Weekend Watchlist, 2/13: Valentine’s Weekend

Happy Friday! 

If you missed it, make sure to check out the launch of my new monthly series: Back in Action, where I will be taking a month-by-month look at the action movies from 1991, the year I was born, and comparing the state of the genre then and now.

If you’ve been watching the Winter Olympics, I highly recommend my former SB Nation colleague Rodger Sherman’s newsletter, aptly titled Sports! He has a great daily rundown of the action from the previous day, as well as a preview of the day to come.

A quick programming note – for (good) personal reasons, I’m going to be significantly busier than usual over the next few weeks. The Weekend Watchlists should continue as planned, but other editions of the newsletter may be a little more sparse for the rest of February.

Now, onto this week’s picks, romance-themed for Valentine Day’s weekend! A late addition: the great Bud Cort died this week. Consider watching Harold and Maude (streaming for free on Kanopy, Hoopla, and YouTube)!

A Matter of Life and Death

Where to watch: Free with ads on YouTube

I adore the films of The Archers, also known as Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, who made terrific British films in the 1940s and 50s. One of their very best is A Matter of Life and Death, a romantic drama filled with charm, humor, and a sense of scale and visual grandeur not often seen in the genre nowadays. 

David Niven plays Peter, a World War II Royal Air Force pilot whose badly damaged plane is crashing. The only radio operator who can hear him is June (Kim Hunter), an American working at a US Army base in England. The two connect deeply in what is assumed to be his dying moments (Peter doesn’t have a functioning parachute), but when he jumps from his plane, the angelic guide assigned to send him to the afterlife misses him in the fog. When the guide catches up with him later, Peter demands an appeal, arguing his case in front of a supernatural court for the right to cheat death and make a life with June. It’s a wonderful, wonderful movie about love, death, and all the good things in life, even in the face of all the bad things, too.

Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani

Where to watch: Prime Video

This delightful Bollywood hit is one of my favorite rom-coms of the past decade. It’s about two young people from very different prominent and successful families – one from the world of business, one from the world of academia. They fall in love, and, trying to overcome their family differences, they decide to swap families to see if they can make it work. It’s an absolutely delightful culture clash comedy filled with gorgeous visuals, big musical numbers, a replica of the White House, and a pair of excellent leading performances from Alia Bhatt and Ranveer Singh.

Blue Moon

Where to watch: Coming to Netflix on Valentine's Day

I’m cheating my theme a little bit here, because Richard Linklater’s Blue Moon isn’t exactly a romance, but if you’re feeling down and lost in love – whether it’s a love for others, a love for your art, or a love for yourself – Blue Moon is a great choice this Valentine’s Day. 

The great lyricist Lorenz Hart, former creative partner of Richard Rodgers, is depressed and drinking the night away in a bar across the street from the opening night of Rodgers’ new musical, Oklahoma! Bitter and obsessed with his former partner’s certain success, Hart regales anyone who will listen (and even some who won’t) with tales of his greatness and his woes. It’s fantastic material for an alternatingly acerbic and vulnerable leading performance by Ethan Hawke, earning his fifth Academy Award nomination, and some very strong supporting performances (including Bobby Cannavale as a sympathetic but definitely harried bartender). Linklater’s script is largely strong (save for a few extremely corny exceptions), which helps overcome an occasionally offputting visual look thanks to some questionable lighting choices. It is also nice to see some old school theater tricks making the 5’10” Hawke appear as diminutive as Hart, who was five feet tall.