NUTS! – The Movie Gourmet

Movies to See Right Now

May 25, 2018April 6, 2018 by movie gourmet

Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie and Ben Foster in a scene from Debra Granik’s LEAVE NO TRACE, playing at the 2018 San Francisco International Film Festival, April 4 – 17, 2018. Courtesy of SFFILM.

This week I’m diving deep into the San Francisco International Film Festival (SFFILM). Here’s my festival preview.

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This week’s top picks:

The wonderfully dark, dark comedy The Death of Stalin.
Another dark comedy, this one about two teen girl sociopaths, Thoroughbreds.
Outside In: Now on Netflix, this fine Lynn Shelton drama about a man returning to his community after 20 years in prison is an acting showcase for Kaitlin Dever (Justified), Jay Duplass (Transparent) and, especially, Edie Falco. Falco’s performance is stunning.
The Last Movie Star: An aged action movies star (Burt Reynolds playing someone very similar to Burt Reynolds) examines his life choices. Funny and sentimental (in a good way).
Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story is the riveting biopic of a glamorous movie star who invented and patented the precursor to wireless technology; that’s amazing enough, but Bombshell delves deeply into how Lamarr’s stunning face, her Jewish heritage and mid-century gender roles shaped her career, marriages and parenting. Top notch.
The Leisure Seeker is an Alzheimer’s road trip dramedy with Helen Mirren and Donald Sutherland. Mirren and Sutherland are excellent, possibly enough to see this in a theater.

VIDEO

In tribute to SFFILM, my Stream of the Week is from last year’s SFFILM Festival: NUTS! is the persistently hilarious (and finally poignant) documentary about the rise and fall of a medical and radio empire – all built on goat testicle “implantation” surgery in gullible humans. NUTS! is available to stream from Amazon (free with Prime), iTunes, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.

Tonight, Turner Classic Movies will air the 1964 serial killer movie The Strangler, with its brilliant and eccentric performance by Victor Buono.

And on April 8, TCM will air Stalag 17 (1960), adapted and directed by the great Billy Wilder. This is a taut WW II POW drama from a play written by two former POWs. If it’s not bad enough being held in a Nazi prison camp, there is a German mole informing on the prisoners. The POWs blame the wrong guy – the cynic played by William Holden – and he must uncover and expose the real traitor and help a POW in peril to escape.

This is a thriller, not a comedy, but you can’t tell from this trailer, which oversells the humor; it makes you expect Hogan’s Heroes.

SFFILMFestival Stream of the Week: NUTS! – the rise and fall of a testicular empire

April 3, 2018 by movie gourmet

The San Feancisco International Film Festival kicks off tomorrow night, so this week’s video pick is from the 2016 SFFILMFestival. NUTS! is the persistently hilarious (and finally poignant) documentary about the rise and fall of a medical and radio empire – all built on goat testicle “implantation” surgery in gullible humans. Yes, a huckster named J.R. Brinkley really did surgically place goat testicles inside human scrota – and, more astonishingly, this actually became a craze in the 1920s. Now that’s enough of a forehead slapper, but there’s more, much more and that’s what makes NUTS! so fun.

Brinkley’s story is one that leads to celebrity mega wealth and a colossal miscalculation. Improbably, Brinkley’s wild ride touched Huey Long,William Jennings Bryan, Rudolph Valentino, Buster Keaton, June Carter Cash and Wolfman Jack. There’s a radio empire, a Gubernatorial election and a dramatic, climactic trial.

Director Penny Lane tells the story with animation (different animators for each chapter, but you can’t tell) seamlessly braided together with historical still photos, movies and a final heartbreaking recording. NUTS! tells a story that is too bizarre to be true – but really happened. It makes for a most entertaining movie.

NUTS! is available to stream from Amazon (free with Prime), iTunes, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.

2016 at the Movies: most overlooked

December 30, 2016 by movie gourmet

CHEVALIER. Photo courtesy of Strand Releasing

This blog exists because I’m an evangelist for outstanding films that may be overlooked by people who will appreciate them. You don’t need ME to tell you that Loving and La La Land are good movies. What’s important to me is that you don’t miss the less well-known gems:

