Eight of my Best Films of 2018 – So Far are already available to stream. Here they are, and this week I’m featuring The Rider: a life’s passion is threatened. A young man’s rodeo injury threatens to keep him from his passions. Filmed in South Dakota with non-professional actors, The Rider is emotionally powerful and genuine – and not a bit corny. It’s also visually beautiful. You can stream it on Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.
Also available to stream:
Leave No Trace: his demons, not hers. Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.
The Death of Stalin: gallows humor from the highest of scaffolds. Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.
Beast: finally unleashed … and untethered. Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.
Custody: the searing essence of domestic violence. Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.
Three Identical Strangers: a Feel Good until we peel back the onion. Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.
Quality Problems: a screwball comedy for the sandwich generation. My favorite film from last year’s Cinequest has been released on video this year: Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.
Outside In: she finds herself finally ready. Streaming on Netflix.
Romais an exquisite portrait of two enduring women and the masterpiece of Alfonso Cuarón (Gravity, Children of Men and Y Tu Mama Tambien). Will win multiple Oscars.
Shoplifters won the Palm d’Or at Cannes. This is a witty, and finally heartbreaking, look at a family that lives on the margins – and then is revealed to be not what it seems.
Bitter Melon, H.P. Mendoza’s dark indie comedy on an issue that a Bay Area family must finally face.
The masterful documentary Monrovia, Indiana is a fascinating movie about a boring subject.
Divide and Conquer: The Story of Roger Ailes provides insight into of the man who founded Fox News and thus defiled the American body politic and made possible our venerable nation’s descent into Trump’s America.
Just in case you haven’t gotten around to seeing it yet – Lady Gaga illuminates Bradley Cooper’s triumphant A Star Is Born. Don’t bring a hankie – bring a whole friggin’ box of Kleenex.
What They Had is an authentic and well-crafted dramatic four-hander with Hilary Swank, Michael Shannon, Blythe Danner and Robert Forster.
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, the Coen Brothers’ anthology of darkly funny Western vignettes, is recommended only for Westernphiles and Coen Brothers fans. It is streaming on Netflix.
The Outlaw King, with Chris Pine as Robert the Bruce, exists for those who need a dose of medieval slaughter and a spunky queen, but there’s not enough there for the rest of us.
Skip First Man – a boring movie about a fascinating subject.
ON VIDEO
My Streams of the Week are the eight of my Best Films of 2018 – So Far that are already available to stream: Leave No Trace, The Rider, The Death of Stalin, Beast, Custody, Monrovia, Indiana, Three Identical Strangers, Quality Problems and Outside In.
ON TV
I don’t want to make a television recommendation this week. I guess you could watch The Prowler on Turner Classic Movies on December 13. But you should really be watching the best movies of the year in theaters or via streaming.
Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie and Ben Foster in a scene from Debra Granik’s LEAVE NO TRACE
Eight of my Best Films of 2018 – So Far are already available to stream. Here they are, and this week I’m featuring Leave No Trace: his demons, not hers. Leave No Trace is Debra Granik’s first narrative feature since her 2010 Winter’s Bone (which I had rated as the best film of that year). Leave No Trace is a brilliant coming of age film that stars Ben Foster and Thomasin McKenzie as a dad-daughter team who challenge conventional thinking about homelessness and healthy parenting. Winter’s Bone launched the career of Jennifer Lawrence, and Leave No Trace might do the same for newcomer McKenzie. Leave No Trace may be streamed from Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.
Also available to stream:
The Rider: a life’s passion is threatened. n Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.
The Death of Stalin: gallows humor from the highest of scaffolds. Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.
Beast: finally unleashed … and untethered. Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.
Custody: the searing essence of domestic violence. Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.
Three Identical Strangers: a Feel Good until we peel back the onion. Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.
Quality Problems: a screwball comedy for the sandwich generation. My favorite film from last year’s Cinequest has been released on video this year: Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.
Outside In: she finds herself finally ready. Streaming on Netflix.
Ando Sakura, Matsuoka Mayu, Sasaki Miyu, Jyo Kairi and Lily Franky in SHOPLIFTERS, a Magnolia Pictures release. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.
OUT NOW
Romais an exquisite portrait of two enduring women and the masterpiece of Alfonso Cuarón (Gravity, Children of Men and Y Tu Mama Tambien). Will win multiple Oscars.
