Red Beard

A doctor (Yuzo Kayama), having just graduated medical school in Tokyo, honing the latest in 19th Century medicine, and hoping for a prestigious post, is mortified when he receives an assignment in an impoverished Tokyo district's public clinic run by a gruff but compassionate doctor (Toshiro Mifune) known as Red Beard. Humanist, measured, and episodic Kurosawa work features characteristically beautiful and shadowy cinematography and the last collaboration between Mifune and the director, the actor portraying a very different sort of role but still embodying a powerful presence. Kayama is excellent as the young doctor and Terumi Niki is heartrending as one of his troubled young patients.

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

The Curse of the Jade Scorpion

A successful, nebbish insurance investigator (Woody Allen) can't stand the new secretary (Helen Hunt) hired to rearrange the office, and the feeling is mutual. When the two are hypnotized at a nightclub as part of a work outing, they fall hopelessly in love when under the spell, and are soon being called upon by the hypnotist to clean out their clients. Dismissed, Double Indemnity inspired Allen film has great, evocative period flavor, sumptuous cinematography,  many funny one-liners and great back and forth, even if the premise starts to wear a little thin and the film goes on a little too long. Woody is in fine form, Hunt is a good foil, and David Ogden Stiers is an effective presence as The Great Zoltan.

*** out of ****

Beauty and the Beast

A bookish knockout (Emma Watson), an outcast in her picaresque French countryside village, finds herself the unwanted object of affection from a boorish lunkhead (Luke Evans) then prisoner to a cursed, crude beast (Dan Evans), whose enchanted castle reeks with personality and whose charms she gradually succumbs to. While this and the other CGI'd remakes to Disney's cherished 1991 animated feature are largely unnecessary, the endearing, magical elements are retained while new story directions, lyrics, and songs are added, mostly beneficial and without doing damage. The cast is particularly strong, especially Evans, Kevin Kline as Belle's absent-minded father, and most notably Watson who I was surprised to learn did her own singing.

*** out of ****

The Last Metro

During the German occupation of France, a stage actress and co-proprietor (Catherine Deneuve) of a Paris theater hides her Jewish husband/co-owner/director in the cellar during the course of their latest production while she balances the precarious books and feels a romantic attraction to her new leading man (Gerard Depardieu), himself an active member of the Resistance. Francois Truffaut's The Last Metro is presented on a beautiful color palette with superb cinematography by Nestor Almendros but the lack of a palpable, immediate Nazi presence/threat makes the film less thrilling and complete than it should be. Deneuve is lovely and as beautiful as ever while Depardieu, though charismatic as always, is barely believable as a Resistance agent nor is their romance particularly nspired. The ending is clever but slight.

*** out of ****

The Death of Louis XIV

After basking in his gardens at Versailles, the Sun King (Jean-Pierre Leaud of Truffuat/Antoine Doinel fame) develops a misdiagnosed case of gangrene. and is attended to by servants. advisers, clergy, weeping women, and a team of doctors as he bids farewell to his young heir and settles in to join the ranks of the dead. Albert Serra's The Death of Louis XIV makes use of sustained shots and employs an extremely measured pace yielding a sometimes compelling but mostly dull and surprisingly drab looking (especially for a period piece) result.

** 1/2 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 ****

Cloverfield/10 Cloverfield Lane

Cloverfield

A scaly, Godzilla-like creature strikes Manhattan during a going away party held by twenty-somethings, and as a group of them attempts to escape the carnage, they catch fading glimpses of the monster on their hand held camera. Though the characters are extremely unlikable and the queasycam approach wears thin quickly, Cloverfield has its moments of shock and stretches where it soars.

** 1/2 out of ****

10 Cloverfield Lane

(spoilers)

In a barely related plot and a totally different kind of thriller, a young woman (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) is run off the road by a paranoid (John Goodman) who takes her into his custody in a self-sufficient bunker with claims of nuclear war ongoing outside as signs point to the fact that he is more crazy and calculating than initially let on. 10 Cloverfield Lane is a solid thriller, with a surprisingly talented cast that goes over the top in its still competent finale with a killer that won't die scenario and even more outlandish occurrences. 

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

The Descent

A year after one of their own lost her whole family in a traffic accident, an all female group of thrill seeking friends reunite to tackle an unexplored cave in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. With resentments abounding, they find themselves lost and targeted by the cavern's demonic primordial inhabitants. A few effective scenes aside, The Descent is beset by second rate acting and a third rate script with cheap scares that devolves into total idiocy once the narrative leaves the realm of believability. The production also has that same cheap early digital feel that plagued 28 Days Later.

