movie gourmet

MAN ON THE TRAIN: an unlikely bonding

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Photo caption: Jean Rochefort and Johnny Hallyday in MAN ON THE TRAIN.

The engrossing 2002 French drama Man on the Train centers on portraits of two very different men, and, ultimately, an unexpected male bonding. There’s a thriller ending because each man has been moving to his separate pivotal, life-or-death moment.

The titular character (Johnny Hallyday), whose name we come to learn is Milan, arrives in a small provincial town, and his accommodations fall through. The local literature teacher Manesquier (Jean Rochefort) insists on putting him up for the night. Milan, a very private man of fewer than few words, accepts the favor only reluctantly. He’s a solitary guy anyway, and he’s keeping a low profile because his local business matter is illegal. Manesquier, who lives a lonely bachelor existence, has a lot to say and no one to say it to. He is delighted to have someone to share company, and he is even more fascinated when he discovers that Milan is a career criminal.

Driven by Manesquier’s curiosity, and against Milan’s initial wishes, the two get to know each other. We know that the clock is ticking for one man, but we don’t appreciate that it my be ticking for both.

Man on the Train works so well because of the casting and the performances.

Jean Rochefort was a chameleonic fixture in French cinema. Man on the Train was Rochefort’s 130th movie at age 72, and he would go on to make 36 more. I recently wrote of Rochefort’s performance forty years before as a particularly amoral character with a reptilian smugness in Symphony for a Massacre.

Johnny Hallyday, in contrast, was not most well-known as a screen actor, but as a pop singer, the French Elvis. Ironically, Hallyday’s first film was as a child in the suspense classic Diabolique, which also was his best film; like Elvis Presley, Hallyday dabbled in an indifferent movie career. Halliday made 78 music videos with Johnny Hallyday in the title. He was known as a hard-living tabloid celebrity. When he made Man on the Train, Hallyday was 59 and had some serious mileage on him. Yet, his magnetism is compelling in Man on the Train.

Man on the Train was directed by Patrice Leconte (Monsieur Hire, The Widow of St. Pierre, The Suicide Shop).

Man on a Train can be streamed from Amazon, AppleTV, Fandango and YouTube.

CHEVALIER – male competitiveness, brilliantly skewered

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CHEVALIER. Photo courtesy of Strand Releasing and SFFILM.

To celebrate this week’s opening of SFFILM, here’s a gem from the 2016 SFFILM, Athina Rachel Tsangari’s Chevalier, a sly and pointed exploration of male competitiveness, with the moments of drollness and absurdity that we expect in the best of contemporary Greek cinema. Tsangari is bringing her newest film Harvest, starring Caleb Landry Jones and Harry Melling, to to the 2025 SFFILM.

In Chevalier, six guys are taking a holiday week on a yacht in the Aegean Sea. Each has his own stateroom, and the crew includes a chef. They spend their days scuba diving, jet skiing and the like. After a post-dinner game of charades, one suggests that they play Chevalier, a game about “Who is best overall?”. Of course, men tend to be competitive, and their egos are now at stake. The six guys began appraising each other, and their criteria get more and more absurd. “How many fillings do you have?”

In one especially inspired set piece, the guys race each other to construct IKEA bookcases, which results in five phallic towers on the boat’s deck (and one drooping failure). Naturally, some of the guys are obsessed with their own erections, too.

Athina Rachel Tsangari, director of CHEVALIER . Photo courtesy of SFFILM.

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.

I saw Chevalier at the 59th San Francisco International Film Festival (SFFILM), where I pegged it as the Must See of the fest. (In 2011, Tsangari brought her hilariously offbeat Attenberg to SFFILM.)

Make sure you get the 2015 Greek Chevalier, not the 2023 Hollywood bodice-ripper.

Unfortunately, in the Bay Area, Chevalier only got a blink-and-you’ve-missed-it release in 2016. Chevalier is now available to stream from Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube and Fandango.

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: Catrinel Marlon and Vlad Ivanov in THE WHISTLER. Courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.

This week on The Movie Gourmet – I’m busy preparing for the San Francisco and San Luis Obispo film festivals that dominate my Aprils. Just like last week, the best six new movies are documentaries; five are about musical, performance and visual artists and the sixth is about a psycho killer. I’ve also highlighted The Whistlers, a neo-noir thriller currently free on Max. Here are my film festival previews:

Reminder: A Complete Unknown now rents for under $6 on Amazon and is free on Hulu. You can also pay more to watch it on AppleTV, YouTube and Fandango.

