Weekly Movie Recommendations

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

This week on The Movie Gourmet – new reviews of Turn Every Page and the first Must See of 2023 – Return to Seoul.

CURRENT MOVIES

• Return to Seoul: brilliantly crafted and emotionally gripping. 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:

• The Sapphires: Here’s a crowd pleaser: Motown meets Aborigines. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu
• 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..
• 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

If you want to understand what Pre-Code is all about, take a look at the 1931 The Maltese Falcon, which has an entirely different tone than the 1941 John Huston/Humphrey Bogart/Mary Astor The Maltese Falcon that you’ve surely seen. The 1931 Falcon, which is coming up on Turner Classic Movies on April 4.

Ricardo Cortez’s Sam Spade is lecherous, cocksure, leering and pawing. Indeed, if this Pre-Code The Maltese Falcon is about anything, it’s about sex. It opens with a woman adjusting her hose before leaving Sam Spade’s office, evidence of a just-completed sexual encounter.

Bebe Daniels plays Miss Wonderly/Brigid O’Shaughnessy as sexually aggressive. She’s shown taking an obviously post-coital bath, and deals out lines like “who’s that dame wearing MY kimono?“. At one point, a large banknote is missing and Spade takes Brigid into an adjoining room and strip searches her. This 1931 movie is the only Maltese Falcon that contains this sequence. What we see on camera is an apparently nude Brigid clutching her clothes behind the door.

The Hays Code prevented the re-release of The Maltese Falcon in 1936, which led to the 1936 remake, Satan Met a Lady. Because it’s so risque, the complete version of this 1931 film was not screened again in the United States until 1966.Here’s my essay on the three faces of The Maltese Falcon.

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

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. 

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

This week on The Movie Gourmet – my coverage of Cinequest (links live later today), now underway, and a new review of Women Talking. Plus the following rant.

I finally got around to watching Top Gun: Maverick, if only because The Wife insists on catching herself up on all the movies nominated for the Best Picture Oscar. I knew that I was not the audience for this well-crafted movie, which is very entertaining on the most superficial level, and I acknowledge that the aerial training and combat scenes are technically unsurpassed. The actors all do their best with the hackneyed and well-worn dialogue, like “You’re where you belong. Make us proud.” But I wasn’t prepared for the insipidity of the happy endings of each plot thread; the only way Top Gun: Maverick could have been cornier is if they found out that Goose wasn’t killed in the first movie, after all. And, since I’m the last person to see Top Gun: Maverick, I don’t consider this a spoiler: although Maverick and Rooster each do something to sacrifice himself for the other, nobody is really sacrificed – this is another war movie where there is no human cost to the violence; (and the enemies are clad anonymously in Darth Vader-like headgear). The screenplay is cynically written to make sure no one feels sad after this movie – it is a fantasy. FWIW Jennifer Connelly is a huge improvement over Kelly McGinnis in the original Top Gun.

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 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

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

• Little Dieter Needs to Fly: an unimaginable escape and a quirky guy Project Nim: .Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
• 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.
• 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.
• We Believe in Science: denying science on a monumental scale. Amazon, Vudu, YouTube.

This week on The Movie Gourmet – I’m busy screening movies that are programmed at Cinequest’s on-line festival Cinejoy, beginning next weekend. Of the current movies that I recommend, only Living, The Fabelmans: and Everything Everywhere All at Once are still relatively easy to find in theaters. The good news is that most are already streaming (see Current Movies below), and Empire of Light just became available to stream.

REMEMBRANCES

Early on, Raquel Welch was thought of more as a novelty movie star than as an actress. She had become instantly recognizable for displaying her spectacular figure in a skintight spacesuit (Fantastic Voyage), a doe-skin bikini (One Billion Years B.C.), a star spangled bikini (Myra Breckenridge), and flimsy undergarments (100 Rifles). In 1972, she proved that she could act in Kansas City Bomber. Welch nailed the character of a hard scrabble single mom committed to raising her kid while facing one indignity and bad choice after another. (Welch herself had two kids by the time she was 21 and was divorced at 24.) In 1973, she demonstrated brilliant comic acting chops in The Three Musketeers,

Her birth surname was Tejada; she took Welch from her first husband. Welch’s father was Bolivian, and her cousin was the first female president of Bolivia.

