Movies

Movies to See Right Now

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Patrick Stewart and Macon Blair in GREEN ROOM. photo courtesy of Scott Green/© A24.
Patrick Stewart and Macon Blair in GREEN ROOM. Photo: Scott Green/© A24.

My recommended movies in theaters this week:

  • The bloody thriller Green Room is a fresh and satisfying, well, bloody thriller.  Very intense and very violent.  Director Jeremy Saulnier (Blue Ruin) proves again that he’s the rising master of the genre movie.
  • If you like dystopian sci-fi, then the satire High-Rise is for you.  Otherwise, not a Must See.
  • Thriller meets thinker in Eye in the Sky, a parable from modern drone warfare starring Helen Mirren and with a wonderful final performance from the late Alan Rickman. This movie has been out since March and has shown remarkable staying power.

The mismatched buddy movie Dough is light, fluffy and empty – just like a Twinkie.

My Stream of the Week is the thought-provoking documentary The Brainwashing of My Dad, which explores how right-wing media impacts the mood and personality of its consumers as well as their political outlook. The Brainwashing of My Dad is available streaming on Amazon Video, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.

On May 19, Turner Classic Movies bring us Roger Corman’s time-capsule LSD exploitation film The Trip, which is featured in my Bad Movie Festival (scroll down to No. 9). Peter Fonda buys acid from Dennis Hopper and trips at Bruce Dern’s house – but wanders away to stagger down Sunset Boulevard.

On May 20, TCM airs a time capsule from the 1970s, the crime/revenge drama The Outfit, starring Robert Duvall, Linda Black and Joe Don Baker. The supporting cast is itself an homage to 1950s film noir: Robert Ryan (mob kingpin), Timothy Carey (chief henchman), Jane Greer, Elisha Cook Jr., Marie Windsor and Richard Jaeckel. The Outfit is the masterpiece of director John Flynn, whose other work consisted of pedestrian action movies.

Duvall pisses off Timothy Carey in THE OUTFIT
Robert Duvall pisses off Timothy Carey in THE OUTFIT

HIGH-RISE: the villain is an oligarchy

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Tom Hiddleston in HIGH-RISE. Photo courtesy of the San Francisco Film Society.
Tom Hiddleston in HIGH-RISE. Photo courtesy of the San Francisco Film Society.

The dystopian sci-fi satire High-Rise, adapted from a J.G. Ballard novel, makes a droll and cynical comment on our species.  Taking place in the near future, the very wealthy live on the top floors of a self-contained high-rise, just above the middle class.  Human greed and jealousy creates scarcity for the residents – not Third World-type scarcity, but scarcity of amenities like swimming pool access and power brownouts.  Class competition erupts and a morbid descent into murderous chaos ensues.  We plunge into this complacent, and then hellish, world from the perspective of a young middle class striver (Tom Hiddleston).

The designer of the complex of high-rises (Jeremy Irons) lives in a luxurious penthouse with a staggeringly pastoral garden.  The character’s name is Royal, but he’s not the ruler.  (We actually come to wish that he were benignly in charge.)  And despite his trappings, Royal is not the omnipotent Bond-type villain.   The villain turns out instead to be an oligarchy of the One Percent, along with the darkest aspects of every character’s humanness.

Tom Hiddleston is fine, and the rest of the cast is solid.   The two standouts are Jeremy Irons as Royal and Sienna Miller, dressed in Carnaby Street retro, as a deliciously voracious man-hunter.  The wonderful Elisabeth Moss is wasted in a role where she just doesn’t have much to do.

I saw High-Rise at the 59th San Francisco International Film Festival (SFIFF). It opens in Bay Area theaters tomorrow.

GREEN ROOM: blood and suspense

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Imogen Poots in GREEN ROOM
Imogen Poots in GREEN ROOM

The bloody thriller Green Room is a fresh and satisfying, well, bloody thriller. A vagabond rock band (Anton Yelchin, Alia Shawkat and a couple of others) finds themselves playing a gig at a remote white nationalist compound in the woodsy Northwest. Inadvertently, they witness a murder and the chief skinhead (Patrick Stewart!) needs to eliminate all the witnesses. The band members and a local girl (Imogen Poots) are trapped in a room with just one way out, as the skinheads send in waves of machete- and shotgun-wielding thugs and vicious pit bulls. Who will survive and how?

