The Commune

Movies to See Right Now

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Diane Lane in PARIS CAN WAIT
Diane Lane in PARIS CAN WAIT

Why so few good films in theaters right now?  I’ll tell you why!  According to my calculations, a whopping 45% of all theater screens in Silicon Valley are devoted to ONLY THREE MOVIES:  Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, Guardians of the Galaxy 2, and Baywatch.  (It doesn’t help that the miserable A Quiet Passion is taking up some of the very few art house screens.)  Nevertheless, you can still go out and see:

  • Paris Can Wait, a female fantasy with glorious French cuisine to tantalize all genders.
  • The Commune looks like a comedy of errors, but it’s a family drama with a searing performance by Trine Dyrholm.
  • The Lost City of Z, a thoughtful and beautifully cinematic revival of the adventure epic genre.
  • In Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer, writer-director Joseph Cedar and his star Richard Gere combine to create the unforgettable character of Norman Oppenheimer, a Jewish Willy Loman who finally gets his chance to sit with the Movers and Shakers. This may be Gere’s best movie performance ever.

My DVD/Stream of the Week is Paterson, a genial and occasionally very funny portrait of an artist’s creative process. Paterson is now available on DVD from Netflix and to stream from Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.

On June 5, Turner Classic Movies is airing the very idiosyncratic Convicts 4, the true-life tail of one convict, played by Ben Gazzara, who develops into a fine artist while in prison. There’s a particularly unforgettable supporting turn by one of my favorite movie psychos, Timothy Carey, here in one of his most eccentrically self-conscious performances. The rich cast includes Stuart Whitman, Vincent Price, Rod Steiger, Jack Albertson, Ray Walton, Brodrick Crawford and Sammy Davis Jr.

On June 8 on TCM, look for John Dall playing the classic narcissist in Hitchcock’s psychological thriller Rope. Can he outwit Jimmy Stewart?

And, guess what? Pedro Almodóvar has ascended into Classic Cinema. His raucous and provocatively sexy comedy Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! will play on Turner Classic Movies on July 4. Almodóvar a classic? Makes you feel old…

TIE ME UP! TIE ME DOWN!
a young Antonio Banderas and Victoria Abril in TIE ME UP! TIE ME DOWN!

Movies to See Right Now

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Andrew Garfield in HACKSAW RIDGE
Andrew Garfield in HACKSAW RIDGE

It’s Memorial Day weekend.  Scroll down for my recommendations of current and classic movies on video and television that honor military service.

Recommended movies to see in theaters this week:

  • Opening this weekend, The Commune, looks like comedy of errors, but it’s a family drama with a searing performance by Trine Dyrholm.
  • The Lost City of Z, a thoughtful and beautifully cinematic revival of the adventure epic genre.
  • In Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer, writer-director Joseph Cedar and his star Richard Gere combine to create the unforgettable character of Norman Oppenheimer, a Jewish Willy Loman who finally gets his chance to sit with the Movers and Shakers. This may be Gere’s best movie performance ever.

My DVD/Stream of the Week is last year’s Oscar-winning Hacksaw Ridge, about American Army Medic Desmond T. Doss, who single-handedly rescued 75 fellow soldiers at the Battle of Okinawa and became the first Conscientious Objector in American history to be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. You can rent Hacksaw Ridge on DVD from Netflix and Redbox or stream it from Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play and DirecTV. If you’re going to see one war movie this year, make it this one.

Yesterday I wrote about Turner Classic Movies’ uncommon slate of thoughtful Korean War movies airing Saturday, including Men in War, The Steel Helmet, The Rack and The Hook.

On Sunday May 28, TCM will present the definitive Pearl Harbor movie, Tora! Tora! Tora! from 1970. Featuring great American and Japanese casts, Tora! Tora! Tora! tells the story from both American and Japanese perspectives. It’s a suspenseful minute-by-minute countdown. Tora! Tora! Tora! is one of the very best movies ever made about a well-known historical event.  And on Monday, May 29, TCM will broadcast the fine WW II submarine warfare movie The Enemy Below, which I wrote about last month (scroll down.

TORA! TORA! TORA!
TORA! TORA! TORA!

THE COMMUNE: funny funny squirm

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THE COMMUNE
THE COMMUNE

In the Danish family drama The Commune, Erik (Ulrich Thomsen) is an architecture professor married to the television newscaster Anna (Trine Dyrholm). Erik is very reserved, tends to be harsh and does not suffer fools. Anna is bubbly. They have a watchful 14-year-old daughter.

Erik inherits a huge house and wants to sell it. Anna wants to move the family in. Erik points out that it’s totally impractical and too expensive to keep up. Anna suggests taking in their friends as tenants – essentially starting a commune. After all, it’s the 1970s. What could possibly go wrong?

The folks who move in, of course, are a collection of oddballs. Anna embraces everyone’s eccentricities, and Erik tries, but it’s hard for him. At this point, we think we’re watching a comedy of manners – but we’re wrong.

The Commune is really the story of Erik and Anna and their marriage. Each is having a mid-life crisis that will test their marriage. The foibles of the commune are just a distraction.

Trine Dyrholm gives a remarkable performance as Anna. Is Anna shockingly open-minded and permissive, a desperate enabler or is she masking an internal implosion?

I loved writer-director Thomas Vinterberg’s earlier films Celebration (Festen) and The Hunt (Jagten). Vinterberg’s Funny Funny Squirm rhythm in The Commune reminds me of Celebration. But the payoff in The Commune just doesn’t match Celebration and The Hunt, which are exceptionally good films. I especially detested the death of a character in The Commune, which I found to be grossly manipulative.

Still, Dyrholm’s performance is stunning, and Vinterberg remains a master at the cold-eyed observation of human behavior. I saw The Commune at Cinequest.

Cinequest: THE COMMUNE

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THE COMMUNE
THE COMMUNE

In the Danish family drama The Commune, Erik (Ulrich Thomsen) is an architecture professor married to the television newscaster Anna (Trine Dyrholm).  Erik is very reserved, tends to be harsh and does not suffer fools.  Anna is bubbly.  They have a watchful 14-year-old daughter.

Erik inherits a huge house and wants to sell it.  Anna wants to move the family in.  Erik points out that it’s totally impractical and too expensive to keep up.  Anna suggests taking in their friends as tenants – essentially starting a commune.  After all, it’s the 1970s.  What could possibly go wrong?

The folks who move in, of course, are a collection of oddballs.  Anna embraces everyone’s eccentricities, and Erik tries, but it’s hard for him.  At this point, we think we’re watching a comedy of manners – but we’re wrong.

The Commune is really the story of Erik and Anna and their marriage.  Each is having a mid-life crisis that will test their marriage.  The foibles of the commune are just a distraction.

Trine Dyrholm gives a remarkable performance as Anna.  Is Anna shockingly open-minded and permissive, a desperate enabler or is she masking an internal implosion?

I loved writer-director Thomas Vinterberg’s earlier films Celebration (Festen) and The Hunt (Jagten).  Vinterberg’s Funny Funny Squirm rhythm in The Commune reminds me of Celebration.  But the payoff in The Commune just doesn’t match Celebration and The Hunt, which are exceptionally good films.  I especially detested the death of a character in The Commune, which I found to be grossly manipulative.

Still, Dyrholm’s performance is stunning, and Vinterberg remains a master at the cold-eyed observation of human behavior.  I saw The Commune at Cinequest.