Weekly Movie Recommendations

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: ROADRUNNER: A FILM ABOUT ANTHONY BOURDAIN

This week – a contemporary Australian bodice-ripper on video and a whole mess of great television recommendations. The best two movies in theaters are still Summer of Soul and Roadrunner.

IN THEATERS

ON VIDEO

Kelly MacDonald in DIRT MUSIC. Photo courtesy of Blue Finch Film Releasing.

Dirt Music: A sweeping romance amid Australian coastal vistas, but with an ending that wants to have it both ways. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube.

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

  • Riders of Justice: Thriller, comedy and much, much more. It’s the year’s best movie so far. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu and YouTube. #1 on my Best Movies of 2021 – So Far.
  • No Sudden Move: Steven Soderbergh’s neo-noir thriller has even more double-crosses than movie stars – and it has plenty of movie stars. HBO Max.
  • Neutral Ground: the supremacist legacy of old statues. PBS.
  • The Courier: amateur among spies. Amazon, Vudu, YouTube and redbox.
  • Truman and Tennessee: An Intimate Conversation: Two gay Southern geniuses, revealing themselves. Laemmle.
  • The Dry: a mystery as psychological as it is procedural. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • My Name Is Bulger: Two brothers, two paths to power. discovery+.
  • About Endlessness: Damned if I know. Streaming on Amazon, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.
  • Brewmance: barley, hops, yeast and underdogs. Amazon (included with Prime), AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.
  • Louder Than Bombs: An intricately constructed family drama. Amazon (included with Prime), Vudu and YouTube.
  • That Guy Dick Miller: Putting the “character” in “character actor:” Amazon (included with Prime).
  • Sword of Trust: comedy and so, so much more. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.
  • Run Lola Run: you’ll never see a more kinetic movie. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.

ON TV

Marianne Jean-Baptiste and Brenda Blethen in SECRETS & LIES

Well, here we are in the August doldrums and Turner Classic Movies is turning up the heat with some great choices.

First, on August 1, there’s Secrets & Lies, which I considered the very best movie of 1996. Written and directed by Mike Leigh (Life Is Sweet, Naked, Topsy-Turvy, All or Nothing, Vera Drake, Another Year), this is Leigh’s masterpiece and his most acessible film.

Hortense (Marianne Jean-Baptiste) is an accomplished young British woman who has been raised by middle-class adoptive parents. She decides to track down her birth mother, who turns out to be the working class hot mess Cynthia (Brenda Blethyn). This triggers Cynthia’s emotional damage from giving up baby Hortense, her panic at explaining this to her family – with the complicating factor that Hortense is Black. All kinds of family complications ensue. Cynthia’s underachieving daughter (Claire Rushbrook) is not at all comfortable with the emergence of an over-achieving sibling. Cynthia’s sister-in-law (Penelope Logan) faces this through her own child-related anguish. And Cynthia’s brother (Timothy Spall), who has clawed his way to respectability, has to juggle these developments.

There’s a searing emotional authenticity to Secrets & Lies, but there’s plenty of humor, too. (The montage of the brother’s portrait photography clients is hilarious.)

This is a career-topping performance by Brenda Blethens (TV’s Vera) and she was Oscar-nominated.

Blethyn’s fine performance is the showiest, but this is the movie where I recognized the greatness of Timothy Spall (Mr. Turner and Wormtail in the Harry Potter franchise),

The rest of the cast is brilliant, too, including Logan (Lovejoy and Mrs. Hughes in Downton Abbey) and Leslie Manville. Claire Rushbrook is especially good as the gobsmacked daughter.

Secrets & Lies, Leigh, Blethyn and Jean-Baptiste were all nominated for Academy Awards (and this was a little British indie back when they only nominated 5 movies for Best Picture). Secrets & Lies and Fargo lost the Best Picture Oscar to The English Patient (only because The English Patient was far, far more pretentious). This is a film of uncommon humanity and one of my Greatest Movies of All Time.

