Room 37: The Mysterious Death of Johnny Thunders
Room 37: The Mysterious Death of Johnny Thunders
In 1991, Johnny Thunders died in a New Orleans hotel room. “His death to this day is a mystery,” Room 37 declares. The imaginative 2019 dramatization tells a tragic story of the talented addict “trying to start a new chapter.” Leo Ramsey is fantastic as Thunders, a furtive and wan presence in the Crescent City’s bright sunlight. Working on a low budget (but nailing the period details), directors Vincente and Fernando Cordero spin an engrossing tale.
“Sara Stein—From Berlin to Tel Aviv: The Complete Series”
Hard-charging Berlin homicide detective Sara Stein (Katharina Lorenz) doesn’t think much about her Jewish heritage. “My grandfather was a communist, and my mother was a gym teacher,” she says dismissively. But a murder case involving Israeli-Palestinian issues and a budding romance with a visiting Israeli concert pianist lead her to explore roots in the first of this fast-moving four-movie sequence. By episode two, Sara is in Israel, pursuing killers under the warm Mediterranean sun.
Veronica Guerin
Cate Blanchett plays a bold-as-brass crime reporter for a Dublin paper whose crusading ego brings her deep into an investigation of drug trafficking. “Word of advice—stay away,” she’s told but of course, Veronica never listens. Directed by Joel Schumacher, Veronica Guerin (2003) is a smoothly polished production buoyed by good character acting by Colin Farrell and the supporting cast. Blu-ray features for this “based on a true story” include footage of the real Veronica Guerin.
Lost in the Stars
Based on Alan Paton’s novel Cry, the Beloved Country, the Kurt Weill-Maxwell Anderson musical Lost in the Stars was perhaps popular culture’s first encounter with apartheid. The 1974 American Film Theatre version was capably enacted with production values comparable to the era’s made-for-TV movies. Brock Peters (To Kill a Mockingbird) stars as a black preacher searching for his lost son in strictly segregated South Africa. Lost in the Stars begs for a big-budget remake.
