Starring: Rinko Kikuchi, Nobuyuki Katsube, Shirley Venard, David Zellner, Nathan Zellner

Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter

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The Story: A Japanese office worker becomes obsessed with finding the buried money from the movie Fargo. The Lowdown: This is a good — but not entirely likable — film that might have been great but isn't quite, owing to a central character who becomes increasingly unsympathetic. Certainly worth a look, though.
Starring: Jack Black, James Marsden, Kathryn Hahn, Jeffrey Tambor, Mike White, Russell Posner, Henry Zebrowski

The D Train

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The Story: One of the least popular members of the class of '94 decides to turn that around by getting the most popular — and seemingly successful — classmate to come to the 20-year reunion. The Lowdown: A very different movie than you think, this is a warm, generous, kindhearted film that dares to go…
Starring: David "Ziggy" Gruber, Jerry Stiller, Fyvush Finkel, Cantor Jack Mendelson, Gene & Pam Gruber, Mary McCaughey Gruber

Deli Man

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In Brief: The 2015 Asheville Jewish Film Festival starts on Thursday, May 7, at the Fine Arts Theatre with its opening-night film and reception at 6 p.m. (all tickets include both and are $22; the film alone plays again on Friday, May 8, at 1 p.m. with tickets at $8.50). This year's opening film is…
Starring: W.C. Fields, Edgar Bergen, Charlie McCarthy, Constance Moore, Thurston Hall

You Can’t Cheat an Honest Man

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In Brief: Despite certain shortcomings — at least when compared with his more nuanced performances at Paramount — You Can't Cheat an Honest Man presents W.C. Fields in the guise of his screen persona most people think of. This is the Fields of legend and of caricature. It's actually the Fields born of radio —…
Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Mark Ruffalo, Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Elizabeth Olsen

Avengers: Age of Ultron

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The Story: The latest entry in the Marvel Comics series. The Lowdown: It's too big. It's too frenzied. It's too full of characters it can't contain. Mostly, it's just too much everything. It's not bad — it will please a lot of people — but it provides a lot less fun than The Avengers did.
Starring: Blake Lively, Michiel Huisman, Harrison Ford, Ellen Burstyn, Kathy Baker, Amanda Crew

The Age of Adaline

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The Story: A woman who — through a freak accident — has been 29 for nearly 80 years falls in love with a man of about 30. The Lowdown: It has a solid romantic fantasy premise and excellent performances from the supporting cast, but the central romance itself is tepid and barely involving. It's by…
Starring: Juliette Binoche, Kristen Stewart, Chloë Grace Moretz, Lars Eidinger, Johnny Flynn, Angela Winkler, Hanns Zischler

Clouds of Sils Maria

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The Story: An aging actress agrees to appear in a revival of the play that launched her career, but playing the older lead character. The Lowdown: The first full five-star movie of 2015. A wholly remarkable and richly layered film examining the thin line between art and life, about change, aging, death and identity, built…
Starring: Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Ruth Warrick, Dorothy Comingore, Everett Sloane

Citizen Kane

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In Brief: This year marks the 100th birthday of Orson Welles -- May 6, in fact -- and the Hendersonville Film Society is marking the event with a screening of Welles' masterpiece Citizen Kane (1941). While that might seem the most obvious choice -- almost too obvious -- it really isn't. In fact, this is…
Starring: Ruddy Rodríguez, Rosmel Bustamante, Guillermo García, Gonzalo Cubero, Héctor Mercado

The House at the End of Time

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In Brief: Alejandro Hidalgo's The House at the End of Time (2013) is exhibit B for the case that we are indeed in the midst of a horror film renaissance -- the only question is how much some of the best examples are even being seen. In the case of this Venezuelan movie (supposedly the country's first…
Starring: Mathieu Amalric, Edouard Baer, Maria de Medeiros, Golshifteh Farahani, Isabella Rossellini

Chicken with Plums

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In Brief: World Cinema is bringing back Chicken with Plums, a film that didn't get the attention it should have when it was released a few years ago. Playful, gorgeous to look at, cinematically brilliant and finally heartbreakingly sad, Vincent Paronnaud and Marjane Satrapi's 2011 film is one of those movies that ought to have played here…
Starring: Margaret Sullavan, Henry Fonda, Charles Butterworth, Beulah Bondi, Henrietta Crosman, Walter Brennan

The Moon’s Our Home

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In Brief: Art imitates -- and attempts to improve upon -- life in William A. Seiter's The Moon's Our Home (1936), one of the least seen and least known of all classic screwball comedies. The reasons for its obscurity are vague, though they may be grounded in copyright issues involving the literary source (a serialized…
Starring: Shelley Hennig, Moses Jacob Storm, Renee Olstead, Will Peltz, Jacob Wysocki

Unfriended

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The Story: Some overage teenagers run afoul of a vengeful spirit online. The Lowdown: A strong contender for Worst Movie of 2015. This isn't even bargain-basement horror of the so-bad-it's-funny school. This is so-bad-it's-awful. That said, some have called it brilliant.
Starring: Tom Hardy, Noomi Rapace, Gary Oldman, Joel Kinnaman, Paddy Considine, Jason Clarke, Vincent Cassel

Child 44

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The Story: A Russian secret police agent becomes increasingly disillusioned with Stalin's Russia, especially concerning a series of child murders. The Lowdown: As a mystery, there's not much here. Also, it's too long and on the slow side. But as an examination of the grim final days of Stalinism, it's often fascinating.
Starring: Edward Fox, Terence Alexander, Michel Auclair, Alan Badel, Tony Britton

The Day of the Jackal

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In Brief: It's big. It's glossy. It's competently professional. It rarely thrills, and it goes on for an unconscionable 143 minutes. In other words, it's a Fred Zinnemann film. Zinnemann is probably the last person I'd approach to make a thriller — and this movie illustrates why. What this shaggy yarn about an assassination attempt…
Starring: Stanton Glantz, Jamy Ian Swiss, Bob Inglis, Frederick Singer, Tim Phillips, Marc Morano, Naomi Oreskes

Merchants of Doubt

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The Story: Documentary about "experts" whose job is to cast doubt on scientific findings at the behest of their employers. The Lowdown: It probably won't change many minds — do these things ever? — and it may not tell you much you don't know, but this is a solid and surprisingly effective activist documentary.
Starring: William Powell, Kay Francis, Scott Kolk, William B. Davidson, Thomas E. Jackson, Harry Walker

For the Defense

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In Brief: For the Defense (1930) is a rare (I think TCM has played it once) early sound film starring William Powell and Kay Francis made while both were still under contract to Paramount, and while it's not up to their more famous Warner Bros. duo — One Way Passage and Jewel Robbery (both 1932) — it's a surprisingly…
Starring: Domhnall Gleeson, Alicia Vikander, Oscar Isaac, Sonoya Mizuno

Ex Machina

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The Story: A young employee of a computer company is brought to the isolated home of his boss to help determine whether or not his employer has really created artificial intelligence. The Lowdown: A coolly brilliant film from writer-turned-director Alex Garland that explores the nature of what it means to be human. Effective as both…
Starring: David Alpay, Charles Aznavour, Eric Bogosian, Brent Carver, Christopher Plummer

Ararat

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In Brief: To commemorate Armenian Genocide Day, World Cinema is showing Atom Egoyan's much misunderstood Ararat (2002), which deals with the Turkish government's 1915 genocide of its Armenian population. This is heady stuff. It's also heavily layered and told in an unusual manner, presenting the story from the perspective of an Armenian filmmaker and linking past…