This week on The Movie Gourmet – new reviews of Like a Rolling Stone: The Life and Times of Ben Fong-Torres and Downton Abbey: A New Era, two remembrances and a comic swashbuckler on TV. Plus, here’s my preview of the world’s largest LGBTQ film fest: Get ready for Frameline.
And this past week, I’ve completely refreshed most eclectic watch-at-home recommendations you’ll find ANYWHERE.
REMEMBRANCES
Actor Ray Liotta became a star with his leading role in 1990’s iconic Goodfelllas and was still at the absolute top of his game this past year in The Many Saints of Newark and No Sudden Move.
Musician Ronnie Hawkins is best known as the irrepressible, earthy rockabilly mentor of The Band. In the movies, he was unforgettable in stage in The Band’s concert film The Last Waltz; (who is THAT guy on stage with Dylan, Clapton, Neil Young and Van Morrison?) He also had an acting role in Heaven’s Gate.
CURRENT FILMS
- Montana Story: a family secret simmers, then explodes. In theaters.
- The Duke: he finally gets his audience. In theaters.
- Downton Abbey: A New Era: harmless enough. In theaters.
- Everything Everywhere All at Once: often indecipherable and mostly dazzling. In theaters.
- Hit the Road: a funny family masks their tough choice. In theaters.
- Like a Rolling Stone: The Life and Times of Ben Fong-Torres: tell me more. Netflix.
- 18 1/2: the paranoid thriller meets the darkly silly. In theaters, including Laemmle’s Monica Film Center and soon the Glendale and the NoHo 7.
- Jane by Charlotte: as mildly interesting as the subject. AppleTV.
- Mau: fact-based optimism and thinking big. In theaters.
ON VIDEO
The most eclectic watch-at-home recommendations you’ll find ANYWHERE:
- The Handmaiden: gorgeous, erotic and a helluva plot. Amazon (included with Prime), Vudu.
- Very Semi-Serious: glorious The New Yorker cartoons. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube.
- Touching the Void: the gripping true life story of a mountaineer who had to cut his climbing partner’s rope. Amazon, AppleTV.
- Dick Johnson Is Dead: funny, heartfelt and frequently bizarre. Netflix.
- The Women’s Balcony: a righteous man must keep his woman happy. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
- Electrick Children: magical Mormon runaways in Vegas. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube.
- NUTS!: the rise and fall of a testicular empire. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
- The Imposter: you gotta see this. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
ON TV
On June 4, Turner Classic Movies is airing Richard Lester’s boisterous The Three Musketeers from 1973. Watch Oliver Reed, Richard Chamberlain, Michael York and Frank Finlay swashbuckle away against Bad Guys Christopher Lee, Faye Dunaway and Charlton Heston. Geraldine Chaplin and Raquel Welch adorn the action. [If you like it, you can stream the second volume, The Four Musketeers, from Criterion Collection, Amazon and YouTube; it was filmed in the same shoot and released the next year.]