Pick of the week: “Silver Linings Playbook“: My full review is here. Writer-director David O. Russell messes with the traditional rom-com formula in this ragged and funny film about two not just eccentric but possibly damaged souls (Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence) who somehow figure out they’re good for each other. Where it’s going is easy to predict — how it gets there isn’t.
Pick of the week: “Le Week-End“ — My full review is here. Don’t get snookered by the trailer, which tried to sell this Roger Michell drama as a Baby Boomer “Before Sunrise,” which longtime married couple Lindsey Duncan and Jim Broadbent rekindling that old flame in Paris. In fact, this is an often bruising, acerbic but tender look at a wobbly but resilient lifetime relationship, with two terrific lead performances by two of Britain’s finest character actors. Add in a playful Jeff Goldblum performance as an old friend and you’ve got an entertaining but not easy film.
The start of a new month means a whole bunch of new movies just hitting Netflix. As always, click on the title to take you directly to the movie on Netflix.
Pick of the week: “All is Lost” — My full review is here. Writer-director J.C. Chandor followed up his conversation-heavy debut “Margin Call” with a movie with one character who barely talks. But he’s Robert Redford, in one of his best roles, playing a man lost at sea and calling on every ounce of his resources to stay alive.
Pick of the week: “Blue Ruin“ (Netflix) — My full review is here. This fantastic thriller reminded me of the Coen Brothers’ first film, “Blood Simple” in its mix of gritty thrills, spiritual weight and a dash of surreal humor. A homeless man tries to exact revenge for the murder of his parents years later and finds himself spectacularly unsuited for the job, eventually drawn into an escalating cycle of vengeance he can’t extract himself from. Plus it has Eve Plumb with a machine gun.
Pick of the week: “Thanks for Sharing” — My full review is here. While “Shame” turned sex addiction into an epic tragedy, “Thanks For Sharing” is a refreshingly grounded comedy-drama that treats it like any other addiction. Mark Ruffalo is a five years “sober” addict trying to start a new relationship with cancer survivor Gwyneth Paltrow, while Josh Gad is a straight-up perv trying to get its life in order. I’d say it’s about two-thirds drama, one-third comedy and generally appealing.
Pick of the week: “Nymphomaniac” — My full review is here. Come for the graphic sex, stay for the fly fishing tips in Lars Von Trier’s four-hour tale of a woman (Stacy Martin in Part I, Charlotte Gainsbourgh in Part II) whose lifelong quest for sexual gratification takes her into some rough corners. It’s funny, shocking, depressing, pretentious, scuzzy — either one of the worst porn movies ever made, or one of Von Trier’s best films.
Well, this could get complicated. Up until now this weekly column has focused exclusively on Netflix, since they’ve usually been the one to get the jump on new releases, with Amazon Prime and Hulu focusing more on television. But then I saw Amazon Prime is releasing “Enemy,” part of an exclusive new deal it struck with the studio A24. So I’m going to start broadening the column from here on out to include other streaming platforms. Hopefully, this won’t get too confusing.
Pick of the week: “Enemy” (Amazon Prime) — My full review is here. Canadian director Denis Villeneuve reteamed with Jake Gyllenhaal after “Prisoners” in this unsettling tale of a meek history professor who finds out he has an exact doppelganger, a cocky young actor. As they wrestle over who is the “real” self, Villeneuve bathes the film in a sense of dread that’s Cronenerberg-esque.
I’m filing the Instant Gratification column a little late this week to catch some of the new movies that Netflix just made available for streaming on Aug. 1. And there were a lot of them. Click on the title, and the link will take you directly to the movie on the Netflix site. Enjoy!
“Mad Max” — With the dynamite trailer for the 2015 reboot “Mad Max: Fury Road” released this week, it’s a great time to revisit the 1979 original, a nasty bit of “Oz-sploitation” starring an impossibly young Mel Gibson who goes from good cop to vigilante in a hurry.
Pick of the week: “Manhunter” — Still shaking from Season 2 of “Hannibal”? Time to head back to Michael Mann’s 1986 adaptation of the Thomas Harris novel, with William Petersen as FBI profiler Will Graham and Brian Cox as the manipulative Hannibal Lecter.
Pick of the week: “The Master“ — My full review is here. My favorite movie of 2012 was Paul Thomas Anderson’s masterpiece that puts the lie to the American ideal of the “free-thinking, self-made man.” Anderson’s two men — a physically and emotionally damaged veteran (Joaquin Phoenix) and a charismatic cult leader (Philip Seymour Hoffman) are deeply flawed, but find their flaws fit together in a charged, fascinating way.
Madison Movie 