Every Tuesday, discriminating viewers are confronted with a flurry of choices: new releases on disc and on-demand, vintage and original movies on any number of streaming platforms, catalog titles making a splash on Blu-ray or 4K. This bi-weekly column sifts through all of those choices to pluck out the movies most worth your time, no matter how you’re watching.
After that last, marathon column, we have a much lighter new release slate to share this week, with two more Vincent Price classics, a couple of genre treats, an overdue Criterion Collection upgrade, and more:
PICK OF THE WEEK:
“Mona Lisa”: Bob Hoskins turns in one of his finest performances – wounded, vulnerable, but powerful – as an ex-con who falls for the high-priced call girl (Cathy Tyson) he’s assigned to chauffeur to her appointments. Director Neil Jordan (who co-wrote with David Leland) knows the pitfalls of this material, and gracefully dodges them; the affection that develops between them is believable but idealized, as the stark realities of the worlds they inhabit are never far from the frame. Hoskins was, at the time, best known for playing the brutish crime boss of “The Long Good Friday,” so perhaps it’s fair play that perpetual nice-guy Michael Caine turns up here as a sadistic gangster, and is just as convincing. This was one of the earliest Criterion Collection DVD releases, so its Blu-ray upgrade is particularly welcome; it’s one of the best pictures of the ‘80s. (Includes audio commentary, new and archival interviews, and essay by Ryan Gilbey.)
ON NETFLIX:
“Worth”: Director Sara Colangelo (“The Kindergarten Teacher”) is clearly going for a “Spotlight” vibe with this based-on-a-true-story drama – so much so that she cast Michael Keaton and Stanley Tucci in the leads. Keaton plays a high-powered attorney who volunteers to serve as the Special Master of the 9/11 Victims Compensation Fund – doing, as another character puts it, “the vulgar work of putting numbers on a check.” Tucci is his main antagonist, the widower of a victim who believes his “formula” for calculating the sliding scale value of these lives is inherently flawed. Watching these two characters – and actors – parry is the film’s primary pleasure; this is tricky material, verging on exploitation, but they steer and land it like the pros they are.
ON BLU-RAY:
“The Tomb of Ligeia”: KL Studio Classics’ fall roll-out of Vincent Price titles continues with this 1964 Gothic horror thriller, the last of the actor’s Edgar Allan Poe adaptions with director Roger Corman, this one adapted by Robert Towne (one of his first assignments). You get the sense of the famously penny-pinching filmmaker trying to class this one up, shooting in London with a mostly British cast, but of course, classiness is somewhat at odds with this gnarly little movies, and the result is a good deal duller than the likes of, say, “The Raven” or “House of Usher.”But it has its mood to spare and some genuinely effective moments, many of them due to Arthur Grant’s snazzy cinematography and Price’s surprisingly reserved performance. (Includes audio commentaries, “Trailers from Hell” with Joe Dante, and theatrical trailer.)
“Theatre of Blood”: There is, however, nothing subtle about his work in this 1973 horror-comedy from director Douglas Hickox; Price is playing an absolute honeyed ham of a Shakesperean actor, nearly driven to suicide by the jeers of his critics. But he survives and exacts his revenge: killing them one by one, in elaborate scenarios inspired by the grisliest passages of the Bard’s plays. The results are delightfully daffy and inventively gory, providing the expected blood, guts, and laughs, but also one of the finest showcases for Price’s considerable gifts. He only had the chance to do Shakespeare within the confines of a horror movie, but he does it well nonetheless; Diana Rigg is similarly tops as his daughter and partner in crime. (Includes audio commentaries, “Trailers from Hell” with Alan Spencer, TV and radio spots, and theatrical trailer.)
“Rififi in Paris”: This 1966 French crime thriller from director Denys de La Patellière is not, title aside, a sequel to Jules Dassin’s 1955 classic; it was merely based on a novel by the same author, August Le Breton, but that was apparently enough for some markets to jettison its original title “The Upper Hand” in favor of a more direct connection. It is, indeed, a bait and switch (that was a heist movie, while this one concerns a smuggling ring) but there are enough hallmarks of the era – hard-boiled dialogue, copious double-crosses, and cruelty and cool in equal, casual proportions – to warrant a glance. Jean Gabin is marvelous in the leading role, George Raft makes a brief but entertaining appearance, and the opening credits are so lively, they’re almost like an exquisite, stand-alone short film. (Includes audio commentary and trailers.)
“Tough Guys Don’t Dance”: Norman Mailer’s final feature film (getting the deluxe treatment from Vinegar Syndrome) was greeted with hoots of derision from contemporaneous critics, and it’s not hard to see why – with its careening tonal shifts, melodramatic score, punch-drunk plotting, and borderline parodic dialogue, it must’ve seemed like it was parachuted in from another planet. And frankly, it still does, but in these timid artistic times, that’s a good thing. Ryan O’Neal is a pretty boy coming off a bad bender who tries to piece together all of the terrible things he must’ve done during his blackout (and, frankly, over the course of his life to date); Isabella Rossellini, Wings Hauser, and Lawrence Tierney also turn up, each acting like they’re in a different movie, but the channel-surfing vibe somehow starts to work; it’s an all-out, buck-wild, coke binge of a picture, hitting and missing in equal proportions but swinging at every single pitch. (Includes interviews, archival featurette, and theatrical trailer.)
“Auntie Lee’s Meat Pies”: So here’s a sleazy little something, in which Karen Black and her four busty nieces use their carnal charms to lure visitors of their small town back to their farmhouse, where they kill them and use their flesh for the titular delicacies. This darkly funny stew of sex, crime, and cannibalism comes in hot and gets steady stranger, so by the time the girls’ “Baby” sister comes in (a full-grown woman in toddler apparel), well, all bets are off. The kills are imaginative and the supporting players are amusing, and Black is clearly having an absolute blast hamming it up. (Includes interviews and featurette.)