Spectre

After operating without orders to thwart a terrorist plot in Mexico City, a lead from his most recently dispatched target leads 007 to the shadowy titular organization that has dogged his entire career, all without the cover of MI6, who are facing disbandment resulting from a global surveillance alternative to their secret agent outfit. With a hand to hand combat sequence on a moving train, a high speed chase through the hills of a chalet, and a major revelation on Bonds' #1 nemesis (among other elements) Spectre, Daniel Craig's purported final outing as the archetypal British agent and director Sam Mendes' second go round following the dazzling Skyfall, tries too hard to recapture specific Bond moments effectively setting the series back, all of which is further inflamed by overplotting, overlength, about four endings too many, and an incredibly stupid screenplay. That being said, the film is expectedly punctuated by moments of intensity, excitement, and dazzling set pieces. Christoph Waltz makes a terrific foil and the film contains surprisingly spectacular camerawork, particularly in an opening tracking sequence and in several magnificent vistas. When considered on a whole, it all results in the kind of entertaining mixed bag popcorn you'd thought the series had grown out of or were possibly banking on.

** 1/2 out of ****

Room

A young woman (Brie Larson) has spent seven years of her life held captive in a soundproof shed in her abductor's backyard, having been joined the previous five by her son whom she conceals knowledge of  outside life. Following a miraculous escape opportunity, mother and son must adjust to life in the real world while contending with the effects of dealing with lost time, a media onslaught, and still grieving parents (Joan Allen and William H. Macy), among other issues. From a novel by Emma Donoghue, which drew on an extreme case out of Germany (and holds relevancy following the recent occurrence in Cleveland), Lenny Abrahamson's Room is a thoughtful, well conceived take, which tactfully leaves certain questions unanswered and situations explored while focusing on its primary theme of finding hope in a hopeless situation, resulting in an intense and moving experience. Larson is an earnest, appealing actress who offers her best but struggles during the most most demanding scenes and Allen is tenderly powerful in support.

*** 1/2 out of **** 

Mr. Turner

The last passage in the life of J.M.W. Turner, the gruff, eccentric, and masterful British landscape painter as he lives alone with his neglected housekeeper, battles members of the art establishment while preparing his latest gallery, moves to a seaside community, and grieves over his recently departed father while facing is own mortality. In Mr. Turner, Mike Leigh employs his unorthodox, understated approach with a result that is somewhat plodding but strives to create an honest portrait of an uncouth genius and entirely bypasses the usual biopic trappings. Timothy Spall turns in a bold and somewhat unsympathetic performance and Dick Pope's cinematography beautifully captures its subject's inspirations.

*** out of ****

Blue Ruin

A mentally ill drifter receives the news that the man responsible for his parent's deaths is returning to their rural childhood town. After dispatching the killer in an unplanned, slipshod manner, he finds himself the target of a manhunt led by the recently deceased's redneck kin. Jeremy Saulnier's Blue Ruin is a competently made, carefully photographed, bloody and deeply intense thriller that throws in some some illogical plot detail and opts for an unnecessarily over the top shootout conclusion. Macon Blair contributes a fine leading performance.

*** out of ****

Premature Burial

A coma prone Englishman (Ray Milland) with a pathological fear of being buried alive goes to extreme measures to prevent his greatest nightmare from coming to fruition. Premature Burial, Roger Corman's third adaptation of an Edgar Allan Poe work, offers an inventive screenplay (considering Poe's story was more of an informative on catalepsy) whose collaborators including Twilight Zone veteran Charles Beaumont. In addition, the film boasts wonderful set design which includes a memorable tour through a "survival" crypt. Milland's performance is enjoyable, especially when he atypically ranges out in the heightened conclusion.
*** out of ****

Vampyr

A student takes a respite at an old hotel and quickly is haunted by a bloodthirsty female vampire. Though made several year after the introduction of talking pictures, Carl Theodor Dreyer's Vampyr is a mostly silent, disorienting, dreamlike exercise. Based on the short story Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu, the film is virtually plotless, but is incredibly atmospheric with Dreyer's brilliant direction making fantastic, horrifying use of light and shadow.

