In Brief: Writer/director Louis Malle is perhaps best known for his strangely experimental My Dinner with Andre — and that's a shame, because he was a tremendously talented narrative filmmaker who didn't need gimmicks to make a great movie, even if that's all the casual moviegoing populace remembers about him. Potentially his most personal film, Malle's Au Revoir…

In Brief: Late-period Truffaut is decidedly hit-or-miss, and The Last Metro (1980) sits squarely on the fence in my estimation. This story of a theater troupe in Nazi-occupied France is unobjectionable enough, but that may be part of its problem — there's nothing to object to, but there's also nothing to truly applaud either. The cast is uniformly great,…

The Story: A mentally unhinged young woman pursues an ill-advised friendship with an Instagram celebrity. The Lowdown: Instead of going West to grow up with the country, Ingrid goes West to grow insane with the internet.

The Story: A highly fictionalized account of the mythical 1964 fight between Bruce Lee and Shaolin master Wong Jack Man. The Lowdown: Bore of the drag-on.

The Story: An adult fixated on a TV show from his sheltered childhood tries to finish the story of his hero when the series comes to an abrupt end. The Lowdown: A heartfelt indie dramedy that speaks to the nature and potential purpose of rabid fandom, perfectly suited to geek-culture obsessives.

The Story: Two brothers in an economically depressed West Virginia coal town plot a heist during a major NASCAR race in Charlotte. The Lowdown: A trailer park successor to Steven Soderbergh's Oceans films that's pure popcorn entertainment, at least if you're willing to overlook its regressive attitudes about its characters' Southern roots.

In Brief: As the connective tissue ostensibly created to tie up some loose-ends following the abrupt cancellation of Twin Peaks, David Lynch's Fire Walk With Me was critically derided on its release in 1992 — not for what it was, but for what it wasn't. Those looking for resolution to the seminal TV series' notorious cliff-hanger were bitterly disappointed, audiences booed the…

The Story: The step dance team of a girls high school in Baltimore prepares for a big competition while navigating the social pressures inherent to life as an inner-city teen. The Lowdown: An uplifting documentary that makes no attempt to hide its motivations.

The Story: The creepy doll from The Conjuring and Annabelle gets an origin story. The Lowdown: If its narrative necessity is questionable, its fun and functionality are not.

The Story: The story of Gertrude Bell, an avid explorer of the Middle East whose efforts in the service of the British Empire proved essential to the creation of Iraq as a nation state following World War I. The Lowdown: A frustratingly fashioned character study that fails to do justice to its fascinating subject.

In Brief: It's easy to forget that HBO wasn't always known for its original programming, but that was certainly the case when Something the Lord Made debuted over a dozen years ago. At the time, the pay-cable outlet had seen some success with shows like The Wire, Deadwood  and The Sopranos, but the days of ratings domination with hits like Game of Thrones…

In Brief: Very few people have seen Stanley Kubrick's feature directorial debut Fear and Desire (1953), and for good reason — the director hated this early work so much that he tried to have every print destroyed. Luckily for us, he failed. While it's by no means a great film, Kubrick's criticism of his own work…

The Story: Al Gore returns with an update on the current state of the climate change crisis. Spoiler alert: Things don't look good. The Lowdown: The feel-good movie of the summer for people anxiously awaiting the apocalypse.  

The Story: Racist police officers murder three innocent black men amid the chaos of the 1967 Detroit riots. The Lowdown: A complex and unfortunately timely film about a complicated subject that doesn't shy away from the ugliness of its premise.

The Story: A young boy with psychic powers and a mystical gunslinger combat a malevolent wizard, with the fate of a multiverse in the balance. The Lowdown: At least it's short...

In Brief: When I reviewed Asghar Farhadi's Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award winner The Salesman in March, a great deal of attention was being devoted to Farhadi's Oscars acceptance speech, in which he decried President Trump's so-called "Muslim ban." While I still support Farhadi's statements, I wish I had saved more print space for the movie itself rather than…

The Story: A man's spirit becomes trapped in the home he shared with the woman he loves as he struggles to let go of the life he left behind. The Lowdown: A deceptively simple film that tackles heavy metaphysics from a singularly odd perspective — definitely not for everyone, but rewarding for those willing to take it on…

The Story: A small, family-operated bank must spend several years and millions of dollars to clear its name after it becomes the only financial institution indicted in the wake of the subprime mortgage crisis. The Lowdown: Documentarian Steve James deftly tackles an important subject by presenting the complexities of a massive financial meltdown on a frustratingly human scale.

The Story: A British intelligence operative navigates a twisted web of danger and deceit in Berlin in the days leading up to the reunification of East and West Germany. The Lowdown: An overstylized pastiche of spy movie clichés that serves little purpose beyond creating opportunities for Charlize Theron to kill people in new and interesting ways, but a…

In Brief: The Hidden Fortress (1958) may not be Akira Kurosawa's best film, but that's a very high bar. It's easily one of his most accessible and entertaining works, and was good enough that George Lucas lifted from it heavily when he was writing Star Wars. The film was one of the most financially successful (and critically derided) films…