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:
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.
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.
You Got Gold: why John Prine is admired and beloved. In theaters, but hard to find.
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.
Photo caption: Lee Byung-hun (left) in NO OTHER CHOICE. Courtesy of NEON.
This week on The Movie Gourmet – new reviews of the deliciously perverse Korean comedy No Other Choice, by Park Chan-wook, director of The Handmaiden and Decision to Leave and the delightfil concert film You Got Gold.
The annual Noir City festival begins tonight at Oakland’s Grand Lake Theater. I’ll be covering it in person next weekend. Here’s my Noir City Preview.
You Got Gold: why John Prine is admired and beloved. In theaters, but hard to find.
ON TV
Bruno Ganz and Dennis Hopper in THE AMERICAN FRIEND
On January 21, Turner Classic Movies presents 1977 neo-noir The American Friend, an adaptation of the Patricia Highsmith novel Ripley’s Game. Director Wim Wenders and cinematographer Robby Muller
Zimmermann (Bruno Ganz) is a craftsman who makes frames for paintings and dabbles in the shady world of art fraud, making antique-appearing frames for art forgeries. Here, Tom Ripley (Dennis Hopper, in his Wild Man phase)) entangles him in something far more consequential – a murder-for-hire. As befits a neo-noir, Zimmermann finds himself amid a pack of underworld figures, all set to double-cross each other with lethal finality. In very sly casting by Wenders, all the criminals are played by movie directors: Sam Fuller, Nick Ray, Peter Lilienthal, Daniel Schmid, Gérard Blain, Rudolf Schündler, Jean Eustache. As the murder scheme unfolds, there is a tense and thrilling set piece on a train, worthy of The Narrow Margin. Other set pieces include a white-knuckle break-in and the ambush of an ambulance.
For sure, The American Friend has the only movie Tom Ridley in a cowboy hat, and I’ve heard Highsmith experts trash Hopper’s Tom Ripley. But I think the casting pays off in a brilliant scene in which Hopper lies on a pool table, snapping selfies with a Polaroid camera; it’s a brilliant imagining of a sociopath in solitary, with no one to manipulate.
Photo caption: Ed Harris, Natalie Morales and Sonequa Martin-Green in MY DEAD FRIEND ZOE. Courtesy of Briarcliff Entertainment.
This week on The Movie Gourmet – new reviews of an overlooked film from 2025, My Dead Friend Zoe, the dark comedy My Neighbor Adolf. and Cover Up, the Netflix biodoc of journalist Seymour Hersh. ICYMI here’s my year-end coverage:
Tom Wilkinson, Robert Carlyle and Paul Barber in THE FULL MONTY.
On January 13, Turner Classic Movies presents a charming little British comedy that became a huge art house hit in the US, The Full Monty. A steel mill in Sheffield has shut down, throwing its entire workforce into hopeless unemployment. One of the former steelworkers, Daz (Robert Carlyle) flits between dodgy under-the-table gigs so he can buy pints at the pub and pare down his child support arrearage. Daz enlists his mates in his latest scheme – to develop a Chippendale-style male strip act. He recruits their former foreman Gerald (Tom Wilkinson) as their choreographer; heartbreakingly, Gerald still hasn’t been able to tell his wife that he, too, is unemployed. Daz is a shameless rapscallion; his foibles are funny, as are the regular blue collar guys trying to learn sexy dance moves. As funny as it is, The Full Monty explores masculine identity and the human impact of Thatcherism. The Full Monty was nominated for three Oscars, winning for its music.
For most of the US audience, this was a first look at Tom Wilkinson, who went on to a significant career in US and British movies: Smilla’s Sense of Snow, The Patriot, Shakespeare in Love, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, John Adams, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Selma. Wilkinson was Oscar-nominated for In the Bedroom and Michael Clayton.
Photo caption: Sean Penn in ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER, now on HBO Max. Courtesy of Warner Bros.
This Happy New Year on The Movie Gourmet – new reviews of the superficially entertaining Marty Supreme and the brilliant We Shall Not Be Moved, Mexico’s submission for the Best International Film Oscar.
