The Story: A white man and a black woman in the Jim Crow South fight to preserve their family in the face of overwhelming odds, eventually taking their case to the Supreme Court and changing the course of civil rights history. The Lowdown: Deeply affective and masterfully expressed, Loving is an expertly crafted recounting of a crucial, if somewhat under-examined,…

The Story: An introverted teen girl struggles to cope with her older brother's romantic interest in her best friend while her life seemingly crumbles around her. The Lowdown: Writer-director Kelly Fremon Craig crafts a funny and affective portrayal of the pitfalls of female adolescence that transcends its genre trappings.

The Story: Magizoologist Newt Scamander must fight against opposition both ambiguous and overt in his quest to recover lost specimens from his mystical menagerie. The Lowdown: This Harry Potter-adjacent franchise-builder falls far short of being a Magical Mystery tour-de-force.

In Brief: By the time Charles Chaplin wrote, directed, produced and starred in the first feature-length production entirely under his own control, he was already the most famous movie star on Earth. Chaplin, being Chaplin, stuck with the formula that made his earlier short films so successful, but turned the heartstring tugging up to 11. Semi-autobiographically…

The Story: A young black man growing up in a Miami housing project must struggle with his sexual identity as the world around him threatens to break his spirit. The Lowdown: A remarkably affective tale with ramifications that reach far beyond its subject, Moonlight is a must-see.

The Story: When mysterious alien spacecraft appear on Earth, one woman must learn to communicate with the visitors before humanity turns on them and destroys itself in the process. The Lowdown: Engaging and provocative, Arrival contributes a welcome touch of intellectualism to science fiction filmmaking.

The Story: Following the death of her husband (and police suspicion regarding her involvement), a Wiccan relocates to a small California town looking for Mr. Right in all the wrong ways. The Lowdown: A lovingly conceived pastiche of low-budget, late-1970s horror films, The Love Witch is a great idea poorly executed.

In Brief: The Asheville Film Society wraps up its November schedule with a staggeringly strange avant-garde triple-feature that should establish to absolutely anyone's satisfaction that modern experimental filmmakers will never hold a candle to the masters. First up we recreate the original 1929 double bill of Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí's seminal statement on Surrealism in cinema, the…

In Brief: I've never been a fan of musicals, and A Chorus Line provides about as good an explanation as I can give as to why. Favoring style over substance yet somehow achieving neither, Richard Attenborough's 1985 adaptation of one of the longest-running and most successful stage musicals of all time seems to have missed the appeal of the…

The Story: Love and betrayal complicate a young thief's aspirations when a ploy to con a wealthy heiress out of her fortune is complicated by a forbidden romance. The Lowdown: Scintillating, sexy and seriously strange, Park Chan-wook's latest film is a departure for the director and a delight for audiences.

The Story: A talented but narcissistic neurosurgeon must seek mystical skills to heal himself when a car crash destroys his hands, leading to his unwitting involvement in an interdimensional conflict between good and evil. The Lowdown: The now-classic Marvel Studios formula with visual effects that go to 11, Doctor Strange is "excelsior!" with a few minor caveats.

In Brief: Pépé le Moko is a massively influential film, and rightly so. Probably French poetic realist Julien Duvivier's best known work, this movie bridges the gap between poetic realism and the later emergence of film noir, presages Italian neorealism and the French New Wave, spawned a successful direct remake in the form of John Cromwell's Algiers and provided inspiration…

In Brief: Better than most B-movies have any right to be, James Landis' The Sadist is a surprisingly powerful post-noir proto-slasher that was the first to deal with the twisted true story of Charlie Starkweather, a tale that would later be addressed by Terrence Malick in Badlands and Oliver Stone in Natural Born Killers. This film benefits greatly from a bizarre,…

The Story: The history of Iggy and The Stooges, as told by the surviving band members. The Lowdown: Director Jim Jarmusch turns his talents to the rockumentary, providing a fun and engaging exploration of a band he clearly loves.

The Story: Several women in rural Montana struggle to find meaning and purpose in their lives. The Lowdown: Writer-director Kelly Reichardt paints a vivid picture of the emotional experience of her protagonists in this series of loosely-related vignettes, but the stories don't seem to serve much of a purpose beyond their obvious beauty and affectiveness.

The Story: A young news anchor leads a life of desperation and depression, culminating in her dramatic on-air suicide. The Lowdown: A difficult film to watch — but rewarding nonetheless — Christine tackles a profoundly difficult subject adroitly but never quite surmounts the inherent difficulties of recounting this tragic true story.

The Story: "Symbologist" Robert Langdon returns to save the world from a man-made plague intended to thwart human overpopulation. The Lowdown: A painfully condescending pseudo-thriller pulled from the pages of yet another one of Dan Brown's abortive novels, Ron Howard continues to disappointingly beat the dead horse of The Da Vinci Code with predictable results.

In Brief: Ida Lupino is an underexamined icon of the proto-feminist cinema, and The Hitch-Hiker (1953) stands as a perfect case in point. Directed and co-written by Lupino, who was also an accomplished actress probably best remembered for her role opposite Humphrey Bogart in High Sierra (1941), The Hitch-Hiker is widely considered to be the first film noir helmed by a woman —…

The Story: A bitter Swedish widower wants nothing more than to maintain order in his community and to join his wife in the afterlife, but the chaotic lives of those around him constantly interfere with his plans. The Lowdown: An expertly balanced confluence of black humor and heartwarming sentiment, A Man Called Ove delivers a touching message of acceptance without…