Weekly Movie Recommendations

Movies to Watch Right Now (at home)

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John Carroll Lynch and Sasha Baron Cohen in THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7

This week: The latest from Aaron Sorkin and Spike Lee. But, first, a remembrance.

REMEMBRANCE

Dick Powell and Rhonda Fleming in CRY DANGER

Actress Rhonda Fleming has died at age 97. She was known as the “Queen of Technicolor” when movie studios exploited her blazing red hair, blue eyes, ivory complexion and uncommon beauty in a series of Western, sword-and-sandal and adventure films; in this period, she was a candidate for the world’s most beautiful woman, along with her age peers Gene Tierney, Lana Turner and Marilyn Monroe. But Fleming’s very best acting work was in black-and-white, in Spellbound, Out of the Past, Cry Danger and While the City Sleeps. My favorite Fleming performance is in Cry Danger, where she plays the girlfriend of the guy who had framed the hero (Dick Powell) – an irresistible woman of uncertain loyalty.

ON VIDEO

The Trial of the Chicago Seven (link to full review will go live this weekend) is Aaron Sorkin’s dramatization of the notorious 1969 political trial of Vietnam War protestors. Sasha Baron Cohen, Mark Rylance and Frank Langella are all really good. Streaming on Netflix.

David Byrne’s American Utopia, directed by Spike Lee, is the concert film for Byrne’s Broadway Show, with the Broadway glitz pared down to explore humanity itself. It’s playing on HBO.

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

ON TV

Vera Clouzot in DIABOLIQUE

Turner Classic Movies plays a lot of horror in October. But the best is coming on October 25, Diabolique from director Henri-Georges Clouzot (often tagged as the French Hitchcock).  The headmaster of a provincial boarding school is so cruel, even sadistic, that everyone wants him dead, especially his wife and his mistress. When he goes missing, the police drain the murky pool where the killers dumped the body…and the killers get a big surprise. Now the suspense really starts…

I recently saw director Rene Clement pegged as the French Hitchcock, although Claude Chabrol and Clouzot are the favorites for that title. It occurred to me that Jen-Pierre Melville loved American film noir and was such an Americanphile that he wore a Stetson and drove a Cadillac. Would he be the French Robert Siodmak, Frtiz Lang, Richard Fleischer, Jules Dassin or Jacques Toruneur? Wait a minute – isn’t Jacques Tourneur already French?

On October 27, TCM broadcasts a searing real life time capsule The Connection, a 1962 cinema vérité of NYC heroine addicts waiting for, and getting, their fixes. It’s haunting.

THE CONNECTION

Movies to See Right Now (at home)

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Cinta Hansel in SHE IS THE OCEAN

This week: a doumentary, a Feel Good narrative and a docufantasy, all from a female point of view.

The Mill Valley Film Festival is still running, and you can still watch most of the films at home through this weekend. Here is my MVFF preview.

ON VIDEO

Today only – stream She Is the Ocean. In this visually stunning documentary, fearless and high-achieving women celebrate the oceans in science and sport.

The Artist’s Wife: Lena Olin’s performance as a woman facing the decline of her older husband with remarkable generosity. A Feel Good.

Dick Johnson Is Dead: A daughter and her dad face the end of his life in this funny, heartfelt and frequently bizarre docufantasy. One of a kind.

The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp: I wrote about 1943 Powell-Pressburger masterpiece last week. If you missed it last night on TCM, you can stream it from Amazon, AppleTV and the Criterion Channel.

SIBYL

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

ON TV

Tonight, Turner Classic Movies airs In a Lonely Place (1950). The most unsettlingly sexy film noiress Gloria Grahame falls for the troubled screenwriter Humphrey Bogart, a guy with a MAJOR anger management issue; once she’s hooked, she realizes that he might be a murderer after all…Nicholas Ray directs. In a Lonely Place justifiably made the BBC’s list of the 100 Greatest American Films. The Czar of Noir Eddie Muller has named it as his #1 film noir.

Gloria Grahame and Humphrey Bogart in IN A LONELY PLACE

Movies to See Right Now (at home)

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Gay Walley in EROTIC FIRE OF THE UNATTAINABLE streaming from Cinejoy. Courtesy of Vitale Productions.

This week is all about TWO film festivals underway with new movies to watch at home. We have one more week to stream movies from Cinejoy, Cinequest’s October virtual fest. Here is my best of Cinejoy plus five more Cinejoy films.

