The Player

A narcissistic studio executive (Tim Robbins) who green-lights movie scripts finds his job jeopardized by a rival shark and his life threatened by one of the many writers he has turned down over the years, leading him to commit a dubious murder and cast into a paranoid, Kafkaesque nightmare. From Michael Tolkin's novel, Robert Altman's skewering of Hollywood is both a hilarious black comedy and effective noir showcasing the maverick director at the top of his form. With the spectacular opening tracking shot, to a perfectly cast Robbins, the endless celebrity cameos, and the insider's script, The Player is a masterful Hollywood satire on par with Sunset Blvd. and The Bad and the Beautiful

The Pledge

On the night of his retirement party, a Nevada detective (Jack Nicholson) tags along to the crime scene of a child murder. When a mentally handicapped suspect is swiftly arrested, coerced into confessing, and commits suicide the would be retiree is less than satisfied. Skipping his fishing trip to Florida, he conducts his own investigation while using the daughter of a new lover (Robin Wright) as bait and putting his own sanity into jeopardy. From a novel by Friedrich Durrenmatt, The Pledge is haunting, poetic, and truly tragic, offbeat and uniquely directed by Sean Penn, with a commanding and sensitive performance by Jack.

**** out of ****

Harakiri

A fallen ronin (Tatsuya Nakadai) who has lost everything, namely master, livelihood, and family, arrives at a lord's residence in order to commit seppuku, a ritual form of suicide. In an attempt to deter his actions, he is told of another recent samurai who made a similar request and was forced to carry out his demand, as he was suspected of attempting to fleece the manor by being turned away with riches. Instead, the noble ronin at the castle's doorstep has a more damning revelation about his relationship to the pitiable young man. Kobayashi's Harakiri is vivid, violent, and harsh, with an aim for calling out hypocrisy yet exists largely for generating empathy and is always utterly compelling, unfolding in a serpentine and novelistic fashion. Nakadai is excellent as the principled and vengeful warrior.

**** out of ****

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

A U.S. Senator (James Stewart) travels to the town of Shinbone for the funeral of a rancher (John Wayne) and relays to reporters the legend of how, decades earlier, he made the same journey in hopes of using the law and democracy to civilize the territory, was menaced by a rabid outlaw (Lee Marvin), and given assistance from the recently deceased cattleman. John Ford’s The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is a compulsively watchable (even during its filler sequences), beautifully shot black and white Western with one of the most memorable finales in history while bringing together the differing sensibilities of Stewart and Wayne. Marvin ranks up there as one of the nastiest baddies to ever grace the screen.

**** out of ****

Mon oncle Antoine

In a rural, asbestos mining Quebec town in the late 1940s, a young teenager becomes a man while working in his uncle and aunt's general store/mortuary during the Christmas Season as he serves a funeral, spies on a female customer, flirts with the same-age adoptive daughter of his employers, and discovers the truth about his personal relationships. Claude Jutra's mischievous though subtle and sensitive Mon oncle Antoine, is a profound and insightful coming of age story crafted with an exacting point of view, camerawork, and music.

**** out of ****

The Killing

Several character types are enlisted for an intricate robbery of the money room at a California horse track but the plan starts to unravel when the greedy, disloyal wife of one the culprits begins to poke her nose in. Presented in disjointed time at breakneck speed, extremely hard-nosed, and with a modern feel, Stanley Kubrick’s crisply shot and edited early work stands among the cream of other noirs produced during the period. In a cast of great faces and tough supporters, Sterling Hayden is a standout as the no nonsense leader, Elisha Cook, Jr. is memorable as the pushover counter worker, and Marie Windsor is excellent as his nefarious wife. The finale is jaw-dropping with a perfect ending and closing line.

**** out of ****

The Immortal Story

A rich, bitter, and spiteful old merchant of Macao (Orson Welles) hears the tale of a wealthy man hiring a sailor to impregnate his young wife and seeks to make it true, through the help of his assistant (Roger Coggio) and two young hires (Jeanne Moreau and Norman Eshley). Intriguing minor Wellesian concoction from an Isak Dinesen story feels like something only Welles himself could have cooked up, beautifully shot and directed with a unique and irresistible story.

