Daniel Silverman: I Found It At The Movies

	What Have I Done To Deserve This? (1984)Only Fellini exceeds Almodovar’s ability to tweak reality just enough to seduce us into believing in the surreal. WHIDTDT is one of the Spanish master's darkest forays into soap-operatic hijinks, with the wonderful Carmen Maura as a poor, overworked, pill-popping Madrid hausfrau coping with her drug-dealing son, her brute of a husband, her child-abusing neighbor, a wayward lizard, and many other interlocking indignities, that is presented with all the weightiness of a cheese puff. "The Ramones' 'We’re A Happy Family': The Movie". Wonderful!
	The Passion Of The Christ (2004)Okay, so this Israeli dude called Yoshua, y’see—some guy with a way serious Jesus complex—well, he gets beaten to a bloody pulp as instigated by some Italian guy y’see, and for the next 2000 years and more, the dude’s followers, holding a misguided grudge, hunt and chase down the Israeli's countrymen, culminating in the systematic annihilation of 6,000,000 of them…ouch! Moving? Yeah, I wanted to move my bowels over every frame. Still, a homoerotic S+M extravaganza…yum! Peekskill local Mel Gibson directs.
	Getting Straight (1970)Despite clever lensing and editing, Getting Straight is a trite and superficial treatment of the student/youth uprising during the Vietnam War, that has more disdain than sympathy for its silly, stereotyped characters (Elliot Gould as a student activist back from the war, and Candace Bergen as--what else?--a wealthy WASPette). A few fairly impressive Gould speeches toward the end are insufficient to salvage the proceedings.
	The Skin I Live In (2011)A master surgeon (Antonio Banderas, finally acting again after a 20 year hiatus) loses his wife to an accident and his daughter to madness, and will do anything in his formidable powers to keep their memory alive. The Skin I Live In is Almodovar’s icy homage to Vertigo, updated for the modern age. Just as implausible, and just as fantastically compelling. Bravo!
	Gummo (1997)Every society has its underworld of poorly-educated, aimless, up-to-no-good types, but only in God-Bless-America might members of this class secure the funding to direct feature-length films. Somehow, one Harmony Korine, a footnote on the periphery of America’s anti-culture “scene” got lucky, and the apparently autobiographical Gummo is the result. Sole redeeming feature: Linda Manz in a frustratingly brief cameo, all growed up.
	Out Of The Blue (1980)The incomparable Linda Manz, absolutely riveting, is the whole show as an Elvis-worshipping punk-loving troubled teen, traumatized by a terrible accident and more, as she wanders the mean streets of Vancouver. When the camera is not on her, filmmaker Dennis Hopper indulges himself and his cast in Cassavetes-esque under-directed over-acting. The result is something between Taxi Driver and Barbara’ Loden’s Wanda. Nice cameo by Vancouver's own Pointed Sticks.
	Marjoe (1972)Exploited and abused by his criminal parents, toddler-preacher Marjoe Gortner somehow emerged as a remarkably intact and clear-headed adult. In this documentary, Gortner comes clean, confessing the tricks of his swindling trade, though seems incapable of shaking off his addiction to the criminal art of Christian evangelism. The result is something like Borat, had Sasha Baron Cohen interspersed the proceedings with some confessions of his own; almost as painful, though certainly not as funny.
	The Boy In The Striped Pajamas (2008) One of the most disgusting and appallingly offensive movies ever made. In a serene and bucolic little corner of a death camp (!!!!), a plumpish, loafing Jewish boy with lots of free time (!!!!) befriends a little rascal of an Aryan boy on the other side of the fence (!!!!). When the Jew's father "goes missing", the little Aryan digs under the fence (!!!!) to help in the search and,...I dare you to guess the rest (yes, lots more exclamation marks). Weep for the poor Nazis!!!! It's almost enough to make me believe in censorship!!!!
	Midnight In Paris (2011)"...Moronic and infantile and utterly lacking in any wit or believability."...And I refuse to give Konigsberg points for the pretty shots of Paris. I mean, jeez, give a monkey a camera...
	Eyes Wide Shut (1999)Surely Kubrickian (Kubrick has often been accused of as much), Eyes Wide Shut is a spellbinding and at times creepily humorous exploration of would-be infidelity among the CPW elite, with a central set piece and basic theme ripped straight from the pages of The Magus (though the source actually pre-dates the Fowles' novel). The cruel yet delicious joke (one which is ultimately distracting) is the casting of Tom Cruise in the role he was born (and married) to play: a cold and distant play-actor at humanity and sexuality. Bravo!
