This week on The Movie Gourmet – new reviews of Mickey 17, Chaos: The Manson Murders and Bob Trevino Likes It. And my Cinequest coverage continues.
Next week: Art for Everybody, the dark biodoc of the “Painter of Light,” Thomas Kinkade.
Note: The Brutalist is now renting from the VOD platforms for under ten dollars.
CURRENT MOVIES
- Mickey 17: lovable loser in space. In theaters.
- Chaos: The Manson Murders: the facts still are incredible. Netflix.
- Bob Trevino Likes It: without dad’s encouragement, she’s stuck. In theaters.
- Anora: human spirit vs the oligarchs. In theaters and Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
- A Complete Unknown: a genius and his time. In theaters and Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
- The Last Showgirl: desperation amid the rhinestones. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
- The Brutalist: buffeted by fate, can his soul survive? Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango..
- Hard Truths: trapped inside her own rage. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango..
- The Room Next Door: Tilda and Julianne, life and death. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
- Conclave: explosive secrets? in the Vatican?. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
- A Real Pain: whose pain is it? Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
- Sly Lives! (aka The Burden of Black Genius): rise, fall and legacy of a groundbreaking prodigy. Hulu.
- Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl: another smart and charming romp. Netflix.
- Emilia Pérez: four women yearn amid Mexico’s drug violence. Netflix.
ON TV
Here’s a rarity – on March 23, Turner Classic Movies brings us The Spiritualist (also The Amazing Mr. X), a 1948 B-picture that I hadn’t heard of until I saw it at last year’s Noir City at Oakland. It’s only 78 minutes long, and it’s a lot of fun. A cunning phony psychic (Turhan Bey) has convinced a wealthy widow that he can communicate with the dead, and she’s moved him into her mansion. Her world-wise daughter (Cathy O’Donnell) isn’t buying his act. But, while he is a con artist, he’s a really, really skilled one, and he pulls off illusion after illusion to keep the gullible widow believing – it’s like watching a magic show. The Spiritualist was shot by John Alton, one of the two greatest film noir cinematographers, and he makes the mansion extra spooky and the tricks extra sinister.
This was a rare leading role for Turhan Bey, and he makes a very charismatic charlatan, oozing suave charm and faux authority. Bey, an Austrian with a Turkish father and a Jewish Czechoslovakian mother, knocked around Hollywood playing exotic characters and never getting the lead in an A-picture. He has a very interesting Wikipedia page.
