Tower – The Movie Gourmet

Movies to See Right Now

February 17, 2017 by movie gourmet

This week’s best choices in theaters are:

La La Land: the extraordinarily vivid romantic musical staring Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling.
Lion: an emotionally affecting family drama that makes the audience weep (in a good way).
The Founder: the enjoyably addictive story of how a the money-grubbing visionary Ray Kroc built the McDonald’s food service empire.
Hidden Figures: a true life story from the 1960s space program – a triumph of human spirit and brainpower over sexism and racism; the audience applauded.
I Am Not Your Negro, the documentary about the American public intellectual James Baldwin. It’s a searing examination of race in America as analyzed through Baldwin’s eyes and as expressed through his elegant words.
The Salesman is another searing and authentic psychological family thriller from Iranian writer-director Asghar Farhadi (A Separation, The Past).

My TV/Stream of the Week is Tower, a remarkably original retelling of the 1966 mass shooting at UT Austin. It’s playing on the PBS documentary series Independent Lens, and you can also stream Tower on Amazon Instant, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.

This week Turner Classic Movies will present two of my very favorite Alfred Hitchcock films. First, on February 19, there’s North by Northwest, with perhaps the greatest ever collection of iconic set pieces – especially the cornfield and Mount Rushmore scenes, but also those in the UN Building, hotel, mansion, art auction and the 20th Century Limited train – they’re all great. Back in the days of the Production Code, some filmmakers could deliver sexual and erotic content without actually showing nudity or simulated sexual activity; one of the best examples is the flirtation between Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint on the train (and it even culminates with the notorious allegory of the train penetrating the tunnel).

Then TCM brings us Rear Window in February 21st. Here we have James Stewart playing a guy frustrated because he is trapped at home by a disability. When he observes some activity by neighbors that he interprets as a possible murder, he becomes more and more obsessed and voyeuristic. When it looks like he has been correct instead of paranoid, that business about being trapped by a disability takes on a whole new meaning.

TV/Stream of the Week: TOWER – a most original and important retelling of a story that we thought we knew

February 13, 2017 by movie gourmet

This week, the PBS documentary series Independent Lens will feature Tower, a remarkably original retelling of the 1966 mass shooting at UT Austin. Tower is a tick-tock of the 96 minutes when 49 people were randomly chosen to be shot by a gunman in the landmark tower 240 feet above the campus. That gunman is barely mentioned (and may not even be named) in the movie.

Tower is director Keith Maitland’s second feature. What makes Tower distinctive and powerful it’s the survivors who tell their stories, reenacted by actors who are animated by a rotoscope-like technique (think Richard Linklater’s Waking Life). Telling this story through animation, dotted with some historical stills and footage, is captivating.

Since 1966, we’ve suffered through lots of mass shootings. The UT Tower shooting was especially shocking at the time and prompted the questions about what drove the “madman” to his deed. But, fifty years later, what’s really important today is how the event affected the survivors – what was what like to live through this experience and how it lives with them today. That’s the story that Maitland lets them tell us – and in such an absorbing way.

I saw Tower at the Mill Valley Film Festival. It plays on Independent Lens on KQED-TV at 10 PM, Tuesday night, February 14. You can also stream Tower on Amazon Instant, 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

2016 at the Movies: I hadn’t seen this before

December 28, 2016 by movie gourmet

Here are some things that I hadn’t seen before in the movies:

Lead characters in Toni Erdmann and Elle that were completely sui generis.
A movie exposé, Under the Sun, built out of outtakes shot under the noses of the North Korean government handlers.
Tower, a documentary about a mass shooting that barely mentioned the shooter – and with a startlingly effective look.
The Greasy Strangler, a movie actually constructed as a cult movie for the midnight shows
The Korean period con artist movie The Handmaiden delivered some unforeseeable plot twists – and was gorgeous and erotic, too.

2016 at the Movies: history that Baby Boomers lived

December 27, 2016 by movie gourmet

2016 stirred the memories of Baby Boomers who lived through these historic moments:

LBJ and the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which ended legally-sanctioned racial segregation in America: All the Way.
The collapse of South Vietnam: Last Days in Vietnam.
The US Supreme Court’s legalization of inter-racial marriage: Loving.
Jackie Kennedy and the JFL assassination: Jackie.
The 1966 mass shooting at UT Austin: Tower.
Not really historic, but a weird footnote to history – the day an addled Elvis crashed Nixon’s White House: Elvis & Nixon.

Movies to See Right Now

October 28, 2016 by movie gourmet

Jumpy the dog and Ethan Hawke in IN A VALLEY OF VIOLENCE

We’re at the beginning of a very promising Fall movie season .

