Weekly Movie Recommendations

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: Mark Eydelshteyn (left) and Mikey Madison (center) in ANORA. Courtesy of NEON.

This week on The Movie Gourmet – the fall movies, many of which I’ve been waiting for since the Canes Film Festival in May, are flooding into theaters. So, The Movie Gourmet is following last week’s review of Conclave with new reviews of award-winners Anora and Emilia Pérez. The genre-busting Netflix documentary The Remarkable Life of Ibelin rounded out one of my best movie-watching weeks ever. (I also immersed myself in French cinema and rewatched Jean-Pierre Melville’s neo-noir Second Wind and introduced myself to six of Jean-Paul Belmondo’s films.)

Next week – a new review of A Real Pain, which The Wife and I saw last night.

REMEMBRANCE

I didn’t remember the name of actor Jonathan Haze, who worked in a score of Roger Corman’s low budget exploitation films.  His most memorable starring role was in Little Shop of Horrors, where his character cultivated a flesh-eating houseplant and pulled a tooth from a masochistic dental patient (Jack Nicholson).

CURRENT MOVIES

ON TV

Dennis O’Keefe and Ann Sheridan in WOMAN ON THE RUN

On November 19, Turner Classic Movies presents the taut 77 minutes of Woman on the Run, one of my Overlooked Noir. When the police coming looking for a terrified murder witness, they are surprised to find his wife (Ann Sheridan) both ignorant of his whereabouts and unconcerned. And the wife has a Mouth On Her, much to the dismay of the detective (Robert Keith), who keeps walking into a torrent of sass. She starts hunting hubbie, along with the cops, a reporter (Dennis O’Keefe) and the killer, and they all careen through a life-or-death manhunt. Another star of Woman on the Run is San Francisco itself, from the hilly neighborhoods to the bustling streets to the dank and foreboding waterfront.

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: Ralph Fiennes (front) in CONCLAVE. Courtesy of Focus Features.

This week on The Movie Gourmet, new reviews of Edward Berger’s Vatican thriller Conclave, the first of this fall’s big Hollywood prestige pictures, and Hong Sang-soo’s little meditation In Water.

Note: In the Summers, director Alessandra Lacorazza Samudio’s hihly recommended debut film, is now available to stream on Amazon.

REMEMBRANCE

Quincy Jones, one of the giants of American music, left a huge imprint on American cinema, with contributions to literally hundreds of films. Starting with The Pawnbroker in 1965, he composed scores of soundtracks and earned seven Oscar nominations for original score or original song.

CURRENT MOVIES

ON TV

Harvey Keitel (left) and Robert De Niro (center) in MEAN STREETS.

On November 12, Turner Classic Movies is airing Mean Streets, the explosive showcase for Marin Scorsese, Harvey Keitel and Robert De Niro. In 1973, the three were essentially unknown, although De Niro had gained some notice as the slow-wited and dying catcher in the weeper Bang the Drum Slowly earlier in the year. Keitel’s first credit was in Scorsese’s debut film Who’s That Knocking at My Door?. De Niro’s next two films were The Godfather Part II and Taxi Driver. In the next five years, Keitel would make three more Scorsese films and work with Paul Schrader, Robert Altman and Francis Ford Coppola. Scorsese followed Mean Streets with the popular and affecting drama Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore and then embarked on his historic run of masterpieces (Taxi Driver, The Last Waltz, Raging Bull, The King of Comedy, Goodfellas) and some of recent cinema’s most ambitious films: The Last Temptation of Christ, Gangs of New York, and Killers of the Flower Moon).

In Mean Streets, Keitel plays a low-level gangster ridden with Catholic guilt and worried about his wild and self-destructive friend (played by De Niro), who seems destined to piss off one too many loan sharks. Scorsese’s introduction to these vivid characters and the verisimilitude with his setting in Little Italy demonstrated his filmmaking promise.

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: Saiorse Ronan in THE OUTRUN. Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics.

This week on The Movie Gourmet – a new review of Joanna Arnow’s deadpan comedy The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed – brave, transgressive and brilliant. I also wrote about the 1960 movie even more scary than Psycho – Peeping Tom; if you missed it on TCM this week, you can still stream it on Amazon, AppleTV and Criterion.

