Movie Reviews

The Story: A retired campaign strategist is brought in to revive the struggling campaign of a Bolivian presidential candidate — and to square off against an old rival. The Lowdown: An entertaining, solid film buoyed by good performances, but far too predictable, and it doesn’t have as much to say as it thinks it does.

In Brief: Frequently cited as D.W. Griffith's last masterpiece, Isn't Life Wonderful (1924) does mark a break in his career, since it is his last independent film. But its status as a masterpiece strikes me as an overstatement of some note. It showcases nearly every one of Griffith's weaknesses and very few of his strengths.…

In Brief: World Cinema is revisiting François Truffaut's first feature, The 400 Blows (1959), which struck a blow of its own as the first of the New Wave films — movies that came as a reaction to what was perceived as the stodginess of classical French filmmaking (and filmmaking around the world for that matter). It was a…

The Story: Film about the friendship of two women from childhood to marriage and to one of them battling cancer. The Lowdown: Much more than a "disease of the week" movie, this is a sharply written, beautifully acted work that edges into the must-see realm.

In Brief: The sixth and (to date) last film version of the George M. Cohan play of Earl Derr Biggers' novel Seven Keys to Baldpate also marked the final film for Brit horror director Pete Walker. (There's no big drama here, he just decided to get out of filmmaking.) House of the Long Shadows (1983) is…

In Brief: Good Vibrations is one of those British productions that simply never got picked up for U.S. distribution, and that's a shame, because this is a truly remarkable little film. Also, it's remarkable in a few ways — one of which is unexpected. It tells the story of music-obsessed Terri Hooley (Richard Dormer, '71),…

The Story: A top chef who threw it all away with bad behavior attempts a comeback. The Lowdown: Smart, funny, emotionally affecting — if maybe a little overstuffed — film anchored to interesting characters is much better than you've perhaps been led to believe. Very worth your time.

The Story: Dramatic recreation of the events of the 2004 60 Minutes story that destroyed the careers of Dan Rather and Mary Mapes. The Lowdown: Surprisingly effective as drama and thought-provoking on every other level, Truth only stumbles owing to a tendency to preach, but not enough to sink the film.

In Brief: Though I'll take The White Sheik (1952) for my dose of early Fellini any day of the week, I don't deny the greatness of La Strada (1954) and I certainly understand its appeal on numerous levels. While The White Sheik looks forward to the more fantastic works of Fellini from the 1960s, La…

In Brief: Taking a 1929 Ferenc Molnar play, retaining the basic plot and moving it to the Cold War era with Berlin divided by the Wall (or the incipient version of it), Billy Wilder crafted what may well be his funniest movie with One, Two, Three (1961). It’s certainly his fastest-paced film, and one built around the most…

The Story: An 800-year-old witch hunter squares off against an ill-tempered witch queen with rebirth on her mind. The Lowdown: Not good enough to be good, and not quite bad enough to be fun, this is strictly for Vin Diesel diehards.

The Story: A teenage girl finds Internet stardom and heads off to Los Angeles to a music career with her three sisters. The Lowdown: A tedious, innocuous and overlong adaptation of the ‘80s cartoon.

The Story: Biopic of Steve Jobs. The Lowdown: Solidly made, largely entertaining, but hardly the groundbreaking work it's been touted as.

In Brief: I saw Michael Winner’s The Sentinel (1977) on its opening weekend as part of a daylong bout of movie-going. It was the first film of the day, and I was frankly appalled by it, but it remains the only movie I remember from that outing (apart from a midnight show of Ken Russell’s 1971 film, The Boy Friend).…

In Brief: What is left to be said about The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)? It is — even if mostly by accident — one of the most perfectly cast movies ever made. Every player in it seems to have been born to play his or her role. The production values are top-notch. The score…

The Story: More paranormal tedium. The Lowdown: A complete waste of 88 very long minutes of your life.

In Brief: Generally speaking, Louis Malle’s films are a little too restrained for my taste, but, as with most things, there are exceptions. With Malle, the exception is his semiautobiographical 1987 work, Au Revoir, les Enfants, a film where his restraint is less pronounced than usual. Malle’s approach is perfectly suited to the subject —…

In Brief: Though highly regarded in some quarters, I have always found Jack Clayton's The Innocents (1961) a well-produced bore with literary pretensions of the stupefyingly trapped-in-amber kind. But I thought it was time to give it another try when this screening popped up. I wish I could say another viewing of this film version…

The Story: A meandering series of events that ultimately becomes the tale of a low-rent talent agent getting a young Afghan girl on the show "Afghan Star." The Lowdown: The first half of this Bill Murray vehicle is just not good, but it gives way in its second half to a movie that's very worth seeing to a degree that…

In Brief: For their Halloween movie, the Asheville Film Society revisits the Bob Hope horror-comedy The Ghost Breakers, which they showed four years ago. After spending nearly a year trying to figure out what to do with Hope, Paramount had struck gold by putting him in a film version of an “old dark house” stage play with The…

The Story: An Alabama high school football team struggling through integration finds inspiration through Christianity. The Lowdown: Another corny, schmaltzy and forgettable entry into the world of Christian cinema.