Movie Reviews

In Brief: Atom Egoyan's much misunderstood Ararat, which deals with the Turkish government's 1915 genocide of its Armenian population, is heady stuff. It's also heavily layered and told in an unusual manner, presenting the story from the perspective of an Armenian filmmaker, and linking past and present so that the characters cross storylines. It is,…

In Brief: Campy, ludicrous tosh that purports to tell the "true story" of the origin of Shakespeare's plays. It doesn't even come close, but it presents a terrific cast declaiming hysterical dialogue in rich settings and is a lot of fun -- if you don't take it seriously, which the director amusingly seems to.

In Brief: Yeah, it's from 1953, it's in black and white with monophonic sound, and it's certainly not widescreen, but it's a perfectly respectable movie about the titular doomed ship. Romanticized and mythologized as it is -- and with technical errors that wouldn't have been known at the time -- it gets the job done.…

In Brief: Brian DePalma's originally misunderstood -- and mismarketed -- conspiracy thriller with paranormal aspects, now plays much better than it originally did when no one quite knew what to make of its mash-up of genres. Slickly professional and excitingly executed, with moments of creative and inventive filmmaking.

The Story: Now all grown up, the friends that made up the American Pie films return to their hometown for their high-school reunion. The Lowdown: Generally unfunny sequel that catches up with a bunch of characters no one really cares about, but somehow retains the ability to not be wholly terrible.

The Story: A police squad carry out a raid on a crime lord who is holed up in a supposedly impregnable apartment building. The Lowdown: Brilliantly stripped-down to its very essence, this action film is not going to be to every taste due to its brutality, but will serve adherents of the genre well.

In Brief: Possibly Luis Buñuel's most accomplished Mexican film, Nazarin is a complex work about the impracticality -- even impossibility -- of living a life by the strict example of Jesus Christ, as depicted in the efforts of one priest who tries to do just that, but finds himself constantly at odds with the Church…

In Brief: Mae West's fifth movie suffers a bit from censorship woes thanks to the ever more powerful Breen Office, but a surprising amount of cheeky irreverence gets through in this tale of a suddenly wealthy dance-hall girl who decides to become a lady in order to snag a "proper" Englishman.

The Story: Comedic reworking of the Snow White story. The Lowdown: Beautiful-looking comedy variant on the fairy tale, but with a degree of fealty to the source, along with a nice mix of clever and broad humor. The leading lady's a little pallid, but Julia Roberts' Wicked Queen is not.

The Story: With the powers of the gods waning, it’s up to demigod Perseus to travel into the Underworld to save his father Zeus, and to stop the ancient Titans from destroying the world. The Lowdown: An entertaining-enough adventure yarn -- with a cast that’s far too good for this kind of rubbish -- that…

In Brief: John Turturro plays a thinly veiled version of playwright Clifford Odets in this 1991, Cannes-winning Coen Brothers film. The film is a very disturbing, but sometimes funny, look at an artist (maybe a little bit of a fake) descending into madness and self-absorption in old Hollywood.

In Brief: A curious Bela Lugosi film to come out of Great Britain in 1939, Dark Eyes of London (The Human Monster) remains perhaps the single most disturbing film in the actor's entire filmography. There is not a drop of sympathy to be found for his murderous Dr. Orloff, the unhinged architect of a murderous…

In Brief: Federico Fellini's Oscar-winning autobiographical, phantasmagorical reminiscence of what life was like -- or how it seems from a perspective nearly 40 years later -- in the small town of Rimini, where the director was born. Rich, comic, gorgeous to behold and throroughly entertaining. A master filmmaker at his best.

The Story: A look at the life and work of an 85-year-old master of sushi. The Lowdown: It may not sound like the stuff 90-minute films are made of, but Jiro Dreams of Sushi is a beautifully observed, surprisingly engaging and entertaining look at a man who has spent his life in pursuit of perfection…

The Story: Forced out of his mother’s basement, stoner Jeff tries to find his destiny. The Lowdown: An aesthetically grating film kept afloat by a couple of likable characters, but which ultimately feels hollow and pointless.

The Story: A fragmented look at the making of a mass murderer through his relationship with his mother. The Lowdown: Acclaimed in some quarters as a powerful drama, it seems more like an unpleasant schlocky horror movie without the nerve to be one.

The Story: In an oppressive future society, lottery-selected 12-to-18 year olds are pitted against each other in a fight to the death known as the Hunger Games. The Lowdown: Reasonably exciting and entertaining film that will likely mean more to fans of the books than to the casual moviegoer.

The Story: A Scottish fishery expert is pushed into working on the wild scheme of a wealthy sheikh to transport salmon to Yemen. The Lowdown: Full of empty calories and lacking the bite its screwy premise suggests, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen gets by pretty nicely on pure charm and a splendid cast.

In Brief: The classic tale of relatives gathering at an old mansion for a late-night reading of the will -- one of those documents with an alternate heir that is little short of an invitation to drive the real heir (or heiress in this case) insane in order to usurp the inheritance. Still shuddery, with…

In Brief: Bruce Robinson's blistering -- and hysterically funny -- attack on both advertising and consumer culpability, How to Get Ahead in Advertising, is a fantasticated satire about an advertising whiz who suffers a crise de conscience that is followed by a bizarre physical change in the form of a talking boil that ultimately becomes…

The Story: Character study of the descent of a corrupt police officer into the abyss of his own excesses. The Lowdown: A brilliantly made but extremely uncomfortable film centered on one police officer, which is anchored to a terrifically compelling performance by Woody Harrelson. It loses steam toward the end, but is overall powerful.