 **** out ****

A Man Escaped

A Resistance member (Francois Letterier) is arrested by the Gestapo, charged with sabotage and sentenced to die, and placed in a concentration camp in Lyon, where over 7,000 perished during the war. There he painstakingly sweeps his cell to develop means of escape, meanwhile acting as an impetus of hope to his fellow prisoners. Robert Bresson’s A Man Escape is an exacting, inward looking meditation, both beautifully and meticulously shot while generating quiet and palpable suspense. Nonactor Letterier is tremendous and reflective as the saintly inmate.

**** out of ****

Shadow of a Doubt

With the police closing in on him, the Merry Widow Murderer (Joseph Cotten) travels cross country to his family home in Santa Rosa, California and the company of his adoring niece (Teresa Wright) who slowly begins to unravel the unsavory truth about her cagey and mysterious uncle. Alfred Hitchcock’s self-proclaimed favorite film is an ingeniously crafted, creatively detailed, and slyly subversive work with Wright assuredly carrying the film, Cotton making a sinister villain, and Hume Cronyn hysterically funny in his film debut as the next door neighbor with a predilection for the macabre.

**** out of ****

Blow Out

A Philadelphia sound technician (John Travolta) for third-rate schlock films is out one evening recording effects and captures on tape what he believes to be a political assassination, thereafter becoming involved with a would be victim and delving deeper and deeper into the cover-up. Using Antonioni’s Blow-Up as a springboard, Brian De Palma keeps plagiarism and sleaze to a minimum in Blow Out and crafts a meticulous and enthralling thriller in what is effectively his masterpiece. Excellent early Travolta performance.

**** out of ****

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

On a mostly unused road just outside of a small Missouri town, an angry, grieving mother (Frances McDormand) erects three billboards chastising the local police department for not apprehending the rapist who murdered her daughter a year prior, which leads to backlash from the town, its terminally ill police chief (Woody Harrelson) and an overzealous, half witted deputy (Sam Rockwell). Martin McDonagh's Three Billboards is an unsubtle black comedy journey into misery imperfectly but profoundly meshed with dramatic elements, with resolutions that buck Hollywood cliches and are uneasily arrived. McDormand is superb in one of those roles she has mastered: imbuing grief, anger, humor, and humanity, and Harrelson and Rockwell are excellent in support, both creating three dimensional characters while providing comic relief.

**** out of ****

The Shining

Along with his skittish wife (Shelley Duvall) and clairvoyant son, an out of work alcoholic writer (Jack Nicholson) takes a job as winter caretaker of the Overlook Hotel, a position which has inspired madness and murder in its not too recent history. Stanley Kubrick's ice cold adaptation of Stephen King's novel is one of the most chilling  ever and it is doubtful, especially in this day and age, that there will ever be a more exacting horror movie ever made. Jack is way way over the top but Duvall is highly effective and Scatman Crothers is excellent in support.

**** out of ****

Les Vampires

Beginning with the discovery of a severed head belonging to a prominent official, a star reporter launches an investigation into Les Vampires, a secretive, malevolent cult known with ever changing leadership and a vampish femme fatale pulling all the strings behind the scenes, and finds himself, and his sidekick, a coworker and former member, as perpetual targets. Louis Feuillade early, popular French silent serials are corny, cliched, and silly as you would expect but are also marked by shocking, unexpected moments of outlandishness. grimness, great characters, and exciting storylines.

**** out of ****

The Circus

After being mistaken for a pickpocket and pursued through a carnival, the tramp winds up front and center at the travelling circus, stealing the show and offered a job. There he romances an acrobat, the abused daughter of the circus manager, gets locked in the lion cage, and must step in to perform the tight rope act for his romantic rival when he no-shows for the gig. The Circus is a perfect little Chaplin short feature, funny and poignant, with the Hall of Mirrors scene, the automaton gallery, and the stunning finale all standing out.

