Of the four top movies of the year, you can still find Parasite in theaters and you can already stream Marriage Story, The Irishman and Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood.
Watch out for the very special opportunity to see a virtually lost film from 1976, Joseph Losey’s Mr. Klein at the Roxie and BAMPFA.
If you enjoy Rian Johnson’s Knives Out, check out his equally inventive take on another genre, the neo-noir Brick.
OUT NOW
- The masterpiece Parasite explores social inequity, first with hilarious comedy, then evolving into suspense and finally a shocking statement of the real societal stakes. This is one of the decade’s best films.
- Adam Driver and Scarlett Johannson are brilliant in Noah Baumbach’s career-topping Marriage Story. A superb screenplay, superbly acted, Marriage Story balances tragedy and comedy with uncommon success. Marriage Story is playing in just a couple Bay Area theaters and is now streaming on Netflix.
- Martin Scorsese’s gangster epic The Irishman is tremendous, and features performances by Al Pacino and Joe Pesci that are epic, too. It’s both in theaters and streaming on Netflix.
- Filmmaker Taika Waititi takes on hatred in his often outrageous satire Jojo Rabbit. I saw Jojo Rabbit at the Mill Valley Film Festival, where the audience ROARED with laughter.
- In his Pain and Glory, master filmmaker Pedro Almodovar invites us into the most personal aspects of his own life, illuminated by Antonio Banderas’ career-topping performance.
- Harriet is excellent history (and Harriet Tubman belongs on the twenty dollar bill), but it’s not great cinema.
- The atmospheric slow burn neo-noir Motherless Brooklyn gets postwar New York City right, but it’s too long.
- Loro, Paolo Sorrentino’s send-up of Silvio Berlusconi is much more interesting visually than it is thematically.
ON VIDEO
My Streams of the Week are the six Best Movies of 2019 – So Far that are already available to stream. This week, I’m featuring Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood: masterpiece.
ON TV
I have NO TV recommendations this week – get out there and see the year’s best in theaters!