This week on The Movie Gourmet – new reviews of Challengers, Civil War and Ennio. It’s May, and we finally have two movies in theaters that will rank with 2024’s best: Challengers and La Chimera.
CURRENT MOVIES
- Challengers: three people and their desire. In theaters.
- La Chimera: six genres for the price of one. In arthouse theaters.
- Civil War: a most cautionary tale. In theaters.
- Ennio: the good the bad and the transcendent. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube.
- Matter of Mind: My Parkinson’s: real, uplifting, essential. On PBS and the PBS App.
- Monkey Man: a massacre, one bad guy at a time. In theaters.
- The Taste of Things: two passions – culinary and romantic. Amazon, AppleTV.
- Golden Years: when dreams diverge. Amazon, Vudu, YouTube.
WATCH AT HOME
The most eclectic watch-at-home recommendations you’ll find ANYWHERE:
- The August Virgin: in search of reinvention. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
- Leave No Trace: his demons, not hers. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
- Pale Flower: bracing neo-noir. Criterion.
- Eye in the Sky: thriller meets thinker. Max, Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
- Poser: personal plagiarism. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
- Brian Wilson: Long Promised Road: a genius opens up. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
- Witness to Murder: can she believe her own eyes? AppleTV.
- The Rider: a life’s passion is threatened. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
- The Lost City of Z: the historical adventure revived. Amazon (included with Prime), AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
ON TV
On May 16, Turner Classic Movies features one of my Overlooked Noir, Pitfall (1948), a noir thriller without either a conventional sap or a conventional femme fatale. Dick Powell plays a WW II vet who is bored with the post-war suburban humdrum, and Lizabeth Scott plays a gal with terrible taste in boyfriends. Neither deserves to be dragged into a thriller, but they are. Raymond Burr, again, makes for a menacing sicko stalker.
