This week on The Movie Gourmet – it’s time to reset after the Oscars. I’m finishing up my Cinequest coverage; the festival starts on Tuesday, and I’ll be rolling out my fest preview and individual reviews, starting Sunday.
There’s no more excuse for missing big 2024 movies, including the big Oscar winner, Anora. They’re all available to watch at home for under $6, except for The Brutalist ($20) and A Complete Unknown ($25), which are now streaming but pricey. I haven’t yet seen Nickel Boys, Sing Sing and Flow, but they’re also available on inexpensive VOD.
Alternatively, you could honor Gene Hackman by watching The Conversation (Criterion, Paramount, Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango). It’s right up there with The French Connection as Hackman’s best performance and his best movie.
CURRENT MOVIES
- Anora: human spirit vs the oligarchs. In theaters and Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
- A Complete Unknown: a genius and his time. In theaters and Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
- The Last Showgirl: desperation amid the rhinestones. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
- The Brutalist: buffeted by fate, can his soul survive? In theaters and Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango..
- Hard Truths: trapped inside her own rage. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango..
- The Room Next Door: Tilda and Julianne, life and death. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
- Conclave: explosive secrets? in the Vatican?. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
- A Real Pain: whose pain is it? Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
- Sly Lives! (aka The Burden of Black Genius): rise, fall and legacy of a groundbreaking prodigy. Hulu.
- Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl: another smart and charming romp. Netflix.
- Emilia Pérez: four women yearn amid Mexico’s drug violence. Netflix.
ON TV
Don’t miss Turner Classic Movies March 11 airing of Seven Chances. I thought that I knew the work of Buster Keaton, but somehow I had never seen Seven Chances until a few years ago. It features a phenomenal, 26-minute chase scene that rates with the very best in cinema history – What’s Up Doc?, The French Connection, Bullitt!, Raiders of the Lost Ark and Keaton’s own The General.
Keaton’s character publishes a public offer of marriage and gets way more takers than he can handle. There’s a very funny scene where he sits in a church to reflect on his situation and woman after woman seats herself next to and around him; he is oblivious to the fact that each of them is there to marry HIM. The church fills up with prospective wives, and, 30 minutes into the movie, he flees, with a horde of veiled would-be brides in pursuit. The chase is on.
Keaton is off and running and running and running, in a ridiculously long sprint though the city’s downtown and rail yards and into the hills. Amazingly, he did all of his own stunts, including leaping over an abyss and being swung around by a railroad crane. His race with a cascade of falling boulders is pure genius. You keep asking yourself, “How did they perform that stunt with 1925 technology?”
Keaton understood the comedic power of excess, and the sheer magnitude of the frustrated brides is hilarious I think I can see the inspiration for the hundreds of crashing cars at the end of The Blues Brothers.
When he made Seven Chances in 1925, Keaton was only 30 years old and had just directed his first feature two years before. He had just made the classics Sherlock, Jr. and The Navigator in 1924. He was about to make his masterpiece The General in 1926 and Steamboat Bill, Jr. in 1928. Talking pictures changed the industry in 1929, and Keaton signed a disastrous contract with MGM in 1930. Keaton was to direct only three more features in his career (all unaccredited). MGM took away his artistic freedom, and no studio kingpin knew what to do with him in the talking era. Keaton took to drink and went dark for decades.
