While we are gathered – or NOT gathered – with family this Thanksgiving, I recommend 2020’s best family film, Driveways. It’s high on my list of the Best Movies of 2020 – So Far, and I hope it doesn’t get lost among the prestige movies poised for Holiday release.
This is the FINAL WEEKEND for Noir City International – coming TO YOUR HOME with great classic movies that you can’t find anywhere else. Please take advantage of this very rare opportunity through November 29.
ON VIDEO
Driveways: I can’t think of a more authentic movie about intergenerational relationships than this charming, character-driven indie. The more I think about Driveways, the more I admire it. It also features the final performance – so genuine and subtle – by Brian Dennehy. Driveways is available to stream on all the major platforms.
She Is the Ocean: In this visually stunning documentary, fearless and high-achieving women celebrate the oceans in science and sport. Now streaming at Laemmle’s.
The most eclectic watch-at-home recommendations you’ll find ANYWHERE:
- The Trail of the Chicago 7: This really happened in America
- My Octopus Teacher: an octopus and her human pet
- David Byrne’s American Utopia: a most human vibe
- The Artist’s Wife: she finds her gifts
- Dick Johnson Is Dead: funny, heartfelt and frequently bizarre
- Sibyl: trashy, but in that sly and expert French way.
- #Alive: A Korean Home Alone with zombies.
ON TV
On Thursday and Friday, Turner Classic Movies presents a Hitchcock-a-thon: Rear Window, The Man Who Knew Too Much, The Birds, Psycho, Rope, The Lady Vanishes, Strangers on a Train, Saboteur, Torn Curtain, Marnie, The Trouble with Harry and Shadow of a Doubt.
What a lineup – festooned by some of the most iconic American movies, like Psycho, Strangers on a Train, Rear Window and The Birds! The most overlooked may be Shadow of a Doubt, with its great performances by Joseph Cotten and Teresa Wright. And it was shot in Santa Rosa.
In the second-earliest of these films, Saboteur, the wonderful character actor Norman Lloyd got to play the villain; 78 years later, Lloyd is still alive at age 106 – and still a great raconteur.
