Watch List Weekly Recap 8/4/23

This is the Friday recap of Ty Burr’s Watch List postings for the week. If you’d like to cut down on in-box clutter and receive this weekly email ONLY, please go to your account page and under “Email notifications” uncheck every box except “Weekly Digest.” If you’d prefer to not receive it at all, uncheck just “Weekly Digest.”

Classics 🎞

One Good Film: Mystery Trip Edition

Ty Burr • Aug 7, 2023

Back when my kids were little, my wife and I used to pack them into the car on weekend mornings for what we called a “mystery trip” — destination unknown but guaranteed to be fun. Sometimes ice cream, sometimes apple picking, sometimes a movie. Today I discovered one of my favorite classic films, a lesser-known MGM noir that to my knowledge has never been on VOD, hanging out in a fine print on the French video-sharing service

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Remembrances ⭐️

William Friedkin 1935-2023

Ty Burr • Aug 8, 2023

One oddball detail caught my eye in the Times obituary for William Friedkin this morning: He cut his teeth directing “Bozo’s Circus,” among other TV shows, for Chicago station WGN. What went through the mind of the man who would give us “The Exorcist” and “The French Connection” as he filmed kiddie hijinks o…

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Ty Burr's Watchcast

Classics of the New Millennium: "Inside Man" (2006) with Wesley Morris

Ty Burr • Aug 11, 2023

This one reunites me with my former Boston Globe work-BFF, New York Times critic-at-large Wesley Morris. When asked which movie he’d like to discuss, Wesley went straight to Spike Lee’s 2006 heist movie “Inside Man,” which stars Denzel Washington, Clive Owen, and Jodie Foster, and which prompted a lively discussion on genre, casting, and all things Spike. Have a listen. (55 mins.)

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