Movie Reviews

The Story: Shakespeare's comedy of battling lovers, dastardly plots and bungling policemen gets a modern treatment — in everything but language. The Lowdown: A mostly delightful film from Joss Whedon that not only captures Shakespeare's play, but perhaps shines some new light on it. In the teeth of the blockbuster summer, it's almost a little…

The Story: Fact-based story about a group of well-to-do teenagers who stole more than $3 million in clothes, jewelry and drugs from the homes of rich celebrities. The Lowdown: Slick and sometimes witty takedown of the subject, but I'm not sure if the film is any deeper than the characters — and celebrities — it…

The Story: A reworking of the Superman origin story. The Lowdown: A mixed bag of a movie that holds its own for about 90 minutes before turning into 45 minutes of noisy, repetitive action. It is not, however, without merit.

In Brief: After the somewhat tepid response to The Fury, Brian De Palma went out of his way to court controversy with this splattery — and more than a little sleazy — 1980 thriller. And however you feel about it, the flick certainly worked to draw audiences with its sex, nudity and over-the-top violence. Designed…

In Brief: Jean Renoir's debut film seems first and foremost intended to show off the charms and beauty of Renoir's star (and then-wife) Catherine Hessling. It's less a story than just a series of melodramatic events in which to drop Mrs. Renoir, and as such it's a pretty patchy affair. However, there's enough of the…

The Story: A group of actors — playing exaggerated versions of their real-life selves — are trapped in a house during the Apocalypse. The Lowdown: A generally one-note, incredibly uneven, crass comedy that meanders and is far too in love with itself.

In Brief: Jean-Pierre Melville's elegantly stylish, yet icy neo-noir thriller, Le Samouraï, holds up pretty nicely after 46 years, but it probably hasn't the same impact today that it originally did. Though it helped to set the standard for future neo-noirs, the film is curiously distinctive in many instances — especially in the casting of…

In Brief: Clark Gable plays a gambler hiding out from the law in some upstate New York podunk town where he meets Carole Lombard, a bored, romance-starved librarian. She's interested but wary. He's determined — so determined that he agrees to marry her on a bet. Complications ensue in this pleasant comedy made several years…

In Brief: Alfred Hitchcock's final film of the 1950s marked his last collaboration with star Cary Grant. It's also the director's ultimate movie about an innocent man on the run for a crime he didn't commit — and is by far the most elaborate variation on that concept. Whether or not North by Northwest is…

In Brief: Fritz Lang's first talkie, M, not only introduced the great filmmaker to sound, but introduced the world to the remarkable Peter Lorre. For both, the film is rightly famous, but there's more to admire in this exceptional work than just its historic significance. Both the film's story — involving the police and the…

The Story: In the near future, all crime — including murder — is legal for 12 hours one night of the year. The Lowdown: An intriguing — if screwy and not clearly thought-out — premise can't sustain this movie, which basically turns into every home-invasion thriller you've ever seen. It's better than some, worse than…

In Brief: Whit Stillman's sophomore effort finds two Americans — an uptight businessman and his troublesome cousin — having their innate sense of entitlement tested in Barcelona. Similar in tone but more focused than his earlier film, Barcelona is dryly funny and thought-provoking entertainment.

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…

In Brief: One of Alfred Hitchcock's most convoluted and perverse thrillers, Strangers on a Train — with its dark humor, unusual plot and technical panache — has held up better than many of the director's bigger and more famous films. What it lacks in big stars, it more than makes up for by being every…

The Story: Two washed-up, unemployed salesmen try to sneak their way into a job at Google via a competitive internship. The Lowdown: A generally harmless, horribly contrived comedy that’s not very funny.

The Story: A look in on a day in the lives of the characters from Before Sunrise and Before Sunset nine years after we last saw them. The Lowdown: A beautiful — almost sublime — film about a relationship we've been following since 1995. Moving, authentic and a must-see.

In Brief: Character and incident-packed film about the goings-on at a large train station in a slice-of-life fashion — though most train stations probably (even in 1932) don't have feds on the lookout for a counterfeiting ring or a girl being stalked by a degenerate sex-fiend on a regular basis. Those two aspects dovetail and…

The Story: A little girl becomes the object of a bitter custody battle between her divorcing parents. The Lowdown: Solid modernized version of the Henry James novel, What Maisie Knew is undeniably well made and acted, but it's a hard film to like.

The Story: A tale told in flashback about the transformation of an America-loving Pakistani into a radical — possibly terrorist — professor. The Lowdown: Complex cultural examination of a young Pakistani — brilliantly played by Riz Ahmed — tied to a thriller/suspense frame. It doesn't all work, but it's still compelling.

The Story: Fact-based story of an Aborigine all-girl singing group that toured as entertainers in Vietnam. The Lowdown: Despite its "true story" underpinnings, the film is largely a standard show-biz story that succeeds beautifully as entertainment — enhanced by a dynamite soundtrack and winning performances.

In Brief: One of the more interesting of current horror movie directors, Ti West made his breakthrough (at least in horror circles) with this surprisingly effective 2009 attempt to create a 1980s-style scare flick. In this case, it's all about a college girl who takes a babysitting job at an isolated house — a job…