Director Jeremy Saulnier proves again that he’s the rising master of the genre movie.  Saulnier’s writing and directorial debut was 2014’s Blue Ruin, an entirely fresh take on the revenge thriller. An audience favorite on the festival circuit in 2013, Blue Ruin didn’t get a theatrical release, and I would have missed it entirely but for a suggestion from my friend Jose.   In Blue Ruin, Saulnier was responsible for the wholly original lead character and the intense pace of the film, along with the meticulously economical storytelling; the exposition never relies on even one extra word of dialogue.  Blue Ruin is available on DVD from Netflix and streaming from Netflix Instant, Amazon Instant, iTunes, Vudu, Google Play, YouTube and Xbox Video.

In his superb leading performance in Blue Ruin, Macon Blair was believable both as a damaged down-and-outer and as a man-on-a-mission.  In Green Room, Blair plays Gabe, the put-upon middle manager  of Patrick Stewart’s  compound.  Blair is just so interesting an actor.  Here, he brings an unusual humanity  to his role as a henchman.

The actor who drives the story, however, is Imogen Poots.  Her character is very practical – realistic enough to see that the situation is hopeless.  At first, she is numbed by the murder of her friend.  But when she finally decides that she is going to survive – watch out!  Since 2012, Poots has becoming a preferred indie leading lady with Greetings from Tim Buckley, A Late Quartet , The Look of Love, A Country Called Home, Green Room and her most complex role so far in the upcoming Frank & Lola.   Here in Green Room, she’s a force of nature.

Once again, Saulnier delivers a very fresh and original genre movie.  The total effect is very intense and very violent.   If you’re okay with some gory violence, then Green Room is a thrill ride worth taking.

Movies to See Right Now

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Alan Rickman in EYE IN THE SKY
Alan Rickman in EYE IN THE SKY

Here’s my slate of recommended movies in theaters this week:

    • Thriller meets thinker in Eye in the Sky, a parable from modern drone warfare starring Helen Mirren and with a wonderful final performance from the late Alan Rickman.  This movie has been out since March and has shown remarkable staying power.
    • Eccentric meets quirky in the historical comedy Elvis & Nixon, with Michael Shannon and Kevin Spacey.
    • Everybody Wants Some!! is a dead-on 1980 time capsule and an amusing frolic with lots of ball busting and girl chasing – but probably more fun for a heterosexual male audience.

Tom Hiddleston makes a believable Hank Williams, but that can’t save the plodding I Saw the Light, which fails to capture any of the pathos in Hank’s life and death. The mismatched buddy movie Dough is light, fluffy and empty – just like a Twinkie.

My Stream of the Week is the Lily Tomlin vehicle Grandma, which is worthwhile watching just for the searing performance by Sam Elliott. Grandma is available to stream from Amazon Video, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.

All About Eve: "Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy night!"
All About Eve: “Fasten your seatbelts, it’s going to be a bumpy night!”

On May 7, Turner Classic Movies brings us one of the greatest movies of all time – All About Eve (1950). Bette Davis plays the middle-aging Broadway superstar Margot Channing, who fears losing her popularity with age. Who can eclipse her in the dog eat dog world of show biz? George Sanders is wonderful as the cynical critic Addison DeWitt, whose bimbo de jour is played by Marilyn Monroe. All About Eve was nominated for fourteen Oscars and won six.

1973’s The French Connection won five Oscars, including Best Picture and statues for Director William Friedkin and for star Gene Hackman. Hackman turned in an iconic performance as the driven, politically incorrect police detective Popeye Doyle. The film features a deliciously sly supporting performance by Fernando Rey, and also boosted the career of Roy Scheider (who played Doyle’s sidekick). The French Connection also features one of the greatest movie chase scenes. It plays on Turner Classic Movies on May 11.

