Movie Reviews

In Brief: The Lady Vanishes (1938) is not only one of Hitchcock’s best and most completely entertaining films, but it’s the film that launched Hitch on his Hollywood career. Hollywood had taken notice of him with The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934) and The 39 Steps (1935), but it was The Lady Vanishes that…

In Brief: When Joe Wright’s sophomore effort Atonement hit Cannes, words like “masterpiece” and phrases like “an instant classic” (what does that mean? add water and stir?) came tumbling forth like oranges from a faulty sack. Being something of a skeptic — and always wary of high-toned dramas that smack of Merchant-Ivory or Masterpiece Theatre —…

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…

The Story: A pair of Jesuit priests seek out their mentor, a missionary who has gone missing amidst the persecution of Christians in 17th century Japan. The Lowdown: Scorsese's passion project, nearly 25 years in the making, strikes a delicate balance between faith and doubt that will resonate with believers and skeptics alike.

The Story: The head of a video game company is raped by a masked assailant, only to develop a bizarre relationship with her attacker in her quest to uncover his identity. The Lowdown: Paul Verhoeven delivers a blend of black satire and twisted sexual psychology that will leave audiences head-scratching long after the credits roll — but everyone will…

The Story: A holdup man leaves Boston for greener pastures and a shot at revenge in prohibition-era Florida, but things don't go according to plan. The Lowdown: Ben Affleck's latest efforts as writer-director-producer-star yield interesting results that don't quite live up to their potential but also don't justify the critical derision they've thus far received.

The Story: A teenager comes across a new species of animal — one that drinks oil and can hide inside the body of a truck and power it — and the duo sets off to stop an evil oil company. The Lowdown: A fun, likable little movie in spite of (or maybe because of) its ridiculous premise.

The Story: When improvised explosives were detonated at the 2013 Boston Marathon, the people of the city banded together in a valiant effort to apprehend those responsible and reclaim their city from the shadow of terrorism. The Lowdown: An exploitative exercise in emotional manipulation that occludes an important and uplifting story with unnecessary genre cliches.

The Story: A cop entangled in departmental corruption must rescue his teenage son from gangsters after a drug theft goes south. The Lowdown: A mindless diversion that packs every mob-movie cliche possible into 90 minutes, Sleepless isn't great — but I doubt it was ever meant to be.

The Story: A college student accidentally awakens a forgotten evil, one that wants to play tricks with its victims' minds. The Lowdown: A boring, unoriginal horror concept that can't overcome its amateurish cast, lack of budget or total lack of verve.

In Brief: Have you ever wondered what would happen if the husband-and-wife screenwriting team that penned the scripts for American Graffiti, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Howard the Duck decided to co-write, produce and direct a movie about cannibalistic ghoul vampires inspired by H.P. Lovecraft and George Romero? Well they did, and the THPS…

In Brief: For his 1963 suspense film High and Low, Akira Kurosawa seems to have been actually trying to draw the wrath of those who find his work too “Western” by choosing the Ed McBain novel King’s Ransom for his source material. What could possibly be more Western — indeed, more downright American — than a…

In Brief: Those who enjoyed the AFS' Surrealist triple-feature are in for a real treat this week when we show two of the greatest experimental films ever made. First up, we have René Clair's 1924 classic celebration of Dada and dance, Entr'acte — featuring the dancers of the Ballets Suédois, music composed by Erik Satie and cameos from Satie, Man Ray and Marcel Duchamp.…

In Brief: For more information about Conquest of Canaan read this week's cover story. The Grail Moviehouse will screen Conquest of Canaan on Sunday, Jan. 22 at 7 p.m. Tickets are available now for $15 at the Grail's website.

The Story: A young boy learns to confront the fear and anger inspired by his mother's illness with the help of a magical tree monster. The Lowdown: A deeply meaningful film that will struggle to find an audience due to its weighty subject matter, its bold aesthetic and narrative conceits warrant consideration in spite of its difficult themes.

The Story: Three African-American women working at NASA in the sixties make an indelible contribution to the space race in spite of overwhelming institutional opposition. The Lowdown: Uncomplicated and uplifting while avoiding divisive social commentary, Hidden Figures plays things safe to generally favorable results.

The Story: A philosophy teacher suddenly finds herself amidst a slew of life changes. The Lowdown: Though propped up by a strong Isabelle Huppert performance, the film doesn't offer more than character study.

The Story: A long-running war between vampires and werewolves continues, as a high-ranking vampiric hit-woman finds her estranged daughter at the heart of the conflict. The Lowdown: The Underworld saga continues — despite being a bit long in the tooth — with this tepid and uninspired fifth installment.

In Brief: Despite its full title, Spider Baby (1968) probably isn't the maddest story ever told, but it's in the running — at least as schlock exploitation film is concerned. Enjoyably trashy and occasionally downright amateurish, it's the fairly silly story of a house full of folks suffering from some inexplicable form of mental degeneration that turns…

In Brief: François Truffaut’s Shoot the Piano Player (1960) is one of those celebrated films that I had somehow just never seen till this weekend. Oh, I’d seen clips and knew a little about it — and I’d suspected that the phony gangster-movie opening of Ken Russell’s 1966 TV film on composer Georges Delerue, Don’t…

In Brief: While it's not exactly to my taste (pun intended), I can certainly appreciate why Danish writer-director Gabriel Axel's Babette's Feast took home the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar in 1988. Axel's adaptation of, Isak Dinesen's story (Dinesen being a pseudonym for Karen Blixen) of a French refugee confronted with the Puritanical strictures of her involuntarily adopted Danish community is replete with…