The Mill Valley Film Festival is always the best opportunity for Bay Area film goers to catch an early look at the Big Movies – the prestige films that will be released during Award Season. This year is the same – except we don’t even have to visit Marin County in person. Watch at home. Here is my MVFF preview.

Regina King’s ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI opening at the Mill Valley Film Festival. Photo courtesy of Amazon.

ON VIDEO

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

ON TV

On October 15, Turner Classic Movies will air the 1943 masterpiece The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, a remarkably textured portrait of a man over four decades and his struggles to evolve into new eras. Written and directed by the great British filmmakers Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, this is a movie with a sharp message to 1940s audiences about modernity, as well as a subtle exploration of privilege that will resonate today. Set your DVRs now; I’ll be publishing about this film next Wednesday.

Roger Livesey in THE LIFE AND DEATH OF COLONEL BLIMP

Movies to See Right Now (at home)

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Olivia Colman and Anthony Hopkins in THE FATHER, coming up at the Mill Valley Film Festival

This week: Not one, but TWO Watch At Home film festivals.

The Mill Valley Film Festival is always the best opportunity for Bay Area film goers to catch an early look at the Big Movies – the prestige films that will be released during Award Season. This year is the same – except we don’t even have to visit Marin County in person. Watch at home.

Cinejoy is Cinequest’s October virtual fest. More watch at home choices, especially focused on indie gems that you can’t see anywhere else.

ON VIDEO

Stuntwomen: The Untold Hollywood Story: “Actresses play characters, but stuntwoman play actresses playing characters, while driving fast and kicking ass.” Streaming on iTunes and Google Play.

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

ON TV

On October 4, Turner Classic Movies presents an afternoon and evening of Buster Keaton that is one of the best programs that TCM has ever curated. First, there’s Peter Bogdanovich’s fine 2018 biodoc of Keaton, The Great Buster: A Celebration. I had thought that I had a good handle on Keaton’s body of work, but The Great Buster is essential to understanding it.

TCM follows with four movies from Keaton’s masterpiece period: Sherlock, Jr. (1924), The General (1926), Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928) and Seven Chances (1925). After 1928, Keaton’s new studio took away his creative control, and his career (and personal life) crashed.

This is a chance to appreciate Keaton’s greatest work. I just wrote about Steamboat Bill, Jr. for last year’s Cinequest. I’ve also recommended Seven Chances for its phenomenal chase scene, one that still (ninety-five years later!) rates with the very best in cinema history.

Buster Keaton in SEVEN CHANCES

Movies to See Right Now (at home)

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Regina King’s ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI opening at the Mill Valley Film Festival. Photo courtesy of Amazon.

This week: The most eclectic watch-at-home recommendations you’ll find ANYWHERE. And this weekend, I’ll be previewing a great film festival that we can all attend (virtually).

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

REMEMBRANCE

RAGING BULL: cinematography by Michael Chapman

Cinematographer Michael Chapman shot the most stunning boxing scenes ever in Raging Bull. Before that, Chapman had an amazing run of work in indelible films from 1973 through 1979: The Last Detail, Taxi Driver, The Last Waltz, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Wanderers.

RAGING BULL: cinematography by Michael Chapman

ON VIDEO

I Don’t Feel at Home in this World Anymore: This wonderfully dark comedy is a showcase for Melanie Lynskey as a schlub who goes postal. Streaming on Netflix.

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

ON TV

Edih Chatterton and Walter Huston in DODSWORTH. Photo by Goldwyn/Kobal/Shutterstock (5880310c) Goldwyn USA Scene Still

On October 1, Turner Classic Movies airs the compelling Dodsworth, William Wyler’s 1936 film version of the Sinclair Lewis novel. The title character is a guy who has worked hard to get rich enough to step away from the rat race and take his wife on an extended European holiday. He thinks that he finally has it all – until he discovers that his wife has conflicting needs.

In one of his greatest performances, Walter Huston plays Sam Dodsworth as a guy supremely confident in his own skin, until he is devastated in learning who his wife really is. Unlike many stars from the Classic Era, Huston’s naturalistic acting would work in today’s cinema. Ruth Chatterton, who was a big Broadway star just ending a ten-year movie career, is equally good as Sam’s unashamedly selfish wife Fran (you’ve just to let me have my fling!).

The third great performance is Mary Astor’s most sympathetic, as Edith, the straight-shooting anti-Ftan. Astor shot Dodsworth during the daytime and then suffered through a humiliating child custody trial, held at night (with Chatterton at her side for support). Astor won over the court on the stand by channeling the character of Edith.