	Amazing Grace (2006)Amazing disgrace. The producers of this dunderheaded costume drama clearly have little but disdain for their audience. A laughably awful script (I kept on anticipating the next line!), one dimensional characters, and, apparently, a wildly inaccurate portrayal of history, combine to make a mockery of a deadly serious issue: the role of African slavery in the building and maintenance of the British Empire. For shame!
	Control (2007)Wisely avoiding aggrandizing its anti-hero, "Control" focuses on the very human trials of a young man (Joy Division’s talented but immature Ian Curtis), overwhelmed by his bad decisions (marrying too early) and bad health (epilepsy); fine performances from all involved, and a surprising lack of grandstanding from egomaniacal Dutch photographer-turned-director Anton Corbijn. For a number of stylistic and thematic reasons, "The Loneliness Of A Long Distance Runner" might make a good double bill.
	Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes (2011)“The inheritance of acquired characteristics” proposal turns out to have been right all along in this spectacularly dumb Hollywood piece-o-crap, in which, with drugs, the apes get super-smart and develop human vocal tracts (and, without drugs, the humans don’t age a day over the span of a decade!). The apes pass their acquired traits to their offspring, and--spoiler alert! spoiler alert!--havoc ensues.
	Deconstructing Harry (1997)Sure, it’s a world gone mad when the awful Kirstie Alley delivers a better performance than the remarkable Judy Davis, but such are the shenanigans in this mix of fact and fantasy (both in front of the camera and behind it), as Woody Allen plays himself as a sex-crazed writer who betrays family secrets and leaves a path of destruction in the wake of his life. The jump-cut editing is simply idiotic, but still, Deconstructing Harry seems destined to be Allen’s last great film. Clever touch (one of many): using Richard Benjamin to represent the Roth/Zuckerman-inspired narrative.
	Streamers (1983)Another in Altman’s series of filmed plays during his protracted (imposed) boycott of the Hollywood suits (read straitjackets), Streamers—David Rabe’s exploration of racism and homophobia/homo-eroticism among a small group of draftees waiting to be sent to Vietnam—possesses faults not of Altman’s making: a stage-bound purple-prose script, and a villain that lacks any complexity. The acting and the lensing are excellent, however; Altman should have jettisoned the script (as was his norm), and let his actors get to it.
	The Human Centipede 2 (2011)Complete crap from 1%-wannabe Tom Six. There isn't a single honest frame in this "oh it's art" puddle of bilge. Is Wall Street calling, Mr. Six? You wish.
	Skidoo (1968)You could do a lot worse than watching Jackie Gleason trip on acid, or, for that matter, watching Groucho Marx get stoned with Austin Pendleton out on a sailboat. Far better than its reputation, this deeply flawed mess of an attempt at late 60s topicality boasts an unbelievable cast—the stars just keep coming and coming (though no one really has anything to do)—and a wonderful score by Nilsson. Certainly worth a viewing.
	Under The Volcano (1984)John Huston’s penultimate masterpiece. Albert Finney delivers one of cinema’s great performances as the doomed former British consul in provincial Mexico at the dawn of the war, who is completely infuriating in his alcoholic self-destructiveness, yet still vulnerable and lovable, and possessed of sufficient clarity to foresee the coming Nazi maelstrom. Jacqueline Bisset is his devoted ex-wife, but it’s the secondary roles, all by Mexican players, that do the real work of fleshing out this character study. The finale, in a netherworld cantina of whores, drunks, and Mexican Nazis, is nothing short of mind-blowing. Watch this movie!
	Waitress (2007)Pleasant but slight—and slightly broad—slice of life of an unfulfilled southern waitress/pie-maker, that is more Linda Lavin/“Alice” than Ellen Burstyn/“Alice Doesn’t Live Here Any More”. Especially given subsequent events, I really wish I liked this film more.
	The Delinquents (1957)Required viewing for Altman fans, The Delinquents is a better-than-average 50s teensploitation film (a good boy falls in with the wrong crowd), that is, alas, future-blind regarding Altman’s revolutionary aesthetic. Still, elements of subversion are already evident. After all, the protagonist’s demise is indirectly caused by the sexual repression endemic to the era, and the whole film can easily be seen as a smoldering gay love triangle.
