I loved the rockin’ Spanish Witching and Bitching – a witty comment on misogyny inside a madcap horror spoof. You can stream it on Amazon instant, iTunes and Xbox Video.
Roger Ebert fans will need to see Life Itself, the affectionate but not worshipful documentary on movie critic Ebert’s groundbreaking career, courageous battle against disease and uncommonly graceful death. Life Itself is playing theaters and also steams on Amazon instant, iTunes, Vudu and Xbox Video.
It’s not up to Clint Eastwood’s usual standard, but Jersey Boys, is mostly fun – and features another jaunty performance by Christopher Walken.
If you look for it in theaters, you can still find my top movie of the year so far, the transcendent Polish drama Ida.
The documentary Whitey: United States of America v. James J. Bulger has an interesting subject, but the filmmaking is clunky. It does, however, make my list of Longest Movie Titles.
My DVD/Stream of the Week is the Erroll Morris documentary The Unknown Known: Iraq War architect Donald Rumsfeld is apparently completely immune from self-doubt, but ultimately reveals more about himself than he would like. You can find The Unknown Known on DVD from Netflix and streaming on Amazon, iTunes, YouTube, Google Play and Xbox Video.
Set your DVRs for Turner Classic Movies on July 23 for Blow-up. Set in the Mod London of the mid-60s, a fashion photographer (David Hemmings) is living a fun but shallow life filled with sports cars, discos and and scoring with supermodels (think Jane Birkin, Sarah Miles and Verushka). Then he discovers that his random photograph of a landscape may contain a clue in a murder and meets a mystery woman (Vanessa Redgrave). After taking us into a vivid depiction of the Mod world, director Michelangelo Antonioni brilliantly turns the story into a suspenseful story of spiraling obsession. His L’Avventura, La Notte and L’Eclisse made Antonioni an icon of cinema, but Blow-up is his most accessible and enjoyable masterwork. There’s also a cameo performance by the Jeff Beck/Jimmy Page version of the Yardbirds and a quick sighting of Michael Palin in a nightclub.
