Movie Reviews

In Brief: Sometimes referred to as "the red brick Hamlet," Tony Richardson's Hamlet (1969) is unusual in that it manages to turn Shakespeare's play into a quirky personal work. It's not only radical in that Richardson cuts the play to a brisk 117 minutes, but because it's a Hamlet very much of its time, with…

The Story:  Complex crime yarn about a Chechen-owned bar used as a money drop slated to be robbed on Super Bowl night. The Lowdown: Wonderfully well-cast with a pleasingly involved story, The Drop is certainly a good film, but not the great one its writing, directing and acting pedigree suggests it could have been.

In Brief: It's a double dose of vampires (well, sort of) at the Thursday Horror Picture Show with Frank R. Strayer's The Vampire Bat (1933) and Sam Newfield's Dead Men Walk (1943). The Vampire Bat is an atmospheric cheapie that takes full advantage of its better-than-average cast and its rented Universal Pictures sets. It creaks…

In Brief: If you can overlook the feeling that the Lina Wertmüller of the 1970s would likely have sneered in contempt at her own 1992 film Ciao, Professore! it's possible to enjoy the film on its own slight terms. It's really nothing more than an Italian-flavored To Sir, with Love (1967) with third-graders rather than…

In Brief: The unexpected success of Barcelona (1994) helped secure the making of Whit Stillman's The Last Days of Disco (1998), Stillman's most expensive and elaborate film. This time his film is set in the early 1980s — right when disco is breathing its last and the club that all the characters flock to is…

The Story: A search for the philosopher's stone in the Paris catacombs turns deadly in a supernatural way. The Lowdown: Pretty bottom-of-the-barrel horror made that much worse by nausea-inducing shaky-cam and often incoherent direction.

In Brief: Having fallen on hard times since his glory days in silent cinema, E.A. Dupont found himself working with the exploitation (see the obligatory cheesecake scene) team of Jack Pollexfen and Aubrey Wisberg and turning out The Neanderthal Man (1953) — a film that might best be described as having been scraped off the…

The Story: A retired spy is pulled back into action and hunted by a former protégé. The Lowdown: A generally unlikable, convoluted, silly and worn out espionage thriller that’s needlessly overwrought and brainless.

In Brief: Released in the US (usually on the bottom of a double bill) as Every Day's a Holiday (Seaside Swingers) (1965) is the film that attempted to do for Freddie and the Dreamers what A Hard Day's Night (1964) did for The Beatles. It didn't. Not only was James Hill no Richard Lester, but…

In Brief: It's the film of the play (by John Van Druten) of the book (by Christopher Isherwood) that would eventually become Cabaret. In fact, while the story is similar, I Am a Camera just belongs to a different world than Cabaret — so much so that comparisons, while inevitable, are largely meaningless. Though usually…

The Story: A couple whose marriage is disintegrating is sent on a weekend getaway that has unexpected results. The Lowdown: When it works, this high-concept look at the nature of relationships works beautifully. But it doesn't always work. Even then, it remains interesting, but delivers less than it promises.

The Story: The fanciful — and doomed — romance of a wealthy young man and the girl he falls for.  The Lowdown: There is more pure invention in the first five minutes of Mood Indigo than in just about all the other films this year put together. That's both its magical greatness and why some…

The Story:  Two aging ex-brothers-in-law go on a road trip in Iceland. The Lowdown: A somewhat meandering, not terrifically adventurous but thoroughly likable little character study that benefits from sharp performances and Icelandic scenery.

In Brief: Yasujirô Ozu's Good Morning (1959) is typical of the filmmaker's work in that it looks, rather disapprovingly, at the growing westernization of post-war Japan. But Good Morning — with its story of two boys refusing to speak until their father buys a TV set — is slighter, warmer and more accepting than most of Ozu's films. It…

The Story: A high school football coach — burdened with an over-decade-long winning streak — must learn how to motivate his players and bond with his family. The Lowdown: A dull, preachy, troublesome film that’s dramatically inert and purely predictable from a storytelling standpoint.

In Brief: It's directed by someone you've never heard of. It stars people you've never heard of. It was promoted with "Alive ... without a body ... fed by an unspeakable horror from hell!" And it's absolutely indefensible as anything other than no-budget cheese that is wildly entertaining for all the wrong reasons. This, after…

In Brief: While Ingmar Bergman's Shame (1968) is an undeniably powerful work, it's also one of the director's most unrelentingly grim works — and with Bergman, that's saying a lot. In other words, approach with a bit of caution, and don't expect a lot of laughs. It's also not a wholly accessible work. Much that…

The Story: A teenage girl with a promising future is in a car wreck with her family, and her out-of-body self has to decide whether to live or not. The Lowdown: Shamelessly manipulative assault on the tear ducts that will work for the excessively sentimental and, possibly, fans of the YA novel from which it's…

In Brief: Festooned with Oscars (including Best Picture), phenomenally popular 26 years ago and undeniably well-made, Barry Levinson's Rain Man (1988) is nonetheless a shamelessly manipulative work, and not one I'd want to visit too often. The story is basically an odd couple buddy road trip — except the buddies (Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise)…

In Brief: In one of his finest performances, John Barrymore is cast against type as a Jewish lawyer who has risen from poverty to the top of the legal profession in William Wyler's film of the popular Elmer Rice play, Counsellor at Law (1933). (It was the first film of which Wyler was proud.) The…

The Story: Both a sequel and a prequel to the 2005 cult hit. The Lowdown: Not as fresh as the first film, but it's still good unwholesome fun (not for the easily offended) — and it's one terrific-looking movie in the bargain.