THE WHISTLERS, which I watched at the Roxie Virtual Cinema
Independent films are still here, even though we can’t go to the art house theater in the Age of COVID. Not all the top acclaimed indies can be streamed right away from the major VOD services, but you watch them now at home on platforms like Virtual Cinema. Expect to pay $8-10; yes, that’s more than the $5-7 you pay at Amazon and iTunes, but it’s often the only source, and your ticket purchase supports your own local art house theater.
If you want to support a Silicon Valley theater, the Pruneyard Cinemas has just launched its own Pruneyard Virtual Cinemas through eventive.
Notably, the Laemmle Theaters in Los Angeles has jumped in, too. In my book, this is the best art house chain in the US, and a whopping 32 films are now available to stream from its Laemmle Virtual Cinema.
I’m not planning to go to a real indoor movie theater anytime soon. Some film festivals and film society film series are pivoting to on-line screening, with uneven success. Right now, the best bet is Virtual Cinema at your own own favorite theater.
THE 11TH GREEN, which I watched on Theatrical-at-home
John Saxon in A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 3: DREAM WARRIORS
Versatile. Prolific. Intense. Such was the late actor John Saxon, who amassed over 200 screen credits, mostly on TV. Saxon was the handsome, swarthy, character actor who you would come to recognize when he showed up on Dr. Kildare, The Fantastic Journey, Mary Tyler Moore Show, Ironside or Murder, She Wrote. Saxon’s ethnic ambiguity (he was an Italian-American from Brooklyn, born Carmine Orrico) led him to play lots of Latinx roles – and an Israeli general in Raid on Entebbe.
Saxon appeared five times over ten seasons of Gunsmoke, playing guys named Gristy Calhoun, Pedro Manez, Virgil Stanley, Dingo and Carl Stram, Jr., and in 32 episodes of Falcon Crest (plus Dynasty and Melrose Place).
In 1976 ALONE, Saxon appeared on The Rockford Files, The Bionic Woman, The Six Million Dollar Man, Starsky and Hutch and Wonder Woman, acted in seven movies. and starred in the miniseries Once an Eagle.
Saxon’s best known movie roles were as Jackie Chan’s martial arts buddy Roper in Enter the Dragon (Saxon had already studied karate for years) and as police Lieutenant Don Thompson, who repeatedly battled Freddy Kreuger in the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise.
Saxon was always reliable, but he could handle quality roles when he got them. One was in an obscure Korean War film, War Hunt (1962), where Saxon played the psycho killer in the platoon, and another was in the Clint Eastwood western Joe Kidd (1972), where Saxon played Mexican revolutionary Luis Chama.
Drawn from the experience of writer/director Karen Maine’s own youth, the sweet coming of age comedy Yes, God, Yes, aims pointed jabs at religious hypocrisy. Bobbing in a sea of peer pressure, Catholic high schooler Alice (Natalia Dyer) heads off with the popular kids to a four-day retreat.
The retreat center is buried in the woods, and the retreat itself has some cultish aspects, with overly smiley/huggy teen youth leaders squeezing out highly personal confessions Authority-with-a-capital-A is present in the form of the high school’s stern young priest. The entire program is designed to make kids feel guilty about their normal, healthy feelings and to scare them from doing what everyone does naturally.
Amusing throughout, this is not a broad comedy, and there aren’t many guffaws. Instead, it’s a piercing satire based on arch observation of human behavior. The moment where Alice is able to leverage an adult’s hypocrisy against him is very satisfying,
The ironic title, of course, is something someone cries while literally coming a age.
Susan Blackwell is a low-profile character actor who just shows up and steals movies, as she did in last year’s Auggie. In Yes, God, Yes, she’s the character Gina, who owns a lesbian bar and rides a motorcycle, and it’s another great performance.
The Wife was raised Catholic, and she enjoyed this film. Yes, God, Yes is available to stream on Virtual Cinema and will be available from the usual VOD platforms after July 2
A community of women in a traditional culture revolt in the delightfully smart and funny Israeli comedy The Women’s Balcony. The balcony in a small Jerusalem synagogue collapses, and the building is condemned. The old rabbi’s wife is seriously injured, and he suffers a trauma-induced psychotic breakdown. Just when it looks like the leaderless congregation will die, a young and charismatic rabbi (Avraham Aviv Alush) appears, enlivens the congregation and repairs the building. But he rebuilds the synagogue WITHOUT the women’s section. Profoundly disrespected, the synagogue’s women strike in protest.