The character-driven crime drama Hell or High Water has topped my list of Best Movies of 2016 – So Far since I saw it on Labor Day Weekend. It’s now available to rent on DVD from Netflix and to stream from Amazon Instant, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.
Chevalier is a sly and pointed exploration of male competitiveness. Director Athina Rachel Tsangari is obviously a keen observer of male behavior. Both men and women will enjoy laughing at male behavior taken to extreme. I sure did. Chevalier is perhaps the funniest movie of 2016, and it’s on my list of Best Movies of 2016 – So Far. I’m hoping that its popularity explodes now that it’s available to rent on DVD from Netflix and to stream from Netflix Instant, Amazon Instant, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.
The Hollars is an unabashed crowd pleaser with a great cast, especially the irreplaceable Margot Martindale.
San Jose native Matt Sobel’s impressive directorial debut Take Me To the River is entirely fresh. Not one thing happens in Take Me to the River that you can predict, and it keeps the audience off-balance and completely engaged. You can stream Take Me to the River on Amazon Instant, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play or rent the DVD from Netflix.
NUTS! is the persistently hilarious (and finally poignant) documentary about the rise and fall of a medical and radio empire – all built on goat testicle “implantation” surgery in gullible humans.
The highly original documentary Tower retells the story of a famous mass shooting without dwelling on the shooter.
All the Way is a thrilling political docudrama with a stellar performance. It’s the story of President Lyndon Baines Johnson, warts and all, ending official racial segregation in America with the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Bryan Cranston brings LBJ alive as no actor has before.

These three Cinequest films haven’t gotten an US release, either in theaters or on video. But they are excellent enough to make my list of the year’s best. Here’s hoping that you will be able to see them soon, too. Stay tuned, and I’ll let you know.

The Memory of Water: This Chilean drama explores grief, its process and its impact, and was the most masterful filmmaking achievement at Cinequest 2016. Exquisite.
Magallanes: Another Cinequest film, this Peruvian psychological drama is about those wrongs that cannot be righted.
Lost Solace: Writer-director Chris Scheuerman’s brilliant debut is a highly original psychological thriller. Premiered at Cinequest.

Andrew Jenkins in Chris Scheuerman's brilliant debut LOST SOLACE — Andrew Jenkins in Chris Scheuerman’s brilliant debut LOST SOLACE

Movies to See Right Now

July 15, 2016July 15, 2016 by movie gourmet

Ewen McGregor and Stellan Skarsgaard in OUR KIND OF TRAITOR — Ewen McGregor and Stellan Skarsgård in OUR KIND OF TRAITOR

My running list of Best Movies of 2016 – So Far is out. For movies in theaters right now:

Our Kind of Traitor is a robust espionage thriller with a funny yet powerful performance by Stellan Skarsgård.
Free State of Jones effectively combines the elements of political drama, romance and war movies into an absorbing Civil War drama, one which connects the dots between the 19th Century and the 20th and beyond. With a sizzling Matthew McConaughey.
NUTS! is the persistently hilarious (and finally poignant) documentary about the rise and fall of a medical and radio empire – all built on goat testicle “implantation” surgery in gullible humans.
Zero Days is a documentary on a jaw-dropping hacker mystery – who and how was able to get Iranian military computers to destroy the hardware for their own nuclear weapons program.
All the Way is a thrilling political docudrama with a stellar performance. It’s the story of President Lyndon Baines Johnson, warts and all, ending official racial segregation in America with the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Bryan Cranston brings LBJ alive as no actor has before. All the Way is still playing on HBO.
Finding Dory doesn’t have the breakthrough animation or the depth of story that we expect from Pixar, but it won’t be painful to watch a zillion times with your kids.

Here’s my early peek at next week’s San Francisco Jewish Film Festival.

My DVD/Stream for the next two weeks is one of my Best Movies of 2016 – So Far. San Jose native Matt Sobel’s impressive directorial debut Take Me To the River is entirely fresh. Not one thing happens in Take Me to the River that you can predict, and it keeps the audience off-balance and completely engaged. You can stream Take Me to the River on Amazon Instant, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play or rent the DVD from Netflix.

On July 16 Turner Classic Movies presents the grievously underrated Don Siegel thriller Charley Varrick. Siegel was a master of crime movies (and was the primary filmmaking mentor to Clint Eastwood). I particularly love Siegel’s San Francisco noir The Lineup, the guilty pleasure Two Mules for Sister Sara and John Wayne’s goodbye: The Shootist. The 1973 neo-noir Charley Varrick is right up there with Siegel’s best. Walter Matthau stars as the title character, an expert heist man who sets up a “perfect crime” bank robbery which, of course, goes awry. Worst of all, it turns out that Varrick has stolen a secret Mob fortune being laundered by the bank, and now the underworld organization is after him. Only his wits can save him. I’ve rewatched Charley Varrick a couple times recently, and it still holds up for me.

Faithful readers know that I revere the Sergio Leone/Clint Eastwood/Ennio Morricone spaghetti westerns. On July 19, TCM brings us A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More and, of course, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

Movies to See Right Now

July 8, 2016 by movie gourmet

Here are my (almost) ALL NEW movie recommendations.

