Chi-Raq

Here are my extensive recommendations, beginning with six on my list of Best Movies of 2015. This is the very best time to go to the movies.  Scroll all the way down for six bonus picks on video.

• Mustang, about exuberant Turkish teenage girls challenging traditional repression.
• Creed, the newest and entirely fresh chapter in the Rocky franchise; it’s about the internal struggle of three people, not just The Big Fight.
• The Irish romantic drama Brooklyn is an audience-pleaser with a superb performance by Saoirse Ronan.
• Youth, a glorious cinematic meditation on life with Michael Caine.
• Spotlight – a riveting, edge-of-your-seat drama with some especially compelling performances.
• The Big Short – a supremely entertaining thriller – both funny and anger-provoking.

Here are ten more choices. There’s something for everyone.

• Legend – a true-life story and the best crime drama of 2015. Tom Hardy plays both gangster twin brothers.
• Carol – a vividly told tale of forbidden love.
• Very Semi-Serious – a Must See documentary if you love the cartoons in The New Yorker. It’s showing on HBO.
• Macbeth – an excellent new version of Shakespeare’s exploration of ambition. Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard star.
• Hitchcock/Truffaut – a Must See for serious movie fans, this insightful documentary probes documentary Alfred Hitchcock’s body of work.
• Chi-Raq: Spike Lee’s plea for inner city peace with justice, AND it’s a sex comedy.
• Bridge of Spies – Steven Spielberg’s Cold War espionage thriller with Tom Hanks, featuring a fantastic performance by Mark Rylance.
• Trumbo – the historical drama that reflects on the personal cost of principles.
• Don Verdean – a dark satire on the faux scientists embraced by the Christian Right.
• Spectre – action and vengeance from a determined James Bond.

Today Turner Classic Movies is presenting an entire day of the irresistible William Powell and Myrna Loy as Nick and Nora in The Thin Man, After the Thin Man, Another Thin Man, Shadow of the Thin Man, The Thin Man Goes Home and Song of the Thin Man.  And on New Year’s Day, TCM is showing the superb proto-noir M (1931) – if you’re going to see one pre-war European film – see this one.

And to binge watch on this Holiday weekend, here are six more movies from my Best Movies of 2015 – So Far that are available to stream or to rent on DVD:

• The smartest road trip movie ever, The End of the Tour. It’s available streaming from Amazon Instant, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.
• The unforgettable coming of age dramedy Me and Earl and the Dying Girl. It’s available streaming from Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play and now available to rent on DVD from Netflix and Redbox.
• The extraordinary Russian drama Leviathan, a searing indictment of society in post-Soviet Russia. Leviathan is available streaming on Amazon Instant Video, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube, Google Play and Flixster.
• The hilariously dark Argentine comedy Wild Tales. It’s available on DVD from Netflix and streaming from Amazon Instant Video, iTunes, Vudu and Xbox Video.
• The Brian Wilson biopic Love & Mercy, the story of an extraordinarily gifted person’s escape from torment. Love & Mercy is available on DVD from Netflix and Redbox and streaming from Amazon Instant Video, iTunes and Vudu.
• The gentle, thoughtful and altogether fresh dramedy I’ll See You In My Dreams with Blythe Danner, available to stream from Amazon Instant Video, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.

If you’ve been waiting all year for excellent cinema, you’re in luck. This week, I have SIXTEEN recommendations, with SIX of them on my list of Best Movies of 2015.  Scroll all the way down for six bonus picks on video.

• Mustang, about exuberant Turkish teenage girls challenging traditional repression.  You can find Mustang in San Francisco and San Rafael, and it’s opening in San Jose on January 1.
• Creed, the newest and entirely fresh chapter in the Rocky franchise; it’s about the internal struggle of three people, not just The Big Fight.
• The Irish romantic drama Brooklyn is an audience-pleaser with a superb performance by Saoirse Ronan.
• Youth, a glorious cinematic meditation on life with Michael Caine.
• Spotlight – a riveting, edge-of-your-seat drama with some especially compelling performances.
• The Big Short – a supremely entertaining thriller – both funny and anger-provoking.

Here are ten more choices. There’s something for everyone.

• Legend – a true-life story and the best crime drama of 2015. Tom Hardy plays both gangster twin brothers.
• Carol – a vividly told tale of forbidden love.
• Very Semi-Serious – a Must See documentary if you love the cartoons in The New Yorker. It’s showing on HBO.
• Macbeth – an excellent new version of Shakespeare’s exploration of ambition. Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard star.
• Hitchcock/Truffaut – a Must See for serious movie fans, this insightful documentary probes documentary Alfred Hitchcock’s body of work.
• Chi-Raq: Spike Lee’s plea for inner city peace with justice, AND it’s a sex comedy.
• Bridge of Spies – Steven Spielberg’s Cold War espionage thriller with Tom Hanks, featuring a fantastic performance by Mark Rylance.
• Trumbo – the historical drama that reflects on the personal cost of principles.
• Don Verdean – a dark satire on the faux scientists embraced by the Christian Right.
• Spectre – action and vengeance from a determined James Bond.

Turner Classic Movies brings us the recently restored film noir Too Late for Tears on December 29.  On New Year’s Eve, TCM is presenting an entire day of the irresistible William Powell and Myrna Loy as Nick and Nora in The Thin Man, After the Thin Man, Another Thin Man, Shadow of the Thin Man, The Thin Man Goes Home and Song of the Thin Man.

And on New Year’s Day, TCM is showing the superb proto-noir M (1931), Peter Lorre stars as a serial killer who preys on children. It’s a masterpiece by master director Fritz Lang (Metropolis), who later fled the Nazis to Hollywood and made several fine film noirs in the 50s. Lorre is compelling as a man plagued with a twisted compulsion. There’s no explicit violence, but you’ve never seen a more chilling solitary balloon. The city’s criminal underclass races with the police to hunt down the monster. The climax is a most unusual courtroom scene. If you’re going to see one pre-war European film – see this one.

And for the Holidays, here are movies from my Best Movies of 2015 – So Far that are available to stream or to rent on DVD:

• The smartest road trip movie ever, The End of the Tour. It’s available streaming from Amazon Instant, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.
• The unforgettable coming of age dramedy Me and Earl and the Dying Girl. It’s available streaming from Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play and now available to rent on DVD from Netflix and Redbox.
• The extraordinary Russian drama Leviathan, a searing indictment of society in post-Soviet Russia. Leviathan is available streaming on Amazon Instant Video, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube, Google Play and Flixster.
• The hilariously dark Argentine comedy Wild Tales. It’s available on DVD from Netflix and streaming from Amazon Instant Video, iTunes, Vudu and Xbox Video.
• The Brian Wilson biopic Love & Mercy, the story of an extraordinarily gifted person’s escape from torment. Love & Mercy is available on DVD from Netflix and Redbox and streaming from Amazon Instant Video, iTunes and Vudu.
• The gentle, thoughtful and altogether fresh dramedy I’ll See You In My Dreams with Blythe Danner, available to stream from Amazon Instant Video, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.