Weekly Movie Recommendations

KILLER JOE: you sure ain’t gonna be bored

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OK, this is NOT FOR EVERYONE.  Here’s a movie that will either thrill or disgust you. Either way, you sure ain’t gonna be bored.

It’s William Friedkin Week at The Movie Gourmet, and we’re looking at three of the director’s more overlooked films. We’ve covered the neo-noir thriller To Live and to Die in L.A., and the psychological horror movie Bug. Today’s Friedkin classic is another neo-noir, that paragon of perversity, Killer Joe

In Killer Joe, Thomas Haden Church, Gina Gershon and Emile Hirsch play a white trash family with a get-rich-quick scheme.  They give a hit man (Matthew McConaughey) the teen daughter (Juno Temple) as a deposit.  They’re all as dumb as a bag of hammers, so what could go wrong?

Killer Joe was directed by William Friedkin (The French Connection, The Exorcist) and shot by cinematographer Caleb Deschanel (The Right Stuff, The Natural) in just 20 days.  These guys know how to tell a story, and Killer Joe pops and crackles.

Emile Hirsch, Gina Gershon, Thomas Haden Church and Juno Temple in KILLER JOE. Photo credit: KillerJoeTheMovie.com.

Killer Joe is rated NC-17 for good reason and Friedkin accepts the rating without complaint.  Indeed, Killer Joe has its share of Sam Peckinpah-style screen violence and an unsettling deflowering scene.  But the piece de resistance is an over-the-top sadistic encounter between McConaughey and Gershon involving a chicken drumstick,  at once disturbing and darkly hilarious.   But Sam Fuller and Quentin Tarantino would have loved it, and so did I.  Nevertheless, some viewers will feel like they need a shower after this movie.

Matthew McConaughey in KILLER JOE. Photo credit: KillerJoeTheMovie.com.

The cast does a good job, but the picture really belongs to McConaughey and Temple.  McConaughey was recalibrating his career a la Alec Baldwin – he had just started his move from playing pretty boys in the rom-coms to taking meatier, more interesting roles.  He is both funny and menacing as Killer Joe (and I liked him in Bernie and Magic Mike, too).  Killer Joe preceded his roles in Mud, The Dallas Buyers Club, True Detective  and The Free State of Jones.

The movie slowly makes Juno Temple’s character more and more central, until she takes command of the denouement.  Temple is always sexy (Kaboom and Dirty Girl), and here she is able to ratchet down her intelligence to play a very simple character, always exploited by others, who is finally empowered to take control.

I saw Killer Joe at a screening where Friedkin said that the screenwriter (famed playwright Tracy Letts) saw Juno Temple’s character as the receptacle for all feminine rage.  Friedkin himself sees it as a Cinderella story – just one where Cinderella’s Prince Charming is a professional killer.  That’s all pretty deep sledding to me – I see Killer Joe as a very dark and violent comedy – kinda like In Bruges with twisted sex.

Killer Joe is available to stream from Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, Google Play and Hulu.

BUG: the “paranoid” in paranoid thriller

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Photo caption: Ashley Judd and Michael Shannon in BUG. Courtesy of Lionsgate.

It’s William Friedkin Week at The Movie Gourmet, and we’re looking at three of the director’s more overlooked films. We’ve examined the neo-noir thriller To Live and to Die in L.A., and today’s choice is the psychological horror movie Bug. We could also describe Bug as a psychotic horror movie.

Ashley Judd plays Agnes, a woman who seems well-balanced but has been made vulnerable by circumstance. She has been shattered by the most profound family tragedy. She’s justifiably terrified of her monstrous estranged husband Jerry (Harry Connick Jr.), and she’s unsettled by being on the run from him and in an unfamiliar environment; there are signs that Jerry is closing in on finding her. She’s found herself living so far from a regular, stable life that’s she’s become profoundly alienated.

Ashley Judd and Lynn Collins in BUG. Courtesy of Lionsgate.

Agnes is street-wise and, in normal times, she could handle herself, but she’s just being overwhelmed by too much shit. She needs some comfort and acceptance, some of which she finds in a new pal R.C. (Lynn Collins), although R.C. enables Agnes’ tendency to get too wasted.

But Agnes could also use some male companionship and physical security and protection. She meets Peter, who, in contrast with Jerry, is civil, kind and not abusive. He’s socially awkward, but he seems really safe and non-threatening.

As soon as they bond and start sharing the same motel room, Peter believes that he has found, first one aphid, and then a slew of them. More alarmingly, Peter is attaching the bugs to a conspiracy theory. Is Peter paranoid, delusional, hallucinating, or is it really a conspiracy? Friedkin and the Tracy Letts screenplay start to play with movie genre conventions.

