This week, we’re between Bay Area (virtual) film festivals – Cinequest, which just wrapped up on Tuesday, and the San Francisco International Film Festival (SFFILM), which opens next weekend. My CINEQUEST page has links to features, a filmmaker interview and comments on 19 Cinequest films. My SFFILM preview is coming very soon.
REMEMBRANCE
Writer Larry McMurtry told powerful, unflinching, character-centered stories of the Old West (Lonesome Dove) and the contemporary West (The Last Picture Show). He won an Oscar for his Brokeback Mountain screenplay, and his novels were the basis for Hud and Terms of Endearment.
ON VIDEO
The most eclectic watch-at-home recommendations you’ll find ANYWHERE:
- Nomadland: refusing to be defeated. THE YEAR’S BEST MOVIE. Hulu.
- The Father: as reality shifts. Amazon, Vudu, YouTube, Google Play.
- Jumbo: a girl and her ride. Laemmle.
- Minari: who gets to decide on a family’s dream? Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, Google Play.
- Sound of Metal: Seeking anything but stillness. Amazon (included with Prime).
- Black Bear: Ever surprising. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, Google Play
- Bruce Springsteen’s Letter to You: Wiser and still vital. AppleTV.
- Mayor: potholes and tear gas, all in a day’s work. Roxie.
- MLK/FBI: about America then and about America today. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.
- Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer: a good man tracks down evil. Netflix.
- Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom: searing, with an electric performance. Netflix.
- The Personal History of David Copperfield: Dickins alive, at last. Amazon, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.
- Another Round: Humanity buzzed. Amazon.
- Mank: biting the hand. Netflix.
- One Night in Miami: four icons share one pivotal moment. Amazon.
- Martin Eden: Jack London in an art film. Laemmle.
- Ammonite: When the slow burn is a dud. Amazon.
ON TV
On April 5, Turner Classic Movies presents Jack Nicholson as the iconic 1970s anti-hero in Five Easy Pieces. It’s a profound and deeply affecting study of alienation. Nicholson plays someone who has rejected and isolated himself from his dysfunctional family. Then he must embark on the epic road trip back to the family home. Amid the drama, there is plenty of funny, including the funniest sandwich order in the history of cinema.
Don’t miss this beautifully-written essay on Five Easy Pieces by Steven Gaydos in Variety. Gaydos gets the impact on the 1970 audience just right and shines overdue credit on its female screenwriter Carole Eastman. There’s also a tidbit on Helena Kallianiotes, the funniest hitch hiker in movie history.