	Gloomy Sunday (1999)Tired variation on an exhausted supernatural theme (see also: The Ring, Monty Python’s “joke” sketch, etc.). In wartime Budapest (where the lingua franca is, supernaturally, flawless German) a Jewish restaurateur, a Hungarian tunesmith, and a German Nazi all fall for a personality-less beauty with hair and make-up from the 21st century (supernatural indeed!). The gossamer plot creeps at a snail’s pace, and a pretty melody is repeated “ad suicidam”. P.S. The actual composer of the melody was Jewish. Terrible film.
	The Lawless (1950)Slightly wobbly but very well-intentioned drama of anti-Mexican bigotry in central California, and the media’s cynical pandering to the ignorant’s basest fears. With its timeless (and timely) themes, and with quite a few fine performances, It’s too bad this early Joseph Losey film is not better known.
	Still Life (2006)Oftentimes hauntingly beautiful, but ultimately only partially satisfying study of just a few of the many millions of lives thrown into turmoil by the Three Gorges Dam project along the Yangtse. A flawed narrative is the main problem here, with Jia again having trouble establishing a coherent story arc out of characters that we might care about.
	The World (2004)This impressive feature from Jia Zhangke focuses on young migrants to Beijing, seeking and eking a better life amidst the soulless modernity that the Chinese capital has uncritically embraced, promising the world, but delivering so little. Still, there's no reason to assume that their lives would have been any more fulfilling in a less modern setting (indeed, none of these people seems to be able to articulate anything resembling genuine human feelings), and Jia spends far too much time on the soapy story rather than the compelling themes, which almost get lost in the shuffle.
	The Resident (2011)Is "The Resident" as good as "Psycho"? No, it's not. In fact, it's as bad as any film I've seen in quite some time, Psycho rip-off or otherwise. Paper-thin plot of a Norman Bates-type handyman at a swanky (haha) Dumbo loft building, with no thrills, no budget, no nothing.
	Eyes Wide Open (2009)Intolerance and bigotry among the religious is nothing new, of course, but Eyes Wide Open takes us on a new course through this well-trodden ground, as we encounter a young Yeshiva student with a “bad reputation”, his budding romance with an upstanding Jerusalem butcher, and the suspicions of their community’s powerful (both the revered and the reviled). Wisely, unlike in the bad-old-days (and even in the not-so-bad-old days of Brokeback Mountain) when homosexuality in a dramatic setting inevitably lead to death, director Tabakman concludes with a decidedly less tragic—and far more haunting—ending.
	Life According To Agfa (1992)Stanley Kramer’s filming of Ship Of Fools was filled with subtlety, warmth and genuine affection for its terribly flawed characters. Life According To Agfa, a conceptually comparable microcosm of a world-on-the-brink-of-collapse (a small Tel Aviv bar standing in for the ocean cruiser to Nazi Germany), possesses none of these qualities: pretentious, simplistic, dreary, and with nothing but (justified) disdain for all its characters, except for a Christ-like Arab cook. The “shocking” ending is bound to provoke as much laughter as anything else. Sole asset: the Leonard Cohen-heavy soundtrack.
	Teorema (1968)Tedious re-imagining of the origins of Christianity--an alluring stranger seduces each member of a stuffy bourgeois household, thus unleashing their inner passions--the aptly-titled Teorema is a fly-by-night thought experiment mushroomed into an uninvolving self-indulgent exercise in artiness.
	Boynton Beach Club (2005)While it wouldn't be out of line to suggest that Susan Seidelman has lost her downtown edge (no Feelies or Richard Hell here!), she clearly is still quite capable of constructing an entertaining narrative, as this engaging, realistic, humorous, and only rarely heavy-handed slice of love and death and sex and lies (and even a little videotape!) among the senior set attests. Inspired: the casting, chock full of talented faces we haven't seen in far too long. Uninspired: the cheap flat lighting, though it could be that damnable Florida sun.
	Salo (1975)Yes, we've all heard the stories of Nazis masturbating while peeping into the gas chambers as their victims gasp their final breaths, and then, workday over, head home for a warm meal with the wife and kids. But isn't the truth sufficiently repellant? In Salo, Pasolini fetishizes the fetishist, hitting us over the head with the grotesqueries of torture, and its juxtaposition to (and, by hypothesis, its inextricable linkage with) modern bourgeois existence. These are very adolescent obsessions, though handled with style, finesse, and an admirable objectivity.