Bette Davis and Warren William in SATAN MET A LADY

On August 2, TCM airs Satan Met a Lady, an earlier version of the 1941 The Maltese Falcon. I’ve written about all three versions in Three faces of the Maltese Falcon. This 1936 version is more of a screwball comedy than a whodunit, and the ensemble acting is magnificent..

Finally, on August 4 , TCM plays Pushover, one of my Overlooked Noir. Tracking a notorious criminal, the cop (Fred MacMurray) follows – and then dates – the gangster’s girlfriend (“Introducing Kim Novak”).  It starts out as part of the job, but then he falls for her himself. He decides that, if he can double cross BOTH the cops and the criminal, he can wind up with the loot AND Kim Novak. (This is a film noir, so we know he’s not destined for a tropical beach with an umbrella drink.)

Fred MacMurray and Kim Novak in PUSHOVER

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: ROADRUNNER: A FILM ABOUT ANTHONY BOURDAIN

This week – my first stab at the Best Movies of 2021 – So Far – and you can see two of them in theaters right now and stream another. Plus the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival (SFJFF) opens, and here’s my SFJFF preview.

PERSIAN LESSONS, opening the SFJFF toinight. Photo courtesy of JFI.

IN THEATERS

Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain: An unusually profound, revealing and unsentimental biodoc of a complicated man – a shy bad ass, an outwardly cynical romantic, a brooding humorist. A triumph for director Morgan Neville, Oscar-winner for 20 Feet from Stardom.

Also in theaters:

ON VIDEO

Neutral Ground: C.J. Hunt’s pointed exploration of the continuing legacy of Confederate monuments in America. Plus an essay – more thoughts about Neutral Ground and the Lost Cause lie.

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

  • Riders of Justice: Thriller, comedy and much, much more. It’s the year’s best movie so far. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu and YouTube.
  • No Sudden Move: Steven Soderbergh’s neo-noir thriller has even more double-crosses than movie stars – and it has plenty of movie stars. HBO Max.
  • The Courier: amateur among spies. Amazon, Vudu, YouTube and redbox.
  • Truman and Tennessee: An Intimate Conversation: Two gay Southern geniuses, revealing themselves. Laemmle.
  • The Dry: a mystery as psychological as it is procedural. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • My Name Is Bulger: Two brothers, two paths to power. discovery+.
  • About Endlessness: Damned if I know. Streaming on Amazon, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.
  • Brewmance: barley, hops, yeast and underdogs. Amazon (included with Prime), AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.
  • Hamlet/Horatio: More tragedy, less angst. Amazon, AppleTV, Google Play.
  • Louder Than Bombs: An intricately constructed family drama. Amazon (included with Prime), Vudu and YouTube.
  • That Guy Dick Miller: Putting the “character” in “character actor:” Amazon (included with Prime).
  • Sword of Trust: comedy and so, so much more. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.
  • Run Lola Run: you’ll never see a more kinetic movie. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.

ON TV

John Heard in CUTTER’S WAY

Tonight, Turner Classic Movies will present Cutter’s Way, which I recommended earlier this week. A paranoid thriller framed by post-Vietnam War disillusionment, it features early Jeff Bridges and career-best performances by John Heard and Lisa Eichhorn.

Here’s a choice to complement Summer of Soul. On July 27, TCM will air Monterey Pop (1968). The two music festivals took place within a year of each other – one with a Black audience and one with a mostly White one. The Monterey Pop audience was unfamiliar with – and blown away by Otis Redding’s epic performance.

This is one of the few DVDs that I still own, for the performances by Redding, the Mamas and the Papas, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Canned Heat, Simon and Garfunkle, Jefferson Airplane, Eric Burdon and the Animals, Country Joe and the Fish and The Who.  

It’s okay with me if you fast forward over Ravi Shankar.  Don’t miss the reaction of Mama Cass Elliot, sitting in the audience, to Janis Joplin. Pete Townsend and Jimi Hendrix had a guitar-destroying competition, which Hendrix, aided by lighter fluid, undeniably won. 