Director Hugh Hudson’s FIRST FEATURE won the Best Picture Oscar – Chariots of Fire. He never approached that level of achievement with feature films again, although he had a successful career directing commercials. He was one of the very few directors to attempt to make a movie about the American Revolution, Revolution

CURRENT MOVIES

• Broker: in the margins, finding a profound humanity. In theaters, but increasingly hard to find.
• Living: what is it to live? In theaters.
• 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.
• All the Beauty and the Bloodshed: justice by erasure. In theaters.
• Madoff: Monster of Wall Street: adding some jawdroppers to a familiar story. Netflix.
• 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 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

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

• Love & Mercy: a tale of three monsters and salvation. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
• Mustang: repression challenged by the human spirit. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
• Truman: how to say goodbye. 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.
• 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

On March 1, Turner Classic Movies presents a great Rudyard Kipling adventure yarn,  gloriously brought to the screen by director John Huston – The Man Who Would Be King. Michael Caine and Sean Connery star as Peachy Carnahan and Daniel Dravot, two reprobates mustered out of the Queen’s army in colonial India. Rather than return to menial prospects in England, these cheeky and lovable scoundrels seek to make their fortune as mercenaries on the outskirts of the Raj.  Fortune smiles, and they reach unforeseeable success – and then one of them overreaches…

John Huston had been trying to make this 1975 movie since the 1950s. His first choices for the roles of Carnahan and Dravot were Humphrey Bogart and Clark Gable, but Bogart became ill. Then the casting of Kirk Douglas and Burt Lancaster fell through. When he was mulling over a pairing of Paul Newman and Robert Redford, Newman advised him to use British actors for these British roles. Thank you, Paul Newman – Caine and Connery are magnificent.

Huston told Caine that the movie was about friendship, and that Carnahan and Dravot are successful as long as they are united in single purpose.

Christopher Plummer plays Kipling. Saeed Jaffrey is excellent as the local fixer.

I am between film festivals, and here I sit in the winter of my discontent. I still haven’t found a way to see Women Talking, Turn Every Page or No Bears, the last three 2022 films that I am eager to see. And I am waiting to see Return to Seoul and Full Time, the first really promising 2023 films. Sigh.

Anyway, I’ve got two very cool TCM recommendations below. And check out my Best Movies of 2022 as we await the Oscars.

CURRENT MOVIES

• Broker: in the margins, finding a profound humanity. In theaters.
• Living: what is it to live? In theaters.
• Empire of Light: a woman, revealed. In theaters, but increasingly hard to find.
• The Whale: regret to redemption. In theaters.
• All the Beauty and the Bloodshed: justice by erasure. In theaters.
• Madoff: Monster of Wall Street: adding some jawdroppers to a familiar story. Netflix.
• Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery: skewer the rich. Netflix.
• Babylon: “wanton excess” is inadequate to describe this movie. In 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

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

• Truman: how to say goodbye. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
• Mustang: repression challenged by the human spirit. 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.
• 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

On March 21, Turner Classic Movies will present the 1934 screwball comedy Twentieth Century, which holds up as well today as it did 89 years ago. A flamboyantly narcissistic Broadway producer (John Barrymore) has fallen on hard times and hops a transcontinental train to persuade his former star (Carole Lombard), now an A-list movie star, to headline his new venture. Barrymore’s shameless self-entitlement and hyper dramatic neediness makes for one of the funniest performances in the movies.

And, on March 23, TCM airs a milestone in LGBTQ cinema, the 1976 madcap comedy The Ritz. A straight and very square suburban businessman (Jack Weston) is fleeing from his homicidal mobster brother-in-law (Jerry Stiller) and hides out in the very last place one would look for him – a gay bathhouse in Manhattan. The Ritz is a fish-out-of-water farce with lots of comic mistaken identities. Today, it’s plenty dated, and a handsome but squeaky-voiced detective (Treat Williams) falls especially flat. But it’s one of the first movies with a decidedly queer setting, and F. Murray Abraham plays one of the first entirely sympathetic and relatable gay movie characters. Rita Moreno is all in as Googie Gomez, the house entertainer. Watch for John Ratzenburger (Cliff the mailman in Cheers and the voice of many Pixar movies) as a bathhouse patron.