I have posted my Best Movies of 2025, and you can watch ALL of them them now, either in theaters (Hamnet, Sentimental Value) or on home video! (Four of the top eight are even on Netflix!) One Battle After Another is free on HBO Max. Here’s the rest of my year-end coverage:
Brigitte Bardot demonstrated her acting talent in …And Man Created Woman, Contempt, and many other films, but it was eclipsed by her unworldly beauty and unsurpassed sexiness.
CURRENT MOVIES
Hamnet: a grieving couple finally aligned. In theaters.
It Was Just an Accident: trauma, justice and complications. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
Train Dreams: quietly thinking and quietly feeling. Netflix.
Orwell: 2+2=5: we didn’t get the message. In arthouse theaters, but hard to find.
Nouvelle Vague: a subversive trickster bets that he is an artist, too. Netflix.
Jay Kelly: finding that the ship has sailed. Netflix.
Frankenstein: who is the real monster? In theaters and on Netflix.
A House of Dynamite: a master filmmaker reminds us of the terrifyingly plausible. Netflix.
One Battle After Another: sometimes hilarious, sometimes thrilling, always outrageous. HBO Max (included), Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
The Baltimorons: vulnerability, recovery, good-hearted laughs. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube Fandango.
ON TV
Doris Day and Ginger Rogers in STORM WARNING.
On January 6, Turner Classic Movies presents an oddity from 1950, Storm Warning, certainly the only film noir where Doris Day gets shot by the KKK. A NYC model (Ginger Rogers) arrives in a Southern town to visit her sister (Day) and immediately witnesses the Klan murder a journalist and then, not seeing that she is a witness, take off their hoods. She gets to the sister’s house and is shocked to recognize her sister’s husband (Steve Cochran) as one of the murderous Klansmen. Will she testify to the anti-Klan DA (Ronald Reagan)? This is supposed to be a an allegory about the red baiting HUAC. Weirdly, there is no mention of the KKK’s hated of blacks, Catholics and Jews, and there are hardly any black people in the movie. The film certainly doesn’t work in 2025, but the bizarre casting of Doris Day, Ginger Rogers and Ronatd Reagan in a noir is fun, and Rogers and Day give excellent performances.
Photo caption: Jessie Buckley in HAMNET. Courtesy of Focus Features.
This Holiday week on The Movie Gourmet – I posted my Best Movies of 2025, and you can watch ALL of them them now, either in theaters (Hamnet, Sentimental Value) or on home video! Four of the top eight are even on Netflix.
Here are capsules on two highly advertised (but nor very serious) movies:
Wake Up Dead Man: It’s all in good fun when Ryan Johnson sends up the conventions of murder mysteries with his Knives Out series. This one is a heavily plotted locked room mystery with a moving finger on various suspects. Unfortunately, it’s at least 30 minutes too long and just not compelling. The brightest light is an engaging lead performance by Josh O’Connor. Netflix.
Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale. The once-beloved series cashes in one last time on tropes from its first season: a Lady Mary scandal, a dire threat to the family’s wealth and the inevitable ill-adaptation of a lifestyle based on a medieval economic model. So predictable;le that The Wife and I turned it off midway through. Amazon, etc.
CURRENT MOVIES
Hamnet: a grieving couple finally aligned. In theaters.
It Was Just an Accident: trauma, justice and complications. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
Train Dreams: quietly thinking and quietly feeling. Netflix.
Orwell: 2+2=5: we didn’t get the message. In arthouse theaters, but hard to find.
Nouvelle Vague: a subversive trickster bets that he is an artist, too. Netflix.
Jay Kelly: finding that the ship has sailed. Netflix.
Frankenstein: who is the real monster? In theaters and on Netflix.
A House of Dynamite: a master filmmaker reminds us of the terrifyingly plausible. Netflix.
One Battle After Another: sometimes hilarious, sometimes thrilling, always outrageous. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
The Baltimorons: vulnerability, recovery, good-hearted laughs. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube Fandango.
ON TV
Myrna Loy and William Powell as Nora and Nick Charles during the Holidays
Once again, Turner Classic Movies is giving us a wonderful New Year’s Eve present – an all-day Thin Man marathon. William Powell and Myrna Loy are cinema’s favorite movie couple for a reason – just settle in and watch Nick and Nora Charles in The Thin Man and its sequels do what they do best – banter, canoodle, solve crimes and, of course, tipple.
