Movies to See Right Now (at home)

Frances McDormand in NOMADLAND. Photo courtesy of Searchlight Pictures.

This week: the best film of 2020, Nomadland, is streaming. Recenty catching up to Nomadland, Sound of Metal, Mayor and Black Bear allowed me to finalize my Best Movies of 2020.

ON VIDEO

Nomadland: The fierce authenticity of Frances McDormand’s performance and Chloé Zhao’s genius with nonprofessional actors illuminates this extraordinary film with humanity. Streaming on Hulu.

Minari: This autobiographical drama of family cohesion is set in the immigrant experience. Streaming from various VOD providers.

Other current films:

ON TV

Lee Remick and Jack Lemmon in DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES

On February 28, Turner Classic Movies airs Days of Wine and Roses, Blake Edwards’ unflinching exploration of alcoholism, featuring great performances by Jack Lemmon and Lee Remick (both nominated for Oscars) and Charles Bickford.

Movies to See Right Now

THE BIG SICK
THE BIG SICK

After a long and boring drought, there is finally an appealing menu of movie choices in theaters:

  • Baby Driver is just an action movie, but the walking, running and driving are brilliantly time to the beat of music.
  • The Journey is a fictional imagining of a real historical event and is an acting showcase for Colm Meaney and Timothy Spall as the two longtime blood enemies who collaborated to bring peace to Northern Ireland.
  • Okja, another wholly original creation from the imagination of master filmmaker Bong Joon Ho, is streaming on Netflix and opening in theaters.
  • The delightfully smart and character-driven Israeli comedy The Women’s Balcony with a community of traditional women in revolt. The longer you’ve been married, the funnier you’ll find The Women’s Balcony.
  • The character-driven suspenser Moka is a showcase for French actresses Emmanuelle Devos and Nathalie Baye.
  • The bittersweet dramedy The Hero has one thing going for it – the wonderfully appealing Sam Elliott.

My DVD/Stream of the Week is the darkly realistic Western Dead Man’s Burden.   Dead Man’s Burden is available on DVD from Netflix and streaming from Amazon, iTunes, Vudu and Google Play.

Tonight on TV, Turner Classic Movies presents Raw Deal (1948), with some of the best dialogue in all of film noir, a love triangle and the superb cinematography of John Alton.

Later this week on July 11, TCM offers the very best Orson Welles Shakespeare movie, Chimes at Midnight.

And on July 12, TCM airs Days of Wine and Roses, Blake Edwards’ unflinching exploration of alcoholism, featuring great performances by Jack Lemmon and Lee Remick (both nominated for Oscars) and Charles Bickford.

Lee Remick and Jack Lemmon in DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES
Lee Remick and Jack Lemmon in DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES

Movies to See Right Now

Ryan Gosling in THE NICE GUYS
Ryan Gosling in THE NICE GUYS

  • Something for everyone in theaters this week:
    Love & Friendship – a sharply witty adaptation of a Jane Austen story with an adept turn by Kate Beckinsale.
  • The Nice Guys – Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe in a very funny mismatched buddy movie from the creator of the Lethal Weapon franchise.
  • A Bigger Splash – a sensual travelogue turned comedy turned thriller with a raucous and oft-naked performance by Ralph Fiennes.

You can find the best movie out right now on HBO.  It’s All the Way, the story of President Lyndon Baines Johnson, warts and all, ending official racial segregation in America with the Civil Rights Act of 1964.  Bryan Cranston brings LBJ alive as no actor has before.

Here’s what you want in a disaster movie: 1) a really impressive disaster and 2) lots of suspense about which of the main characters will survive. My Stream of the Week, the Norwegian The Wave, successfully delivers on both counts. It’s available to stream from Amazon Video, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube, Google Play and a variety of TV PPV outlets.