Otis Redding in MONTEREY POP

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: Sly Stone in SUMMER OF SOUL (…OR, WHEN THE REVOLUTION COULD NOT BE TELEVISED)

This week, the best film in theaters is still Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised). And there’s a long-lost Argentine masterpiece coming up on TCM.

IN THEATERS

Mama Weed: In this French comic thriller, a woman (Isabelle Huppert) embraces an increasingly bizarre and risky plan.  Mama Weed starts out droll and blossoms into madcap.

The Boys in Red Hats: A documentarian’s point of view shifts as he peels back the onion on a social media frenzy. It comes down to insights into media, social media and, especially, White privilege. I screened The Boys in Red Hats for its world premiere at Cinequest,. Now it’s in theaters and also streaming on Virtual Cinema.

Also in theaters:

ON VIDEO

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

  • Riders of Justice: Thriller, comedy and much, much more. It’s the year’s best movie so far. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu and YouTube.
  • No Sudden Move: Steven Soderbergh’s neo-noir thriller has even more double-crosses than movie stars – and it has plenty of movie stars. HBO Max.
  • Slow Machine: incomprehensibly engrossing. At Laemmle now and coming to the Roxie.
  • The Courier: amateur among spies. Amazon, Vudu, YouTube and redbox.
  • Truman and Tennessee: An Intimate Conversation: Two gay Southern geniuses, revealing themselves. Laemmle..
  • My Name Is Bulger: Two brothers, two paths to power. discovery+.
  • About Endlessness: Damned if I know. Streaming on Amazon, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.
  • Bad Tales: perhaps too dark. Virtual Cinema, including Laemmle.
  • Brewmance: barley, hops, yeast and underdogs. Amazon (included with Prime), AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play .
  • Hamlet/Horatio: More tragedy, less angst. Amazon, AppleTV, Google Play..
  • Louder Than Bombs: An intricately constructed family drama. Amazon (included with Prime), Vudu and YouTube.
  • That Guy Dick Miller: Putting the “character” in “character actor:” Amazon (included with Prime).
  • Sword of Trust: comedy and so, so much more. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.
  • Run Lola Run: you’ll never see a more kinetic movie. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.
  • The Face of Love: Who is she really in love with? Amazon.
  • Augustine: obsession, passion and the birth of a science. Amazon (included with Prime), AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.

ON TV

Don’t miss the once-lost Argentine film noir masteriece Bitter Stems (Los tallos amargos). On Turner CLassic Movies on Saturday night and Sunday morning on TCM’s Noir Alley.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is bitter-stems.jpg
Vassili Lambrinos and Carlos Cores in BITTER STEMS

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: RIDERS OF JUSTICE, a Magnet release. © Rolf Konow. Photo courtesy of Magnet Releasing

For the Fourth of July weekend, I’m recommending going to theaters to see The Sparks Brothers or In the Heights, OR streaming Riders of Justice.

Last night I saw one of the year’s most eagerly-awaited films – and it;s great: Questlove’s Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revo’ution Could Not Be Televised). Now in theaters and on Hulu.

IN THEATERS

  • The Sparks Brothers: Must be seen to be believed.
  • Truman and Tennessee: An Intimate Conversation: Two giants of American literature in their own words.
  • In the Heights: Vibrant, earnest and perfect for this moment. Also streaming on HBO Max.
  • Summer of 85: Director Francois Ozon reflects on how we remember our youth in this romantic teen coming of age story.
  • The Dry: a mystery as psychological as it is procedural. In theaters and also streaming on AppleTV, YouTube and Google Play
  • Undine: slow burn, barely flickering.
  • Censor: less scary and suspenseful than it is unpleasant.

ON VIDEO

Riders of Justice: It’s the year’s best movie so far. A character-driven comedy thriller embedded with deeper stuff. Marvelous. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu and YouTube.

Slow Machine: An incomprehensible art film that is surprisingly engrossing. At Laemmle now and coming to the Roxie.

The Courier: Benedict Cumberbatch stars in this true story of Cold War espionage. Amazon, Vudu, YouTube and redbox.

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

ON TV

STRANGERS ON A TRAIN

On July 3, Turner Classic Movies is broadcasting the 1951 Alfred Hitchcock suspense thriller Strangers on a Train – one of his very best. A hypothetical discussion about murdering inconvenient people turns out to be not so hypothetical.

Robert Walker plays Bruno, one of the creepiest villains in movie history.  Guy (San Jose native Farley Granger) thinks that Bruno is just an oddball – until it’s too late. The tennis match and carousel finale are epic set pieces.

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: A scene from RIDERS OF JUSTICE, a Magnet release. © Kasper Tuxen. Photo courtesy of Magnet Releasing

This week: my experience returning to theaters, the best movie of the year so far, and a marathon of Alfred Hitchcock.

I finally went to a movie theater for the first time in an unimaginable 473 days – and I was a little rusty. On a 92 degree day, I slipped into the air conditioned theater and, while trying to adjust my recliner, inadvertently turned on the seat heater. Everything else went well.

I found the Astronaut Pen that The Wife gave me, which fits easily in my pants pocket. And I still had my unlined notepad from Muji, so I can scrawl notes in the dark. (the downtown San Jose Muji did not survive COVID, so I’ll need another source.)

Incidentally, in that 473 days of COVID hermitage, I had watched 328 films at home – streaming, broadcast, DVD and screeners.

IN THEATERS

The Sparks Brothers: This affectionate documentary profiles a 54-year-old pop band, still tirelessly living their art. Both the subject band and the movie about them are very funny.

Truman and Tennessee: An Intimate Conversation: Two giants of American literature in their own words.

Also in theaters:

  • In the Heights: Vibrant, earnest and perfect for this moment. Also streaming on HBO Max.
  • Summer of 85: Director Francois Ozon reflects on how we remember our youth in this romantic teen coming of age story.
  • The Dry: a mystery as psychological as it is procedural. In theaters and also streaming on AppleTV, YouTube and Google Play
  • Undine: slow burn, barely flickering.
  • Censor: less scary and suspenseful than it is unpleasant.

ON VIDEO

Riders of Justice: It’s the year’s best movie so far. A character-driven comedy thriller embedded with deeper stuff. Marvelous. Also AppleTV.

Summertime: This ever vibrant film is about giving voice, the voice of mostly young Los Angelenos, expressing themselves mostly through poetry. Stream from Frameline through Sunday night, June 27.

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

ON TV

Starting Saturday, June 26, and continuing through early Monday. Turner Classic Movies will be airing FORTY-EIGHT HOURS of Alfred Hitchcock. The 23 different movies (Shadow of a Doubt plays twice on Eddie Muller’s Noir Alley) range from Hitchcock’s 1927 silent The Lodger to his 1976 Family Plot. The program includes Hitchcock’s best eight films: Vertigo, Psycho, Strangers on a Train, Rear Window, North by Northwest, Rope, The Birds and Shadow of a Doubt. 

Farley Granger, James Stewart and John Dahl in ROPE

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: Daphne Ruben-Vega, Stephanie Beatriz, Melissa Barrera, Olga Merediz, Gregory Diaz IV, Dascha Polanco and Jimmy Smits in IN THE HEIGHTS. Photo credit: Warner Bros. Pictures.

This week, five movies in theaters – yes, in theaters. Plus a new documentary to stream.

I also wrote remembrances of actors Ned Beatty and Norman Lloyd.

IN THEATERS

In the Heights: This exuberant musical celebrates immigrant aspirations and Latino subcultures, and it touches on the raw issues of racism and economic displacement. Vibrant, spirited and earnest, it’s perfect for this moment – when we’re emerging from our COVID cocoons. Also streaming on HBO Max.

Summer of 85: Director Francois Ozon reflects on how we remember our youth in this romantic teen coming of age story.

Censor: The premise is interesting – a buttoned-up woman’s day job is watching slasher films to determine how much gore is permissible; one film triggers her investigation of a past crime. Unfortunately, it is less scary and suspenseful than it is unpleasant.

Also in theaters:

  • The Dry: a mystery as psychological as it is procedural. In theaters and also streaming on AppleTV, YouTube and Google Play
  • Undine: slow burn, barely flickering.

ON VIDEO

My Name Is Bulger: While incorruptible State Senate President Bill Bulger was dominating Massachusetts politics, his brother James “Whitey” Bulger was the state’s most fearsome crime lord. Yikes. Streaming on discovery+.

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

ABOUT ENDLESSNESS

ON TV

This Saturday and Sunday, on Turner Classic Movies: The Blue Gardenia presents a 1953 view of date rape, with lecherous Raymond Burr getting Anne Baxter likkered up into a blackout drunk with Polynesian Pearl Divers. There’s a very nice twist on the whodunit: when she wakes up, she doesn’t remember killing him, but he sure is dead. There’s even a cameo performance by Nat King Cole.

The June 19/20 broadcasts are on TCM’s Noir Alley, with intro and outro by the Czar of Noir, Eddie Muller.

THE BLUE GARDENIA
THE BLUE GARDENIA

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: ABOUT ENDLESSNESS

This week, two new foreign films – one of them is brilliant. Plus an overlooked masterwork from 1964.

ON VIDEO

About Endlessness: The master of the droll, deadpan and absurd probes the meaning of life. One of the best movies of the year, but NOT FOR EVERYONE. Streaming on Amazon, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.

Bad Tales: Middle schoolers must navigate adolescence in this Italian coming of age film while their fathers radiate toxic masculinity. Droll and dark – perhaps too dark. Virtual Cinema, including Laemmle.

IN THEATERS

Eric Bana in Robert Connolly’s film THE DRY, which played at SFFILM. Photo courtesy of SFFILM.
  • The Dry: a mystery as psychological as it is procedural. In theaters and also streaming on AppleTV, YouTube and Google Play
  • Undine: slow burn, barely flickering.

MORE ON VIDEO

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

ON TV

On June 13, Turner Classic Movies will present an overlooked masterwork. Set in England just before the D-Day invasion, The Americanization of Emily (1964) is a biting satire and one of the great anti-war movies. James Garner plays an admiral’s staff officer charged with locating luxury goods and willing Englishwomen for the brass. Julie Andrews plays an English driver who has lost her husband and other male family members in the War. She resists emotional entanglements with other servicemen whose lives may be put at risk, but falls for Garner’s “practicing coward”, a man who is under no illusions about the glory of war and is determined to stay as far from combat as possible.

Unfortunately, Garner’s boss (Melvyn Douglas) has fits of derangement and becomes obsessed with the hope that the first American killed on the beach at D-Day be from the Navy. Accordingly, he orders Garner to lead a suicide mission to land ahead of the D-Day landing, ostensibly to film it. Fellow officer James Coburn must guarantee Garner’s martyrdom.

It’s a brilliant screenplay from Paddy Chayefsky, who won screenwriting Oscars for Marty, The Hospital and Network. Today, Americanization holds up as least as well as its contemporary Dr. Strangelove and much better than Failsafe. Reportedly, both Andrews and Garner have tagged this as their favorite film.

One of the “Three Nameless Broads” bedded by the Coburn character is played by Judy Carne, later of Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In.

Jule Andrews and James Garner in THE AMERICANIZATION OF EMILY

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: Paula Beer in UNDINE. Courtesy of MVFF.

This week, a mythical tragic romance, a preacher becomes an institution and the most eclectic watch-at-home recommendations you’ll find ANYWHERE.

IN THEATERS

Undine: Christian Petzold takes a mythical story and sets it in contemporary Germany. resulting in a romance that is operatic and supernatural and finally very tragic. But too slowly paced for me.

ON VIDEO

Billy Graham: This insightful biodoc explores how Billy Graham took evangelism out of backwoods revival tents and brought it to big city stadiums and television, becoming an institution in the process. And his fatal flaw – the need to pray with Presidents. Streaming at American Experience.

Drunk Bus: In this light and appealing coming of age comedy, a lovelorn slacker wallows in malaise until he meets a 300-pound Samoan security guy with facial tattoos. Laemmle.

My Memorial Day pick was We Stand Alone Together: The Men of Easy Company, the oral histories of regular men plunged into the most traumatic experiences of WW II and what they endured. Streaming on HBO Max.

Ed Harris and Annette Bening in THE FACE OF LOVE

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

  • The Dry: a mystery as psychological as it is procedural. In theaters and also streaming on AppleTV, YouTube and Google Play
  • Brewmance: barley, hops, yeast and underdogs. Amazon (included with Prime), AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play .
  • Hamlet/Horatio: More tragedy, less angst. Streaming widely.
  • Louder Than Bombs: An intricately constructed family drama. Amazon (included with Prime), Vudu and YouTube.
  • That Guy Dick Miller: Putting the “character” in “character actor:” Amazon (included with Prime).
  • Sword of Trust: comedy and so, so much more. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.
  • Run Lola Run: you’ll never see a more kinetic movie. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.
  • The Times of Harvey Milk: my favorite political documentary. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, Google Play, HBO Max and Criterion Channel..
  • Tab Hunter Confidential: heartthrob in the closet. Amazon.
  • Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street: the origin story of an institution. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, Google Play.
  • The Face of Love: Who is she really in love with? Amazon.
  • Augustine: obsession, passion and the birth of a science. Amazon (included with Prime), AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.
  • The Brainwashing of My Dad: some insight into our national madness. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.

ON TV

This is not a great week for Turner Classic Movies, so I have no television recommendations.

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: Eric Bana in Robert Connolly;s film THE DRY, which played at SFFILM. Photo courtesy of SFFILM.

Beginning this week, I will no longer title this weekly post as “Movies to See Right Now (at home)“, because I believe that we can return to seeing movies safely in theaters in the Bay Area. I’ll continue to recommend plenty of movies to watch at home. But I, with my family and approaching 80% of my community fully vaccinated, have chosen to go back to the theaters.

The last movie that I saw in a theater was The Burnt Orange Heresy on March 5, 2020 in the California Theatre at the 2020 Cinequest. In the 14 1/2 months since the initial COVID Shelter in Place order, I have still managed to watch 307 movies and episodic series. The first movie that I had intended to see in a theater was The Dry, but I streamed it, so my next theater visit is TBD.

I published my list of Best Shakespeare Movies before my review of Hamlet/Horatio, which opens on June 1.

IN THEATERS

The Dry: Eric Bana soars in this atmospheric, slow-burn tale of murder and long-festering secrets from the Australian outback. Also streaming on AppleTV, YouTube and Google Play

ON VIDEO

Brewmance: This appealing documentary traces the evolution of the home brewing movement into the American craft beer explosion, along with two engaging underdog stories. AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play and coming to Amazon (included with Prime) on June 1.

Hamlet/Horatio: A fresh-eyed take on Hamlet that focuses more on the external tragedy than the internal angst. Streaming on June 1.

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

  • Louder Than Bombs: An intricately constructed family drama. Amazon (included with Prime), Vudu and YouTube.
  • That Guy Dick Miller: Putting the “character” in “character actor:” Amazon (included with Prime).
  • Sword of Trust: comedy and so, so much more. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.
  • Run Lola Run: you’ll never see a more kinetic movie. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.
  • The Times of Harvey Milk: my favorite political documentary. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, Google Play, HBO Max and Criterion Channel..
  • Tab Hunter Confidential: heartthrob in the closet. Amazon.
  • Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street: the origin story of an institution. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, Google Play.
  • The Face of Love: Who is she really in love with? Amazon.
  • Augustine: obsession, passion and the birth of a science. Amazon (included with Prime), AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.
  • The Brainwashing of My Dad: some insight into our national madness. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.