*** out of ****

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

The director of an insane asylum travels to a small German town with his muted, semi-catatonic assistant where he performs sideshows and uses the sleepwalker to commit a series of grisly murders. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is a cornerstone of silent cinema and German Expressionism which remains widely influential to this day. Robert Weine’s film, which was co-written by Carl Mayer and Hans Janowitz, is suspenseful, wildly imaginative, and bizarre which extends to the atypical titles, mind bending sets, and overstated actors.

**** out of *****

Only Lovers Left Alive

A centuries old vampire (Tom Hiddleston) lives alone in his decrepit, isolated Detroit home, separately from his Mediterranean stationed wife (Tilda Swinton), where he composes popular rock ballads and relieves the local hospital of their choicest O-negative stock. When the couple senses sorrow in each others voices over the phone, they decide to reunite but find their visit interrupted by her reckless younger sister (Mia Wasikowska). Jim Jarmusch's Only Lovers Left Alive is well crafted, and a nice rebuke to the onslaught of vampire movies which seems to have cooled as of late, but wears thin and begins to plod after awhile. Hiddleston and Swinton are immensely appealing.

** 1/2 out of ****

The Fall of the House of Usher

Jean Epstein's early, silent take on Edgar Allan Poe's popular short story, with the head of title house receiving a visitor and, along with his sister, giving way to melancholia and madness, is a surrealistic,  unsettling, and nightmarish experience. Unconcerned with narrative continuity or traditional storytelling approaches, The Fall of the House of Usher is an atmospheric triumph abetted with the aid of many incredibly effective and what have to be (at least in a few cases) introductory camera techniques.

*** 1/2 out of ****

Steve Jobs

A window into the life of the megalomaniacal Apple visionary as told in three acts in the frantic moments leading up to three launches (the 1984 Mac, the introduction of 1988's NeXT computer, and the iMac in 1998) as he strategizes, confronts, insults, embraces, threatens, or demeans several major players in his life including his faithful assistant and conscience Joanna Hoffman (Kate Winslett), head programmer Andy Hertzfeld (Michael Sthulbarg), close friend and pc pioneer (Steve Wozniak), former Pepsi chair and current Apple CEO and father figure John Sculley (Jeff Daniels), and Chrisann Brennan, a troubled ex-girlfriend (Katherine Waterston) whose daughter Jobs initially denies paternity of. An endless source of fascinating, the latest Steve Jobs movie (and hopefully the last) was hatched by top industry talent. At first, Aaron Sorkin's relentless, droll, sometimes forced dialogue and Danny Boyle's kinetic, stylistic approach do not seem to mesh, but they eventually gain footing and even approach greatness, especially in a second act brilliantly edited and acted wrangle between Fassbender and Daniels. Although to my mind Michael Fassbender seems miscast, he appears to come close to the core of his enigmatic and in many ways despicable character and is given truly fine support by a uniformly excellent cast.

*** 1/2 out of ****

Beasts of No Nation

As war reaches their unnamed African village, a young boy's (Abraham Attah) mother and younger siblings make their narrow escape for refuge while his father and older brother are gunned down by the pillaging invaders. Scared and alone, he is picked up by a rebel militia, led by a sadistic, imbalanced commandant (Idris Elba), where he begins his life as a child soldier. Even with its unthinkable, harrowing subject matter, Beasts of No Nation both generally resembles films of the same ilk or feels like pictures we've seen before (War Witch and City of God spring immediately to mind). Director Cary Fukunaga successfully adapts Uzodinma Iweala's novel into a nightmarish, intelligent though overlong film which could have benefitted from tauter editing and loses steam in its second while typically making fantastic usage of shooting locations. Elba delivers a towering, complex, and menacing performance while child actor Attah does quite well with a extremely demanding role.