CURRENT MOVIES

ON TV

Steve McQueen and Ali MacGraw in THE GETAWAY

Tomorrow, Turner Classic Movies presents The Getaway, a 1972 crime thriller starring the charismatic Steve McQueen and his real-life squeeze Ali MacGraw.  McQueen and MacGraw are delightful to watch as they move between violent clashes and double- and triple-crosses. As befits a Sam Peckinpah film, there’s an intense shootout at the end.  The grossly underrated character actor Al Lettieri (Sollozzo the Turk in The Godfather) gets to play perhaps his most delicious villain; when he comes across a oddly matched married couple – the nubile Sally Struthers and the nerdy Jack Dodson (county clerk Howard Sprague in The Andy Griffith Show). Lettieri layers on some glorious sexual perversity.  

Speaking of character actors, we also get to enjoy the crew of Peckinpah favorites: Ben Johnson, Slim Pickens, Dub Taylor, Bo Hopkins and Richard Bright. My friend Sandy lets Ali McGraw’s lack of acting range get in the way of enjoying The Getaway, but IMO Al Lettieri more than makes up for it.

Sally Struthers, Al Lettieri and Jack Dodson in THE GETAWAY

First look at the 2025 SLO Film Fest

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Photo caption: Neil Young in COASTAL. Courtesy of the SLO Film Festival.

The 2025 SLO Film Fest opens on April 24 and celebrates its 31st festival, bringing its characteristic mix of aspirational cinema and sheer fun to California’s Central Coast. This year’s slate is an intoxicating mix of US and international indies and festival hits fresh from their premieres at Sundance and SXSW. Plus the richest program of surf and skate films of any mainstream film festival. The fest will run through April 29.

This is the first festival since the the SLO Film Center came into being as a collaboration of the SLO Film Festival and the Palm Theatre. Fittingly, the Palm will be showcasing some films and celebrity appearances, with the festival’s biggest events at the Fremont theatre. As usual, most screenings will take place at the Downtown Centre 7. One surfing-oriented feature will screen at the Bay in Morro Bay.

Jay Duplass appearing at the SLO Film Fest, Courtesy of the SLO Film Festival.

Here are festival highlights:

  • The opening night film is the Sundance Audience Award winner, DJ Ahmet.
  • The closing night film will be Coastal, Daryl Hannah’s documentary of the latest Neil Young concert tour. Both Neil Young and Daryl Hannah are expected to appear in person.
  • Director Jay Duplass will appear in person to receive an award and present his SXSW hit The Baltimorons.
  • The biodoc Bob Mackie: A Naked Illusion, with the fashion designer Bob Mackie in attendance for a Q&A at the Palm..
  • The Oscar-nominated documentary Porcelain War.
  • The always popular Surf Night featuring three surfing short films with gnarly waves. Expect the Fremont to be packed again with surfers enjoying drinks in the lobby and the Riff Tide surf band before the screening.
  • Skating culture is celebrated with the second annual Community of Skate – skate films, a panel of pro skaters and skate filmmakers, and a skateboard design exhibition.

There’s plenty more, with features, workshops and six programs of shorts. I’m screening my way through the program, and will post my MUST SEE recommendations before the fest opens. Peruse the program and get your tickets at SLO Film Fest.

DJ AHMET. Courtesy of the SLO Film Festival.

THE WHISTLERS: walking a tightrope of treachery

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Photo caption: Catrinel Marlon and Vlad Ivanov in THE WHISTLER. Courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.

In the absorbing crime thriller The Whistlers, Cristi (Vlad Ivanov) is a shady Romanian cop who is lured into a dangerous plot by the rapturously sexy Gilda (Catrinel Marlon) and the promise of a fortune. A lethal Spanish mafia is planning a Perfect Crime to recover the loot stolen by Gilda and her Romanian partner, Zsolt. Only Zslot knows where the treasure is, and he’s been jailed by Cristi’s colleagues. To beat the omnipresent surveillance of Romanian state security, Cristi is sent to La Gomera, an island in the Spanish Canary Islands to learn a whistling language.

A whistling language? Indeed, residents of La Gomera can communicate by whistling in code. The language is called Silbo Gomera and it was already being used in ancient Roman times. The whistling can be heard for up to two miles, which allows the locals to communicate across the impassable ravines on the mountainous island.

The plan to spring Zsolt depends on Cristi learning Silbo Gomera and then implementing an intricate plan in which nothing can go wrong. Even if the plan goes right, Cristi and Gilda run the very real risk of being killed by the pitiless Spanish mafia or by the corrupt and unaccountable Romanian cops. Cristi and Gilda are walking a tightrope of treachery.

Vlad Ivanov in THE WHISTLERS. Courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.

