Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: Petri Poikolainen in THE MAN WHO DID NOT WANT TO SEE TITANIC. Courtesy of Cinedigm Entertainment Group.

This week on The Movie Gourmet, my top recommendation is The Blind Man Who Did Not Want to See Titanic, a rare nugget of complete originality that takes us into a unfamiliar world filled with unexpected laughs, suddenly turns into a thriller, and finishes as a moving love story. The Blind Man Who Did Not Want to See Titanic is one of the Best Movies of 2023 – So Far.

But that’s not all! I also have new reviews of the showbiz biodoc Being Mary Tyler Moore, the family comedy Dealing with Dad and the ever-kinetic French indie Rodeo. And, from TCM’s Memorial Day Weekend slate filled with black-and-white war movies, I’ve plucked a 67-year-old gem that you almost certainly have not seen.

Note that Little Richard: I Am Everything and The Lost King have moved from theaters to the streaming platforms.

REMEMBRANCE

Jim Brown is justifiably best known for being voted the best NFL player of the 20th Century, but the reason he left the NFL was to star in the movies, where he was an African-American trailblazer. In 1969’s 100 Rifles, he played the first African-American male character in a major Hollywood movie to be shown having sex with a white woman (Raquel Welch).  Although Brown displayed a range of emotion onscreen described by James Wolcott as “no wider than a mail slot”, he was a pretty convincing action star, perhaps best in The Dirty Dozen.

CURRENT MOVIES

WATCH AT HOME

THE SPEED CUBERS. Courtesy of Netflix.

The most eclectic watch-at-home recommendations you’ll find ANYWHERE:

  • The Speed Cubers: odd, and then profound. Netflix.
  • Force Majeure: some things you just can’t get past. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, HBO (included).
  • Satan & Adam: more than an odd couple. Amazon, AppleTV.
  • Levinsky Park: refuge for refugees? Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube.
  • Rodents of Unusual Size: 5 million orange-toothed critters and a Cajun octogenarian. Amazon, AppleTV.
  • The 11th Green: a thinking person’s paranoid conspiracy. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • The Wave: Everything you want in a disaster movie. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • Magallanes: some wrongs cannot be righted. AppleTV.

ON TV

Paul Newman and Edmond O’Brien in THE RACK

On Memorial Day Weekend (May 28), Turner Classic Movies airs an overlooked Korean War film, The Rack (1956). A returning US army captain (Paul Newman) is court-martialed for collaborating with the enemy while a POW. He was tortured, and The Rack explores what can be realistically expected of a prisoner under duress. It’s a pretty good movie, and Wendell Corey, Edmond O’Brien, Walter Pidgeon, Lee Marvin and Cloris Leachman co-star.

Paul Newman and Walter Pidgeon in THE RACK

DEALING WITH DAD: two serious topics in an ok comedy

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Peter S. Kim, Ally Maki and Hayden Szeto in DEALING WITH DAD. Courtesy of 1091 Pictures.

Dealing with Dad is a topical family comedy with an Asian-American cast. Three adult siblings – the super-achiever oldest sister, the passive middle brother and the infantilized youngest brother, a gaming slacker – meet at their parents’ home. The dad, whose harsh and never-bending expectations battered them as kids, has become paralyzed (and defanged) by severe depression.

Although Dealing with Dad is a comedy, its strengths are in addressing two serious subjects – depression and the issues that many second-generation Asian-Americans face because of their immigrant parents’ parenting styles.

The differences between the siblings spawn lots of laughs, but I found the banter a bit too sit-commy for my taste.

Bay Area audiences will appreciate that Dealing with Dad is set in MILPITAS.

I screened for the 2022 Cinequest. It started rolling out in theaters on May 19.

BEING MARY TYLER MOORE: you might just make it after all

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Photo caption: BEING MARY TYLER MOORE. Courtesy of HBO.

The showbiz biodoc Being Mary Tyler Moore traces the career and life of an important trailblazer who captivated American TV audiences for decades. The ever-relatable Mary Tyler Moore pioneered the fictional single woman on TV, an important cultural moment.