	Little Murders (1971)Jules Feiffer's absurdist exploration of NYC life--as the high-spirited 60s devolve into the crime-ridden 70s--suffers from first-time director Alan Arkin's opening up of the original stageplay, which results in a significant loss of intensity and claustrophobia. A big mistake, I think, which points to Arkin's inexperience, and his lack of confidence in the source material. Still, very interesting indeed, with a number of standout performances, among them Vincent Gardenia's and Doris Robert's. Double bill: "Wheres Poppa?".
	Il Posto (1961)Wistful, bittersweet, humanistic, and endlessly enjoyable, Il Posto relates the story of a school-leaver's foray into the workaday world; an office job for life (or is that death). A remarkable, sensitive performance by young Sandro Panseri, who hopelessly pines for a new co-worker's affections, places this masterpiece somewhere between Chaplain and Kafka.
	For A Lost Soldier (1992)Although the filmmakers are clearly poor students of history (a hit song from years after the war, a Canadian Maple Leaf flag), such inaccuracies are hardly their main concern (and may be intentional). Instead we focus on the budding sexuality of a prepubescent Dutch boy, and his very much requited love for a handsome Canadian liberator who briefly alights at the rural seaside enclave to which the boys parents have temporarily dispatched him. Interludes exploring the pair's growing love organically and tenderly turn sexual, though are bookended by confusing and poorly-conceived scenes set in the present. Double bill: "The Flavor Of Corn".
	The Clash: Westway To The World (2000)Joe: the agit-prop mastermind. Mick: the sensitive Jew. Paul: the good-looking brooder. Topper: the drug-addled dropout. Don Letts wisely lets our protagonists run the show in this documentary on the Clash, while only minimally disrupting the proceedings with silly punk-styled graphics that look like a Gap commercial--ugh. All come off as thoughtful and articulate, and there's a fine cache of great gig footage, thought the band's political bent--and their artistry--is studiously avoided. I saw The Clash at both Passaic's Capitol Theater and at Bond. Man, what a fantastic time to be a suicidal teen! Now, Cut the Crap!
	Phil Ochs: There But For Fortune (2010)The magnificent and finally tragic life of protest-folk pioneer Phil Ochs is explored in frustratingly superficial detail herein, with an over-emphasis on the tumult of the times (especially during its sagging middle section), and far too few forays into the tumult of Mr. Ochs inner world.
	Enter The Void (2009)Marvelous and spectacular in the most literal sense. A tragic accident unites a brother and sister, and til death do them part. When death does arrive, we are taken on a remarkable full-circle journey (that is filmic, not psychogenic) mixing past, present, and future. Set in the blinding blinking neon of Shinjuku Tokyo, the visually stunning Enter The Void references The Lady In The Lake and Dark Passage, Touch Of Evil, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Fantasia, and 2001, yet is nonetheless a wholly unique and utterly mesmerizing cinematic experience, marred only by thematic triteness, overlength, and a rather flat performance by POV protagonist Nathaniel Brown.
	Exit Through The Gift Shop (2010)The equal and opposite of Orson Welles' F For Fake. In that documentary's exploration of the artist and the charlatan we knew exactly who was in control every step of the way. By contrast, in Exit Throught Gift Shop we are kept wondering throughout, led down garden paths, and ultimately into an endless Escher-stairway of infinite guesses. A masterful and completely enthralling mirror-roomed view of British street artist Banksy, and a remarkable right place/right time fan, Thierry Guetta, who unsuccessfully documents--and then successfully emulates--the artist himself. Or maybe this is just evidence that Andy Kaufman is still alive!
	The Baader Meinhof Complex (2008)22 years after the fall of Hitler, some German students hoped to bring back the good old days of violence, terror, and thuggery, effortlessly eluded the suspiciously inept security police, and naturally gravitated towards Palestinian terrorist ideology. Overstuffed and undernourished, The Baader-Meinhof Complex might have been more effective if some of these horrid people had at least a few likeable qualities; as presented, these sociopaths are just too easy to despise.
	The Pursuit Of Happiness (1971)Effective and incisive study of the Vietnam-era generation gap as a privileged college student gets railroaded into jail less for his "crime" (hes obviously innocent) than for his not playing by the social rules of the older generation. Underwhelming, but abetted by a great cast, as well as a memorable Randy Newman song.