The women live in a culture where males have all the power and religious authority trumps all. The women all have their individually distinct gifts, personalities and rivalries. But they all appreciate the injustice of the situation, and they are really pissed off. They are very creative in finding way to leverage the power that they do have, and the result is very, very funny.
This could have been a very broad comedy (and a Lysistrata knock-off). Instead, it’s richly textured, with an examination of ethical behavior and loving relationships. It’s also dotted with comments on the relations between Israeli Orthodox and Ultra-Orthodox and on the importance of food in this culture. It’s the first – and very promising – feature for both director Emil Ben-Shimon and writer Shlomit Nehana.
THE WOMEN’S BALCONY
There are plenty LOL moments, including a scene where one of the congregants masquerades as the demented old rabbi to secure the needed psychotropic meds.
We soon understand that the young rabbi has a very unattractive side – grossly sexist and power-hungry. But he has seduced the men and then cows them by manipulating his religious authority. He’s tearing apart a closely bound community braided together by decades of deep friendship and inter-reliance. The movie turns on whether the men can recognize when his supposed righteousness veers into what is really unethical and, in one pivotal scene with the old rabbi, indecent.
Two of the male characters, deeply in love with their women, step up and do the right thing. This overt comedy has a very a romantic core.
Most of all, The Women’s Balcony is about mature relationships. Most of these couples have been married for decades, especially the couple at the core of the story, Ettie (Evein Hagoel) and Zion (Igal Naor). Ben-Shimon and Nehana prove themselves to be keen and insightful observers of long-lasting relationships.
A righteous man must keep his woman happy. This may not be written in the Holy Scriptures, but it’s damn useful advice. (It also helps, we learn, if he can make a mean fruit salad.) The longer you’ve been married, the funnier you’ll find The Women’s Balcony. You can stream it on Amazon, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.
This COVID Era is taking a toll on all of us. I’ve found that my movie taste hasn’t changed, but my appetite has. I’m having a tougher time selecting movies that are pessimistic or which have unsympathetic protagonists. And I’m watching many more Feel Good movies than usual. It brings to mind the popularity of escapist movies during the Great Depression.
I’m also relating more intensely to real life stories of heroism (John Lewis), redemption (Danny Trejo) and gentleness (Walter Mercado).
ON VIDEO
Dateline-Saigon: documents the efforts of five journalists to cover the Vietnam War in the face of a US government which did not want the facts to be told. Streaming on iTunes.
Mucho Mucho Amor: The Legend of Walter Mercado: the biodoc of the mesmerizing Spanish language TV phenomenon, with his singular combination of flamboyance and gentleness. Streaming now on Netflix.
Our Kind of Traitor: a robust globe-trotting thriller, enlivened by a lusty Stellan Skarsgård and played out in a series of stunning set pieces. If you’re looking for an intelligent summer thriller for adults, this is your movie. You can stream it on Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube, Google Play and Redbox.
When Jews Were Funny: Documentarian Alan Zweig interviews an impressive collection of Jewish comedians from an earlier generation (Shelly Berman, Jack Carter, Norm Crosby, Shecky Greene) and more recent stars (David Brenner, Super Dave Osborne, Howie Mandel, Judy Gold, Gilbert Gottfried, Marc Maron, David Steinberg). Unfortunately, Zweig himself sucks out the energy with his own midlife naval gazing, which engages, confuses, bemuses and annoys his interviewees. Some great Jewish humor does seep through, including the jokes with the famous punchlines He had a hat. and Is anything alright? When Jews Were Funny can be streamed from Amazon (included with Prime) and a couple more obscure services.
The most eclectic watch-at-home recommendations you’ll find ANYWHERE:
Radio Dreams: stranger in a strange and funny land.
ON TV
Lizabeth Scott, Dick Powell and Raymond Burr in PITFALL
On July 28, Turner Classic Movies features one of my Overlooked Noir, Pitfall (1948), a noir thriller without either a conventional sap or a conventional femme fatale. Dick Powell plays a WW II vet who is bored with the post-war suburban humdrum, and Lizabeth Scott plays a gal with terrible taste in boyfriends. Neither deserves to be gragged into a thriller, but they are. Raymond Burr, again, makes for a menacing sicko stalker.
David Halberstam (left) and Malcolm Browne (center) in DATELINE-SAIGON
Dateline-Saigon documents the efforts of five journalists to cover the Vietnam War in the face of a US government which did not want the facts to be told. The five were Malcolm Browne, Neil Sheehan, Horst Faas, David Halberstam and Peter Arnett, who amassed a bucket of Pulitzers between them.
