Weekly Movie Recommendations

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: Jennifer Lawrence in NO HARD FEELINGS. Courtesy of Sony Pictures.

This week on The Movie Gourmet – a new review of the Jennifer Lawrence comedy No Hard Feelings, and I warn you away from Wife of a Spy. Coming up: a new review of Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City.

REMEMBRANCE

Prolific actor Julian Sands earned 156 screen credits and will be best remembered for A Room with a View.

CURRENT MOVIES

WATCH AT HOME

Macon Blair in BLUE RUIN

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

  • Blue Ruin: fresh take on the revenge thriller. Amazon, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
  • Revenge: The web is spun. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • Listening to Kenny G.: derision, devotion and a hard-working guy. HBO.
  • Piggy: surprising and darkly hilarious. Amazon, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
  • Riders of Justice: thriller, comedy and much, much more.
  • The Bra: Just your average silent Azerbaijani comedy. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • Drinking Buddies: an unusually genuine romantic comedy. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.

ON TV

Millard Mitchell and James Stewart in WINCHESTER ’73

On July 1, Turner Classic Movies presents what is perhaps the best of director Anthony Mann’s “psychological Westerns”, Winchester ’73 (1950) with James Stewart. Winchester ’73 taps the quest and revenge genres, and it has the Western’s requisite Indian battle and climactic shootout.  Westerns were oft about Good versus Bad, but Mann makes Jimmy Stewart’s character in Winchester ’73 much more complex and morally ambiguous – and he has what we now call “unresolved issues”.  The bad guys are Dan Duryea at his oiliest and Stephen McNally at his most brutish.  The 29-year-old Shelly Winters finds herself as the object of several characters’ desires.  Millard Mitchell is perfect as Jimmy’s sidekick. One of my favorite character actors, Jay C. Flippen, shows up as a cavalry sergeant.

Stephen McNally, Shelly Winters and Dan Duryea in WINCHESTER ’73
WINCHESTER ’73

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: Aline Kuppenheim in CHILE ’76. Courtesy of Kino Lorber.

This week on The Movie Gourmet – Three excellent international films are playing arthouse theaters: the gripping Holocaust thriller Persian Lessons, the Chilean suspenser Chile ’76, and the mesmerizing Italian exploration of of male friendship and self-discovery, The Eight Mountains. See as many of them as you can find.

Plus, I have new reviews of the corporate thriller Tetris, set amid the implosion of the USSR, and the insightful documentary Body Parts, about on-screen sex from a female perspective.

REMEMBRANCE

Glenda Jackson in Elizabeth R.

Glenda Jackson won Oscars for Women in Love and a A Touch of Class. I most admired her as the fierce Queen Bess in the 1971 miniseries Elizabeth R. Many actors have tried on politics in real life, but Jackson took off 23 years from her acting career to serve as a hard Left Labor Party MP, before returning to the stage as an acclaimed King Lear.

CURRENT MOVIES

Cristiano Sassella and Lupo Barbiero in THE EIGHT MOUNTAINS. Courtesy of Janus Films.

WATCH AT HOME

THE BRA

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

  • The Bra: Just your average silent Azerbaijani comedy. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • Revenge: The web is spun. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • Blue Ruin: fresh take on the revenge thriller. Amazon, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
  • Listening to Kenny G.: derision, devotion and a hard-working guy. HBO.
  • Piggy: surprising and darkly hilarious. Amazon, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
  • Riders of Justice: thriller, comedy and much, much more.
  • Drinking Buddies: an unusually genuine romantic comedy. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.

ON TV

Edmond O’Brien in D.O.A.

On June 28, Turner Classic Movies brings us one of my favorites – 83 minutes of noir hysteria titled D.O.A. This gripping whodunit opens with a man walking into a police station to report HIS OWN MURDER. The man (Edmond O’Brien) finds out that he has been dosed with a poison for which there is no antidote – and that he has only a few days to live. He desperately races the clock to find out who has murdered him and why. Much of D.O.A. was shot on location in San Francisco and Los Angeles, and one SF scene has one of the first cinematic glimpses into Beat culture. The little known director Rudolph Maté gave the film a great look, which shouldn’t be a surprise because Maté had been Oscar-nominated five times as a cinematographer. The next year, he followed D.O.A. with another solid noir, Union Station, with William Holden and Barry Fitzgerald.

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: Nahuel Pérez Biscayart and Lars Eidinger in PERSIAN LESSONS. Photo courtesy of Cohen Media Group.

This week on The Movie Gourmet – The gripping Persian Lessons is opening more widely in LA and the Bay Area. Plus new reviews of the Chilean suspenser Chile ’76, the mesmerizing Italian exploration of of male friendship and self-discovery, The Eight Mountains, and the unpretentious Korean action comedy The Roundup: No Way Out.

REMEMBRANCE

Actor Treat Williams began his career with a string of interesting movies from 1976 through 1981: The Ritz, Hair, and the highly acclaimed Prince of the City. He continued a prolific and respectable career for four more decades, but his films never matched his early ones.

CURRENT MOVIES

Aline Kuppenheim in CHILE ’76. Courtesy of Kino Lorber.

WATCH AT HOME

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

Siren Jørgensen in REVENGE. Courtesy of Cinequest.
  • Revenge: The web is spun. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • Blue Ruin: fresh take on the revenge thriller. Amazon, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
  • Listening to Kenny G.: derision, devotion and a hard-working guy. HBO.
  • Piggy: surprising and darkly hilarious. Amazon, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
  • Riders of Justice: thriller, comedy and much, much more.
  • The Bra: Just your average silent Azerbaijani comedy. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • Drinking Buddies: an unusually genuine romantic comedy. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.

ON TV

Lizabeth Scott, Dick Powell and Raymond Burr in PITFALL

On June 19, Turner Classic Movies features one of my Overlooked Noir, Pitfall (1948), a noir thriller without either a conventional sap or a conventional femme fatale. Dick Powell plays a WW II vet who is bored with the post-war suburban humdrum, and Lizabeth Scott plays a gal with terrible taste in boyfriends. Neither deserves to be dragged into a thriller, but they are. Raymond Burr, again, makes for a menacing sicko stalker.

Dick Powell and Lizabeth Scott in PITFALL

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: Sam Harkness in SAM NOW. Courtesy of HA/HA Productions.

This week on The Movie Gourmet – my top pick is the gripping Persian Lessons.

CURRENT MOVIES

WATCH AT HOME

LISTENING TO KENNY G. Courtesy of HBO.

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

  • Listening to Kenny G.: derision, devotion and a hard-working guy. HBO.
  • Blue Ruin: fresh take on the revenge thriller. Amazon, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
  • Piggy: surprising and darkly hilarious. Amazon, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
  • Riders of Justice: thriller, comedy and much, much more.
  • The Bra: Just your average silent Azerbaijani comedy. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • Drinking Buddies: an unusually genuine romantic comedy. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
  • Revenge: The web is spun. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.

ON TV

Samuel Fuller in A FULLER LIFE. Courtesy of Chrisam Films, Inc.

On June 14, Turner Classic Movies will air A Fuller Life, the biodoc of one of my favorite film directors, the irascible Samuel Fuller, the master of the In Your Face Movie. In Depression Era New York City, Fuller grew up working as a child in the tabloid newspaper industry and became a boy reporter at 17. Fuller never lost his gift for the shocking hook, and he reveled unashamedly in the salacious; perhaps the best example is his neo-noir The Naked Kiss, which opens with a prostitute beating her john senseless with her shoe; she moves to another town to go straight, finds herself in a relationship with the rich, handsome and seemingly saintly benefactor of a hospital for disabled children – only to find out that he is preying sexually on the children.

Without any hint of snobbery or pretention, Fuller just told great stories. His The Crimson Kimono was racially groundbreaking by normalizing a Japanese-American protagonist, and he used the outrageous to comment on race in Shock Corridor and White Dog.

In World War II, Fuller served in the First Infantry Division (the “Big Red One”), which landed in North Africa, Sicily and Normandy, and which liberated the Falkenau death camp. Immersed in the horrors of war, he was determined to make war movies with no “recruitment value”, and his are some of the best, especially The Steel Helmet and the autobiographical The Big Red One.

Fuller has been revered by Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino and a host of French filmmakers. I don’t remember Marty or Quentin appearing in A Fuller Life, but William Friedkin, Wim Wenders, Buck Henry, James Toback and Monte Hellman do. A Fuller Life is dierected by Sam Fuller’s daughter Samantha Fuller, who has sourced the film exquisitely.

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: BEING MARY TYLER MOORE. Courtesy of HBO.

This week on The Movie Gourmet – a new review of the irresistible family psychological documentary Sam Now, which begin streaming on June 6. And I warn you away from 32 Sounds – check out the better movies below.

Note that the wonderful documentary about writer Bob Caro and editor Robert Gottlieb, Turn Every Page, is now widely available to stream.

CURRENT MOVIES

WATCH AT HOME

LEVINSKY PARK. Courtesy of JFI.

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

  • Levinsky Park: refuge for refugees? Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube.
  • The Speed Cubers: odd, and then profound. Netflix.
  • Rodents of Unusual Size: 5 million orange-toothed critters and a Cajun octogenarian. Amazon, AppleTV.
  • Satan & Adam: more than an odd couple. Amazon, AppleTV.
  • The 11th Green: a thinking person’s paranoid conspiracy. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • The Wave: Everything you want in a disaster movie. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • Magallanes: some wrongs cannot be righted. AppleTV.

ON TV

Robert Montgomery, Walter Huston and Madge Evans in HELL BELOW.

On June 7, TCM airs the 1933 submarine movie Hell Below. It’s a pretty contrived Robert Montgomery vehicle, but there are some elements worth fast-forwarding to. The comic relief is provided by Jimmy Durante, who plays the ship’s cook Ptomaine; Baby Boomers tend to remember Durante for his shtick on variety shows of the 1950s and 1960s – here’s the unadulterated Durante. Durante even boxes with a kangaroo! 

Hell Below also features Walter Huston, who was a major star at the time and who, with his naturalistic acting style and relatability, I think would be a star today. Madge Evans plays the love interest, and Durante is joined by the bullfrog-voiced Eugene Pallette.

Eugene Pallette and Jimmy Durante in HELL BELOW.

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: Petri Poikolainen in THE MAN WHO DID NOT WANT TO SEE TITANIC. Courtesy of Cinedigm Entertainment Group.

This week on The Movie Gourmet, my top recommendation is The Blind Man Who Did Not Want to See Titanic, a rare nugget of complete originality that takes us into a unfamiliar world filled with unexpected laughs, suddenly turns into a thriller, and finishes as a moving love story. The Blind Man Who Did Not Want to See Titanic is one of the Best Movies of 2023 – So Far.

But that’s not all! I also have new reviews of the showbiz biodoc Being Mary Tyler Moore, the family comedy Dealing with Dad and the ever-kinetic French indie Rodeo. And, from TCM’s Memorial Day Weekend slate filled with black-and-white war movies, I’ve plucked a 67-year-old gem that you almost certainly have not seen.

Note that Little Richard: I Am Everything and The Lost King have moved from theaters to the streaming platforms.

REMEMBRANCE

Jim Brown is justifiably best known for being voted the best NFL player of the 20th Century, but the reason he left the NFL was to star in the movies, where he was an African-American trailblazer. In 1969’s 100 Rifles, he played the first African-American male character in a major Hollywood movie to be shown having sex with a white woman (Raquel Welch).  Although Brown displayed a range of emotion onscreen described by James Wolcott as “no wider than a mail slot”, he was a pretty convincing action star, perhaps best in The Dirty Dozen.

CURRENT MOVIES

WATCH AT HOME

THE SPEED CUBERS. Courtesy of Netflix.

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

  • The Speed Cubers: odd, and then profound. Netflix.
  • Force Majeure: some things you just can’t get past. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, HBO (included).
  • Satan & Adam: more than an odd couple. Amazon, AppleTV.
  • Levinsky Park: refuge for refugees? Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube.
  • Rodents of Unusual Size: 5 million orange-toothed critters and a Cajun octogenarian. Amazon, AppleTV.
  • The 11th Green: a thinking person’s paranoid conspiracy. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • The Wave: Everything you want in a disaster movie. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • Magallanes: some wrongs cannot be righted. AppleTV.

