Rob Reiner: This Is Spinal Tap, When Harry Met Sally, Princess Bride, A Few Good Men, Misery and Ghosts of Mississippi.

Character actor Peter Greene excelled at playing scary villains and was the cretinous Zed in Pulp Fiction.

CURRENT MOVIES

ON TV

Glenn Ford and Evelyn Keyes in MR. SOFT TOUCH

On December 23, Turner Classic Movies is airing the little-seen Mr. Soft Touch from 1949, which is undeniably Christmas film noir. The Holiday season is integral to the plot, which revolves around a Christmas tree, a Christmas party, Christmas decorations and a horde of ne’er-do-wells in Santa suits.

Nightclub owner Joe Miracle (Glenn Ford) returns from WWII to find that the mob has looted his nest egg. He’s able to rob it back, but now he’s got to hide out from the gangsters until his ship literally sails. As circumstances develop, he pretends to be a down-and-outer so he can stay in in the settlement house (isn’t that quaint?) run by social worker Jenny Jones (Evelyn Keyes).

MR. SOFT TOUCH. Photo Credit: Underwood and Underwood Corbis.

Mr. Soft Touch has many of the elements of classic film noir:

  • a cynical underworld where shady characters are robbed by even shadier types.
  • the WWII vet who has gotten screwed, and his only option to make himself whole is illegal.
  • a protagonist whose actions are driven to please a beautiful woman.
  • a hero who takes a bullet in the street.
  • a cast packed by recognizable characters of the period: John Ireland, Beulah Bondi, Percy Kilbride and Ted de Corsia.
  • gritty 1949 San Francisco locations.

That being said, Mr. Soft Touch is light comic noir and often silly. We accept the plot contrivances because the film doesn’t take itself too seriously.

Here, Evelyn Keyes isn’t a femme fatale for once; she’s a naïve do-gooder, but she’s sexy all the same, and sparks fly between Ford and Keyes as she inches him toward altruism and redemption.

Mr. Soft Touch is not available to stream. so set your DVR for a rarity.

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: Joel Edgerton and Kerry Condon in TRAIN DREAMS. Courtesy of Netflix.

It’s prime movie season and this week on The Movie Gourmet – new reviews of the superb drama Train Dreams, Kelly Reichardt’s dark comedy The Mastermind, the new biodoc Orwell: 2+2=5 and the affecting indie drama Burt, which screened at three Laemmle theaters this week.

Of my Best Movies of 2025 – So Far, you can see It Was Just an Accident and Sentimental Value in theaters now and THE REST ARE STREAMING.

Last week, I also posted notes on The American Revolution, Spinal Tap II: The End Continues and Being Eddie.

CURRENT MOVIES

ON TV

Andre Morell and Peter Cushing in CASH ON DEMAND.

Turner Classic Movies has gift-wrapped a present for us on December 13 and 14. Cash on Demand, made in 1962 by the British horror schlock studio Hammer Films, is a ticking bomb suspenser and a Perfect Crime movie. It’s also an unlikely Christmas movie, with characters that evoke Dickins’ A Christmas Carol.

The Scrooge is the manager of a bank branch (Peter Cushing) – everyone’s most despised boss. He revels in the tyranny of his miniature fiefdom and never misses a chance to make the jobs of his underlings unnecessarily onerous or humiliating. The Bob Cratchit (Richard Vernon) is the dedicated and able bank clerk, who is doing his best while under the manager’s sadistic thumb.

The manager gets his comeuppance when a posh customer (André Morell) arrives. The manager’s kowtowing and boot-licking is interrupted by the discovery that the customer is actually pulling a heist and forcing the manager – by threatening his family – to help.

The crook has apparently thought of every possibility and devised a perfect heist. Cash on Demand becomes a bank procedural as we learn about 1862 state-of-the-art vault security.

There’s a deadline – the vault needs to be emptied at a certain time or the manager’s family will come to grief. All of Cash on Demand occurs in real time and all inside the bank, under the inescapable face of the wall clock.

Andre Morell’s bank robber, while ruthless, is generally jovial – the very model of clubby affability. Cash on Demand is a study in contrast between the cool-as-a-cucumber crook and the bank manager, who looks absolutely stricken throughout the movie.