What they found in Vietnam was that American policy was not working, because (among many factors) the Diem regime was alienating most of its own population, the South Vietnamese Army was less motivated to fight than the Viet Cong, and that Americans were more directly involved in combat than had been acknowledged. And the US government didn’t want any of this reported.
As Dateline-Saigon says, “When these patriotic journalists arrive in Vietnam, they had no idea they would become the enemy“, meaning the truth-wielding enemy of the US government propaganda. The reporters describe the government efforts to obscure, mislead, spin, hide and controvert the facts as a “vast lying machine” and the “Truth Suppressors”.
Quang Lien and Malcolm Browne (center) in DATELINE-SAIGON (AP Photo)
All television news viewers (especially a ten-year-old The Movie Gourmet) were shocked by the 1963 Buddhist monk’s self-immolation to protest the Diem regime in 1963. No one was more shocked than Browne, who was covering the Buddhist march, and, to his surprise and horror, had this unfold a few steps in front of him.
Sheehan is famous for uncovering the Pentagon Papers. Beginning with The Best and the Brightest, Halberstam banged out bestseller after bestseller on 20th century American history. Arnett went to cover dozens of conflicts interview Osama Bin-Laden and was a major media face of the Iraq War.
This is a Must See for students of journalism and of the Vietnam War Era of American History. You can stream Dateline-Saigon on iTunes.
Walter Mercado in MUCHO MUCHO AMOR: THE LEGEND OF WALTER MERCADO
Just about every Spanish speaker knows who Walter Mercado is – and almost no non-Spanish speaker has heard of him. To describe him as a TV astrologer is profoundly inadequate.
Decades ago, I was flipping through TV channels and happened upon Walter’s astrology show and found him mesmerizing. He was so UNUSUAL, that, late at night, I just couldn’t change the station. The documentaryMucho Mucho Amor: The Legend of Walter Mercado will explain the phenomenon better than I can describe it.
For one thing, 99% of the show’s production value must have been in costume cost. Walter just stood in front of the camera and recited horoscopes, but he was always clad in capes that Liberace and Elvis would have considered WAY over the top. And Walter, for all the machismo in traditional Latino culture, was what we call today non-binary; Walter emanated a singular combination of androgyny and asexuality.
In Mucho Mucho Amor: The Legend of Walter Mercado, we get to meet the elderly Mercado, and find out about his life before and after his 25-year reign as the Spanish language TV ratings king. And why he suddenly disappeared from television.
While often jaw-droppingly flamboyant, Walter possessed a serene gentleness and warm-hearted demeanor that makes this documentary a Feel Good experience. Mucho Mucho Amor: The Legend of Walter Mercado is streaming on Netflix.
Naomie Harris and Ewan McGregor in OUR KIND OF TRAITOR. Photo courtesy of the San Francisco Film Society.
Our Kind of Traitor is a robust globe-trotting thriller, enlivened by a lusty Stellan Skarsgård and played out in a series of stunning set pieces. A meek Everyman (Ewan McGregor) is a tag-along on his high-powered wife’s trip to Cairo. Nursing a drink after a tiff with said wife (the sleek Naomie Harris from 28 Days Later… and a couple of Bond films), he is inveigled into joining a crew of partying Russians and becomes entangled in an intrigue that puts entire families at stake – including his own.
It turns out that our protagonist has been randomly plucked from the humdrum by Dima (Skarsgård), the top money launderer for the Russian Mafia, who is trying to get British intelligence to help his family escape from his murderous colleagues. The story having been adapted from a John le Carré novel, the dour British spy (Damian Lewis from Homeland) on the case is being hindered at every turn by a thoroughly corrupt British law enforcement and intelligence bureaucracy, with the rot reaching up to Cabinet level.
Ewen McGregor and Stellan Skarsgaard in OUR KIND OF TRAITOR
The very best thing about Our Kind of Traitor is Stellan Skarsgård’s performance. Dima is loud, flamboyant and profoundly course. Skarsgård has filled his career with brooding roles, but here he gets to play the life of the party, and he is hilarious – and steals the movie.
Our Kind of Traitor also looks great as it takes us from Russia (shot in Finland) to Cairo (Morocco) to Switzerland to London to Paris. Director Susanna White is a veteran (21 directing credits on IMDb), but Our Kind of Traitor is her first big budget action movie. The success of the film revolves around a series of spectacular set pieces, and White pulls it off masterfully.
