Movies to See Right Now

by
Mon Oncle
Photo caption: Jacques Tati in MON ONCLE

This week on The Movie Gourmet – new reviews of Golden Years and The Taste of Things, plus a festival preview: Get ready for the return of Cinequest.

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 and Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube,
  • The Taste of Things: two passions: culinary and romantic. In arthouse theaters.
  • Golden Years: when dreams diverge. In arthouse 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.
  • 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.

WATCH AT HOME

Olivia Cooke and Thomas Mann in ME AND EARL AND THE DYING GIRL

The most eclectic watch-at-home recommendations you’ll find ANYWHERE:

  • Me and Earl and the Dying Girl: a Must See, perched on the knife edge between comedy and tragedy. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • Youth: a glorious cinematic meditation on life. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • 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.
  • Victoria: a thrill ride filmed in one shot. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, KinoNow.

ON TV

MON ONCLE

On February 27, Turner Classic Movies is presenting what is essentially a survey course in international cinema 1958-1992:

  • Mon Oncle (Jacques Tati, France, 1958)
  • The Virgin Spring (Ingmar Bergman, Sweden, 1960)
  • 8 1/2 (Federico Fellini, Italy, 1963)
  • The Woman in the Dunes (Hiroshi Teshigahara, Japan, 1965)
  • Closely Watched Trains (Jiri Menzel, Czechoslovakia, 1966)
  • The Fireman’s Ball (Milos Forman, Czechoslovakia, 1967)
  • The Last Metro (Francois Truffaut, France, 1980)
  • Babette’s Feast (Gabriel Axel, Denmark, 1987)
  • Indochine (Regis Wargnier, France, 1992)

8 1/2 and Mon Oncle are on my fifty or so Greatest Movies of All Time. The Fireman’s Ball and Babette’s Feast are two of my personal favorite films. (On the other hand, The Woman in the Dunes is a two-and-a-half hour slog.)

Of these, I’m highlighting Mon Oncle, Jacques Tati’s masterful fish-out-of-water satire of contemporary consumerism and modernist culture. In its deadpan way, I think it may be the most deeply funny movie of all time. If you have strong feelings (either way) for Mid-century Modern style, be patient and settle in. There’s very little dialogue and lots of sly observational physical humor. Tati’s use of ambient noise/sounds in the very spare soundtrack is pure genius.

MON ONCLE