The Trial of the Chicago 7

Movies to See Right Now (at home)

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BORGMAN

This week: celebrate Halloween with two unconventionally scary movies, Borgman and Freaks. Plus more 2020 films to stream at home.

ON VIDEO

Borgman: This Dutch thriller is a horror film for adults, without the gore and with lots of wit. You can stream it from all the major services.

The Trial of the Chicago 7 (link will go live this week, I promise): Aaron Sorkin’s fresh look at an indelible moment in American history. Sacha Baron Cohen, John Carroll Lynch and Frank Langella are great. Streaming on Netflix.

My Octopus Teacher: A diver encounters an octopus and films her every day for a year. He’s not that interesting but the resourceful octopus and the underwater cinematography are worthwhile. Streaming on Netflix.

The most eclectic watch-at-home recommendations you’ll find ANYWHERE:

ON TV

FREAKS

Here’s a genuinely scary movie for Halloween – and it’s 88 years old. Tomorrow morning October 31, Turner Classics airs Tod Browning’s Freaks. Bad things happen at the circus. And bad things happen in Freaks. This is one of the most unsettling horror films (and the least politically correct), because it was filmed in 1932 with real circus freaks. If you have teenagers jaded by today’s empty horror flicks, this will knock them for a loop. Only 64 minutes.

Director Tod Browning and his cast of FREAKS

Movies to Watch Right Now (at home)

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John Carroll Lynch and Sasha Baron Cohen in THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7

This week: The latest from Aaron Sorkin and Spike Lee. But, first, a remembrance.

REMEMBRANCE

Dick Powell and Rhonda Fleming in CRY DANGER

Actress Rhonda Fleming has died at age 97. She was known as the “Queen of Technicolor” when movie studios exploited her blazing red hair, blue eyes, ivory complexion and uncommon beauty in a series of Western, sword-and-sandal and adventure films; in this period, she was a candidate for the world’s most beautiful woman, along with her age peers Gene Tierney, Lana Turner and Marilyn Monroe. But Fleming’s very best acting work was in black-and-white, in Spellbound, Out of the Past, Cry Danger and While the City Sleeps. My favorite Fleming performance is in Cry Danger, where she plays the girlfriend of the guy who had framed the hero (Dick Powell) – an irresistible woman of uncertain loyalty.

ON VIDEO

The Trial of the Chicago Seven (link to full review will go live this weekend) is Aaron Sorkin’s dramatization of the notorious 1969 political trial of Vietnam War protestors. Sasha Baron Cohen, Mark Rylance and Frank Langella are all really good. Streaming on Netflix.

David Byrne’s American Utopia, directed by Spike Lee, is the concert film for Byrne’s Broadway Show, with the Broadway glitz pared down to explore humanity itself. It’s playing on HBO.

The most eclectic watch-at-home recommendations you’ll find ANYWHERE:

ON TV

Vera Clouzot in DIABOLIQUE

Turner Classic Movies plays a lot of horror in October. But the best is coming on October 25, 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…

I recently saw director Rene Clement pegged as the French Hitchcock, although Claude Chabrol and Clouzot are the favorites for that title. It occurred to me that Jen-Pierre Melville loved American film noir and was such an Americanphile that he wore a Stetson and drove a Cadillac. Would he be the French Robert Siodmak, Frtiz Lang, Richard Fleischer, Jules Dassin or Jacques Toruneur? Wait a minute – isn’t Jacques Tourneur already French?

On October 27, TCM broadcasts a searing real life time capsule The Connection, a 1962 cinema vérité of NYC heroine addicts waiting for, and getting, their fixes. It’s haunting.

THE CONNECTION