ON TV

Robert Mitchum in THE ENEMY BELOW

As usual, Turner Classic Movies will be airing a ton of fine war movies over the Memorial Day weekend (including The Best Years of Our Lives, Merrill’s Marauders, Kelly’s Heroes, The Dirty Dozen, The Steel Helmet and Battleground). I am particularly recommending The Enemy Below (1957), a cleverly plotted and well-acted WW II submarine story, ably directed by Dick Powell. Robert Mitchum is the new captain of a sub-chaser, and Curd Jürgens commands a German sub. The Jürgens character has no sympathy for the Nazi regime, which makes him relatable for the audience; in real life, the Bavarian-born Jürgens was imprisoned by the Nazis for his political views and became an Austrian citizen after being liberated. The Enemy Below is a brilliant game of lethal cat-and-mouse between the two skippers.

The Germans are trapped by their mission, which requires them to keep on a certain bearing. The US commander recognizes this and is able to keep catching up to them on this route. Mitchum explains his tactics to his crew, gets the crews trust and helps us follow the chess game. As nerves crack on the sub below, Jürgens takes unusual tactics to maintain morale. Mutual respect is manifested at end, with stirring loyalty demonstrated by the men to their captains.

There’s a lot here that you don’t see in other submarine warfare movies, including a rare ramming collision and aerial views of the depth charge pattern. There’s also a great special effect shot showing sailors on the destroyer’s deck dropping their fishing line down to the U-boat resting on the sea bottom directly below. The author of the source novel was himself a veteran of anti-sub warfare. The Enemy Below airs on TCM on Monday night, May 21.

Curd Jürgens in THE ENEMY BELOW

Movies to See Right Now (at home)

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Photo caption: Devin Druid and Gabriel Byrne in LOUDER THAN BOMBS

This week: a psychological drama, a most unlikely showbiz biodoc and an Oscar-winning documentary.

REMEMBRANCE

Robert De Niro and Charles Grodin in MIDNIGHT RUN

The perfect role for actor Charles Grodin was as an accountant in way over his head; a bounty hunter (Robert De Niro) is taking him across the country as they are being pursed by the FBI (Yaphet Kottto) and the Mafia (Dennis Farina). Grodin’s was an exquisite performance in a very funny movie.

Grodin was known for characters consumed by handwringing anxiety. The exception was his role in the Jill Clayburgh vehicle It’s My Turn, where his character was less anxious and more likable. (He was also well-known for his appearances on television talk shows, including his own.)

Grodin broke through in 1972’s The Heartbreak Kid, playing a guy on his honeymoon who falls for a beautiful woman (Cybill Shepherd) with whom he is not honeymooning. I’m not sure how The Heartbreak Kid would play in today’s sensibilities, but it was written by a woman (Elaine May). May’s daughter Jeannie Berlin even played the scorned bride, and Berlin delivered cinema’s funniest sunburn scene.

ON VIDEO

Louder Than Bombs: This overlooked and intricately constructed film is a family psychological drama. A thought-provoker. Amazon (included with Prime), Vudu and YouTube.

That Guy Dick Miller: This amiable documentary introduces to an actor whose name you may not place, but that you’ve seen in some of his 184 screen performances, mostly low budget indies. Amazon (included with Prime).

Franka Potente in RUN LOLA RUN

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

ON TV

HARLAN COUNTY, USA

On May 24, Turner Classic Movies brings us the 1979 Oscar-winner Harlan County U.S.A. Filmmaker Barbara Kopple embedded herself among the striking coal miners and got amazing footage – including of herself threatened and shot at.

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

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