** out of ****

The Wicker Man

A upright, conservative police inspector (Edward Woodward) travels to a remote British Island to investigate the disappearance of an adolescent girl. There in addition to the nonchalant and hostile attitudes of the residents, he finds them fully immersed in paganism and led by a charismatic despot (Christopher Lee) as he gradually realizes he is in way over his head. From a screenplay by Anthony Shaffer, The Wicker Man is creepy, unsettling, and thrilling, a horror movie that imprints itself on the memory because it is made with meaning and a deeper purpose. Lee dominates the screen, Woodward is a strong and pitiable presence, and that ending is chilling and unforgettable.

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

Pan's Labyrinth

In the early days of Frano's Spain, an adolescent girl, lost in a fantasy world of books (and indeed seeming to be actually living out her own fable) relocates with her mother to a wooded compound where her new sadistic army captain step-father is rooting out the few bands of remaining rebels. Meanwhile, she is visited by a mysterious faun and given three tasks to complete, tasks which will have tragic and otherworldly repercussions. Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth is dumbly written and realized, clumsily welding together fairy tale and violent realism elements, and not nearly as imaginative as many give it credit for.

** 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 Shallows

Still grieving the death of her mother, a med school dropout (Blake Lively) body surfs a secluded Mexican beach and finds herself trapped by a great white only a few hundred yards off shore with only a handful of buoys as her only point of refuge. The Shallows is effective in parts, containing some good scares, but the singular plot wears thin and grows tiresome quickly with the lovely Lively unable to carry the picture.

** 1/2 out of ****

The Visit

Two precocious adolescent siblings leave their single mother to visit their grandparents whom they've never met, and videodocument the entire encounter, although things are immediately amiss upon their arrival. M. Night Shyamalan's return to twist centered, old fashioned shocks also attempts to incorporate comedy and melodrama, and fails at all three, the scares being routine and obvious, the laughs feebly attempted and geared toward a preteen audience, and the melodrama unearned and coming out of nowhere. The young stars are obnoxious and insufferable.

* 1/2 out of ****

The Vietnam War

As told through the eyes of U.S. servicemen and Vietnamese who fought the war on both sides, Ken Burns documentary is an exhaustive look into the war in Vietnam, beginning with French colonization and continuing through the terrible conflict following U.S. intervention that needlessly took thousands of American lives, divided the country, and still ended with Saigon falling to the communists. I'm not sure much is added to the unfortunate, bloody, and muddled saga and its subjects aren't always as interesting you would expect. Further, it seems Burns struggles with more modern efforts, especially this and his World War II documentary, not knowing where to mount his focus. The last episode, which focuses on post-withdrawal, is very moving, and the series is obviously given the same trustworthy treatment as the director's other ventures. The music in the film is a mixed bag, sometimes used effectively other times cliched rock standards used in many a Vietnam War picture. However, there is an excellent score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross.

*** out of ****

The Testament of Dr. Mabuse

A criminal mastermind and master of hypnosis continues to operate his terror based criminal enterprise through telekinesis from his insane asylum cell. Fritz Lang's The Testament of Dr Mabuse, a sequel to a work that launched his career a decade earlier and a character he would revisit years later, is highly influential (so much can be seen from it in subsequent noirs and mysteries) and upset the recently empowered National Socialists so much with its parallels they saw fit to ban it in Germany. The film is a bizarre criminal procedural, made with breakneck pace, frenzied editing, and fantastic special effects. Otto Wernicke is fun as Inspector Lohmann, who played the role prior in Lang's M.
*** 1/2 out of ****

Body Double

A struggling actor (Craig Wasson), after losing his job and walking in on his girlfriend with a another man, is set up by a friend (Gregg Henry) in a posh apartment with a fortuitous view of a beautiful married woman, who puts on a nightly striptease routine, becomes the object of the voyeur's obsession, and soon finds herself in perilous danger. Though its supposed to be another tip of the cap to Alfred Hitchcock, Body Double seems more like pilfering with Brian De Palma attempting to merge no less than Rear Window and Vertigo into one sleazy and cheap treatment. That's not to say its without entertainment value, being occasionally fun, intense, and provocative. Wasson is weak and his character inept, and Melanie Griffith is cute in a small, key role.