Cash on Demand will be aired on TCM’s Noir Alley, with the intro and outro by Eddie Muller.

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: Nina Ye and Shih-Yuan Ma in LEFT-HANDED GIRL. Courtesy of Netflix. Cr. LEFT-HANDED GIRL FILM PRODUCTION CO, LTD © 2025.

Another busy week on The Movie Gourmet – new reviews of the wonderful family dramedy Left-Handed Girl, the layered character-driven drama Sentimental Value, and the witty and poignant Jay Kelly. Plus two recommended movies coming up on TV this week. And here are mini-capsules on some other current films and miniseries:

  • The American Revolution: The Ken Burns five-part documentary on PBS is excellent. I learned a lot, even after multiple college courses and much reading and podcast-listening on the subject. It’s not as thrilling as The Civil War or Baseball, nut its both important and very watchable. Watch on you TV’s PBS channel, the PBS YouTube channel or the PBS website.
  • Spinal Tap II: The End Continues: More of a fond tribute to the great This Is Spinal Tap than a sequel, this film returns the original stars with chuckles and the occasional guffaw. Some of the Biggest Names in music have cameos, and Elton John’s bits are the best. Valerie Franco adds a burst of energy as the band’s fearless new drummer. I treasure the original film, so I enjoyed most of this homage, but not all of these jokes work.
  • Being Eddie: Eddie Murphy tells his version of his life and career in this Netflix doc. He is an interesting guy, but this is a puff piece.

REMEMBRANCES

Udo Kier in MY NEIGHBOR ADOLF. Courtesy of Cohen Media Group.

Udo Kier proved that one can have a prolific career (275 IMDb credits) as a character actor in both art and cult cult movies. He worked with directors like Werner Rainier Fassbinder, Werner Herzog, Wim Wenders and Lars Von Trier, and in Hollywood films like Johnny Mneumonic, My Own Private Idaho, Armageddon, Halloween and Ace Venture: Pet Detective. His visage, scarier as he aged, worked well in horror movies. and he did many, beginning with Jim Morrisey’s Andy Warhol’s Frankenstein and Blood for Dracula. I’ll be writing about Kier’s last film, the very droll My Neighbor Adolf, when it comes out in January.

Lee Tamahori directed the intense and authentic Once Were Warriors, perhaps the best contemporary film on the Māori people and widely considered the greatest New Zealand film, and several Hollywood films, involving the James Bond Die Another Day. 

CURRENT MOVIES

ON TV

Edward Andrews and John McIntyre in THE PHENIX CITY STORY

On December 9, Turner Classic Movies will broadcast The Phenix City Story; gritty, crisp and unvarnished, it’s a jarring contrast to 1950s Ozzie and Harriett American culture. It’s impossible to imagine a film noir that is more “ripped from the headlines”. The Phenix City Story is one of my Overlooked Noir; it’s hard to find to stream, so set your DVR for TCM this week.

John Larch in THE PHENIX CITY STORY

And, on December 11, TCM will air a charming 2022 documentary that I had recommended during its blink-and-you-missed-it theatrical run – The Automat. It traces the fascinating seven-decade run of the marble-floored food palaces where one could put nickels in a slot and be rewarded with a meal. Filled with unexpected nuggets, The Automat gives voice to those nostalgic about the automat, but it is clear-eyed about why it didn’t survive. The Automat is the first film for director Lisa Hurvitz, who spent eight years on the project. 

THE AUTOMAT: Actress Audrey Hepburn photographed by Howard Fried in New York City as part of a multi-day photo shoot for Esquire magazine, 1951. Courtesy of A Slice of Pie Production

Movies to See Right Now (Thanksgiving Weekend edition)

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Photo caption: George Clooney in JAY KELLY. Courtesy of Netflix.

This week on The Movie Gourmet – a plug for my favorite romantic comedy of the year, The Baltimorons, a perfect watch-at-home choice for the Holidays.