Stars abound in supporting roles in the series. James Stewart had only made one feature film before 1936, the year, he appeared in After the Thin Man. Dean Stockwell played Nick and Nora’s son Nick Charles Jr in Song of the Thin Man. Film noir goddesses Gloria Grahame and Marie Windsor also both appear in Song of the Thin Man.
The pre-notoriety Tom Neal has a key role in in Another Thin Man. Classic film aficionados will also recognize Maureen O’Sullivan, Keenan Wynn, Leon Ames, Sheldon Leonard, C. Awbrey Smith, Joseph Calleia and Sam Levene.
These six movies from 1934-47 (The Thin Man, After the Thin Man, Another Thin Man, The Shadow of the Thin Man, The Thin Man Goes Home and Song of the Thin Man) are still first-rate escapist entertainment. Love ’em.
My list of Best Movies of 2025 – So Far has solidified to the point where I have taken off the So Far. I plan to see No Other Choice and probably Marty Supreme before New Year’s, but those are the only two films that could still make my year-end top ten. I’m still having a very hard time ranking the top four films: Frankenstein, It Was Just an Accident, Caught by the Tides and One Battle After Another. It may end in a four-way tie.
REMEMBRANCES
Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal in Rob Reiner’s WHEN HARRY MET SALLY.
In the period between 1984 and 1996, few directors had as impressive and as varied a body of work as did Rob Reiner: This Is Spinal Tap, When Harry Met Sally, Princess Bride, A Few Good Men, Misery and Ghosts of Mississippi.
Character actor Peter Greene excelled at playing scary villains and was the cretinous Zed in Pulp Fiction.
CURRENT MOVIES
Hamnet: a grieving couple finally aligned. In theaters.
The Mastermind: when selfishness exceeds talent. In theaters.
Orwell: 2+2=5: we didn’t get the message. In arthouse theaters, but hard to find.
Nouvelle Vague: a subversive trickster bets that he is an artist, too. Netflix.
Jay Kelly: finding that the ship has sailed. Netflix.
Frankenstein: who is the real monster? In theaters and on Netflix.
A House of Dynamite: a master filmmaker reminds us of the terrifyingly plausible. Netflix.
Eleanor the Great: grief, an appalling lie, redemption. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
One Battle After Another: sometimes hilarious, sometimes thrilling, always outrageous. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
Death By Lightning: a statesman, a hack, a lunatic and one great story. Netflix.
The Baltimorons: vulnerability, recovery, good-hearted laughs. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube Fandango.
ON TV
Glenn Ford and Evelyn Keyes in MR. SOFT TOUCH
On December 23, Turner Classic Movies is airing the little-seen Mr. Soft Touch from 1949, which is undeniably Christmas film noir. The Holiday season is integral to the plot, which revolves around a Christmas tree, a Christmas party, Christmas decorations and a horde of ne’er-do-wells in Santa suits.
Nightclub owner Joe Miracle (Glenn Ford) returns from WWII to find that the mob has looted his nest egg. He’s able to rob it back, but now he’s got to hide out from the gangsters until his ship literally sails. As circumstances develop, he pretends to be a down-and-outer so he can stay in in the settlement house (isn’t that quaint?) run by social worker Jenny Jones (Evelyn Keyes).
MR. SOFT TOUCH. Photo Credit: Underwood and Underwood Corbis.
Mr. Soft Touch has many of the elements of classic film noir:
a cynical underworld where shady characters are robbed by even shadier types.
the WWII vet who has gotten screwed, and his only option to make himself whole is illegal.
a protagonist whose actions are driven to please a beautiful woman.
a hero who takes a bullet in the street.
a cast packed by recognizable characters of the period: John Ireland, Beulah Bondi, Percy Kilbride and Ted de Corsia.
gritty 1949 San Francisco locations.
That being said, Mr. Soft Touch is light comic noir and often silly. We accept the plot contrivances because the film doesn’t take itself too seriously.
Here, Evelyn Keyes isn’t a femme fatale for once; she’s a naïve do-gooder, but she’s sexy all the same, and sparks fly between Ford and Keyes as she inches him toward altruism and redemption.
Mr. Soft Touch is not available to stream. so set your DVR for a rarity.