Agnes is in a place where she is inclined to join Team Peter, and she starts seeing thing Peter’s way. Unfortunately, the two become ever more unhinged, begin deploying vast quantities of aluminum foil and, finally, go to EXTREME LENGTHS.

Ashley Judd and Michael Shannon in BUG. Courtesy of Lionsgate.

Friedkin’s final shot messes with us one last time. Memorably.

What happens in this story is a real thing, called folie à deux, shared psychosis or shared delusional disorder. The person whose delusions become shared by the second person is called the inducer, which gives a new, chilling meaning to the phrase “he drove her crazy“.

Michael Shannon is an actor with an uncommon gift for projecting creepiness. He shot Bug just a year before he broke through in Jeff Nichols’ brilliant indie Shotgun Stories and five years before Nichols’ Take Shelter. Writing about Take Shelter, I described Shannon’s character’s behavior “which starts out quirky, becomes troublesome and spirals down to GET ME OUT OF HERE.”

Ashley Judd in BUG. Courtesy of Lionsgate.

But Bug really depends on Ashley Judd’s performance as Agnes. After all, we can accept that Shannon’s Peter is just balls-out wacko, but Judd has to make us believe that an absolutely sane person can become completely insane on 48 hours. She’s dazzling here. I also recommend Mick LaSalle’s fine review of Bug, focusing on Ashley Judd’s performance

Bug can be streamed from Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: Shere Hite in THE DISAPPEARANCE OF SHERE HITE, playing at the Nashville Film Festival. Courtesy of NashFilm.

This week on The Movie Gourmet – Must See at NashFilm, Under the Radar at NashFilm and a streaming recommendation of Charm Circle, a film I discovered at an earlier NashFilm. Plus, I got around to recommending Master Gardener.

CURRENT MOVIES

WATCH AT HOME

Aviva Armour-Ostroff (left) in LUNE, world premiere at Cinequest. Photo credit: Samantha Falco. Courtesy of Cinequest.

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

  • Lune: funny, searing, and richly authentic. Amazon.
  • Undefeated: an Oscar winner you haven’t seen. Amazon, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
  • Kimi: an adequate REAR WINDOWS ends as a thrilling WAIT UNTIL DARK. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
  • Summertime: no longer invisible and unheard, giving voice through verse. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
  • Phoenix: riveting psychodrama, wowzer ending. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • I’m Fine (Thank You for Asking): a desperate dash for dignity. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • Making Montgomery Clift: exploding the myths. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • Our Kind of Traitor: Skarsgård steals this robust thriller. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
  • ’71: keeping the thrill in thriller. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: William L. Petersen in TO LIVE AND DIE IN L.A. Courtesy of Kino Lorber.

This week on The Movie Gourmet – Previewing the Nashville Film Festival and Much more overlooked neo-noir, with the addition of twelve more films, including To Live and Die in L.A.

And, remember – I’ve just entirely refreshed my most eclectic watch-at-home recommendations you’ll find ANYWHERE.

CURRENT MOVIES

WATCH AT HOME

Zoe Kravitz in KIMI. Courtesy of HBO.

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

  • Kimi: an adequate REAR WINDOWS ends as a thrilling WAIT UNTIL DARK. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
  • Undefeated: an Oscar winner you haven’t seen. Amazon, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
  • Lune: funny, searing, and richly authentic. Amazon.
  • Summertime: no longer invisible and unheard, giving voice through verse. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
  • Phoenix: riveting psychodrama, wowzer ending. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • I’m Fine (Thank You for Asking): a desperate dash for dignity. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • Making Montgomery Clift: exploding the myths. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • Our Kind of Traitor: Skarsgård steals this robust thriller. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
  • ’71: keeping the thrill in thriller. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.

ON TV

Frances McDormand in BLOOD SIMPLE

On September 24, Turner Classic Movies will air the 1984 film that was Oscar winner Frances McDormand’s first screen credit, Blood Simple.  That was also the storied Coen Brothers’ first feature film (and sparked McDormand’s 35-year marriage to Joel Cohen).  Since their debut, the Coens have gone on to win Oscars for Fargo and No Country for Old Men, and their True Grit and the very, very underrated A Serious Man are just as good. Along the way, they also gave us the unforgettable The Big Lebowski.

It all started with their highly original neo-noir Blood Simple. It’s dark, it’s funny and damned entertaining. The highlight is the singular performance by veteran character actor M. Emmet Walsh as a Stetson-topped gunsel.  The suspenseful finale, when Walsh is methodically hunting down the 27-year-old McDormand, is brilliant.

BLOOD SIMPLE
M. Emmet Walsh in BLOOD SIMPLE

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: Florence Pugh in OPPENHEIMER. Courtesy of Universal Pictures.

This week on The Movie Gourmet – an all new most eclectic watch-at-home recommendations you’ll find ANYWHERE. Start of the football season with the Oscar-winning Undefeated.

As /i mentioned last week, we’re in that annual late- August/early September doldrums when we just don’t have good choices in brick-and-mortar cinemas. The one wonderful new film, Fremont, is still in a few arthouses and the masterpieces Oppenheimer and Barbie are still on theater screens. But Scrapper, Between Two Worlds, Afire and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny have all slipped from theaters, and Past Lives is barely lingering on a screen or two. However, note that Oppenheimer, Past Lives, Barbie and Fremont: are all on my Best Movies of 2023 – So Far; you might check out that list because several other of those films are already streaming.

And next week I’ll have a preview of this year’s Nashville Film Festival.

CURRENT MOVIES

WATCH AT HOME

UNDEFEATED

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

  • Undefeated: an Oscar winner you haven’t seen. Amazon, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
  • Kimi: an adequate REAR WINDOWS ends as a thrilling WAIT UNTIL DARK. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
  • Lune: funny, searing, and richly authentic. Amazon.
  • Summertime: no longer invisible and unheard, giving voice through verse. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
  • Phoenix: riveting psychodrama, wowzer ending. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • I’m Fine (Thank You for Asking): a desperate dash for dignity. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • Making Montgomery Clift: exploding the myths. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • Our Kind of Traitor: Skarsgård steals this robust thriller. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
  • ’71: keeping the thrill in thriller. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.

ON TV

Jeanne Moreau in ELEVATOR TO THE GALLOWS

On September 19, Turner Classic Movies will present one of my Overlooked Noir, Elevator to the Gallows – such a groundbreaking film that you can argue that it’s the first of the neo-noir.  It’s the debut of director Louis Malle, shot when he was only 24 years old.  It’s more difficult now to appreciate the originality of Elevator the Gallows; but in 1958, no one had seen a film with a Miles Davis soundtrack or one where the two romantic leads were never on-screen together.

Marcel Ronet in ELEVATOR TO THE GALLOWS

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: Orson Welles in CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT.

This week on The Movie Gourmet – don’t miss Turner Classic Movies’ presentation of Chimes at Midnight tonight, and I’m also recommending another TCM selection that airs later this week (see below).

We’re in that annual late- August/early September doldrums when we just don’t have good choices in brick-and-mortar cinemas. The one wonderful new film, Fremont, is still in a few arthouses and the masterpieces Oppenheimer and Barbie are still on theater screens. But Scrapper, Between Two Worlds, Afire and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny have all slipped from theaters, and Past Lives is barely lingering on a screen or two. However, note that Oppenheimer, Past Lives, Barbie and Fremont: are all on my Best Movies of 2023 – So Far; you might check out that list because several other of those films are already streaming.

CURRENT MOVIES

WATCH AT HOME

Ariane Labed and Soko in THE STOPOVER photo courtesy of SFFILM.

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

  • The Stopover: PTSD takes more than an umbrella drink…Amazon, AppleTV.
  • Land Ho!: rowdy geezer roadtrip to Iceland. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • Beast: finally unleashed … and untethered. Amazon (included with Prime), AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
  • Won’t You Be My Neighbor?: gentleness from ferocity. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
  • The Imposter: a jaw dropper. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • The Secret in Their Eyes: Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • NUTS!: the rise and fall of a testicular empire. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.

ON TV

Lee Marvin in POINT BLANK

On September 12, Turner Classic Movies presents the seminal 1960s neo-noir Point Blank, starring Lee Marvin. Marvin stars as Walker, a heist man who is shot and left for dead by his partner Reese (John Vernon, Animal House’s Dean Wormer), who absconded with Walker’s share of the loot and Walker’s wife. When Walker recovers, he is hellbent on revenge, aided by his sister-in-law Chris (Angie Dickinson).

It turns out that Walker needs to trace the money through a cavalcade of Mr. Bigs (Lloyd Bochner, Keenan Wynn, Carroll O’Connor). There’s a great set piece where Walker invades a highrise penthouse, despite the heavily guarded elevator being the only entrance. Point Blank ends in a thrilling nighttime finale at Fort Point.

Walker is a very uncomplicated character, all he wants is to kill Reese and reclaim his $93,000. Anyone in Walker’s situation would be pissed off, but Lee Marvin plays Walker in a constant state of cold rage. Lee Marvin’s unique charisma animates this relentless killing machine.