I’ll soon post a new review of the George Clooney film Jay Kelly, which is a witty and poignant screen version of the Harry Chapin song Cat’s in the Cradle. I liked it, but you can wait until it streams on Netflix on the weekend after this one.

Thanksgiving weekend is a great time catch a prestige, or even movie, or even a popcorn movie at a movie theater. Recently, I’ve enjoyed some movies at my local multiplex equipped with Dolby’s ATMOS sound. ATMOS really enhanced the thrills in A House of Dynamite and One Battle After Another and the music in Frankenstein and Deliver Me from Nowhere. Look for it.

CURRENT MOVIES

Matthew McFadyen in DEATH BY LIGHTNING. Courtesy of Netflix.

ON TV

Turner Classic Movies is airing the 1962 version of Requiem for a Heavyweight. Anthony Quinn is Mountain Rivera, a fighter whose career is ended by a ring injury by Cassius Clay (played by the real Muhammad Ali). His manager, Jackie Gleason, continues to exploit him in this heartbreaking drama. Mickey Rooney, whose acting I usually despise, is real, natural and just perfect in this film. There’s no boxing in this clip, but it illustrates the quality of the writing and the acting.

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: Mohammed Ali Elyasmehr, Majid Panahi and Hadis Pakbaten in IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT. Courtesy of NEON.

This week on The Movie Gourmet, new reviews of It Was Just an Accident, which won the Palm d’Or at Cannes, and Richard Linklater’s tribute to the French New Wave, Nouvelle Vague.

We’re now in prime movie season, It Was Just an Accident, Frankenstein, A House of Dynamite, and One Battle After Another are all in theaters or on Netflix – and they’re all on my Best Movies of 2025 – So Far. Die My Love, with the year’s best acting performance, by Jennifer Lawrence, is in theaters, too

Eleanor the Great and One Battle After Another are now streaming on home video, although they’re still expensive to rent.

CURRENT MOVIES

Jeremy Allen White in DELIVER ME FROM NOWHERE. Courtesy of 20th Century Studios.

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: Jacob Elordi in FRANKENSTEIN. Courtesy of Netflix.

This week on The Movie Gourmet, new reviews of Jennifer Lawrence ablaze in Die My Love, the Netflix miniseries Death By Lightning and the artsy period allegory Harvest, to go with recent reviews of Frankenstein, A House of Dynamite, Deliver Me from Nowhere, Nuremberg and Blue Moon. The Palm d’Or winner at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, It Was Just an Accident, opens more widely today, so expect my review in the coming week; I’ve heard and read good things.

I will not be seeing Now You See Me Now You Don’t because the film’s trailer exposes the screenplay as stupefyingly lazy. Why would you have Woody Harrelson, born in 1961, putting down a kid born in the 2000s for using the word bummer, which came into wide use in the Hippie 1960s?

I also want to warn you off of The Summer Book, which you may see algorithm-recommended on your streaming platform and which I discussed in October.

REMEMBRANCE

Actor Tatsuya Nakadai starred in Akira Kurosawa’s two great color epics Ran and Kagemusha, and played the foil to Toshiro Mifune’s hero in Yojimbo.

CURRENT MOVIES

ON TV

THE LIFE OF BRIAN

On November 15, Turner Classic Movies airs one of the great satires, Monty Python’s Life of Brian, which brilliantly skewers Biblical epics, left-wing militants and political correctness, the origin story of Christianity, religion and human nature, generally. Life of Brian also makes my lists of Worst Teeth in the Movies and Least Convincing Movie Hair.

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: Oscar Isaac in FRANKENSTEIN. Courtesy of Netflix.

This week on The Movie Gourmet, new reviews of the psychodrama Nuremberg, Guillermo de Toro’s Frankenstein, and the clear-eyed biodoc Kissinger. Frankenstein, on Netflix today, and A House of Dynamite, still in theaters, are two of the Best Movies of 2025 – So Far.

I also highlighted this week’s TCM broadcast of Powwow Highway. If you missed it, you can find it on the Criterion Channel. Or, for another early indie with an Indigenous lens, you can watch Smoke Signals from 1998 on Amazon, Apple, YouTube and Fandango.

