This week on The Movie Gourmet – a new review of the Jennifer Lawrence comedy No Hard Feelings, and I warn you away from Wife of a Spy. Coming up: a new review of Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City.
REMEMBRANCE
Prolific actor Julian Sands earned 156 screen credits and will be best remembered for A Room with a View.
CURRENT MOVIES
- No Hard Feelings: an amusement with Jennifer Lawrence. In 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.
- Tetris: corporate thriller amid communist collapse. AppleTV.
- 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.
- 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.
WATCH AT HOME
The most eclectic watch-at-home recommendations you’ll find ANYWHERE:
- Blue Ruin: fresh take on the revenge thriller. Amazon, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
- Revenge: The web is spun. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
- 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 July 1, Turner Classic Movies presents what is perhaps the best of director Anthony Mann’s “psychological Westerns”, Winchester ’73 (1950) with James Stewart. Winchester ’73 taps the quest and revenge genres, and it has the Western’s requisite Indian battle and climactic shootout. Westerns were oft about Good versus Bad, but Mann makes Jimmy Stewart’s character in Winchester ’73 much more complex and morally ambiguous – and he has what we now call “unresolved issues”. The bad guys are Dan Duryea at his oiliest and Stephen McNally at his most brutish. The 29-year-old Shelly Winters finds herself as the object of several characters’ desires. Millard Mitchell is perfect as Jimmy’s sidekick. One of my favorite character actors, Jay C. Flippen, shows up as a cavalry sergeant.
