Weekly Movie Recommendations

Movies to See Right Now

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The Power of the Dog: Kodi Smit-McPhee on his breakout performance | EW.com
Photo caption: Kodi Smit-McPhee in THE POWER OF THE DOG. Courtesy of Netflix.

This week – three new movies in theaters, but your best bet is The Power of the Dog on Netflix.

And it happened AGAIN, for the second time this month and the fourth time in thirty years: I had the whole theater all to myself at a Monday 1 PM screening of Benedetta at the Shattuck.

IN THEATERS

House of Gucci: Lady Gaga and Adam Driver shine in this modern tale of Shakespearean family treachery.

C’mon C’mon: In Mike Mills’ charming and authentic film, Joaquin Phoenix plays a well-intentioned, emotionally intelligent guy who gets an immersion course in parenting.

Benedetta: Paul Verhoeven’s entertaining parable of belief and class, wrapped in scandal and sacrilege.

Also in theaters:

ON VIDEO

Some of my choices for Best Movies of 2021 are already on video:

More 2021 movies on video:

ON TV

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Charles McGraw and Marie Windsor in THE NARROW MARGIN

On December 13, Turner Classic Movies is airing eight of the most important films noir, including:

  • The Naked City
  • The Asphalt Jungle
  • Kansas City Confidential
  • Crime Wave
  • The Big Sleep
  • Out of the Past
  • Mildred Pierce.

I’m highlighting The Narrow Margin, a taut 71 minutes of tension from my Overlooked Noir. Growly cop Charles McGraw plays hide-and-seek with a team of hit men on a claustrophobic train. Marie Windsor is unforgettable as the assassins’ target. McGraw and Windsor’s performances are first-rate, and their hardboiled dialogue is terrific. Director Richard Fleisher, early in his career, imaginatively stages the woman-hunt up and down the tight corridors and compartments of the moving train. Masterpiece.

I love this movie, and a replica of the poster is next to my TV.

Director Richard Fleischer’s use of reflection in THE NARROW MARGIN

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: Benedict Cumberbatch in THE POWER OF THE DOG. Credit: Kirsty Griffin; courtesy of Netflix.

This week – three more movies in theaters, five more now streaming and a note on my own William Randolph Hearst movie-going fantasy.

Every once in a loooong while, I have an experience that I treasure – seeing a movie as the only patron in a theater. Since I visited Hearst Castle as a kid, I’ve loved the idea of posing as the magnate at his very own private theater. One would think that this would happen more than it does. In a non COVID year, I will see 100+ movies in theaters, and I see lots of obscure movies at sparsely-attended weekday matinees. But, almost always, there’s at least one more audience member.

Anyway, it happened for the third time last Monday – The Souvenir Part II at San Francisco’s Landmark Embarcadero. My previous two solo screenings were of The Mariachi in 1992 at the Los Gatos and of Not Fade Away in 2012 at the AMC Cupertino Square.

IN THEATERS

The Power of the Dog: Jane Campion’s simmering drama of hostility that, most unexpectedly, meets its match. Brilliant performances by Benedict Cumberbatch and Kodi Smit-McPhee. Also now streaming on Netflix.

Julia: This charming documentary, affectionate and clear-eyed, tells the unlikely story of how Julia Child broke through every expectation of her gender, class and upbringing to become an icon in her fifties.

The Souvenir Part II: An exquisite art film about a young woman’s emotional recovery. This won’t be in theaters for very long.

Also in theaters:

ON VIDEO

Brian Wilson (seated left) in BRIAN WILSON: LONG PROMISED ROAD. Courtesy of Nashville Film Festival.

A slew of movies have become widely available to stream, by which I mean that they can be rented for $3.99-$6.99 from Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu and YouTube:

If you are willing to pay $19.99, you can already stream Lamb, No Time to Die, Last Night in Soho and The Many Saints of Newark. Or you can wait just a few weeks for these films to get down to $6 territory.