Shoplifters won the Palm d’Or at Cannes. This is a witty, and finally heartbreaking, look at a family that lives on the margins – and then is revealed to be not what it seems.
The masterful documentary Monrovia, Indiana is a fascinating movie about a boring subject.
The Great Buster: A Celebrationis Peter Bogdanovich’s biodoc of the comic genius Buster Keaton, filling in what we need to know of Keaton’s life and body of work.
Just in case you haven’t gotten around to seeing it yet – Lady Gaga illuminates Bradley Cooper’s triumphant A Star Is Born. Don’t bring a hankie – bring a whole friggin’ box of Kleenex.
What They Had is an authentic and well-crafted dramatic four-hander with Hilary Swank, Michael Shannon, Blythe Danner and Robert Forster.
The Outlaw King, with Chris Pine as Robert the Bruce, exists for those who need a dose of medieval slaughter and a spunky queen, but there’s not enough there for the rest of us.
Skip First Man – a boring movie about a fascinating subject.
ON VIDEO
My Stream of the Week is the 1977 neo-noir The American Friend, featuring Dennis Hopper, in his Wild Man phase. The American Friend can be streamed from Amazon, iTunes and Vudu.
ON TV
On December 5, Turner Classic Movies will air one of my Overlooked Noir, Fritz Lang’s While the City Sleeps (1956). A zillionaire dies and leaves his media empire to his feckless playboy son (Vincent Price). The ne’er-do-well scion cruelly dangles the CEO job in front of the company’s top talent, plunging them into a ruthless competition. Whoever solves the Lipstick Killer Murders will win the prize, and plenty of boardroom backstabbing ensues.
Seek out two of the best 5 movies of 2018 – Roma and Shoplifters.
OUT NOW
Romais an exquisite portrait of two enduring women and the masterpiece of Alfonso Cuarón (Gravity, Children of Men and Y Tu Mama Tambien). Will win multiple Oscars.
Shoplifters won the Palm d’Or at Cannes. This is a witty, and finally heartbreaking, look at a family that lives on the margins – and then is revealed to be not what it seems.
The sci fi coming of age adventure Prospecthas a one week run in the Bay Area at San Jose’s 3Below and is well worth seeking out..
The masterful documentary Monrovia, Indiana is a fascinating movie about a boring subject.
The Great Buster: A Celebrationis Peter Bogdanovich’s biodoc of the comic genius Buster Keaton, filling in what we need to know of Keaton’s life and body of work.
Just in case you haven’t gotten around to seeing it yet – Lady Gaga illuminates Bradley Cooper’s triumphant A Star Is Born. Don’t bring a hankie – bring a whole friggin’ box of Kleenex.
What They Had is an authentic and well-crafted dramatic four-hander with Hilary Swank, Michael Shannon, Blythe Danner and Robert Forster.
The Outlaw King, with Chris Pine as Robert the Bruce, exists for those who need a dose of medieval slaughter and a spunky queen, but there’s not enough there for the rest of us.
Skip First Man – a boring movie about a fascinating subject.
ON VIDEO
My Stream of the Week is the fine Lynne Shelton drama Outside In, with its stunning performance by Edie Falco. It can be streamed on Netflix, Amazon, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.
ON TV
Tomorrow, Turner Class Movies will air two of the most cynical movies about showbiz. First, there’s Robert Altman’s superb 1992 satire of Hollywood, The Player. Wickedly funny, it features a stellar cast: Tim Robbins, Greta Scacchi, Fred Ward, Lyle Lovett, Dean Stockwell, Whoopi Goldberg, Richard E. Grant, Vincent D’Onofrio, Peter Gallagher, Sydney Pollack and Dina Merrill.
And then we have one of the greatest movies of all time – All About Eve (1950). Bette Davis plays the middle-aging Broadway superstar Margot Channing, who fears losing her popularity with age. Who can eclipse her in the dog eat dog world of show biz? George Sanders is wonderful as the cynical critic Addison DeWitt, whose bimbo de jour is played by Marilyn Monroe. All About Eve was nominated for fourteen Oscars and won six.