*** out of ****

Bridge of Spies

At the height of the cold war, a pragmatic insurance attorney (Tom Hanks) is tapped by his firm to defend an overwhelmingly guilty, both by the questionably attained evidence and in the fervant court of public opinion, stoic Russian spy (Mark Rylance)  to present an international view of fair treatment. Shortly after procuring a relatively light sentence for his client and becoming a much maligned figure in the press, the counselor is once again called upon to travel to East Germany to negotiate for the swap of an American spy pilot, recently shot down behind enemy lines. Bridge of Spies is a well made though overlong spy pic, intentionally drab and dreary, crafted in the vein of a John le Carre quasi thriller by the Coen Brothers along with Matt Charman. In spite of the material and its intentions, its director still strives for nauseating Spielbergian moralizing and uplift, with a first act that plays like a civics class and a second which isn't as dramatically pulling at it should be. Hanks is well cast, putting his affable attributes to good use and Rylance, an unknown to me, is a self-effacing standout.

** 1/2 out of ****

The Martian

When an exploratory mission to Mars is interrupted by a major storm, the crew is forced to evacuate and make their long journey back to earth, leaving behind their thought to be dead botanist (Matt Damon). Miraculously making his way back to base, the hopeful and self-reliant scientist must either find a way to sustain himself on the lifeless planet for four years when the mission will resume or devise a plan to signal NASA to prompt rescue efforts. With his treatment of Andy Weir's The Martian, Ridley Scott demonstrates his acuity in assembling a sci-fi picture, offering awe inspiring photography and occasionally breathless moments, in a studio film that has absolutely no faith in its material. While treating its audience like adults with a highly scientific and technical screenplay, it alternately panders to the masses with its corny screenplay and empty blockbuster cliches which would feel right at home in a Roland Emmerich production. Damon's character is strangely given no background (along with the rest of the cast) and, though there are no misgivings with his performance, his unrelenting optimism and almost total neglect to explore any of the other caveats of being stranded alone 250 miles from humanity winds up being a real drag.

** 1/2 out of ****

Sicario

After witnessing the latest cartel horror house as part of an FBI tactical team, a novice but talented agent (Emily Blunt) is recruited by a dubious team of federal agents, led by a law bending cowboy (Josh Brolin) with the aid of a mysterious liaison (Benicio del Toro), in an effort to root out a nefarious drug lord. Sicario is gripping, murky and unrelenting, brilliantly directed by Denis Villeneuve, with crisp, haunting cinematography from Roger Deakins, and superb performances from the well cast principle performers. Not only serving as a petrifying imminent issues movie and conversation stirrer but standing on its own as a meticulously crafted thriller, even if these lines are blurred in the end as the film lends itself more towards a revenge picture.

*** 1/2 out of ****

Assault on Precinct 13

After acquiring an arsenal of automatic weapons, a street gang declares war on the LAPD, focusing specifically on the soon to be closed Precinct 13 station house whose only hope for defense is a novice commander, a few administrators, a victim of the gang's coldblooded violence seeking refuge, two prisoners on layover from a prison transport, and a short supply of weaponry. John Carpenter's Rio Bravo inspired Assault on Precinct 13 is stylized and surprisingly low key, offering well drawn characters speaking cheesy though admittedly amusing dialogue. The finale is anticlimactic but is preceded by a great escape attempt sequence.

*** out of ****

12 Angry Men

A Puerto Rican slum kid is on trial for the murder of his father, an open and shut case as far as members of all-white mostly middle aged jury is concerned. As the restless tribunal settles into the jury room to deliberate, anxious to depart on the mercilessly hot summer day, one lone juror insists on respecting the defendant's right of due process and thoroughly examining every bit of evidence. For his feature film debut Sidney Lumet took his know how from an early career in television and, through the brilliant use of lighting, close ups, and camera angles, the benefit of a tried and tested group of veteran actors, and an enlightened, informative microcosmic treatise on the legal system by Reginald Rose, transformed a one-set story into one of the finest dramas ever put to film. Atop the fine cast (without forgetting to mention a supremely composed turn from a hostile and bigoted Lee J. Cobb) stands Henry Fonda in one of his most nobly idealistic and memorable performances.

