Author:   Ken Hanke

Showing 1051-1071 of 5225 results
Starring: Dolores Costello, George O'Brien, Noah Beery, Louise Fazenda, Gwynn Williams, Paul McCallister, Myrna Loy

Noah’s Ark

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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In Brief: A curio and two hybrids in one movie, Michael Curtiz's Noah's Ark (1928) is a fascinating relic of the late silent/early sound era. Like DeMille's 1923 The Ten Commandments, it's only partly a Biblical epic. Most of its first half is a WWI story that serves as a lead-in — and a rather…
Starring: Jean-Pierre Léaud, Marie-France Pisier, Claude Jade, Dani, Dorothee, Daniel Mesguich

Love on the Run

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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In Brief: François Truffaut's sixth and final film of his Antoine Doinel series that began with Truffaut's first film The 400 Blows in 1959 is mostly a pure delight and a fine conclusion to the series. The only problem with Love on the Run (1979), which catches up with the 30-something Antoine for the first…
Starring: John Gilbert, Renée Adorée, Tom O'Brien, Karl Dane, Hobart Bosworth, Claire McDowell

The Big Parade

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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In Brief: The first of the great WWI films and the first film where King Vidor staked his claim as one of the great directors, The Big Parade suffers a bit today by having been eclipsed by other, better WWI films that followed it in short order — not to mention the fact that about…
Starring: Jared Harris, Sam Claflin, Erin Richards, Rory Fleck-Byrne, Olivia Cooke

The Quiet Ones

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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The Story: An unorthodox researcher gets more than he bargained for when he tries to cure a supposedly possessed girl. The Lowdown: It is rich in atmosphere, undeniably creepy and reasonably intelligent, but there's an over-reliance on loud noises where the scares ought to be and a certain amount of cheese along the way.
Starring: Maciej Stuhr, Ireneusz Czop, Zbigniew Zamachowski, Danuta Szaflarks, Jerzy Radziwilowicz

Aftermath

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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In Brief: The Asheville Jewish Film Festival at the Fine Arts closes with a powerful, disturbing film, Aftermath, that might be described as a Holocaust story devoid of both Nazis and Jews. But that's not exactly right. It is, as its title indicates, a story that takes place long after the Holocaust but is still…
Starring: Pierre Brasseur. Alida Valli, Edith Scob, Juliette Mayniel, François Guérin

Eyes Without a Face (Les Yeux sans Visage)

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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In Brief: Georges Franju's Eyes Without a Face (1960) is one of the most highly regarded of all horror films, though I've never been able to completely embrace it myself. Certainly, it's well made, has a certain poetic quality, some iconic imagery and a hypnotic performance from Edith Scob. But the film itself strikes me as essentially a fairly standard…
Starring: Gérard Depardieu, Nicole Garcia, Roger Pierre, Nelly Borgeaud, Pierre Arditi, Henri Laborit

My American Uncle (Mon Oncle d’Amerique)

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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In Brief: World Cinema concludes its monthlong tribute to Alain Resnais with the filmmaker's 1980 film My American Uncle (Mon Oncle d'Amerique), and it's another winner. It takes the intersecting stories of three characters, along with the real evolutionary philospher Henri Laborit, and presents their stories in terms of a sociological/psychological study, based in part…
Starring: Johnny Depp, Rebecca Hall, Paul Bettany, Cillian Murphy, Kate Mara, Morgan Freeman, Clifton Collins Jr.

Transcendence

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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The Story: A dying computer genius has his mind uploaded to a computer so that he can live on beyond death. The Lowdown: An intriguing, nice-looking science fiction film that risks tackling some pretty big issues. It doesn't entirely succeed, but it remains above-average entertainment with something on its mind.
Starring: John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, Wilfrid Brambell, Norm Rossington, John Junkin, Victor Spinetti

A Hard Day’s Night

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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In Brief: Richard Lester's landmark film A Hard Day's Night (1964) not only captured a moment in time and propelled The Beatles even further into the realm of icons, but it revolutionized cinema — especially British cinema — and can be said to be the true birth of modern film. Borrowing much of its style…
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Tye Sheridan, Gary Poulter, Ronnie Gene Blevens, Brian Mays

