This week on The Movie Gourmet – The gripping Persian Lessons is opening more widely in LA and the Bay Area. Plus new reviews of the Chilean suspenser Chile ’76, the mesmerizing Italian exploration of of male friendship and self-discovery, The Eight Mountains, and the unpretentious Korean action comedy The Roundup: No Way Out.
REMEMBRANCE
Actor Treat Williams began his career with a string of interesting movies from 1976 through 1981: The Ritz, Hair, and the highly acclaimed Prince of the City. He continued a prolific and respectable career for four more decades, but his films never matched his early ones.
CURRENT MOVIES
- Chile ’76: simmering suspense. In theaters.
- The Eight Mountains: Two men, each finding himself. In theaters.
- BlackBerry: woulda, coulda, shoulda. In theaters.
- Persian Lessons: walking the tightrope. In select arthouse theaters.
- The Blind Man Who Did Not Want to See Titanic: wow – laughs, thrills, love. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
- Sam Now: a mystery solved…and more questions. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
- The Roundup: No Way Out: a loveable lug with a gift for the one-punch knockout. In theaters.
- Body Parts: on-screen sex from the female gaze. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
- Being Mary Tyler Moore: you might just make it after all. HBO.
- Turn Every Page: two masters, two obsessives. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
- Dealing with Dad: two serious topics in an ok comedy. In theaters.
- Rodeo: roller coaster on two wheel. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu.
- Little Richard: I Am Everything: never denying his identity, but renouncing it. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
- Fanny: The Right to Rock: triple threat trailblazers. PBS.
- 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.
- The Lost King: not all cranks are cranky. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
- Living: what is it to live? Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
- A Dark, Dark Man: rounding up the usual suspects in Kazakhstan. MHz.
WATCH AT HOME
The most eclectic watch-at-home recommendations you’ll find ANYWHERE:
- Revenge: The web is spun. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
- Blue Ruin: fresh take on the revenge thriller. Amazon, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
- Listening to Kenny G.: derision, devotion and a hard-working guy. HBO.
- Piggy: surprising and darkly hilarious. Amazon, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
- Riders of Justice: thriller, comedy and much, much more.
- The Bra: Just your average silent Azerbaijani comedy. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
- Drinking Buddies: an unusually genuine romantic comedy. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
ON TV
On June 19, Turner Classic Movies features one of my Overlooked Noir, Pitfall (1948), a noir thriller without either a conventional sap or a conventional femme fatale. Dick Powell plays a WW II vet who is bored with the post-war suburban humdrum, and Lizabeth Scott plays a gal with terrible taste in boyfriends. Neither deserves to be dragged into a thriller, but they are. Raymond Burr, again, makes for a menacing sicko stalker.