**** out of ****

The Walk

The story of a brazen, arrogant young Parisian street performer and amateur wire walker who, after seeing a sketch for the under construction World Trade Center buildings in a magazine ad, saw his life's dream of breaking into the towers, gaining roof access to the 94 floor structures, running a steel cable across its 140 foot gap, and performing one of the most daring stunts ever fathomed. Although the film version of Phillipe Petit's unrivaled triumph offers nothing in the way of character development, lacks narrative drive and tension, is overly cheesy, features a servicable but unremarkable Joseph Gordon Levitt star performance, wastes Ben Kingsley in a throwaway role, and feels like a literal live action translation of James Marsh's superlative documentary Man on Wire, it is worth the price of admission alone for the special effects, generally for director Robert Zemeckis' masterful use of 3D and specifically for the queasy, awe inspiring, unspeakable high wire act of the title.

*** 1/2 out ****

Unforgiven

A once vile drunk and murderous outlaw (Clint Eastwood) lives a reformed life on his barren pig ranch, a widower struggling to raise two young children, at the close of the Old West. When a prostitute is disfigured by visiting cattlemen in the town of Big Whiskey, Wyoming a bounty is placed on their heads (against the orders of the no nonsense sheriff (Gene Hackman)) calling the aged, out of practice gunslinger along with his long serving associate (Morgan Freeman) back to his vicious ways. Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven is a stoic, uncompromising meditation on killing that turns the Western on its ear. Crafted from a thoughtful script from David Webb Peoples, it offers painterly scenery, a spectacularly haunting and meaningful finale, and an outstanding cast with tired, worn, and soberly powerful performances from Clint and Freeman, a brilliantly complex and hardened turn from Hackman and fine support from Richard Harris, Frances Fisher, and Jaimz Woolvett.

**** out of ****

Rashomon

Gathering for shelter at a desolate city entrance, two witnesses to a vicious rape/murder recount the court testimony of the atrocious affair from the viewpoint of the perpetrator (Toshiro Mifune), his surviving victim (Machiko Kyo), her slaughtered samurai husband (Masayuki Mori) as told through a seer, and the sole witness (Takashi Shimura) to view the actual crime. By breaking free, not only from traditional cinematic narrative forms and perspective, but also in how movies could actually be filmed, through Rashomon Akira Kurosawa would forever change the way in which movies would be made. Working from two short stories from Ryunosuke Akutagawa, using stark settings and featuring unforgettable performances from Mifune and Shimura, perhaps the film's greatest achievement is the way it imbues humanity into a lurid story.

**** out of ****

Star Trek: The Motion Picture

Captain Kirk (William Shatner) and Dr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy) return to their posts on the Starship Enterprise when a formidable and mysterious alien life force wreaks havoc on a neighboring planet. Star Trek: The Motion Picture, the long gestating adaptation of the popular Gene Rodenberry series, is a somnolent, murky affair that loses a lot of the campy fun and appeal of the original, and features a welcomed but tired, aged cast.

** out of ****

The Judge

A sleek and arrogant big city attorney (Robert Downey Jr.) returns to his hometown to defend his estranged, alcoholic father (Robert Duvall), a respected local judge and community lion, when he is accused of vehicular homicide. The Judge is trite, well worn fare boasting pathetic dialogue along with lazy plotting, and culminating in a laughably schmaltzy wrap-up. RDJ delivers yet another one of his tired stock performances and Duvall, though garnering critical accolades for his part, is way over the top and hard to accept at face value.

** out of ****

Black Mass

The story of Whitey Bulger (Johnny Depp), a relatively unknown South Boston crime lord and sociopath who built his bloody legacy not with the help of his State Senator kin (Benedict Cumberbatch) but through an unholy alliance with childhood friend and ascending FBI agent John Connolly (Joel Edgerton). From the unthinkable, cold-blooded crime story that served as partial inspiration for The Departed, Black Mass is really just another tiresome attempt to remake Goodfellas (and the third or so that Depp himself has been involved with), here with Irish tough guys being portrayed (poorly) by Brits, Aussies, and other Hollywood  flakes. Edgerton's performance is given to mugging and frankly is embarrassing (which sadly has become standard with him), Cumberbatch brings nothing to the table, struggling with his accent and seeming an unlikely casting choice, and Depp does his best screen gnawing Nicholson impression while combing his hair back, adopting steely blue eyes, and wearing far-fetched Nosferatu makeup. Further, Scott Cooper has yet to establish himself as a competent director (Crazy Heart, Out of the Furnace) and really seems out of his element here with a poorly written screenplay and an irritating camera addressing narrative approach as told in flashback by Bulger's cohorts during interrogation. The film is saved from becoming a total wash by talented actors inhabiting very minor roles, namely Kevin Bacon, Peter Sarsgaard, Adam Scott, Corey Stoll, and Julianne Nicholson.
* 1/2 out of ****