REMEMBRANCES

Teri Garr in YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN

I was surprised that Teri Garr had 44 screen credits (many as a dancer, including Viva Las Vegas) before her breakthrough role as Inga in Young Frankenstein.  Then she played the mom in Close Encounters of the Third Kind, earned an Oscar nod for her most memorable role in Tootsie and went on to work in 200 more movies and shows.

David Harris (left) with Terry Michos and Marcelino Sanchez in THE WARRIORS.

You’ve seen David Harris in Brubaker, A Soldier’s Story, and NYPD Blue, but his most memorable role was early on, in Walter Hill’s indie cult classic The Warriors.

CURRENT MOVIES

ON TV

A scene from THE RED SHOES in MADE IN ENGLAND: THE FILMS OF POWELL AND PRESSBERGER. Courtesy of Cohen Media Group.

On November 7, Turner Classic Movies airs Martin Scorsese’s documentary Made in England: The films of Powell and Pressberger: It’s like a auditng a Scorsese guest presentation in film school.

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: Saiorse Ronan in THE OUTRUN. Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics.

This week on The Movie Gourmet – new reviews of Saiorse Ronan’s bravura performance in The Outrun and the clever doc My Name Is Alfred Hitchcock.

CURRENT MOVIES

ON TV

Patty McCormack and Nancy Kelly in THE BAD SEED.

On October 27, Turner Classic Movies airs The Bad Seed (1956). Very bad things are happening – the chill comes from the revelation that the murderous fiend is a child with blonde pigtails. It’s gotta be tough to be cute and creepy at the same time, but child star Patty McCormack pulled it off. McCormack went on to161 screen credits, including iconic TV shows from Route 66 and Death Valley Days to Murder, She Wrote and The Sopranos. Patty is the queen of Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, having worked with everyone from Karl Malden and Angela Lansbury to Ron Howard, Michael Douglas, Philip Seymour Hoffman and of course, Kevin Bacon himself.

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: Kristine in SWEETHEART DEAL. Courtesy of Abramorama; copyright Aurora Stories LLC.

This week on The Movie Gourmet – new reviews of Sweetheart Deal and Evil Does Not Exist.

CURRENT MOVIES

ON TV

Danielle Derrieux and Vittorio De Sica in THE EARRINGS OF MADAME DE…

On October 22, Turner Classic Movies will be broadcasting one of the great movies that you have likely NOT seen, having just been released on DVD in 2009: The Earrings of Madame de… (1953). Max Ophuls directed what is perhaps the most visually evocative romance ever in black and white. It’s worth seeing for the ballroom scene alone. The shallow and privileged wife of a stick-in-the-mud general takes a lover, but the earrings she pawned reveal the affair and consequences ensue. The great Italian director Vittorio De Sica plays the impossibly handsome lover.

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: Mo Chara, DJ Próvai and Móglaí Bap and in KNEECAP. Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics.

This Week on the Movie Gourmet – new reviews of Kneecap, Carville: Winning Is Everything, Stupid! and The True Story of Tamara De Lempicka & the Art of Survival.

Note: this summer’s fine coming of age film Didi and the unabashedly surreal Mother Couch are now on VOD.

CURRENT MOVIES

ON TV

Lee Marvin in POINT BLANK

On October 17, Turner Classic Movies presents the seminal 1960s neo-noir Point Blank, starring Lee Marvin. Marvin stars as Walker, a heist man who is shot and left for dead by his partner Reese (John Vernon, Animal House’s Dean Wormer), who absconded with Walker’s share of the loot and Walker’s wife. When Walker recovers, he is hellbent on revenge, aided by his sister-in-law Chris (Angie Dickinson).

It turns out that Walker needs to trace the money through a cavalcade of Mr. Bigs (Lloyd Bochner, Keenan Wynn, Carroll O’Connor). There’s a great set piece where Walker invades a highrise penthouse, despite the heavily guarded elevator being the only entrance. Point Blank ends in a thrilling nighttime finale at Fort Point.

Walker is a very uncomplicated character, all he wants is to kill Reese and reclaim his $93,000. Anyone in Walker’s situation would be pissed off, but Lee Marvin plays Walker in a constant state of cold rage. Lee Marvin’s unique charisma animates this relentless killing machine.

