Streaming Recommendations
Streaming Recommendations
A few weeks ago, I watched a TCM rebroadcast of Robert Osborne’s 2014 interview with Academy Award-winning actress Eva Marie Saint, whose career began in 1947, when she was twenty-three years old and, at eight-eight, was still acting. Her intelligence, warmth, candor, and openness were extraordinary, and I enjoyed every minute of it. It’s available to stream on YouTube.
One of her most famous films is Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest in which she stars opposite Cary Grant Released in 1959, it is widely known as one of the best films ever made I’d seen and enjoyed the film two or three times over the years; Saint’s comments about it and the clips I saw interspersed with her interview made me want to see it again, and I’m very glad I did. It was suspenseful, beautifully written, directed, and acted, and totally absorbing. Hitchcock’s screenwriter was Ernest Lehman, whose dialogue is superb. North by Northwest is available to stream on Amazon Prime, YouTube, and other streaming platforms.
A few weeks before, I decided to watch another movie I’d seen and liked, Moonstruck, starring Cher and Nicholas Cage, directed by Normal Jewison, and written by John Patrick Shanley. Released in 1987, Moonstruck is a romantic comedy like no other, and I relished every minute of it. Like North by Northwest, the writing, directing, and acting are flawless Moonstruck is available to stream on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, and other streaming platforms.
After laughing my way through Moonstruck, I was ready to see a drama, and I chose the 1989 film My Left Foot, a true story based on the autobiography by Irish artist and writer Christy Brown, who had cerebral palsy.
Thinking about the film, which was directed by Jim Sheridan and adapted from Brown’s autobiography by Sheridan and Shane Connaughton, I found myself recalling moments of Daniel Day-Lewis’ performance as Brown, who could only control the movement of the toes on his left foot and nevertheless achieved what he did.
I also remembered liking Brenda Fricker’s performance as Brown’s mother. Seeing the film again, however, I was blown away by Brown’s complex, challenging, and inspiring story and the way Day-Lewis and Fricker brought it to life. Not surprisingly, both of them won Academy Awards, Day-Lewis for Best Actor and Fricker for Best Supporting Actress. My Left Foot is available to stream on Amazon Prime, Paramount+, MGM+, and other streaming platforms.
The other night, following a friend’s recommendation, I saw the 2023 film She Came to Me, written and directed by Leslie Miller and starring Peter Dinklage, Anne Hathaway, and Marisa Tomei. The story Leslie Miller has crafted is unusual, involving, and surprising; her direction is outstanding, and the acting is remarkable.
One of the choices Miller made that impressed me the most is that she cast Dinklage, who is a dwarf and gained worldwide fame for his role in Game of Thrones, to play the male lead, a composer in the midst of a creative crisis whose size is never mentioned. The role could have been played by any good actor in his forties or fifties; Dinklage’s talent makes him the perfect choice. Hathaway’s and Tomei’s talent make them the perfect choices for their highly contrasting, distinctive roles, too. She Came to Me is available to stream on Amazon Prime, Hulu, Apple TV, Disney+, and other streaming platforms.
Another film on my recommended list is Rustin, directed by George C. Wolfe, written by Julian Breece and Dustin Lance Black, and starring Colman Domingo. Rustin is the true story of Bayard Rustin, an out gay African Amerian who worked with Martin Luther King, Jr. to achieve Civil Rights non-violently and, among other accomplishments, was instrumental in organizing the 1963 March on Washington. Throughout his decades as an advocate, Rustin had to combat homophobia as well as racism, and the film’s dramatization of this is powerful and moving. Rustin is available to stream on Netflix.
Last night I watched Clint Eastwood’s film Gran Torino, which I’d seen it in 2008 when it was released, and it touched me deeply. Its treatment of its themes—bigotry and grieving over a lost loved one—involved me from beginning to end. Eastwood’s work as an actor and director is flawless. The rest of the cast’s performances are first-rate, too. If you’re in the mood for an emotional experience, see it tonight on Amazon Prime, HBO MAX, Apple TV, or one of the other streaming platforms on which it’s available!