Photo caption: Joel Edgerton and Kerry Condon in TRAIN DREAMS. Courtesy of Netflix.
It’s prime movie season and this week on The Movie Gourmet – new reviews of the superb drama Train Dreams, Kelly Reichardt’s dark comedy The Mastermind, the new biodoc Orwell: 2+2=5 and the affecting indie drama Burt, which screened at three Laemmle theaters this week.
The Mastermind: when selfishness exceeds talent. In theaters.
Orwell: 2+2=5: we didn’t get the message. In arthouse theaters, but hard to find.
Nouvelle Vague: a subversive trickster bets that he is an artist, too. Netflix.
Jay Kelly: finding that the ship has sailed. Netflix.
Frankenstein: who is the real monster? In theaters and on Netflix.
A House of Dynamite: a master filmmaker reminds us of the terrifyingly plausible. Netflix.
Eleanor the Great: grief, an appalling lie, redemption. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
One Battle After Another: sometimes hilarious, sometimes thrilling, always outrageous. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
Death By Lightning: a statesman, a hack, a lunatic and one great story. Netflix.
The Baltimorons: vulnerability, recovery, good-hearted laughs. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube Fandango.
ON TV
Andre Morell and Peter Cushing in CASH ON DEMAND.
Turner Classic Movies has gift-wrapped a present for us on December 13 and 14. Cash on Demand, made in 1962 by the British horror schlock studio Hammer Films, is a ticking bomb suspenser and a Perfect Crime movie. It’s also an unlikely Christmas movie, with characters that evoke Dickins’ A Christmas Carol.
The Scrooge is the manager of a bank branch (Peter Cushing) – everyone’s most despised boss. He revels in the tyranny of his miniature fiefdom and never misses a chance to make the jobs of his underlings unnecessarily onerous or humiliating. The Bob Cratchit (Richard Vernon) is the dedicated and able bank clerk, who is doing his best while under the manager’s sadistic thumb.
The manager gets his comeuppance when a posh customer (André Morell) arrives. The manager’s kowtowing and boot-licking is interrupted by the discovery that the customer is actually pulling a heist and forcing the manager – by threatening his family – to help.
The crook has apparently thought of every possibility and devised a perfect heist. Cash on Demand becomes a bank procedural as we learn about 1862 state-of-the-art vault security.
There’s a deadline – the vault needs to be emptied at a certain time or the manager’s family will come to grief. All of Cash on Demand occurs in real time and all inside the bank, under the inescapable face of the wall clock.
Andre Morell’s bank robber, while ruthless, is generally jovial – the very model of clubby affability. Cash on Demand is a study in contrast between the cool-as-a-cucumber crook and the bank manager, who looks absolutely stricken throughout the movie.
Cash on Demand will be aired on TCM’s Noir Alley, with the intro and outro by Eddie Muller.
Another busy week on The Movie Gourmet – new reviews of the wonderful family dramedy Left-Handed Girl, the layered character-driven drama Sentimental Value, and the witty and poignant Jay Kelly. Plus two recommended movies coming up on TV this week. And here are mini-capsules on some other current films and miniseries:
The American Revolution: The Ken Burns five-part documentary on PBS is excellent. I learned a lot, even after multiple college courses and much reading and podcast-listening on the subject. It’s not as thrilling as The Civil War or Baseball, nut its both important and very watchable. Watch on you TV’s PBS channel, the PBS YouTube channel or the PBS website.
Spinal Tap II: The End Continues: More of a fond tribute to the great This Is Spinal Tap than a sequel, this film returns the original stars with chuckles and the occasional guffaw. Some of the Biggest Names in music have cameos, and Elton John’s bits are the best. Valerie Franco adds a burst of energy as the band’s fearless new drummer. I treasure the original film, so I enjoyed most of this homage, but not all of these jokes work.
Being Eddie: Eddie Murphy tells his version of his life and career in this Netflix doc. He is an interesting guy, but this is a puff piece.
REMEMBRANCES
Udo Kier in MY NEIGHBOR ADOLF. Courtesy of Cohen Media Group.