Marvin, just coming off The Dirty Dozen and having won an Oscar for Cat Ballou, was at the peak of his stardom. Marvin’s other contribution to the film was handpicking the then unheralded John Boorman to direct; (this was five years before Boorman’s masterpiece Deliverance). Boorman intentionally delivered a morally bleak story in the most deserted of locations: empty parking lots, the Los Angeles River channel. and San Francisco’s two icons of abandonment – Alcatraz and Fort Point.

Lee Marvin in POINT BLANK

If you’re wondering why Angie Dickinson was a movie star, Point Blank is for you. Angie was ballsy, sexy and always unashamedly very direct, and she rocked midcentury fashion. (She plays one unforgettable scene in a dress with bold horizontal stripes in the colors of Denny’s restaurants.)

Watch for James B. Sikking as the professional sniper; Sikking became well-known as the supercilious SWAT team commander Lt. Howard Hunter in Hill Street Blues. Future horror icon Sid Haig pops up as the security guard in the penthouse lobby.

Angie Dickinson and Lee Marvin in POINT BLANK

coming up on tv – Orson Welles’ Shakespearean masterpiece

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Orson Welles and Keith Baxter in CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT
Orson Welles and Keith Baxter in CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT

The great auteur Orson Welles loved Shakespeare and made three Shakespearean movies, of which Chimes at Midnight is the masterpiece.  Welles’ genius was in braiding together parts of Henry IV Parts 1 and 2, some Richard III, Henry V and The Merry Wives of Windsor into a cohesive story of what he called “betrayal of friendship”.  You can watch Chimes at Midnight tomorrow, September 8 on Turner Classic Movies.

Welles himself vividly plays the recurring Shakespearean character of Sir John Falstaff.
Falstaff is a rogue knight, a shameless braggart and robustly debauched.

The young Prince Hal (Keith Baxter), the future King Henry V, is sowing his wild oats, and he is in the market for a dissolute companion. To the disgust of Hal’s severe father, King Henry IV (John Gielgud), Hal and Falstaff are carousing buddies, their fast friendship forged in taverns with plentiful spirits and women of easy virtue. (Falstaff’s wench is played by Jeanne Moreau.)

Orson Welles and Jeanne Moreau in CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT
Orson Welles and Jeanne Moreau in CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT

There’s plenty of palace intrigue interwoven with the comic pranks and partying by the rascal Hal and his favorite scoundrel Falstaff. Falstaff even does mocking impressions of Henry IV.

CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT

Chimes at Midnight features an amazing 12-minute battle scene beginning at the 55 minute mark. Somehow Welles was able to afford 150 extras and was able to use them and his camera to create a battle scene as effective as the ones in Braveheart and Kenneth Branagh’s Henry V. Welles doesn’t pull any punches in depicting the brutality of medieval warfare. The initial horse charge is followed by the chaos of hacking and clubbing. The combatants become a roiling cauldron of lethal mayhem. In all the fog of war, it’s still easy to follow Falstaff in his size XXXL armor. Welles’ Falstaff believes that honor is merely ornamental and not worth sacrificing one’s life for. No hero, Falstaff.

CHIMES
CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT

Finally, Henry IV dies and Prince Hal will ascend the throne. Falstaff thinks he’s won the lottery, but a king can’t afford sloppy bad habits. Hal rejects vanity, of which Falstaff is the signal emblem. Hal rebuffs Falstaff with Presume not that I am the thing I was and banishes him. Falstaff is stunned – but then proud of his mentee. Defeated in the end, Welles’ eyes show us his pride and simultaneous disappointment. This high point of Chimes at Midnight is also probably Welles’ best moment as an actor.

The broad, raucous comedy in Chimes at Midnight shows us what it must have like to see Shakespeare’s words performed in the rowdy Globe Theater. Shot in Spain with authentic medieval settings, Chimes at Midnight looks very good for a low, low-budget film. It is narrated by Ralph Richardson.

CHIMES
CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT

This is a brilliant film, and it’s high on my list of Best Shakespeare Movies.

Chimes at Midnight was extremely hard to find until very recently, except for a bootleg on YouTube and a 2015 DVD released in the UK.  Fortunately, Chimes at Midnight has become available to stream on Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu and YouTube.  And, of course, it plays occasionally on Turner Classic Movies.

CHIMES
Orson Welles in CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: Jeremy Allen White and Anaita Wali Zada in FREMONT. Courtesy of Music Box Films.

This week on The Movie Gourmet – a new review of the indie gem Fremont and my Wrapping up Cinequest.