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

ON TV

On December 6, Turner Classic Movies airs Caged, the 1950s prototype for Orange Is the New Black?  Eleanor Parker played the naive young woman plunged into a harsh women’s prison filled with hard-bitten fellow prisoners and compassion-free guards. Parker was nominated for an acting Oscar, but her performance pales next to that of Hope Emerson, whose electric portrayal of a hulking guard also got an Oscar nod. Caged also features the fine character actresses Thelma Moorhead, Jane Darwell (Ma Joad in The Grapes of Wrath) and Ellen Corby (Grandma Walton here as a young woman).  Sixty-four years later, Caged might still be the best women’s prison movie ever.

Hope Emerson and Eleanor Parker in CAGED
Hope Emerson and Eleanor Parker in CAGED

Movies to See Right Now (Thanksgiving weekend edition)

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Photo caption: Judi Dench, Jude Hill and Ciarán Hinds in BELFAST. Courtesy of Focus Features.

On the Thanksgiving weekend – take the family to the theater to see Belfast. Or gather the family to stream CODA on AppleTV.

IN THEATERS

ON VIDEO

Keep Sweet: This documentary traces the remarkable aftermath of the Warren Jeffs child sexual abuse scandal in an isolated settlement of fundamentalist Mormons. A decade after, a tiny community tries to wrangle a new future. Opens November 24 on discovery+.

Emilia Jones, Troy Kotsur, Marlee Matlin and Daniel Durant in CODA. Courtesy of AppleTV.

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

ON TV

Dean Martin in KING OF COOL. Courtesy of Turner Classic Movies.

Turner Classic Movies’ will re-air the new Dean Martin documentary King of Cool on November 26. King of Cool is filled with insight into an icon who was extremely successful at being unknowable. Set your DVR.

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: Caitriona Balfe and Jamie Dornan in BELFAST. Courtesy of Focus Features.

Plenty of recommendations this week, but the Must See is Belfast – mask up, get yourself to a theater and see it.

IN THEATERS

Belfast: In Kenneth Branagh’s superb coming of age story, we see Northern Ireland’s Troubles through the eyes of eight-year-old. If you have heartstrings, they are gonna get pulled. Belfast is justifiably one of the Oscar favorites. #2 on my Best Movies of 2021 – So Far.

Brian Wilson: Long Promised Road: An unusual documentary about an unusual man.  Brian Wilson, The Beach Boys’ songwriting and arranging genius weighs in on his life and work. 

Also in theaters:

ON VIDEO

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

ON TV

Irène Jacob in THE DOUBLE LIFE OF VERONIQUE

On November 21, Turner Classic Movies airs the exquisitely written The Double Life of Veronique (1991). Two women, one French and one Polish, both played by Irène Jacob, are living separate lives hundreds of miles apart yet somehow they are connected… Writer-director Krzysztof Kieślowski was on the verge of his 1993-1994 masterpiece, the Three Colors Trilogy (Blue, Red and White), which is high on my list of Greatest Movies of All Time. Kieślowski died in heart surgery just two years after the trilogy at the age of 54, robbing cinema of yet more masterworks (he was reportedly working on another trilogy).

Movies to See Right Now

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Ruth Negga in PASSING. Courtesy of Netflix.

This week, the big movie on Netflix is Passing, and Oscar favorite Belfast opens in theaters – stay tuned for my reaction.

Cinequest’s online festival CINEJOY is running through November 17, and here are my five top Cinejoy recommendations (and capsules on nine other Cinejoy films).

REMEMBRANCE

Dean Stockwell in BLUE VELVET.

Dean Stockwell‘s 70-year acting career contained at least four distinct chapters, between which he took mostly voluntary breaks. He started as a child star – one of the biggest; he was spanked by William Powell in Son of the Thin Man and acted with Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra in Anchors Aweigh. After walking away as a teenager, he returned for serious, original roles in Compulsion and Long Day’s Journey Into Night. During his hippie drop-out phase, he dropped back in for the Roger Corman hippie exploitation movie Psych-out. Then Stockwell played Harry Dean Stanton’s sympathetic brother in Wim Wenders masterpiece Paris, Texas. He followed that with hos most indelible performance, as his friend Dennis Hopper’s terrifying henchman in Blue Velvet, where he unforgettably lip-synchs a Roy Orbison tune. Stockwell topped of his career with the popular television series Quantum Leap. Here is Sheila O’Malley’s marvelous tribute at RogerEbert.com.

