This week on The Movie Gourmet – new reviews of David Fortune’s emotionally powerful debut Color Book and the gripping doc Sweetheart Deal, a triumph of cinéma vérité.
CURRENT MOVIES
- Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma: witty, bizarre and riotously funny. In theaters.
- Tony: a brat unspoiled. In theaters.
- The Odyssey: epic filmmaking at its best. In theaters.
- The Whisper Man: an unsettling thriller with three creepy villains. Netflix.
- Romeria: when the dots don’t connect right away. Amazon, Fandango, AppleTV.
- Color Book: authentic and endearing. Netflix.
- Sweetheart Deal: a triumph of cinéma vérité. Amazon, AppleTV.
- Remake: a father asks how we got here. VOD.
- Over/Under. sweet and uncommonly authentic. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube.
- The Last Viking: hidden loot amidst the deluded. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube.
ON TV
Charles McGraw and Marie Windsor in THE NARROW MARGIN
On September 19, Turner Classic Movies will present The Narrow Margin, a taut 71 minutes of tension from my Overlooked Noir. Growly cop Charles McGraw plays hide-and-seek with a team of hit men on a claustrophobic train. Marie Windsor is unforgettable as the assassins’ target. McGraw and Windsor’s performances are first-rate, and their hardboiled dialogue is terrific. Director Richard Fleisher, early in his career, imaginatively stages the woman-hunt up and down the tight corridors and compartments of the moving train. I just rewatched The Narrow Margin at the 2025 Noir City, and it’s still a masterpiece.