This week: a slow burn showcase for two great French actresses plus a little indie comedy set in NYC’s Chinatown. The best Summer 2020 movies (like The August Virgin, The Truth, The 11th Green, An Easy Girl and Yes, God, Yes) are on my list of most eclectic watch-at-home recommendations you’ll find ANYWHERE.
ON VIDEO
Moka: a well-crafted fuse-burner and a showcase for two great actresses. You can stream it from Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.
Lucky Grandma: There’s not that much to this indie comedy except for Tsai Chin’s tour de grouch performance as the crusty Grandma and the NYC Chinatown setting. Lucky Grandma is moderately entertaining and is streaming on Amazon.
The most eclectic watch-at-home recommendations you’ll find ANYWHERE:
- The August Virgin: searching for reinvention. Best Movies of 2020 – So Far.
- Apocalypse ’45: I never imagined hell being that bad
- Coup 53: uncovering what we suspected
- An Easy Girl: summer school in Cannes
- She Dies Tomorrow: you have not seen this before
- Prime Suspect: binging one of TV’s greatest episodic characters.
- The Speed Cubers: odd, and then profound
- Gordon Lightfoot: If You Could Read My Mind: no, I hadn’t thought of him for decades, either
- Summerland: finally arrives at heartwarming
- The Go-Go’s: five women do what men do
- The Booksellers: we collect what we treasure
- Yes, God, Yes: learning that hypocrisy is a choice.
- Dateline-Saigon: the truth will out
- Mucho Mucho Amor: The Legend of Walter Mercado: gentleness and flamboyancy
- Step into Liquid and Riding Giants: Get stoked with the two most bitchin’ surfing documentaries.
- The Truth: Reconciling your truth with another’s. Best Movies of 2020 – So Far.
- John Lewis: Double Trouble: an icon remembered.
- The 11th Green: a thinking person’s conspiracy
- Inmate #1: The Rise of Danny Trejo: redemption never gets old
- Driveways: I can’t think of a more authentic movie about intergenerational relationships than this charming, character-driven indie. Best Movies of 2020 – So Far.
- The Lovebirds: A rom com with a playful plot and a truthful relationship.
ON TV
You really haven’t sampled film noir if you haven’t seen Out of the Past (1947), and it’s coming up on Turner Classic Movies on September 12. The model of a film noir hero, Robert Mitchum plays a guy who is cynical, strong, smart and resourceful – but still a sap for the femme fatale…played by the irresistible Jane Greer. Director Jacques Tourneur told Greer, ” First half of the movie – Good Girl; second half – Bad Girl.”
