This week, I’ll be at the Mill Valley Film Festival: it’s an early look at the most prestigious movies of the year. Watch for my coverage of 63 Up, Jojo Rabbit, Frankie, Where’s My Roy Cohn? and Marriage Story. If you miss the big movies at the MVFF, you can at least stream some of the Best Movies of 2019 – So Far – The Last Black Man in San Francisco, They Shall Not Grow Old, Amazing Grace and Booksmart are all available to be streamed.
OUT NOW
- Downtown Abbey is a satisfying wrap-up for fans of the beloved PBS series.
- The Sound of Silence is an engrossing character study starring Peter Sarsgaard as a man confident in his obsession until… It’s had a limited run at San Jose’s 3Below, and you can stream it on Amazon, iTunes and Vudu.
ON VIDEO
My Stream of the Week is the evocative and thought-provoking German drama Western. Western can be streamed from Amazon (included with Prime), iTunes, YouTube and Google Play.
ON TV
On October 5, Turner Classic Movies will air the 1950 version of M, directed by Joseph Losey. This is a remake of Fritz Lang’s great 1931 M with Peter Lorre. The Losey version is not a masterpiece like the original, and I find it pretty odd. However, Los Angeles’ storied Bradbury Building, which has been in many a movie, was never been as gloriously revealed from basement to roof as in M. The Bradbury Building and the film as a whole benefit from the cinematography of Ernest Laszlo; Laszlo also shot D.O.A., The Well, The Steel Trap, Stalag 17, The Naked Jungle, Kiss Me Deadly and While the City Sleeps, before being Oscar-nominated eight times for more respectable, but lesser films. The cast is filled with film noir faves – Raymond Burr, Norman Lloyd, Howard Da Silva, Steve Brodie and Luther Adler.