“Love has to stop somewhere short of suicide.” I just discovered Dodsworth this year, thanks to TCM guru Sandy Wolf.

I DON’T FEEL AT HOME IN THIS WORLD ANYMORE – a schlub goes postal

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Elijah Wood and Melanie Lynskey in I DON’T FEEL AT HOME IN THIS WORLD ANYMORE

In the wonderfully dark comedy I Don’t Feel at Home in this World Anymore, Ruth (Melanie Lynskey) is wallowing in a lonely, depressing, humdrum existence, when she has one of those days where everything goes wrong. When she staggers home in abject failure, she finds that her home has been burglarized. It’s the last straw, and Ruth becomes energized in an obsessive quest to track down the thieves. She picks up her geeky neighbor (Elijah Wood) an a confederate. Soon the lovable loser and her oddball sidekick follow the clues to a very dangerous gang, and they find themselves in a lethal thriller.

Melanie Lynskey and Macon Blair in I DON’T FEEL AT HOME IN THIS WORLD ANYMORE

I Don’t Feel at Home in this World Anymore is the directorial debut of actor Macon Blair, an actor who has elevated a slew of indies, especially the refreshingly original thriller Blue Ruin. Blair has a tiny but very funny role as spoiler-dropping bar patron.

Melanie Lynskey is a comic treasure, and her deadpan earnestness carries I Don’t Feel at Home in this World Anymore. What’s so funny here is that her Ruth, a workaday schlub, only needs to become SLIGHTLY deranged before she falls into a life-and-death adventure.

After a Blink-And-You’ve-Missed-It theatrical run in 2017, I Don’t Feel at Home in this World Anymore is available to stream on Netflix.

Movies to See Right Now (at home)

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Niels Schneider and Virginie Efira in SIBYL

This week: a wildlife documentary unlike any you’ve ever seen and two movies about human wild life. Korean zombies, too.

ON VIDEO

Sibyl: The sex-filled melodrama from director Juliet Triet is trashy, but in that sly and expert French way. Sibyl is streaming on Virtual Cinema; I watched it at the Laemmle.

#Alive: A Korean Home Alone with zombies. Streaming on Netflix

DTF: The wild and unpleasant DTF is not the documentary that filmmaker Al Bailey planned, but instead it’s an unexpected descent from prurience into menace.

Rodents of Unusual Size: This charmingly addictive documentary features 5 million orange-toothed critters and a Cajun octogenarian. Streaming from Amazon and iTunes.

RODENTS OF UNUSUAL SIZE

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

ON TV

On September 19, Turner Classic Movies will play the 1957 classic Western  3:10 to Yuma.  This may the career-best performance by the underrated Van Heflin, who plays a financially ruined rancher who bets his life for a chance to support his family.  All he has to do is to guard a cruel and resourceful outlaw (Glenn Ford) against rescue attempts by his gang.  Heflin’s rancher is totally outmatched and his only chance comes from his desperation-fueled adrenaline. It’s an edge-of-your-seat countdown until help is scheduled to arrive.  The 2007 remake with Christian Bale and Russell Crowe is very good, too, but Van Heflin reigns supreme.

Van Heflin in 3:10 TO YUMA

RODENTS OF UNUSUAL SIZE: 5 million orange-toothed critters and a Cajun octogenarian

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Thomas Gonzalez in RODENTS OF UNUSUAL SIZE

The offbeat documentary Rodents of Unusual Size, with its bizarre subject, is charmingly addictive. That subject is the nutria, a 20- to 30-pound Argentine rodent that threatens Louisiana’s wetlands and coastline.  Yes, 30-pound swamp rats with orange teeth.

Although Rodents of Unusual Size is decidedly non-preachy, the nutria is serious business. Imported for the commercial potential of its fur by a Tabasco sauce heir, nutria escaped into the Louisiana wilds and propagated wildly. When the US fur market crashed in the 1990s, the locals stopped trapping them, and Louisiana’s nutria population exploded to 20 million.

The problem is that nutria eat the roots of the vegetation in the Louisiana wetlands, causing erosion that has converted at least 42 square miles of land into open water. Worse, those wetlands are the storm buffer for the rest of the state.

Louisiana offers hunters a $5 bounty for the tail of each dead nutria, which has reduced the nutria population to a more manageable 5 million.  We even meet a guy whose official job title is Nutria Tail Assessor.

One of the reasons I love Louisiana is that folks just don’t take themselves too seriously there. Even when they are focused on the grave environmental impacts of the nutria invasion, they still appreciate the absurdity of a 30-pound, orange-toothed swamp rat.  (And, fittingly,  Rodents of Unusual Size is narrated by Louisiana native Wendell Pierce.)