ALL ABOUT EVE: “Fasten your seatbelts, it’s going to be a bumpy night!”
Viola Davis in WIDOWS. Photo Credit: Courtesy Twentieth Century Fox.
This week I’m featuring an absolute MUST for Silicon Valley film lovers, Silicon Valley’s Cinema Club. The Club is wrapping up its 22nd season this weekend and looking forward to 2019. A 2019 Club membership can also be a treasured Holiday gift.
And I’ll be trying to figure out how, despite ten solid days of family and job commitments, I can see three of the most promising movies of the year: Green Book, Widows and Burning.
OUT NOW
The sci fi coming of age adventure Prospecthas a one week run in the Bay Area at San Jose’s 3Below and is well worth seeking out..
The masterful documentary Monrovia, Indiana is a fascinating movie about a boring subject.
The Great Buster: A Celebrationis Peter Bogdanovich’s biodoc of the comic genius Buster Keaton, filling in what we need to know of Keaton’s life and body of work.
Just in case you haven’t gotten around to seeing it yet – Lady Gaga illuminates Bradley Cooper’s triumphant A Star Is Born. Don’t bring a hankie – bring a whole friggin’ box of Kleenex.
What They Had is an authentic and well-crafted dramatic four-hander with Hilary Swank, Michael Shannon, Blythe Danner and Robert Forster.
The Outlaw King, with Chris Pine as Robert the Bruce, exists for those who need a dose of medieval slaughter and a spunky queen, but there’s not enough there for the rest of us.
Skip First Man – a boring movie about a fascinating subject.
ON VIDEO
My stream of the week is the searing French thriller Custody, in which writer-director Xavier Legrand paints the most elemental and realistic depiction of domestic violence that I’ve seen. Custody won Legrand the Silver Lion (Best Director) at the Venice film festival. It can be streamed from Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.
ON TV
On November 20, Turner Classic Movies presents what I considered the very best movie of 1996, Secrets & Lies. Written and directed by Mike Leigh (Life Is Sweet, Naked, Topsy-Turvy, All or Nothing, Vera Drake, Another Year), this is Leigh’s masterpiece.
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.)
Blethyn’s fine performance is the showiest, but this is the movie where I recognized the greatness of Timothy Spall. Secrets & Lies, Leigh, Blethyn and Jean-Baptiste were all nominated for Academy Awards, with Secrets & Lies and Fargo losing 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.
Marianne Jean-Baptiste and Brenda Blethyn in SECRETS & LIES
The film I’m most excited about is The Other Side of the Wind, a great Orson Welles film from the 1970s finally completed after his death. I’ll be writing about it and two companion documentaries soon.
OUT NOW
The masterful documentary Monrovia, Indiana is a fascinating movie about a boring subject.
Skip First Man – a boring movie about a fascinating subject.
The Great Buster: A Celebrationis Peter Bogdanovich’s biodoc of the comic genius Buster Keaton, filling in what we need to know of Keaton’s life and body of work.
Lady Gaga illuminates Bradley Cooper’s triumphant A Star Is Born. Don’t bring a hankie – bring a whole friggin’ box of Kleenex.
What They Had is an authentic and well-crafted dramatic four-hander with Hilary Swank, Michael Shannon, Blythe Danner and Robert Forster.
Quincyis Rashida Jones’ intimate biodoc of her father, that most important and prolific musical figure Quincy Jones.
ON VIDEO
My Stream of the Week is the wonderfully dark comedy I Don’t Feel at Home in this World Anymore. Melanie Lynskey plays a workaday schlub who suffers one indignity too many and goes postal. This movie is available to stream on Netflix Instant.
ON TV
On November 10, Turner Classic Movies presents Where Eagles Dare, a crackerjack thriller from the WWII commando subgenre (think The Guns of Navarone and The Dirty Dozen). The seemingly impossible target is a cliff-side Nazi stronghold only accessible via a funicular. And not all the commandos understand the true mission. The oddly matched stars are Richard Burton (nearing the end of his second marriage to Elizabeth Taylor) and Clint Eastwood (after the Leone spaghetti westerns but before his Dirty Harry franchise). It all works.