While she was playing the archetypal single career woman, Moore was a wife and mother. She and husband Grant Tinker created some of the best TV ever – The Bob Newhart Show, WKRP in Cincinnati, Hill Street Blues, and St. Elsewhere – and pioneered the TV spinoff with Rhoda. It bears remembering that CBS’ Saturday evening 8-11 pm slate in the fall of 1973 was the best nightly TV lineup ever: All in the Family, M*A*S*H, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Bob Newhart Show and The Carol Burnett Show. 

Being Mary Tyler Moore traces the lesser known aspects of Moore’s life, including her childhood and retirement years. Of course, there’s a clip from the Mary Tyer Moore Show’s unforgettable Chuckles the Clown episode.

Incidentally, I highly recommend Joan Jett’s version of the MTM Show theme Love Is All Around, which you can find on YouTube.

Being Mary Tyler Moore is streaming on HBO, beginning May 26. I screened it for the SFFILM in April.

is in the Air.

THE BLIND MAN WHO DID NOT WANT TO SEE TITANIC: wow – laughs, thrills, love

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Photo caption: Petri Poikolainen in THE MAN WHO DID NOT WANT TO SEE TITANIC. Courtesy of Cinedigm Entertainment Group.

Wow. The Finnish indie The Blind Man Who Did Not Want to See Titanic is a rare nugget of complete originality that takes us into a unfamiliar world filled with unexpected laughs, suddenly turns into a thriller, and finishes as a moving love story. It’s unlike any movie I’ve seen.

Our protagonist, Jaako (Petri Poikolainen), is blind and confined to a wheelchair. Writer-director Teemu Nikki tells his story, in that most visual of media – cinema, from the perspective of a blind person. We either see Jaako’s face or the blurs that Jaako sees.

Jaako is a movie nerd, secure in his cultural taste. He rejects pity and strives to maintain his dignity with his sarcastic humor. (He has renamed his caregiver after two sadistic movie nurses – Annie Wilkes and Nurse Rached.) He’s a very, very funny guy.

Jaako has a girlfriend, Sirpa (Marjaana Maijala), that he’s never met. She is also housebound with a disability, but in another city. Sirpa has a sense of humor that can match his, and the two bond on the telephone, each bringing the other some delight each day. One day, Sirpa is devastated by some bad medical news, and Jaako resolves to travel by himself, unaided, across Finland to comfort her. Jaako and we go forth on an eventful journey. I don’t think that a person can display real courage until they are really afraid, and Jaako learns this. too.

Like Jaako, lead actor Petri Poikolainen is also a blind man with multiple sclerosis.

What Teemu Nikki has created here is astounding. There are layers upon layers of newness and originality in The Blind Man, etc: the character of Jaako, the procedural of living independently with both MS and blindness, and cinema from the POV of the blind person. The film’s overriding achievement is empathy.

The Blind Man Who Did Not Want to See Titanic won an audience award at Venice Film Festival. It’s one of the Best Movies of 2023 – So Far. The Blind Man Who Did Not Want to See Titanic is available to stream from Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu and YouTube.

RODEO: roller coaster on two wheels

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Photo caption: Julie Ledru in RODEO. Courtesy of Music Box Films.

In the ever-kinetic Rodeo, a remarkably fierce young woman invites herself into a crew of dirt riders. Rodeo is set with remarkable verisimilitude in a subculture of young bikers from France’s hardscrabble immigrant communities. It’s an edgy scene, and Julia (newcomer Julie Ledru) penetrates it only because she’s a little scary herself.

Julia is a force of nature, and she is able to back off guys with an explosive hostility. When she is ready to adopt a dangerous new passion on two wheels, no one can stand in her way. Off she rides, on a journey with life-and-death stakes.

Rodeo is the first feature for French director Lola Quivoron, who is the real star of this roller coaster of a movie. If she wants to, Quivoron will be making big Hollywood action films like The Fast and the Furious.

Rodeo won the Un Certain Regard coup de coeur prize at Cannes, and I screened it for the SLO Film Fest. Rodeo is now available to stream from Amazon, Apple TV and Vudu.

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: Fanny in FANNY: THE RIGHT TO ROCK. Courtesy of PBS.

This week on The Movie Gourmet – new reviews of Fanny: The Right to Rock (now on PBS) and the new indie drama Land of Gold. Plus a streaming review of Force Majeure.