The Whistlers is written and directed by Corneliu Porumboiu, who is a master of the deadpan. Two of his earlier films became art house hits in the US, 12:08 East of Bucharest and Police, Adjective. Both of those films explored fundamental corruption in Romanian society as a legacy of the communist era..

Cristi is played by Romanian actor Vlad Ivanov. Ivanov is best known for the Romanian masterpiece 4 Days, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, in which he played one of cinema’s most repellent characters – Mr. Bebe, the sexual harassing abortionist. American audiences have also seen Ivanov’s performances in Police, Adjective and Snowpiercer.

Ivanov excels in playing Everyman piñatas, which serves him well in The Whistlers. Ivanov delivered a tour de force in the 2019 Cinequest film Hier, as a man more and more consumed by puzzles, and increasingly perplexed, dogged, battered and exhausted.

For The Whistlers to work, Catrinel Marlon must make Gilda quick-thinking and gutsy, and she pulls it off. She is very good, as is Rodica Lazar as Cristi’s coldly ruthless boss Magda.

This is a Romanian film with dialogue in Romanian, English, Spanish and, of course, whistling. The Whistlers, a top notch crime thriller, can be streamed from Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube and Fandango – and it’s currently included with Max.

First look at the 2025 SFFILM Festival

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Photo caption: Josh O’Connor and Lily LaTorre in Max Walker Silverman’s REBUILDING, screening at the 2025 SFFILM. Courtesy of SFFILM.

This year’s San Francisco International Film Festival (SFFILM) opens April 17, and runs through April 27. SFFILM Festival is the longest-running film festival in the Americas, and this year’s fest is the 68th. The Premier Theater at One Letterman will host the Opening, Centerpiece and Closing Nights, and most screenings will take place at the Marina Theatre and the Presidio Theatre. Screenings and events will also take place at BAMFA in Berkeley and at seven other San Francisco venues.

The menu at SFFILM Festival includes 150 films from more than 50 countries. Peruse the program and buy tickets at SFFILM.

Here are some of the more special elements of this year’s SFFILM Festival :

  • Opening night with Max Walker-Silverman’s Rebuilding, a drama starring Josh O’Connor (Challengers, La Chimera, The Crown) as a man whose resilience is challenged by the devastation of wildfires.
  • Actor André Holland will appear to receive a tribute and to showcase his new film Love, Brooklyn. Holland also appears in another SFFILM film, The Dutchman.
  • Director Chris Columbus will appear to receive a tribute and host a screening of his 2005 musical drama Rent.
  • Greek director Athina Rachel Tsangari, who brought her her hilariously offbeat Attenberg and her wickedly funny Chevalier to previous SFFILM fests, is here again with her latest, Harvest, starring Harry Melling and Caleb Landry Jones.
  • SFFILM celebrates the treasured Roxie Theater with its 30-yar-old Mel Novikoff Award and a Roxie screening of Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon, in the year of that movie’s 75th anniversary,
  • One of the deepest documentary sections in recent memory, including fourteen US and thirteen international features.
  • Horror retrospective with The Babadook, Carnival of Souls, They Live, Chain Reactions and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
  • Movies starring Marlee Maitlin, Josh O’Connor, Kate Mara, Andre Holland, Ben Foster, Chloe Sevigny, Danielle Deadwyler, Marina Foïs, Caleb Landry Jones, Harry Melling and Simon Rex.

As usual, I’ll be looking for under-the-radar gems and posting my recommendations just before the fest’s opening

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: George Clinton in WE WANT THE FUNK. Courtesy of Firelight Films.

This week on The Movie Gourmet – new reviews of the insightful Andy Kaufman biodoc Thank You Very Much, the delightful music doc We Want the Funk and the indie drama Nora. The best six new movies are documentaries; five are about musical, performance and visual artists and the sixth is about a psycho killer.

A Complete Unknown now rents for under $6 on Amazon and is free on Hulu. You can also pay more to watch it on AppleTV, YouTube and Fandango.

REMEMBRANCE

Richard Chamberlain (right) in THE THREE MUSKETEERS with Michael York, Oliver Reed and Frank Findlay.

Richard Chamberlain burst into the culture as TV’s dreamy Dr. Kildare, went to the English stage to hone his acting skills and returned to dominate the genre of television miniseries with Centennial, Shogun and The Thornbirds. Chamberlain made his share of movies, and my favorite is his role as Aramis in Richard Lester’s The Three Musketeers and The Four Musketeers.