Mascots is the latest mockumentary from Christopher Guest (Best in Show) and it’s very funny. Mascots is playing in very few theaters, but it’s streaming on Netflix Instant, too.
John Travolta, Ethan Hawke and Jumpy the dog sparkle in the spaghetti western In a Valley of Violence.
The highly original documentary Tower retells the story of a famous mass shooting without dwelling on the shooter. Only at the Landmark Shattuck in Berkeley.
The indie drama Men Go to Battle is an insightful tale of two brothers that exceptionally illustrates the QUIET of pre-electric and pre-motorized North America. Men Go to Battle is available to stream from Amazon Instant, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.
If you are entertained by the epically disgusting, you can catch the horror comedy The Greasy Strangler before it hits the midnight cult movie circuit. The Greasy Strangler can be streamed from Amazon Instant, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.
The end of the thriller The Girl on the Train (starring Emily Blunt) is indeed thrilling. But the 82 minutes before the Big Plot Twist is murky, confusing and boring.

My DVD/Stream of the Week is Our Kind of Traitor, a robust globe-trotting thriller, enlivened by a lusty Stellan Skarsgård and played out in a series of stunning set pieces. Our Kind of Traitor is available to rent on DVD from Netflix (and coming soon to Redbox) and to stream from Amazon Instant, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.

On Halloween Eve, Turner Classic Movies is bringing us a campy Vincent Price horror classic from 1959, The Tingler. It has a scary premise – a parasite embedding itself in people’s spine and feeding on them – unaware until they feel a tingle AND THEN IT MAY BE TOO LATE! When finally revealed, the grown parasite is VERY scary-looking. Conveniently, the infested can weaken the parasite by screaming.

Vincent Price and his co-star in THE TINGLER

And on November 3, TCM plays the great political comedy The Dark Horse (1932). If you think that political handlers, dumb candidates, spin and sex scandals are creations of contemporary politics, you need to see this gem from 84 years ago.

Guy Kibbee and Warren William in THE DARK HORSE

TOWER: a most original and important retelling of a story that we thought we knew

October 28, 2016 by movie gourmet

Tower is a remarkably original retelling of the 1966 mass shooting at UT Austin. Tower is a tick-tock of the 96 minutes when 49 people were randomly chosen to be shot by a gunman in the landmark tower 240 feet above the campus. That gunman is barely mentioned (and may not even be named) in the movie.

I saw Tower at the Mill Valley Film Festival. It opens theatrically in the Bay Area today at the Landmark Shattuck in Berkeley.

Mill Valley Film Festival: the documentaries

October 5, 2016 by movie gourmet

Here are my top documentary picks at this year’s Mill Valley Film Festival:

Tower is a remarkably original retelling of the 1966 mass shooting at UT Austin. Tower is a tick-tock of the 96 minutes when 49 people were randomly chosen to be shot by a gunman in the landmark tower 240 feet above the campus. That gunman is barely mentioned (and may not even be named) in the movie. What makes Tower distinctive and powerful it’s the survivors who tell their stories, reenacted by actors who are animated by a rotoscope-like technique (think Richard Linklater’s Waking Life). Telling this story through animation, dotted with some historical stills and footage, is captivating. October 7 and 9.
Death by Design is an important environmental exposé on the toxic impact of personal electronics. Most of us have heard that some very dangerous materials and some horrific working conditions are used in the manufacturing of our favorite devices. Death by Design is the first film to successfully tie it all together, with historical perspective, global sweep and a possible way out. October 7 and 11.
Ella Brennan: Commanding the Table tells the story of the New Orleans powerhouse restaurateur – and it’s compelling. This is a woman who started running restaurants in the 1950s before she was thirty, the mentor of celebrity chefs Paul Prudhomme, Emeril Lagasse and Jamie Shannon and responsible for Bananas Foster, the Jazz Brunch and a host of food trends. October 15 only.

Ella Brennan leads the MVFF’s Focus: Culinary Cinema program, along with documentaries on chefs Massimo Botturo (Theater of Life) and Jeremiah Tower (Jeremiah Tower: The Last Magnificent) and a road trip narrative, Paris Can Wait, starring Alec Baldwin and Diane Lane.

Of course, the big family hit of the Holiday season may turn out to be, of all things a documentary about a Mongolian girl – The Eagle Huntress; reportedly it’s both a crowd pleaser and spectacular eye candy.

This year’s MVFF runs from October 6-16, mostly at the Sequoia in Mill Valley and the Rafael in San Rafael, but also at three other Marin venues. Check out the program and tickets for the MVFF. I’ll be adding more festival coverage, including both features and movie recommendations. Follow me on Twitter for the very latest coverage.