This week on The Movie Gourmet – a new review of Wicked Little Letters. I also recently added Take Aim at the Police Van (wild title, wild movie) to my collection of Overlooked Neo-noir.
REMEMBRANCES
Documentarian Morgan Spurlock broke through with his McDonalds exposé Super Size Me.
Casting director and producer Fred Roos enhanced the films of Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas by advocating for then unknown actors like Al Pacino, Harrison Ford, Tom Cruise, Carrie Fisher, Richard Dreyfuss, Rob Lowe, Cindy Williams, Patrick Swayze, Matt Dillon and Mackenzie Phillips.
CURRENT MOVIES
- Challengers: three people and their desire. In theaters.
- La Chimera: six genres for the price of one. In arthouse theaters.
- Relative: a loving, but insistent investigation. Amazon (included with prime), AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
- Wicked Little Letters: a sparkling Jessie Buckley and an interesting take on repression. In theaters.
- Wildcat: often admirable, rarely fun. In theaters.
- Civil War: a most cautionary tale. In theaters.
- Ennio: the good the bad and the transcendent. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube.
- After Antarctica: one man, two poles. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube.
- Matter of Mind: My Parkinson’s: real, uplifting, essential. On PBS and the PBS App.
- Monkey Man: a massacre, one bad guy at a time. In theaters.
- The Taste of Things: two passions – culinary and romantic. Amazon, AppleTV.
- Golden Years: when dreams diverge. Amazon, Vudu, YouTube.
- The Woman Who Ran: is the payoff worth the slow burn? AppleTV, YouTube.
WATCH AT HOME
The most eclectic watch-at-home recommendations you’ll find ANYWHERE:
- Eye in the Sky: thriller meets thinker. Max, Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
- Leave No Trace: his demons, not hers. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
- The August Virgin: in search of reinvention. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
- Pale Flower: bracing neo-noir. Criterion.
- Poser: personal plagiarism. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
- Brian Wilson: Long Promised Road: a genius opens up. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
- Witness to Murder: can she believe her own eyes? AppleTV.
- The Rider: a life’s passion is threatened. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
- The Lost City of Z: the historical adventure revived. Amazon (included with Prime), AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
ON TV
On June 1, Turner Classic Movies will air the 1943 masterpiece The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, a remarkably textured portrait of a man over four decades and his struggles to evolve into new eras. Written and directed by the great British filmmakers Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, this is a movie with a sharp message to 1940s audiences about modernity, as well as a subtle exploration of privilege that will resonate today.