The Story: An intergalactic colonization mission is derailed when the crew intercepts a human transmission from an uncharted planet, and what they find at its source is predictably lethal. The Lowdown: A film thematically rooted in questions of creation that bears precious little creativity of its own.

The Story: A minor player in New York's Jewish political and financial scene ingratiates himself to a man who becomes the prime minister of Israel, but their friendship becomes central to a significant international incident. The Lowdown: Neither Norman — the film nor its eponymous protagonist — are as clever as they think they are.

In Brief:  While not generally as well known as films like The 400 Blows, François Truffaut's loose adaptation of a true story of a feral child struggling to reintegrate into eighteenth century French society after growing up in the woods bears all the hallmarks of the director's best works. Themes of challenging adolescence and the social isolation…

In Brief: Douglas Fairbanks' final silent film, a follow-up to his highly successful The Three Musketeers (1921), is everything you'd expect — a fun, light-hearted adventure film with plenty of swashbuckling action and a solid performance from one of the silent cinema's biggest stars. Frequent Fairbanks collaborator Allan Dwan, a ridiculously prolific director with 125 films to his credit, knew…

In Brief: In honor of the return of David Lynch's Twin Peaks, the Asheville Film Society will be celebrating with the writer/director's first feature, Eraserhead. The film had a difficult birth, with principal photography taking years and audience reactions icy prior to its resurrection as a midnight movie on the cult arthouse circuit. A surrealist masterpiece exploring…

The Story: Two U.S. Soldiers in the closing days of the Iraq War face an uphill battle for survival when they're pinned down by a wily sniper. The Lowdown: A study in cinematic minimalism that trades violence for suspense, resulting in a truly unique war movie that feels more like a horror film.

The Story: Proponents of the modern swing dance resurgence discuss the sociological and historical underpinnings of the subculture alongside personal commentary from several dancers currently active in the field. The Lowdown: A warmhearted tribute to a marginalized form of entertainment that reads more like a love letter than a documentary — and one that arrived 20 years too late.

The Story: A young man raised in a brothel discovers that he's the heir to English throne, but he must defeat his murderous uncle to reclaim his birthright. The Lowdown: A fruitless exercise in franchise building that replaces the archetypal resonance of Arthurian legend with warmed-over fantasy epic tropes.

The Story: A twenty-something prep school drop out suffering from sever clinical depression journeys to the Amazon in search of ayahuasca, a hallucinogenic brew he hopes may hold his cure. The Lowdown: A film so blinded by its own misguided sense of self-importance that it does a disservice to its subject while simultaneously failing to adhere to the…

In Brief: Clarence Brown's 1926 John Gilbert vehicle, adapted from Hermann Sudermann's novel The Undying Past, is the film that made Gretta Garbo a star — and for that, we should all be eternally grateful. Beyond Garbo and her chemistry with Gilbert, there's not much to commend this two-tissue tale of star-crossed romance in pre-WWI Austria, but…

In Brief: Alfred Hitchcock's first talkie may not be the best remembered of his early works, but it certainly deserves more attention than it gets. Blackmail (1929) bears many of the visual and narrative flourishes that would come to define Hitchcock's auteurial signature in later years — from his morbid gallows humor and propensity for cinematic innovation to a…

The Story: A novice writer is tasked with contributing to a script that becomes a major part of the British government's propaganda efforts at the height of World War II, but unexpected romantic entanglements emerge in the process. The Lowdown: A thoroughly inoffensive — and occasionally alluring — story that sneaks in a powerful message of feminine empowerment.

The Story: Star Lord runs into his long-lost father while he and the Guardians are on the run from a group of gold-skinned aristocrats, but the family reunion doesn't go according to plan when the cosmic pater familias is revealed to have a hidden agenda. The Lowdown: A sequel to a highly original film that, while suitably…

The Story: Two warring brothers and their respective wives meet over an extravagant dinner to discuss a horrific incident involving their sons. The Lowdown: The Dinner is imbued by all of the pomposity and self-importance of fine dining with none of the taste or sustenance.

In Brief: As soon as there were James Bond movies, there was a response with more seriously intended spy films. The Quiller Memorandum (1966) is one such film, and though it's one of the more obscure ones, it is also one of the better ones. Oh, there are some problems, and Michael Anderson's direction is…

The Story: An alcoholic writer returns to her hometown after her boyfriend kicks her out, only to find that her drunken shenanigans are having real-world consequences on the other side of the globe. The Lowdown: A darkly comic story with a serious message at its core that deftly juggles its tonal shifts and disparate genre tropes while…

The Lowdown: An isolated teenager with a tragic past and a vampire obsession begins acting on his murderous fantasies, until an unexpected romantic connection challenges his worldview. The Lowdown: A complex psychological portrait of trauma and violence that will be particularly appealing to devotees of vampire cinema.