This week on The Movie Gourmet – new reviews of A Complete Unknown, Queer and Jimmy Carter. Plus my year-end coverage:
- Best Movies of 2024
- Best (and worst) movie-going experiences of 2024
- 2024 Farewells: on the screen
- 2024 Farewells: behind the camera.
REMEMBRANCE
Olivia Hussey was only 15 when she began filming Franco Zeffirelli’s Romeo and Juliet. Zeffirelli had decided to tell the story of impulsive, over-dramatic teenage love with actual teenage actors, and Hussey rewarded him with a rapturous and genuine performance. She worked with Zeffirelli again in the best-ever biblical epic, Jesus of Nazareth, as Mary, mother of Jesus.
CURRENT MOVIES
- Anora: human spirit vs the oligarchs. In theaters.
- A Complete Unknown: a genius and his time. In theaters.
- Conclave: explosive secrets? in the Vatican?. In theaters.
- Blitz: one brave, resourceful kid amid the horrors. AppleTV.
- A Real Pain: whose pain is it? In theaters.
- The Outrun: facing herself without the bottle. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandngo.
- The Remarkable Life of Ibelin: totally unexpected. Netflix.
- Queer: forty-five minutes of fine romantic drama, and then the bizarre. In theaters.
- The Settlers: reckoning with the ugly past. MUBI.
- Emilia Pérez: four women yearn amid Mexico’s drug violence. Netflix.
- Chasing Chasing Amy: the origins of love, fictional and otherwise. In theaters.
- Kneecap: sláinte! Amazon, AppleTV.
- Will & Harper: old friends adjust. Netflix.
WATCH AT HOME
From my Best Movies of 2024 – So Far:
- The Bikeriders: they ride, drink and fight, and yet we care. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
- Hit Man: who knew self-invention could be so fun? Netflix.
- Challengers: three people and their desire. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
- La Chimera: six genres for the price of one. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
- In the Summers: they mature, he evolves. Amazon.
- Ghostlight: a family saves itself, in iambic pentameter. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango (included).
- The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed: is she going to be a loser? Amazon, AppleTV, Hulu.
- Sweetheart Deal: a triumph of cinéma vérité. In arthouse theaters.
- Love Lies Bleeding: obsessions and impulses collide. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
- I Saw the TV Glow: brimming with originality. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
ON TV
OK, I’m not saying that Viva Las Vegas (Turner Classic Movies on January 8) is neither a good movie nor an overlooked one, but it’s tough to beat for sheer vibrancy and sexual chemistry. Virtually all Elvis Presley, movies had silly, barely visible plots contrived as an excuse for Elvis to perform a few songs and to canoodle with a pretty female. What’s different about Viva Las Vegas is that his co-star Ann-Margret had the musical talent and charisma to match up with Elvis; her dancing here is captivating. Ann-Margret has confirmed that she and Elvis enjoyed a torrid fling during the shoot, and their lustful passion is evident (meaning that Elvis didn’t need to rely on his acting skills to appear smitten). (BTW the one good Elvis movie was Kid Creole – check it out.)
Director George Sidney (nearing the end of a career making light-hearted musicals) seems so obsessed with Ann-Margret’s derriere, that you can play a drinking game on the extended, lingering shots of her walking away from the camera; don’t blame Sidney – nobody in Kiss Me Kate or Annie, Get Your Gun! was as overtly sexual as Ann-Margret.