** 1/2 out of ****

License to Kill

James (Timothy Dalton) and Felix (David Hedison) decide to nab a drug lord (Robert Davi) right from out of the sky before parachuting into the CIA operatives wedding. Soon, the ruthless kingpin bribes an American officer, escapes, and badly maims 007's pal leading him on a hellbent quest for vengeance. Dalton returns for his second and final Bond outing with another against the grain picture this one a harsh, violent revenge flick. The movie gets bogged down by a sloggish midsection, overlength, but the stuntwork is spectacular (including the phenomenal diesel truck finale), and the special agent meets his match in charismatic Carey Lowell and sexy Talisa Soto. Davi makes a nasty villain.

*** out of ****

Le Doulos

A recently released low rent criminal (Serge Reggiani) shows up at a crime lord and friends resident, ostensibly to get filled in on a job, and shoots him dead in cold blooded, making out with the loot from a previous heist and stacks full of cash. He returns home and tells his live-in girlfriend and fellow con artist pal (Jean-Paul Belmondo) who may or may not be police informants. Jean-Pierre Melville's Le Doulos is a hard-bitten, tough talking tribute to film noir made with sudden, shocking violence and intricate, convoluted plotting. Reggiani and Belmondo and perfectly cast.

*** 1/2 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 ****

The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)

The selfish, domineering, and egocentric ways of a Manhattan sculptor (Dustin Hoffman), whose career never quite took flight, continues to affect the lives of his grown children who include a successful financier (Ben Stiller), a spinster (Elizabeth Marvel) whom he failed to protect from an abuser, and a musician (Adam Sandler) who abandoned the discipline and has come to live with him following a divorce. Noah Baumbach returns with another film about family dysfunction, and although he elicits excellent performances from Sandler and Stiller, the movie never soars and feels too familiar yet incomplete and uninspired, just like you'd expect from a feature film released straight to an online platform.

** 1/2 out of ****

Mystery Train

Three stories involving foreigners, their stay on the same night at a rundown, fleabag Memphis hotel, and the presence of Elvis Presley who seems to hover over the proceedings. Jim Jarmusch's Mystery Train is a little to sparse in its storytelling but is passively engaging with are strange and amiable characters.

*** out of ****

The Living Daylights

As Double-0 agents are being targeted for assassination, Bond (Timothy Dalton) exists in the extrication of a duplicitous KGB agent (Jeroen Krabbe) claiming to have damning information on a highly respected Russian General, leaving 007 and the agent's victimized girlfriend (Maryam d'Abo) on a hazardous tour of Prague, Tangiers, and Afghanistan. The Living Daylights introduced Timothy Dalton in his short run as a more serious minded, humorless Bond, these attributes being mostly in his favor. The plotting is more realistic (at least comparatively) and the stuntwork is exciting, especially the opening (incidentally, the film bears my favorite title in the series. The only thing lacking is strong villain (or any centralized villain at all really).

*** out of ****

The Hills Have Eyes

On a trip to California, an Ohio family's car breaks down in the desolate Nevada desert where they must wait out the night as prey to the cannibalistic savages who inhabit the surrounding mountains. Wes Craven's The Hills Have Eyes starts out as suspenseful and atmospheric before quickly sacrificing tension for camp. Still, it is entertaining nonetheless. alternating between callous and amusing. bears many similarities to The Last House on the Left, and is probably the superior horror movie.

*** out of ****

The Only Son

A widowed woman in a rural town works in a textile mill and sacrifices so her son can attend school. Years later, she visits him in Tokyo and learns that he is married with an infant child although he is embarrassed he hasn't gone anywhere with his education and is only a lowly night school teacher. The Only Son, Ozu's first talking picture, is poignant with the sensitive craftsman-like director's piercing and perfectly placed camera perfectly evoking the somber mood of the film. Choko Iida amd Shinichi Himori are both wonderful playing mother and son.

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

The Awful Truth

After suspicion infects the marriage, a couple (Cary Grant, Irene Dunne) divorces and begins to sabotage their ex's newfound relationships. Leo McCarey won a Best Director Oscar for directing this hilarious screwball comedy, an accolade which is almost never bestowed today on the genre, with Grant in light, playful form and Dunne absolutely delightful. Asta the dog, best known for the Thin Man series, is a memorable standout here.

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