THE BULLETIN • MAY 6 - 12, 2021
TV • PAGE 25
What’s Available NOW On
“Movie: Venus and Serena”
“Movie: Frankie & Alice”
With that title, anyone who knows
tennis won’t be surprised to find this is
a documentary about the sport’s iconic
Williams sisters. The film concentrates
on their performances in 2011, when
a variety of crises threatened their
standings in the game ... but their
off-court lives get as much attention,
through candid footage that also details
the huge role their father played in
their progress.
Halle Berry took a sharp turn away
from her superhero persona in the
“X-Men” movies to play a decidedly
mortal character in Frankie, a
stripper struggling with multiple
personalities who puts herself in the
care of an eccentric psychotherapist
(Stellan Skarsgard, “Chernobyl”).
Phylicia Rashad, Chandra Wilson and
Matt Frewer also star in this 2010
biographical drama.
BY JAY BOBBIN
“The Odd Couple”
“The Sunshine Boys”
“Grumpy Old Men”
“Movie: Forgetting Sarah
Marshall”
“The Underground Railroad”
The forgetting isn’t so easy for a
composer (Jason Segel) after his
television star girlfriend (Kristen Bell)
leaves him in this raunchy comedy
from producer Judd Apatow. Trying to
shake his grief, the jilted guy goes to a
Hawaiian resort where the other guests
turn out to include his ex-love and her
new rock-star beau (Russell Brand).
Mila Kunis, Paul Rudd and Jonah Hill
also appear.
Oscar-winning screenwriter Barry
Jenkins (“Moonlight”) is the creative
force behind this limited series that
chronicles the flight to freedom of Cora
Randall (newcomer Thuso Mbedu),
who discovers an actual railroad with
tracks, engineers and conductors
beneath the soil of the Georgia
plantation where she works and lives.
Chase W. Dillon, Joel Edgerton and
Aaron Pierre also star. (ORIGINAL)
BEST WALTER MATTHAU MOVIES
“Lonely Are the Brave” (1962) Though Kirk
Douglas is the nominal star of this modern Western,
Matthau makes a strong impression as the local
sheriff.
“Charade” (1963) One of Matthau’s most
notable supporting performances features him as an
apparent CIA man who’s among those interested in
a widow on the run (Audrey Hepburn).
“Fail Safe” (1964) This tremendously tense
nuclear-war thriller features Matthau as an adviser
to the U.S. president (Henry Fonda).
“The Fortune Cookie” (1966) Matthau leapt
into the ranks of Oscar winners – and started a
collaboration with Jack Lemmon and director Billy
Wilder that would span a couple more films – as
a shyster lawyer planning a scam with his TV-
cameraman brother-in-law (Lemmon).
“The Odd Couple” (1968) You can’t do a list of
Matthau’s best without this iconic Neil Simon comedy
about mismatched roommates Felix and Oscar (Jack
Lemmon, Matthau).
“Cactus Flower” (1969) Goldie Hawn earned
an Academy Award as the much-younger girlfriend
of a dentist (Matthau) who uses his nurse (Ingrid
Bergman) in a relationship ploy.
“Kotch” (1971) Directed by friend and frequent
colleague Jack Lemmon, Matthau plays a senior
citizen trying to avoid a nursing-home residency.
“Plaza Suite” (1971) Matthau tackled several
more Neil Simon characters by starring in all three
stories of this trilogy set in the same room at New
York’s Plaza Hotel.
“Charley Varrick” (1973) Director Don Siegel’s
twisty-turny bank-heist drama boasts an excellent
Matthau in the title role.
“The Taking of Pelham One-Two-Three”
(1974) Matthau’s droll wit is ideal for the part of
a New York transit cop dealing with hijackers who
have captured a subway car and its passengers. This
film leads off a night of Matthau features Friday, May
14, on Turner Classic Movies.
“Earthquake” (1974) He goes by an alias in an
extended cameo in this disaster classic, but Matthau
is unmistakable as a bar patron virtually oblivious to
the place crumbling around him.
“The Sunshine Boys” (1975) Matthau and
George Burns (the latter winning an Oscar here) are
expectedly solid as uncomfortably reunited vaudeville
veterans in another Neil Simon tale.
“The Bad News Bears” (1976) Arguably
Matthau’s most popular movie for all ages casts him
as the unlikely coach of a struggling Little League
baseball team.
“Casey’s Shadow” (1978) The horse-racing
world supplies the background for this drama of a
sketchy trainer (Matthau) who preps a colt for a big
competition.
“House Calls” (1978) Matthau and Glenda
Jackson are delightful together as a doctor and
patient who start a personal relationship.
“Hopscotch” (1980) Reunited with the previous
film’s Jackson, Matthau has fun in this light espionage
tale as a CIA veteran who worries others with his
plans for a tell-all memoir.
“First Monday in October” (1981) A properly
authoritative Matthau plays a Supreme Court justice
who collides with the first female appointee (Jill
Clayburgh).
“Grumpy Old Men” (1993) Matthau and Jack
Lemmon reunited as neighbors and longtime rivals
who are, indeed, grumpy.