IN THEATERS

Passing: Ruth Negga and Tessa Thompson star in Rebecca Hall’s thought-provoking drama about the value of one’s identity and navigating in a racist societ. Also streaming on Netflix.

Also in theaters:

ON VIDEO

An American Story: Norman Mineta and His Legacy: Celebrate Norm’s 90th birthday this November by streaming it for free here: An American Story: Norman Mineta and His Legacy.

Son of Monarchs: A promising young NYC biologist must revisit his home in rural Michoacán to resolve his own identity. HBO Max.

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

ON TV

Eli Wallach, Mary LaRoche, Cindy Calloway, Robert Keith and Richard Jaeckel in THE LINEUP

On November 13 and 14, Turner Classic Movies broadcasts Don Siegel’s The Lineup, one of my very favorite San Francisco movies. The villains and the final chase scene are unforgettable, as are the movie’s iconic San Francisco locations. It’s on TCM’s Noir Alley, so Eddie Muller will present the intro and outro. Don’t miss it.

Cynda Williams and Billy Bob Thornton in ONE FALSE MOVE

Moving from classic film noir to neo-noir, on November 14, TCM airs the gripping contemporary neo-noir One False Move. A Los Angeles crime is solved right away – the cops know who did it and that the murderers are headed to a small town in Arkansas, where the cops lay in wait. One False Move is a ticking time bomb as we wait for the criminals to drive across the Southwest to the inevitable confrontation. There are guys overreaching for greed and ambition, a femme fatale, and a very dark secret, but America’s original sin – race – is at the core of One False Move.

Bill Paxton in ONE FALSE MOVE

AN AMERICAN STORY: NORMAN MINETA AND HIS LEGACY

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AN AMERICAN STORY: NORMAN MINETA AND HIS LEGACY

An American Story: Norman Mineta and His Legacy traces the life and times of Norman Mineta, who amassed a startling number of “firsts” and other distinctions in America history:

  • The first Asian-American mayor of a major U.S. city.
  • The first Japanese American member of Congress elected from the 48 Continental states.
  • A Cabinet Secretary in both Democratic and Republican Administrations.
  • The nation’s longest-serving Transportation Secretary.

The achievements were even more remarkable given that, as a child, Mineta was imprisoned by his own US government in a WW II internment camp. And given that his political base had, during his career, an Asian-American population of far less than ten percent.

This didn’t happen by accident.  Norm Mineta is a driven man. At the same time, his ambition and will is tempered by his buoyancy and ebullience.

Documentarians Dianne Fukumi (director and co-producer) and Debra Nakatomi (co-producer) embed the story of Japanese-Americans, from immigration through internment, and on to reparations.

AN AMERICAN STORY: NORMAN MINETA AND HIS LEGACY

The defining event for Mineta’s Nissei generation was the WW II internment of 120,000 Americans by their own government. The central thread in the Mineta story is that the injustice of Mineta’s internment informed George W. Bush’s resistance to treating American Muslims that same way in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.

Mineta being sworn into the US House of Representatives by House Speaker Carl Albert in AN AMERICAN STORY: NORMAN MINETA AND HIS LEGACY

The film’s most delightful moment may be the octogenarian Mineta sunnily taking his luggage through security at Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International Airport.

[Full disclosure: I have known Norm since I served in his 1974 primary campaign and interned for him on Capitol Hill in the mid 70s. I saw An American Story: Norman Mineta and His Legacy at an October 2018 special screening with Norm Mineta, Fukumi and Nakatomi in San Jose.]

Norm Mineta is turning 90 years old this month, so, to celebrate his birthday, the film is streaming it for free during November at An American Story: Norman Mineta and His Legacy.

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: Valeria Bruni Tedeschi and Nadia Tereszkiewicz in ONLY THE ANIMALS. Courtesy of Cohen Media Group.

This week – four new 2021 movie recommendations and two more from the 1950s. Plus, Cinequest’s online festival CINEJOY is running through November 17, and here are my Cinejoy recommendations.

