Don’t miss the Casey Affleck’s career-topping performance in the emotionally authentic drama Manchester by the Sea. The other Must See is Isabelle Huppert in the perverse wowzer Elle. Manchester by the Sea is #2 and Elle is #4 on my Best Movies of 2016.
Another, lighter top choice:
- Mascots is the latest mockumentary from Christopher Guest (Best in Show) and it’s very funny. Mascots is streaming on Netflix Instant.
Also in theaters or on video:
- Despite a delicious performance by one of may faves, Michael Shannon, I’m not recommending Nocturnal Animals.
- Arrival with Amy Adams, is real thinking person’s sci-fi. Every viewer will be transfixed by the first 80% of Arrival. How you feel about the finale depends on whether you buy into the disconnected-from-linear-time aspect or you just get confused, like I did.
- The remarkably sensitive and realistic indie drama Moonlight is at once a coming of age tale, an exploration of addicted parenting and a story of gay awakening. It’s almost universally praised, but I thought that the last act petered out.
My DVD/Stream of the Week is one of the year’s very, very best films, the character-driven crime drama Hell or High Water. It’s now available to rent on DVD from Netflix and to stream from Amazon Instant, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.
This December 7th, a date which will live in infamy, is the 75th anniversary of the Japanese surprise air attack on US naval forces at Pearl Harbor, the event which immediately plunged the American people into the all-consuming four years of World War II. Fittingly, Turner Classic Movies is airing the definitive Pearl Harbor movie, Tora! Tora! Tora! from 1970. Featuring great American and Japanese casts, Tora! Tora! Tora! tells the story from both American and Japanese perspectives. It’s a suspenseful minute-by-minute countdown. Tora! Tora! Tora! is one of the very best movies ever made about a well-known historical event.
