Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: A scene from Tracey Arcabasso Smith’s RELATIVE. Courtesy of Gravitas.

This week on The Movie Gourmet – new reviews of the psychological thriller The Origin of Evil, the irresistible documentary Chasing Chasing Amy and the Hong Sang-soo character study The Woman Who Ran.

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. 
  • The Origin of Evil: the angry, the unhinged and the evil. Amazon, AppleTV.
  • 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.
  • Chasing Chasing Amy: origins of love, fictional and otherwise. Waiting for release.
  • The Woman Who Ran: is the payoff worth the slow burn? AppleTV, YouTube.

WATCH AT HOME

Brian Wilson (seated left) in BRIAN WILSON: LONG PROMISED ROAD. Courtesy of Nashville Film Festival.

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

ON TV

Margaret Tallichet in STRANGER ON THE THIRD FLOOR

On June 12, Turner Classic Movies Stranger on the Third Floor named as the first film noir by more scholars than any film. (Personally, I go with the more popular and influential The Maltese Falcon, released 14 months later.) Indeed, due to the groundbreaking cinematography of Nicholas Musaraca, Stranger on the Third Floor did pioneer the look of German Expressionism in an urban American crime drama – so it has the look of a film noir. An indifferent justice system convicts a loser (Elijah Cook, at his most loserly) while an obvious psycho killer (Peter Lorre as a malevolent elf) scurries free.

Even the bland reporter (John Maguire) hates his obnoxious neighbor so much that he has his own murder fantasies. His torment leads to a surreal nightmare. Most of the 1940 audience had probably never seen anything as bizarre as this dream sequence.

Stranger on the Third Floor has its corny aspects. But it’s worth watching for Musaraca’s cinematography – what was in 1940 an entirely fresh look.

Peter Lorre in STRANGER ON THE THIRD FLOOR