CURRENT MOVIES

WATCH AT HOME

NUTS!

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

  • NUTS!: the rise and fall of a testicular empire. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • Land Ho!: rowdy geezer roadtrip to Iceland. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • Beast: finally unleashed … and untethered. Amazon (included with Prime), AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
  • Won’t You Be My Neighbor?: gentleness from ferocity. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
  • The Imposter: a jaw dropper. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • The Secret in Their Eyes: Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • The Stopover: PTSD takes more than an umbrella drink…Amazon, AppleTV.

ON TV

HARLAN COUNTY, USA

Monday evening, September 3, Turner Classic Movies honors labor on Labor Day with the 1979 Oscar-winner Harlan County U.S.A. Filmmaker Barbara Kopple embedded herself among the striking coal miners and got amazing footage – including of herself threatened and shot at.

Coal miner’s wife Florence Reece had written the song Which Side Are You On? in 1931 and, as an old woman with ma husband dyin’ of black lung, sings it at a rally in the film. Pete Seegar had popularized the tune by then, and you still don’t want to be a lousy scab. It’s still an apt anthem for the exploitation of Gig Economy workers today.

You can also stream Harlan County U.S.A. on HBO Max and the Criterion Channel. And it’s one of my 5 Great Hillbilly Movies.

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: Cillian Murphy in OPPENHEIMER. Courtesy of Universal Pictures.

This week on The Movie Gourmet – new reviews of the delightful Scrapper and Sam Pollard’s documentary on Negro League baseball, The League. As Cinequest moves across Silicon Valley from San Jose to Mountain View, here’s my Cinequest 2023 coverage, including my Best of Cinequest.

This week, I saw Oppenheimer for the second time with The Wife. If you haven’t yet seen it, I urge you to do it now while it’s still on the big screen.

CURRENT MOVIES

WATCH AT HOME

Ricardo Darin in THE SECRET IN THEIR EYES

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

  • The Secret in Their Eyes: Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • Land Ho!: rowdy geezer roadtrip to Iceland. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • Beast: finally unleashed … and untethered. Amazon (included with Prime), AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
  • Won’t You Be My Neighbor?: gentleness from ferocity. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
  • The Imposter: a jaw dropper. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • NUTS!: the rise and fall of a testicular empire. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • The Stopover: PTSD takes more than an umbrella drink…Amazon, AppleTV.

ON TV

Dennis O’Keefe and Ann Sheridan in WOMAN ON THE RUN

On August 29, Turner Classic Movies presents the taut 77 minutes of Woman on the Run, one of my Overlooked Noir. When the police coming looking for a terrified murder witness, they are surprised to find his wife (Ann Sheridan) both ignorant of his whereabouts and unconcerned. And the wife has a Mouth On Her, much to the dismay of the detective (Robert Keith), who keeps walking into a torrent of sass. She starts hunting hubbie, along with the cops, a reporter (Dennis O’Keefe) and the killer, and they all careen through a life-or-death manhunt. Another star of Woman on the Run is San Francisco itself, from the hilly neighborhoods to the bustling streets to the dank and foreboding waterfront.

Movies to See Right Now

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Sara Klimoska in KAYMAK, US premiere at Cinequest. Courtesy of Kaymak.

This week on The Movie Gourmet – Cinequest is underway, and here’s my Cinequest 2023 coverage, including my Best of Cinequest. Plus, a new review of the Juliette Binoche workplace drama Between Two Worlds. This be the last week that you can find Christian Petzold’s Afire in theaters.

CURRENT MOVIES

WATCH AT HOME

THE IMPOSTER

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

  • The Imposter: a jaw dropper. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • Land Ho!: rowdy geezer roadtrip to Iceland. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • Beast: finally unleashed … and untethered. Amazon (included with Prime), AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
  • Won’t You Be My Neighbor?: gentleness from ferocity. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
  • The Secret in Their Eyes: Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • NUTS!: the rise and fall of a testicular empire. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • The Stopover: PTSD takes more than an umbrella drink…Amazon, AppleTV.

ON TV

Michael York, Oliver Reed, Richard Chamberlain and Frank Finlay in THE THREE MUSKETEERS

To my delight, Turner Classic Movies often schedules Richard Lester’s boisterous The Three Musketeers, but, on August 22, is airing it with The Four Musketeers, which was filmed in the same shoot and released the next year (1974). Oliver Reed, Richard Chamberlain, Michael York and Frank Finlay swashbuckle away against Bad Guys Christopher Lee, Faye Dunaway and Charlton Heston. Geraldine Chaplin and Raquel Welch adorn the action. These movies are a hoot.