Marvin, just coming off The Dirty Dozen and having won an Oscar for Cat Ballou, was at the peak of his stardom. Marvin’s other contribution to the film was handpicking the then unheralded John Boorman to direct; (this was five years before Boorman’s masterpiece Deliverance). Boorman intentionally delivered a morally bleak story in the most deserted of locations: empty parking lots, the Los Angeles River channel. and San Francisco’s two icons of abandonment – Alcatraz and Fort Point.

Lee Marvin in POINT BLANK

If you’re wondering why Angie Dickinson was a movie star, Point Blank is for you. Angie was ballsy, sexy and always unashamedly very direct, and she rocked midcentury fashion. (She plays one unforgettable scene in a dress with bold horizontal stripes in the colors of Denny’s restaurants.)

Watch for James B. Sikking as the professional sniper; Sikking became well-known as the supercilious SWAT team commander Lt. Howard Hunter in Hill Street Blues. Future horror icon Sid Haig pops up as the security guard in the penthouse lobby.

Angie Dickinson and Lee Marvin in POINT BLANK

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: Kris Kristofferson in LONE STAR.

This week on The Movie Gourmet – a spate of new reviews and an all-updated Current Movies. The five new reviews are Will & Harper, Wolfs, In the Summers, Made in England: The films of Powell and Pressberger and Megalopolis. The best of this week’s crop is the one with the fewest movie stars, In the Summers, which marks the debut of an impressive female director.

REMEMBERANCES

Maggie Smith’s career began in the 1950s, and she was accomplished enough by the mid-1960s to play Desdemona to Laurence Olivier’s Othello. She won Oscars in the 70s for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and California Suite.  Her popularity soared in the 2000s with Gosford Park, the Harry Potter franchise and her unforgettably withering Lady Violet Crawley in Downton Abbey.

After establishing himself as a great American songwriter, Kris Kristofferson turned to acting and amassed 121 screen credits. Originally cast for his fame as a music star and for his hunky magnetism, Kristofferson proved himself a fine actor who chose to work with talented directors: Sam Peckinpah in Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid and Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia, Martin Scorsese in Alice Doesn’t Live Anymore, Michael Ritchie in Semi-Tough, and John Sayles in Lone Star,. Limbo, and Silver City. He also chose little indies with really good scripts, like Deadfall and The Motel Life. My favorite Kristofferson performance was as the villainous sheriff in Lone Star.

Recognizable character actor John Amos earned 112 screen credits, with recurring roles on TV series from Good Times to West Wing and scads of guest appearances.  He also worked in films including Sweet Sweetback’s Badassss Song, Coming to America and Die Hard 2.

CURRENT MOVIES

ON TV

Photo caption: Ennio Morricone in ENNIO. Courtesy of Music Box Films.

Tomorrow, Turner Classic Movies present the recent documentary Ennio, about Ennio Morricone, one of the greatest composers of movie music and certainly the most original (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly). Ennio takes two hours and 36 minutes to comprehensively survey Morricone’s entire career, and I would have preferred a shorter film more focused on the highlights, but the highlights are pretty great. Just skip the last 20 minutes of redundant accolades.

Movie to See Right Now

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Photo caption: Philip Seymour Hoffman in CAPOTE.

This week on The Movie Gourmet – a new review of the charming dramedy Tokyo Cowboy, opening in the Bay Area at the Lark. The fall movies are beginning to cascade into theaters and VOD, and I hope to screening FOUR new movies in the next few days.

CURRENT MOVIES

  • Thelma: too proud to be taken. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
  • Perfect Days: intentional contentment. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango, Hulu (included).
  • How to Come Alive: addicted to his own turmoil. In theaters.
  • Didi: learning to get out of his own way. In theaters.
  • Between the Temples: prodded out of his funk. In theaters.
  • Hit Man: who knew self-invention could be so fun? Netflix.
  • I Saw the TV Glow: brimming with originality. Back in some theaters and Amazon, AppleTV; Fandango.
  • The Bikeriders: they ride, drink and fight, and yet we care. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango, Peacock (included).
  • Ghostlight: a family saves itself, in iambic pentameter. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango (included).movie of Truman Capote’sresearch and wrting of In Cold Blood,
  • Challengers: three people and their desire. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
  • La Chimera: six genres for the price of one. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.

