Movie Reviews

The Story: Straightforward account of the criminal career of Whitey Bulger. The Lowdown: It's well-made. It boasts a lot of good actors. It proves (if proof were needed — and it wasn't) that Johnny Depp can underplay. But it's also neither particularly compelling, nor exciting.

In Brief: Tickets are now on sale for two screenings (7 p.m. Thu., Sept. 17 and 4 p.m. Fri., Sept. 18) of 20 Feet from Stardom at the Fine Arts Theatre, which is co-sponsoring an appearance by Lisa Fischer who will also be performing at the Diana Wortham Theatre on Friday, Sept. 18. In addition…

The Story: An outspoken widowed lesbian helps her granddaughter secure the money for an abortion. The Lowdown: Fast-paced, funny, filled with witty lines and yet suffused with a deep melancholy, Grandma provides Lily Tomlin with her best role in ages — and audiences with a must-see movie.

The Story:  Two teenage kids are shipped off to the spend a week with grandparents they've never met. Strange events ensue. The Lowdown: Though hailed in some corners as a return to form for M. Night Shyamalan, this is just the same old thing dressed in cheap found-footage clothing. The tag line ought to be,…

In Brief: Fresh from All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), Lewis Milestone tackled the job of bringing Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur's 1928 Broadway hit newspaper comedy The Front Page to the screen. Nothing could be more different. All Quiet had been naturally cinematic, but The Front Page was set mostly — in the play, completely — in the press room of…

The Story: A middle-aged woman whose husband has left her becomes unlikely friends with her Indian driving instructor. The Lowdown: Despite a contrived set-up, this turns out to be a warm, human, charming small-scale drama about two lonely people whose lives are suddenly changed. Great? No, but emotionally honest in ways we don't often see.

The Story:  A pastor severely injured in a car accident is presumed dead for an hour and a half, time he believes himself to have spent in heaven. The Lowdown: A tedious, predictable and overlong attempt to extract cash from evangelical Christians and, apparently, McDonald’s.

In Brief: Something a little different — and very much the same, too — from Britain's horror meister Tod Slaughter, The Crimes of Stephen Hawke is a pure melodramatic delight. Released barely two months after his most famous film, Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street (1936), Stephen Hawke is one of the few Slaughter vehicles not based on a…

In Brief: World Cinema revisits Pedro Almodóvar's Volver (2006) — perhaps the filmmaker's most accessible and mellow work. It should be noted, however, that mellow is a relative term. The film contains child abuse and no less than three murders (understandable murders), but when put up against such Almodóvar fare as Bad Education (2004) or…

The Story: A woman thinks she’s found the perfect man, until he turns violent and controlling. The Lowdown: An incredibly unimaginative “woman in peril” thriller in the vein of a Lifetime movie, but with a better budget, though that’s really the only difference.

In Brief: I've been a champion of director William Dieterle for over 30 years (at least from his first American film in 1931 through 1948), citing him as the last "golden age" director yet to be seriously assessed. (That status remains true.) But I have to admit that I have never quite warmed to his…

In Brief: John M. Stahl’s Imitation of Life (1934) is unashamedly a soap opera, but it’s not only an excellent example of that too easily dismissed form — it’s a soap opera with an agenda. It is, in fact, one of the very few films of its era to tackle racism head-on with its story of…

In Brief: Generally considered a science-fiction film, David Lynch's Dune is really an epic operatic horror fantasy that owes more to cockeyed myth-making and grotesque — often disturbing — imagery than to sci-fi. When it was released in 1984, it was not a hit with critics or audiences. It was considered confusing to the point of incoherence.…

In Brief: Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Orson Welles (and his perpetually melting fake nose) and a collection other stars got together in 1958 — along with their phony (and often wavering) southern accents — to bring this mash-up William Faulkner to the screen under the direction of formerly black-listed Martin Ritt. The resulting movie —…

The Story: Two grumpy codgers set off to walk the Appalachian Trail. The Lowdown: Loose adaptation of the popular memoir by Bill Bryson re-fitted for its stars and played for broad comedy as an odd-couple buddy comedy — not very successfully. Probably harmless, but largely mediocre.

The Story: Ex-mercenary turned “The Transporter” returns, this time getting himself entangled in a revenge plot against an prostitute ring. The Lowdown: An occasionally clever action flick that feels a bit too padded and chintzy to really work.

In Brief: Rajeev Batia's Pagdi: The Honour is an Indian film and the winner of the 22nd annual Twin Rivers Media Festival in Asheville. If you are unfamiliar with the Twin Rivers Festival, that's hardly surprising. It has been almost completely ignored by local media. Yet for a very small film festival, it's managed to…

The Story: Fact-based tale of Jimmy Gralton and the furror that erupts over his community center and leftist political beliefs in 1932 Ireland. The Lowdown: Deeply political, but warm, human and completely engaging drama from British director Ken Loach. No, you've probably never heard of most of the cast or Jimmy Gralton — but neither…

In Brief: Back in 1985, Ray Lawrence’s Bliss was the art house sensation. It had created quite a stir at Cannes — as much for the fact that about 400 viewers walked out of the movie in disgust (mostly at the same moment: the film’s notorious “sardine scene”) as from the accolades it drew. No Australian film had ever…

In Brief: Martin Brest’s Going in Style (1979) is one of those inoffensive, but not particularly distinguished, little movies that come and go without leaving much of a mark. It’s very much a product of its time in that it was clearly spawned by George Burns’ renaissance after The Sunshine Boys (1975) and Oh, God! (1977). It’s also a surprisingly serious…

The Story: With the help of a new friend, a woman attempts to save her marriage through the power of prayer. The Lowdown: A treacly, unrealistic and mawkish Christian melodrama.