Along the way, we are also introduced to nutria fur and the fur company Righteous Fur, nutria meat, nutria sports mascots and even nutria as pets.

But most compellingly, we meet Thomas Gonzalez, an 80-year-old bayou native, nutria hunter and bon vivant. Gonzalez is a force of nature, complete with strong-willed opinions and some impressive dance moves. Gonzalez serves as the voice of Louisiana and finishes the movie with a profound perspective on the nutria.

I saw Rodents of Unusual Size at Silicon Valley’s Cinema Club with filmmaker Chris Metzler available for Q&A. Metzler and his colleagues Jeff Springer and Quinn Costello filmed Rodents of Unusual Size over four years during Louisiana’s nutria season (November to April). The affable Metzler is a font of nutria knowledge, full of tidbits like albino nutria being prized by taxidermists. Because nutria are very difficult to spot and film in the wild, the filmmakers used Nooty the stunt nutria throughout the film. Nooty joined the filmmakers in creeping along the red carpet at various film festivals and has her own Facebook page.

Thomas Gonzalez alone is worth meeting on film, and, as told by Rodents of Unusual Size, the story of the nutria is quirkily fascinating. Rodents of Unusual Size can be streamed from Amazon and iTunes.

Movies to See Right Now (at home)

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Nathalie Baye and Emmanuelle Devos in MOKA

This week: a slow burn showcase for two great French actresses plus a little indie comedy set in NYC’s Chinatown. The best Summer 2020 movies (like The August Virgin, The Truth, The 11th Green, An Easy Girl and Yes, God, Yes) are on my list of most eclectic watch-at-home recommendations you’ll find ANYWHERE.

ON VIDEO

Moka: a well-crafted fuse-burner and a showcase for two great actresses. You can stream it from Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.

Lucky Grandma: There’s not that much to this indie comedy except for Tsai Chin’s tour de grouch performance as the crusty Grandma and the NYC Chinatown setting. Lucky Grandma is moderately entertaining and is streaming on Amazon.

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

ON TV

Robert Mitchum and Jane Greer OUT OF THE PAST

You really haven’t sampled film noir if you haven’t seen Out of the Past (1947), and it’s coming up on Turner Classic Movies on September 12. The model of a film noir hero, Robert Mitchum plays a guy who is cynical, strong, smart and resourceful – but still a sap for the femme fatale…played by the irresistible Jane Greer. Director Jacques Tourneur told Greer, ” First half of the movie – Good Girl; second half – Bad Girl.”

Jane Greer and Robert Mitchum in OUT OF THE PAST

MOKA: whodunit mixed with psychological thriller

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Emannuelle Devos in MOKA

In the atmospheric ticking clock drama Moka, Emanneulle Devos plays Diane, a Swiss woman whose daughter has been killed in a hit-and-run accident.  Months afterward, she is still consumed with grief.  Impatient with the slow and uncertain pace of the police investigation and with her husband’s attempts at finding closure, Diane launches her own investigation to find the responsible party and make them pay.

Diane starts connecting dots and begins to suspect Marlène (Nathalie Baye), a shopowner from a neighboring town in France.   Diane adopts the alias of Hélène and, creepily, begins to infiltrate Marlène’s life.  Moka is a whodunit mixed with psychological thriller – who is really the perp and what is Diane capable of doing?

I, for one, didn’t see the big plot twist coming.  Director Frédéric Mermoud adapted the screenplay from the Tatiana De Rosnay novel.

The prolific French actress Emanneulle Devos made a splash in 2001 with Read My Lips and popped up recently in the indie Frank & Lola.  Devos has a very compelling quality.  She excels at playing women who are very intense and possibly dangerous, women like Diane in Moka.

Nathalie Baye and Emmanuelle Devos in MOKA

Nathalie Baye is the Meryl Streep of France, nominated ten times for France’s Best Actress award.  She started off in 1972 as Joëlle the script girl in Trauffaut’s Day for Night, and had risen to international stardom by 1982 and her performance in The Return of Martin Guerre – one of the greatest acting turns in all cinema. In Moka, Baye’s Marlène is a seemingly uncomplicated woman.  We correctly suspect that she’s something else under the surface, but we don’t guess what that really is.  It’s great to see Baye take this supporting role and nail it.

Moka is a well-crafted fuse-burner and a showcase for two great actresses. You can stream it from Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.