ON TV

Paul Newman and Edmond O’Brien in THE RACK

On Memorial Day Weekend (May 28), Turner Classic Movies airs an overlooked Korean War film, The Rack (1956). A returning US army captain (Paul Newman) is court-martialed for collaborating with the enemy while a POW. He was tortured, and The Rack explores what can be realistically expected of a prisoner under duress. It’s a pretty good movie, and Wendell Corey, Edmond O’Brien, Walter Pidgeon, Lee Marvin and Cloris Leachman co-star.

Paul Newman and Walter Pidgeon in THE RACK

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: Fanny in FANNY: THE RIGHT TO ROCK. Courtesy of PBS.

This week on The Movie Gourmet – new reviews of Fanny: The Right to Rock (now on PBS) and the new indie drama Land of Gold. Plus a streaming review of Force Majeure.

CURRENT MOVIES

WATCH AT HOME

Campbell Scott in THE 11TH GREEN. Courtesy of The 11th Green Film.

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

  • The 11th Green: a thinking person’s paranoid conspiracy. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • Satan & Adam: more than an odd couple. Amazon, AppleTV.
  • Levinsky Park: refuge for refugees? Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube.
  • The Speed Cubers: odd, and then profound. Netflix.
  • Rodents of Unusual Size: 5 million orange-toothed critters and a Cajun octogenarian. Amazon, AppleTV.
  • Reggie: it’s not just about Reggie. Netflix.
  • Hannah Ha Ha: what makes for human value and fulfillment? Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • The Last Lullaby: backing out of a contract hit. Amazon (included with Prime), Vudu, redbox.
  • Best Worst Movie: a romp through cinematic awfulness. Amazon (included with Prime), AppleTV.
  • The Wave: Everything you want in a disaster movie. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • Magallanes: some wrongs cannot be righted. AppleTV.

FORCE MAJEURE – some things you just can’t get past

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FORCE MAJEURE

In the droll Swedish dramedy Force Majeure, a smugly affluent family of four vacations at an upscale ski resort in the French Alps. The wife explains to a friend that they take the vacation because otherwise the husband never sees the family. But, while the wife is blissed out, the kids fidget and complain, and the hubby sneaks peeks at his phone.

Then there’s a sudden moment of apparent life-and-death peril; the husband has a chance to protect the wife and kids, but instead – after first securing his iPhone – runs for his life. How do they all go on from that revealing moment? The extent that one incident can bring relationships into focus is the core of Force Majeure.

Clearly, the family has a serious issue to resolve, but there’s plenty of dry humor. In the most cringe worthy moments, the wife tries to contain her disgust, but can’t keep it bottled up when she’s in the most social situations. The couple repeatedly huddle outside their room in their underwear to talk things out, only to find themselves observed by the same impassive French hotel worker. The most tense moments are interrupted by an insistent cell phone vibration, another guest’s birthday party and a child’s remotely out-of-control flying toy.

Force Majeure is exceptionally well-written by writer-director Ruben Ostlund. It was just his fourth feature and the first widely seen outside Scandinavia. He transitions between scenes by showing the machinery of the ski resort accompanied by Baroque organ music – a singular and very effective directorial choice. Ostlund has gone on to direct The Square and Triangle of Sadness, both of which won the Palm d’Or at Cannes; (but Force Majeure is his best film.)

Force Majeure was Sweden’s submission for the Best Foreign Language Oscar. It is available to stream from Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu and YouTube and is free on HBO.

[I’ve included the trailer as always, but I recommend that you see the movie WITHOUT watching this trailer – mild spoilers]

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: Jay Baruchal and Glenn Howerton in BLACKBERRY. Courtesy of IFC Films.

