This week – an expectation-busting documentary in theaters and two new audience-pleasers to watch at home.
IN THEATERS
499: In this critique of contemporary Mexico, director Rodrigo Reyes has invented the medium of “docu-fable”. It is all as real as real can be (the documentary), except for the fictional, 500-year-old conquistador (the fable). Opens today at San Francisco’s Roxie with Reyes in attendance and plays through September 8.
Also in theaters:
- CODA: a thought-provoking audience-pleaser. Also streaming on AppleTV.
- Ma Belle, My Beauty: a simmering romantic reunion.
- Respect: struggling to take command of her own artistry
- The Lost Leonardo: is it a hustle? Does it matter?
- The Green Knight: more of a test than a quest
- Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain: Bad ass romantic. Best Movies of 2021 – So Far.
- Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised): concert with context. In theaters and streaming on Hulu. Best Movies of 2021 – So Far. Still in theaters, but getting harder to find.
- Annette: opening and closing sparks, but tiresome and creepy in between
- Zola: the road trip is not what it seems, (and neither is this movie). Still in theaters, but getting harder to find.
ON VIDEO
The Unknown Saint: I loved this crime comedy from Morocco. It’s a deadpan dive into human foibles and really, really bad luck. Netflix.
Bob Ross: Happy Accidents, Betrayal and Greed. This doc tells two improbable stories. The first is how Bob Ross, the soft-talking, permanent-coiffed painting instructor on PBS, could become such a cultural phenomenon. The second is a sordid tale of bone-picking exploitation. Netflix.
The most eclectic watch-at-home recommendations you’ll find ANYWHERE:
- Searching for Mr. Rugoff: the best movie taste of any barbarian. Roxie.
- Curiosa: erotic, but do we care? Laemmle.
- Riders of Justice: Thriller, comedy and much, much more. It’s the year’s best movie so far. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu and YouTube. #1 on my Best Movies of 2021 – So Far
- Dirt Music: a gorgeous bodice-ripper with a WTF ending. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube.
- No Sudden Move: Steven Soderbergh’s neo-noir thriller has even more double-crosses than movie stars – and it has plenty of movie stars. HBO Max.
- Neutral Ground: the supremacist legacy of old statues. PBS.
- Mama Weed: it’s always fun when Huppert gets outrageous. Laemmle.
- Summertime: no longer invisible and unheard, giving voice through verse. Roxie and Laemmle.
- Truman and Tennessee: An Intimate Conversation: Two gay Southern geniuses, revealing themselves. Roxie and Laemmle.
- The Dry: a mystery as psychological as it is procedural. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
ON TV
On September 6, Turner Classic Movies gives us a helluva choice, depending on how you prefer your movie violence. For stylized movie violence (and stylized movie music, camerawork and everything else, there’s The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Then there’s the serious-as-a-heart-attack Battle of Algiers.
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly completes Sergio Leone’s hugely influential triad of Clint Eastwood spaghetti westerns. The wonderfully idiosyncratic score by Ennio Morricone is indelible.
The Battle of Algiers is the story of 1950s French colonialists struggling to suppress the guerrilla uprising of Algerian independence fighters. Although it looks like a documentary, it is not. Instead, filmmaker Gillo Pontecorvo recreated the actual events so realistically that we believe that we are watching strategy councils of each side. Among the great war films, it may be the best film on counter-insurgency. In 2003, the Pentagon screened the film for its special operations commanders.