Udo Kier proved that one can have a prolific career (275 IMDb credits) as a character actor in both art and cult cult movies. He worked with directors like Werner Rainier Fassbinder, Werner Herzog, Wim Wenders and Lars Von Trier, and in Hollywood films like Johnny Mneumonic, My Own Private Idaho, Armageddon, Halloween and Ace Venture: Pet Detective. His visage, scarier as he aged, worked well in horror movies. and he did many, beginning with Jim Morrisey’s Andy Warhol’s Frankenstein and Blood for Dracula. I’ll be writing about Kier’s last film, the very droll My Neighbor Adolf, when it comes out in January.
Lee Tamahori directed the intense and authentic Once Were Warriors, perhaps the best contemporary film on the Māori people and widely considered the greatest New Zealand film, and several Hollywood films, involving the James Bond Die Another Day.
Die My Love: Jennifer Lawrence ablaze. In theaters.
Nuremberg: matching wits with a master manipulator. In theaters.
Eleanor the Great: grief, an appalling lie, redemption. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
One Battle After Another: sometimes hilarious, sometimes thrilling, always outrageous. In theaters, but hard to find. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango, but expensive..
Death By Lightning: a statesman, a hack, a lunatic and one great story. Netflix.
The Baltimorons: vulnerability, recovery, good-hearted laughs. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube Fandango.
ON TV
Edward Andrews and John McIntyre in THE PHENIX CITY STORY
On December 9, Turner Classic Movies will broadcast The Phenix City Story; gritty, crisp and unvarnished, it’s a jarring contrast to 1950s Ozzie and Harriett American culture. It’s impossible to imagine a film noir that is more “ripped from the headlines”. The Phenix City Story is one of my Overlooked Noir; it’s hard to find to stream, so set your DVR for TCM this week.
John Larch in THE PHENIX CITY STORY
And, on December 11, TCM will air a charming 2022 documentary that I had recommended during its blink-and-you-missed-it theatrical run – The Automat. It traces the fascinating seven-decade run of the marble-floored food palaces where one could put nickels in a slot and be rewarded with a meal. Filled with unexpected nuggets, The Automat gives voice to those nostalgic about the automat, but it is clear-eyed about why it didn’t survive. The Automat is the first film for director Lisa Hurvitz, who spent eight years on the project.
THE AUTOMAT: Actress Audrey Hepburn photographed by Howard Fried in New York City as part of a multi-day photo shoot for Esquire magazine, 1951. Courtesy of A Slice of Pie Production
Photo caption: George Clooney in JAY KELLY. Courtesy of Netflix.
This week on The Movie Gourmet – a plug for my favorite romantic comedy of the year, The Baltimorons, a perfect watch-at-home choice for the Holidays.
I’ll soon post a new review of the George Clooney film Jay Kelly, which is a witty and poignant screen version of the Harry Chapin song Cat’s in the Cradle. I liked it, but you can wait until it streams on Netflix on the weekend after this one.
Thanksgiving weekend is a great time catch a prestige, or even movie, or even a popcorn movie at a movie theater. Recently, I’ve enjoyed some movies at my local multiplex equipped with Dolby’s ATMOS sound. ATMOS really enhanced the thrills in A House of Dynamite and One Battle After Another and the music in Frankenstein and Deliver Me from Nowhere. Look for it.
Die My Love: Jennifer Lawrence ablaze. In theaters.
Nuremberg: matching wits with a master manipulator. In theaters.
Eleanor the Great: grief, an appalling lie, redemption. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
One Battle After Another: sometimes hilarious, sometimes thrilling, always outrageous. In theaters, but hard to find. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango, but expensive..
Death By Lightning: a statesman, a hack, a lunatic and one great story. Netflix.Harvest: peasants get the shaft. AppleTV.
The Baltimorons: vulnerability, recovery, good-hearted laughs. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube Fandango.
Matthew McFadyen in DEATH BY LIGHTNING. Courtesy of Netflix.
ON TV
Turner Classic Movies is airingthe 1962 version of Requiem for a Heavyweight. Anthony Quinn is Mountain Rivera, a fighter whose career is ended by a ring injury by Cassius Clay (played by the real Muhammad Ali). His manager, Jackie Gleason, continues to exploit him in this heartbreaking drama. Mickey Rooney, whose acting I usually despise, is real, natural and just perfect in this film. There’s no boxing in this clip, but it illustrates the quality of the writing and the acting.
