My recommendations this week:
- The Martian – an entertaining Must See space adventure – even for folks who usually don’t enjoy science fiction;
- Bridge of Spies – Steven Spielberg’s Cold War espionage thriller with Tom Hanks, featuring a fantastic performance by Mark Rylance.
- Sicario – a dark and paranoid crime thriller about the drug wars.
- Prophet’s Prey – a Showtime documentary about child sexual abuse in a polygamous religious cult.
My Stream of the Week is the extraordinary Russian drama Leviathan, a searing indictment of society in post-Soviet Russia – and it’s one of my Best Movies of 2015 – So Far. Leviathan is available streaming on Amazon Instant Video, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube, Google Play and Flixster.
October 29 is a pretty cool day for Turner Classic Movies, with three completely disparate films that I recommend. First, if you have teenagers jaded by today’s empty horror flicks, Freaks will knock them for a loop. Bad things happen at the circus. And bad things happen in Freaks, one of the most unsettling horror films (and the least politically correct), because it was filmed in 1932 with real circus freaks.
If you are ready for some vintage camp, there’s the 1960 low-budget and self-mocking horror comedy Little Shop of Horrors. The story was remade into a Broadway musical which, in turn, was adapted into the 1986 Little Shop of Horrors starring Rick Moranis; the 1986 version is a much, MUCH better move, but the 1960 version has its own sublime silliness. The young Jack Nicholson first made a name for himself with a hilarious turn as a masochistic dental patient.
Finally, as funny as a heart attack, is the riveting 2005 Oscar winner The Hurt Locker. Kathryn Bigelow directed this hypertense story of an adrenaline-fueled GI bomb defuser (Jeremy Renner) in the Iraq War. The Hurt Locker won the first Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Director for a film directed by a woman.