Movie Reviews

The Story: An Australian farmer whose sons died at the Battle of Gallipoli sets out to find their remains. The Lowdown: Actor/director Crowe makes a thoroughly sincere, if ultimately forgettable, feature directing debut.

In Brief: This year marks the 100th birthday of Orson Welles -- May 6, in fact -- and the Hendersonville Film Society is marking the event with a screening of Welles' masterpiece Citizen Kane (1941). While that might seem the most obvious choice -- almost too obvious -- it really isn't. In fact, this is…

In Brief: Alejandro Hidalgo's The House at the End of Time (2013) is exhibit B for the case that we are indeed in the midst of a horror film renaissance -- the only question is how much some of the best examples are even being seen. In the case of this Venezuelan movie (supposedly the country's first…

In Brief: World Cinema is bringing back Chicken with Plums, a film that didn't get the attention it should have when it was released a few years ago. Playful, gorgeous to look at, cinematically brilliant and finally heartbreakingly sad, Vincent Paronnaud and Marjane Satrapi's 2011 film is one of those movies that ought to have played here…

In Brief: Art imitates -- and attempts to improve upon -- life in William A. Seiter's The Moon's Our Home (1936), one of the least seen and least known of all classic screwball comedies. The reasons for its obscurity are vague, though they may be grounded in copyright issues involving the literary source (a serialized…

The Story: A young boy in World War II California turns to the Catholic Church for reassurance when his deployed father is captured by the Japanese. The Lowdown: A painfully slow and contrived period piece that attempts to examine the power of faith, with appalling results.

The Story: Mall cop Paul Blart returns, clumsily fighting crime in Las Vegas during a convention. The Lowdown: A tired and embarrassing comedy that’s based on a grotesque view of everyday people and a penchant for the cheapest of jokes.

The Story: A disgraced journalist has the story of a lifetime fall into his lap when a fugitive accused of murdering his family turns up in Mexico pretending to be him. The Lowdown: A self-serious crime drama that’s impossible to actually take seriously, one that’s too straight-faced and thematically droll.

The Story: Some overage teenagers run afoul of a vengeful spirit online. The Lowdown: A strong contender for Worst Movie of 2015. This isn't even bargain-basement horror of the so-bad-it's-funny school. This is so-bad-it's-awful. That said, some have called it brilliant.

The Story: A Russian secret police agent becomes increasingly disillusioned with Stalin's Russia, especially concerning a series of child murders. The Lowdown: As a mystery, there's not much here. Also, it's too long and on the slow side. But as an examination of the grim final days of Stalinism, it's often fascinating.

In Brief: It's big. It's glossy. It's competently professional. It rarely thrills, and it goes on for an unconscionable 143 minutes. In other words, it's a Fred Zinnemann film. Zinnemann is probably the last person I'd approach to make a thriller — and this movie illustrates why. What this shaggy yarn about an assassination attempt…

The Story: Documentary about "experts" whose job is to cast doubt on scientific findings at the behest of their employers. The Lowdown: It probably won't change many minds — do these things ever? — and it may not tell you much you don't know, but this is a solid and surprisingly effective activist documentary.

In Brief: For the Defense (1930) is a rare (I think TCM has played it once) early sound film starring William Powell and Kay Francis made while both were still under contract to Paramount, and while it's not up to their more famous Warner Bros. duo — One Way Passage and Jewel Robbery (both 1932) — it's a surprisingly…

The Story: A young employee of a computer company is brought to the isolated home of his boss to help determine whether or not his employer has really created artificial intelligence. The Lowdown: A coolly brilliant film from writer-turned-director Alex Garland that explores the nature of what it means to be human. Effective as both…

In Brief: To commemorate Armenian Genocide Day, World Cinema is showing Atom Egoyan's much misunderstood Ararat (2002), which deals with the Turkish government's 1915 genocide of its Armenian population. This 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…

In Brief: The Asheville Film Society's Budget Big Screen series returns with Asheville's own Lisi Russell introducing Ken Russell's Mahler — her late husband's brilliant biographical film on composer Gustav Mahler, a film conductor Klaus Tennstedt said was "the best film ever made about music." I'm not about to argue with him. Mahler is from the richest period…

In Brief: More a dark fantasy than an outright horror movie (though it has been claimed by the horror community), Death Takes a Holiday (1934) is the kind of film that could only have been made by Paramount Pictures and could only have been made at the time it was. Mitchell Leisen’s surprisingly complex (especially with its…

In Brief: Orson Welles has a scene-stealing field day in this rather free adaptation of Alexandre Dumas' Joseph Balsamo, Mémoires d'un Médecin — the story of Cagliostro (née Joseph Balsamo) rechristened Black Magic (1949) and starring Welles as, of course, Cagliostro. And based on the on-screen evidence, Welles stole more than scenes. Venerable Russian character…

The Story: The past of an old, dying man and two young lovers intertwine as he looks back at his past love. The Lowdown: An incredibly goopy, way too long and overwhelmingly chintzy saccharine romance with dull leads and zero points of interest.

In Brief: When Turtles Can Fly (2004) first showed here, I wrote: The first thing you notice about Iranian filmmaker Bahman Ghobadi’s Turtles Can Fly is how much more technically accomplished it is than most films we see from this part of the world. The colors are bright and vivid, the images are sharp and detailed, the compositions…

In Brief: Yes, this is the movie that produced the song of the title — though it only appears as a song in the film in orchestral form. (This was common at this period. The song versions of the famous themes from The Uninvited ("Stella by Starlight") and Laura ("Laura") — both made the previous year — do…