I also want to warn you off of The Summer Book, which you may see algorithm-recommended on your streaming platform and which I discussed in October.

REMEMBRANCE

Three-time Oscar nominee Diane Ladd is known for Chinatown, Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, Ghosts of Mississippi (she was a Mississippi native) and Primary Colors. She worked with her real life daughter Laura Dern in five movies, and in Rambling Rose, they became the first mom and daughter to be nominated for Oscars for the same movie. Early in her career, she appeared in Roger Corman’s biker exploitation film, The Wild Angels. 

CURRENT MOVIES

ON TV

Harold Russell, Dana Andrews and Frederic March in THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES

We all need to feel better about America, even if we have to go back to 1946 to justify it with Turner Classic Movies’ November 11 broadcast of The Best Years of Our Lives. One of the greatest movies of all time, The Best Years of Our Lives, is an exceptionally well-crafted, contemporary snapshot of post WW II American society adapting to the challenges of peacetime. It won seven Oscars. And it’s still a great and moving film. When Frederic March, immediately back from overseas, sneaks back into his apartment where Myrna Loy is washing the dishes, I dare you not to shed tears at her reaction.

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: Idris Elba in A HOUSE OF DYNAMITE. Courtesy of Netflix.

This week on The Movie Gourmet – two marvelously entertaining movies about depressives and am edge-of-your-seat movie about real people risking their lives for there families. To wit, I have new reviews of Richard Linklater’s Blue Moon with Ethan Hawke, the docudrama about Bruce Springsteen, Deliver Me from Nowhere, and the immigration thriller Roads of Fire.

I also want to warn you off of The Summer Book, which you may see algorithm-recommended on your streaming platform. An elementary school-age girl and her father, struggling with the death of her mother, spend the summer at her grandmother’s home on a tiny Finnish island. The grandmother (Glenn Close) always knows the right thing to do or say as the girl heals and comes of age. This is an adaptation of the 1972 novel by Finnish-Swedish author Tove Jansson, which is reputedly a great read.  Unfortunately, its literary merit isn’t translated to the screen. Close’s fine performance can’t save this slog. I checked the time after nothing had happened in the first 31 minutes, and decided to keep watching in case it turned out to be the most boring film I had ever seen. That most boring film ever remains Le Quattro Volte, but The Summer Book is a contender.

CURRENT MOVIES

ON TV

Robert Redford in DOWNHILL RACER

On November 2, Turner Classic Movies pay tribute to the late Robert Redford’s acting career by airing eight of his films: Downhill Racer, Barefoot in the Park, The Candidate, Jeremiah Johnson, All the President’s Men, The Sting, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and The Way We Were. With the exception of Barefoot in the Park, which I find dated, these are all excellent movies that stand up well today. The Candidate, Jeremiah Johnson and All the President’s Men are three of my personal favorite films.

Of course, Redford was important for being more than a fine actor. His very first effort at directing, Ordinary People, won the Best Picture Oscar. Redford’s biggest contribution was his developing the Sundance Institute and the Sundance Film Festival as incubators for other people’s independent filmmaking; that leveraged his own stardom to accelerate the careers of Steven Soderbergh, Quentin Tarantino, James Wan, Darren Aronofsky, Nicole Holofcener, David O. Russell, Ryan Coogler, Robert Rodriguez, Chloé Zhao and Ava DuVernay.

To celebrate his acting, I am recommending one of Redford’s earliest and less well-known roles, Downhill Racer. Redford plays Chappellet, a talented, competitive skier with a chip on his shoulder. He becomes a rookie on the US national ski team, where he remains a social outsider. To unleash his promise, his sensitive but no nonsense coach Claire (Gene Hackman) must penetrate the issues that make Chappellet a hitherto uncoachable diva. Redford and Hackman deliver fine performances This was the first feature film for then-television director Michael Ritchie, who followed Downhill Racer with Prime Cut, The Candidate, Bad News Bears and Semi-Tough.

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: Rebecca Ferguson in A HOUSE OF DYNAMITE. Courtesy of Netflix.