Our Kind of Traitor is a robust espionage thriller with a funny yet powerful performance by Stellan Skarsgård.
Free State of Jones effectively combines the elements of political drama, romance and war movies into an absorbing Civil War drama, one which connects the dots between the 19th Century and the 20th and beyond. With a sizzling Matthew McConaughey.
NUTS! is the persistently hilarious (and finally poignant) documentary about the rise and fall of a medical and radio empire – all built on goat testicle “implantation” surgery in gullible humans.
Zero Days is a documentary on a jaw-dropping hacker mystery – who and how was able to get Iranian military computers to destroy the hardware for their own nuclear weapons program.
All the Way is a thrilling political docudrama with a stellar performance. It’s the story of President Lyndon Baines Johnson, warts and all, ending official racial segregation in America with the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Bryan Cranston brings LBJ alive as no actor has before. All the Way is still playing on HBO.
Finding Dory doesn’t have the breakthrough animation or the depth of story that we expect from Pixar, but it won’t be painful to watch a zillion times with your kids.

My Stream of the Week is the perfect companion film to Weiner – it’s the inside story of ANOTHER campaign – one of Anthony Weiner’s opponents in the same 2013 mayoral election. Hers to Lose: Inside Christine Quinn’s Bid for Mayor is an extraordinarily evocative political film, it’s only 30 minutes long and you can watch it for free here at the NYT.

Tonight Turner Classic Movies explores “America in the 70s” with four of the best films EVER – All the President’s Men, The Candidate, Network and The Conversation – along with the time capsule thriller Klute.

And on July 13, TCM presents the John Sturges masterpiece Bad Day at Black Rock with Spencer Tracy investigating a disappearance in an especially hostile, racist and sinister town. Besides having Tracy at his best and being a great looking movie, Bad Day at Black Rock is notable for its menacing crew of Bad Guys – Robert Ryan, Ernest Borgnine and Lee Marvin.

Spencer Tracy and Robert Ryan in BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK

NUTS!: the rise and fall of a testicular empire

July 8, 2016 by movie gourmet

NUTS! is the persistently hilarious (and finally poignant) documentary about the rise and fall of a medical and radio empire – all built on goat testicle “implantation” surgery in gullible humans. Yes, a huckster named J.R. Brinkley really did surgically place goat testicles inside human scrota – and, more astonishingly, this actually became a craze in the 1920s. Now that’s enough of a forehead slapper, but there’s more, much more and that’s what makes NUTS! so fun.

I saw NUTS! earlier this year at the 59th San Francisco International Film Festival (SFIFF). It opens in Bay Area theaters today.

Women Directors at SFIFF

April 23, 2016 by movie gourmet

Athina Rachel Tsangari, director of CHEVALIER . Photo courtesy of San Francisco Film Society — Athina Rachel Tsangari, director of CHEVALIER. Photo courtesy of San Francisco Film Society

This year’s San Francisco International Film Festival (SFIFF) includes movies from 50 women directors. Some are high-profile (by indie standards):

Academy Award-winning documentarian Barbara Kopple (Harlan County U.S.A.) brings Miss Sharon Jones!. Sure to be a festival crowd-pleaser, this doc chronicles the salty Dap Kings frontwoman and her fight against cancer.
Oscar-nominated Chris Hegedus (The War Room), with her directing partner D.A. Pennebaker, has the animal welfare doc Unlocking the Cage; and
Elyse Steinberg’s Weiner was the top documentary hit at the most recent Sundance.

Among the foreign choices, the Must See is one of the funniest movies at the fest, the Greek comedy Chevalier from director Athina Rachel Tsangari. Obviously a keen observer of male behavior, Tsangari delivers a sly and pointed exploration of male competitiveness, with the moments of drollness and absurdity that we expect in the best of contemporary Greek cinema. This is Tsangari’s second visit to SFIFF – in 2011, she brought her hilariously offbeat Attenberg.

Other strong choices from women directors include:

NUTS! from director Penny Lane – a persistently hilarious (and finally poignant) documentary about the rise and fall of a medical and radio empire – all built on goat testicle “implantation” surgery in gullible humans.
Suite Armorcaine, the character-driven drama from French director Pascale Breton;
Five Nights in Maine, a showcase for David Oyelowo, Dianne Wiest and Rosie Perez from writer-director Maris Curran.

