This COVID Era is taking a toll on all of us. I’ve found that my movie taste hasn’t changed, but my appetite has. I’m having a tougher time selecting movies that are pessimistic or which have unsympathetic protagonists. And I’m watching many more Feel Good movies than usual. It brings to mind the popularity of escapist movies during the Great Depression.
I’m also relating more intensely to real life stories of heroism (John Lewis), redemption (Danny Trejo) and gentleness (Walter Mercado).
ON VIDEO
Dateline-Saigon: documents the efforts of five journalists to cover the Vietnam War in the face of a US government which did not want the facts to be told. Streaming on iTunes.
Mucho Mucho Amor: The Legend of Walter Mercado: the biodoc of the mesmerizing Spanish language TV phenomenon, with his singular combination of flamboyance and gentleness. Streaming now on Netflix.
Our Kind of Traitor: a robust globe-trotting thriller, enlivened by a lusty Stellan Skarsgård and played out in a series of stunning set pieces. If you’re looking for an intelligent summer thriller for adults, this is your movie. You can stream it on Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube, Google Play and Redbox.
When Jews Were Funny: Documentarian Alan Zweig interviews an impressive collection of Jewish comedians from an earlier generation (Shelly Berman, Jack Carter, Norm Crosby, Shecky Greene) and more recent stars (David Brenner, Super Dave Osborne, Howie Mandel, Judy Gold, Gilbert Gottfried, Marc Maron, David Steinberg). Unfortunately, Zweig himself sucks out the energy with his own midlife naval gazing, which engages, confuses, bemuses and annoys his interviewees. Some great Jewish humor does seep through, including the jokes with the famous punchlines He had a hat. and Is anything alright? When Jews Were Funny can be streamed from Amazon (included with Prime) and a couple more obscure services.
The most eclectic watch-at-home recommendations you’ll find ANYWHERE:
- Step into Liquid and Riding Giants: Get stoked with the two most bitchin’ surfing documentaries.
- The Truth: Reconciling your truth with another’s.
- John Lewis: Double Trouble: an icon remembered.
- Driveways: I can’t think of a more authentic movie about intergenerational relationships than this charming, character-driven indie.
- The Lovebirds: A rom com with a playful plot and a truthful relationship.
- Da 5 Bloods: reflections on the Vietnam War and on the Black experience in America and a great Delroy Lindo (but it’s too long).
- Ella Fitzgerald: Just One of Those Things: A Must See for jazz fans.
- Yourself and Yours: The absurdism of Luis Buñuel meets the social awkwardness of Seinfeld.
- Electrick Children: magical Mormon runaways in Vegas.
- King in the Wilderness: an icon, floundering.
- The Bandit: A Hollywood buddy documentary that features some amazing movie stunts.
- Wind River: “This isn’t the land of backup, Jane. This is the land of you’re on your own.”
- Unfriended: Teenagers find horror on their own webcams.
- Touching the Void: the gripping true life story of a mountaineer who had to cut his climbing partner’s rope.
- Searching: A ticking clock thriller that captures the Silicon Valley vibe.
- The T.A.M.I. Show: The first concert film, featuring eight future Rock and Roll Hall of Famers.
- Cold Case Hammarskjöld: An investigatory documentary that sends-up the genre.
- Spaceship Earth: A visionary scientific experiment, unraveled from human foibles.
- Very Semi-Serious: glorious The New Yorker cartoons.
- The Whistlers: a shady cop and a mysterious woman walk a tightrope of treachery.
- The Wild Goose Lake: vivid nights in the Chinese underworld.
- Radio Dreams: stranger in a strange and funny land.
ON TV
On July 28, Turner Classic Movies features one of my Overlooked Noir, Pitfall (1948), a noir thriller without either a conventional sap or a conventional femme fatale. Dick Powell plays a WW II vet who is bored with the post-war suburban humdrum, and Lizabeth Scott plays a gal with terrible taste in boyfriends. Neither deserves to be gragged into a thriller, but they are. Raymond Burr, again, makes for a menacing sicko stalker.
