Movie Reviews

The Story: A cybernetic counterterrorism operative in a dystopian future searches for the truth when she finds herself embroiled in a corporate conspiracy that has stripped her of her memories. The Lowdown: A pale simulacrum of the classic manga and anime franchise that lacks the convictions of its inspiration.

The Story: A suit-wearing baby and boss of Baby Co. infiltrates a family in order to stop puppies from monopolizing all the world's love. The Lowdown: A pretty brain-dead animated flick that's colorful and cartoonish but little else.

In Brief: One of the most stylish and effective of all early horror talkies, Svengali is a perfect blend of atmosphere, writing and a towering performance by star John Barrymore in one of his two or three best performances. The story, taken from George du Maurier's 1894 novel Trilby, had already been filmed a half-dozen…

In Brief: I was a young film studies major in 2004 when Jean-Luc Godard's Notre Musique premiered in New York, and I had a membership to the Film Forum that guaranteed me discounted tickets — which was convenient, because I wouldn't have been able to afford them otherwise. Andrew Sarris, one of my professors at the time, intensely…

In Brief: A classic Noir from one of the masters of the form, Robert Siodmak's The Spiral Staircase (1946) is heavily indebted to the director's early work in Germany and France. The film's use of chiaroscuro lighting and dutch angles evoke the German Expressionists, touches also evident in Siodmak's adaptation of Hemmingway's The Killers (also 1946). Dorothy McGuire delivers a…

In Brief: The second of two back-to-back Archie Mayo films screened by the AFS (following our THPS presentation of Svengali), Angel on my Shoulder (1946) was probably the most effective of Mayo's forays into comedy. Written by Harry Segall, who also wrote Here Comes Mister Jordan, Angel shares a number of thematic similarities with Jordan — including Claude Rains as a smart-alecky supernatural…

The Story: After hearing news of her estranged daughter, a woman reflects on the actions that got her to this point in life. The Lowdown: Wonderfully acted and shot and masterfully constructed, the film lacks a certain entertainment value that keeps it from being near the best of Almodovar.

The Story: An anti-social middle-age outcast struggles to connect with his estranged family and others around him in spite of his prickly demeanor. The Lowdown: A film with all the makings of an exceptional black comedy that doesn't fully deliver the goods.

The Lowdown: A crew of astronauts on the International Space Station gets more than they bargained for when a Martian soil sample they've retrieved proves to contain an extraterrestrial biological entity. The Lowdown: A largely derivative sci-fi thriller that falls short of its prodigious potential.

The Story: A former competitive motorcycle racer and an undercover FBI agent team up to investigate corruption within the California Highway Patrol. The Lowdown: A redundant reboot of a TV show that should have already been forgotten, Dax Shepard fails in his attempts at both action and comedy.

The Story: A group of teens finds alien amulets that give them superpowers and place them in the midst of an intergalactic conflict over a cosmic MacGuffin. The Lowdown: An uninspired rehashing of a TV show primarily remembered for being painfully bad in the first place, this low-brow cash-grab bears all of the deficiencies of a Michael Bay…

In Brief: Long considered to be a lost film, The Ghoul is back in circulation and not merely the curio you might expect a 1933 British picture to be. It's a full-fledged classic of the horror genre from its richest era. Set in the creepiest old, dark house imaginable, filled with a first-rate cast and directed…

In Brief: Director and veteran editor Chuck Workman may not break any new ground in this documentary examining the life and career of Orson Welles — but that's because there's very little material on the subject that hasn't been covered extensively. What distinguishes Workman's film is the adroitness with which he composes his collection of…

In Brief: An odd film from director Lewis Milestone, The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946) starts off in full-blown gothic-thriller style with a prologue set in 1928 that lasts more than 10 minutes. It’s all shadows and thunder and lightning — and grim Judith Anderson in something akin to her Mrs. Danvers from Rebecca (1940).…

The Story: After an accidental overdose (or possible suicide attempt), a retired ad exec whose life was defined by ambition and isolation enlists a young obituary writer to help rectify her reputation in the hopes of earning a write-up that will cement her legacy. The Lowdown: An uneven film that suffers from poor writing and direction in spite…

The Story: A group of office workers is locked in a building and forced to murder each other in order to escape. The Lowdown: A proficient piece of gory genre filmmaking that doesn't dazzle but never bores.

The Story: An intelligent and independent woman in a provincial French village is imprisoned by the monstrous inhabitant of a spooky castle, but she finds there's more to him than meets the eye. The Lowdown: A faithful adaptation of the 1991 animated classic that is defined by its technological accomplishments but runs longer than it needs to and…

In Brief: The Asheville Film Society's Budget Big Screen series makes its triumphant return with one of the strangest (and best, in my opinion) films ever made – Alejandro Jodorowsky's magnum opus, The Holy Mountain. The Chilean-born writer-director-actor had come to the attention of John Lennon and Yoko Ono when his previous film, El Topo, played at the Elgin Theater…

In Brief: If you were around in 1967 when it first appeared, you’ll possibly remember that Bo Widerberg’s Elvira Madigan was not only something of a hit (in art-film terms anyway), but that it caused a positive mania for Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 21. If the former can be understood, then the latter falls into place,…

The Story: A young orphan overcomes trauma with the help of his surrogate family. The Lowdown: A rare children's film that respects its target audience's intelligence, dealing with mature themes in an accessible way and offering hope while avoiding saccharinity.

The Story: The lives of a handful of stray cats who live on the streets of Instanbul, and the people who encounter them everyday. The Lowdown: A gentle, quiet documentary that's a bit smarter and more affecting than your run-of-the-mill nature documentary.