Movie Reviews

In Brief: François Truffaut's sixth and final film of his Antoine Doinel series that began with Truffaut's first film The 400 Blows in 1959 is mostly a pure delight and a fine conclusion to the series. The only problem with Love on the Run (1979), which catches up with the 30-something Antoine for the first…

In Brief: The first of the great WWI films and the first film where King Vidor staked his claim as one of the great directors, The Big Parade suffers a bit today by having been eclipsed by other, better WWI films that followed it in short order — not to mention the fact that about…

The Story: In dystopian Detroit, an undercover cop and a criminal with a heart of gold must bust into a cordoned off slum and deactivate a nuclear device. The Lowdown: Dumb, convoluted actioner that manages to be incredibly boring in the bargain — despite all the fistfights and car chases.

The Story: An unorthodox researcher gets more than he bargained for when he tries to cure a supposedly possessed girl. The Lowdown: It is rich in atmosphere, undeniably creepy and reasonably intelligent, but there's an over-reliance on loud noises where the scares ought to be and a certain amount of cheese along the way.

In Brief: The Asheville Jewish Film Festival at the Fine Arts closes with a powerful, disturbing film, Aftermath, that might be described as a Holocaust story devoid of both Nazis and Jews. But that's not exactly right. It is, as its title indicates, a story that takes place long after the Holocaust but is still…

In Brief: Georges Franju's Eyes Without a Face (1960) is one of the most highly regarded of all horror films, though I've never been able to completely embrace it myself. Certainly, it's well made, has a certain poetic quality, some iconic imagery and a hypnotic performance from Edith Scob. But the film itself strikes me as essentially a fairly standard…

In Brief: World Cinema concludes its monthlong tribute to Alain Resnais with the filmmaker's 1980 film My American Uncle (Mon Oncle d'Amerique), and it's another winner. It takes the intersecting stories of three characters, along with the real evolutionary philospher Henri Laborit, and presents their stories in terms of a sociological/psychological study, based in part…

The Story: A dying computer genius has his mind uploaded to a computer so that he can live on beyond death. The Lowdown: An intriguing, nice-looking science fiction film that risks tackling some pretty big issues. It doesn't entirely succeed, but it remains above-average entertainment with something on its mind.

In Brief: Richard Lester's landmark film A Hard Day's Night (1964) not only captured a moment in time and propelled The Beatles even further into the realm of icons, but it revolutionized cinema — especially British cinema — and can be said to be the true birth of modern film. Borrowing much of its style…

The Story:  The story of a young boy who claims he went to heaven after nearly dying in surgery and his father’s (who is also a pastor) struggle to accept the tale. The Lowdown: A surprisingly theologically even-handed film that’s unfortunately dull, with no dramatic push behind it.

The Story: An ex-con forms an attachment to a troubled 15-year-old boy with an abusive alcoholic father.  The Lowdown: Highly acclaimed in many quarters, Joe feels both disjointed and falsely sentimentalized to me, despite containing a strong performance by Nicolas Cage. A fondness for Southern gothic melodrama is essential.

The Story: Documentary about the work of recently discovered street photographer Vivian Maier, combined with the efforts to track down the story of this enigmatic woman. The Lowdown: Altogether captivating, fascinating and even moving documentary chronicling the work of and trying to understand a mid-20th century street photographer. If you only see one documentary a…

In Brief: The Great Santini comes with a long list of critical accolades from the time of its release. How this story of a hard-drinking, abusive Marine colonel and his impact on his family holds up is largely going to be a matter of taste. At best, it contains some strong performances and is competently…

The Story: A man finds himself haunted by a demon. The Lowdown: A crass, obvious and generally stupid send-up of popular horror movies.

The Story: A rare blue macaw named Blu and his family head off into the wilds of the Amazon.  The Lowdown: A wholly acceptable, palatable, colorful and unmemorable animated flick.

In Brief: The third film in World Cinema's monthlong tribute to French director Alain Resnais is also Resnais' third feature — the altogether remarkable and frankly mind-blowing Muriel, or The Time of Return (1963). It is also Resnais' first color film. On the surface, it's the story of an man visiting an old love from…

In Brief: The third film from this year's Asheville Jewish Film Festival is a tender and charming epistolary romance between a French Jewish girl (who recently moved to Israel) and a Palestinian boy who finds the girl's message in a bottle that she has her Israeli soldier brother throw into the Gaza Sea. From this note…

The Story: An NFL general manager — with his job on the line — feels the pressure on draft day. The Lowdown: A dull, ill-conceived and needlessly melodramatic film of very specialized interests and zero dramatic energy.

The Story: When a young wife's special lunch for her husband is mistakenly delivered to another, older man, an increasingly intimate correspondence ensues.  The Lowdown: Charming, quietly funny, elegantly made and sometimes heartbreakingly perceptive, The Lunchbox is one of 2014's must-see films. Stars Irrfan Khan and Nimrat Kaur are marvelous.

The Story: A mysterious woman — who is apparently an alien — prowls the Glasgow area in a white van to seduce and dispatch men. The Lowdown: Highly acclaimed as fresh and original, Under the Skin is also slow-moving and on the deliberately impenetrable side. Yes, it's the critical sci-fi sensation of the moment, but…

In Brief: Special Guest Lisi Russell will help introduce this special screening of her late husband Ken Russell's 1971 film The Devils. This is a deliberately shocking and deeply disturbing film depicting the events in the French town of Loudun in the 1634 "trial," torture and execution of the priest Urbain Grandier. Grandier is persecuted…