Turner Classic Movies

Movies to See Right Now

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Jared Leto and Matthew McConaughey (both Oscar-nominated) in DALLAS BUYERS CLUB.
Jared Leto and Matthew McConaughey (both Oscar-nominated) in DALLAS BUYERS CLUB.

Oscar nominees Nebraska, American Hustle and Her all made my Best Movies of 2013.  I also strongly recommend Best Picture nominees The Wolf of Wall Street and Philomena.  Dallas Buyers Club, with its splendid performances by Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto, is formulaic but still a pretty good watch.

Not nominated, but pretty damn good, is The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, another fine thriller from that franchise, with another amazing performance by Jennifer Lawrence. I also admire the compelling French drama The Past. And I also like the Mumblecore romance Drinking Buddies, now available on VOD.

I haven’t yet seen the Oscar Nominated Live Action Shorts, but I’m gonna because they’re always good.

I’m not a fan of Disney’s Saving Mr. Banks (sentimental and predictable) or the Coen Brothers’ Inside Llewyn Davis (about an unlovable loser – and I didn’t love the movie, either).

My DVD/Stream of the Week features Philip Seymour Hoffman in Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead. Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead is available on DVD from Netflix and streaming from Hulu.

Turner Classic Movies has launched its wonderful annual 31 Days of Oscar – filling the entire month with Oscar-nominated movies. This week I recommend two wickedly funny Preston Sturges films – The Great McGinty (inside workings of a corrupt political machine) on February 10 and The Lady Eve (con artist Barbara Stanwyck tries to land the clueless but wealthy Henry Fonda) on February 11. TCM is also cablecasting the Howard Hawks screwball comedy Ball of Fire, with Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck, on February 11.

Coming up on TV – two JFK classics

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Cliff Robertson in PT 109

So it’s almost the 50th anniversary of the JFK assassination, and we’re being bombarded by Kennedybilia.  But I recommend two JFK films on Turner Classic Movies – the documentary Primary and the biopic PT 109 .  [I’m also highly recommending the 2013 day-of-the-assassination movie Parkland, available now streaming on VOD]

Primary (November 21) documents the Wisconsin Democratic primary election campaign in 1960.  This was a key stepping stone in Kennedy’s road to the White House because it was a chance for him to demonstrate that he appealed to voters outside the Northeast.  Kennedy’s rival Hubert Humphrey was favored because Wisconsin neighbors Humphrey’s home state of Minnesota.  Primary is both a time capsule of 1960 politics and an inside look at the Kennedy family unleashed in a campaign.  There’s an amazing scene where Humphrey appeals to a handful of flinty farmers in a school gym – he’s giving his all and he ain’t getting much back.  Only 60 minutes long, Primary has been selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.   The great documentarian D.A. Pennebaker, who went on to direct Monterey Pop and The War Room, shot, edited and recorded sound for Primary.

As 26-year-old PT boat commander in WWII, JFK was a real life war hero.  Some scolds deride PT 109 (November 21) as hagiography, but I don’t buy it – when things went bad, he acted heroically indeed and bore the health effects for the rest of life.  PT boats were essentially light wooden speed boats just big enough to hold some torpedoes and some depth charges on top of a tank of extremely combustible aviation fuel.  The commanders needed to maneuver the PT boat close enough to fire the torpedoes at a Japanese warship while avoiding return fire that would certainly be lethal .  No wonder the PT units were nicknamed  “They were expendable”.  It’s good history and an exciting true life action tale.  Cliff Robertson plays the young JFK.

 

Movies to See Right Now

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THE SPECTACULAR NOW

This week’s MUST SEE is the powerfully authentic coming of age film The Spectacular Now – don’t miss it.  Better yet, take your teens!

Along with The Spectacular Now, the emotionally powerful Fruitvale Station and the compelling Danish drama The Hunt are on my list of Best Movies of 2013 – So Far.

The droll indie comedy Prince Avalanche opens today (and is also streaming on VOD).   I haven’t yet seen Lee Daniels’ The Butler, a major release which also opens today.  You can read descriptions and view trailers of it and other upcoming films at Movies I’m Looking Forward To.

The jaw-dropping documentary The Act of Killing, an exploration of Indonesian genocide from the perpetrators’ point of view, is the most uniquely original film of the year.

Woody Allen’s very funny Blue Jasmine centers on an Oscar-worthy performance by Cate Blanchett.

My other recommendations:

  • The rock documentary 20 Feet from Stardom, essential for music fans.
  • Another rock doc, A Band Called Death with the story of three African-American brothers in Detroit inventing punk rock before The Ramones and The Sex Pistols – and then dropping out of sight for decades.
  • the satisfying shocker The Conjuring.
  • The HBO documentary Casting By, which reveals an essential ingredient in filmmaking.

Also out right now:

  • I Give It a Year – a British rom com with a twist.
  • The Irish horror comedy Grabbers, which fails to deliver on a great premise.

My DVD/Stream of the Week is the intelligent drama The Place Beyond the Pines with Ryan Gosling and Bradley Cooper.  The Place Beyond the Pines is available on DVD from Netflix and streaming from Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, GooglePlay and other VOD providers.

