I’ve got about eight solid movie-going options in theaters for you this week. I’ll be seeing at least three more new movies this week, so stay tuned for yet more recommendations.
IN THEATERS
The Card Counter: Oscar Isaac stars in Paul Schrader’s dark portrait of highly disciplined loner who lives by a code but can’t submerge his past.
Best Sellers: Michael Caine and Aubrey Plaza star in a breezy comedy about a marketing campaign that takes off when bad behavior goes viral on social media.
Also in theaters:
- CODA: a thought-provoking audience-pleaser. Also streaming on AppleTV.
- Ma Belle, My Beauty: a simmering romantic reunion.
- Respect: struggling to take command of her own artistry
- The Lost Leonardo: is it a hustle? Does it matter?
- Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain: Bad ass romantic. Best Movies of 2021 – So Far.
- Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised): concert with context. In theaters and streaming on Hulu. Best Movies of 2021 – So Far. Still in theaters, but getting harder to find.
- Annette: opening and closing sparks, but tiresome and creepy in between
REMEMBRANCE
Actor Nino Castelnuovo matched up with the then 20-year-old Catherine Deneuve for a doomed romance in the innovative French musical The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964). In the epilogue, when Castelnuovo gazes out the window of his gas station, it’s one of the great weepers in cinema history.
ON VIDEO
The most eclectic watch-at-home recommendations you’ll find ANYWHERE:
- The Unknown Saint: a shrine to really bad luck. Netflix.
- Bob Ross: Happy Accidents, Betrayal and Greed: Improbability squared. Netflix.
- Searching for Mr. Rugoff: the best movie taste of any barbarian. Roxie.
- Curiosa: erotic, but do we care? Laemmle.
- Riders of Justice: Thriller, comedy and much, much more. It’s the year’s best movie so far. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu and YouTube. #1 on my Best Movies of 2021 – So Far
- Dirt Music: a gorgeous bodice-ripper with a WTF ending. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube.
- No Sudden Move: Steven Soderbergh’s neo-noir thriller has even more double-crosses than movie stars – and it has plenty of movie stars. HBO Max.
- The Neutral Ground: the supremacist legacy of old statues. PBS.
- Mama Weed: it’s always fun when Huppert gets outrageous. Laemmle.
- Summertime: no longer invisible and unheard, giving voice through verse. Roxie and Laemmle.
- Truman and Tennessee: An Intimate Conversation: Two gay Southern geniuses, revealing themselves. Roxie and Laemmle.
- The Dry: a mystery as psychological as it is procedural. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
ON TV
On Saturday and Sunday, Turner Classic Movies’ Noir Alley features Human Desire with Gloria Grahame. Grahame is one of the enduring figures of film noir because of her performances In a Lonely Place and The Big Heat. But she’s at least as good in this less well-known turn. Grahame plays Vicki, married to a brutish wife-beater (Broderick Crawford). Vicki is no saint – she accompanies hubby on a murder and helps him cover his tracks by coming on to a hunky railroad engineer (Glenn Ford). Vicki then suggests to her lover that if only her husband were dead…But Vicki, while morally flexible, isn’t bad to the core. She’s complicated. TCM will provide an Intro and Outro by Eddie Muller, the Czar of Noir.
And, on September 21, TCM airs the little seen All Night Long, one of my Overlooked Neo-noir. It’s Shakespeare’s Othello, set in the jazz world of 1962 London – and with music performed by Charles Mingus, Dave Brubeck and other real jazz musicians.