Our Kind of Traitor isn’t as good as the best of le Carré’s work (Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, for instance), but it’s damn entertaining. I saw the final four plot twists coming, but by then I was hooked, so I still enjoyed the film. And, adapting to the post-Cold War world, le Carré may have become even more cynical.
I saw Our Kind of Traitor (with The Wife) at the San Francisco International Film Festival (SFFILM) at a screening with director Susanna White. If you’re looking for an intelligent summer thriller for adults, this is your movie. You can stream it on Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube, Google Play and Redbox.
John Lewis (on far right) in JOHN LEWIS: GOOD TROUBLE. Courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.
John Lewis, that most profoundly American of American heroes, has died at age 80. Released just nine days ago, the documentary John Lewis: Good Trouble traces the life of the civil rights icon. I usually don’t buy reverential biodocs, but when the subject is a freaking saint, I guess you have to go with it. The rest of the title comes from Lewis’ mantra – if you see injustice, make good trouble, necessary trouble.
US Representative John Lewis, of course, was a real hero. As a very young man in 1965, he had been leading efforts to register Blacks to vote in Selma, Alabama, including a peaceful march to the State Capitol in Montgomery. On March 7, 1965, the march got as far as the Edmund Pettus Bridge on the outskirts of Selma when they were attached by local law enforcement and Ku Klux Klan members under the command of Sheriff Jim Clark. Lewis was in the very first rank and was beaten, shedding his own blood on “Bloody Sunday”. Two subsequent marches on the bridge and the LBJ speech that followed led directly to the Voting Rights Act of 1964, the most important civil rights legislation since 1867.
In John Lewis: Good Trouble, we see footage from the Edmund Pettus Bridge. We see a young John Lewis being beaten in 1965, and we see an elderly Lewis in an anniversary march with President Barack Obama and former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.
John Lewis: Good Trouble is well-sourced by director Dawn Porter, even though only a few of Lewis’ contemporaries survive. When the first Black president was elected, Lewis says he wept for JFK, RFK, Dr. King and the others who hadn’t lived to see it. Fortunately, Lewis had sisters still alive who participated in the documentary.
We get an inside glimpse at Lewis’ childhood. We get to see Lewis watching footage of himself at a pivotal Nashville sit-in that he had “never seen”. And, this intimate portrait shows us some dry Lewis humor and some impressive octogenarian dance moves.
How did Lewis get to Congress? John Lewis: Good Trouble shows us the race against his longtime friend and fellow Civil Rights icon Julian Bond. My day job is in politics, and I understand that, to win, you have to do what you have to do to win; others may find this episode bracing and unsettling.
John Lewis: Good Trouble is an insightful view of a man and of a critical point in American history. You can stream it on Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.
This week – the year’s most original film, plus a Feel Good about the lovable Danny Trejo and two great surfing documentaries.
ON VIDEO
Campbell Scott in THE 11TH GREEN
The 11th Green: You won’t find a more original movie this year than Christopher Munch’s absorbing exploration of extraterrestrial visits to Earth. There are no Little Green Men, but wait until Ike and Obama talk to each other in another dimension! You can buy a virtual ticket for The 11th Green – and support the Roxie Theater – at Theatrical-At-Home.
Inmate #1: The Rise of Danny Trejo: a satisfying documentary on Danny Trejo’s extraordinarily redemptive life: from junkie/vicious thug/inmate to lovable/drug counselor/movie star. We can’t get too much redemption these days, so stream Inmate #1: The Rise of Danny Trejo from Amazon, Vudu, TouTube and Google Play.
Step into Liquid and Riding Giants: Get stoked with the two most bitchin’ surfing documentaries. Bothcan be streamed from Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play
The most eclectic watch-at-home recommendations you’ll find ANYWHERE:
Radio Dreams: stranger in a strange and funny land.
ON TV
Kirk Douglas and Woody Strode in SPARTACUS
Tune in to Turner Classic Movies on July 20, for one of cinema’s great spectacles, Spartacus. If you haven’t watched Spartacus in a while, you probably remember it for Kirk Douglas’ macho tour de force, the ever stunning Jean Simmons and the sexual cat-and-mouse between Laurence Olivier and the Bronx-accented slaveboy Tony Curtis. But you might have forgotten the strength of the supporting performances by Peter Ustinov, Charles Laughton and – my favorite – Woody Strode. And watching the recent Trumbo, I was reminded that indie producer Kirk Douglas awarded the blacklisted Dalton Trumbo the screenwriting credit that others had denied him; his decision helped to end the Hollywood blacklist (and also it really helped that Spartacus was a massive financial success).
