Movie Reviews

The Story: A disaffected college freshman tries to turn around a down-and-out a capella group. The Lowdown: An overlong, unfunny attempt at gross-out humor and coming-of-age flick that’s full of bad music and flat direction.

The Story: Tim Burton returns to one of his early short films for the basis of this animated tale of a young boy who brings his dead dog back to life after the fashion of Dr. Frankenstein. The Lowdown: Beautifully crafted animated film that plays to all of Burton's strengths and none of his weaknesses.…

Hell’s Angels (1930) was the most expensive film of its time ($3.8 million) and an event picture like no other. Howard Hughes — in typically obsessive fashion — was determined that this would be the last word in aviation spectacle, and indeed the last word in spectacle, period. Naturally, this meant he took so long […]

In Brief: Marlene Dietrich (at her most glamorous) plays a war-widow-turned-prostitute who becomes a spy for the fatherland in this World War I romantic thriller from Josef von Sternberg that mixes campy melodrama with a pacifist message (that the film itself mocks). It's mostly an excuse for Dietrich — accompanied by her ridiculously omnipresent black…

In Brief: Powerful and powerfully moving film about the plight of aging LGBT people and the discrimination — and even abuse — they face in finding health care in their declining years. This is a film that needs to be seen.

In Brief: Leni Riefenstahl's massive — and massively impressive — documentary on the 1936 Olympic games held in the Berlin of the Nazi era is amazing in itself, but perhaps is even more important as a fascinating time capsule.

The Story: A non-verbal documentary that combines music and images to create a meditation of life and decay. The Lowdown: A gorgeously photographed film whose enjoyment depends wholly on one’s ability to stomach pretension.

In Brief: Martin Scorsese's epic (in the best sense) and sprawling biographical film on Howard Hughes is probably his least successful 21st century film, but that doesn't keep it from being pretty darn fascinating in its own right. And it's certainly brilliantly made by a master filmmaker. Whether it's as emotionally involving as it should…

In Brief: The classic barnstorming melodrama The Face at the Window makes for what is probably the best of Tod Slaughter's horror output. Who is Tod Slaughter? He was England's answer to both Karloff and Lugosi — an enjoyably shameless ham who positively reveled in both his transparent, mustache-twirling villainy and his unabashed lechery. There…

The Story: In the future hired assassins are paid to eliminate people from an even more distant future -- even if the target happens to be an assassin's future self. The Lowdown: An involving, first-rate and extremely intelligent science fiction film that works on every level, though I confess to finding it slightly less compelling…

In Brief: Alec Guinness' first star vehicle finds him playing an unassuming salesman of agricultural equipment who is diagnosed with a terminal illness. Emptying his bank account — and decked out in exquisitely tailored secondhand clothes — he heads off to a posh resort hotel to enjoy the "high life" before he dies. To his…

The Story: Overprotective Dracula tries to keep his daughter from the outside world with predictable results. The Lowdown: Harmless animated fluff that neither excites, nor offends in its blandness.

The Story: A found-footage style cop drama revolving around the lives of two LAPD officers. The Lowdown: A shoddily made, often far-fetched and distracting film, with the added bonus of being occasionally insulting.

The Story: Judge Dredd and his rookie sidekick find themselves trapped in a high-rise by a drug lord bent on their destruction. The Lowdown: Nonstop shoot 'em up bloody violence with pretty much nothing on its mind. Good for what it is, but it suffers if you've seen last spring's The Raid: Redemption.

In Brief: Sergei Parajanov's highly-acclaimed arty and poetic biography of an Armenian troubadour is so far removed from the norms of narrative film that it's beyond questions of good and bad. Its often striking and evocative tableaux either resonate with the viewer or they don't. I can't say they work for me.

In Brief: A pair of early 1940s Universal horrors from director George Waggner, Horror Island is more of a fun mystery set in an old dark castle that benefits from atmosphere and a perfect cast (not to mention the Hans J. Salter score), while Man Made Monster is a first-rate little horror film that proved…

The Story: The true life tale of a Frenchman who managed to pass himself off as a missing Texas teen. The Lowdown: An endlessly fascinating, entertaining documentary born out of the almost unbelievable, wholly whacked out story it tells.

The Story: A New York couple's world is turned upside down by a visit from her French relatives, who show up with an unexpected ex-boyfriend in tow. The Lowdown: Julie Delpy's follow-up to her 2 Days in Paris is both funnier, more likable and more inventive than the original. And Chris Rock finally gets a…

In Brief: Could it be that the best film of 2012 is from 1928? It's just possible that the best movie you're likely to see this year is Paul Fejos' Lonesome, and, yes, it was made 84 years ago. This touching, charming movie consists— at least in cold print — of little more than two…

The Story: A mother and daughter move in next door to a house where a pair of murders were committed — but the house still harbors a dark secret. The Lowdown: Fitfully stylish, but utterly silly, never scary and, finally, rather boring.