movie gourmet

RETURN TO SEOUL: brilliantly crafted and emotionally gripping

by

Photo caption: Park Ji-min in RETURN TO SEOUL. Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics.

As the brilliantly crafted and emotionally gripping Return to Seoul opens, we meet a free-spirited young woman (Park Ji-min) with the decidedly non-Korean name Frederique Benoit. Freddie is French, having been adopted from Korea by a French couple as an infant. Freddie doesn’t speak Korean, doesn’t know anything about Korean culture, and is only in Korea because of a last minute pivot from some disrupted vacation travel.

Freddie travels for pleasure and loves to party – and party hard. She is certainly NOT prepared for a quest to find her biological parents, but an acquaintance gives her a tip, and she can’t resist following up. What follows is an exceptional and unpredictable personal journey told in four segments – the second five years after the first, the third and fourth just a year or two apart.

Return to Seoul features a screenplay without any hint of cliché and a stunning breakthrough performance by its lead actress.

Freddie is brash, impulsive and unfiltered. Her feelings about the circumstances of her adoption are authentic and complicated. She doesn’t seem either needy or resentful – but what is beneath the surface? After all, she does have a visceral distaste for celebrating her birthday.

Freddie is frequently impolite and often mistreats those who care for her with breathtaking awfulness; she dispatches one boyfriend with a line of staggering cruelty – and then repeats it..

As Freddie, Park Ji-min is a revelation in her FIRST FILM role. She’s on screen in every scene, and we’re always on the edge of our seat wondering how she’ll react – for better or for worse. We ‘re on Freddie’s roller coaster, and Park Ji-min is driving it.

Park Ji-min in RETURN TO SEOUL. Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics.

Park Ji-min is a visual artist who often paints with latex. Like Freddie, she’s confident enough – in her first filmmaking – to have insisted on eschewing a blonde wig for a black leather wardrobe in the second segment because she saw the character of Freddie as a warrior. After a stunning, sure to be star-making performance in Return to Seoul, she says she’s now deciding whether to accept further acting gigs (and I sure hope she does). In the meantime, she’s become a spokesperson for Dior.

Park Ji-min moved with her Korean parents from Korea to France in her childhood. She heard of this film project from a friend who, like the character of Freddie, was adopted from Korea by French parents.

Writer-director Davy Chou is French-born of Cambodian parents. This is only his second feature, and it’s a near masterpiece primarily because Chou has created an entirety original and complex protagonist.

Freddie’s biological father is played by Oh Kwang-rok, a Korean actor of note, who delivers a heartfelt and sometimes smoldering performance.

I found Return to Seoul to be a thrilling experience, a better film than any of last year’s ten nominees for the Best Picture Oscar. The Wife, while moved by the penultimate scene, was much less impressed. She thought one music-related thread had been ignored for the middle of the film, and was underwhelmed by the ending.

Go see Return to Seoul at your arthouse theater – it’s the first Must See of 2023. I’ll let you know when it streams.

TURN EVERY PAGE: two masters, two obsessives

by
Photo caption: Robert Caro and Robert Gottlieb in TURN EVERY PAGE. Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics.

The fine documentary Turn Every Page profiles two American literary stars and their collaboration of over fifty years, which is, amazingly, still ongoing. Robert Caro, America’s top biographer and political writer, is 87-years-old. Robert Gottlieb, the most important American publisher, is 90. These are important guys, and their story is irresistible.

Turn Every Page is directed by Gottlieb’s daughter Lizzie Gottlieb – the only person who could get the cooperation of these two quirky masters – and she tells a great story.

The two began their collaboration with Caro’s 1972 The Power Broker, which has become de rigeur among observers of and participants in America’s politics and government. The two then launched the greatest political biography in history, Caro’s four-volume revelation of Lyndon Baines Johnson.

Caro is defined by his meticulousness. To understand the background that molded LBJ, Caro moved his family for three years to the Texas Hill Country. Turn Every Page contains plenty of nuggets for Robert Caro geeks like me:

  • The moment when Caro and Gottlieb decided to abandon a Fiorello La Guardia bio for the LBJ project.
  • The space over Caro’s refrigerator, into which is crammed, a few pages at a time, carbon copes of his entire oeuvre.  
  • How a change in the health of LBJ’s younger brother, Sam Houston Johnson, opened up the reality of LBJ’s childhood family for the first time. 
  • How Caro’s incredible doggedness led him to find a man thought long dead, who handed Caro the smoking gun evidence for his biggest literary revelation.

