Photo caption: Keith Kupferer and Katherine Mallen Kupferer in GHOSTLIGHT. Courtesy of IFC Films.
This week on The Movie Gourmet, as we are on the verge of what looks like a rich fall movie season, I’m recommending another look at an overlooked little movie from earlier this year, the endearing family drama Ghostlight, available to watch at home on Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango (included). The acting in Ghostlight, which won the audience award at SCSW, is superbly authentic. The actors playing the family members are an actual dad, mom and daughter. One of the best movies of the year.
CURRENT MOVIES
Thelma: too proud to be taken. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
Perfect Days: intentional contentment. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango, Hulu (included).
Hit Man: who knew self-invention could be so fun? Netflix.
I Saw the TV Glow: brimming with originality. Back in some theaters and Amazon, AppleTV; Fandango.
The Bikeriders: they ride, drink and fight, and yet we care. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango, Peacock (included).
Ghostlight: a family saves itself, in iambic pentameter. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango (included).
Challengers: three people and their desire. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
La Chimera: six genres for the price of one. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
ON TV
Cynda Williams and Billy Bob Thornton in ONE FALSE MOVE
On September 21, Turner Classic Movies presents the gripping contemporary neo-noir One False Move. This is a fundamentally noir story – there are guys overreaching for greed and ambition, a femme fatale, and a very dark secret. America’s original sin – race – is at the core of One False Move.
The tale begins with a home invasion in Los Angeles. Two vicious professional robbers, with one’s beautiful girlfriend, steal money and cocaine, leaving a trail of corpses. The crime is solved right away – the cops know who did it and that the murderers are headed to a small town in Arkansas. The LA cops fly to Arkansas and lay in wait with the local constabulary. One False Move is a ticking time bomb as we wait for the criminals to drive across the Southwest to the inevitable confrontation.
One False Move features a great performance by the late Bill Paxton. It’s one of my Overlooked Neo-noir, and can also be streamed from Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu and YouTube.
Photo caption: Ben Gazzara and Audrey Hepburn in THEY ALL LAUGHED
This week on The Movie Gourmet, Turner Classic Movies presents one of my favorite overlooked movies, the extremely hard-to-find THEY ALL LAUGHED. Peter Bogdanovich’s 1971 film elevates the entire rom com genre. The middleaged romance between Ben Gazzara and Audrey Hepburn is exquisitely wistful and authentic. John Ritter leads an endearingly funny supporting cast with Patti Hansen, Blaine Novak, Dorothy Stratton and Colleen Camp. Ritter’s comedic performance is itself a masterpiece – right up there with the best of Chaplin, Keaton and Cary Grant. They All Laughed remains an essentially lost film, although you can find the DVD. Set your DVR to record the TCM screening on September 15.
REMEMBRANCE
James Earl Jones’ expressive face, imposing bearing and authoritative voice won him an Oscar for THE GREAT WHITE HOPE. The voice was enough by itself to dominate the STAR WARS franchise as Darth Vader.
CURRENT MOVIES
Thelma: too proud to be taken. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
Perfect Days: intentional contentment. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango, Hulu (included).
This week on The Movie Gourmet – Harry Dean Stanton’s masterpiece in Wim Wenders’ Paris, Texas has been restored and re-released in theaters. In Paris Texas, Harry Dean plays Travis, a man so traumatized that he has disappeared and is found wandering across the desert and mistaken for a mute. As he is cared for by his brother (Dean Stockwell), he evolves from feral to erratic to troubled, but with a sense of tenderness and a determination to put things right. We see Travis as a madman who gains extraordinary lucidity about what wrong in his life and his own responsibility for it.
At the film’s climax, Travis speaks to Jane (Natassja Kinski) through a one-way mirror (she can’t see him). Spinning what at first seems like parable, Travis explains what happened to him – and to her – and why it happened. It’s a 20-minute monologue so captivating and touching that it rises to be recognized as one of the very greatest screen performances.
Paris, Texas is on my list of the fifty or soGreatest Movies of All Time. It’s been playing the Laemmle theaters in LA this week, opens at San Francisco’s Roxie today and opens at the Palm in San Luis Obispo next week.
