Movies to See Right Now

Joe
I like the dark and violent Joe with Nicholas Cage and young Tye Sheridan of Mud.   The Unknown Known, master documentarian Errol Morris’ exploration of Donald Rumsfeld’s self-certainty, is a Must See for those who follow current events.

You can still find Jake Gyllenhaal’s brilliant performance in two roles in the psychological thriller Enemy. Like all Wes Anderson movies, The Grand Budapest Hotel is wry and imaginative, but it’s not one of his most engaging. Dom Hemingway is a fun and profane romp. In the most bizarro movie of the year so far, Under the Skin, Scarlett Johansson plays an alien who lures men with her sensuality and then harvests their bodies; it’s trippy, but I found it ultimately unsatisfying.

I liked Run & Jump, now available streaming on Amazon, iTunes, Google Play, YouTube and Xbox Video. It’s successful as a romance, a family drama and a promising first feature.

My DVD/Stream of the Week is Martin Scorsese’s funniest film, The Wolf of Wall Street, in which the sales meetings make the toga party in Animal House look like an Amish barn-raising. The Wolf of Wall Street is available on DVD from Netflix and Redbox and streaming from Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube, Google Play and Xbox Video.

This week Turner Classic Movies is showing one of my all-time favorites, the noir mystery Laura, with the detective (Dana Andrews) falling in love with the murder victim he has never met (the lustrous Gene Tierney); Clifton Webb steals the show with a brilliantly eccentric supporting turn. TCM is also showing perhaps the greatest Western movie, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, a mature John Ford’s contemplation of all those shoot ’em ups from earlier in his career; it features James Stewart and John Wayne, along with Andy Devine, Woody Strode, Vera Mills, Edmond O’Brien and Lee Marvin. And speaking of the Duke, in The Shootist, he plays an aged gunslinger dying of cancer at the end of the Old West; poignantly, Wayne himself was fighting cancer himself and The Shootist was his final film.

Movies to See Right Now

Rumsfeld: unruffled by the Errol Morris documentary treatmentThe Unknown Known, master documentarian Errol Morris’ exploration of Donald Rumsfeld’s self-certainty, opens widely today. It’s a Must See for those who follow current events.

You can still find Jake Gyllenhaal’s brilliant performance in two roles in the psychological thriller Enemy. Like all Wes Anderson movies, The Grand Budapest Hotel is wry and imaginative, but it’s not one of his most engaging. Dom Hemingway is a fun and profane romp.

My DVD/Stream of the Week is the well-paced, well-acted and intelligent sci-fi adventure fable The Hunger Games: Catching Fire with Jennifer Lawrence. HG: Catching Fire is available on DVD from Netflix and Redbox and streaming from Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube, Google Play and Xbox Video.

Tune up your TiVo – this is a particularly strong week for Turner Classic Movies.  There are two of the best comedies of all time – My Man Godfrey and Sullivan’s Travels.   An essential element in film noir is a guy’s lust for a Bad Girl driving him to a Bad Decision, and when John Garfield first sees Lana Turner in The Postman Always Rings Twice, you can tell that he’s hooked.  And there’s that guilty pleasure, Shaft; it’s not a good movie, but it always makes me wish that I had my own theme song.

John Garfield's first look at Lana Turner in THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE
John Garfield’s first look at Lana Turner in THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE

Movies to See Right Now

Actually, there’s no MUST SEE in theaters right now, but here are three pretty good movies, plus a recent hit and an overlooked classic.

Jake Gyllenhaal is brilliant in two roles in the psychological thriller Enemy.  Like all Wes Anderson movies, The Grand Budapest Hotel is wry and imaginative, but not one of his most engaging.  Just out today, Dom Hemingway is a fun and profane romp.

My DVD/Stream of the Week is the gloriously entertaining American Hustle.  Amid an all-star cast, I think that Jeremy Renner, Jennifer Lawrence and Louis C.K. steal the show. American Hustle is now available on DVD from Netflix and streaming from Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.

Reportedly, James Garner and Julie Andrews have each tagged the biting anti-war satire  The Americanization of Emily as their favorite movie, and Turner Classic Movies will be playing it on April 6.

Finally, baseball season has begun, so it’s time to check out this wonderfully mad movie list: Bob Calhoun’s Zombies in the Outfield and Cats in the Owners’ Box: The Top Ten Odd and Overlooked Baseball Movies for RogerEbert.com.

Enemy: Gyllenhaal plus Gyllenhaal equals…

enemy
In the psychological thriller Enemy, a guy finds out that he has an exact physical double – down to their voices and the scars on their bellies. He can’t resist looking up and meeting his twin, which unleashes some unanticipated consequences.

One guy is a tweedy college professor, kind and introspective. His doppelganger is an actor who doesn’t filter his own venal self-interest. Essentially, the difference between these two  is that one guy has a conscience and the other guy doesn’t.  They are both played by Jake Gyllenhaal.

The physical similarities even confound their partners (Sarah Gadon and Melanie Laurent).   Gadon’s performance is especially compelling in a scene when she first meets an amiable guy who doesn’t know her, but physically seems to be her husband.  Yeesh.

The key to Enemy’s surpassing the gimmick of double casting is that Gyllenhaal’s performance is so brilliant.  The difference between the two characters is so subtle.
You always know which guy you’re watching, but, other than wardrobe, it’s often hard to figure out how we can tell – it’s just in Gyllenhaal’s carriage, the occasional gesture and the hint of rapaciousness in the one character’s eyes.

Enemy is not completely literal and realistic.  Be prepared for some large and startling creatures that you will not expect.

Director Denis Villenueve knows how to deliver suspense and thrills, as he did in my top movie of 2011, Incendies, and in last year’s underrated thriller Prisoners, (also with Gyllenhaal).  Enemy isn’t as good as those films, but it’s an entertaining and mildly thought-provoking thriller.