This week on The Movie Gourmet – Cinequest’s online festival Cinejoy continues through this weekend. See my Best of Cinequest and all my Cinequest coverage. I’ve also honored Cinequest by highlighting two gems from recent festivals: the innovative docufiction Erotic Fire of the Unattainable and the surreal Mexican masterpiece Buy Me a Gun.
CURRENT FILMS
Note: Oscar winners CODA, Drive My Car and Belfast are all now available to stream.
- CODA: what’s not to like about this delightful Oscar-winning audience-pleaser? CODA’s success results from the textured supporting characters and complicated family dynamics in writer-director Sian Heder’s screenplay. AppleTV
- Drive My Car: director and co-writer Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s engrossing masterpiece about dealing with loss – and it’s the best movie of 2021. Layered with character-driven stories that could each justify their own movie, this is a mesmerizing film that builds into an exhilarating catharsis. HBO Max, AppleTV, Amazon, and Vudu.
- Nightmare Alley: enough burning ambition for a thousand carnies. IHBO Max, Hulu, Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube and redbox.
- Belfast: a child’s point of view is universal. If you have heartstrings, they are gonna get pulled. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube and redbox.
- The Power of the Dog: One man’s meanness, another man’s growth. Netflix.
- Don’t Look Up: Wickedly funny. Filmmaker Adam McKay (The Big Short) and a host of movie stars hit the bullseye as they target a corrupt political establishment, a soulless media and a gullible, lazy-minded public. Netflix.
- The Tragedy of Macbeth: No surprise here: Joel Coen, Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand deliver a crisp and imaginative version of the Bard’s Scottish Play. AppleTV.
- Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn: completely different than any movie you’ve seen. AppleTV, Drafthouse On Demand.
ON TV
On April 16 and 17, Turner Classic Movies is airing the under appreciated film noir classic Night in the City on Noir Alley with intro and outro by Eddie Muller. Richard Widmark is superb as Harry Fabian, a loser who tries to corner the pro wrestling business in post-war London. The one thing that Harry Fabian is good at is finding suckers, but he doesn’t realize that the biggest sucker is…Harry Fabian. It’s highly recommended on my list of Overlooked Noir.