On August 21, Turner Classic Movies will air the iconic Sam Peckinpah Western The Wild Bunch, with stellar performances by William Holden, Robert Ryan and Ernest Borgnine.  Watch for two of my favorite character actors – Warren Oates and Ben Johnson – as the Gorch brothers.  Other beloved members of Peckinpah’s repertory company in The Wild Bunch include L.Q. Jones, Dub Taylor and Strother Martin.

Movies to See Right Now

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FRUITVALE STATION

This week’s MUST SEES are The Hunt – the best movie of 2013 so far – and the emotionally powerful Fruitvale Station.  The Hunt is likely out for only one more week.

Woody Allen’s very funny Blue Jasmine centers on an Oscar-worthy performance by Cate Blanchett.

I haven’t yet seen Amanda Seyfried and Peter Sarsgaard in the porn star biopic Lovelace.  You can read descriptions and view trailers of it and other upcoming films at Movies I’m Looking Forward To.

My other recommendations:

  • The rock documentary 20 Feet from Stardom, essential for music fans.
  • Another rock doc, A Band Called Death with the story of three African-American brothers in Detroit inventing punk rock before The Ramones and The Sex Pistols – and then dropping out of sight for decades.
  • the satisfying shocker The Conjuring.
  • The HBO documentary Casting By, which reveals an essential ingredient in filmmaking.
  • Another HBO documentary, The Cheshire Murders, which takes us beyond the familiar police procedural.

Also out right now:

This week, there’s no DVD/Stream of the Week – get out to see The Hunt and Fruitvale Station!

On August 11, Turner Classic Movies is featuring Henry Fonda movies, including his iconic performances in Mister Roberts and The Grapes of Wrath.  But I also like the oft overlooked comedy A Big Hand for a Little Lady, where Fonda plays a pioneer who has lost almost everything in a poker game and then becomes ill just when he is dealt a very promising hand; his wife (Joanne Woodward) must decide whether to hold ’em or fold ’em.

Movies to See Right Now

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THE HUNT

This week’s MUST SEES are The Hunt – the best movie of 2013 so far – and the emotionally powerful Fruitvale Station.  The Hunt is likely out for only one more week.

I haven’t yet see Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine, which opens today with very positive buzz.  You can read descriptions and view trailers of it and other upcoming films at Movies I’m Looking Forward To.

My other recommendations:

Also out right now:

This week, there’s no DVD/Stream of the Week – get out to see The Hunt and Fruitvale Station!

On August 7, Turner Classic Movies is showing the under appreciated 1954 film noir Pushover, with Fred MacMurray as a rogue cop trying to steal a criminal’s girlfriend and loot – and then escape from his pals on the force.

Movies to See Right Now

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THE HUNT

This week’s MUST SEE is The Hunt – the best movie of 2013 so far.

I haven’t yet see the critically acclaimed heart breaker Fruitvale Station, which also opens today.  You can read descriptions and view trailers of upcoming films at Movies I’m Looking Forward To.

My other recommendations:

Also out right now:

  • the gross-out comedy This is the End, which has its moments.
  • There’s cleverness in the psychological thriller Berberian Sound Studio, but just not enough thrills for a thriller.
  • Also out on VOD, Nancy, Please is a dark comedy about neurotic obsession among the over-educated. Not that funny.
  • Neither is the VOD comedy Bert and Arnie’s Guide to Friendship.
  • Do not see the wretched crime thriller Only God Forgives, which I’ll write about next week.

My most recent DVD/Stream of the Week picks are the unintentionally hilarious Troll 2 and the documentary about it, Best Worst Movie.  Troll 2 is available streaming on Amazon, iTunes and Vudu.  Best Worst Movie is available on DVD from Netflix and streaming on Amazon, iTunes and Vudu.  You can see some of the finer bits of Troll 2 by doing a YouTube search for “You can’t piss on hospitality” and “Troll 2 O my God”.

On August 1, Turner Classic Movies is showing In a Lonely Place, an under appreciated film noir.  Two of my favorite classic stars, Humphrey Bogart and Gloria Grahame, each deliver one of their signature performances.  Bogie plays a screenwriter with a drinking problem and a volatile temper – exactly the perpetrator profile for a local murder; good time girl Grahame wants to fall for him…and things will go better if he’s innocent.

June movie doldrums

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FAST & FURIOUS 6

Yeeesh.  The pickings are slim in theaters.  For example, take this one local multiplex that usually offers some appealing films for adults.  This week, it is devoting all sixteen of its screens to the 2D and 3D versions of After Earth, Epic, The Hangover: Part III, The Great Gatsby, Star Trek Into Darkness, Fast & Furious 6, Now You See Me and Iron Man 3.  I’ve seen the flashy, hollow and lame Gatsby.

I don’t want to see any of the others.  Fast and Furious 6 is supposed to be pretty entertaining, but it’s just not my kind of movie.  Same with the fantasy Epic.  Now You See Me is getting critically trashed, but nothing like After Earth and The Hangover: Part III, which are battling for recognition as the year’s very worst film.

The indie that is opening widely this weekend is Frances Ha, but after Greenberg and Damsels in Distress, I am never sitting through another annoying Greta Gerwig movie.