Ferrell Takes the Field

Raising funds for a USC classmate's cancer charity and inspired by Bert Campaneris, a popular young Oakland A who became the first MLB player to play all nine positions as part of another publicity stunt in 1965, Will Ferrell travels the Cactus League circuit playing 10 different positions (DH included) for 10 different teams in the course of one day. Ferrell Takes the Field is presented as a mockumentary with Ferrell playing his usual incensed, deadpan character to amusing effect.

*** out of ****

Inglourious Basterds

A Jewish woman (Melanie Laurent) escapes slaughter at the hands of a ruthless SS colonel (Christoph Waltz) and both of their fates will intertwine with that of the Basterds, a ruthless band of Jewish American brothers led by a bloodthirsty lieutenant (Brad Pitt) who specializes in taking Nazi scalps. Inglourious Basterds is inspired, intelligent, intense, entertaining, and sometimes off-putting and self-indulgent revisionist World War II fare from Quentin Tarantino, with an over-the-top ending that thwarts at least some of the great work that preceded it. Waltz steals the show in his brilliant, multilingual star making performance, Pitt is entirely effective in an amusing comic turn, and Laurent is quite good in a challenging role.

*** 1/2 out of ****

Eric Rohmer's Six Moral Tales

When the New Wave landed on shores of France and rocked world cinema, Eric Rohmer quietly but intently observed the work of his contemporaries from the Cahiers du Cinema offices where he worked as an editor. There he plotted a series of ostensibly related films, all dealing with a middle class protagonist's responding to a temptress, which were filmed over the period of a decade, and were grouped together as the Six Moral Tales.

The Bakery Girl of Monceau (1963) is a short two reeler, simple, offbeat, talky, icy, and beautifully shot, effectively setting the tone for the entire series. Featuring future directors Barbet Schroeder in the lead and Bernard Taverneier as narrator, it tells the story of a young attorney who makes increasingly frequent visits to a neighborhood confectionery to encounter the title clerk.

*** 1/2 out of ****

Suzanne's Career (1963) followed, and is an intelligent and incredibly prescient, here detailing a woman coming in between the friendship of two friends, one a skirt chaser the other a bashful introvert.

*** 1/2 out of ****

La Collectionneuse (1967) was the first feature film realeased in the series but was actually intended as the fourth tale, bumped up on the shooting schedule when Rohmer failed to achieve weather effects and postponed My Night with Maud. It tells an idyllically set and beautifully shot story of cruel intellectualism about two friends vacationing on the Riveria who find their vacation impeded by a promiscuous guest. 

*** 1/2 out of ****

My Night with Maud (1969) may be the best known of the lot and is my candidate for the finest realization in an unrivaled program. An uptight intellectual bumps into an old friend around the holidays, is invited for dinner to a recently divorced knock-out's chateu, where the two wind up alone, discussing love and philosophy before getting down to business. Perceptive, crisply filmed, and wonderfully acted

*** 1/2 out of ****

Claire's Knee (1970) involves a diplomat on vacation and awaiting marriage who, while visiting with an ex-lover, becomes obsessed with the idea of caressing his landlady's stepdaughter's knee. 

This fifth entry is somewhat creepy, but again retains the film values of its predecessors and remains very watchable

*** 1/2 out ****

Chloe in the Afternoon (1972) concluded the series and, true to form, is involving, low key, and dialogue heavy. Its plot revolves around a happily married Parisian lawyer who hopelessly pursues a bohemian seductress.

*** 1/2 out of ****