This week on The Movie Gourmet – new reviews of Poser, Bitterbrush and Both Sides of the Blade, plus a preview of this year’s in-person Cinequest.
REMEMBRANCES
Actor James Caan is mostly remembered for his vivid portrayal of a guy with too much testosterone -Sonny Corleone in The Godfather (Bada bing!). Caan had been working since age 21 in TV series, wih a John Wayne movie thrown in, when he appeared in the TV movie Brian’s Song – a highly popular weeper. He also appeared, with Robert Duvall, in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Rain People. Most underappreciated performance? Probably Rollerball.
Actor Tony Sirico, best known for his Paulie “Walnuts” Gualtieri in The Sopranos, overcame a youth that landed him in Sing Sing to play a slew of movie and TV gangsters (and appear in four Woody Allen films, too.)
CURRENT MOVIES
- Bitterbrush: two women at work. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, redbox.
- Poser: personal plagiarism. In theaters (but very hard to find).
- Both Sides of the Blade: not your conventional love triangle. In theaters.
- Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, a Journey, a Song: reflective artist, reflective movie. In theaters.
- Cha Cha Real Smooth: decent people and their foibles, navigating life. AppleTV.
- Downton Abbey: A New Era: harmless enough. In theaters.
- Everything Everywhere All at Once: often indecipherable and mostly dazzling. In theaters.
- My Donkey, My Lover and I: it had me at the title. In theaters.
- Jazzfest: A News Orleans Story: introducing the perfect 8 days of culture. In theaters.
- Hit the Road: a funny family masks their tough choice. Streaming at Laemmle.
- Like a Rolling Stone: The Life and Times of Ben Fong-Torres: tell me more. Netflix.
WATCH AT HOME
The most eclectic watch-at-home recommendations you’ll find ANYWHERE:
- The Imposter: you gotta see this. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
- Jockey: he finally grapples with himself. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
- Step Into Liquid: “insanely gorgeous” surfing. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
- Riding Giants: obsessive search for the biggest wave to surf. 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.
- 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.
- 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.
ON TV
On July 19, Turner Classic Movies will air one of my Overlooked Noir, Fritz Lang’s While the City Sleeps (1956). A zillionaire dies and leaves his media empire to his feckless playboy son (Vincent Price). The ne’er-do-well scion cruelly dangles the CEO job in front of the company’s top talent, plunging them into a ruthless competition. Whoever solves the Lipstick Killer Murders will win the prize, and plenty of boardroom backstabbing ensues.