Movie Reviews

The Story: A young man tries to deliver a letter from the late Vincent van Gogh and uncovers mysterious circumstances surrounding his alleged suicide in the process. The Lowdown: A remarkable and utterly unique approach to van Gogh and his art that fully immerses the audience and does its subject justice in a way that few films…

The Story: An aging man with a life of simple routine contemplates his mortality. The Lowdown: A beautifully understated film that provides a fitting coda to the long life and illustrious career of the late Harry Dean Stanton.

The Story: Sorority sister Tree finds herself reliving her birthday on a loop, with each iteration ending in her death by a mystery assailant, and so must solve her own murder to break the cycle. The Lowdown: Turns out being a shameless Groundhog Day rip-off is not the worst thing that can happen to your…

The Story: After the death of his daughter in a bombing, an unassuming Chinese immigrant with a past goes searching for the men responsible. The Lowdown: With only flashes of vintage Jackie Chan, what should at the very least be a fun little action picture is instead an overly serious and drab movie that's far too…

The Story: A psychology professor's romantic and sexual proclivities lead to a long-term polyamorous relationship that results in the creation of the most iconic feminist character in the history of comic books. The Lowdown: A biopic that fails to live up to the intriguing true story that inspired it.

The Story: In 1941, young Thurgood Marshall travels to Connecticut on behalf of the NAACP to defend Joseph Spell, a chauffeur accused of raping the wife of his employer. The Lowdown: Marshall deserves better than Marshall.

In Brief: In Brief: François Truffaut’s Day for Night (1973) is not only a great movie about movies, but it’s fascinating as an example of how international cinema truly is. By this I mean that while we think of foreign film as a separate world, Day for Night is clearly the kind of movie that could…

In Brief: One of director William Wellman's best early pictures — and certainly one of his most socially conscious in its early representation of rape culture — Beggars of Life (1928) is a powerful film pulled from a pulpy story that could have amounted to little more than a vagrant-centric exploitation flick in lesser hands. Louise Brooks stars as…

In Brief: The Asheville Film Society keeps rolling out historic horror hits this week with a slight change of pace: Fritz Lang's exceptional silent fantasy/horror hybrid, Destiny (1921). Lang's breakout picture is also one of his most underrated, despite being massively influential — it's the movie that prompted Luis Buñuel to pick up a camera, its impact on…

The Story: Blade runner K, tasked with retiring a new breed of replicants on the streets of a dystopian Los Angeles, stumbles upon a decades-old conspiracy that throws everything he knows about his work and himself into doubt. The Lowdown: A visual masterpiece that supersedes its predecessor in almost every conceivable way.

The Story: A thorough recounting of the lengthy and storied career of activist Dolores Huerta, a pioneering advocate for the rights of Latino migrant workers. The Lowdown: A thought provoking documentary with a fascinating subject that is very nearly undermined by its rote direction and aggressive pacing.

The Story: Queen Victoria befriends an Indian Muslim who teaches her Urdu and the Quaran, much to the consternation of her "racialist" royal retinue. The Lowdown: A charming film that lacks the depth of social commentary its subject could (and should) have borne, but scores points with a stellar turn from Judi Dench.

The Story: After a plane crash, a doctor and a photographer find themselves stranded in a snowy, mountainous wilderness and must figure out how to survive.The Lowdown: A fairly mediocre survival picture that slowly devolves into exaggerated schmaltz.

The Story: Three pony princesses must stop the evil Storm King from taking over Ponyville. The Lowdown: A dream of dark and troubling things.

In Brief: It's not often that films from the Checkoslovak New Wave are screened, and that's a genuine shame because they represent some of the most original filmmaking coming out of Europe in the '60s. Karel Zeman's antiwar satire A Jester's Tale (1964) is no exception — its blend of live action and animation is unlike anything else…

In Brief: The 1970s — especially the latter half — seemed to be the time when the world at large was shocked to discover that Australia made movies, too. This was in large part due to two very different filmmakers, Peter Weir and George Miller, but the interest they generated also led to films like this…

In Brief: The Asheville Film Society's month of Halloween horrors marches on with the first of two Budget Big Screen presentations — William Friedkin's seminal classic of supernatural religious horror, The Exorcist (1973). It's nearly impossible to overstate the impact of this film on the horror movie landscape, and its influence continues to echo through the genre…

The Story: Based on the true story of Jeff Bauman, a man who struggled to cope with the loss of his legs and unexpected celebrity status following the Boston Marathon bombings. The Lowdown: A touching story of perseverance that never lets its penchant for inspiration overshadow its protagonists' human fallibility.

The Story: The life and artistic struggles of reclusive author J.D. Salinger. The Lowdown: A generally solid biopic that wants to cover too much of its subject's life and instead glosses over too much.

The Story: A hapless commercial airline pilot finds himself at the heart of  CIA drug running operation in the '80s. The Lowdown: How did American Made get made? The same two-word answer for why it failed: Tom Cruise.

The Story: A flying beast that drives a semiliteral monster truck returns to feed on the residents of a small town after two decades of dormancy. The Lowdown: Fodder for fans of the franchise, but of limited appeal to anyone else.