This week on The Movie Gourmet – new reviews of A House of Dynamite, one of the Best Movies of 2025 – So Far, and Urchin, which isn’t, and the droll, hard-to-find Austrian comedy Peacock. Plus a highlight of the campy horror movie The Tingler, on TV late tonight.

CURRENT MOVIES

  • A House of Dynamite: a master filmmaker reminds us of the terrifyingly plausible. In theaters and on Netflix.
  • Eleanor the Great: grief, an appalling lie, redemption. In theaters.
  • Anemone: resisting redemption. In theaters.
  • One Battle After Another: sometimes hilarious, sometimes thrilling, always outrageous. In theaters.
  • Peacock: a chameleon, lost. Limited release in select arthouses.
  • To a Land Unknown: no good choices. Amazon, AppleTV, Youtube.
  • To Kill a Wolf: mysteries revealed. Amazon, AppleTV, Fandango.
  • Urchin: no redemption here. In arthouse theaters.

ON TV

Evelyn Keyes (left) and Van Heflin (right) in THE PROWLER

On October 29, Turner Classic Movies brings us the 1951 film noir The Prowler stars the usually sympathetic good guy Van Heflin as the twisted bad guy.  Heflin is a beat cop responding to a call – a woman has reported a prowler outside her house. By the time Heflin and his partner arrive, the prowler is long gone, but Heflin is lusting after the comely woman (Evelyn Keyes), who is home alone every night because her husband works as an all-night DJ. Under the ruse of making sure that the prowler has vamoosed, Heflin returns and overcoming her reticence, seduces her. As befits a film noir, once he finds out about the husband’s insurance policy, sleeping with the guy’s wife just isn’t enough anymore.

It’s a strong screenplay, penned by the blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo (who also provides the voice of the DJ).  The Prowler is one of my Overlooked Noir.

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: June Squibb, Erin Kellyman and Chiwetel Ejiofor in ELEANOR THE GREAT. Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics.

This week on The Movie Gourmet – a new review of the astonishingly over-the-top One Battle After Another and a remembrance of an iconic actress. Don’t miss this week’s TV pick (below).

REMEMBRANCE

Diane Keaton in ANNIE HALL

The beloved Diane Keaton earned her status as a cinema icon with unforgettable performances in three of the 50 Greatest Movies of All Time. She won her Oscar her completely idiosyncratic portrayal of the title character in Annie Hall, my choice as the best romantic comedy ever. In The Godfather, her Kay Adams book ended the story of Michael Corleone, first accepting his “That’s my family, Kay, It’s not me.” and then ending the movie with the door to Michael literally closing in her face. The most searing moment in The Godfather Part II was Kay’s ferocity in telling Michael about a miscarriage that wasn’t. 72 more movies and three more Oscar nominations filled out Keaton’s 54-year screen career, but those three performances were indelible. A further note – my best pal in LA occasionally ran into Keaton around town, and she liked to dress like Annie Hall in real life.

CURRENT MOVIES

ON TV

Turhan Bey and Lynn Bari in THE SPIRITUALIST.

Here’s a rarity – on October 18, Turner Classic Movies brings us The Spiritualist (also The Amazing Mr. X), a 1948 B-picture that I hadn’t heard of until I saw it at last year’s Noir City in Oakland. It’s only 78 minutes long, and it’s a lot of fun. A cunning phony psychic (Turhan Bey) has convinced a wealthy widow that he can communicate with the dead, and she’s moved him into her mansion. Her world-wise daughter (Cathy O’Donnell) isn’t buying his act. But, while he is a con artist, he’s a really, really skilled one, and he pulls off illusion after illusion to keep the gullible widow believing – it’s like watching a magic show. The Spiritualist was shot by John Alton, one of the two greatest film noir cinematographers, and he makes the mansion extra spooky and the tricks extra sinister.

This was a rare leading role for Turhan Bey, and he makes a very charismatic charlatan, oozing suave charm and faux authority. Bey, an Austrian with a Turkish father and a Jewish Czechoslovakian mother, knocked around Hollywood playing exotic characters and never getting the lead in an A-picture. He has a very interesting Wikipedia page.

Cathy O’Donnell, Turhan Bey and Lynn Bari in THE SPIRITUALIST.