No promotion, here are some long or watchable movies on various pay streaming services. Hopefully some of these are new to some people.
Criterion Collection:
It is important to remember John Woo’s The Killer and Hard Boiled were in the first 10 Criterion DVDs. The channel came out a year ago this week; my little sister got it for me as a present and I have used it to its limit. Some of these picks are obvious if you are a deep film person. But what can I say? Criterion uses a Vimeo player, and I am not sure why. I think this changed last summer. I Chromecast these. There’s an Apple TV app too.
Only Angels Have Wings (USA 1939): Clark Gable runs an airline and Rita Hayworth shows up halfway. Many Hawks movies deal with work and duty and this one is no exception. Since it’s a Hawks film, it’s funny, and the story unfolds in an episodic but beautiful and surprising way. Maybe people like television because of Hawks, maybe it is under our skin to want one story then another. The film keeps topping itself (that is rare). Why not use this quarantine to watch more code pictures? They are the best movies. The more I see of them the less I want to watch anything in which people who don’t wear suits the whole time. This is a funny and emotional film where the characters work and go to the bar, like many people here used to do.
City Lights (1931): One of my favorite movies, Charlie Chaplin plays his stock character, a guy who doesn’t talk. It’s a love story, but more of a friendship story. Chaplin is someone’s friend who can barely tell he is around. In fact, no one wants him around. Chaplin’s friend, a rich guy, just likes company. That’s not friendship. But it would be a nice way to spend an afternoon. There are so many good old movies out there: how can anyone be sick of anything? This film also gets to living in New York as well as any has. The other contenders are News From Home, King of Comedy (1983) and maybe that movie where Michael Keaton runs a newspaper.
In the Mood for Love (2000): This is a tough one to watch if your spouse is cheating on you, but if that is your situation, then most movies except Ponyo would be tough to watch. Another tough thing here is the main character always goes out for noodles. I would love to be able to do that. I can’t. This film is one of the greats but not much of a reaction when it came out. I would compare it to Mike Schmidt’s rookie season: who knew what was coming? Sometimes you have to wait around. Directed by Wong Kar-wai.
The Moment of Truth (1965): A confusing film since the main bullfighter is Italian but it takes place in Spain. I suppose this same logic dictates why in old movies everyone speaks with a British accent. Why is this cowboy from Sussex? Why isn’t he. The film’s main protagonist was a actual bullfighter and those scenes are beautiful, as is the one where he’s eating dinner with all the other single men in the dormitory houses. Movies changed from old to new around the same time single men stopped living in dormitory houses and eating their dinner together. Outside of cinema, it’s always nice to see bullfighters in European men’s fashion magazines. Directed by Francesco Rosi.
La Haine (1995): An obvious pick that’s the most stylish film of the past 30 years in which the main character isn’t a Yakuza with permed hair. In La Haine one character gets a haircut mid-film. It’s a brilliant artistic decision. Cinema is supposed to be about life and a big part of life is having to get a haircut sometimes. He looks just as good before the haircut as after. I guess that is why he is a movie star. Directed by the guy who built the bombs in Munich (USA 2005).
Yi Yi (2000): I think this might be one of the best films ever made. To quote Tom Scharpling on Wolf of Wall Street, I wish it was an hour longer. Directed by Edward Yang.
Stagecoach (1939): A John Ford film and the film debut of John Wayne. I am not talented enough a writer to describe what is special here. Even with my brain turned off it jumped off the screen. It feels nice to deeply love a movie that has been obviously loved by a lot of people for generations. And to see something as good as advertised. It’s reassuring to feel very small in the face of great art: it means there is much to do.
News from Home (1977): City Lights, News From Home and King of Comedy are all New York films which place in summer, that is the point I think. Together the three contain the full complement of feelings of how it is to live here. This one is especially brilliant and will be watched 1,000 years from now. Directed by Chantal Akerman.
Split Screen: Frank Vincent: Among other treasures, Criterion has a number of episodes of Split Screen, a late 90s IFC channel show that covers filmmaking. Its best episode is a drive around New Jersey with Frank Vincent, where they go to his cigar store, drive in his Benz (looks like a C-Class), play drums, talk about his work. After Casino came out his career took off again; before that he had day jobs. Much is detailed in a New York Times profile of him from 1996. “Frank Vincent’s two-limo night.” I have a story — it’s not mine — where he’s playing some friends at pool one night, in Nutley, I don’t remember what bar. He’s a few drinks in, running the table, talking shit on them the whole time. Just trash talking. Maybe a decade ago, so they’re in their 20s and Frank is pushing 80.
In a Lonely Place (1950): I used to think John Wayne’s character in The Searchers was the only true piece of shit in film, but Humphrey Bogart’s screenwriter character in this thing is a real piece of shit. A movie with an anti-hero comes out about once a month; few are exciting. Anti-heros have been the templates for comic book movie characters for about 30 years and they’re still doing it. I guess 80 years is a long run. Boy, is the main character here a piece of shit. Directed by Nicholas Ray.
Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972): It is pretty cool when Godzilla fights Gigan. You never see it coming. Directed by Jun Fukuda.
TUBI TV:
Tubi is weird but has some good movies and more bad ones. Sometimes there are ads, sometimes not.
Yakuza Papers 1-3: The best serial there is after Berlin Alexanderplatz and the first two seasons of Columbo. These are five films chronicling the history of the Yakuza in the 1950s and 60s, the movies came out over a two-year period , all five are on Amazon Prime, but the first three are here, all from 1973, the best ones. The whole series is based on a series of newspaper articles. Sometimes the movies drag. Mostly they don’t. They are very stylish, and the main guy has a flat top haircut. I feel like it’s a secret how well everyone is dressed in this movie: it might be the greatest collection of clothing on film. All that’s a backdrop as the guy with the flat top consolidates his power from his office in a scrapyard given to him as a reward for his loyalty(1). Directed by Kinji Fukasaku.
Boiling Point (1990): I like all the Takeshi Kitano movies. He’s a famous comedian in Japan and began making movies when he was 40; he writes, directs and edits them. BP is his second, a blunt and subtle yakuza flick that is very funny and whose scenes when paused can be hung as a painting. You can pause the movie at any time and it is beautiful. The movie is about a baseball manager who is not what he seems and a misunderstanding at a garage and karaoke. This is a good movie for creating peace of mind because the narrative turns on a dime and what with the subtitles you can’t have your phone out. Kitano’s other films: Fireworks (1997), just as good, slower; and Violent Cop (1989), his first one and his fastest, and Outrage (2010) are also on the service.
Total Recall (1990): A very good movie. If I remember right Schwarzenegger is nude here.
The September Issue (2009): Nice that this is available, it’s one of the seemingly dozen of documentaries released in 2009 and 10 about the working press. Feels like this was made 100 years ago to be frank. There’s a profile of Andre Leon Talley from a few years ago where the writer hangs out with him at a grocery store in Hastings on Hudson or something and it was one of the most depressing things I have ever read. It is so crushingly sad.
Meek’s Cutoff (2010): Necessary and very good western from a decade ago, directed by Kelly Reichardt.
Hulu:
Hulu mostly offers television but has a few good movies:
Gator (USA 1976): Burt Reynolds directs himself boating around the South; the film is better than it sounds and is paced very well.
What a cool thing to be known for as a movie star.
Almost every pre-Daniel Craig Bond film: Just as Union Market grocery exists to sell big San Pellegrino bottles for $2, Hulu is actually a clearinghouse for Bond films. Everything else they do is window dressing. Owing to the particular legalities of streaming rights, their otherwise complete list is missing You Only Live Twice (screenplay by Roald Dahl), but includes Never Say Never Again (produced by a different studio). It is a good idea for everyone to watch every Bond movie during shelter at home. In one of James Fleming’s Bond books he goes to Ottawa. Even the most legendary intelligence agent who ever lived had to go to Ottawa for business. That is the reality.
Multiple Jerry Lewis films: Hulu’s Classics section is worth remarking on because it is 14 movies, three of which are Jerry Lewis movies (including The Bellboy). Hardly Working isn’t in this one but its best scene is on YouTube:
Prime:
Amazon Prime is a very good service for film, not as good as Criterion but very good. Here are a few:
All That Heaven Allows (1955): Douglas Sirk directs this muted masterpiece about a widow and Rock Hudson and her two execrable children. One of the best code movies to start with, it’s very exciting and all subtext and easy to understand, and is p. haunting and immediate too. It takes place in New England, but that is OK.
King of New York (1990): Pretty sure I have written about this here before, but this Abel Ferrara flick about Brooklyn and midtown is Christopher Walken’s best role and has about one transcendent moment every five minutes, it is incredibly enjoyable, very funny and checks off all the boxes a movie should.
Highlander (1986): Pretty long movie, 1h50, there can only be one time you pause it and go to the bathroom, otherwise you’ll spend all night watching this thing.
Takashi Miike’s Black Society trilogy: three movies here by Miike about Chinese Triads and Japanese Yakuzas, the clothing isn’t all suits like in Graveyard of Honor (2002) and no characters have perms either. Lots of characters wear one outfit the whole time and some are very underwhelming but you get used to them. Shinjuku Triad Society (1995) is the first, about two brothers, and my favorite, Rainy Dog (1997), about a hitman who doesn’t work in the rain, is second, and Ley Lines (1999), about some kids, is third. There is a scene in Shinjuku Triad Society where the fat guy is on his patio gardening in his underwear and a Paul Stuart shirt, and his girlfriend comes home (from prison) and pours his yoghurt all over him, and it is one of the best put to celluloid.
The Seventh Curse (1986): Chow Yun Fat on fire, directed by Lam Ngai Kai.
McQueen documentary (2018): Just pretty good, but there’s a scene here where Steve is stretching to make some last minute adjustments to Shalom Harlow’s outfit and for a split second you see his cinch-back Levi’s. That collection was in ‘98 or ‘99 and maybe two stores in London sold those jeans at the time. Maybe 100 people outside Japan were wearing cinch-back jeans, and he was one. Just so great. A beautiful little fact set against his work, a giant and a genius.
Thanks for reading, be safe.
Snake
My work, including a new record (free):
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-JLRt0Ec6gZBm50hATYCYmLctnF9GhVijoEbam50JSw/edit
(1) a similar film about a camel hair overcoat came out a few years ago.