The 59th San Francisco International Film Festival (SFIFF) 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 the complete list of women directors with entries at the 2016 San Francisco International Film Festival:

As I Open My Eyes, Leyla Bouzid, Tunisia/France/Belgium
Audrie & Daisy, Bonni Cohen, Jon Shenk, USA
Ayiti Mon Amour, Guetty Felin, Haiti/USA
Between Us: Experimental Shorts (Rock, Clay, Sand, Straw, Wood, Something Between Us, Starfish Aorta, Winter Trees)
Cameraperson, Kirsten Johnson, USA
Check It, Dana Flor, Toby Oppenheimer, USA
Chevalier, Athina Rachel Tsangari, Greece
The Fits, Anna Rose Holmer, USA
Five Nights in Maine, Maris Curran, USA
Granny’s Dancing on the Table, Hanna Sköld, Sweden/Denmark
haveababy, Amanda Micheli, USA
The Innocents, Anne Fontaine, France/Poland
Irving M. Levin Directing Award: An Afternoon with Mira Nair: Monsoon Wedding
Maggie’s Plan, Rebecca Miller, USA
Miss Sharon Jones!, Barbara Kopple, USA
Mountain, Yaelle Kayam, Israel/Denmark
National Bird, Sonia Kennebeck, USA
No Home Movie, Chantal Akerman, Belgium/France
NUTS!, Penny Lane, USA
Operator, Logan Kibens, USA
Our Kind of Traitor, Susanna White, UK
The Return, Kelly Duane de la Vega, Katie Galloway, USA
Shorts 1 (In Attla’s Tracks, Seide)
Shorts 2 (Partners, The Send-Off)
Shorts 3: Animation (Edmond, Glove)
Shorts 4: New Visions (My Aleppo, False Start, Sept. – Oct. 2015, Cizre)
Shorts 5: Family Films (Bunny New Girl, The Casebook of Nips & Porkington, Mother, Welcome to My Life)
Shorts 6: Youth Works (Child for Sale, From My Head To Hers, I Don’t Belong Here Run, Run Away)
Sonita, Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami, Germany/Switzerland/Iran
Suite Armoricaine, Pascale Breton, France
Thirst, Svetla Tsotsorkova, Bulgaria
Under the Gun, Stephanie Soechtig, USA
Unlocking the Cage, Chris Hegedus, D.A. Pennebaker, USA
The Watermelon Woman, Cheryl Dunye, USA
Weiner, Josh Kriegman, Elyse Steinberg, USA
Wild, Nicolette Krebitz, German

SFIFF: previewing the documentaries

April 20, 2016 by movie gourmet

A scene from Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg's WEINER will play at the 59th San Francisco International Film Festival, on April 21 - May 5,2016. — WEINER. Photo courtesy San Francisco Film Society.

There’s a characteristically strong slate of documentaries at the 59th San Francisco International Film Festival (SFIFF). The docs with the highest profiles are

Weiner – This hit from the Sundance and New Directors film festivals is an inside look at Anthony Weiner’s cringeworthy, self-immolating campaign for New York City Mayor;
Miss Sharon Jones! – Sure to be a festival crowd-pleaser, this doc chronicles the salty Dap Kings frontwoman and her fight against cancer. From Academy Award-winning documentarian Barbara Kopple (Harlan County U.S.A.);
Unlocking the Cage – an animal welfare doc from storied filmmakers Chris Hegedus (The War Room) and D.A. Pennebaker (Monterey Pop and The War Room); and
The Bandit, in the coveted slot as the festivals’ Closing Night film, documents the real life bromance between Burt Reynolds and iconic stuntman Hal Needham that led to Needham’s Smokey and the Bandit movies.

But some of the best docs in the fest are less well-known nuggets:

NUTS! – a persistently hilarious (and finally poignant) documentary about the rise and fall of a medical and radio empire – all built on goat testicle “implantation” surgery in gullible humans.
Dead Slow Ahead – a visually stunning and an often hypnotic film, shot on a massive freighter on its voyage across vast ocean expanses with its all-Filipino crew.
Under the Sun – a searing insight into totalitarian North Korean society, all from government-approved footage that tells a different story than the wackadoodle dictatorship intended.

Last year’s SFIFF brought us The Look of Silence, Listen to Me Marlon, Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead and Very Semi-Serious. The festival’s 2016 docs may be even more impressive.

Sharon Jones performs at the Beacon Theater in Barbara Kopple's MISS SHARON JONES!, playing at the 59th San Francisco International Film Festival, April 21st - May 5th, 2016.Jacob Blickenstaff, 2014, courtesy of San Francisco Film Society — MISS SHARON JONES! Photo: Jacob Blickenstaff, 2014, courtesy of San Francisco Film Society.

SFIFF: NUTS!

June 26, 2016April 20, 2016 by movie gourmet

Penny Lane's NUTS! will play at the 59th San Francisco International Film Festival, on April 21 - May 5,2016. Photo courtesy of San Francisco Film Society — NUTS! Photo courtesy of San Francisco Film Society