IN THEATERS

Only the Animals: The ever-surprising Only the Animals is no ordinary mystery. The intricately constructed story reveals elements of the mystery, from each character’s perspective in sequence – and each may have the key to the puzzle. Obsessive infatuation, misdirected passion and psychotic delusion collect into a pool of perversion. Opening at the Landmark Shattuck.

The Velvet Underground: It’s rare for a documentary film to immerse the audience as deeply into a time and place as does Todd Haynes’ The Velvet Underground. Richly sourced, it’s the LOOK and FEEL and SOUND of the film which is so singular. Also streaming on AppleTV.

Last Night in Soho: It’s a clever, entertaining and sometimes artsy horror movie, but in the end. it’s just a horror movie. Sure is fun to watch Ana Taylor Joy, though.

Also in theaters:

ON VIDEO

De Gaulle: This fine docudrama takes us to a pivotal two-week period in June 1940 when Hitler had all but conquered France and Charles de Gaulle was the only French leader who could imagine an Allied military victory. Laemmle.

Ashes and Diamonds: A masterful director and his charismatic star ignite this Overlooked Noir, a thriller set amidst war-end treachery. I wrote about its broadcast on TCM, but it can also be streamed from Amazon and AppleTV.

Michael Gandolfini and Alessandro Nivola in THE MANY SAINTS OF NEWARK

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

ON TV

Paul Newman and Edmond O’Brien in THE RACK

On Veterans Day, November 11, 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

And on November 6, TCM plays the fine 1995 documentary The Celluloid Closet, tracing the history of LGBTQ filmmakers overdecades of don’t ask, don’t tell Hollywood.

on TV: ASHES AND DIAMONDS: a killer wants to stop

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Photo caption: Zbigniew Cybulski in ASHES AND DIAMONDS

Coming up tomorrow night on Turner Classic Movies, a masterful director and his charismatic star ignite the war-end thriller Ashes and Diamonds, set amidst war-end treachery. It’s one of my Overlooked Noir.

It’s the end of WW II and the Red Army has almost completely liberated Poland from the Nazis. The future governance of Poland is now up in the air, and the Polish resistance can now stop killing Germans and start wrestling for control. Maciek (Zbigniew Cybulski) is a young but experienced soldier in the Resistance. His commanders assign him to assassinate a communist leader.

Maciek is very good at targeted killing, but he’s weary of it. As he wants out, he finds love. But his commander is insisting on this one last hit.

This is Zbigniew Cybulski’s movie. Often compared to James Dean, Cybulski emanates electricity and unpredictability, Unusual for a leading man, he often wore glasses in his screen roles. He had only been screen acting for four years when he made Ashes and Diamonds. Cybulski died nine years later when hit by a train at age forty,

Zbigniew Cybulski in ASHES AND DIAMONDS

Andrzej Wajda fills the movie with striking visuals, such as viewing Maciek’s love interest, the waitress Krystyna (Ewa Krzyzewska), alone amidst the detritus of last night’s party, through billows of cigarette smoke. Wajda’s triumphant signature is, literally, fireworks at the climax; the juxtaposition of the celebratory fireworks with Maciek’s emotional crisis is unforgettable.

Ewa Krzyzewska in ASHES AND DIAMONDS

Wajda adapted a famous 1948 Polish novel into this 1958 movie. In the adaptation, the filmmaker changed the emphasis from one character to another.

Ashes and Diamonds was the third feature for Andrzej Wajda, who became a seminal Polish filmmaker and received an honorary Oscar. US audiences may remember his 1983 art house hit Danton with Gerard Depardieu.

Ashes and Diamonds can be streamed from Amazon and AppleTV. It was featured at the 2020 Noir City film festival.

Zbigniew Cybulski in ASHES AND DIAMONDS

Movie to See Right Now

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Photo caption: BORGMAN

My Halloween recommendation is to stream Borgman, a scary movie for adults. If you’re venturing into a movie theater, for my money, the best choices are the unsettling fable Lamb or the James Bond blockbuster No Time to Die.

I’ve also written about the new DVDs of the Argentine films restored by the Film Noir Foundation, Los tallos amargos and The Beast Must Die.

IN THEATERS

Becoming Cousteau: a pedestrian biodoc about an amazing and important guy.

Also in theaters:

ON VIDEO

Tim Blake Nelson in OLD HENRY. Courtesy of Shout! Factory.

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

ON TV

Steve McQueen and Ali MacGraw in THE GETAWAY

On November 3, Turner Classic Movies presents The Getaway, a 1972 crime thriller starring the charismatic Steve McQueen and his real-life squeeze Ali MacGraw.  McQueen and MacGraw are delightful to watch as they move between violent clashes and double- and triple-crosses. As befits a Sam Peckinpah film, there’s an intense shootout at the end.  The grossly underrated character actor Al Lettieri (Sollozzo the Turk in The Godfather) gets to play perhaps his most delicious villain; when he comes across a oddly matched married couple –  the nubile Sally Struthers and the nerdy Jack Dodson (county clerk Howard Sprague in The Andy Griffith Show). Lettieri layers on some glorious sexual perversity.  

Sally Struthers, Al Lettieri and Jack Dodson in THE GETAWAY

Speaking of character actors, we also get to enjoy the crew of Peckinpah favorites: Ben Johnson, Slim Pickens, Dub Taylor, Bo Hopkins and Richard Bright. My friend Sandy lets Ali McGraw’s lack of acting range get in the way of enjoying The Getaway, but IMO Al Lettieri more than makes up for it.

Al Lettieri in THE GETAWAY

BORGMAN: an adult scare for Halloween

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BORGMAN

Technically, the Dutch thriller Borgman is a horror film, but it’s horror for adults, without the gore and with lots of wit. The shock doesn’t come from monsters unexpectedly lurching out of nowhere. The entertainment comes from the OMG moments of the “don’t ask the weird guy into your house!” and “don’t let the sinister guys watch your kids!” variety.

The setting is the architecturally striking and well-tended home of an affluent Dutch family and their Danish nanny. The husband is an aggro corporate schemer and a real scumbag – selfish, racist and chauvinistic, with the capacity for a violent rage. His wife Marina is repressed and neurotic. But they are highly functional until a homeless guy, Camiel Borgman, happens by, and circumstances compel them to put him up. Borgman feels entitled to more and more outrageous impositions – and soon it’s apparent that he’s even more sinister than he is obnoxious.

What if Charles Manson wasn’t a drug addled hoodlum, and his deranged charisma worked on the affluent mainstream? Borgman leads a crew of normal looking but murderous henchmen, who operate with the ruthless efficiency of Navy Seals. (Watch for the scar near the younger woman’s shoulder-blade.) Vaguely gifted with mind control, he can apparently create dreams by squatting naked and gargoyle-like above Marina while she slumbers with her husband. There is violence aplenty, but it tends to come through a bonk on the head or some poison in a glass.

Dark comedy stems from the matter-of-factness of the murders and body disposal (as in tossing corpses into a lake and then diving in for a relaxing swim). Every once in a while, there’s a hilariously sinister moment, like the supremely random appearance of some whippets that seem more like hellhounds.

BORGMAN

The acting is uniformly excellent, including the kids, but Jan Bijvoet as Borgman and Hadewych Minis as Marina are stellar.

Some questions are never answered (who are those three guys at the beginning and why are they hunting the homeless guys?). Is this a cult or aliens or what? The audience needs to accept some ambiguity. But the overall story arc is clear – no good is going to come of these people once they meet Camiel Borgman and his friends.

There is a subtext here: is this family so bourgeois that it deserves its fate? Fortunately, this subtext isn’t as in-your-face as in some recent self-loathing Eurocrap like Happy Days or Finsterworld, so it’s not at all off-putting. But Borgman can be enjoyed without going there at all.

Borgman is superbly written and directed by Alex van Warmerdam, a 62-year-old Dutch actor with only a handful of writing and directing credits.

I don’t often recommend a horror movie, but I’m all in on Borgman. Take it from me – you haven’t seen this movie before, and it’s endlessly entertaining. Borgman is available to stream from Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube, Google Play and Hulu.