This week on The Movie Gourmet – (finally!) new reviews of Broker and Living. Check out my ever-updated Best Movies of 2022. Plus two filmmaker remembrances.

REMEMBRANCES

Melinda Dillon was Oscar-nominated for Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Absence of Malice. But my favorite Dillon performance will also be that of another mom, who is worried her son will shoot his eye out in A Christmas Story. She also shared an intimate scene with Paul Newman in Slapshot, and said, “I spent 10 and a half hours naked in bed with Paul and absolutely loved it.”

Cindy Williams, before her TV success in Laverne and Shirley, made two of the 50 Greatest Movies of All Time. George Lucas’ American Graffiti is about that moment in 1962 when the innocence of the 1950s was months away from being replaced by the turbulence of the 1960s, for which nobody in America was prepared; she played the girlfriend of Ron Howard’s Steve, whose willfulness got her in a situation that was more than she could handle. Williams’ apparent sweet innocence was also perfect for Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation, where it is revealed that her character was not so threatened after all.

CURRENT MOVIES

• Broker: in the margins, finding a profound humanity. In theaters.
• Living: what is it to live? In theaters.
• Empire of Light: a woman, revealed. In theaters, but increasingly hard to find.
• The Whale: regret to redemption. In theaters.
• All the Beauty and the Bloodshed: justice by erasure. In theaters.
• Madoff: Monster of Wall Street: adding some jawdroppers to a familiar story. Netflix.
• Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery: skewer the rich. Netflix.
• Babylon: “wanton excess” is inadequate to describe this movie. In 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

After pausing through the Holidays to highlight the best movies of 2022, I’m returning with The most eclectic watch-at-home recommendations you’ll find ANYWHERE.

• 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.
• 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

On February 15, Turner Classic Movies airs the underseen The Man Who Cheated Himself, in which a cop falls for a dame who makes him go bad. But it’s not just any cop and not just any dame.

The cop (Lee J. Cobb) isa seasoned and cynical pro who knows better.  The woman (Jane Wyatt) is a puddle of capriciousness and carnality.  Jane Wyatt is best known as the mid-century suburban mom/wife in Father Knows Best, rock steady and super square. But in The Man Who Cheated Himself, Wyatt got to uncork more hysterical unreliability, sexual predation and neediness than in all of her other roles combined.  

And, odd for a San Francisco-set noir, it is definitely not fog-shrouded.  The day I saw The Man Who Cheated Himself at the 2018 Noir City film festival was one of those gorgeous sunny days that San Francisco gets in the winter – and that’s what the movie looks like.

The Film Noir Foundation has restored The Man Who Cheated Himself, but it’s not yet available to stream. See it this week on TCM.

This week on The Movie Gourmet – (finally!) new reviews of Broker and Empire of Light, both among the Best Movies of 2022.

Important note: many of the year’s most prestigious films have become available to stream (see below in CURRENT MOVIES): Aftersun, The Eternal Daughter, The Fabelmans, The Banshees of Inisherin, Decision to Leave, Armageddon Time and Triangle of Sadness. Check out my ever-updated Best Movies of 2022.

CURRENT MOVIES

• Broker: in the margins, finding a profound humanity. In theaters.
• Empire of Light: a woman, revealed. In theaters, but increasingly hard to find.
• The Whale: regret to redemption. In theaters.
• All the Beauty and the Bloodshed: justice by erasure. In theaters.
• Madoff: Monster of Wall Street: adding some jawdroppers to a familiar story. Netflix.
• Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery: skewer the rich. Netflix.
• Babylon: “wanton excess” is inadequate to describe this movie. In 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

At year-end, I suspend my usual The most eclectic watch-at-home recommendations you’ll find ANYWHERE so I can highlight the very best movies from 2022. These are on my list of Best Movies of 2022 and they shouldn’t be overlooked. Now you can watch them all at home.