Alas, Sarah Polley’s superb documentary Stories We Tell is gone after a mere two week run in local theaters. Thank God for The East.

So, what is a movie junkie to do?  Fortunately, there are some fine choices on TV, especially with TCM’s June noir festival and HBO’s upcoming summer documentary series (including Casting By), plus some promising films coming out on VOD.

And we can wait for some good stuff later this summer, among them the indie heartbreaker Fruitvale Station, the Brie Larson star-maker Short Term 12, Pedro Almodovar’s I’m So Excited, and Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine.  I’ve already seen the brilliant teen coming of age film The Spectacular Now, which is on my Best Movies of 2013 – So Far.  You can read descriptions and watch trailers of upcoming films at Movies I’m Looking Forward To.

TCM’s June feast of noir

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Humphrey Bogart in THE MALTESE FALCON (1941)

It’s more than a film fest, it’s a feast of film noir.

This June, Turner Classic Movies’ Friday Night Spotlight will focus on Noir Writers.  The guest programmer and host will be San Francisco’s Eddie Muller, founder and president of the Film Noir Foundation.  The Foundation preserves movies from the traditional noir period that would otherwise be lost.  It also sponsors Noir City, an annual festival of film noir in San Francisco, which often plays newly restored films and movies not available on DVD.  (My favorite part is Noir City’s Thursday evening Bad Girl Night featuring its most memorable femmes fatale.)

Muller (the Czar of Noir) has selected films from the work of noir novelists.  Friday night, he kicks off with films from the novels of Dashiell Hammett: the 1931 and more famous 1941 versions of The Maltese Falcon, plus the 1936 version (Satan Met a Lady) and After the Thin Man and The Glass Key.  (Muller informs us that Hammett pronounced his first name da-SHEEL.)

On June 14, Muller continues with the work of David Goodis, The Burglar, The Burglars, The Unfaithful, Shoot the Piano Player and Nightfall.  (You may have seen Goodis’ Dark Passage with Bogie and Bacall.)

On June 21, we’ll see films from the novels of Jonathan Latimer (Nocturne, They Won’t Believe Me) and James M. Cain (Double Indemnity, The Postman Always Rings Twice).

TCM and the Czar of Noir wrap up on June 28 with movies from the novels of Cornell Woolrich (The Leopard Man, Deadline at Dawn) and Raymond Chandler (Murder My Sweet, The Big Sleep, Lady in the Lake, Strangers on a Train).

These two movies aren’t part of the Friday night series, but on June 11, TCM features two of the nastiest noirs:  Detour and The Hitchhiker.

Set your DVR and settle in for dramatic shadows, sarcastic banter and guys in fedoras making big mistakes for love, lust and avarice.

Anne Bancroft and Aldo Ray in NIGHTFALL

Coming Up on TV: 3 noir classics

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OUT OF THE PAST

On May 7, Turner Classic Movies is broadcasting three classics of film noir.

You really haven’t sampled film noir if you haven’t seen Out of the Past (1947).  Perhaps the model of a film noir hero, Robert Mitchum plays a guy who is cynical, strong, smart and resourceful – but still a sap for the femme fatale…played by the irresistible Jane Greer.  Greer later reported that she received this guidance from director Jacques Tourneur: “First half of the picture – good girl.  Second half – bad girl.”  Kirk Douglas plays The Bad Guy You Don’t Want to Mess With, emanating a mix of evil and power.  With Out of the Past, Tourneur crafted one of the most dramatically lit and photographed noirs – not one puff of cigarette smoke goes uncelebrated.

THE ASPHALT JUNGLE

In The Asphalt Jungle (1950), the crooks assemble a team and pull off the big heist…and then things begin to go wrong.  There aren’t many noirs with better casting – the crooks include Sterling Hayden, Louis Calhern, Sam Jaffe and James Whitmore.  The 23-year-old Marilyn Monroe plays Calhern’s companion in her first real speaking part.  How noir is it? Even the cop who breaks the case goes to jail.  Directed by the great John Huston.

Every police procedural from 1948 through today’s Law and Order and CSI owes something to the prototypical The Naked City (1948). Tenacious New York City cops solve a murder amid gritty streets and shady characters. Unusual for the time, it was shot on location.   Directed by noir great Jules Dassin, The Naked City won Oscars for black and white cinematography and film editing.

THE ASPHALT JUNGLE

The Prowler: Van Heflin takes a dark turn

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Van Heflin (right) in THE PROWLER

On April 30, Turner Classic Movies will be broadcasting the oft overlooked 1951 film noir The Prowler, starring 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).  Heflin sheds his usual decency to cast a predatory eye at another man’s wife and stuff.   This isn’t the Double Indemnity film noir sap who does the bidding of the femme fatale; it’s all his idea, and she just triggers his rapaciousness.  Keyes plays a woman who wants to pretend she’s on the level, but kinda knows what’s going on.

And of course, the cop has figured out how to get away with the scheme…except for one thing.

The Prowler has been restored by the Film Noir Foundation and the UCLA Film & Television Archive.  It’s an underrated noir thriller.