Note: Turn Every Page discusses the Big Reveal in the second LBJ volume, Means of Ascent – that LBJ’s victory in the 1948 election for US Senate was stolen. What Turn Every Page leaves out (understandably because the movie is about the LBJ books, not about LBJ) is that Means of Ascent also proved that the preceding US Senate election was stolen FROM LBJ.

Those of us who are addicted to Caro’s LBJ series have been awaiting the final volume nervously, in light of the actuarial inevitabilities and Caro’s unsatisfying response that it will be published when he is ready; Turn Every Page doesn’t offer any different answer.

Gottlieb is arguably even more important than Caro. He broke through in 1961 by discovering Joseph Heller and publishing Catch 22. Since then he has guided the completion and publication of the work of Toni Morrison, Salmon Rushdie, John LeCarre, John Cheever, Ray Bradbury, Michael Crichton, Barbara Tuchman, Nora Ephron, Jessica Mitford, Antonia Fraser, Doris Lessing and a host of celebrity memoirs by the likes of Bill Clinton, Katharine Hepburn, Bob Dylan and Lauren Bacall. As obsessive as Caro, but in different ways, Gottlieb is also a bit of a Renaissance Man, with a surprising role in ballet and as an offbeat collector.

Turn Every Page has concluded its all too brief run in arthouse theaters, but I’m sure it will be streaming (or perhaps televised) soon; I’ll let you know when you can see it.

Robert Caro and Robert Gottlieb in TURN EVERY PAGE. Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics.

Movies to See Right Now

by
Elizabeth Olsen and Jeremy Renner in WIND RIVER

This week on The Movie Gourmet – a new review of Sansón and Me. Watch this space for upcoming reviews of Turn Every Page and Roise & Frank. Wind River is highlighted on my most eclectic watch-at-home recommendations you’ll find ANYWHERE.

CURRENT MOVIES

  • Turn Every Page: two masters, two obsessives. In theaters.
  • Broker: in the margins, finding a profound humanity. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
  • The Whale: regret to redemption. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
  • Everything Everywhere All at Once: often indecipherable and mostly dazzling. back in theaters plus on Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
  • Aftersun: who’s coming of age is this? Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
  • The Fabelmans: a mom, a dad and their genius kid. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
  • All Quiet on the Western Front: the trauma of war. Netflix.

WATCH AT HOME

The most eclectic watch-at-home recommendations you’ll find ANYWHERE:

  • Wind River: “This isn’t the land of backup, Jane. This is the land of you’re on your own.” Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
  • Mustang: repression challenged by the human spirit. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • Truman: how to say goodbye. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • Love & Mercy: a tale of three monsters and salvation. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • Searching: A ticking clock thriller that captures the Silicon Valley vibe. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
  • Venus: Meeting your kid for the first time while transitioning. Amazon, AppleTV.
  • The Sapphires: Here’s a crowd pleaser: Motown meets Aborigines. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu.
  • Radio Dreams: stranger in a strange and funny land. Amazon, AppleTV.
  • Little Dieter Needs to Fly: an unimaginable escape and a quirky guy Project Nim: .Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • We Believe in Science: denying science on a monumental scale. Amazon, Vudu, YouTube.

ON TV

Timothy Bottoms (standing) in THE PAPER CHASE

On March 28, Turner Classic Movies airs one my personal favorite movies, The Paper Chase, which traces a young man’s (Timothy Bottoms) first year at Harvard Law School and is based on the memoir of a recent grad. Although IMDb labels The Paper Chase as 1973 movie, I saw it in the summer of 1975, just as I was about to enter law school myself.   It’s such a personal favorite because just about EVERYTHING in the movie is something that I experienced myself at in my first year at Georgetown Law – everything, that is, EXCEPT dating Lindsay Wagner.  It’s a compelling story and the great producer John Houseman won an acting Oscar for his performance as the mentor/nemesis law professor; Houseman immediately cashed in with his ”They make money the old fashioned way… they EARN it” commercials for Smith Barney.