Clint Eastwood and Richard Burton in WHERE EAGLES DARE
This week brings us a bewildering contrast. We have the masterful documentary Monrovia, Indiana – a fascinating movie about a boring subject. And First Man – a boring movie about a fascinating subject.
OUT NOW
Lady Gaga illuminates Bradley Cooper’s triumphant A Star Is Born. Don’t bring a hankie – bring a whole friggin’ box of Kleenex.
What They Had is an authentic and well-crafted dramatic four-hander with Hilary Swank, Michael Shannon, Blythe Danner and Robert Forster.
Quincyis Rashida Jones’ intimate biodoc of her father, that most important and prolific musical figure Quincy Jones.
Museo is a portrait of alienation that plays out in a true life heist, but the alienation is just not that compelling.
ON VIDEO
My DVD/Stream of the Week for Halloween Week is the 1960 masterpiece Peeping Tom – far scarier and more unsettling than Psycho. Until the last decade, Peeping Tom was unavailable, but you can find it now on DVD from Netflix and streaming from Amazon, iTunes and Google Play. There’s also a Criterion Collection DVD with lots of extra features. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
ON TV
On November 3, Turner Classic Movies will air Director Elia Kazan’s noirish thriller Panic in the Streets. This Kazan’s other movie set in a gritty waterfront, and he shot it on location in New Orleans. In his screen debut, Jack Palance plays a hoodlum who commits a murder and unknowingly becomes infected with pneumonic plague. Richard Widmark plays the public health expert who is trying to prevent an epidemic by tracking down Patient Zero (Palance) without causing a panic in the city. Of course, the cops are trying to solve the murder, and the man hunt for the murderer will lead them o the same target. Jack Palance was nothing if not intense, and he brings the right combination of viscious thuggery and escalating desperation to his performance. In an unusual dramatic role, Zero Mostel plays a Palance henchman.
And here’s a curiosity – TCM also airs the 1933 submarine movie Hell Below on November 9. It’s a pretty contrived Robert Montgomery vehicle, but there are some elements worth fast-forwarding to. The comic relief is provided by Jimmy Durante, who plays the cook Ptomaine; Baby Boomers tend to remember Durante for his shtick on variety shows of the 1950s and 1960s – here’s the unadulterated Durante. Durante even boxes with a kangeroo! Hell Below also features Walter Huston, who was a major star at the time and who I think would be very successful today.
Here is the best-ever psycho serial killer movie. Peeping Tom was released in 1960, the same year as Psycho. The British film critics didn’t know what to make of a thriller where the protagonist was so disturbing, and they trashed Peeping Tom so badly that its great director Michael Powell (The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, Stairway to Heaven, Black Narcissus, The Red Shoes) wasn’t able to work again in the UK. But I think Peeping Tom is an overlooked masterpiece and even better than its iconic counterpart Psycho.
Karlheinz Böhm plays a mild-mannered urban recluse who most people find socially awkward, but wouldn’t necessarily suspect to be a serial killer. The very innocent downstairs neighbor (Anna Massey) finds him dreamy and in need of saving – not a good choice.
Two aspects elevate Peeping Tom above the already high standards of Hitchcockian suspense. First, he’s not just a serial killer – he’s also shooting the murders as snuff films. Second, we see the killer watching home movies of his childhood – and we understand that ANYONE with his upbringing would be twisted; he’s a monster who repels us, but we understand him.
Until the last decade, Peeping Tom was unavailable, but you can find it now on DVD from Netflix and streaming from Amazon, iTunes and Google Play. There’s also a Criterion Collection DVD with lots of extra features. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
What They Had is an authentic and well-crafted dramatic four-hander with Hilary Swank, Michael Shannon, Blythe Danner and Robert Forster.
Quincyis Rashida Jones’ intimate biodoc of her father, that most important and prolific musical figure Quincy Jones.
Museo is a portrait of alienation that plays out in a true life heist, but the alienation is just not that compelling.
If you haven’t caught it yet, you can still find Spike Lee’s true story BlacKkKlansman – very funny and, finally, emotionally powerful.
ON VIDEO
My Stream of the Week is the Norwegian suspense thriller Revenge, one of the world cinema high points of the 2017 Cinequest. Revenge can be streamed from Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.
ON TV
Turner Classic Movies is all-horror, all-the-time this week. But the best is 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…
