Quincy

Movies to See Right Now

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MONROVIA, INDIANA

The film I’m most excited about is The Other Side of the Wind, a great Orson Welles film from the 1970s finally completed after his death. I’ll be writing about it and two companion documentaries soon.

OUT NOW

  • The masterful documentary Monrovia, Indiana is a fascinating movie about a boring subject.
  • Skip First Man – a boring movie about a fascinating subject.
  • The Great Buster: A Celebration is Peter Bogdanovich’s biodoc of the comic genius Buster Keaton, filling in what we need to know of Keaton’s life and body of work.
  • Lady Gaga illuminates Bradley Cooper’s triumphant A Star Is Born. Don’t bring a hankie – bring a whole friggin’ box of Kleenex.
  • Rodents of Unusual Size is a charmingly addictive documentary about a bizarre subject.
  • What They Had is an authentic and well-crafted dramatic four-hander with Hilary Swank, Michael Shannon, Blythe Danner and Robert Forster.
  • Quincy is Rashida Jones’ intimate biodoc of her father, that most important and prolific musical figure Quincy Jones.

ON VIDEO

My Stream of the Week is the wonderfully dark comedy I Don’t Feel at Home in this World Anymore. Melanie Lynskey plays a workaday schlub who suffers one indignity too many and goes postal. This movie is available to stream on Netflix Instant.

ON TV

On November 10, Turner Classic Movies presents Where Eagles Dare, a crackerjack thriller from the WWII commando subgenre (think The Guns of Navarone and The Dirty Dozen). The seemingly impossible target is a cliff-side Nazi stronghold only accessible via a funicular. And not all the commandos understand the true mission. The oddly matched stars are Richard Burton (nearing the end of his second marriage to Elizabeth Taylor) and Clint Eastwood (after the Leone spaghetti westerns but before his Dirty Harry franchise). It all works.

Clint Eastwood and Richard Burton in WHERE EAGLES DARE

Movies to See Right Now

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MONROVIA, INDIANA

This week brings us a bewildering contrast. We have the masterful documentary Monrovia, Indiana – a fascinating movie about a boring subject. And First Man – a boring movie about a fascinating subject.

OUT NOW

    • Lady Gaga illuminates Bradley Cooper’s triumphant A Star Is Born. Don’t bring a hankie – bring a whole friggin’ box of Kleenex.
    • Rodents of Unusual Size is a charmingly addictive documentary about a bizarre subject.
    • What They Had is an authentic and well-crafted dramatic four-hander with Hilary Swank, Michael Shannon, Blythe Danner and Robert Forster.
    • Quincy is Rashida Jones’ intimate biodoc of her father, that most important and prolific musical figure Quincy Jones.
    • Museo is a portrait of alienation that plays out in a true life heist, but the alienation is just not that compelling.

ON VIDEO

My DVD/Stream of the Week for Halloween Week is the 1960 masterpiece Peeping Tom – far scarier and more unsettling than Psycho. Until the last decade, Peeping Tom was unavailable, but you can find it now on DVD from Netflix and streaming from Amazon, iTunes and Google Play. There’s also a Criterion Collection DVD with lots of extra features. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

ON TV

On November 3, Turner Classic Movies will air Director Elia Kazan’s noirish thriller Panic in the Streets. This Kazan’s other movie set in a gritty waterfront, and he shot it on location in New Orleans. In his screen debut, Jack Palance plays a hoodlum who commits a murder and unknowingly becomes infected with pneumonic plague. Richard Widmark plays the public health expert who is trying to prevent an epidemic by tracking down Patient Zero (Palance) without causing a panic in the city. Of course, the cops are trying to solve the murder, and the man hunt for the murderer will lead them o the same target. Jack Palance was nothing if not intense, and he brings the right combination of viscious thuggery and escalating desperation to his performance. In an unusual dramatic role, Zero Mostel plays a Palance henchman.

And here’s a curiosity – TCM also airs the 1933 submarine movie Hell Below on November 9. It’s a pretty contrived Robert Montgomery vehicle, but there are some elements worth fast-forwarding to. The comic relief is provided by Jimmy Durante, who plays the cook Ptomaine; Baby Boomers tend to remember Durante for his shtick on variety shows of the 1950s and 1960s – here’s the unadulterated Durante. Durante even boxes with a kangeroo! Hell Below also features Walter Huston, who was a major star at the time and who I think would be very successful today.

Jack Palance in PANIC IN THE STREETS

Movies to See Right Now

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Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga in A STAR IS BORN

OUT NOW

  • Lady Gaga illuminates Bradley Cooper’s triumphant A Star Is Born. Don’t bring a hankie – bring a whole friggin’ box of Kleenex.
  • Rodents of Unusual Size is a charmingly addictive documentary about a bizarre subject.
  • What They Had is an authentic and well-crafted dramatic four-hander with Hilary Swank, Michael Shannon, Blythe Danner and Robert Forster.
  • Quincy is Rashida Jones’ intimate biodoc of her father, that most important and prolific musical figure Quincy Jones.
  • Museo is a portrait of alienation that plays out in a true life heist, but the alienation is just not that compelling.
  • If you haven’t caught it yet, you can still find Spike Lee’s true story BlacKkKlansman – very funny and, finally, emotionally powerful.

ON VIDEO

My Stream of the Week is the Norwegian suspense thriller Revenge, one of the world cinema high points of the 2017 Cinequest. Revenge can be streamed from Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.

ON TV

Turner Classic Movies is all-horror, all-the-time this week.  But the best is Diabolique from director Henri-Georges Clouzot (often tagged as the French Hitchcock).  The headmaster of a provincial boarding school is so cruel, even sadistic, that everyone wants him dead, especially his wife and his mistress. When he goes missing, the police drain the murky pool where the killers dumped the body…and the killers get a big surprise. Now the suspense really starts…

Vera Clouzot in DIABOLIQUE

QUINCY: a musical giant in moments of unusual intimacy

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Quincy Jones in QUINCY

Let’s start with the subject of the biodoc Quincy, the musician, music producer and musical impresario Quincy Jones. Jones is a giant of 20th Century music, one of the most important and prolific musicians ever. This is an individual who has composed 51 screen scores and over 1000 original compositions. He was the musical partner of Frank Sinatra and Michael Jackson during their most creative periods. Jones produced the best selling album of all time (Thriller) and the best selling single (We Are the World). Along the way, he picked up 79 Grammy noms and 27 Grammys, and is one of only 18 EGOT winners (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony).

Quincy Jones amassed that legacy though multiple decades and musical genres and broke color barriers throughout his life. That makes wonderful fodder for this biodoc, co-written and co-directed by his daughter Rashida Jones.

Besides the archival footage and talking heads, Rashida Jones is able to share Quincy Jones himself in moments of unusual intimacy, where he contemplates his relationships with his ex-wives, his kids and his vodka, not to mention his schizophrenic mother and workaholic father.

The popular actress Rashida Jones is an accomplished filmmaker. This is the fifth film she has directed, and she co-wrote the unusually intelligent romcom Celeste and Jess Forever.

Quincy can be streamed from Netflix.