In Live at the Foxes Den, a disillusioned young lawyer leaves the pressures from his law firm and his bitchy princess of a girl friend and becomes the lounge singer at a downscale tavern. It’s a vehicle for Twilight star Jackson Rathbone, whose voice is indeed good enough to play a member of the Parisian mob in Les Miserables. Unfortunately, the story’s arc is pretty predictable, and it’s completely unbelievable that this guy is a promising lawyer. Screenwriter Jack Holmes wrote the best role for himself as the tavern’s bitter alcoholic house pianist.
Pretty lame overall, Live at the Foxes Den might be worth streaming just so you can fast forward to one subversively funny scene, where the pianist disrupts an AA meeting with an infectious rendition of What Do You Do with a Drunken Sailor.
Live at the Foxes Den is available streaming from Amazon (free on Amazon Prime), iTunes and Vudu.
Alan Arkin, Eva Marie Saint and Carl Reiner in THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING! THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING!
One of my favorites comedies is the still timely satire on the Duck and Cover Era, the 1966 The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!. At the height of the Cold War, a Soviet nuclear submarine runs aground and is trapped just off a tiny New England coastal village, and the crew sends a party ashore to heist a boat. The landing party encounters a vacationing American family and the two groups must work together to find a solution to help the sub escape without igniting World War III.
The superb cast includes Carl Reiner, Eva Marie Saint, Jonathan Winters and Alan Arkin in his breakthrough performance. Although it primarily satirizes the paranoia of the Cold War, there are plenty of laughs sparked by small town New England, family dynamics, teen love and the recurring joke of the town drunk with his reluctant horse.
I watch The Russians Are Coming! every other year or so, and it still holds up. Besides showing regularly on Turner Classic Movies, The Russians Are Coming! is also available to streaming from Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu and YouTube.
Vilmos Zsigmond: He was known as a champion of natural light in filmmaking, a major contribution that he and fellow Hungarian László Kovács brought to Hollywood in the late 1960s. Zsigmond shot The Deer Hunter, Deliverance and Close Encounters of the Third Kind,and was nominated for four Oscars, winning for Close Encounters. Read my Vilmos Zsigmond remembrance for recommendations on one of his overlooked masterpieces and a film ABOUT his art, along with several of his striking film images and a link to an excellent essay by Sheila O’Malley.
George Kennedy (left) in COOL HAND LUKE
George Kennedy: Won his Oscar for Cool Hand Luke (remember the bet on eating boiled eggs?). Kennedy’s performances were essential elements of The Dirty Dozen, The Eiger Sanction and one of my guilty pleasures, Bandolero! He labored in episodic TV for years until the mid 1960s when he triumphed in those singular supporting roles in war movies, cop movies and Westerns. His career peaked throughout the mid 1970s, when he was cast in all of the big disaster movies.
Alan Rickman in EYE IN THE SKY
Alan Rickman, the reliable British actor most well-known for playing Snape in the Harry Pottter movies, left us a supremely textured performance in this year’s Eye in the Sky, layered with the character’s wry humor, contained frustration and quiet determination.
Gene Wilder (left) in YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN
Gene Wilder: Star of perhaps the funniest movie of all-time, The Producers. And star and CO-WRITER of another comedy classic, Young Frankenstein.
Frank Finlay in THE THREE MUSKETEERS
Frank Finlay: The British character actor had 137 screen credits, but was talented enough to earn an Oscar nod for playing Iago to Laurence Olivier’s Othello. As recently as 2002, he played the father in The Pianist. But I am a huge fan of Richard Lester’s immensely entertaining The Three Musketeers (1973) and The Four Musketeers (1974), and Finlay’s Porthos was a major ingredient in the fun.
Abe Vigoda: We remember him for one of The Godfather’s most unforgettable lines, “Luca Brasi sleeps with the fishes”.
Jacques Rivette: The prolific French director with one great masterpiece, La Belle Noiseuse (1991); that movie is almost four hours long, yet transfixing.
Robert Vaughn: The icy actor left a body of work with 226 screen credits, mostly on television. He was nominated for a Supporting Actor Oscar for The Young Philadelphians, but I think his most enduring feature film role was as one of The Magnificent Seven. Of course, for us Baby Boomers, Vaughn will always be remembered as Napoleon Solo in the Bond spy spoof The Man from U.N.C.L.E., which absolutely dominated television briefly in the mid-1960s.
Leon Russell: The band leader in the groundbreaking concert movies Mad Dogs and Englishmen and The Concert for Bangladesh. (The Concert for Bangladesh, organized by George Harrison, was the first big benefit concert with a collection of mega-stars.) You can enjoy lots of unfiltered 1972-74 Leon, both on- and off-stage in the documentary A Poem is a Naked Person.
Visit my Best Movies of 2016for my list of the year’s best films, complete with images, trailers and my comments on each movie – as well as their availability to rent on DVD and to stream. My top ten movies for 2016 are:
Hell or High Water
Manchester by the Sea
Toni Erdmann
Elle
La La Land
Eye in the Sky
Chevalier
Weiner
Frank & Lola
Take Me to the River
The other best films of the year are:
The Handmaiden
OJ: Made in America
Green Room
And these three would be on my list if they had been made widely available to US audiences through release in theaters or on video:
The Memory of Water
Magallanes
Lost Solace
Note: I haven’t yet seen Paterson, Fencesor 20th Century Women.