ON TV

On September 30, Turner Classic Movies presents Capote, the 2005 story of Truman Capote’s research and writing of In Cold Blood. Philip Seymour Hoffman won his Oscar for playing Capote. Capote was the first time I noticed, Clifton Collins, Jr., who is great as the killer Perry Smith.

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: Keith Kupferer and Katherine Mallen Kupferer in GHOSTLIGHT. Courtesy of IFC Films.

This week on The Movie Gourmet, as we are on the verge of what looks like a rich fall movie season, I’m recommending another look at an overlooked little movie from earlier this year, the endearing family drama Ghostlight, available to watch at home on Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango (included). The acting in Ghostlight, which won the audience award at SCSW, is superbly authentic. The actors playing the family members are an actual dad, mom and daughter. One of the best movies of the year.

CURRENT MOVIES

  • Thelma: too proud to be taken. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
  • Perfect Days: intentional contentment. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango, Hulu (included).
  • How to Come Alive: addicted to his own turmoil. In theaters.
  • Didi: learning to get out of his own way. In theaters.
  • Between the Temples: prodded out of his funk. In theaters.
  • Hit Man: who knew self-invention could be so fun? Netflix.
  • I Saw the TV Glow: brimming with originality. Back in some theaters and Amazon, AppleTV; Fandango.
  • The Bikeriders: they ride, drink and fight, and yet we care. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango, Peacock (included).
  • Ghostlight: a family saves itself, in iambic pentameter. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango (included).
  • Challengers: three people and their desire. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
  • La Chimera: six genres for the price of one. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.

ON TV

Cynda Williams and Billy Bob Thornton in ONE FALSE MOVE

On September 21, Turner Classic Movies presents the gripping contemporary neo-noir One False Move. This is a fundamentally noir story – there are guys overreaching for greed and ambition, a femme fatale, and a very dark secret. America’s original sin – race – is at the core of One False Move.

The tale begins with a home invasion in Los Angeles. Two vicious professional robbers, with one’s beautiful girlfriend, steal money and cocaine, leaving a trail of corpses. The crime is solved right away – the cops know who did it and that the murderers are headed to a small town in Arkansas. The LA cops fly to Arkansas and lay in wait with the local constabulary. One False Move is a ticking time bomb as we wait for the criminals to drive across the Southwest to the inevitable confrontation. 

One False Move features a great performance by the late Bill Paxton. It’s one of my Overlooked Neo-noir, and can also be streamed from Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu and YouTube.

Bill Paxton in ONE FALSE MOVE

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: Ben Gazzara and Audrey Hepburn in THEY ALL LAUGHED

This week on The Movie Gourmet, Turner Classic Movies presents one of my favorite overlooked movies, the extremely hard-to-find THEY ALL LAUGHED. Peter Bogdanovich’s 1971 film elevates the entire rom com genre. The middleaged romance between Ben Gazzara and Audrey Hepburn is exquisitely wistful and authentic. John Ritter leads an endearingly funny supporting cast with Patti Hansen, Blaine Novak, Dorothy Stratton and Colleen Camp. Ritter’s comedic performance is itself a masterpiece – right up there with the best of Chaplin, Keaton and Cary Grant. They All Laughed remains an essentially lost film, although you can find the DVD. Set your DVR to record the TCM screening on September 15.

REMEMBRANCE

James Earl Jones’ expressive face, imposing bearing and authoritative voice won him an Oscar for THE GREAT WHITE HOPE. The voice was enough by itself to dominate the STAR WARS franchise as Darth Vader.

CURRENT MOVIES

  • Thelma: too proud to be taken. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
  • Perfect Days: intentional contentment. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango, Hulu (included).
  • How to Come Alive: addicted to his own turmoil. In theaters.
  • Didi: learning to get out of his own way. In theaters.
  • Between the Temples: prodded out of his funk. In theaters.
  • Hit Man: who knew self-invention could be so fun? Netflix.
  • I Saw the TV Glow: brimming with originality. Back in some theaters and Amazon, AppleTV; Fandango.
  • The Bikeriders: they ride, drink and fight, and yet we care. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango, Peacock (included).
  • Ghostlight: a family saves itself, in iambic pentameter. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango (included).
  • Challengers: three people and their desire. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
  • La Chimera: six genres for the price of one. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.