June 3 is Billy Wilder Day on Turner Classic Movies, which features some wonders from my favorite writer-director: Some Like It Hot, Double Indemnity, Days of Wine and Roses and Five Graves to Cairo. Everyone recognizes Some Like It Hot and Double Indemnity as masterpieces, but I want to highlight Wilder’s very successful second film as a director – Five Graves to Cairo is a combo spy mystery and war film set in Nazi-overrun North Africa. Franchot Tone, Anne Baxter and Erich Von Stroheim star. The cast also includes two of my favorite character actors, Akim Tamiroff and Peter van Eyck.

Franchot Tone, xxx and XXX in FIVE GRAVES TO CAIRO
Franchot Tone, Anne Baxter and Erich Von Stroheim in FIVE GRAVES TO CAIRO

Movies to See Right Now

Leonardo DiCaprio in THE REVENANT
Leonardo DiCaprio in THE REVENANT

Let’s begin with six choices from my Best Movies of 2015:

  • 45 Years with Charlotte Rampling’s enthralling Oscar-nominated performance.
  • The Revenant, an awesome and authentic survival tale that must be seen on the BIG SCREEN.  I predict that The Revenant will be the biggest winner at the Oscars.
  • Creed, the newest and entirely fresh chapter in the Rocky franchise; it’s about the internal struggle of three people, not just The Big Fight.
  • The Irish romantic drama Brooklyn is an audience-pleaser with a superb performance by Saoirse Ronan.
  • Spotlight – a riveting, edge-of-your-seat drama with some especially compelling performances.
  • The Big Short – a supremely entertaining thriller – both funny and anger-provoking.

Plus two more good choices:

  • The Hateful Eight, a Quentin Tarantino showcase for Samuel L. Jackson, Walton Goggins and Jennifer Jason Leigh, but a movie that’s not for everyone.
  • Carol – a vividly told tale of forbidden love.

I’m not a fan of Joy or The Danish Girl.

My Stream of the Week is the French drama In the Name of My Daughter, which uses three characters to probe the themes of obsession and betrayal. In the Name of My Daughter is available to stream from iTunes, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.

It’s a really solid week at Turner Classic Movies. February 7 brings us Days of Wine and Roses, a hard-hitting and authentic exploration of alcoholism with Lee Remick and Jack Lemmon. On February 8, we can watch the Bogie and Bacall noir Key Largo with a career highlight performance by the Queen of the Bs, Claire Trevor. And on February 11, TCM presents TWO versions of the melodrama The Letter, the more famous 1940 version with Bette Davis and the rarely seen 1929 version with Jeanne Eagels, the emotions-on-her-sleeve actress who died from a heroin overdose just after filming The Letter.

Jeanne Eagels in THE LETTER
Jeanne Eagels in THE LETTER

Movies to See Right Now

Alicia Viksander inEX MACHINA
Alicia Viksander inEX MACHINA

The one MUST SEE in theaters is the intensely thoughtful Ex Machina. Far from the Madding Crowd, is a satisfying choice for those looking for a bodice ripper. If you’re looking for a scare, try the inventive and non-gory horror gem It Follows.

Documentarian Alex Gibney now has TWO excellent films playing on HBO:

  • Going Clear: The Prison of Belief, a devastating expose of Scientology is playing on HBO; and
  • Sinatra: All or Nothing at All, an especially well-researched and revelatory biopic of Frank Sinatra.

Don’t bother with Clouds of Sils Maria – it’s a muddled mess. Insurgent, from the Divergent franchise is what it is – young adult sci-fi with some cool f/x. The romance 5 to 7 did NOT work for me, but I know smart women who enjoyed it.

My DVD/Stream of the Week is The Imitation Game – an Oscar-nominated historical film about the corrosiveness of secrets. It’s available on DVD from Netflix and streaming on Amazon Instant Video, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube, Google Play and Xbox Video.

Turner Classic Movies has programmed Cabaret, with Liza Minelli and a stunningly original performance by Joel Grey, on May 17. On May 19, TCM airs Days of Wine and Roses, Blake Edwards’ unflinching exploration of alcoholism, featuring great performances by Jack Lemmon and Lee Remick (both nominated for Oscars) and Charles Bickford.

Lee Remick and Jack Lemmon in DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES
Lee Remick and Jack Lemmon in DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES