Weekly Movie Recommendations

Movies to See Right Now (at home)

by
Caption: Riz Ahmed in SOUND OF METAL, deservedly Oscar-nominated

This weekend concludes the SFFILM, which you can mostly stream at home. Here’s my first look at SFFILM and three indie gems at SFFILM. If you’re going to catch just one film at SFFILM, I suggest I’m Fine (Thanks for Asking).

ON VIDEO

We’re coming upon the Oscars, so it’s time to see the nominated films (IN THIS ORDER).

ON TV

Jack “Dragnet” Webb and Peggy Lee in PETE KELLY’S BLUES

On April 21, TCM brings us something COMPLETELY different, the 1955 Pete Kelly’s Blues, directed by and starring Jack Webb, who we all know from TV’s Dragnet.   Made at the downturn of the Big Band Era, Pete Kelly’s Blues is set at during Prohibition in the infancy of Big Bands.

It’s a fairly routine drama about a small time bandleader on the outs with a dangerous crime boss, but Jack Webb loved jazz and worked hard to get the music in the movie right, resulting in quite the period document.  Peggy Lee received a Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for portraying an alcoholic vocalist.  There’s an unforgettable cameo performance by Ella Fitzgerald at the top of her game.  The house band includes many real-life musicians who played with Benny Goodman, Bing Crosby and the like, including  Matty Matlock, Eddie Miller and Jud De Naut.

Webb never had much range as an actor, but the rest of the cast is excellent: Janet Leigh, Edmond O’Brien,  Lee Marvin, Andy Devine, Jayne Mansfield and Harry Morgan.  Not a great flick, but worth a look for the music.

Movies to See Right Now (at home)

by
A scene from Bo Maguire’s’s film SOCKS ON FIRE, playing at the 2021 San Francisco International Film Festival, April 9 -18, 2021. Courtesy of SFFILM

It’s time for this year’s San Francisco International Film Festival (SFFILM), which opens tomorrow, April 9, and runs through April 18. This year, you can ATTEND AT HOME, so make the pandemic work for you and stream these movies. Here’s my first look at the 2021 SFFILM. Today or tomorrow, I’ll be posting recommendations of three very special indies.

ON VIDEO

ON TV

On April 12, Turner Classic Movies presents one of the greatest ever courtroom dramas, Stanley Kramer’s Inherit the Wind from 1960. The story is taken from the real-life Scopes Monkey Trial in 1925, so it has elements of the culture wars and politics that resonate today. Spencer Tracy and Fredric March are superb as the warring thought-leaders (based on Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan).

Spencer Tracy, Harry Morgan and Fredric March in INHERIT THE WIND

Movies to See Right Now (at home)

by
Kelley Kali in a scene from Kelley Kali’s and Angelique Molina’s film I’M FINE (THANKS FOR ASKING), playing at the 2021 San Francisco International Film Festival, April 9 -18, 2021. Courtesy of SFFILM

This week, we’re between Bay Area (virtual) film festivals – Cinequest, which just wrapped up on Tuesday, and the San Francisco International Film Festival (SFFILM), which opens next weekend. My CINEQUEST page has links to features, a filmmaker interview and comments on 19 Cinequest films. My SFFILM preview is coming very soon.

REMEMBRANCE

Robert Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones in Larry McMurtry’s LONESOME DOVE

Writer Larry McMurtry told powerful, unflinching, character-centered stories of the Old West (Lonesome Dove) and the contemporary West (The Last Picture Show). He won an Oscar for his Brokeback Mountain screenplay, and his novels were the basis for Hud and Terms of Endearment.

ON VIDEO

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

ON TV

FIVE EASY PIECES
Jack Nicholson in FIVE EASY PIECES

On April 5, Turner Classic Movies presents Jack Nicholson as the iconic 1970s anti-hero in Five Easy Pieces. It’s a profound and deeply affecting study of alienation. Nicholson plays someone who has rejected and isolated himself from his dysfunctional family. Then he must embark on the epic road trip back to the family home. Amid the drama, there is plenty of funny, including the funniest sandwich order in the history of cinema.

Don’t miss this beautifully-written essay on Five Easy Pieces by Steven Gaydos in Variety. Gaydos gets the impact on the 1970 audience just right and shines overdue credit on its female screenwriter Carole Eastman. There’s also a tidbit on Helena Kallianiotes, the funniest hitch hiker in movie history.

Karen Black, Helena Kallianiotes, Toni Basil and Jack Nicholson in FIVE EASY PIECES

Movies to See Right Now (at home)

by
I’M AN ELECTRIC LAMPSHADE, world premiere at Cinequest. Photo courtesy of Cinequest.

We’re in the final four days of Cinequest, so take a gander at my Best of Cinequest. And here are my remembrances of Yaphet Kotto, George Segal and Jessica Walter.

ON VIDEO

Anthony Hopkins and Olivia Colman deliver heartbreaking performances in The Father, an unsettling exploration of memory loss. I saw The Father while covering the virtual Mill Valley Film Festival in October, and it’s now widely available to stream (just before the Oscars). It’s on my list of Best Movies of 2020.