Caset Affleck and Lucas Hedges in MANCHESTER BY THE SEA
Myrna Loy in THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES – the second best wife ever
Happy Anniversary to The Wife, also known as Lisa The Love of My Life!
Once again, she tolerated my spending huge chunks of time at Cinequest, the San Francisco International Film Festival, Noir City, the SF Jewish Film Festival and the Mill Valley Film Festival.
We shared some of my favorite movie experiences this year.
She accompanied me to see Eye in the Sky at Cinequest, Our Kind of Traitor at SFIFF and Robert Klein Still Can’t Stop His Leg at SFJFF.
Together, we power-binged through The Bridge, The Night Manager, Luther and The Crown.
Because she picks the Friday night movies, I get to tease her about the dogs like The Girl on the Train without giving her credit for the good ones like The Hollars. And when she insisted – disregarding my opinion that this was not the movie for her – on watching Mad Max: Fury Road, I didn’t respond to her question, “Why am I watching this?”.
I’m always hoping, hoping, hoping that she’ll enjoy MY choice for her to watch, so I was completely gratified by her LOLs during Man Up.
And, of course, she teases me for “the Romanian abortion movie”, “the Icelandic penis movie” and “the Ukrainian deaf movie”.
She’s the biggest fan and supporter of this blog, and I appreciate her and love her. Happy Anniversary, Honey!
You can spend New Years Day watching football OR you can tune into Turner Classic Movies for OVER TWENTY-FOUR HOURS OF ALFRED HITCHCOCK. Seven out of Hitchcock’s best eight films are on tap: Rope, Strangers on a Train, The Birds, Psycho, Vertigo, RearWindow and Shadow of a Doubt. (Only North by Northwest is missing.)
Because Hitchcock was known for the “psychological” thriller, look for John Dall playing the classic narcissist in Rope and Robert Walker playing the most creepily functional psychopath in Strangers on a Train. If I had to pick just one Hitchcock classic to watch tomorrow, it would be Rear Window.
TCM is also mixing in some not-so-great Hitchcock for those of you who are curious (or obsessive): Torn Curtain, The Man Who Knew Too Much, Family Plot, Marnie and The Trouble with Harry.
This blog exists because I’m an evangelist for outstanding films that may be overlooked by people who will appreciate them. You don’t need ME to tell you that Loving and La La Land are good movies. What’s important to me is that you don’t miss the less well-known gems:
The character-driven crime drama Hell or High Water has topped my list of Best Movies of 2016 – So Far since I saw it on Labor Day Weekend. It’s now available to rent on DVD from Netflix and to stream from Amazon Instant, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.
Chevalier is a sly and pointed exploration of male competitiveness. Director Athina Rachel Tsangari is obviously a keen observer of male behavior. Both men and women will enjoy laughing at male behavior taken to extreme. I sure did. Chevalier is perhaps the funniest movie of 2016, and it’s on my list of Best Movies of 2016 – So Far. I’m hoping that its popularity explodes now that it’s available to rent on DVD from Netflix and to stream from Netflix Instant, Amazon Instant, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.
The Hollars is an unabashed crowd pleaser with a great cast, especially the irreplaceable Margot Martindale.
San Jose native Matt Sobel’s impressive directorial debut Take Me To the River is entirely fresh. Not one thing happens in Take Me to the River that you can predict, and it keeps the audience off-balance and completely engaged. You can stream Take Me to the River on Amazon Instant, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play or rent the DVD from Netflix.
NUTS!is the persistently hilarious (and finally poignant) documentary about the rise and fall of a medical and radio empire – all built on goat testicle “implantation” surgery in gullible humans.
The highly original documentary Towerretells the story of a famous mass shooting without dwelling on the shooter.
All the Way is a thrilling political docudrama with a stellar performance. It’s 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.
These three Cinequest films haven’t gotten an US release, either in theaters or on video. But they are excellent enough to make my list of the year’s best. Here’s hoping that you will be able to see them soon, too. Stay tuned, and I’ll let you know.
The Memory of Water: This Chilean drama explores grief, its process and its impact, and was the most masterful filmmaking achievement at Cinequest 2016. Exquisite.
Magallanes: Another Cinequest film, this Peruvian psychological drama is about those wrongs that cannot be righted.
Lost Solace: Writer-director Chris Scheuerman’s brilliant debut is a highly original psychological thriller. Premiered at Cinequest.
Andrew Jenkins in Chris Scheuerman’s brilliant debut LOST SOLACE
Manchester by the Sea: MUST SEE. Don’t miss Casey Affleck’s career-topping performance in the emotionally authentic drama .
Elle: MUST SEE (but increasingly hard to find in theaters). A perverse wowzer with the year’s top performance by Isabelle Huppert. Manchester by the Sea is #2 and Elle is #4 on my Best Movies of 2016.
Loving: The love story that spawned a historic Supreme Court decision.
