Welcome to the fourth edition of What’s Worth Watching, the monthly newsletter which spits in the face of Stranger Things, snorts derisively at The Book of Boba Fett, and sort of noncommittally shrugs at whatever off-brand prestige TV Amazon Prime has farted out. We’re here for the underrated, underseen, and underappreciated of the streaming world. And by “we” I mean “me,” since it’s me recommending stuff, and you lot watching. In theory, anyway.
Recommendation round-up
Ride Lonesome (1959, Budd Boetticher) 69 mins
Watching Westerns of a Sunday afternoon is an experience as outdated as the genre itself. Channel 4 may have lost the broadcast rights to She Wore A Yellow Ribbon et al, but you can recreate the experience — ads and all! — on YouTube. For my money, this late-era Randolph Scott starrer is among the best of the bunch.1 Scott’s bounty hunter, the magnificently-monikered Bill Brigade, is dragging his latest quarry across the desert to face justice. Along the way they pick up a couple more outlaws, a widower, and are pursued by said bandit’s brother (Lee Van Cleef). Taut, lean, and impeccably presented as the studio production line allowed, there’s a palpable bleakness in its simplicity of its plot and the character’s morals once it comes down to the crunch.
Personal Shopper (2016, Olivier Assayas) 105 mins
This is one of my all-time favourite films, and if you don’t enjoy it as much as me, you can leave those stupid comments in your pocket. Kristen Stewart is terrific as a disturbed, disconnected buyer/PA for a diva fashion model, dutifully ghosting through her duties while trying to make contact with her recently-deceased twin brother. It takes place mostly in daylight hours, and yet, there’s some of the most indelibly terrifying moments in modern cinema in this odd little jewel of a film — including a Eurostar jaunt that’s the setting for a Hitchcockian-pitched set piece of exquisite tension which takes place entirely over text message. Lots of good jumpers and Hilma af Klint paintings, too.
A Visit to the Louvre (2004, Jean-Marie Straub, Danièle Huillet) 43 mins
Putting paid to the insipid insights of the YouTube video essay commentariat, formalist filmmaking pair par excellence Straub-Huillet frame works of fine art with narration provided by the words of Cézanne. I cannot state enough that this is literally just someone reading the post-Impressionist’s thoughts on creativity, the sublime, and some very entertaining trash-talking of his peers and forbearers alike; but if you’re willing to watch a two hour documentary on defunct Disneyland rides of whatever the fuck, you can definitely set aside 45 minutes for something of actual merit.
Review of the month (sponsored by the gel I’m currently using to treat my sore gums I forget the name of)
Suddenly (1954, Lewis Allen) 77 mins
The Internet Archive is a bloody marvel: a non-profit, seemingly endless repository of scanned zines, obscure books, out-of-copyright film, and an admirable attempt to allow us to dig up risqué tweets since deleted by up-and-coming politicians/reality TV stars. Some dickhead authors and their copyright-humping publishers are looking to burn all that down, and they bloody well shouldn’t.
Here’s one excellent reason why. This is a superbly played, deliciously dark home-invasion thriller starring none other than Frank Sinatra. Blue Eyes and his crew have no less than the US president in their crosshairs, and the commander-in-chief’s visit to a small suburban town is their opportunity to pop him. They find a little family house to be the perfect vantage point, and so force their way in. And you can watch it for free! In HD! Right now!
Over the course of a little over an hour, that premise plays out with a tone that’s part-Twilight Zone, part-noir, with Sinatra’s natural charisma playing off the fact that he’s…y’know, terrorising a family and looking to commit murder. In fact, this is part of the Internet Archive’s unmatched collection of classic studio noirs that have fallen out of copyright, and you could put together a whole screening series/depressed weekend indoors with what’s on there.
Best of the rest
The American Friend (1977, Wim Wenders) Dennis Hopper stars as Patricia Highsmith’s Ripley, the sociopathic con man; Bruno Ganz is his mark, a terminally-ill picture framer manipulated into murder. Stylish, natch, with an oppressively creepy atmosphere that’s hard to shake. (Watch on All4)
Guardians of the New World (2014, Flo Laval) Conventional-yet-compelling French documentary on the hacker subculture, placing it in both a historical context and as part of the wider countercultural struggle (Watch on YouTube)
Downside Up (1984, Tony Hill) Ineffably influential short that’ll fry your sense of perspective, freely and admittedly ripped off for a great Pulp video (Watch on Vimeo)
Aloners (2021, Hong Sung-eun) Loneliness may wind up being the key artistic theme of our time, and this debut feature from South Korean director Hong is a superb exploration of the topic, focussing on the ephemeral existence of a call centre worker (Watch on MUBI)
Aaaaaand scene. That’s our curtain call for this month. Can you tell I’m watching Fosse/Verdon as I type this outro? Hope you’re all maintaining solid form during this ongoing period of stiflingly sweaty weather. I’m going to combat it by spending three hours in a cinema watching a historically-accurate blockbuster about taking down the British Raj. If you enjoyed this edition, please do share it far and wide! TTFN.
If you don’t believe me, ask the brows