Greetings from Tim Buckley

Movies to See Right Now

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Elisha Cook Jr. finds out that Humphrey Bogart is on to him in the 1941 version of THE MALTESE FALCON

There are two Must See movies in theaters this weekend:

  • Before Midnight, the year’s best romance continuing the story of Ethan Hawke’s Jesse and Julie Delpy’s Celine from Before Sunrise and Before Sunset.
  • Stories We Tell, Sarah Polley’s brilliant documentary about discovering her family’s secrets; unfortunately, Stories We Tell is going to be hard to find in theaters this week, but well worth the trouble.

Both films are on my Best Movies of 2013 – So Far .

The absorbing and thought-provoking eco-terrorism thriller The East is also opening today.

The other best bets in theaters include:

  • The Iceman is a solid true-life crime movie with an outstanding performance by Michael Shannon.
  • Mud, the gripping and thoughtful story of two Arkansas boys embarking on a secret adventure with a man hiding from the authorities – learning more than they expected about love and loyalty. Mud is also one of the best movies of 2013.

Also out right now:

  • HBO’s Behind the Candelabra is familar territory but entertaining, with Michael Douglas’ all-out re-creation of Liberace.
  • Kon-Tiki is a faithful, but underwhelming account of a true life 5,000 mile raft trip across the Pacific.
  • Don’t bother with Baz Luhrman’s flashy, hollow and lame The Great Gatsby.  Re-read the Fitzgerald novel instead – it’s only 192 pages.

The compelling documentary The Central Park Five from Ken Burns, et al, is available streaming from Amazon Instant and other VOD providers. Also available on VOD, Greetings from Tim Buckley is a film for those who want to see an actor depict interior conflict with very little external action. PBS is broadcasting the unexpectedly beautiful documentary Detropia, about the city of Detroit’s collapse and decay.

You can read descriptions and view trailers of upcoming films at Movies I’m Looking Forward To.

My DVD/Stream of the Week is the mobster showcase for Al Pacino, Christopher Walken and Alan Arkin, Stand Up Guys.  Stand Up Guys is available on DVD from Netflix and Redbox and streaming from Vudu, Amazon and several other VOD outlets.

Tonight Turner Classic Movies kicks off its June film noir festival with guest host Eddie Muller (the Czar of Noir) presenting films from the novels of Dashiell Hammett: the 1931 and more famous 1941 versions of The Maltese Falcon, plus the 1936 version (Satan Met a Lady) and The Glass Key.

On June 11, TCM features two of the nastiest noirs:  Detour and The Hitchhiker.

Also, on June 9, TCM is broadcasting the award winning Crumb, the 1994 documentary about counterculture cartoonist Robert Crumb and his bizarrely dysfunctional family.

Movies to See Right Now

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BEFORE MIDNIGHT

There are two Must See movies this weekend:

  • Before Midnight, the year’s best romance continuing the story of Ethan Hawke’s Jesse and Julie Delpy’s Celine from Before Sunrise and Before Sunset.
  • Stories We Tell, Sarah Polley’s brilliant documentary about discovering her family’s secrets.

Both films are on my Best Movies of 2013 – So Far .

The absorbing and thought-provoking eco-terrorism thriller The East is also supposed to be opening today (but I can’t find a theater playing locally).

The other best bets in theaters include:

  • The Iceman is a solid true-life crime movie with an outstanding performance by Michael Shannon.
  • Mud, the gripping and thoughtful story of two Arkansas boys embarking on a secret adventure with a man hiding from the authorities – learning more than they expected about love and loyalty. Mud is also one of the best movies of 2013.

Also out right now:

  • HBO’s Behind the Candelabra is familar territory but entertaining, with Michael Douglas’ all-out re-creation of Liberace.
  • Kon-Tiki is a faithful, but underwhelming account of a true life 5,000 mile raft trip across the Pacific.

The compelling documentary The Central Park Five from Ken Burns, et al, is available streaming from Amazon Instant and other VOD providers. Also available on VOD, Greetings from Tim Buckley is a film for those who want to see an actor depict interior conflict with very little external action.  PBS is broadcasting the unexpectedly beautiful documentary Detropia, about the city of Detroit’s collapse and decay.

I haven’t yet seen the indie Kings of Summer, reputed to be this year’s Moonrise Kingdom, which opens this weekend.  You can read descriptions and view trailers of upcoming films at Movies I’m Looking Forward To.

My DVD/Stream of the Week is the psychological thriller Side Effects.  Side Effects is available on DVD from Netflix and streaming from Vudu,YouTube and GooglePlay.

Movies to See Right Now

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STORIES WE TELL

Stories We Tell, Sarah Polley’s brilliant documentary about discovering her family’s secrets, is an absolute Must See. It’s one of my Best Movies of 2013 – So Far .

The other best bets in theaters include:

  • Mud, the gripping and thoughtful story of two Arkansas boys embarking on a secret adventure with a man hiding from the authorities – learning more than they expected about love and loyalty. Mud is also one of the best movies of 2013.
  • The Iceman is a solid true-life crime movie with an outstanding performance by Michael Shannon.

Also out right now:

  • Kon-Tiki is a faithful, but underwhelming account of a true life 5,000 mile raft trip across the Pacific.
  • The Great Gatsby is flashy but hollow.  Re-read the novel instead.

The compelling documentary The Central Park Five from Ken Burns, et al, is available streaming from Amazon Instant and other VOD providers.  Available on VOD, Greetings from Tim Buckley is a film for those who want to see an actor depict interior conflict with very little external action.

You can read descriptions and view trailers of upcoming films at Movies I’m Looking Forward To.

