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
- Frankenstein: who is the real monster? In theaters and on Netflix.
- A House of Dynamite: a master filmmaker reminds us of the terrifyingly plausible. Netflix.
- Blue Moon: wit and vulnerability. In theaters.
- Deliver Me from Nowhere: a genius works out his issues. In theaters.
- Nuremberg: matching wits with a master manipulator. In theaters.
- Eleanor the Great: grief, an appalling lie, redemption. In theaters.
- One Battle After Another: sometimes hilarious, sometimes thrilling, always outrageous. In theaters.
- Kissinger: he sought to justify the means. PBS, American Experience website and YouTube channel.
- To a Land Unknown: no good choices. Amazon, AppleTV, Youtube.
- To Kill a Wolf: mysteries revealed. Amazon, AppleTV, Fandango.
ON TV
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.