Mascots: the latest mockumentary from Christopher Guest (Best in Show) and it’s very funny. Mascots is streaming on Netflix Instant.
The Eagle Huntress: This documentary is a Feel Good movie for the whole family, blending the genres of girl power, sports competition and cultural tourism.
Also in theaters or on video:
Despite a delicious performance by one of my faves, Michael Shannon, I’m not recommending Nocturnal Animals.
Arrival with Amy Adams, is real thinking person’s sci-fi. Every viewer will be transfixed by the first 80% of Arrival. How you feel about the finale depends on whether you buy into the disconnected-from-linear-time aspect or you just get confused, like I did.
The remarkably sensitive and realistic indie drama Moonlightis at once a coming of age tale, an exploration of addicted parenting and a story of gay awakening. It’s almost universally praised, but I thought that the last act petered out.
Skip the dreary and somnolent Jackie – Natalie Portman’s exceptional impersonation isn’t enough.
If you’re interested in the Japanese actor Toshiro Mifune or cinema in general (and can still find the movie in a theater), I recommend the documentary Mifune: The Last Samurai.
My DVD/Stream of the Week picks are, for the rest of 2016, this year’s best films that are already available on video: Hell or High Water, Eye in the Sky, Chevalier, Weiner, Take Me to the River and Green Room.
For New Year’s Week, Turner Classic Movies is bringing us some great choices:
December 31st – Lawrence of Arabia: it’s time to revisit a spectacle. For decades, many of us watched this epic squeezed into tinny-sounding TVs. In 1989, I was fortunate enough to see the director’s cut in an old movie palace. Now technology has caught up, and modern large screen HD televisions can do justice to this wide screen classic. Similarly, modern home sound systems can work with the great Maurice Jarre soundtrack. Nobody has ever created better epics than director David Lean (Bridge Over the River Kwai, Dr. Zhivago). Peter O’Toole stars at the moment of his greatest physical beauty. The rest of the cast is unsurpassed: Omar Sharif, Jose Ferrer, Anthony Quinn, Anthony Quayle, Claude Rains, Arthur Kennedy, thousands of extras and entire herds of camels. The vast and severe Arabian desert is a character unto itself. Settle in and watch the whole thing – and remember what “epic” really means.
December 31st – Some Like It Hot: This Billy Wilder masterpiece is my pick for the best comedy of all time. Seriously – the best comedy ever. And it still works today. Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon play most of the movie in drag (and Tony is kind of cute). Curtis must continue the ruse although he’s next to Marilyn Monroe at her most delectable. Curtis then dons a yachting cap and does a dead-on Cary Grant impression as the heir to an industrial fortune. Joe E. Brown gets the last word with one of cinema’s best closing lines.
January 3rd – Cool Hand Luke, with Paul Newman as an iconic 1960s anti-hero, a charismatic supporting performance by George Kennedy, the unforgettable boiled egg-eating contest and the great movie line “What we have here is a failure to communicate”.
And on New Years Day, all you non-football fans can tune into TCM to binge-watch Alfred Hitchcock’s Rope, Strangers on a Train, The Birds, Psycho, Vertigo, Rear Window, Shadow of a Doubt, Torn Curtain, The Man Who Knew Too Much, Family Plot, Marnie and The Trouble with Harry.
How to Run a Chain Gang and Influence People in COOL HAND LUKE
The most fun on this blog this year was the reader reaction to my recommendation of Man Up: I’ve never had so many people thank me for recommending a movie! This British romantic comedy had a very brief US theatrical run last November that did not even reach the Bay Area. Man Up is available to stream from Netflix Instant, Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube, Google Play and Flixster.
This year I covered FIVE film festivals:
Cinequest: My favorites were premieres of the debut films Lost Solace and Heaven’s Floor.
San Francisco International Film Festival (SFIFF): My favorites were Chevalier, Weiner and Frank & Lola, and I especially enjoyed taking the wife to a screening of Our Kind of Traitor with director Susanna White.
International Film Festival of North Hollywood (IFFNOHO): especially Gazelle: The Love Issue.
San Francisco Jewish Film Festival (SFJFF): My favorite film was the upcoming television miniseries False Flag, but I most enjoyed accompanying The Wife to a screening of Robert Klein Still Can’t Stop His Leg with Robert Klein.
Mill Valley Film Festival: Was lucky enough to see Toni Erdmann.
Andrew Jenkins in Chris Scheuerman’s brilliant debut LOST SOLACE
I’m in my fourteenth year of the Camera Cinema Club, and this year’s highlight was Take Me to the River by San Jose filmmaker Matt Sobel – it made my year-end top ten!
And, of course, I always love Noir City, and the best night this year featured The Bitter Stems and Girl with Hyacinths.
Every year I watch a zillion movies on Turner Classic Movies, and this year I discovered a Buster Keaton masterpiece that I hadn’t seen: TCM Seven Chances.
Finally. I got the chance to take The Wife and our adult kids to see It’s a Wonderful Life on the big screen at the Stanford Theatre’s Christmas Eve screening. Hard to top that.
I go to the movies to be thrilled, provoked and exhilarated, and I’m looking forward to what 2017 will bring.
