This week, I recommend Sound of Metal (Amazon, included with Prime) and Bruce Springsteen’s Letter to You (Netflix). I’ll be writing about both of them soon. Sound of Metal will be going on my list of Best Movies of 2020.
REMEMBRANCE
Christopher Plummer has died at age 91. I loved him in his Oscar-winning performance in Beginners and in 2019’s Knives Out. One of the great Shakespearean stage actors of his generation, Plummer’s TV and movie career, with its 372 screen credits, eclipses the adjective “prolific”. Plummer, of course is best known for that beloved movie that I despise (as did he for decades), The Sound of Music. Plummer elevated some fine movies in his supporting roles: The Man Who Would Be King, Jesus of Nazareth. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Here’s his NYT obit.
ON VIDEO
- Mayor: potholes and tear gas, all in a day’s work
- MLK/FBI: about America then and about America today. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.
- Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer: a good man tracks down evil. Netflix.
- Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom: searing, with an electric performance. Netflix.
- The Personal History of David Copperfield: Dickins alive, at last. Amazon, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.
- Another Round: Humanity buzzed. Amazon.
- Mank: biting the hand. Netflix.
- One Night in Miami: four icons share one pivotal moment. Amazon.
- My Psychedelic Love Story: Errol Morris and the unreliable narrator. HBO.
- Martin Eden: Jack London in an art film (link goes live soon). Laemmle.
- The Mystery of D. B. Cooper: the hijacking that keeps on giving. HBO.
- Belushi: more texture to the story that you already know. Showtime.
- Ammonite: When the slow burn is a dud. Amazon.
- On the Rocks: waste of talent. AppleTV.
- The Prom: airy confection. Netflix.
ON TV
On February 15, Turner Classic Movies airs the romantic French musical The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964). Innovative writer-director Jacques Demy had the actors sing all of the dialogue. Umbrellas is also notable for the breakout performance by then 20-year-old Catherine Deneuve; and an epilogue scene at a gas station – one of the great weepers in cinema history.
