Weekly Movie Recommendations

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: Stephan Graham and Andrea Riseborough in HEEL. Courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.

This week on The Movie Gourmet – new reviews of the absolutely wild Heel and the lyrical La Grazia, plus a revamped CURRENT MOVIES section below.

As Cinequest enters its final weekend, I’ve posted Wrapping Up Cinequest and Cinequest Movies Go On-line Today. You can watch some very good Cinequest movies through Sunday night, and I recommend that you do so.

Note: The engrossing indie family drama East of Wall and the historical psychodrama Nuremberg are now both on Netflix.

REMEMBRANCE

Valerie Perrine always had a sex kitten image, but she held her own in some seriously good movies: Slaughterhouse-Five, Lenny, Superman, The Electric Horseman.

CURRENT MOVIES

  • Heel: don’t try this at home. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
  • La Grazia: it’s time to get past his malaise. Amazon, AppleTV.
  • The Bride!: a funnier Bonnie and Clyde, with monsters.In theaters.
  • Fackham Hall: silly, low-brow, and that’s okay. HBO Max (free), Amazon, AppleTV.
  • A Private Life: a shrink and her own issues. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube.

ON TV

Rita Moreno, F. Murray Abraham and Jack Weston in THE RITZ.

On March 29, 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.

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: Milos Forman’s THE FIREMEN’S BALL, airing this week on TCM.

This week on The Movie Gourmet – a new review of Fackham Hall. ICYMI here are my Thoughts on the Oscars.

I’m still covering the ongoing Cinequest film festival, with all my coverage linked on my Cinequest 2026 page. Watch for my festival wrap-up on Monday and, on Tuesday, my recommendations for Cinequest movies you can stream at home.

CURRENT MOVIES

  • The Bride!: a funnier Bonnie and Clyde, with monsters. In theaters.
  • Fackham Hall: silly, low-brow, and that’s okay. HBO Max (free), Amazon, AppleTV.
  • A Private Life: a shrink and her own issues. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube.

ON TV

THE FIREMEN’S BALL

On March 22, Turner Classic Movies presents Miloš Forman‘s 1967 Czech comedy The Firemen’s Ball.  In his youth, Forman lived through the Nazis, who he described as evil, and the Communists, who he described as absurd. The Firemen’s Ball is a comedy of errors set during the annual ball of a small town fire brigade. It’s an obligatory occasion, and everyone is just going through the motions. No one is willing or able to do what they are supposed to be doing, whether it is protecting the raffle prizes or even putting out fires. The film eviscerated the moral bankruptcy of the Communist society.

The bumbling old farts on the ball committee try to put on a beauty contest; they shanghai a bunch of young women in attendance and parade them around the committee room to prep them for the pageant. The Wife was offended by the sexism of the scene, but she didn’t stick around to see the committee get their comeuppance when the contestants themselves blow up the Big Announcement and turn the committee members into objects of ridicule. Stick with it – the whole movie is only 73 minutes long.

Movie to See Right Now

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Photo caption: Jessie Buckley and Christian Bale in THE BRIDE!. Courtesy of Warner Bros.

This week on The Movie Gourmet – we’re in the first weekend of Cinequest, which I’m covering for the fifteenth year, and all my Cinequest coverage is linked on my CINEQUEST 2026 page.

I’m not done with Cinequest coverage, but I just published a new review of The Bride!

The Oscars are coming up Sunday evening, and I’m generally rooting for One Battle After Another and It Was Just an Accident, and specifically for Jessie Buckley, Teyana Taylor, Jacob Elordi, Mr. Nobody Against Putin and for Frankenstein to sweep the awards for production design, costumes, score and, of course, makeup.

Note: The wonderful A Little Prayer: which made both my lists of Best Movies and Most Overlooked Movies of 2025, is now included (free) with Amazon Prime.

CURRENT MOVIES

ON TV

William Powell and Carole Lombard in MY MAN GODFREY

We’re living in a time when we could use some wit, silliness and decency, so we’re fortunate that, on March 14, Turner Classic Movies is airing the timeless and fantastic comedy, My Man Godfrey (1936). An assembly of eccentric, oblivious, venal and utterly spoiled characters make up a rich Park Avenue family and their hangers-on during the Depression. The kooky daughter (Carole Lombard) brings home a homeless guy (William Powell) to serve as their butler. The contrast between the dignified butler and his wacky employers results in a brilliant screwball comedy that masks searing social criticism that is still sharply relevant today. The wonderful character actor Eugene Pallette (who looked and sounded like a bullfrog in a tuxedo) plays the family’s patriarch, and he’s keenly aware that his wife and kids are completely nuts.