Joe

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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The Story: An ex-con forms an attachment to a troubled 15-year-old boy with an abusive alcoholic father.  The Lowdown: Highly acclaimed in many quarters, Joe feels both disjointed and falsely sentimentalized to me, despite containing a strong performance by Nicolas Cage. A fondness for Southern gothic melodrama is essential.
Starring: John Maloof, Mary Ellen Mark, Phil Donahue, Vivian Maier, Duffy Levant, Joe Matthews

Finding Vivian Maier

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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The Story: Documentary about the work of recently discovered street photographer Vivian Maier, combined with the efforts to track down the story of this enigmatic woman. The Lowdown: Altogether captivating, fascinating and even moving documentary chronicling the work of and trying to understand a mid-20th century street photographer. If you only see one documentary a…
Starring: Robert Duvall, Blythe Danner, Michael O'Keefe, Lisa Jane Persky, Stan Shaw, Theresa Merritt, David Keith, Paul Mantee

The Great Santini

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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In Brief: The Great Santini comes with a long list of critical accolades from the time of its release. How this story of a hard-drinking, abusive Marine colonel and his impact on his family holds up is largely going to be a matter of taste. At best, it contains some strong performances and is competently…
Starring: Delphine Seyrig, Jean-Pierre Kérien, Nita Klein, Jean-Baptiste Thiérrée, Claude Sainval

Muriel, or The Time of Return

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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In Brief: The third film in World Cinema's monthlong tribute to French director Alain Resnais is also Resnais' third feature — the altogether remarkable and frankly mind-blowing Muriel, or The Time of Return (1963). It is also Resnais' first color film. On the surface, it's the story of an man visiting an old love from…
Starring: Agathe Bonitzer, Mahmud Shalaby, Hiam Abbass. Riff Cohen, Abraham Belaga

A Bottle in the Gaza Sea

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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In Brief: The third film from this year's Asheville Jewish Film Festival is a tender and charming epistolary romance between a French Jewish girl (who recently moved to Israel) and a Palestinian boy who finds the girl's message in a bottle that she has her Israeli soldier brother throw into the Gaza Sea. From this note…
Starring: Irrfan Khan, Nimrat Kaur, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Lillete Dunbey, Nakul Vaid, Shruti Bapna

The Lunchbox

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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The Story: When a young wife's special lunch for her husband is mistakenly delivered to another, older man, an increasingly intimate correspondence ensues.  The Lowdown: Charming, quietly funny, elegantly made and sometimes heartbreakingly perceptive, The Lunchbox is one of 2014's must-see films. Stars Irrfan Khan and Nimrat Kaur are marvelous.
Starring: Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy McWilliams, Lynsey Taylor Mackay, Dougie McConnell

Under the Skin

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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The Story: A mysterious woman — who is apparently an alien — prowls the Glasgow area in a white van to seduce and dispatch men. The Lowdown: Highly acclaimed as fresh and original, Under the Skin is also slow-moving and on the deliberately impenetrable side. Yes, it's the critical sci-fi sensation of the moment, but…
Starring: Vanessa Redgrave, Oliver Reed, Dudley Sutton, Max Adrian, Gemma Jones, Murray Melvin, Michael Gothard, Graham Arnitage

The Devils

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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In Brief: Special Guest Lisi Russell will help introduce this special screening of her late husband Ken Russell's 1971 film The Devils. This is a deliberately shocking and deeply disturbing film depicting the events in the French town of Loudun in the 1634 "trial," torture and execution of the priest Urbain Grandier. Grandier is persecuted…
Starring: Mark Webber, Devon Graye, Tom Bower, Rutina Wesley, Ron Perlman, Pruitt Taylor Vince

13 Sins

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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The Story: A desperate man is given a chance at winning a million dollars if he completes 13 tasks, which, unsurprisingly, turn out to be much worse than he imagines. The Lowdown: A truly solid horror thriller with a compelling, darkly humorous story and an unusually complex moral center. It's not perfect, but it's good.
Starring: Jim Broadbent, Lindsay Duncan, Jeff Goldblum, Olly Alexander, Judith Davis, Igor Gotesman

Le Week-End

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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The Story: An aging, far from affluent and not very happy British couple try to relive their honeymoon on a weekend in Paris. The Lowdown: Honestly, it was little more than a coin toss whether or not this fine film was going to be the Weekly Pick. It easily could have been. Rich, funny, touching…