**** out of ****

Caché

A TV talk show host (Daniel Auteuil) and his wife (Juliette Bincoche) are terrorized by a stalker who sends the couple disturbing drawings and protracted videotaped recordings of both their Paris residence and the man’s childhood home, eventually causing a rift in their marriage and reawakening haunting memories of early childhood shame. Michael Haneke’s Cache (Hidden) is a methodically composed and exceptionally patient and profound work that hypnotically draws the viewer in (like many great films do) and makes its larger points not through preaching but by craft and expose.

**** out of ****

Barry Lyndon

The rise and fall of Redmond Barry (Ryan O'Neal), an Irishman born to modest means in the late 18th Century who finds himself exiled from his village following a duel over a flame, robbed blind of all possessions, serving and deserting in two armies, before acquainting with a disreputable cardsharp and weasling his way into high society but finding himself unable to keep his footing there. Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon, from a Thackeray novel, is among the coldest, most calculated, and painstaking of all his features which also bears some of the most striking and pristine cinematography ever put to film, courtesy of John Alcott. O'Neal's performance is underplayed and excellent while given great support by a company of virtual unknowns. The film is long and slow-burning, but extremely involving and endlessly fascinating.

**** out of ****

Leon Morin, Priest

During the German Occupation, a repressed, recently widowed atheist (Emmanuelle Riva) strikes up a friendship with her attractive, impassioned local priest (Jean-Paul Belmondo) and finds herself being drawn both to the popular cleric but also unremittingly to the faith. Jean-Pierre Melville’s Leon Morin, Priest is offbeat, intellectual fare, expertly filmed in beautiful black and white, and always moving and involving with ardent performances from Riva and Belmondo.

**** out of ****

Tender Mercies

A broken down country singer (Robert Duvall), estranged from his work partner wife (Betty Buckley) and their 18 year old daughter (Ellen Barkin) and lost in the bottle, is shown sympathy by an angelic single mother (Tess Harper) who runs a gas station/motel in the desolate part of Texas. As the two connect and marry, the singer attempts to repair his soul while fixing old wounds and moving on with the next act of his life. From a screenplay by Horton Foote, Bruce Beresford's Tender Mercies is a rare kind of film in that it embodies quiet and good-naturedness and resolves to be always emotionally honest. Duvall, in his sole Oscar winning role, is reserved, moving, and shows an aptitude for singing, some of the songs which he wrote himself. Harper is lovely as the young widow, Buckley is strong, and Wilford Brimley is great in support playing the latter's manager in a manner only he can. Beautifully photographed by Russell Boyd.

**** out of ****

Night Moves

A cuckolded L.A. private eye (Gene Hackman), who finds his current line of work a far cry from his glory days on the gridiron, takes on the case of a missing teenager (Melanie Griffith) which leads him to the Florida Keys and ultimately has greater ramifications of plundering, sleaze, and murder. Made on the heels of Chinatown and perhaps mirroring that classic a little too closely in terms of plot, Arthur Penn’s Night Moves works marvelously both as a detective story and on an existential, psychological plane while incorporating a snappy, insightful screenplay into an involving story. Hackman shows his unique ability to play a sensitive tough guy and I can't imagine anyone else delivering these lines with such conviction and believability, although Penn doesn't direct the actresses well.

**** out of ****

Secrets & Lies

A broken London family, including a well-to-do, people pleasing middle class photographer (Timothy Spall), his barren, melancholic wife (Phyllis Logan), his emotionally unbalanced, project housed single parent sister (Brenda Blethyn) and her miserable daughter (Claire Rushbrook), reaches a catharsis when a black optometrist (Marianne Jean-Baptiste) enters their lives, claiming to be the abandoned daughter of the sister. Lengthy and deliberate Mike Leigh effort is emotional and involving with a tremendous cast (really every principle performance is top caliber) and punctuated by sublime moments of revelation and welcomed detours. Spall's culminating speech is both beautiful and transcendent.

**** out of ****