CURRENT MOVIES

WATCH AT HOME

Campbell Scott in THE 11TH GREEN. Courtesy of The 11th Green Film.

The most eclectic watch-at-home recommendations you’ll find ANYWHERE:

  • The 11th Green: a thinking person’s paranoid conspiracy. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • Satan & Adam: more than an odd couple. Amazon, AppleTV.
  • Levinsky Park: refuge for refugees? Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube.
  • The Speed Cubers: odd, and then profound. Netflix.
  • Rodents of Unusual Size: 5 million orange-toothed critters and a Cajun octogenarian. Amazon, AppleTV.
  • Reggie: it’s not just about Reggie. Netflix.
  • Hannah Ha Ha: what makes for human value and fulfillment? Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • The Last Lullaby: backing out of a contract hit. Amazon (included with Prime), Vudu, redbox.
  • Best Worst Movie: a romp through cinematic awfulness. Amazon (included with Prime), AppleTV.
  • The Wave: Everything you want in a disaster movie. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • Magallanes: some wrongs cannot be righted. AppleTV.

FORCE MAJEURE – some things you just can’t get past

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FORCE MAJEURE

In the droll Swedish dramedy Force Majeure, a smugly affluent family of four vacations at an upscale ski resort in the French Alps. The wife explains to a friend that they take the vacation because otherwise the husband never sees the family. But, while the wife is blissed out, the kids fidget and complain, and the hubby sneaks peeks at his phone.

Then there’s a sudden moment of apparent life-and-death peril; the husband has a chance to protect the wife and kids, but instead – after first securing his iPhone – runs for his life. How do they all go on from that revealing moment? The extent that one incident can bring relationships into focus is the core of Force Majeure.

Clearly, the family has a serious issue to resolve, but there’s plenty of dry humor. In the most cringe worthy moments, the wife tries to contain her disgust, but can’t keep it bottled up when she’s in the most social situations. The couple repeatedly huddle outside their room in their underwear to talk things out, only to find themselves observed by the same impassive French hotel worker. The most tense moments are interrupted by an insistent cell phone vibration, another guest’s birthday party and a child’s remotely out-of-control flying toy.

Force Majeure is exceptionally well-written by writer-director Ruben Ostlund. It was just his fourth feature and the first widely seen outside Scandinavia. He transitions between scenes by showing the machinery of the ski resort accompanied by Baroque organ music – a singular and very effective directorial choice. Ostlund has gone on to direct The Square and Triangle of Sadness, both of which won the Palm d’Or at Cannes; (but Force Majeure is his best film.)

Force Majeure was Sweden’s submission for the Best Foreign Language Oscar. It is available to stream from Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu and YouTube and is free on HBO.

[I’ve included the trailer as always, but I recommend that you see the movie WITHOUT watching this trailer – mild spoilers]

FANNY: THE RIGHT TO ROCK: triple-threat trailblazers

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Photo caption: Fanny in FANNY: THE RIGHT TO ROCK. Courtesy of PBS.

Fanny: The Right to Rock documents the first all-female rock band to get signed by a major record label and churn out five albums. Fifty years ago, the band Fanny was breaking ground for women musicians – and for lesbians and Filipinas. Women rockers were a novelty in the early 1970; imagine layering on LGBTQ identity and Asian-American heritage.

Although you probably haven’t heard of them, this was no garage band. They had a major label record deal, European tours, and hung out with big name peers. Unlike many male bands of the period, Fanny didn’t crash and burn due to drug use or clashing egos. They just never caught on with record-buyers.

FANNY: THE RIGHT TO ROCK. Courtesy of PBS.

It’s pretty clear that sexism in the music industry and media, combined with maybe being a little ahead of their time to deny Fanny stardom. Too bad – I would have loved to listen to them in their heyday.

Their music fits right into the stuff I was listening to in the 1970s. I’m guessing that the reason why I hadn’t heard of them is that they didn’t get played on FM radio in the Bay Area.

These women can still really rock in their 70s, and they’re a hoot. Tomorrow night, May 17, they’ll perform for one time at the Whisky A-Go-Go to commemorate the 50 year anniversary of their now infamous club performance at the Whisky.