This week on The Movie Gourmet – a review of the new audience-pleaser BlackBerry, opening today. Also streaming recommendations of The Last Lullaby, an overlooked neo-noir, and Best Worst Movie, an entertaining documentary about a laughably bad horror movie. I also highlighted Preston Sturges’ wickedly funny satires Sullivan’s Travels and Hail the Conquering Hero; if you missed them on TCM this week, you can still stream them from the major services – after eighty years, they’re still hilarious.

Sasha Alexander and Tom Sizemore and in THE LAST LULLABY. Courtesy of Chaillot Films.

CURRENT MOVIES

WATCH AT HOME

Ane Dahl Torp (center) in THE WAVE. Courtesy of Cinequest.

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

  • The Wave: Everything you want in a disaster movie. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • Satan & Adam: more than an odd couple. Amazon, AppleTV.
  • Reggie: it’s not just about Reggie. Netflix.
  • Levinsky Park: refuge for refugees? Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube.
  • The Speed Cubers: odd, and then profound. Netflix.
  • Rodents of Unusual Size: 5 million orange-toothed critters and a Cajun octogenarian. Amazon, AppleTV.
  • The 11th Green: a thinking person’s paranoid conspiracy. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • Magallanes: some wrongs cannot be righted. AppleTV.

ON TV

Audrey Totter and Richard Basehart in TENSION.

On May 16, Turner Classic Movies will present the deliciously sordid Tension, where Quimby (Richard Basehart), the wimpy night manager of a drugstore, has one of the worst wives in film noir. Claire (Audrey Totter) spends her daytime hours belittling Quimby and her nighttime hours cuckolding him. When she moves into Barney’s beach house and lets the hairy-chested Barney (Lloyd Gough) beat up her nerdy hubbie, the humiliated Quimby has had enough. There’s a murder and a frame. Will the cops find the real murderer? Rising star Cyd Charisse plays the good girl, and Barry Sullivan plays the cop who outsmarts them all.

Lloyd Gough and Audrey Totter in TENSION.

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: Little Richard in LITTLE RICHARD: I AM EVERYTHING. Courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.

This week on The Movie Gourmet – new reviews of Little Richard: I Am Everything and Jews of the Wild West:. Plus a reminder that Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, a Journey, a Song is now available to stream.

Gordon Lightfoot died this week, so it’s fitting to stream the amiable biodoc Gordon Lightfoot: If You Could Read My Mind from Amazon (included with Prime), AppleTV or KinoNow.

CURRENT MOVIES

WATCH AT HOME

RODENTS OF UNUSUAL SIZE

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

  • Rodents of Unusual Size: 5 million orange-toothed critters and a Cajun octogenarian. Amazon, AppleTV.
  • Satan & Adam: more than an odd couple. Amazon, AppleTV.
  • Levinsky Park: refuge for refugees? Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube.
  • The Speed Cubers: odd, and then profound. Netflix.
  • The 11th Green: a thinking person’s paranoid conspiracy. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • The Wave: Everything you want in a disaster movie. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • Magallanes: some wrongs cannot be righted. AppleTV.

ON TV

Vampira and Tor Johnson in Ed Wood’s PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE

First, the good movies – on May 9, Turner Classic Movies will be presenting the best work of Preston Sturges:  The Lady Eve, The Palm Beach Story, Sullivan’s Travels, Hail the Conquering Hero and The Great McGinty. I’ll be writing more about them on Sunday.

And now, the bad one – on May 11, TCM will air Plan 9 From Outer Space (1959), often ranked as the worst movie of all time and #1 in my Bad Movie Festival.

This movie is so bad that Tim Burton made a Johnny Depp movie about it – Ed Wood, named for its zealously persistent, but pathetic, creator.  Ed Wood throws everything at the screen, hoping that something interesting will stick:  dying vampire star Bela Lugosi, the TV fortune teller Criswell, the horror movie hostess Vampira, zombie-look-alike pro wrestler Tor Johnson and stock footage of a nuclear explosion.  None of it is tied together with any coherence, and it’s all unintentionally funny.  This one’s good for the whole family.

Lugosi died while making this film and was replaced by a taller, non-speaking “double”, who stalks about covering his face with his cloak.  The double shows up in the trailer.