Armchair Vacation: Five Films To Watch At Home This Weekend (July 12-14)

Every day, more and more films are added to the various streaming services out there, ranging from Netflix to YouTube, and are hitting the airwaves via movie-centric networks like TCM. Therefore, sifting through all of these pictures can be a tedious and often times confounding or difficult ordeal. But, that’s why we’re here. Every week, Joshua brings you five films to put at the top of your queue, add to your playlist, or grab off of VOD to make your weekend a little more eventful. Here is this week’s top five, in this week’s Armchair Vacation.

5. Tatsumi (Fandor)

Very rarely, or at least when it comes to film, does animation veer into the world of biography. Often fodder for things like graphic novels (I’m thinking of something like the recently re-released Will Eisner tale Last Day In Vietnam), animated films rarely turn towards historical figures and weave their lives into an animated aesthetic. However, when it happens, it can be absolute magic. Take Tatsumi for example. From director Eric Khoo, the film is a breathtaking animated feature that takes a look at the life and work of manga legend Yoshihiro Tatsumi. An artist who became inspired and ultimately started an iconic career in postwar Osaka, he himself helped foster an entire genre entitled gekiga (dramatic pictures), which gave a powerfully cinematic eye to the world of manga. Including adaptations of five of his stories, the film played around the festival circuit, particularly places like TIFF and even Cannes, and is one of the best recent animated films. As moving as any feature animated or not, Tatsumi is a powerful meditation on the life and work of a legend that most people outside of Japan may not known too much about.

4. I Shot Jesse James (Hulu)

One of two films recently added to Criterion’s Hulu Plus page from the company’s “The First Films Of Samuel Fuller” box set (along with the equally great The Steel Helmet), the director’s first film has joined the ranks of Criterion’s 101 Days Of Summer series, and thankfully so, because it’s great. Entitled I Shot Jesse James, this admitted B-picture looks at Robert Ford, played by a brilliant John Ireland. Shockingly meditative and thoughtful, the use of close ups here is likely the most notable aspect of the picture cinematically, and in that deliberate choice, we discover that this isn’t your normal Western.  One of many interesting alt-Westerns that started arriving a handful of years later, this is an early glimpse of what type of character-driven Westerns we’d begin seeing in the early-mid ‘50s. Gorgeous, chock full of great performances and impossible to forget, Fuller’s debut would prove to be an auspicious one for one of the most interesting directors of his day.

3. Therese Raquin (Netflix)

From director Marcel Carne, this adaptation of Emile Zola’s legendary novel is an absolute stunner. Telling the story of a housewife, unfulfilled in her marriage, starting a tryst with a truck driver who is both mysterious and absolutely enthralling to the trouble wife. While the portrait of a turgid romance at home may very well be a tad sterile and melodramatic, the dichotomy between the two men here is intriguing, and the trio of lead performances are utterly fantastic. The picture stars Simone Signoret as Raquin, and she steals the show here, adding a great deal of depth to a character that could be both disliked and mocked for her disinterest in a husband who she married. Raf Vallone and Jacques Duby co-star as her lover and husband respectively, and these two help turn the film from a Sirk-esque melodrama into something closely resembling film noir. The noir aspect comes to full life when things turn violent, and Carne’s stunning use of black and white photography really breaths a great deal of film noir brood that pairs perfectly with the tale of marital apathy that Carne paints here.

2. 3:10 To Yuma (TCM; Saturday, 1:15pm)

If you’ve been following either my pieces here on the main website, or my Twitter account, you’ll fully well know that recently, Westerns have been as sought after in my life as any film genre. Be it big pictures from names like Ford or Peckinpah or minor genre pictures from directors like the eternally underrated Anthony Mann, Westerns are one of a handful of film genres that never truly gets the respect that it truly deserves. However, recently, Criterion has given us dual releases of westerns from director Delmer Daves, and one of them is arriving on TCM this very weekend. Released recently alongside Daves’ Jubal, TCM is airing Daves’ best known picture, 3:10 To Yuma this weekend, and it’s a must watch. One of the most underrated Westerns of its day, the film may be seen as nothing more than a curio for fans of the shockingly solid remake, but Daves (and his cast including Glenn Ford and Van Heflin) proves that he is, along with Mann, possibly the most underrated filmmaker of his day. A true master of the craft, Daves is at the top of his game here, and while a blind buy during Barnes And Nobel’s half off Criterion sale is perfect for this film, if you need to preview this masterpiece before grabbing the great Blu-ray released by Criterion, you can this very weekend.

1. The Godzilla films of Ishiro Honda (Netflix)

Pacific Rim arrives in theaters on Friday, and in honor of that release, it’s about time people re-visit the monster films (or at least a handful of them) from the master of the genre, Ishiro Honda. Netflix carries in its ranks six of Honda’s Godzilla/monster pictures, including the likes of Godzilla Vs. Monster Zero, Godzilla’s Revenge, Terror Of Mecha Godzilla, Ghidorah: The Three-Headed Monster, War Of The Gargantuas and Rodan, and are perfect fits for this weekend’s viewing schedule. Del Toro’s film is heavily influenced by these monster pictures in the use of his own Kaiju’s, and while they are far from the deepest meditations on the human conditions, or even deep looks at post-war Japan like the original Gojira truly is, they are still six of the more entertaining pictures you could check out this weekend. Rodan is the best of the bunch, so if you only have one, check that picture out, but pairing these with your mint copy of Criterion’s Godzilla Blu-ray and you’ll have one of the most interesting weekend’s you’ve had in a very long time