Fanny in FANNY: THE RIGHT TO ROCK. Courtesy of PBS.

Fanny: The Right to Rock is filled with colorful anecdotes from back in the day. Todd Rundgren, an important early associate of Fanny, and Bonnie Raitt appear as eyewitnesses. Cherie Curry of the Runaways, Cathy Valentine of the Go-Go’s and Kate Pierson of the B-52s testify to Fanny’s trailblazing status.

I screened Fanny: The Right to Rock last year at the Nashville Film Festival. On May 22, you can watch it on your very own television when It will be broadcast on PBS and begin streaming on on PBS.ORG and the PBS APP.

LAND OF GOLD: the kid is very good, anyway

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Caroline Valencia and Nardeep Khurmi in LAND OF GOLD. Courtesy of Land of Gold.
Caroline Valencia and Nardeep Khurmi in LAND OF GOLD. Courtesy of Land of Gold.

In the indie drama Land of Gold, Kiran (Nardeep Khurmi, also the film’s writer and director) is a Punjabi truck driver in Southern California who is mere days away from becoming a father for the first time – and he’s panicking. To the dismay of his wife, he decides to take on a long haul to the East Coast (and risks not being present for the birth). Of course, he’s really running away from the pressure. Part way across the country, he discovers that there’s a stowaway in his truck – a ten-year-old girl, whom he deduces is undocumented.

Kiran’s family are also immigrants, so he understands that presenting her to the authorities would have consequences. It turns out that she is on the run, too, but toward a family connection. The two continue their road trip, and Kiran learns enough from her to address his personal crisis.

The girl is played by Caroline Valencia, and she’s exceptional. Khurmi’s screenplay handles the kindling of their relationship and the girl’s determination adeptly and with authenticity.

Land of Gold is certainly not a bad movie, but it didn’t engage me when Caroline Valencia was off-screen. That’s because I never bought into Kiran’s own angst.

I screened Land of Gold for the SLO Film Fest, where it won the audience award for Best Narrative Feature. It begins streaming on HBO on May 15th.

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: Jay Baruchal and Glenn Howerton in BLACKBERRY. Courtesy of IFC Films.

This week on The Movie Gourmet – a review of the new audience-pleaser BlackBerry, opening today. Also streaming recommendations of The Last Lullaby, an overlooked neo-noir, and Best Worst Movie, an entertaining documentary about a laughably bad horror movie. I also highlighted Preston Sturges’ wickedly funny satires Sullivan’s Travels and Hail the Conquering Hero; if you missed them on TCM this week, you can still stream them from the major services – after eighty years, they’re still hilarious.

Sasha Alexander and Tom Sizemore and in THE LAST LULLABY. Courtesy of Chaillot Films.

CURRENT MOVIES

WATCH AT HOME

Ane Dahl Torp (center) in THE WAVE. Courtesy of Cinequest.

The most eclectic watch-at-home recommendations you’ll find ANYWHERE:

  • The Wave: Everything you want in a disaster movie. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • Satan & Adam: more than an odd couple. Amazon, AppleTV.
  • Reggie: it’s not just about Reggie. Netflix.
  • Levinsky Park: refuge for refugees? Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube.
  • The Speed Cubers: odd, and then profound. Netflix.
  • Rodents of Unusual Size: 5 million orange-toothed critters and a Cajun octogenarian. Amazon, AppleTV.
  • The 11th Green: a thinking person’s paranoid conspiracy. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • Magallanes: some wrongs cannot be righted. AppleTV.

ON TV

Audrey Totter and Richard Basehart in TENSION.

On May 16, Turner Classic Movies will present the deliciously sordid Tension, where Quimby (Richard Basehart), the wimpy night manager of a drugstore, has one of the worst wives in film noir. Claire (Audrey Totter) spends her daytime hours belittling Quimby and her nighttime hours cuckolding him. When she moves into Barney’s beach house and lets the hairy-chested Barney (Lloyd Gough) beat up her nerdy hubbie, the humiliated Quimby has had enough. There’s a murder and a frame. Will the cops find the real murderer? Rising star Cyd Charisse plays the good girl, and Barry Sullivan plays the cop who outsmarts them all.

Lloyd Gough and Audrey Totter in TENSION.