CURRENT MOVIES

ON TV

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Charles McGraw and Marie Windsor in THE NARROW MARGIN

On April 6, Turner Classic Movies will present The Narrow Margin, a taut 71 minutes of tension from my Overlooked Noir. Growly cop Charles McGraw plays hide-and-seek with a team of hit men on a claustrophobic train. Marie Windsor is unforgettable as the assassins’ target. McGraw and Windsor’s performances are first-rate, and their hardboiled dialogue is terrific. Director Richard Fleisher, early in his career, imaginatively stages the woman-hunt up and down the tight corridors and compartments of the moving train. I just rewatched The Narrow Margin at Noir City in January, and it’s still a masterpiece.

WE WANT THE FUNK: Tear the Roof Off the Sucker

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Photo caption: George Clinton in WE WANT THE FUNK. Courtesy of Firelight Films.

The delightful We Want the Funk is as far from an eat-your-broccoli documentary a you can get. Directors/producers Stanley Nelson and Nicole London explain the musical essence, history, and socio-political context of Funk without taking any of the fun out of it. Because the very raison d’être of Funk is to make you want to move your body, this is an especially enjoyable watching experience.

We see the evolution of Funk, beginning with James Brown, Sly and the Family Stone and Parliament/Funkadelic. We Want the Funk traces influence from the Black church and Funk’s legacy impacts on Afrobeat and Hip-hop.

We hear from musicians, like the always playful George Clinton, and scholars, including my favorite musicologist and cultural historian, Questlove. We Want the Funk drills deep to explain James Brown’s weaponization of the one-beat and Sly and the Family Stone bassist Larry Graham’s innovative slap. And how elements of Funk were absorbed by Brits like Elton John, who was stunned when Bennie and the Jets topped the US R&B charts.

We Want the Funk emphasizes the moment when Black music mirrored Black attitudes and sensibilities, as the Civil Rights Era morphed into Black Power. There was a political subtext to Dance to the Music. Motown acts had made sure that their appearance and behavior appealed to mainstream (i.e., White) audiences. Adopting a newly Afro-confident starting point, Funk music didn’t care how Whites reacted (although Whites, being humans, have embraced it, too).

Thank You Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin. PBS begins airing We Want the Funk April 8 on Independent Lens. It will become available on the PBS app and PBS YouTube beginning April 9th.

NORA: navigating a world she never expected to inhabit

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In the highly original indie drama Nora, a singer-songwriter (Anna Campbell, who also wrote and directed) leaves the music industry to return to her hometown, along with her precocious six-year-old daughter. Her confidence rocked by her life changes, she is now the new gal in a society run by her former high school classmates. Her feelings are reflected in her songs, dropped in throughout the movie,

The crux of Nora is the portrait of an accomplished woman navigating a world she never expected to inhabit, not to mention again finding herself at the mercy of high school Mean Girls. Campbell’s screenplay genuinely captures the vulnerabilities of solo parenting and career change.

I found two of the minor characters to be unrealistically perfect, but Campbell resists the cliche of having Nora hook up with the sensitive, supportive guy.

The songs, written by Noah Harmon (formerly The Airborne Toxic Event), are outstanding. Campbell shows a knack for directing music videos.

The kid actor, Sophie Mara Baaden (Anna Campbell’s real life daughter) is very good. Lesley Ann Warren has a cameo as Nora’s judgy, stifling mom; Warren has been working steadily in the four decades since Mission: Impossible and Victor/Victoria, amassing 136 IMDb screen credits, and it’s great to see her here, too.

I screened Nora for its world premiere at Cinequest. It opens April 4th at the Living Room Theaters in Portland.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH: provocateur explained

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Photo caption: Andy Kaufman in THANK YOU VERY MUCH. Courtesy of Drafthouse Films.

Andy Kaufman was an original, whose art always confounded the expectations of others. The fine biodoc Thank You Very Much both reminds us of Kaufman’s gifts and explains the roots of his offbeat, often bizarre humor..

Director Alex Braverman takes us to Kaufman’s formative childhood and the parental lie that shaped much of his psyche. We hear from Kaufman’s dad, his creative partner Bob Zmuda and Andy’s girlfriend Lynne Margulies. Friends Danny Devito, Marilu Henner and Steve Martin pop in, too.

Kaufman was a prankster and a provocateur, so much so that, when a woman suffered a fatal heart attack on stage, the audience suspected that it might be a part of Kaufman’s act; (it wasn’t).

And what about his notorious wrestling wrestling against women? It’s the most controversial element of Kaufman’s work and the most inexplicable. Thank You Very Much sheds important light on this obnoxious performance art.

And here’s a delightful nugget – we even get to learn the origin of Latka’s accent on Taxi.

Thank You Very Much is in theaters, with filmmaker appearances at several LA theaters this week. You can also stream it on Amazon and AppleTV.