Movie Reviews

In Brief: William A. Wellman's Wings (1927) won the very first Oscar for best picture — and unlike many Oscar winners since then, it was a deserved honor. It's also one of those rare Oscar winners that holds up to this day. First of all, it's truly an epic, but it's an epic grounded in…

In Brief: It was the film "with something to offend everyone," and it's my guess that while Tony Richardson's The Loved One is less shocking today than it was in 1965, it still contains more than its share of outrages against anything approaching good taste. Its tale of Hollywood funerary practices, movie studios, pet cemeteries,…

In Brief: It can certainly be argued that Danny Boyle's Sunshine (2007) is more science-fiction than horror film. However, it's hard to deny that its last act — at least up to its mystically transcendent ending — owes a great deal to the horror genre. In fact, at the time of its release, this horror…

In Brief: Frank Lloyd's 1933 film adaptation of Noel Coward's stage play won Oscars (best picture and best director) and was one of the big prestige pictures of its year. Today, the luster of this time-spanning (1899-1932) ode to the British character has dimmed considerably. It is, however, a worthy film that ought to be…

In Brief: There's really no glossing it over — Ryan W. Martin's Bad Ideas is aptly named. It comes under the vague heading of experimental cinema, which in this case is a mind-numbing two hours of navel gazing. According to the movie description, "A Stranger has awoken in an unknown world, the Astral Field; the…

The Story: Intergalactic badass and wanted man Riddick gets stranded on a barren, dangerous planet, concocting an escape plan by luring in unsuspecting bounty hunters. The Lowdown: Overlong, cheap, juvenile sci-fi/action hybrid that’s for fans of previous Riddick films only.

The Story: Tragic romantic crime drama about a prison escapee trying to return to the woman he loves and the daughter he's never seen. The Lowdown: Strong on visuals, atmosphere and performances, but perhaps a little too deliberately paced and enigmatic for all audiences. Those interested in the art-film scene should definitely take notice.

The Story: A young woman finds herself breaking down the boys' club barrier in the world of trailer voice-overs. The Lowdown: Funny, charming, sweet-tempered comedy from first-time writer-director-star Lake Bell. Its fresh setting — the world of voice-over artists — and a perfect cast matched with a clever script make it one of the most…

The Story: An elderly man tries to cope with his wife's Alzheimer's and a battle with a building inspector. The Lowdown: This is one-half of a pretty good film that's compromised by a silly straw-man plot (to goose the uplift quotient), but raised by terrific performances from James Cromwell and Geneviève Bujold.

In Brief: The Horseman on the Roof may have been made in 1995, but it feels like a film from a much earlier era — even with its outbursts of nudity and grisly images of a cholera plague. It's utterly romantic, but in an almost absurdly chaste manner. In fact its stars, Juliette Binoche and…

In Brief: Odd — and oddly appealing — 1998 throwback to 1980s horror from Robert Rodriguez. It's an alien-invasion yarn — not unlike Invaders from Mars (1953) where most of the authority figures have been taken over by an alien force. This, however, is very much in the 1980's teen-centric mold (with most of teens…

In Brief: Agnès Varda's first film, La Pointe Courte (1955), has somewhat mystifyingly come to be viewed as the first New Wave film, but this assessment has more to do with its low budget and being made outside the industry than for any aesthetic reason. In terms of style, the film is more connected to…

In Brief: Martin Scorsese's Gangs on New York (2002) is an epic in the best and truest sense of that oft overused word. It's big, it's sprawling, it's filled with larger-than-life characters. It's also quite violent and long — both of necessity to the story being told. The film marks Scorsese's first work of the…

The Story: Documentary about the killer whale that killed three people. The Lowdown: Very basic activist documentary. Its message is a worthy one, but its delivery is never as compelling as it should be.

The Story: After his wife is kidnapped, a former NASCAR driver is coerced into driving around Bulgaria and performing various nefarious tasks at the behest of an unknown villain. The Lowdown: A totally moronic car-chase picture, whose only goal is to wreck cars and kill brain cells.

The Story: The story of martial arts master Ip Man. The Lowdown: An occasionally elegant, beautiful — and even heartbreaking — film that’s never quite great, likely due to a truncated, dumbed down version created for American audiences.

In Brief: Bela Lugosi's last two films for Monogram Pictures make for a heady double dose of Poverty Row insanity that makes for an existential cinematic experience. In Voodoo Man, the "Master of Horror" tries to bring his alarmingly ambulatory "dead" wife back to life with the aid of gas-station owner and part-time witch doctor…

In Brief: The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie hasn't quite retained the allure it had in 1969, but neither is it easily dismissed. It snagged an Oscar for Maggie Smith, which was a good thing, and popularized that gooey Rod McKuen theme song, which wasn't. Smith's portrait of the largely delusional — and probably phony…

In Brief: Jules Dassin's Rififi (1955) is the grandfather of all heist movies, and its standout, 28-minute safe-cracking sequence (done with neither dialogue, nor background score) remains a harrowing piece of filmmaking on its own. But the striking thing is that this centerpiece is not the conclusion of the film, nor is it really the…

In Brief: Calling Michel Gondry's 2008 film a comedy does it a great disservice. This incredibly warm and gentle film is much more than that. Its premise — VHS video store workers replace the accidentally erased movies with decidedly low-rent versions of their own — is really just a springboard to examine much broader concerns…

The Story: Five old friends are talked into getting back together to re-stage an epic pub crawl they didn't quite pull off 20 years ago. The Lowdown: Surprisingly deep — even moving — comedy of the very British variety. Not as wildly funny as Hot Fuzz, but consistently amusing and quite possibly better made.