Author:   Scott Douglas

The Story: This year's nominees in consideration for the Best Documentary Short Academy Award. The Lowdown: Uniformly accomplished, uniformly depressing, this year's competitors for the Documentary Short Oscar are a collection of films probing the uglier side of our sociological zeitgeist.

In Brief: Dario Argento may well be something of an acquired taste, but there's no better place to start for the uninitiated than his giallo masterpiece, 1973's Deep Red (Profondo Rosso). While it may not be as surrealistically inclined as some of Argento's later work, that makes for a more accessible narrative — and it's still…

In Brief: Buster Keaton's Our Hospitality (1923) may not be one of his best-known, but that doesn't mean it isn't one of his best. Keaton's Southern satire, based on the historic feud between the Hatfields and McCoys, features some of his most memorable sight gags and remarkable stunt work. It also boasts no less than four…

The Story: When a snowplow driver's son is murdered by a drug cartel, he takes revenge with extreme prejudice — because this time, it's personal. The Lowdown: An unapologetically ridiculous parody of revenge thrillers that revels in its gore and garrulity in equal measure — in short, the perfect panacea for those suffering from prestige fatigue.

The Story: This year's nominees in consideration for the Best Animated Short Academy Award. The Lowdown: A bit underwhelming in comparison to last year's lineup, the 2019 animated shorts are uniformly likable if not overwhelmingly so.

The Story: This year's collection of Academy Award nominees for Best Live Action Short. The Lowdown: Depressing, distressing and self-obsessing, the films in competition for the 2019 Live Action Short Oscar are some of my least favorite in recent memory.

In Brief: Valentine's Day may well be a holiday manufactured by greeting card companies, but that doesn't mean the Thursday Horror Picture Show crew doesn't feel the love. We'll be celebrating this most saccharine of special occasions by presenting our own version of a love letter to horror fans with a double bill to die for.…

In Brief: The Asheville Film Society kicks off its 2019 screenings with a bang by honoring the lengthy and illustrious career of legendary character actor Dick Miller with a double bill showcasing some of the recently deceased icon's best work with schlock auteur Roger Corman. First up, we have Corman's 1960 The Little Shop of Horrors, a…

The Story: A musician tasked with organizing a folk music ensemble in Soviet-era Poland falls in love with a young singer, but his efforts to start a new life with her in the West are beset by problems on all sides. The Lowdown: A mesmerizing meditation on the vicissitudes of fate, juxtaposing a very human romance against utterly…

The Story: A war hero-turned-beach-bum must choose between saving his child and ex from an abusive jerk or catching a really big fish. The Lowdown: A film every bit as good as its premise would suggest — which is to say, not very good at all.

The Story: Three superhumans are set on a collision course by a mysterious psychologist with ulterior motives. The Lowdown: An unnecessary and ill-conceived effort to create a shared Shyamalaniverse that fails to live up to the prior films in a poorly planned trilogy.

In Brief: South Korean writer/director Kwak Jae-young delivers an odd amalgam of romance, comedy, melodrama and cinematic homage with 2001's My Sassy Girl, a film that works better than its bifurcated story structure would suggest. Adapted from novelist Kim Ho-sik's source work, itself based on the author's internet anecdotes of a dysfunctional real-world relationship, My Sassy…

The Story: A young black father-to-be is a accused of a crime he didn't commit, casting a pall over generations of his family. The Lowdown: A must-see film that does laudable justice to its source material even as it seems to be overshadowed by its writer/director's prior success.

The Story: An aging Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy face the decline of their cultural influence as they embrace the irreplaceability of their friendship. The Lowdown: A film that captures the appeal of its subject even as it elucidates the sorrows of their waning years, making a poignant statement of irreplaceable virtues put inevitably out to pasture.

The Story: The maid of a wealthy family finds herself in a tight spot when her boyfriend abandons her and the master of the house pulls up stakes. The Lowdown: An aesthetically beautiful work with a weak script that draws too heavily on its influences and digresses too often into pretension.

The Story: A young Ruth Bader Ginsburg overcomes sexism in her personal and professional life to leave her mark on early gender discrimination legislation. The Lowdown: An overly polished and slavishly devoted biopic that contributes little to its subject's legacy that a recent documentary didn't already cover.  

The Story: A wealthy quadriplegic man hires an unqualified ex-con as his personal nurse so that he can reconnect with the outside world. The Lowdown: A tepid remake of a profitable but mediocre French film that only exists to fill a feel-good niche in the January cine schedule.

In Brief:  Do you like musicals? Do you like Hollywood? Do you like Hollywood musicals? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then director Robert Z. Leonard's Ziegfeld Girl (1941) may well be for you — all others need not apply. Its star-studded cast, featuring the likes of Judy Garland, Hedy Lamarr and…

The Story: Six strangers are thrown together in a twisted take on the strip-mall staple of the escape room, only here the goal isn't team building but survival. The Lowdown: In the wake of bloated awards-season bookings, this creepy cheapie offers up a welcome dose of low-brow escapism.

The Story: Dick Cheney goes from drunken college dropout to master manipulator as he shrewdly usurps the authority of the most powerful position in the free world. The Lowdown:  A divisive film for a divided nation.

The Story: Sherlock Holmes and John Watson bungle their way through an investigation as they attempt to prevent the assassination of Queen Victoria. The Lowdown: Yes, it's insipid to the point of self-parody — but it's also not as bad as advertised.