This week on The Movie Gourmet – new reviews of the delightful Scrapper and Sam Pollard’s documentary on Negro League baseball, The League. As Cinequest moves across Silicon Valley from San Jose to Mountain View, here’s my Cinequest 2023 coverage, including my Best of Cinequest.
This week, I saw Oppenheimer for the second time with The Wife. If you haven’t yet seen it, I urge you to do it now while it’s still on the big screen.
CURRENT MOVIES
- Scrapper: a funny film about connection and second chances. In theaters.
- The League: untold stories. Amazon.
- Oppenheimer: creator of a monster controlled by others. In theaters.
- Between Two Worlds: friendships on a really bad job. In theaters.
- Afire: the summer of his discontent. In arthouse theaters.
- Past Lives: a profound and refreshing romance. In theaters.
- Barbie: a marriage of the intelligent and the silly. In theaters.
- Theater Camp: show people in the making. In theaters.
- Asteroid City: deadpan, witty, whimsical…and who cares? In theaters.
- Rock Hudson: All That Heaven Allowed: leading man in the closet. HBO Max.
- Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny: just a whole lotta fun. In theaters.
- No Hard Feelings: an amusement with Jennifer Lawrence. In theaters and can be purchased on Amazon, Vudu YouTube.
WATCH AT HOME
The most eclectic watch-at-home recommendations you’ll find ANYWHERE:
- The Secret in Their Eyes: Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
- Land Ho!: rowdy geezer roadtrip to Iceland. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
- Beast: finally unleashed … and untethered. Amazon (included with Prime), AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
- Won’t You Be My Neighbor?: gentleness from ferocity. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
- The Imposter: a jaw dropper. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
- NUTS!: the rise and fall of a testicular empire. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
- The Stopover: PTSD takes more than an umbrella drink…Amazon, AppleTV.
ON TV
On August 29, Turner Classic Movies presents the taut 77 minutes of Woman on the Run, one of my Overlooked Noir. When the police coming looking for a terrified murder witness, they are surprised to find his wife (Ann Sheridan) both ignorant of his whereabouts and unconcerned. And the wife has a Mouth On Her, much to the dismay of the detective (Robert Keith), who keeps walking into a torrent of sass. She starts hunting hubbie, along with the cops, a reporter (Dennis O’Keefe) and the killer, and they all careen through a life-or-death manhunt. Another star of Woman on the Run is San Francisco itself, from the hilly neighborhoods to the bustling streets to the dank and foreboding waterfront.