Natassja Kinski and Harry Dean Stanton in PARIS, TEXAS
CURRENT MOVIES
Thelma: too proud to be taken. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
Perfect Days: intentional contentment. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango, Hulu (included).
Civil War: a most cautionary tale. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
ON TV
Lawrence Tierney and Claire Trevor in BORN TO KILL.
On September 10, Turner Classic Movies offers Born to Kill (1947). Lawrence Tierney (no cupcake in real life, either), plays the nastiest, most predatory and savage male character in film noir history. Set in the world of Reno quickie divorces, the characters seem to compete to demonstrate the most venal behavior; (spoiler: the psychopath played by Tierney wins.) Claire Trevor, the Queen of Noir, was often wore flamboyant hats, but she just keeps topping herself in this film. Walter Slezak and Elisha Cook, Jr., play dregs of the underworld.
This week on The Movie Gourmet – my irreplaceable father-in-law died this week, so I’m honoring him with a photo from his favorite BritBox crime show, Vera.
CURRENT MOVIES
Thelma: too proud to be taken. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
Perfect Days: intentional contentment. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango, Hulu (included).
This week on The Movie Gourmet – new reviews of Didi and Between the Temples, a remembrance of a European film icon, and an underappreciated 1964 drama that showcased a future movie star.
REMEMBRANCE
Alain Delon in ANY NUMBER CAN WIN
Impossibly handsome and dashing, no one ever removed their sunglasses with more of a flourish than iconic French leading man Alain Delon. Delon had eyes that could switch off any glimmer of empathy – perfect for playing sociopaths. Accordingly, he broke through internationally playing Patricia Highsmith’s Tom Ripley in Purple Noon (1960). Delon is best known for being a favorite of top European directors, starring in Visconti’s Rocco and His Brothers and The Leopard, Antonioni’s L’Eclisse, and Melville’s Le Samouri and Le Cercle Rouge. I also like Delon in the less famous caper movies Any Number Can Win and The Sicilian Clan. Mr. Klein, in which Delon played a sleazy French art dealer who took advantage of Nazi persecution of Jews, was a Lost Film, only becoming available again in the past five years.
In the underappreciated 1966 drama, A Man Called Adam, Sammy Davis Jr. plays Adam, a self-destructive jazz star. Adam draws people in with his talent and charisma, and, racked by guilt, pushes away those closest to him with selfish and cruel behavior. You can catch A Man Called Adam on Turner Classic Movies on August 27.
Claudia (Cicely Tyson) is drawn to Adam and tries to save him, anchoring herself in the roller coaster of his life. Remember that, after all the ups and downs, a roller coaster always ends up at the bottom.
Cicely Tyson, in her first credited movie role, is radiant. Two great speeches, in which she absolutely commands the screen, showcase her talent; you can tell that this is going to be a movie star. While no Cicely Tyson, Sammy Davis, Jr., is excellent as the protagonist.
Photo caption. Jodie Comer and Austin Butler in THE BIKERIDERS. Courtesy of Focus Features.
This week on The Movie Gourmet – a new review of last year’s overlooked neo-noir The Little Things, which is worth streaming for Denzel Washington’s performance. Note that Thelma, Ghostlight, Daddio and Sorry/Not Sorryare already streaming. The Bikeriders, which has been streaming for couple weeks, is included in a Peacock subscription. Plus, scroll down for a rarity, my recommendation of a sexy silent film.
REMEMBRANCE
Gena Rowlands, Oscar-nominated as best actress for Gloria and A Woman Under the Influence, had a gift for authentic and wrenching performances. I also liked her in lighter fare like Minnie and Moskowitz and Night on Earth. She was the director John Cassavetes’ wife, muse and leading lady.
CURRENT MOVIES
Thelma: too proud to be taken. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
Perfect Days: intentional contentment. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango, Hulu (included).
Greta Garbo and John Gilbert in FLESH AND THE DEVIL
I rarely, rarely recommend silent dramas, because today’s general audiences find them too stilted to enjoy, and I don’t push “eat your broccoli” movies on folks. But, on August 19, Turner Classic Movies will present the 1926 Flesh and the Devil, and it’s a good chance to see what the stardom of Greta Garbo was all about, as well as pre-Code Hollywood sexuality.