The Paper Chase is also notable as the first feature film credit for actors Craig Richard Nelson, Graham Beckel (Brokeback Mountain, L.A. Confidential)  and Edward Herrmann (known for many portrayals of FDR).  All three are stellar as members of the law school study group, and these guys have now combined for over 300 screen acting credits.  The Paper Chase is also available to stream from Amazon, Vudu and YouTube.

John Jay Osborn Jr.,  who wrote the autobiographical novel which was the source material movie, died last year. 

John Houseman in THE PAPER CHASE

SANSÓN AND ME: a life discarded in a moment

by
Gerardo Reyes as adult Sansón in Rodrigo Reyes’ documentary SANSÓN AND ME. Courtesy of Cinema Guild.

In the documentary Sansón and Me, director Rodrigo Reyes explores how an unremarkable 19-year-old living a decidedly non-monstrous existence could be locked up for life. Reyes, one of our most imaginative filmmakers, has a day job as a courtroom interpreter and met his titular subject at his California trial. Sansón, a Mexican immigrant, although apparently not the triggerman, was convicted of a murder and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.

Reyes travels to Sansón’s hometown, a modest fishing village between Puerto Vallarta and Acapulco and enlists Sansón’s family members to re-enact pivotal moments in Sansón’s childhood. It turns out that the family has more than its share of troubles and that the village is less than idyllic. Reyes then uses local, non-professional actors, to depict Sansón’s sojourn in California’s Central Valley, up to the killing in the grubby agricultural town of Dos Palos. It doesn’t take Sansón very long to get in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Sansón made a bad decision and was also profoundly unlucky. For that, the remaining decades of his life have been discarded by the state, which Reyes paints as an unfathomably disproportionate consequence.

Two years ago, Reyes invented his own genre of documentary in 499, what I call a “docu-fable” because it is all as real as real can be (the documentary), except for a fictional, 500-year-old conquistador (the fable). That movie’s title reflects a moment 499 years after Cortés’ conquest of the Aztecs in 1520; the conquistador and the audience discover that the dehumanization inherent in colonialism has persisted to plague modern Mexico – essentially the legacy of Mexico’s Original Sin. I’m hoping that Reyes’ permanent day job becomes filmmaker.

Sansón and Me is rolling out in theaters and plays the American Cinematheque on March 24.

Movies to See Right Now

by
Photo caption: Robert Caro and Robert Gottlieb in TURN EVERY PAGE. Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics.

This week on The Movie Gourmet – watch for a new review of Turn Every Page, which I recommend.

Along with big Oscar winners Everything Everywhere All at Once and All Quiet on the Western Front, three of the top four movies on my Best Movies of 2022 are newly available to stream:

  • The Whale, with its spectacular performances by the Oscar-winning Brendan Fraser and by Hong Chau.
  • Aftersun, with its Oscar-nominated performance by Paul Mescal.
  • Broker, which was spurned by the Oscars despite being a masterpiece.

REMEMBRANCE

Sadly, the actor Robert Blake will be remembered for the horrific childhood and sordid post-career detailed in his NYT obit, a hit TV show with a parrot and an absence of personal boundaries on TV talk shows. He was a child star, exploited by an abusive parent, in Our Gang and even The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. But he proved his underlying talent in In Cold Blood.

CURRENT MOVIES

  • Turn Every Page: two masters, two obsessives. In theaters.
  • Broker: in the margins, finding a profound humanity. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
  • The Whale: regret to redemption. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
  • Everything Everywhere All at Once: often indecipherable and mostly dazzling. back in theaters plus on Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
  • Aftersun: who’s coming of age is this? Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
  • The Fabelmans: a mom, a dad and their genius kid. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
  • All Quiet on the Western Front: the trauma of war. Netflix.

