This week on The Movie Gourmet – a new review of Drift. Getting ready for the Oscars, I just rewatched Best Picture nominees Anatomy of a Fall, Past Lives and Killers of the Flower Moon with The Wife and her father. They all stand up, with Oppenheimer, as the top four on my Best Movies of 2023.
REMEMBRANCE
Carl Weathers retired from pro football at 26, played a football player in Semi-tough, and then the unforgettable Apollo Creed in the Rocky franchise. He recently starred in The Mandalorian and directed some of it. Personal note: his film Action Jackson was playing theaters in Santiago, Chile, when I visited in 1984.
CURRENT MOVIES
- Anatomy of a Fall: family history, with life or death stakes. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
- American Fiction: this can’t be happening. In theaters.
- Killers of the Flower Moon: an epic tale of epic betrayal. AppleTV (subscription), Amazon.
- The Holdovers: three souls must evolve beyond their losses. In theaters, Amazon.
- Poor Things: brazen, dazzling, feminist and very funny. In theaters.
- Dream Scenario: but it can’t be my fault, can it? Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
- Drift: escaping the horrors, but not yet the trauma. In arthouse theaters.
- Ferrari: his racecars are easy, his women are not. In theaters and streaming.
- The Boys in the Boat: underdogs soar. In theaters and streaming.
- The Zone of Interest: next door to the unthinkable. In theaters.
- Driving Madeleine: still spirited at 92. In arthouse theaters.
- Rustin: greatness, overlooked. Netflix.
- Maestro: not what she bargained for. Netflix.
- The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial: just what, not who, is on trial here? Showtime/Paramount+.
- The Crime Is Mine: better after Huppert shows up. In arthouse theaters.
- Cypher: the year’s most original movie? Hulu.
- Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy: a movie and its time. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
WATCH AT HOME
The most eclectic watch-at-home recommendations you’ll find ANYWHERE:
- Victoria: a thrill ride filmed in one shot. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, KinoNow.
- The Gift: three people revealed. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
- Inez & Doug & Kira: the tangle of love, friendship and bipolar disorder. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
- The Handmaiden: gorgeous, erotic and a helluva plot. Amazon, Vudu.
- Run & Jump: a romance, a family drama and a promising first feature. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
- Youth: a glorious cinematic meditation on life. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
- Me and Earl and the Dying Girl: a Must See, perched on the knife edge between comedy and tragedy. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
ON TV
On February 17, Turner Classic Movies presents the classic film noir The Asphalt Jungle. At the most recent Noir City film festival, film scholars Eddie Muller and Imogen Sarah Smith explained that the Production Code banned the depiction of the means of crime; director John Huston blasted right through that stop sign, making this the protype of all heist movies, with the intricate planning, the assembling of the team and then the real-time heist itself.
The crooks do pull off the big heist…and then things begin to go wrong. There aren’t many noirs with better casting – the crooks include Sterling Hayden, Louis Calhern, Sam Jaffe and James Whitmore. Lesser known Marc Lawrence and Brad Dexter light up their parts, too.
The 23-year-old Marilyn Monroe plays Calhern’s companion in her first real speaking part. Marilyn plays an alibi witness; when the police commissioner asks about her credibility (“How did she impress you?”) the interviewing detective replies, “Very much! She’s some babe!” Marilyn ‘s stardom must have soared by the time The Asphalt Jungle reached Italian theaters, because she is the featured figure in the Italian movie poster. Anyway, the final scene between Monroe and Calhern is both poignant and funny.
How noir is it? Even the cop who breaks the case goes to jail.