Stream of the Week: GRANDMA – worth seeing for ten minutes of Sam Elliott

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Julia Garner and Lily Tomlin in GRANDMA
Julia Garner and Lily Tomlin in GRANDMA

I don’t throw around the term “genius” loosely, but Lily Tomlin’s imagination and comic timing really merits the term.  It’s always a pleasure to watch her work and the Tomlin vehicle Grandma, although minor Tomlin, is worthwhile.  Tomlin plays a crusty retiree whose high school-age granddaughter (Julia Garner) shows up at her door with an urgent need that she doesn’t want to tell her mother (Marcia Gay Harden) about.  They go on an adventurous quest for a solution – all in suburban LA.

Grandma is not a great movie, but it’s much more than a curmudgeonly geezer movie. Writer-director Paul Weitz, who co-wrote and co-directed About a Boy,  gives Tomlin a vivid character to play, and there are some excellent performances for Tomlin to interact with.  Judy Greer is brilliant as Tomlin’s recent lover.  And this is the final performance for one of my favorites, the late Elizabeth Peña (Down and Out in Beverly Hills, Lone Star).

The biggest surprise in Grandma is Sam Elliott, who is ALWAYS good, but I’ve never seen him explode in as searing a performance as this.  It’s remarkable, and Elliott steals the movie.

Grandma is available to stream from Amazon Video, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.

Movies to See Right Now

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Devin Druid in LOUDER THAN BOMBS
Devin Druid in LOUDER THAN BOMBS

I’m still covering the 59th San Francisco International Film Festival (SFIFF); the fest runs through May 5. Throughout the fest, I’ll be linking more festival coverage to my SFFIF 2016 page, including both features and movie recommendations. Follow me on Twitter for the very latest coverage.Here’s some of my SFIFF coverage:

I’m also writing about the fine slate of documentaries at this weekend’s International Film Festival of North Hollywood (IFFNOHO).

Here’s my slate of recommended movies in theaters this week:

    • Critical reception has been mixed on the intricately constructed family drama Louder Than Bombs, but I strongly recommend it.
    • Ethan Hawke’s performance makes the Chet Baker biopic Born to Be Blue a success.
    • Thriller meets thinker in Eye in the Sky, a parable from modern drone warfare starring Helen Mirren and with a wonderful final performance from the late Alan Rickman.
    • Eccentric meets quirky in the historical comedy Elvis & Nixon, with Michael Shannon and Kevin Spacey.
    • I enjoyed every minute of Jake Gyllenhaal’s breakdown in Demolition (but was ambivalent about why I did).
    • Everybody Wants Some!! is a dead-on 1980 time capsule and an amusing frolic with lots of ball busting and girl chasing – but probably more fun for a heterosexual male audience.

Tom Hiddleston makes a believable Hank Williams, but that can’t save the plodding I Saw the Light, which fails to capture any of the pathos in Hank’s life and death.  The mismatched buddy movie Dough is light, fluffy and empty – just like a Twinkie.

My Stream of the Week is the offbeat documentary Meet the Hitlers, about those few people who choose NOT to change their birth name of “Hitler”. Meet the Hitlers is available for streaming rental from Amazon Video and Vudu and for streaming purchase from iTunes.

Screenwriter Anthony Veiller fleshed out a very brief Hemingway short story, resulting in Robert Siodmak’s compelling 1946 film noir The Killers, which Turner Classic Movies airs on May 4. The Killers was the screen debut of former circus acrobat Burt Lancaster and the breakthrough for the 23-year-old Ava Gardner. The toughest of noir tough guys – Charles McGraw and Broderick Crawford are hunting down Lancaster for offending their mob boss…and the clock is ticking.

Ava Gardner and Burt Lancaster in THE KILLERS
Ava Gardner and Burt Lancaster in THE KILLERS
Charles McGraw (left) and Broderick Crawford (center) are the title characters in THE KILLERS
Charles McGraw (left) and Broderick Crawford (center) are the title characters in THE KILLERS

DOUGH: light, fluffy and empty

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DOUGH
DOUGH

The British comedy Dough treads the familiar territory of the mismatched buddy movie, specifically the Old Guy/Young Guy type.  Dough is distinguished from the rest of the genre by a culture clash element and the eminent actor Jonathan Pryce.  The story is set in contemporary London and the Old Guy is an Orthodox Jewish bakeshop owner (Pryce) and the Young Guy is a Muslim African refugee drug dealer (Jerome Holder).