WATCH AT HOME

Debargo Sanyal (center) in VENUS

The most eclectic watch-at-home recommendations you’ll find ANYWHERE:

  • Venus: Meeting your kid for the first time while transitioning. Amazon, AppleTV.
  • Mustang: repression challenged by the human spirit. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • Truman: how to say goodbye. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • Love & Mercy: a tale of three monsters and salvation. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • Searching: A ticking clock thriller that captures the Silicon Valley vibe. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
  • The Sapphires: Here’s a crowd pleaser: Motown meets Aborigines. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu.
  • Wind River: “This isn’t the land of backup, Jane. This is the land of you’re on your own.” Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
  • Radio Dreams: stranger in a strange and funny land. Amazon, AppleTV.
  • Little Dieter Needs to Fly: an unimaginable escape and a quirky guy Project Nim: .Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • We Believe in Science: denying science on a monumental scale. Amazon, Vudu, YouTube.

ON TV

A scene from Whit Stilman’s METROPOLITAN

On March 24, Turner Classic Movies airs Metropolitan from 1990, the work of writer-director Whit Stillman, who is essentially his own genre. What Stilman does really well is bring us unto the world of old money Eastern preppies with their refined manners and their odd customs like debutante balls.  His well-educated characters have earnest late-night existential conversations in complete sentences.  Nobody else does this, and Stillman’s dialogue has always kept me wholly absorbed.  I keep thinking, I should despise these people, and yet their ruminations are kind of intoxicating. Stilman’s next movie, Barcelona, is enjoyable, too.

A scene from Whit Stilman’s METROPOLITAN

Wrapping up Cinequest’s Cinejoy

by
CATCHING THE PIRATE KING. Courtesy of Cinequest.

Cinequest’s online festival Cinejoy ran through March 12. Here are the films that in the program that I hadn’t posted about yet:

Egghead & Twinkie: In this remarkably funny, sweet and genuine coming-of-age film, high school senior Twinkie (Sabrina Jie-A-Fa – real talent) is trying to navigate her sexual awakening as a lesbian, and goes on a roadtrip with her lifelong bestie, the neighbor boy who is now sweet on her. Perfectly paced, with just the right amount of whimsical animation sprinkled in, Egghead & Twinkie is an impressive debut feature for writer-director Sarah Kambe Holland. IMO this is one of the best coming-of-age films of the decade.

Catching the Pirate King: The enthralling Belgian documentary is two movies in one. The first is a play by play of the hijacking of a Belgian ship by Somali pirates and the negotiating of their ransom. The second is about the Belgian law enforcement’s dogged campaign to bring the pirates to justice – in Belgium. We meet the ship’s captain and crew, the shipping company’s negotiator, the cops and prosecutors and even some pirates. Absorbing, exceptionally well-sourced and very well-crafted.

Under Water: This dark Dutch dramedy (or extremely dark Dutch comedy) starts out as the insistent effort of a pushy woman and her estranged husband to get her aged mother into residential care. The mother, a paranoid survivalist, resists every entreaty by the woman and her estranged husband to leave her isolated, condemned house – and even imprisons them in her basement. The husband’s role evolves, and we eventually see that this is a portrait of generational mental illness.

Sweet Disaster: This zany German comedy is driven by the protagonist’s ever-unleashed impulsiveness and utter lack of boundaries. Frida (Friederike Kempter) encounters and falls for an airline pilot and audaciously charms him into a relationship; their affair lasts just long enough for her to become impregnated and for him to abandon her for his ex. Consumed by the urge to win him back, Frida throws propriety to the winds. Frida’s zany roller coaster is tempered by sweet relationships with her apartment neighbors, a precocious teenage neighbor and a Greek Chorus of card-playing older women.

Sloane: A Jazz Singer: This is another laudatory doc on an overlooked musical artist. Now 82, she’s a lot of fun. I wasn’t wowed by an advance version that I screened, but I understand that revisions have since made this film very strong.

The Secret Song: This doc is an uncomplicated movie about a visionary and saintly public school music teacher. He has touched hundreds of lives; this movie won’t.