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

ON TV

Jean Gabin (right) in PEPE LE MOKO

On March 27 and 28, Turner Classic Movies brings us one of the greatest movie stars, Jean Gabin in a pre-noir film, Pépé le Moko. Probably the greatest male French movie star ever, Gabin had dominated prewar French cinema with La Grande Illusion, Port of Shadows and Le Bete Humaine.  After the war, he aged into noir (Touchez Pas aux Grisbi, Razzia) and, in the 1960s, into neo-noir (Any Number Can Win, The Sicilian Clan).  Gabin oozed a seasoned cool (like Bogart) and imparted a stately gravitas to his noir and neo-noir characters.

Jean Gabin is on my very short list of the most perpetually cool humans to ever walk the planet, along with Dean Martin, Ben Gazzara, Joan Jett and Barack Obama.

In Pépé le Moko, Gabin plays the titular Algiers gangster who operates, immune from police interference, in the Casbah. The cops have been trying to lure him out of the Casbah for ages – and then they learn that he is obsessed with a woman…

Pépé le Moko was filmed in 1937, four years before the emergence of the film noir movement, an American cinematic phenomenon soon appreciated, named, and joined by the French. Pépé le Moko foreshadows noir with its elements of the dark, shadowy underworld setting and, of the course, the protagonist who has a dame for a weak spot. TCM is airing Pépé le Moko on TCM’s addictive Noir Alley, with intro and outro by Eddie Muller.

Mireille Balin and Jean Gabin in PEPE LE MOKO
Jean Gabin in PEPE LE MOKO

THE FATHER: as reality shifts

by
Olivia Colman and Anthony Hopkins in THE FATHER

Anthony Hopkins and Olivia Colman deliver heartbreaking performances in The Father, an unsettling exploration of memory loss.

As we meet the elderly Anthony (Hopkins), he is insisting on independence that he can no longer sustain. That makes it hard on his daughter Anne (Colman), who is trying to keep him safe and healthy, despite his resistance. But Anthony is losing his memory and becoming ever more suspicious. Soon, all the characters are experiencing disorentation, even fantasies and hallucinations.

The Father is the directing debut for Florian Zeller, who wrote the original play. Along with the superb acting, the key to The Father is Zeller’s ever shifting of reality as understood by the characters and by the audience. As we think we understand what is going on and then have it unraveled, we, like Anthony, lose confidence in our orientation.

Anthony Hopkins has an Oscar and a long list of great performances (The Silence of the Lambs, The Remains of the Day, Nixon, The Human Stain, The Two Popes), but none is better than this one. His Anthony is a man whose characteristic wilfulness is finally self-defeating; he is a man ever confident of his opinions, but the factual basis for those opinions is eroding. He is a man who firmly believes he is always right, facing a new reality in which he demonstrably is not.

Colman is also superb as the able and devoted daughter who is hurt by her father’s perception that she is betraying him. The rest of cast – Rufus Sewell, Imogen Poots, Mark Gattis and Olivia Williams – is impeccable.

The Father, which I saw while covering the virtual Mill Valley Film Festival in October, will be widely available to stream on Friday. It’s on my list of Best Movies of 2020. It has earned six Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and acting recognition for Hopkins and Colman.

Movies to See Right Now (at home)

by
CARVER: world premiere at Cinequest. Photo courtesy of Select Films.

I’ve been absorbed in preparing for Cinequest’s Online Film Festival Cinejoy, which begins next Saturday, March 20. I’ve already screened over a dozen films from the program, and there are some winners in the program.

As usual, I’ll be publishing a festival preview with recommendations and writing about individual films. Here is my coverage of previous festivals: CINEQUEST. Follow me on Twitter for the very latest coverage.

Here’s a wistful note – the last movie that I watched in a movie theater was on March 5, 2020, at last year’s Cinequest, which had to be shut down mid-festival because of COVID. It was The Burnt Orange Heresy, and I sat, not yet masked, in a corner of the 1122-seat California Theatre, distanced about 20 feet away from other festival goers.

ON VIDEO

ON TV

Paul Newman and Elizabeth Taylor in CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF

If you want drama, Tennessee Williams ladles it on thick in 1958’s Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, which Turner Classic Movies presents on March 17.   The movie version of Williams’ steamy Southern Pulitzer Prize-winning play stars Elizabeth Taylor in a slip and Paul Newman with a crutch and a drink.  Taylor and Newman are great, but Burl Ives steals the movie as Big Daddy.  Madeleine Sherwood is outstanding as the weaselly daughter-in-law Ida.

Okay, so they couldn’t explicitly mention homosexuality on screen in 1958, but that doesn’t tke away from the dramatic tension. And, think about this – let’s all forebear the course word bullshit and substitute mendacity.

Movies to See Right Now (at home)

by
Frances McDormand in NOMADLAND. Photo courtesy of Searchlight Pictures.

This week, make sure you see the year’s best movie, Nomadland. Plus a highly original first feature for a female writer-director and two strong recommendations on TCM.

ON VIDEO

Nomadland: The fierce authenticity of Frances McDormand’s performance and Chloé Zhao’s genius with nonprofessional actors illuminates this extraordinary film with humanity. It’s the year’s best movie. Streaming on Hulu.