I feel strongly about this 90-year-old movie, which I first saw when it was only 36-years-old. We talk about screwball comedy, but this is the gold standard. And we need to remember the comic genius of Carole Lombard, who died supporting the war against fascism when she was only 33.

Movies to See Right Now

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This week on The Movie Gourmet – my First Look at Cinequest, previewing the Silicon Valley fim fest, which opens on Tuesday. On Sunday, I’ll publish my Best of Cinequest and followup with more Cinequest recommendations on Tuesday. I have been covering Cinequest for 15 years.

Here’s my farewell to Robert Duvall, one of the essential figures in cinema in my lifetime.

I also watched the Paul McCartney doc Man on the Run on Amazon, which was somewhat entertaining. Directed by prolific documentarian Morgan Neville (who won an Oscar in 2013 for 20 Feet from Stardom) with McCartney’s cooperation, it’s well-made and exceptionally well-sourced. It’s just hard for me to be enthusiastic about the subject, which is the eleven years right after the Beatles’ breakup, when McCartney led the band Wings; my take on Wings runs the gamut from indifferent to loathing.

CURRENT MOVIES

ON TV

Robert Duvall in Tender Mercies.

Robert Duvall was nominated for an Academy Award seven times, but he won his Best Actor Oscar for Tender Mercies, coming up on Turner Classic Movies on March 10. Duvall plays a once-famous country-western singer who has sabotaged his career and his family life with alcoholism and bad choices. Hey, mister, were you really Mac Sledge? Yes, ma’m, I guess I was. He’s trying to reboot with a new wife, but will his estranged daughter give him a second chance? Novelist Horton Foote won the screenplay Oscar. Duvall did his own singing and even wrote two of Mac Sledge’s songs, Fool’s Waltz and I’ve Decided to Leave Here Forever.

Robert Duvall in Tender Mercies.

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: Jessie Buckley in HAMNET. Courtesy of Focus Features.

This week on The Movie Gourmet – reviews of two overlooked films, Dennis Hopper’s searing drama Out of the Blue and the deliciously subversive Argentine comedy Human Resources. Slamdance is under way, and here’s my coverage:

Note: Two highly recommended movies – both Oscar-nominated – The Secret Agent and Mr. Nobody Against Putin are now available to stream at home. And all of the big Oscar movies are now available to watch at home.

CURRENT MOVIES

ON TV

Carmen Maura and Penelope Cruz in VOLVER.

On March 4, Turner Classic Movies plays Pedro Almodovar’s Volver. Almodovar’s signature is a female-forward movie that is a subversively hilarious exploration of dark subjects – and that fits Volver to a tee. There is murder and parentage secrets , along with a body conveniently stashed in a freezer, plus a ghost who isn’t. The mostly female cast is headed by Penelope Cruz (Oscar nomination) and Carmen Maura. Cruz, of course, is a global A-lister, and Maura, like Victoria Abril, Marisa Paredes and Roddy De Palma, we know best from her collaborations with Almodovar (Pepi, Luci, Bom and Other Girls Like Mom, Matador and Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown.).

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: Wagner Moura in THE SECRET AGENT. Courtesy of NEON.

This week on The Movie Gourmet – the Slamdance film festival is under way right now:

Note: Two highly recommended movies – both Oscar-nominated – The Secret Agent and Mr. Nobody Against Putin are now available to stream at home.

REMEMBRANCES

Here’s my farewell to Robert Duvall, one of the essential figures in cinema in my lifetime.

Director Frederick Wiseman was one of the most influential documentarians; he didn’t invent cinéma vérité, but he was one of its most famous practitioners, beginning with his first film, the disturbing psychiatric prison exposé Titicut Follies in 1967. Some of his best work came when Wiseman was in his 80s: Boxing Gym, In Jackson Heights and Monrovia, Indiana.

CURRENT MOVIES

ON TV

Ingrid Thulin and Victor Sjostrom in WILD STRAWBERRIES

On February 21, Turner Classic Movies presents the one non-depressing Ingmar Bergman film, Wild Strawberries. There’s no denying that Bergman is a film genius, and he’s influenced the likes of Scorsese, Coppola, Altman, Kieślowski and basically much of the last two generations of filmmakers. But I don’t recommend that casual movie fans watch Bergman’s gloomiest movies just because they “are good for you” – I want you to have a good time at the movies.

Wild Strawberries is the story of an accomplished but cranky geezer. His indifferent daughter-in-law is taking him to be honored at his college. On their road trip, they pick up some young hitch-hikers and then a stranded couple. Each encounter reminds the old doctor of an episode in his youth. As he reminisces, he can finally emotionally process the experiences that had troubled him, helping him finally achieve an inner peace. It’s a wonderful film.

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: Wagner Moura in THE SECRET AGENT. Courtesy of NEON.

This week on The Movie Gourmet – new reviews of The Secret Agent: ,one of the very best films of the year, now available on VOD, and Jodie Foster in A Private Life.

REMEMBRANCE

Bud Cort never matched his iconic performance in Hal Ashby’s subversive Harold and Maude.

CURRENT MOVIES

ON TV

THEM!

On February 17, Turner Class Movies airs Them!, one of the earliest movies with the premise that nuclear bomb tests can mutate animals into giant monsters. Here, the nightmarish threat is ants the size of trucks. It’s bad enough to have them wandering the New Mexico desert, but then they show up in the storm drain system underneath Los Angeles. Yikes! Despite the state of non-CGI special effects in 1954, the ants are suitably terrifying. The reliable James Whitmore stars. Look for future television superstars James Arness and Fess Parker.

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: Pavel Talankan in the Oscar-nominated MR. NOBODY AGAINST PUTIN. Courtesy of the SLO Film Fest.

This week on The Movie Gourmet – a republished review of Mr. Nobody Against Putin, now Oscar-nominated and available to stream at home. Next week – a new review of A Private Life, with Jodie Foster acting in French, and a preview of the 2026 Cinequest, coming up in March.

REMEMBRANCE

Catherine O’Hara was a master of comic sensibility and comic timing. She was unforgettable in Best in Show as the endearingly goofy Cookie, who didn’t know that people who live in mobile homes aren’t supposed to win snooty national dog shows, and who was blissfully indifferent when her sexual past kept popping up to enrage her husband (Eugene Levy). She was also brilliant in A Mighty Wind as Mickey of the defunct folk duo Mitch and Mickey (again, with Levy), especially performing their hit A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow. As The Wife reminded me, those movies, along with Waiting for Guffman and For Your Consideration were Christopher Judge mockumentaries, where O’Hara and other cast members mostly improvised their own lines.  She was singularly funny in Beetlejuice, Schitt’s Creek and The Studio.

CURRENT MOVIES

Shi-Yua Ma in LEFT-HANDED GIRL. Courtesy of Netflix.

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: Tao Zhao in CAUGHT BY THE TIDES: Photo courtesy of Janus Films.

This week on The Movie Gourmet, I’m just back from another indelible experience at Noir City, and I have posted a new review of the dreary and odd The Testament of Ann Lee and my ruminations on the Oscar nominations. I am waiting for the wide release of A Private Life with Jodie Foster acting in French and the epic Magellan.

We’re heading into a few months with comparatively few promising theatrical and online release. It’s still a busy time for me, as I cover film festivals: Slamdance, Cinequest, SLO Film Fest and SFFILM.  But it’s a great time for everyone to catch up at home with the:

CURRENT MOVIES

ON TV

John Voight (foreground) in DELIVERANCE

January 31 Deliverance And then we have another classic just as INTENSE: Deliverance from 1972. It’s one of my all-time favorites – still gripping today – with a famous scene that still shocks. Jon Voight, Burt Reynolds, Ned Beatty and Ronny Cox form an impressive ensemble cast. Beautifully and dramatically shot by the late great cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond.

Burt Reynolds in DELIVERANCE

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: Lee Byung-hun in NO OTHER CHOICE. Courtesy of NEON.

This week on The Movie Gourmet – I’m in Oakland covering Noir City, Eddie Muller’s absolutely essential festival of film noir; here’s my NOIR CITY 23: a musician walks into an alley…  I’ve also published a new review of the wonderful A Little Prayer, showcasing a superb acting ensemble.  And I’ve completed my 2025 review with the 8 Most Overlooked Films of 2025 – all of which you can stream at home.

CURRENT MOVIES:

ON TV

Lee Remick and Jack Lemmon in DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES

On January 26 , Turner Classic Movies airs Days of Wine and Roses, Blake Edwards’ unflinching exploration of alcoholism, featuring great performances by Jack Lemmon and Lee Remick (both nominated for Oscars) and Charles Bickford.