The Spirit Was Willing But…

The flesh was weak as I have a sinus infection that has kept me from hitting the local multiplexes hence no review this week.  I’ll try to be a trooper and get back out there as soon as possible.  I do have a few recommendations for you:  First, if you didn’t see it when it aired originally, go to one of the pay streaming services and get “True Detective” starring Woody Harrelson and Matthew Mcconaughey.  It’s a tense and twisty murder story that jumps back and forth in time from the mid-1990’s to 2012.  It isn’t just about the crime but the detectives who are tasked with catching a sadistic killer who may be connected with politically powerful people.  Their relationship blows up and they don’t see each other until they are both called in to discuss their old case.  It’s eight episodes of out-of-the-box storytelling and well worth the $20 or so you’ll pay to see it.

Also, I’m currently watching a documentary series called “The Story of Film:  An Odyssey.”  It traces the art of film making from its very earliest roots through 2011 when it was released.  Packed with film clips from obscure French and Italian art films as well as the glitzy movies cranked out by Hollywood, the documentary shows how even the most commercial film has taken a few artistic pointers from the masters of the past.  It’s a fascinating series well worth your time and it’s currently streaming on Netflix.

I’m also watching “The Killing” which originally aired on AMC.  While it also is a twisty thriller that could involve powerful people, it’s a bit more grounded than “True Detective.”  It’s also a bit more of a grind as it takes two full seasons to wrap up their first case.  Despite the drawn out narrative, “The Killing” is still some top-notch mystery television and all four seasons are streaming on Netflix.

This week the box office will be dominated by “Fast and Furious 7” which marks the final performance in the franchise of the late Paul Walker.  I may see that or perhaps a smaller film that doesn’t have the marketing budget of that particular juggernaut.

Fast and Furious 7–

It Follows–

Send emails to stanthemovieman@comcast.net and follow me on Twitter @moviemanstan.

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