Movie Reviews

The Story: German prosecutor Fritz Bauer hunts high-ranking Nazis in defiance of a government that would rather see their crimes forgotten. The Lowdown: One of the most cogent and entertaining films to deal with Nazi ratlines since 1978's The Boys from Brazil, The People vs. Fritz Bauer probably tops that movie in my estimation. Not to be missed.

The Story: A New York improv comedy troupe is thrown into turmoil when one of its members gets a shot at success. The Lowdown: A poignant take on a perennial problem, Don't Think Twice doesn't shy away from difficult issues like jealousy and existential doubt while still retaining a sly sense of humor.

The Story: Biopic covering the life and 34-year career of legendary boxer Roberto Durán. The Lowdown: A flat-footed attempt to lionize a worthy subject, Hands of Stone falters under the weight of its own inconsistencies.

The Story: After a lighthouse keeper and his young bride suffer two miscarriages, they think their prayers have been answered when a rowboat carrying a dead man and his decidedly living infant daughter miraculously washes ashore on their remote Australian island. But then the child's biological mother turns up. The Lowdown: A three-tissue, period-melodrama awash in a sea of grandiose…

The Story: A risk assessor for a shadowy corporation is taken to a remote location where an experiment in creating an artificial humanoid has gone horribly awry. Once there, she must decide if the subject of the experiments needs to be terminated. But will she be able to pull it off? The Lowdown: You can probably figure out…

In conjunction with the Hendersonville Film Society’s Sept. 11 screening of Peter Bogdanovich's Targets, the Thursday Horror Picture Show will feature the film from which Targets borrowed much of its Boris Karloff footage, Roger Corman’s The Terror, on Sept. 8. Like much of Corman’s canon, The Terror (1963) is often uneven, but never uninteresting. This…

While it lacks the style and polish of the films that come after it, Peter Bogdanovich’s debut film, Targets (1968), is a first feature of note — one that still packs a punch (maybe a punch that hits even harder in contemporary times). Its history is part of movie legend, but it’s worth remembering that…

Director Preston Sturges drew silent-comedy star Harold Lloyd out of retirement for this 1947 sequel to The Freshman (possibly Lloyd’s best-known feature), picking up over 20 years after that film left off. The Sin of Harold Diddlebock may not be Lloyd’s funniest work, and it certainly doesn’t represent a career zenith for Sturges either. But…

For a time in the 1970s, Italian filmmaker Lina Wertmüller was the bee's knees of critical darlings — even managing to snare the admiration of that most hateful and hated critic John Simon (who makes Armond White look like a dilettante in the troll department). One wag even commented that had Wertmüller not existed, Simon…

The Story: Three young thieves attempt to go out on one last big score by robbing a blind Iraq War vet of $300,000 dollars stashed in his Detroit home. What they find within is far more insidious than they could ever have expected. The Lowdown: A nerve-wracking psychological thriller that hits all the right notes, Don't Breathe delivers chills without…

The Story: A black teenager from the Bronx must navigate adolescence and ill-advised love in unfamiliar territory when his soccer-coach dad relocates the family to Germany. The Lowdown: A genuinely moving film with heart to spare, Morris from America avoids coming-of-age clichés to deliver a unique and compelling story.

The Story: Two artsy New York teens form a fast friendship, but when their parents enter into a property dispute, their bond is threatened. The Lowdown: A moving human drama with implications that far outstrip its simple premise, Little Men speaks to broader social issues through an appealingly low-key story.

The Story: In order to save the life of a woman, a retired hit man is drawn back into duty by a shifty arms dealer. The Lowdown: A flat, brain-dead action flick with a few moments of energy and creativity buried beneath too much senseless plotting.

It's good to see Asheville getting a dose of the peculiar delights of Ed Wood-style cinema. And those delights don't come any more peculiar than Plan 9 from Outer Space. It may be the most enjoyable bad film of all time. Wood had no money, no credentials and, worst of all, no talent, but he didn't…

Some have called Edgar G. Ulmer’s Detour (1945) the ultimate example of film noir. While I wouldn’t necessarily go that far, it is unquestionably a tour de force and a nigh-unassailable classic of the genre. A Poverty Row cheapie shot in six days on a practically nonexistent budget, Detour bears all the hallmarks of classic film…

In Brief: OK, I’m not a huge fan of Yasujirô Ozu. I recognize his place in world cinema, but I’ve never warmed to his work on a personal level, I don’t care for his restrained style, and I don’t accept the idea that everything he made was of great importance. (If you’re an Ozu completist,…

Kevin Reynolds' The Count of Monte Cristo (2002) is such a gloriously old-fashioned, swashbuckling adventure movie that it makes one wonder if we've been blaming the wrong Kevin for the cinematic atrocities that are Waterworld and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. The combination of Reynolds and the memory of the dreary attempt at putting Dumas…

The Story: Werner Herzog investigates the influence of internet interconnectivity. The Lowdown: Unbiased and intriguing, Lo and Behold pulls back the curtain on an often-unexamined utility intrinsic to the daily lives of millions.

The Story: After the death of their estranged father, three sisters invite their young (and previously unknown) half sister to live with them. The Lowdown: A charming, quiet movie that's beautifully shot and wonderfully acted, about family history and coming to terms with the past.

The Story: 50 years after the horrific murder of his sister, a man reexamines everything he thought he knew about the tragic event.  The Lowdown: Equally as frustrating as it is compelling, The Witness is a brutal examination of loss, memory, and the social contract that inextricably binds together total strangers.

The Story: Future President Barack Obama and Future First Lady Michelle (née Robinson) go on their first date. The Lowdown: A toothless exercise in premature mythologization, Southside is likely to feel contrived to all but the most ardent Obama fans.