Inception andToy Story 3 are two of the year’s best.If you want a thriller, go with The Girl Who Played With Fire. Robert Duvall gives another masterful performance in Get Low. For an indie dramedy, try The Kids Are All Right. For trailers and other choices, see Movies to See Right Now.
My DVD of the week is the great 1995 documentary, Crumb. For the trailers and other DVD choices, see DVDs of the Week.
Movies on TV include The Set-Up, Leave Her to Heaven and The Fallen Sparrow, all coming up on TCM.
Crumb (1995): The Criterion Collection has released a great documentary, Terry Zwigoff’s profile of the counterculture cartoonist R. Crumb, the creator of Keep On Truckin’, Mr. Natural, Fritz the Cat and influential rock album covers. By exploring Crumb’s troubled family, Zwigoff reveals the origins of Crumb’s art. When we meet Crumb’s shattered brothers, it’s clear that Crumb’s artistic expression preserved his very sanity.
In honor of At The Movies, which ends its long run on television, let’s hear Siskel & Ebert assess Crumb. Siskel placed it #1 on his Top 10 list for 1995 and Ebert had it at #2.
Check out my other recent DVD recommendations at DVDs of the Week.
I recommend the summer’s one high quality blockbuster, Inception. If you have followed The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, you will want to continue the trilogy with The Girl Who Played With Fire. The indie dramedy The Kids Are All Right is enjoyable, too. One of the year’s best, Toy Story 3, is still playing. For trailers and other choices, see Movies to See Right Now.
My DVD of the week is one of 2010’s best: A Prophet (Un Prophete). For the trailers and other DVD choices, see DVDs of the Week.
Gene Tierney in Leave Her to Heaven
Movies on TV include The Set-Up and Leave Her to Heaven, coming up on TCM.
This week’s DVD of the Week is a film from earlier this year: A Prophet (Un Prophete). It is the story of a young French-Arab from his first terrifying day in prison to his release. Once he starts to adjust to his role in the prison as the toady of a Corsican crime boss, no one else in the movie knows what he is really thinking. It evokes the DeNiro scenes in The Godfather: Part II, except set with gritty realism in contemporary France. Nominated for the Best Foreign Language Oscar. One of my Best Movies of 2010 – So Far and pretty high on my list of 10 Best Prison Movies.
Check out my other recent DVD recommendations at DVDs of the Week.
Joseph Gordon Levitt and Leonardo DiCaprio in Inception
I recommend the summer’s one high quality blockbuster, Inception. If you have followed The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, you will want to continue the trilogy with The Girl Who Played With Fire. The indie dramedy The Kids Are All Right is enjoyable, too. One of the year’s best, Toy Story 3, is still playing, but the equally great Winter’s Bone has become difficult to find. For trailers and other choices, see Movies to See Right Now.
My DVDs of the week are the gnarly Step into Liquid and the way awesome Riding Giants. For the trailers and other DVD choices, see DVDs of the Week.
Movies on TV include The Searchers and Bad Day at Black Rock, coming up on TCM. Before Sunrise is still playing on IFC.
It’s a great time for the two coolest surfing movies, the documentaries Step Into Liquid and Riding Giants.
Step Into Liquid (2003): We see the world’s best pro surfers in the most extreme locations. We also see devoted amateurs in the tiny ripples of Lake Michigan and surfing evangelists teaching Irish school children. The cinematography is remarkable – critic Elvis Mitchell called the film “insanely gorgeous”. The filmmaker is Dana Brown, son of Bruce Brown, who made The Endless Summer (1966) and The Endless Summer II (1994).
Riding Giants (2004): This film focuses on the obsessive search for the best wave by some of the greatest surfers in history. We see “the biggest wave ever ridden” and then a monster that could be bigger. The movie traces the discovery of the Half Moon Bay surf spot Mavericks. And more and more, all wonderfully shot.
The filmmaker is Stacy Peralta, a surfer and one the pioneers of modern skateboading, (and a founder of the Powell Peralta skateboard product company). Peralta also made Dogtown and Z-boys (2001), the great documentary about the roots of skateboarding, and wrote the 2005 Lords of Dogtown.
Check out my other recent DVD recommendations at DVDs of the Week.
I can’t speak to the three most promising new films, because I haven’t seen them yet: The Kids Are All Right, Inception andThe Girl Who Played With Fire. But that should be remedied by next week’s recommendations. In the mean time, I can say that the “must see” films in theaters remain Winter’s Bone and Toy Story 3. Winter’s Bone has been out for a while, so, if you haven’t seen it in a theater, you’d better see it soon. For trailers and other choices, see Movies to See Right Now.
My DVD of the week is Tortilla Soup. It’s the closest thing to a chick flick that I’ll be recommending for at least a month. For the trailer and other DVD choices, see DVDs of the Week.
John Ford's The Searchers
Movies on TV include The Searchers and Bad Day at Black Rock, coming up on TCM. The Crying Game and Before Sunrise are still playing on IFC.
In Tortilla Soup (2001), Hector Elizondo plays the retired chef who cooks a gourmet feast every Sunday for his three adult daughters. The daughters are all seeking relationships and independence from their dad in their own ways. There are lots of romance and lots of laughs and lots of amazing-looking food. It’s a remake of Ang Lee’s 1994 Eat Drink Man Woman. Elizabeth Pena and Paul Rodriguez give noteworthy performances. The yummy-looking food was prepared by celebrity chefs Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger (Too Hot Tamales).
The movie also has a fun soundtrack with Lila Downs, Eliades Ochoa, Pink Martini and Les Nubians.
Check out my other recent DVD recommendations at DVDs of the Week.
The “must see” films in theaters remain Winter’s Bone and Toy Story 3. Winter’s Bone has been out for a while, so, if you haven’t seen it in a theater, you’d better see it soon. For trailers and other choices, see Movies to See Right Now.
It’s summer vacation, so I am letting people catch up with my most recent DVD recommendations: Eight Men Out, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl on the Train, John Adams and The Deep End. For the trailers and other DVD choices, see DVDs of the Week.
The Crying Game
Movies on TV include The Crying Game and Before Sunrise on IFC this month. Freaks, Soylent Green and 12 Angry Men are coming up on TCM.
The “must see” films in theaters remain Winter’s Bone and Toy Story 3. Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work is good, too. For trailers and other choices, see Movies to See Right Now.
My DVDs of the week are Eight Men Out (for the MLB All-Star Game) and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (because its sequel The Girl Who Played With Fire has been released. For the trailers and other DVD choices, see DVDs of the Week.
Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke in Before Sunrise
Movies on TV include The Firemen’s Ball, The Crying Game and Before Sunrise and on IFC this month. Freaks, Soylent Green and 12 Angry Men are coming up on TCM.