The Movie Gourmet’s 2023 Oscar Dinner

by
The Movie Gourmet’s 2023 Oscar Dinner

Here’s tonight’s Oscar Dinner, with dishes inspired by each of the Best Picture nominees.. Clockwise from lower left:

  • Peanut butter, bacon and banana sandwich, grilled in butter for Elvis: Had to go with Elvis’ favorite comfort food; it can’t be any worse than the Baz Luhrman movie. I actually ate this sandwich, which I later determined was unwise.
  • Fruit Loops, with a cell phone on the table from Top Gun: Maverick: When Maverick staggers into a rural diner after electing from his test flight, the kid is eating Fruit Loops. And Maverick has to buy a round at the bar because he puts his cell phone on the bar. BTW the diner is director Joseph Kosinski’s reference to Cecil’s Cafe, a beloved, now defunct, diner in his hometown of Marshalltown, Iowa.
  • Severed finger ice sculpture and Guinness Stout for The Banshees of Inisherin. Colm and Pádraic shared pints of Guinness every day until Colm started thunking his fingers on Pádraic’s front door. We tried floating the fingers in the Guinness, but it was a failure.
  • Applesauce for Women Talking: A kid is given a dose of medicine in applesauce. And it just seemed like a Mennonite kind of thing.
  • Everything bagel from Everything Everywhere All at Once: It’s obvious. And we could have gone with hot dog fingers, Chinese noodles or birthday goodies.
  • Blueberry shrub for Avatar: the Way of Water: We’re prompted by the vivid color palette, and we’re not alone. Avatar: The Way of Water has spawned a food experience with its own Satu’li Canteen at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Park.  The Ocean Moon Bowl, for example, is made with tuna, blue noodles, watermelon radish, pickled daikon, rainbow carrots, avocado, cucumbers and red cabbage with a miso and sweet soy drizzle.
  • Nutella from Triangle of Sadness: One of the film’s wry jokes is the express delivery to the luxury yacht of what must surely be something exquisite, and it turns out to be Nutella, Europe’s least magical food item.
  • Roast goose wing from All Quiet on the Western Front: Paul’s squad steals a goose from a farm near their trench and enjoy a rare moment of culinary bliss.
  • German macaroni (käsespätzle) and endive salad for Tar: We used an Austrian recipe from The Wife’s family. And Lydia Tar would want a bougie salad like this endive salad with apples and pecans.
  • Scrambled eggs from The Fabelmans: In an emotionally loaded kitchen encounter, Sammy’s mom Mitzi distractedly messes up the eggs (but Sammy eats them anyway).

The Movie Gourmet’s 2023 Oscar Dinner – the menu

by
The Movie Gourmet’s culinary tribute to 127 HOURS and WINTER’S BONE

Every year, The Wife and I watch the Oscars while enjoying a meal inspired by the Best Picture nominees. For example, we had sushi for Lost in Translation, cowboy campfire beans for Brokeback Mountain and Grandma Ethel’s Brisket for A Serious Man – you get the idea. Here’s the 2022 Oscar Dinner, complete with the licorice pizza.

The high point has been the Severed Hands Ice Sculpture in 2011 for 127 Hours and Winter’s Bone (photo above). The Wife is building on that earlier work with more ice sculpture – the severed fingers from The Banshees of Inisherin.

Here is this year’s complete menu:

Severed finger ice sculpture and Guinness Stout for The Banshees of Inisherin. Colm and Pádraic shared pints of Guinness every day until Colm started thunking his fingers on Pádraic’s front door.

Everything bagel from Everything Everywhere All at Once: It’s obvious. And we could have gone with hot dog fingers, Chinese noodles or birthday goodies.

German macaroni (käsespätzle) and endive salad for Tar: We’re using an Austrian recipe from The Wife’s family. And Lydia Tar would want a bougie salad.

Peanut butter, bacon and banana sandwich, grilled in butter for Elvis: Had to go with Elvis’ favorite comfort food; it can’t be any worse than the Baz Luhrman movie.

Roast goose wing from All Quiet on the Western Front: Paul’s squad steals a goose from a farm near their trench and enjoy a rare moment of culinary bliss.

Fruit Loops, with a cell phone on the table from Top Gun: Maverick: When Maverick staggers into a rural diner after electing from his test flight, the kid is eating Fruit Loops. And Maverick has to buy a round at the bar because he puts his cell phone on the bar. BTW the diner is director Joseph Kosinski’s reference to Cecil’s Cafe, a beloved, now defunct, diner in his hometown of Marshalltown, Iowa.

