This week on The Movie Gourmet – a reminder about the brilliant but overlooked The Worst Person in the World and an important music documentary, Heartworn Highways. And a new review of the impressionistic doc Dreaming Walls: Inside the Chelsea Hotel.
REMEMBRANCE
Prolific actor Clu Gulager has died at 93. The last of Gulager’s 165 IMDb credits came just three years ago in Once Upon a Time…In Hollywood. Best known for 105 episodes as the sheriff on The Virginian, Gulager made his living by guest appearances in a zillion TV shows from Wagon Train and Have Gun, Will Travel through Ironside, Cannon, CHiPs and Falcon Crest. One of his three characters on The Name of the Game was Rex Dakota. I have just learned that he starred in 72 episodes of a 1960-62 TV Western that, amazingly, I do not remember – The Tall Man, with Barry Sullivan and Pat Garrett and Gulager as Billy the Kid. He also peppered his career with cult movies like The Return of the Living Dead and I’m Gonna Get You Sucka. Gulager teamed with Lee Marvin in Don Siegel’s classic neo-noir The Killers.
Gulager’s best-ever screen performance was in The Last Picture Show as an oil rig foreman who is the illicit squeeze of his boss’ wife (Ellen Burstyn). This guy is trapped in a job he will never improve upon and in an affair he will never control; Gulager perfectly conveys his bitter dissatisfaction. The Director’s Cut also adds some sizzle to his pool hall sex scene with Jacy (Cybill Shepherd).
CURRENT MOVIES
- A Love Song: bittersweet, heartfelt and funny. In theaters.
- My Old School: how could this happen? In theaters.
- Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris: nothing wrong with a dose of sentimentality once in a while. In theaters.
- Official Competition: egos, power and a perfect ending. In theaters.
- Bitterbrush: two women at work. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, redbox.
- 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.
- Montana Story: a family secret simmers, then explodes. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
- Compartment No. 6: a surprising journey to connection. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
- Cha Cha Real Smooth: decent people and their foibles, navigating life. AppleTV.
- My Donkey, My Lover and I: it had me at the title. In theaters.
- Hit the Road: a funny family masks their tough choice. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
- Like a Rolling Stone: The Life and Times of Ben Fong-Torres: tell me more. Netflix.
- The Tale of King Crab: storytelling at its best. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
WATCH AT HOME
The most eclectic watch-at-home recommendations you’ll find ANYWHERE:
- Dreaming Walls: Inside the Chelsea Hotel: the artsy and the quirky. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
- The Worst Person in the World: funny, poignant, original and profoundly authentic. Amazon, Apple, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
- Heartworn Highways: like desperados waitin’ for a train. AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, Showtime.
- Everything Everywhere All at Once: often indecipherable and mostly dazzling. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
- Jockey: he finally grapples with himself. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
- The Visitor: self-isolation no longer. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
- The Bra: Just your average silent Azerbaijani comedy. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
- The East: how do we punish corporate crime? HBO, Amazon, AppleTV, redbox.
- Project Nim: a chimp learns the foibles of humans. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube.
- Bombshell: The Hedy Lamar Story: the world’s most beautiful woman and her secrets. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, KINO Now.
- The Gatekeepers: winning tactics make for a losing strategy. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
- Short Term 12: what a cast! Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
- Colma: The Musical: a refreshing hoot. Amazon, Vudu, YouTube.
- Auggie: Who do you see when you put on the glasses? Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
ON TV
To my delight, Turner Classic Movies often schedules Richard Lester’s boisterous The Three Musketeers, but, on August 16, is airing it with The Four Musketeers, which was filmed in the same shoot and released the next year (1974). 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. These movies are a hoot.