Streaming Pick (5/14/14)

Frontline: United States of Secrets, Part 1: The Program

If PBS' Frontline documentary series isn't the best show on television, it has to be pretty close. And given that 60 Minutes has become quite a joke and Dateline long ago became a basic-cable level tabloid, Frontline's long-form news format might also be the most important show on TV.

Streaming Pick (4/24/14)

Having a Wild Weekend (aka Catch Us If You Can) - (1965)

For a time, The Dave Clark Five were considered among the chief rivals to The Beatles. They were always a step behind, however - the second British Invasion group to hit the States, the second to land on Ed Sullivan, and the second to put out a promotional film with artistic ambitions in excess of what one would expect from a pop group.

After The Beatles hit a home run, financially and critically, with A Hard Day's Night, the Dave Clark Five followed with Catch Us If You Can, subsequently retitled in America as Having a Wild Weekend. I presume the film was re-titled because their album was similarly re-titled - likely because the record company wanted to sell the album as a party theme album, and perhaps because they failed to recognize that Catch Us If You Can is probably the group's best song.

It's easy to see that Having a Wild Weekend (I'll use the American title) is inspired by and intended as something of a challenger to A Hard Day's Night. At its worst, the movie comes off as imitation. Where it is most interesting, however, is in its artistic ambitions (or pretensions, depending on how you see it). The film marked the feature debut of one John Boorman - who would go on to direct such films as Point Blank, Deliverance, Excalibur, The General, and on and on (some misses on the resume, but also some classics).

Streaming Pick (4/16/14)

Three Days of the Condor (1975)

Sydney Pollack's Three Days of the Condor is one of the all-time great paranoid thrillers. It tells the story of a CIA agent code-named Condor, played by Robert Redford. He works a mundane analyst's job in a mundane New York City office, in which a group of bored agents pore through books, newspapers, and magazines searching for hidden codes and meanings. It's a job built on paranoia - the notion that there are threats hidden everywhere, in everything. But just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't really after you.

Streaming Pick - 4/10/14

A Certain Kind of Death (2003)

What happens when we die?

What happens when we die alone?

The 2003 documentary A Certain Kind of Death attempts to address the second question by following the handling of several bodies of recently deceased people in Los Angeles that have no next of kin. This haunting documentary allows everything to unfold without hyperbole or over-dramatization. It's purely procedural. And yet it breaks your heart as well as any tragedy and scares you as well as any horror.

Streaming Picks - 3/26/14.

Some Picks to Stream This Week After the Jump:

Streaming Picks - 3/19/14

Some picks to stream for this week: 

Warner Archive Instant
Hearts of the West (1975) - Warner Archive Instant seems to be having something of a miniature Howard Zieff festival, showing Slither, Private Benjamin, and Hearts of the West. Hearts of the West stars Jeff Bridges as a naive farmboy in the 1930s that dreams of writing western novels. He heads west, suckered in by some con men. When the con men try to rob Bridges, he makes off with their loot and stumbles into a western movie set. This leads to that and soon enough Bridges is starring in movies and running from the con men that want their loot back. Co-stars Andy Griffith and Blythe Danner. The film is amiable, if a bit uneven, and features a good cast. The movie seems like it is going to end on a dark note, but Zieff and writer Rob Thompson thirst for their happy ending, and Bridges gets what he deserves. If you're looking for some lighter fare, and particularly if you're nostalgic for Old Hollywood, this is a good option. Check it out with a Warner Archive Instant 2 week Free Trial

Bonus Streaming Pick 3/14

Phil Ochs: There But For Fortune

Earlier in the week I recommended streaming Cisco Pike, the story of a struggling folk singer whose hangover from the 60s made the 70s a drug-addled nightmare. That story of the 70s hangover and bitterness from the high times of the 1960s got me thinking about an American Masters documentary I saw a few months ago on Phil Ochs, called Phil Ochs: There But For Fortune.

If you have a Roku, you can subscribe to the highly recommended PBS channel and currently stream There But for Fortune for free. Watch it.

Streaming Picks 3/12/14

Some picks to stream for this week:

Warner Archive Instant 
Point Blank (1967) - John Boorman's classic story of Walker, a man out to get his money - or is it something more - is an absolutely essential viewing experience. After helping his friend pull off a heist on Alcatraz, Lee Marvin's Walker is shot and left for dead by the friend and Walker's own wife. With the aid of a mysterious Keenan Wynn, Walker sets out to get the money he is owed, and to haunt some of the people responsible for the betrayal. Brilliantly stylized - but never overbearingly so - by John Boorman and featuring a master's performance by Marvin as existential hero Walker. Marvin is able to portray Walker with a merger of cool indifference and simmering rage and in the process creates one of the foundational models for movie anti-heroes to come. Catch it while you can, as Warner Archive has it listed in the "Leaving Soon" category. Warner Archive Instant 2 week Free Trial

Amazon Prime, Netflix, and Crackle picks to follow after jump...