The Deep Blue Sea

Movies to Watch Right Now (at home)

by
THE DEEP

This week, The Movie Gourmet adds more three overlooked gems to watch at home: a real life survival story, an irresistible glimpse into The New Yorker cartoons and a forgotten anti-war classic.

ON VIDEO

The compelling The Deep tells the fact-based survival story of a shipwrecked Icelandic fisherman’s ordeal in frigid waters.   You can stream The Deep on Amazon, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.

If you’re like me and you worship the cartoons in The New Yorker, then the documentary Very Semi-Serious is a Must See. You can stream it from Amazon (free with Prime), iTunes, YouTube and Google Play.

In the absorbing crime thriller The Whistlers, a shady cop and a mysterious woman are walking a tightrope of treachery. The Whistlers was a hit at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, but COVID-19 impaired its 2020 theatrical release in the US. You can stream it from Amazon, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.

Other recent streaming recommendations:

Buck Brannaman in BUCK

ON TV

On May 3, Turner Classic Movies will present an overlooked masterwork. Set in England just before the D-Day invasion, The Americanization of Emily (1964) is a biting satire and one of the great anti-war movies. James Garner plays an admiral’s staff officer charged with locating luxury goods and willing Englishwomen for the brass. Julie Andrews plays an English driver who has lost her husband and other male family members in the War. She resists emotional entanglements with other servicemen whose lives may be put at risk, but falls for Garner’s “practicing coward”, a man who is under no illusions about the glory of war and is determined to stay as far from combat as possible.

Unfortunately, Garner’s boss (Melvyn Douglas) has fits of derangement and becomes obsessed with the hope that the first American killed on the beach at D-Day be from the Navy. Accordingly, he orders Garner to lead a suicide mission to land ahead of the D-Day landing, ostensibly to film it. Fellow officer James Coburn must guarantee Garner’s martyrdom.

It’s a brilliant screenplay from Paddy Chayefsky, who won screenwriting Oscars for Marty, The Hospital and Network. Today, Americanization holds up as least as well as its contemporary Dr. Strangelove and much better than Failsafe. Reportedly, both Andrews and Garner have tagged this as their favorite film.

One of the “Three Nameless Broads” bedded by the Coburn character is played by Judy Carne, later of Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In.

Jule Andrews and James Garner in THE AMERICANIZATION OF EMILY

Movies to See this Week

by

Gianni Di Gregorio (right) and his wing man in THE SALT OF THE EARTH

The Kid with the Bike is an extraordinary film that tells a riveting story of unconditional love. It is emotionally powerful without being sentimental and is gripping without stunts and explosions.  It’s now topping my list of Best Movies of 2012 – So Far.  It may be out in theaters for only another week or to, so see it now.

The Hunger Games is a well-paced, well-acted and intelligent sci-fi adventure fable with excellent performances by Jennifer Lawrence and Stanley Tucci.

The Deep Blue Sea is well-crafted and deeply, deeply sad tragedy of a woman (Rachel Weisz) who loves too much.

The Salt of the Earth is a gently funny and insightful Italian comedy about men of a certain age.

In Footnote, a rising Talmudic scholar sees his career-topping prize accidentally awarded to his grumpy father. This potentially comic situation reveals the characters of the two men.

The searing and brilliantly constructed Iranian drama A Separation won the Best Foreign Language Oscar. The Best Picture Oscar-winning The Artist is still playing in theaters.

I haven’t yet seen Monsieur Lazhar, which opens this week. You can read descriptions and view trailers of these and other upcoming films at Movies I’m Looking Forward To.

My DVD pick this week is The Descendants, a family drama with superb performances by George Clooney and Shailene Woodley.

Movies to See this Week

by

THE KID WITH THE BIKE

Don’t miss The Kid with the Bike, an extraordinary film that tells a riveting story of unconditional love. It is emotionally powerful without being sentimental and is gripping without stunts and explosions – one of the year’s best.

The Hunger Games is a well-paced, well-acted and intelligent sci-fi adventure fable with excellent performances by Jennifer Lawrence and Stanley Tucci.

The Deep Blue Sea is well-crafted and deeply, deeply sad tragedy of a woman (Rachel Weisz) who loves too much.

In Footnote, a rising Talmudic scholar sees his career-topping prize accidentally awarded to his grumpy father. This potentially comic situation reveals the characters of the two men.

The drama Detachment features a top-rate performance by Adrien Brody as a teacher in a hellish school system that decays teachers’ souls. In a sizzling performance, Woody Harrelson plays a corrupt and brutal LA cop trying to stay alive and out of jail in Rampart. The searing and brilliantly constructed Iranian drama A Separation won the Best Foreign Language Oscar. The Best Picture Oscar-winning The Artist is still playing in theaters.

I haven’t yet seen The Salt of the Earth, which opens this week.  You can read descriptions and view trailers of these and other upcoming films at Movies I’m Looking Forward To.

My DVD pick this week is the edgy game changer comedy Young Adult.

The Deep Blue Sea: a woman who loves too much

by

Simon Russell Beale and Rachel Weisz in THE DEEP BLUE SEA

In The Deep Blue Sea, an ordinary love triangle becomes a profound tragedy.   A woman (Rachel Weisz) leaves her affluent and prestigious older husband (Simon Russell Beale) for a younger man (Tom Hiddleston) who is more vital, but aimless, troubled and unreliable.  The younger man cannot match her love for him.

The fling is doomed.  The tragedy is that she knows it, but cannot help herself.  As with many addictions, her passion for him drives her to do what she knows is self-destructive.

The story is set is grim post-war London and director Terence Davies  vividly paints the period and place.

One magically evocative scene takes place in an underground station serving as a bomb shelter during the Blitz.  A man sings Molly Malone in a plaintive tenor, with his fellow Londoners joining at the chorus, as the camera slowly pans the train platform filled with people waiting out the raid.  In another scene, a pub is filled with singing patrons.   Everyone is having fun, sharing a moment of trivial conviviality, but Rachel Weisz is looking at her lover and having a moment of profound feeling.

Weisz is excellent, and all of her scenes with Beale are especially searing.  The Deep Blue Sea is well-crafted and deeply, deeply sad.