Movie Reviews

In Brief: For the Halloween season, the Asheville Film Society has booked — from a new DCP rendering of the movie — William Friedkin's horror classic The Exorcist (1973). Friedkin’s film treatment of William Peter Blatty’s best-selling novel about a young girl possessed by a demon originally seemed more an “event” than a great movie. Its…

The Story: An attempt at creating an origins story for Peter Pan. The Lowdown: A deeply disappointing film from an incredibly talented filmmaker. It sometimes works. More often, it doesn't. It's mostly watchable, but it's a lot of fuss over not much. Think of it as Peter Pan: The YA Years.

In Brief: The Brood (1979) may reasonably be considered the first of David Cronenberg’s mature films. It’s undeniably the first that afforded him the presence of two actual stars — Oliver Reed and Samantha Eggar. It’s also the first that is clearly about more than it seems, which only serves to make its excursions into Cronenbergian…

In Brief: If Crimes and Misdemeanors isn’t Woody Allen’s best blending of drama and comedy, it’s most certainly in the running (and beats the pants off his 2005 white-bread, wholly dramatic reworking of similar material, Match Point). It may also be the filmmaker’s most intensely Jewish work. Jewishness, of course, is rarely far removed from any Allen film,…

In Brief: Rudolph Valentino's penultimate film, Cobra (1925), is something of an oddity. Cobra (no, the title doesn't refer to Valentino) is essentially a drawing room romantic drama done in the typical Hollywood style of the era. The camera is nailed down (the one shot where it moves is startling just because it feels out…

In Brief: With International House, the Asheville Film Society celebrates not its star, its strangeness, nor its Pre-Code freedom, but rather the birthday (the 133rd) of horror icon Bela Lugosi, who here (despite his billing) had probably his best non-horror role. A friend of mine once summed up A. Edward Sutherland’s International House (1933) by running down the cast list and…

The Story: A man who loses his home in the housing bust goes to work for the crooked realtor who evicted him. The Lowdown: It's powerful, and it's still timely, but 99 Homes is also obvious and increasingly less compelling as it goes on.

The Story: Uncompromising account of a child soldier in an African war.  The Lowdown: Stark, powerful, finely crafted, but inclined to redundancy in its excessive length. Still, its unflinching portrait of the unthinkable is unforgettable.

In Brief: The Night They Raided Minsky’s (1968) is a surprisingly pleasant early William Friedkin film that (like any number of movies editor Ralph Rosenblum tried to take credit for “saving”) works far better than so many films trying to depict the 1920s. Oh, the music isn’t exactly period, and the sleaze factor of burlesque is…

The Story: The thoroughly preposterous — but true — story of the battle over possession of an amputated foot. The Lowdown: Every bit as strange as it sounds, the film is at once very funny, yet strangely moving and even tragic.

In Brief: I first read about Paul Fejos’ Lonesome (1928) when I was in high school — a rather long time ago. I don’t remember the book, but I do remember that the film sounded like something I wanted to see, just from the story. I’ve always been drawn to movies with simple stories that are built on…

The Story: A dramatic retelling of Philippe Petit’s 1974 high-wire walk between the twin towers of the World Trade Center. The Lowdown: A glossy, but unnecessary, retread of a story told more effectively (and affectingly) seven years ago.

In Brief: Highly regarded, but little loved, Ingmar Bergman's The Virgin Spring (1960) was a title the director himself seems to have had little fondness for. I tend to agree with that. The fact that it was successfully marketed on the exploitation value of its story — rape and revenge — should perhaps tell you…

The Story: Two gamblers team up for a road trip to a big game in New Orleans. The Lowdown: Edging close to greatness, this is a very good — albeit rather sad — character study about friendship, addiction and the hope for redemption — or the next closest thing. The performances of Ben Mendelsohn and…

The Story: Matt Damon as a man stranded on Mars fighting for survival and hoping for a rescue.  The Lowdown: A grandly entertaining film on every level. It's smart, funny, suspenseful, clever and beautifully acted. Is it profound? Not really, but it's such great entertainment that it hardly matters.

In Brief: The Thursday Horror Picture Show's second film in their tribute to Wes Craven is his often-overlooked and undervalued (and most political) film, The People Under the Stairs (1991). Because of their already-somewhat-outsider — even disreputable — status, it’s not that uncommon to find horror films pretty fearless in what they’ll explore in terms of subtext. Distributors…

The Story: A naive FBI agent is thrust into the corrupt world of the drug wars. The Lowdown: Despite being well-made and well-acted (and all the art house accolades it has received), this is essentially just another violent crime drama straining — and failing — to be a significant statement.

The Story: Straightforward, informational documentary on Malala Yousafzai, who survived an assassination attempt by the Taliban in her native Pakistan. The Lowdown: At once solid — as concerns the basic story — and disappointingly insubstantial — as concerns creating a portrait of its famous subject. It's mostly a thumbnail sketch, made reasonably worthwhile by the…

The Story: A bored, lonely retiree gets an internship at a Brooklyn startup. The Lowdown: A wandering, cheesy, maddeningly treacly tale of people feeling good about themselves. Pure pap.

In Brief: The Thursday Horror Picture Show starts its two-film tribute to the late Wes Craven with A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), one of the classics of the modern horror film — and one of those that holds up best. It’s a film of surprising complexity — especially given its subtext about the fallout…

In Brief: Along with Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless (1960), François Truffaut’s Jules et Jim (1962) is probably the essential French New Wave film — and it’s possibly even more essential than Breathless, since it had a greater impact on content. Where Godard’s film was essential in defining the style of the New Wave movement, Truffaut’s defined both style and theme…