This week on The Movie Gourmet – new reviews of Little Richard: I Am Everything and Jews of the Wild West:. Plus a reminder that Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, a Journey, a Song is now available to stream.
Gordon Lightfoot died this week, so it’s fitting to stream the amiable biodoc Gordon Lightfoot: If You Could Read My Mind from Amazon (included with Prime), AppleTV or KinoNow.
CURRENT MOVIES
- Little Richard: I Am Everything: never denying his identity, but renouncing it. In theaters.
- Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, a Journey, a Song: a reflective artist, a reflective movie. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
- Jews of the Wild West: desperadoes, cowpunchers…and Jews. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
- Hannah Ha Ha: what makes for human value and fulfillment? Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
- The Lost King: not all cranks are cranky. In theaters.
- Living: what is it to live? Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
- A Dark, Dark Man: rounding up the usual suspects in Kazakhstan. MHz.
- Reggie: it’s not just about Reggie. Netflix.
- I’m an Electric Lampshade: the final score is Doug 1, Expectations 0. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
WATCH AT HOME
The most eclectic watch-at-home recommendations you’ll find ANYWHERE:
- Rodents of Unusual Size: 5 million orange-toothed critters and a Cajun octogenarian. Amazon, AppleTV.
- Satan & Adam: more than an odd couple. Amazon, AppleTV.
- Levinsky Park: refuge for refugees? Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube.
- The Speed Cubers: odd, and then profound. Netflix.
- The 11th Green: a thinking person’s paranoid conspiracy. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
- The Wave: Everything you want in a disaster movie. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
- Magallanes: some wrongs cannot be righted. AppleTV.
ON TV
First, the good movies – on May 9, Turner Classic Movies will be presenting the best work of Preston Sturges: The Lady Eve, The Palm Beach Story, Sullivan’s Travels, Hail the Conquering Hero and The Great McGinty. I’ll be writing more about them on Sunday.
And now, the bad one – on May 11, TCM will air Plan 9 From Outer Space (1959), often ranked as the worst movie of all time and #1 in my Bad Movie Festival.
This movie is so bad that Tim Burton made a Johnny Depp movie about it – Ed Wood, named for its zealously persistent, but pathetic, creator. Ed Wood throws everything at the screen, hoping that something interesting will stick: dying vampire star Bela Lugosi, the TV fortune teller Criswell, the horror movie hostess Vampira, zombie-look-alike pro wrestler Tor Johnson and stock footage of a nuclear explosion. None of it is tied together with any coherence, and it’s all unintentionally funny. This one’s good for the whole family.
Lugosi died while making this film and was replaced by a taller, non-speaking “double”, who stalks about covering his face with his cloak. The double shows up in the trailer.