Movie Reviews

The Story: A Christian student argues for the existence of God against his atheist professor. The Lowdown: Your basic "faith-based" movie complete with its stereotypical villains and rigged arguments. It will please those it's aimed at, but isn't likely to do much for anyone else.

The Story: In the future, society has been separated into factions as a means of keeping the peace, but one girl — who discovers she may be factionless — tries to fit in with a new group as a means of survival. The Lowdown: An overlong, joyless film that fancies itself as heady sci-fi. It's…

In Brief: A solid film version the play The Dresser about a failing Shakespearean ham actor (based on Sir Donald Wolfit) and the fussy, gay dresser who keeps him going. Albert Finney and Tom Courtenay are splendid in the leads, and the rest of the cast keeps up with them. Peter Yates' direction isn't anything…

The Story: The story of the last great days of the Grand Budapest Hotel and its legendary concierge, M. Gustave H. The Lowdown: Absolutely breathtaking in its design, its cinematic flair and its tragicomic tone, which is masked by a deliberately absurd, thrill-comedy plot. Wes Anderson is at the peak of his form here —…

The Story: An ex-con and former art thief agrees to a heist with his half brother, who betrayed him and sent him to prison. The Lowdown: An occasionally amusing, mildly clever heist film with a small budget but a game cast that keeps things together.

The Story: A group of single mothers must band together to keep their kids from being expelled from a private school. The Lowdown: Predictable — and predictably soapy — Tyler Perry comedy-drama with all the trimmings one expects, but, interestingly, without the usual preaching. It's not exactly good, but he's made much worse.

The Story: A divorced woman on the edge of 60 decides to start living her life rather than watching from the sidelines. The Lowdown: Refreshingly frank look at love — and life — in an age group the movies tend to shy away from. A very good film made into an essential one by Paulina…

In Brief: Little seen, The Small Back Room (1949) is very much a lesser work from Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger — seeming even more so on the heels of the previous year's The Red Shoes. That doesn't mean that this film about the personal and professional troubles of an expert at bomb defusing (David…

In Brief: The Asheville Film Society concludes its monthlong tribute to Philip Seymour Hoffman with Richard Curtis' (Love Actually) Pirate Radio — or rather with the film's longer UK version, The Boat That Rocked. Hoffman heads up an ensemble cast as the only American DJ on a pirate radio ship (loosely based on Radio Caroline)…

The Story: After being framed for murder, a race car driver seeks revenge behind the wheel. The Lowdown: An imminently brain-dead movie that’s occasionally fun but way too long and way too straight-faced to get the most out of its inherent stupidity.

The Story: The navy of Athens attempts to thwart a sea-born invasion from the Persian Empire. The Lowdown: A pointless excuse for a lot of unexciting bloodletting with no thematic direction and zero vision.

In Brief: Though undeniably a sequel to 1942's Cat People, The Curse of the Cat People (1944) is almost not a horror film. It can even be argued that its fantasy elements all take place inside the mind of its young heroine (Ann Carter), but it does have characters from the original film and addresses…

The Story: Two families have to deal with the fact that their 6-year-old boys were switched at birth. The Lowdown: Delicate, intensely moving family drama with strong performances — a subtle, yet provocative exploration of what it means to be a family and what makes a father.

In Brief: John Ford and John Wayne scored one of their biggest — and perhaps best-loved — hits with this unassuming Irish comedy about a retired American boxer (Wayne) migrating to Ireland and the trouble and love he finds there. On the downside, the movie really is too long, and the attitudes about the roles…

In Brief: Philip Seymour Hoffman stars in Charlie Kaufman's directorial debut, Synecdoche, New York (2008) represents not just one of the actor's most accomplished performances but one of his most challenging. It is also easily the most challenging film that's being shown as part of a monthlong tribute to Hoffman. It is a rich, fantasticated,…

In Brief: Impossible to fault as filmmaking, I believe Lars von Trier's Antichrist is equally impossible to defend on any other level. From its charged (but meaningless) title to its final assault on viewers' sensibilities, it is a repellent work — a nasty film that is nasty for its own sake. Ostensibly an examination of…

The Story: The world's smartest dog, Mr. Peabody, must fight to keep his adopted son, Sherman. The Lowdown: Brisk, funny and entertaining, Mr. Peabody & Sherman may not set the world on fire and certainly won't change the way you think about animated films, but it does provide a fun 90 minutes at the movies.

The Story: A timid, henpecked pharamacist falls under the spell of a bored femme fatale. The Lowdown: A somewhat clever dark comedy that falls prey to predictability, but is kept afloat by Sam Rockwell's performance.

The Story: A U.S. Air Marshall on an intercontinental flight must go into action after receiving text messages threatening to kill the passengers on board if demands aren't met. The Lowdown: With a plot that can’t stand up to any real scrutiny, this mindless thriller is nothing more than silly entertainment.

In Brief: A solid and old-fashioned war thriller (it was old-fashioned when it was new), The Train (1964), is perhaps a movie the not-dissimilar The Monuments Men ought to have been a little more like. Here, it's all about an art-obsessed — and generally obsessive — Nazi colonel (Paul Scoffield) doing his best to get…

The Story: An epic look at World War II from the point of view of five young Germans. The Lowdown: Solid, involving, somewhat clichéd and potentially controversial in its attempt to attain a degree of understanding for the "average" German point of view of WWII, Generation War falls short of greatness, but remains a compelling…