Traditionally movie-poor August is past, but these are good choices:
- Really liked the New Zealand teen-geezer adventure dramedy Hunt for the Wilderpeople.
- Florence Foster Jenkins is not just a one-joke movie about a bad singer – it’s a love story about trying to protect the one that you love.
- I found the documentary about Burt Reynolds and his stuntman/director Hal Needham, The Bandit, very enjoyable; it’s playing on CMT.
- Woody Allen’s love triangle comedy Cafe Society is a well-made and entertaining diversion, but hardly a Must See.
- I haven’t seen them yet, but readers with really good taste have recommended Captain Fantastic and Hell or High Water.
Not an unbridled recommendation for Mia Madre, opening today.
Tonight, Turner Classic Movies airs Robert Redford and Gene Hackman in Director Michael Ritchie’s Downhill Racer. It’s one of the best sports movies ever (Olympic skiing), and it came as all three filmmakers were poised to do some of their greatest work (The Candidate, The Sting, The French Connection).
On September 5, Turner Classic Movies brings us a fantastic comedy, My Man Godfrey (1936). An assembly of eccentric, oblivious, venal and utterly spoiled characters make up a rich Park Avenue family and their hangers-on during the Depression. The kooky daughter (Carole Lombard) brings home a homeless guy (William Powell) to serve as their butler. The contrast between the dignified butler and his wacky employers results in a brilliant screwball comedy that masks searing social criticism that is sharply relevant today. The wonderful character actor Eugene Pallette (who looked and sounded like a bullfrog in a tuxedo) plays the family’s patriarch, who is keenly aware that his wife and kids are completely nuts.
