Movie Reviews

The Story: A look behind the scenes as master ballerina Wendy Whelan comes to terms with her aging body and the end of her career. The Lowdown: An occasionally human documentary that's best suited for those already fascinated by its topic.

The Story: An unpopular high school girl finds a magic box that will grant her seven wishes, but when dead bodies start piling up she figures out that the box has an agenda of its own. The Lowdown: Bland, aimless and derivative in the extreme, this is a movie you'll swear didn't exist a year…

In Brief: Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth (2006) is one of the most remarkable films of the 21st century — something I was not prepared for when I first saw it. Even while recognizing del Toro’s talent in his previous films (sometimes more obvious than other times), there was little in his work to prepare…

In Brief: This latest cinematic attempt at the book is certainly a worthy addition to the world of Dickens on film. It does lack the symbolism (Magwitch as Christ figure) of Stuart Walker’s 1934 film, and the somewhat overblown gothic trappings of David Lean’s 1946 version, but it’s a solid take on the story with some…

The Story: Peter Parker struggles with typical teen melodrama, significantly complicated by the efforts of his alter ego to prove his worth as an Avenger by taking down a black-market weapons dealer selling stolen alien technology. The Lowdown: The Spider-Man movie fans deserve, and one hell of a lot of fun. Excelsior!

The Story: In 14th-century Italy, three young nuns drink, swear and party while vying for the attentions of a young man on the run from a nobleman. The Lowdown: A great cast overcomes the limitations of an uneven script to produce the funniest comedy of 2017 so far.

The Story: A dedicated family man's life is thrown into turmoil by a Y2K conspiracy theorist, but nothing about his reality is as straightforward as it appears. The Lowdown: A bizarre and surrealistic character study that weaves an intricate web of black comedy, psychological intrigue and philosophical diegesis while stubbornly refusing the audience any opportunity to take for granted…

In Brief: One of Roger Corman's best pictures and easily my favorite Dick Miller performance, A Bucket of Blood (1959) is an unquestionable cult classic. Few films so successfully blend black comedy and horror, and Corman's characteristic camp serves the subject matter perfectly. Charles B. Griffith's scathing script satirically skewers the beatnik subculture of the…

In Brief: As impossible as it is not to get the feeling that this nice looking Belgian film was written in an effort to showcase the music it contains, it’s equally impossible not to become at least a little swept up in its decidedly “feel good” story about old musical rivals squaring off through their protégés…

In Brief: The Asheville Film Society continues a month-long tribute to its founder, the incomparable Ken Hanke, with another of his favorites, a picture he called "the greatest silent film ever made" — F.W. Murnau's 1927 classic, Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans. It's easy to see why Ken held this film in such high regard, and he's…

The Story: A good-hearted young getaway driver finds love as he tries to extricate himself from his unwanted life of crime. The Lowdown: A genre mashup that couples technical achievement and formal inventiveness with pure, unbridled fun.

The Story: The repressed students and staff at a Christian girls school in the Civil War South find their restraint tested by the arrival of a seductive Union deserter. The Lowdown: A stylish and alluring remake from writer/director Sofia Coppola that loses the salacious impact of its source material by attempting to modernize the original's odious sexual politics.

The Story: After realizing they can't afford to send their daughter to college, a married couple decide to risk it all and open an illegal casino in their suburban neighborhood. The Lowdown: A surprisingly watchable comedy, though that's all it really has going for it, with hardly a laugh or a memorable moment to be found.

The Story: Gru and his long-lost twin brother, Dru, team up, along with the Minions, to stop washed-up '80s TV child star-turned-jewel-thief Balthazar Bratt from destroying Hollywood as revenge for canceling his show. The Lowdown: Box office notwithstanding, this is high in the running for worst children's film of the year so far.

In Brief: In the age of alleged Russian election tampering and WikiLeaks, the quiz show corruption at the heart of Robert Redford's 1994 Best Picture nominee seems almost quaint. At the time, Quiz Show was a scathing indictment of the dark underbelly of the entertainment industry, a valid proxy for 1950s American capitalism writ large. While excellent performances from…

In Brief: Last week marked the one-year anniversary of the death of my illustrious predecessor and Asheville Film Society founder, the late, great Ken Hanke. In an admittedly humble attempt to honor his memory, the AFS will be screening some of Ken's favorite films throughout July, starting with what he referred to as "one of those…

In Brief: For the follow-up to the wildly successful 42nd Street, Warner Bros. dusted off the basics of one of their first musical successes, the now mostly lost Gold Diggers of Broadway (1929), and gave it a new Depression-era story—along with new songs by Harry Warren and Al Dubin and, of course, four Busby Berkeley production…

The Story: A selection of famous manifestos, turned into monologues and recited by numerous strange characters. The Lowdown: A generally weird little movie that goes far beyond its original conceit.

The Story: A disgraced Nazi officer assigned to protect exiled Kaiser Wilhelm II in the early days of World War II encounters romance and intrigue when he meets a beautiful house servant with a secret. The Lowdown: An engaging quasi-thriller hamstrung by a contrived and misguided central romance.

The Story: A washed-up Western actor negotiates a new romance amid attempts to resurrect his flagging career and reconcile with his estranged family after a cancer diagnosis forces him to confront his impending mortality. The Lowdown: A predictably stellar turn from Sam Elliot can't save this exercise in septuagenarian navel-gazing from being torn uncomfortably between comedy and melodrama.

The Story: A young woman exiled to a post-apocalyptic wasteland navigates a minefield of cannibals and cult leaders as her quest for vengeance takes an unexpected turn when she comes between a warlord father and his young daughter. The Lowdown: A visually engaging but conceptually challenged stab at grindhouse greatness from a promising writer/director that…