Flesh and the Devil was made in Garbo’s first year in Hollywood and was her breakthrough star-making role in the US. She plays Felicitas, a woman who enjoy making men loooong for her. In her seduction of the righteous young limitary officer Leo (John Gilbert), she shoots him a come hither look even while kneeling for communion in church. She accepts his offer of a dance and immediately flops into his arms with predatory intent, quickly leading him outside into the dark where they can be alone; things move rapidly to a post-coital smoke. Reportedly, this is cinema’s first horizontal love scene and its first closeup of an open-mouth kiss.
At filming, Garbo was 21 and Gilbert 26 (but he looks over 30). Gilbert had dreamy looks, expressive eyes and perfect comic timing; he was a naturalistic actor – unusually so for the silent era – and he would have probably been a top talent in today’s cinema. The couple’s steamy chemistry in Flesh and the Devil was real; they moved in together before the shooting wrapped. Their enthusiasm during the filming of the bear rug scene so embarrassed director Clarence Brown that he did not call “cut”; the crew just crept out of the studio.
Flesh and the Devil also includes an excellent character performance by George Fawcett as Pastor Voss, a character who oddly smokes a cigar in his pipe. Fawcett was 65 but had already made 107 silents films.
Photo caption: Justice Smith and Bridgette Lundy-Payne in I SAW THE TV GLOW. Courtesy of A24.
This week on The Movie Gourmet – a new review of the Norman Mailer biodoc How to Come Alive.
Note: The wonderful family drama Ghostlight can now be streamed from Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube and Fandango (included). The Bikeriders, Jeff Nichol’s engrossing exploration of the culture of a 1960s Midwestern motorcycle gang and its (unfortunate) evolution, can also be streamed. In fact, all SEVEN of my Best Movies of 2024 – So Far can now be watched at home.
Photo caption: Norman Mailer in HOW TO COME ALIVE. Courtesy of Zeitgeist Films.
This week on The Movie Gourmet – I haven’t yet written on the new Norman Mailer biodoc How to Come Alive, but I want you to know that it’s very good. I did post on Wim Wender’s 1977 neo-noir The American Friend, an adaptation of the Patricia Highsmith novel Ripley’s Game; if you missed it on TCM, you can still stream it from Criterion, Amazon, AppleTV and Fandango.
Photo caption: June Squibb and Fred Hechinger in THELMA. Courtesy of Magnolia Pictures | photo by David Bolen.
This week on The Movie Gourmet – reviews of two overlooked films now available to watch at home: the breathtakingly original psychological drama Discreetand the lyrical biodoc Without Getting Killed or Caught.
On July 27, Turner Classic Movies airs a WOWZER – the 1960 Korean horror/noir The Housemaid. A couple hires a maid, who turns out to be the domestic from hell. Seduction, deception, threats follow…and who will poison whom? I screened this film for a recent Noir City, and although I can’t say that it’s one of my favorites, it does keeping stunning the audience with ever darker twists. Often considered one of the top Korean films of all time. TCM will present The Housemaid on Noir Alley with intro and outro by Eddie Muller.
Shelley Duvall will be best remembered for playing the wife of Jack Nicholson’s decompensating writer in The Shining. It’s hard to discuss American cinema of the 1970s without mentioning Duvall because six of her first seven movies were Robert Altman films (Brewster McCloud, McCabe and Mrs. Miller, Thieves Like Us, Nashville, Buffalo Bill etc., and 3 Women; the seventh was Annie Hall, in a hilarious turn as an Alvy Singer sex partner. She also played the waitress who prods Steve Martin’s Cyrano character into wooing Daryl Hannah’s Roxanne in Roxanne.
CURRENT MOVIES
Ghostlight: a family saves itself, in iambic pentameter. In theaters.
The Bikeriders: they ride, drink and fight, and yet we care. In theaters.
Need 100 minutes of emotional uplift? On July 20, Turner Classic Movies brings us the gospel music documentary Say Amen, Somebody. This 1982 art house hit is almost never on television, and has been hard to find, although you can now stream in on Criterion, AppleTV, YouTube and Fandango. The film traces the genre from gospel pioneers Willie Mae Ford Smith and Thomas A. Dorsey to contemporary artists. The music is stirring and infectious.