Blueberry shrub for Avatar: the Way of Water: We’re prompted by the vivid color palette, and we’re not alone. Avatar: The Way of Water has spawned a food experience with its own Satu’li Canteen at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Park.  The Ocean Moon Bowl, for example, is made with tuna, blue noodles, watermelon radish, pickled daikon, rainbow carrots, avocado, cucumbers and red cabbage with a miso and sweet soy drizzle.

Scrambled eggs from The Fabelmans: In an emotionally loaded kitchen encounter, Sammy’s mom Mitzi distractedly messes up the eggs (but Sammy eats them anyway).

Applesauce for Women Talking: Just seemed like a Mennonite kind of thing.

Nutella from Triangle of Sadness: One of the film’s wry jokes is the express delivery to the luxury yacht of what must surely be something exquisite, and it turns out to be Nutella, Europe’s least magical food item.

I’ll post a photo tomorrow, on Oscar night.

Movies to See Right Now

by
Photo caption: Lashana Lynch in THE WOMAN KING. Courtesy of TriStar Pictures.

This week on The Movie Gourmet – my Cinequest coverage, some thoughts on The Woman King and remembrances of two actors who were not-so-well-known, but massively talented. And watch this space for The Movie Gourmet’s 2023 Oscar Dinner, coming imminently.

At the urging of The Wife, we caught up with The Woman King. It’s a very well-crafted movie, and a pretty good one. Like any war movie (or Western), there are the familiar elements of assembling the team, training for the mission, combat, rescue of comrades and the climactic battle. Of course, The Woman King is novel because we aren’t used to seeing a war movie with women warriors, and especially not African-Ancestry women warriors – and let’s not underestimate the importance of that. I was struck how much better The Woman King was than Top Gun: Maverick, even though they follow the same war movie conventions.

Viola Davis, of course, is one our most emotionally powerful screen actors, and it’s fun to see her cut loose as an action hero at age 58. Lashana Lynch is really excellent in The Woman King, just as she impressed me so much as Nomi the new Agent 007 in the Bond movies. Vetting the claim “inspired by true events”, I was impressed by this Wikipedia article on the Agojie.

REMEMBRANCES

Tom Sizemore in THE LAST LULLABY

Actor Tom Sizemore is most remembered for his Oscar-nominated performance as Tom Hank’s sergeant in Saving Private Ryan. Sizemore was intense and charismatic and hugely talented, but his longtime cocaine addiction kept him off the screen and in the tabloids, rehab and jail. In a rare leading role, Sizemore carried an excellent little neo-noir, The Last Lullaby; see it on Amazon (included with Prime), Vudu and redbox.

Julie Christie and Gordon Pinsent in AWAY FROM HER.

Prolific Canadian actor Gordon Pinsent was unforgettable in Away from Her, Sarah Polley’s Alzheimer’s movie with Julie Christie (my choice for the best movie of 2007). Pinsent piled up 152 screen credits, much of it lesser material on TV. He played a bad guy in one of my favorite neo-noirs, Chandler with Warren Oates.

CURRENT MOVIES

  • Women Talking: safety and its costs. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • Broker: in the margins, finding a profound humanity. In theaters, but increasingly hard to find.
  • Living: what is it to live? In theaters, but increasingly hard to find.
  • Empire of Light: a woman, revealed. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox and included with HBO Max.
  • The Whale: regret to redemption. In theaters, but increasingly hard to find.
  • Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery: skewer the rich. Netflix.
  • Everything Everywhere All at Once: often indecipherable and mostly dazzling. back in theaters plus on Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
  • Babylon: “wanton excess” is inadequate to describe this movie. In very few theaters.
  • The Eternal Daughter: consumed by mom. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
  • Kimi: an adequate REAR WINDOWS ends as a thrilling WAIT UNTIL DARK. HBO Max.
  • Aftersun: who’s coming of age is this? Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
  • The Fabelmans: a mom, a dad and their genius kid. In theaters and on Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox..
  • Decision to Leave: he’s obsessed, and she asks, “Am I so wicked?”. Amazon, AppleTV, Mubi.
  • Causeway: affecting and uplifting. AppleTV.
  • The Menu: immune from pretension. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox and included with HBO Max.
  • All Quiet on the Western Front: the trauma of war. Netflix.
  • Armageddon Time: coming of age – right into a moral choice. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
  • The Banshees of Inisherin: no limits on stubbornness. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox and included with HBO Max.
  • Tar: a haughty spirit before a fall. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
  • Triangle of Sadness: more subtlety, please. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.

