Wasted Weekend - 9.3.21

 Just as last week there was a bit of a lull in the streaming catalogues - the beginning of the month brings with it heaps of new titles to sift through. I've seen a lot of great titles pop up across the web including all time favorites like The Long Goodbye, The Taking of Pelham One, Two, Three, Thief, What's Up Doc?, and A Fish Called Wanda. If you need me to encourage you to see any of those - consider this your encouragement. However, we're here to get a little off the beaten track and this is what caught my eye this week.

I generally like to champion movies a little on the older side, but Jumbo (2020) is one I've been really looking forward to since hearing about it last year. The feature directorial debut of Zoé Wittock is the age old tale of a girl who meets and develops a romantic relationship with an amusement park ride. It just sounds so deliriously weird and what I've seen of it looks absolutely gorgeous. Jumbo is currently streaming via the Arrow Player and while I don't normally bring up rentals, it's available for a buck from Vudu

If my list of favorites above wasn't already enough of a clue - I am a big fan of crime films. I especially love off-beat, shaggy crime films of the 1970s and early 80s and Cutter's Way is about as shaggy as it gets. It's an excellently written, beautifully performed - with Jeff Bridges, John Heard, and Lisa Eichorn - portrait of disaffected, post-Vietnam, hangout noir. It's bleak, it's funny, it's weird, and it's one of those films you have to imagine the Coen Brothers saw and internalized. It's been up on Criterion for a bit but recently appeared on Pluto TV.

If you're looking for something a little more upbeat - it's hard to go wrong with one of my absolute favorite 60s caper films Topkapi. Jules Dassin applies every bit of heist technicality he displayed in the peerless Rififi and combines it with an anarchic travelogue showcasing the comedic talents of Peter Ustinov - who won an Oscar for his performance. Topkapi was also Dassin's first color movie and it is - sometimes literally - a kaleidoscopic explosion of color. I find it endlessly charming and Brian De Palma liked it enough to give its acrobatic jewel heist a nod in Mission Impossible. You can catch this one also on Pluto TV.

My final crime pick for this week comes as part of the Criterion Channel's New York City series they recently uploaded. There's plenty of great films in there, but I have to mention the Alan Arkin directed Little Murders. Featuring Elliott Gould and Marcia Rodd and based on a play of the same name, Little Murders is one of those films that has just become difficult to see these days. It's the kind of thing it might be worth signing up with Criterion for free trial or just a month if you aren't a regular subscriber.

October was once the month of ultimate horror film indulgence but for many of us September is when we start to ease into our own personal spooky season. Maybe you would prefer to save your horror picks for the month of Halloween but if you're looking to kick things off why not check out John Carl Buechler's Cellar Dweller? This is solidly B movie territory but with the special effects mind behind Ghoulies, Trancers, and even Mausoleum - Cellar Dweller delivers on rubbery goods and spooky spirit. It's currently up on Hulu.