You’ve got to get ready for next weekend’s release of the year’s best romance, Before Midnight. Therefore my DVD/Stream of the Week are its prequels, Before Sunrise and Before Sunset – director Richard Linklater’s two uncommonly authentic and intelligent romances with Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy.  Both Before Sunrise and Before Sunset are available on DVD from Netflix and streaming on VOD from Amazon , iTunes, Vudu and other VOD outlets.  Before Sunrise is free with Amazon Prime.

As usual for the Memorial Day weekend, Turner Classic Movies will be broadcasting a solid menu of war movies (almost all about WW II).  On May 25, the lineup centers around submarine movies:  Run Silent Run Deep, Torpedo Run, Thunder Afloat (which I haven’t seen) and Up Periscope. The most curious is 1933’s Hell Below, a rare WW I sub movie starring Walter Huston, in which Jimmy Durante boxes a kangeroo.  The best is Operation Pacific, with the great pairing of John Wayne and Patricia Neal.

The WW II classic that I can’t keep from watching is The Best Years of Our Lives.  A war ends, and it’s time to total up the sacrifices made by both those who fought and their loved ones, and to recognize how they have been changed by their experiences.  It’s on my list of Best Patriotic Movies.  TCM will broadcast The Best Years of Our Lives on Memorial Day, May 27.

Movies to See Right Now

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MUD

Now you must catch up on these excellent movie choices before lesser summer movies clog the screens at the multi-plex: 

  • Mud, the gripping and thoughtful story of two Arkansas boys embarking on a secret adventure with a man hiding from the authorities – learning more than they expected about love and loyalty. Mud is also one of the best movies of 2013.
  • At Any Price is a thought-provoking psychological drama and a rare glimpse into modern corporate agriculture.
  • Another thought-provoking father-son drama is The Place Beyond the Pines with Ryan Gosling and Bradley Cooper.
  • The surefire crowd pleaser The Sapphires is a charmer about Australian Aboriginal teens forming a girl group to entertain troops in the Vietnam War.
  • The French In the House is clever, darkly funny and slightly creepy.

Other films out right now: 

  • The Reluctant Fundamentalist offers a compelling performance by Riz Ahmed and a thriller ending, but holes in the story and the miscasting of Kate Hudson dim the effect.
  • Kon-Tiki is a faithful, but underwhelming account of a true life 5,000 mile raft trip across the Pacific.

The compelling documentary The Central Park Five from Ken Burns, et al, is available streaming from Amazon Instant and other VOD providers. Football fans should tune into ESPN’s 30 for 30 for Elway to Marino, an inside look at several astonishing stories from the 1983 NFL draft.  Available on VOD, Greetings from Tim Buckley is a film for those who want to see an actor depict interior conflict with very little external action.

The Iceman, starring Michael Shannon as perhaps the most prolific real-life hit man, is opening this weekend. You can read descriptions and view trailers of upcoming films at Movies I’m Looking Forward To.

You’ve got to get ready for the May 31 release of the year’s best romance, Before Midnight.  Therefore my DVD/Stream of the Week are its prequels, Before Sunrise and Before Sunset – director Richard Linklater’s two uncommonly authentic and intelligent romances with Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy.  Both Before Sunrise and Before Sunset are available on DVD from Netflix and streaming on VOD from Amazon , iTunes, Vudu and other VOD outlets.  Before Sunrise is free with Amazon Prime.

Tomorrow night, Turner Classic Movies will be broadcasting Billy Wilder’s deliciously cynical Ace in the Hole, starring Kirk Douglas as a reporter exploiting and then manipulating a cave rescue.  Released in 1951, it’s as timely a comment on tabloid journalism and infotainment as if it had been made last week.  (Some folks may have seen it under the alternative title The Big Carnival.)

Greetings from Tim Buckley: fascinated yet resentful

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Imogen Poots in GREETINGS FROM TIM BUCKLEY

Greetings from Tim Buckley is a fictionalization of the events around singer-songwriter Jeff Buckley’s appearance at an actual 1991 tribute concert for his father, Tim Buckley.  (The movie’s title comes from the name of the concert.)  The tribute concert was emotionally charged for Jeff Buckley because he had only met his father once before Tim’s death from a drug overdose.  Jeff was not invited to Tim’s funeral, so he accepted the gig primarily to clarify and express his feelings for the father who had abandoned him, but whose career path he was following.  The concert came as Jeff Buckley was just launching his career.  Jeff Buckley himself accidentally drowned six years after the concert at the age of 30.

In the movie, Jeff (Penn Badgley) arrives in NYC for the concert, meets his father’s admirers and musical partners, passes the time hanging out with a concert intern (Imogen Poots) and then performs.  Throughout the film, the audience observes Jeff while he is internally processing his own fascination with and resentment of his father.  Unfortunately, the final scene imagines an encounter that lets Tim off the parenting hook to some degree.

Penn Badgley (Margin Call) has gotten critical praise for his singing.  Indeed, one of the high points is when Badgley’s Jeff shows off to the girl by riffing on seemingly every album in a record store.  Badgley may not have Jeff Buckley’s freakish four octave singing range, but his pipes are pretty impressive.  I was more impressed by his characterization – it must be difficult to act miffed by one’s absent father and not lapse into whininess.  Poots, so outstanding in Solitary Man and A Late Quartet, is good here, too.

Primarily a movie for music fans, Greetings from Tim Buckley is also a film for those who want to see an actor depict interior conflict with very little external action.  Greetings from Tim Buckley is available on VOD from Amazon, iTunes, YouTube, Vudu, Google Play and other outlets.