Jumbo: A painfully shy girl, who is embarrassed by every human interaction,falls in love with a not-really-inanimate object. Jumbo is the first feature for writer-director Zoé Wittock, and it’s a helluva super-imaginative calling card.   Ever bouncing between the sweet and the outre, Jumbo worked for me.  Available to stream at Laemmle.

Other current films:

ON TV

KILLER’S KISS

On March 6 and 7, Turner Classic Movies will present one my Overlooked Noir, a young Stanley Kubrick’s Killer’s Kiss; it will be on Noir Alley with an intro and outro by Eddie Muller. It doesn’t take long to realize that Killer’s Kiss is not a typical film noir – there’s Kubrick’s own bracing visual style, an interracial relationship and a comically absurd fight to the death. The cast matched a couple one-hit wonders with the pioneering African-American actor and civil rights activist Frank Silvera.

Harry Dean Stanton in PARIS, TEXAS

And on March 10, TCM will air Harry Dean Stanton’s masterpiece in Wim Wenders’ Paris, Texas. In Paris Texas, Harry Dean plays Travis, a man so traumatized that he has disappeared and is found wandering across the desert and mistaken for a mute.  As he is cared for by his brother (Dean Stockwell), he evolves from feral to erratic to troubled, but with a sense of tenderness and a determination to put things right.  We see Travis as a madman who gains extraordinary lucidity about what wrong in his life and his own responsibility for it.

At the film’s climax, Travis speaks to Jane (Natassja Kinski) through a one-way mirror (she can’t see him).  Spinning what at first seems like parable, Travis explains what happened to him – and to her – and why it happened.  It’s a 20-minute monologue so captivating and touching that it rises to be recognized as one of the very greatest screen performances.

Paris, Texas is on my list of the fifty or so Greatest Movies of All Time.

Natassja Kinski and Harry Dean Stanton in PARIS, TEXAS

Movies to See Right Now (at home)

by
Frances McDormand in NOMADLAND. Photo courtesy of Searchlight Pictures.

This week: the best film of 2020, Nomadland, is streaming. Recenty catching up to Nomadland, Sound of Metal, Mayor and Black Bear allowed me to finalize my Best Movies of 2020.

ON VIDEO

Nomadland: The fierce authenticity of Frances McDormand’s performance and Chloé Zhao’s genius with nonprofessional actors illuminates this extraordinary film with humanity. Streaming on Hulu.

Minari: This autobiographical drama of family cohesion is set in the immigrant experience. Streaming from various VOD providers.

Other current films:

ON TV

Lee Remick and Jack Lemmon in DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES

On February 28, 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.

Movies to See Right Now

by
Riz Ahmed in SOUND OF SILENCE

Tonight Chloé Zhao’s Nomadland with Frances McDormand can be streamed. I haven’t seen it yet, but, after The Rider, I’m a huge Chloé Zhao fan, so I’ll be watching and writing about it soon. Nomadland is the critical consensus choice as the year’s best film.

Here’s my remembrance of the late cinematographer Giuseppe Rotunno with some of his images and a link to a brilliant video essay.

ON VIDEO

Sound of Metal: This psychological pressure-cooker is super intense ride, but there’s a satisfying payoff. Both Riz Ahmed’s performance and the sound design are Oscar-worthy. Amazon (included with Prime).

Black Bear: Making full use of Aubrey Plaza’s unique gifts, this dark comedy is edge-of-the-seat movie and a cauldron of surprises. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, Google Play.

Bruce Springsteen’s Letter to You: The reflections of the Boss bring poignancy without melancholy to this musical documentary. We glimpse creative collaboration in the recording studio and get a range of songs, from the heartbreaking to the exhilarating. AppleTV.

More current films:

Chadwick Boseman and Viola Davis in MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM

Movies to See Right Now (at home)

by
Riz Ahmed in SOUND OF METAL

This week, I recommend Sound of Metal (Amazon, included with Prime) and Bruce Springsteen’s Letter to You (Netflix). I’ll be writing about both of them soon. Sound of Metal will be going on my list of Best Movies of 2020.

REMEMBRANCE

Christopher Plummer in KNIVES OUT

Christopher Plummer has died at age 91. I loved him in his Oscar-winning performance in Beginners and in 2019’s Knives Out. One of the great Shakespearean stage actors of his generation, Plummer’s TV and movie career, with its 372 screen credits, eclipses the adjective “prolific”. Plummer, of course is best known for that beloved movie that I despise (as did he for decades), The Sound of Music. Plummer elevated some fine movies in his supporting roles: The Man Who Would Be King, Jesus of Nazareth. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Here’s his NYT obit.

ON VIDEO

ON TV

Catherine Deneuve in THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG

On February 15, Turner Classic Movies airs the romantic French musical The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964). Innovative writer-director Jacques Demy had the actors sing all of the dialogue. Umbrellas is also notable for the breakout performance by then 20-year-old Catherine Deneuve; and an epilogue scene at a gas station – one of the great weepers in cinema history. 

Nino Castelnuovo in THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG