Billy Wilder is the American cinema’s most famous cynic, but nothing in his career is as scathing as this noir-tinged newspaper drama, an indictment of the American media circus.
Category: suspense
‘Imperium’- Undercover in Amerikkka on HBO Max
Daniel Radcliffe plays an FBI analyst who plunges into the White Supremacist culture in this undercover thriller “inspired by real events.”
‘To Catch a Thief’ with Cary Grant and Grace Kelly on Amazon Prime and Paramount+
Alfred Hitchcock’s frothiest entertainment delivers glamor and romance with Cary Grant and Grace Kelly on the French Riviera where a cat burglar is stealing the jewels of rich tourists.
What to stream: ‘Beckett’ and ‘Cherry Flavor’ on Netflix, ‘Homeroom’ on Hulu, ‘CODA’ on Apple TV+
Plus the animated ‘What If…?’ on Disney+, comedy ‘Reservation Dogs’ on FX on Hulu, a new season of ‘Titans’ on HBO Max, and the original ‘The Killing’ on Topic
‘Drive’ – Ryan Gosling’s getaway on Peacock
Sleek pulp crime cool meets arthouse style thriller in Drive (2011, R) starring Ryan Gosling as a taciturn getaway driver. Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn (a veteran of gritty, brutal Danish underworld dramas) with a silky smoothness and a stylized cool that recalls Le Samourai and Walter Hill’s The Driver, and an eighties vibe and […]
‘Klute’ with Jane Fonda on HBO Max
Jane Fonda’s call girl Bree Daniels is with a client, panting and screaming in his ear while he sweats and pumps away, but it’s just an act: her face is all business as she checks her watch without skipping a moan. Klute (1971), Alan Pakula’s stark, alienated neo-noir, is best remembered for Jane Fonda’s Oscar-winning […]
Last chance: ‘Goodnight Mommy’ on Hulu
Goodnight Mommy (Germany, 2015) is an unsettling horror film built on scars (physical and psychological) that upset the connection between a mother (Susanne Wuest) and her sons, adolescent twins named Lukas and Elias played by real-life twin brothers Lukas Schwarz and Elias Schwarz. That fraternal connection is apparent in every scene, not just affection but […]
Last chance: David Lynch’s ‘Mulholland Dr.’ on HBO Max
Mulholland Dr. (2001) – David Lynch pulled a near magic trick in what can only be an exercise in creative rewriting and re-conception. Taking an open ended TV pilot rejected by the networks, he added 45 minutes and created closure in a weird, mystical logic that, in its unique Lynchian way, makes a twisted emotional […]
‘The Hunger Games’ – May the odds be ever in your favor on Peacock
Based on the first book in the dystopian trilogy by Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games (2012) was one of the more successful efforts to transform a hot young adult series into a big screen franchise, more mature than Harry Potter and grittier than Eclipse, and even a little political in its own right. The story […]
Alfred Hitchcock’s original ‘Psycho’ on Peacock
Psycho (1960) shocked America in 1960. Suburban theatergoers headed to the theaters to see the latest offering from the director of the glamorous and sexy Rear Window and the Technicolor confection North by Northwest. Who expected the droll host of TV’s showcase for suspense, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, to get so down and dirty and tawdry. […]