The main characters are thrown together uncomfortably in the bakeshop, which is inexorably dying until Young Guy accidentally launches a new product line when he drops marijuana into the dough.  Suddenly business begins to boom, and all would be well but for two villains, a reptilian business rival and a scary skinhead drug lord.

Jonathan Pryce and Holder act as well as they can with this material, as does the sprightly Pauline Collins (Shirley Valentine).  But you’ve seen every one of Dough’s plot developments in a movie before.  The villains and the physical comedy are WAY too broad.  Overall, Dough is better than the average sitcom on broadcast TV, but pretty banal.

Light, fluffy and empty, Dough is the Twinkie of movies. I don’t choose to eat Twinkies myself, but I understand that sometimes you might want one.

PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK: a haunting masterpiece on TV

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PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK
PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK

Tomorrow night, Turner Classic Movies will air the enigmatic Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975) by Australian filmmaker Peter Weir.  An Australian girls school goes on an outing to a striking geological formation – and some of the girls and a teacher disappear.  What happened to them? It’s beautiful and hypnotic and haunting.  It’s a film masterpiece, but if you can’t handle ambiguous endings – this ain’t for you.

Weir has gone on to make high quality hits (The Year of Living Dangerously, Witness, Dead Poets Society, The Truman Show, Master and Commander), but Picnic at Hanging Rock – the movie that he made at age 31 – is his most original work.  Besides playing periodically on TCM, Picnic at Hanging Rock is available on DVD from Netflix and streaming from Amazon Instant and Hulu Plus.

Stream of the Week: MEET THE HITLERS

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MEET THE HITLERS
MEET THE HITLERS

In the documentary Meet the Hitlers, we are introduced to those few people who choose NOT to change their birth name of “Hitler”. And it’s a varied bunch. We meet a delightfully confident Missouri teen girl, a workaday Ecuadorian whose parents didn’t know who Hitler was and an affable Utah oldster who might be the most jovial fellow ever to brighten up a chain restaurant. And there’s an Austrian odd duck burdened with enough personal baggage that he surely didn’t need this name. Do they see the name as a curse, and how has it affected them? It’s a theoretical question to us in the audience, but it’s compelling to see the real world responses of the film’s subjects.

And then there’s a mystery about three Americans who HAVE changed the name – because they are the last living relatives of Adolph Hitler. We follow the journalist who has been tracking them down for over a decade. (Documentarian Matt Ogens makes a great editorial choice as to whether to reveal their current names.)

Finally, there’s the disturbing saga of a New Jersey neo-Nazi who is NOT named Adolph Hitler but WANTS to be. Of course, anybody can choose to adorn themselves with a Hitler mustache and swastika tattoos and spew hatespeech, but his choices are affecting not just himself, but his children.

Some of these threads are light-hearted and some are very dark. Meet the Hitlers works so well because Ogens weaves them together so seamlessly. It’s a very successful documentary.

I first reviewed Meet the Hitlers for its premiere at Cinequest 2015. Now Meet the Hitlers is available for streaming rental from Amazon Video and Vudu and for streaming purchase from iTunes.

THE CROSS OF THE MOMENT: the bleakness of the “Or Else”

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THE CROSS OF THE MOMENT
THE CROSS OF THE MOMENT

There’s no slick TED Talk or cool graphics in the compelling and sometimes chilling documentary The Cross of the Moment.  In that way, it’s exactly the film that An Inconvenient Truth was trying NOT to be.  But The Cross of the Moment is actually the more ambitious film because it’s not trying to convince us that global warming exists or is caused by humans – it’s helping us understand the bleakness of the “or else” if we don’t stall or reverse climate change.

Indeed, we hear from talking heads (really, really smart talking heads).  Director Jacob Freydont-Attie has selected scientists who are as able as the great scientific popularizers like Carl Sagan and James Burke.  It’s stripped down, undiluted science from scientists – but ever lively.  As a result, we in the audience are able to connect the dots ourselves.  We are in Deep Shit.  And capitalism itself may keep us from digging our way out.

The International Film Festival of North Hollywood (IFFNOHO) will present the world premiere of The Cross of the Moment on Sunday, May 1.