• Nope: an exceptionally intelligent popcorn movie. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
• Montana Story: a family secret simmers, then explodes. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
• Compartment No. 6: a surprising journey to connection. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
• Poser: personal plagiarism. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
• The Tale of King Crab: storytelling at its best. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
• 12 Months: an authentic relationship evolves. Amazon.

ON TV

On February 5, Turner Classic Movies will present The Leopard (Il gattopardo), an Italian period epic starring Burt Lancaster as a 19th century Sicilian prince who is trying to remain master of his changing time. Director Luchino Visconti came from Italian nobility himself. As befits an epic of this scope, it’s a sweeping 187 minutes long. One highlight is the stunning entrance by the 24-year-old Claudia Cardinale as the local mayor’s daughter, suddenly all grown up. Check out my remembrance of The Leopard’s great cinematographer Giuseppe Rotunno,

This week on The Movie Gourmet – I have fallen behind because my reviews of Broker and Empire of Light are still not live. Broker is an exceptional film, which will take the #2 slot on my top ten movie list, and Empire of Light is going on the list, too. In my defense, I have been busy covering Noir City in person, while covering Slamdance virtually, and I’ll catch up soon.

Important note: many of the year’s most prestigious films have become available to stream (see below in CURRENT MOVIES): Aftersun, The Eternal Daughter, The Fabelmans, The Banshees of Inisherin, Decision to Leave, Armageddon Time and Triangle of Sadness. Check out my ever-updated Best Movies of 2022.

RUMINATION ON THE OSCAR NOMINATIONS

I was very pleased to see nominations for some achievements that I feared would be overlooked:

• Paul Mescal, Best Actor for Aftersun;
• Hong Chau, Best Supporting Actress for The Whale;
• Kerry Condon, Best Supporting ACtress for The Banshees of Inisherin;
• Barry Keoghan, Best Supporting Actor for The Banshees of Inisherin;
• Brian Tyree Henry, Best Supporting Actor for Causeway.

OTOH I was aghast that Broker, especially, and Decision to Leave were snubbed in the international category.

And I can’t believe that the movie Elvis and Austin Butler were nominated, although the film editing is deserving.

CURRENT MOVIES

• The Whale: regret to redemption. In theaters.
• All the Beauty and the Bloodshed: justice by erasure. In theaters.
• Madoff: Monster of Wall Street: adding some jawdroppers to a familiar story. Netflix.
• Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery: skewer the rich. Netflix.
• Babyon: “wanton excess” is inadequate to describe this movie. In theaters.
• The Eternal Daughter: consumed by mom. In theaters.
• Kimi: an adequate REAR WINDOWS ends as a thrilling WAIT UNTIL DARK. HBO Max.
• Aftersun: who’s coming of age is this? In theaters.
• The Fabelmans: a mom, a dad and their genius kid. In theaters.
• Decision to Leave: he’s obsessed, and she asks, “Am I so wicked?”. In theaters.
• Causeway: affecting and uplifting. AppleTV.
• The Menu: immune from pretension. In theaters.
• All Quiet on the Western Front: the trauma of war. Netflix.
• Armageddon Time: coming of age – right into a moral choice. In theaters.
• The Banshees of Inisherin: no limits on stubbornness. In theaters.
• Tar: a haughty spirit before a fall. In theaters.
• Triangle of Sadness: more subtlety, please. In theaters.

WATCH AT HOME

At year-end, I suspend my usual The most eclectic watch-at-home recommendations you’ll find ANYWHERE so I can highlight the very best movies from 2022. These are on my list of Best Movies of 2022 and they shouldn’t be overlooked. Now you can watch them all at home.

• Nope: an exceptionally intelligent popcorn movie. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
• Montana Story: a family secret simmers, then explodes. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
• Compartment No. 6: a surprising journey to connection. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
• Poser: personal plagiarism. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
• The Tale of King Crab: storytelling at its best. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
• 12 Months: an authentic relationship evolves. Amazon.

ON TV

On January 31, Turner Classic Movies plays Angel Face, the 1953 film noir from director Otto Preminger, This movie has it all, the droopy-eyed magnetism of Robert Mitchum, the fragile beauty of Jean Simmons, and (along with They Won’t Believe Me) the most SHOCKING ENDING in film noir.