WATCH AT HOME

John Cho in SEARCHING

The most eclectic watch-at-home recommendations you’ll find ANYWHERE:

  • Searching: A ticking clock thriller that captures the Silicon Valley vibe. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
  • Mustang: repression challenged by the human spirit. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • Truman: how to say goodbye. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • Love & Mercy: a tale of three monsters and salvation. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • Venus: Meeting your kid for the first time while transitioning. Amazon, AppleTV.
  • The Sapphires: Here’s a crowd pleaser: Motown meets Aborigines. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu.
  • Wind River: “This isn’t the land of backup, Jane. This is the land of you’re on your own.” Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
  • Radio Dreams: stranger in a strange and funny land. Amazon, AppleTV.
  • Little Dieter Needs to Fly: an unimaginable escape and a quirky guy Project Nim: .Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • We Believe in Science: denying science on a monumental scale. Amazon, Vudu, YouTube.

The most eclectic watch-at-home recommendations you’ll find ANYWHERE:

ON TV

THE CANDIDATE – Robert Redford learns that running for elected office has its disadvantages

On March 15, The Candidate reappears on Turner Classic Movies’ 31 Days of Oscar. The Candidate may still be the greatest political film of all-time, with a searing leading performance by Robert Redford. My day job, for 38 years, was in politics, and so many moments in The Candidate are absolutely real. Excellent supporting performances by Peter Boyle, Don Porter and Melvyn Douglas. (Significant parts of The Candidate were shot in the Bay Area, including San Jose’s Eastridge mall and Oakland’s Paramount Theatre.)

TCM is sandwiching The Candidate between two other great films of American politics, Seven Days in May and All the King’s Men.

SHARE?: bread and circuses

by
Melvin Gregg in SHARE?

In the very funny sci fi think-piece Share?, an unnamed Everyman (Melvin Gregg) finds himself locked up in his civvies in a high tech cell – and he’s on camera. Through trial and error, he learns that he can acquire necessities – and also on-screen social interaction with other captives – by performing for the camera; the currency is not unlike the likes and follows of social media. There are many layers of metaphor in this exploration of human behavior and the human appetite for bread and circuses.

Our protagonist is able to connect through his screen with others in his situation. One veteran (a great Bradley Whitford) is jaded and burnt out, sometimes a sage life coach and sometimes bursting into a nihilistic frenzy. Another noobie (Alice Braga) is a brilliant, driven strategist who immediately turns to organizing their escape; she proves that rage and fear are clearly the most effective motivators of human behavior (Fox News essentially runs on this fuel), but is the trade off in mental health worth it? A third star of the computer screen (Danielle Campbell) advocates for complacent acceptance and exudes a creepy serenity.

So, how about our current addiction to social media? Is it all one big Distraction that steers us away from addressing real challenges, like injustice, socioeconomic inequality and planetary survival? It’s great to see sci fi that is once again about ideas, not just about blowing shit up in space.

One of the wry ironies in Share? is that the force that is sufficiently technologically advanced to have captured these people without their knowledge and imprisoned them in high tech cells employs a clunky user interface that resembles (and may even be) MS-DOS.

Here’s a novelty – all of Share? is entirely shot from one static camera position. As convenient as this must have been in working from a low budget and perhaps pandemic-driven restrictions, it figures to pose a challenge in keeping the audience interested. But, thanks to the collaboration between director Ira Rosensweig, Assistant Editor Peter Szijarto and Gregg (who’s on screen 99% of the time), that’s not a problem.

Melvin Gregg, with his energy and relatability, does an excellent job carrying the movie. The rest of the cast – Bradley Whitford, Alice Braga, Danielle Campbell – is great, too.

Share? is the first feature for director and co-writer Ira Rosensweig and the third feature for co-writer Benjamin Sutor. Cinequest’s online festival Cinejoy is hosting the world premiere of Share?, which tops my Best of Cinejoy recommendations. You can find the trailer and tickets at Cinequest.