Movie Reviews

The Story: The story of the period right after the death of Christ from the point of view of a Roman charged with finding Christ's body. The Lowdown: Better acting and directing than most faith-based films, but it ultimately sells its own premise short by being too easy, and too obvious, too soon.

The Story: A Hungarian Jew awaiting execution in Auschwitz is pressed into service overseeing the gassing and cremation of his fellow prisoners, until the death of a boy who may be his own son sends him on a quest to steal the child’s body and secure a Rabbi to perform a religious burial. The Lowdown:…

In Brief: A much-beleaguered housewife addicted to No-Doze, a drug-dealing son, a crazy mother-in-law with a pet lizard, a son traded to a pedophilic dentist for the bill, a prostitute across the hall, a scheme to forge Hitler’s memoirs, a suicidal low-rent Lotte Lenya, kleptomania, murder (with a soupçon of Hitchcock), even a spot of…

In Brief: Perhaps because it lacks a big horror star or a cult director, Stuart Walker’s Werewolf of London (1935) has never received quite the acknowledgement it deserves — despite the fact that it’s the first werewolf movie ever made. What’s particularly unfortunate about this is, for my money, Werewolf of London remains the best werewolf picture of all…

The Story: A wisecracking, foul-mouthed superhero is out for revenge on the man who turned him into his present disfigured state. The Lowdown: Lavishly vulgar, completely disrespectful, gratuitously bloody — and an awful lot of tasteless fun if you're not turned off by those things.

The Story: Multiple stories — all built around Dakota Johnson going to New York to learn what it's like to be single. The Lowdown: It's not terrible, but neither is it especially good. It's mostly just innocuous.

The Story: A family of Puritans is banished from its New England enclave over unspecified theological disagreements and strikes out to build a life in an unforgiving wilderness, only to find that the greatest threat they face is far from natural. The Lowdown: One of the creepiest horror movies to surface in years, The Witch…

In Brief: The Undying Monster (1942) is one of the most curious of all werewolf movies — mostly because it offers so very little werewolfery. Truth to tell, it's fairly typical of Fox's rather limited forays into the horror genre. It's very well made. The cast is solid. The production values are top notch (thanks in…

In Brief: Something very different from the great Ernst Lubitsch: a straight anti-war film made in the midst of his busiest year as a filmmaker. Yes, in 1932, the same year that he gave us the shimmering comedies One Hour with You and Trouble in Paradise (not to mention his segment in If I Had a Million), he made…

The Story: The improbable, but "mostly true" story of a homeless woman who spent years living in playwright Alan Bennett's driveway. The Lowdown: A charming, touching, absolutely delightful comedy-drama with a terrific Maggie Smith performance — and an equally fine turn from Alex Jennings.

The Story: After tragedy and years in hiding, legendary male supermodel — and general idiot — Derek Zoolander comes out of hiding and quickly finds himself entangled in intrigue and conspiracy. The Lowdown: A dull and uninspired sequel to a pretty good comedy, one that lacks verve and instead relies on rehashed jokes and pointless…

In Brief: Until this past weekend, I had never seen Krzysztof Kieslowski's The Double Life of Veronique (1991) and was in no way prepared for it. And on one viewing I do not really feel like I can review it — certainly I cannot in any depth. This is a strange, almost hypnotic film. It…

In Brief: An unusual film to come from indie filmmaker John Sayles, The Secret of Roan Inish is completely out of keeping with the generally cynical tone of his other work. Sayles is the last person on Earth you’d expect to be making a “family film,” but that might be part of the reason this 1995 film…

In Brief: It is sobering to realize that Ordet (1955) — a film about madness, religious intolerance, a stillborn child, death and maybe a miracle — is probably Carl Theodore Dreyer's sunniest film. That says a lot about Dreyer's filmography, and while I do not doubt his greatness or his importance as a filmmaker, he's…

The Story: Studio head and "fixer" Eddie Mannix tries to hold things together — and keep them out of the papers — when a big star is kidnapped. The Lowdown: The Coen Brothers in a gleefully playful mood with a film that at once spoofs and honors the last days of the old Hollywood. It's…

The Story: The Jane Austen mainstay retold yet again, but this time with zombies…You know, for kids! The Lowdown: A one-note joke stretched far too thin at nearly two hours, Pride + Prejudice + Zombies lacks the heart — and braaaains — of its source material’s source material.

The Story: Michael Moore goes on a world tour to see how other countries handle education, health care, banking, business, etc. — in search of ideas to bring back to the U.S.  The Lowdown: Lighter than usual Moore documentary that operates in an unusually upbeat manner for the usually more provocative filmmaker.

The Story: A hunky veterinarian falls for his dreamy neighbor before maudlin tragedy steps in. The Lowdown: Abhorrently dull cheese of the kind only Nicholas Sparks’ pedigree can whip up — schmaltzy and oozing with melodrama, and with zero chemistry from its leads.

In Brief: Stylistically, the films of Max Ophuls are certainly of a piece, in a similar tone of voice. All of them could be summed up with the same phrase used by the narrator (Anton Walbrook) of La Ronde (1950) when he explains that the story is set in 1900 Vienna: "I adore the past. It is…

In Brief: Long on atmosphere, short on logic, and generally a lot of fun — either despite or because of one of the dumbest werewolf makeup designs ever — The Man and the Monster (1959) is fairly typical of Mexican horror films of the late 1950s and early 1960s. These movies were given short shrift for…

In Brief: The AFS tried to run this last year, but the weather was against it. Maybe there'll be better luck this time. ... Rouben Mamoulian did his most important work at Paramount, but he left the studio in 1933. In 1937, he came back for one more film: the little-seen and mostly forgotten High, Wide and…