	The Human Centipede: First Sequence (2009)Silly no-budget nonsense of a mad Teutonic doctor who hopes to create a human daisy-chain. Welp, there'll always be a Germany, I guess. Watch Pasolini's "Salo" for a less amateurish exploration of continental depravities.
	Shutter Island (2010)It's beyond me why Martin Scorsese would want to emulate one-hit-wonder/full-time-hack M. Night Shyamalan, but he does just that in "Shutter Island", a gothic mystery thriller set in a mental institution on a stormy New England island. Hitchcock also pops up in the guise of the Marnie-esque composite shots, and the blustery Herrmann-influenced (if not -inspired) score. Unlike Hitchcock--but just like Shyamalan--the denouement is a bust.
	Moon (2009)"Ground Control to Major Tom!" Utterly unoriginal science fiction. Take a lot of 2001- inspired mood and a lot of Blade Runner-inspired meditation on identity, and mix with some Star Trek and some Space: 1999. Jeez, even the music is a rip-off of Cliff Martinez's score for--wait for it!--the Solaris remake! And they can't even spell the word "satellite" correctly.
	Out Of The Ashes (2003)After a rocky start, Out Of the Ashes settles into a chilling groove, relating the story of a Jewish gynecologist who saved up to a thousand lives at Auschwitz by aborting Jewish fetuses, so that their mothers might avoid the gas chambers (Jewish children being the Nazis' greatest threat). During her bid for American citizenship, an investigative board, absurdly, is appalled by the abortions she performed, and suspects her of collaborating with the enemy.
	Middle Of The Night (1959)An excellent cast--including the wonderful Kim Novak contributing an admirably mannered performance--is featured in Paddy Chayevskys oh-so-New York Freud-inflected meditation on the sadness of sex and aging. Beautifully filmed in black and white, this very adult drama is a film latter-day Woody Allen would have liked to make. Recommended.
	Burn! (1970)The never-ending saga of Christian European imperial designs is explored in visually striking detail in Burn, with effeminate dandy Marlon Brando as an English agent abetting a native uprising against the Portuguese, in order to secure British profits. Almost as much an ethnographic study as a strident leftist screed, "Burn" manages to combine surrealism with Brechtian socialist realism. Brilliant!
	The American (2010)Dutch rock photographer turned feature filmmaker Anton Corbijn certainly likes the pretty ladies and the bigass guns. That's pretty much all we learn about him and his ideas in this stunningly boring go-nowhere supposed thriller of an assassin hiding out in an Italian village. I saw this one on a trans-Pacific flight. I walked out.
	The Fall (2006)What hath rock videos wrought? Soulless vapidity, thats what. Tarsem Singh is another in a continuing line of talented art directors who has prematurely strayed into film directing with absolutely no idea how to assemble a coherent narrative with characters that one might care about (see also: Zhang Yimou, Tim Burton, Darren Aronofsky, etc.). Cross early MTV fast-cutting with the Travel Channel and Baraka-esque exoticism, and youll get this completely uninvolving stoners idea of a great flick.
	Querelle (1982) What is one to make of Fassbinder's final film, a surrealistic, intentionally stilted, stagey interpretation of the heretofore inimitable Jean Genet? High art, or tongue-in-cheek camp? A philosophical treatise on self-loathing and sexual identity, or a trashy softcore gay wankfest? Possibly all of the above, but probably none of them. The Sirk-ian hyper-artificial lighting and dramatic staging of these rough-and-tumble sailors-down-at-the docks are insufficient to lift this dud out of the muck. The saddest joke is that it is far more genuinely campy than Fassbinder seems to have intendended.
	Waltz With Bashir (2008) Visually striking and intellectually challenging animated documentary exploring Christian-on-Moslem violence in Lebanon, from the perspective of a young Israeli, who, 20 years after the early 80s Lebanon war, begins to confront his memories. The Israelis, unable to live in peace due solely to their neighbors' steadfast refusal to allow them to do so, stand helpless as Christians gleefully massacre Moslem civilians at Sabra and Shatila, much like Americans endured in Kurdistan a decade later. I'll be waiting for a comparably thoughtful Arab film exploring the guilt of their massacring Israeli civilians. Yeah, right .
	Beautiful Ohio (2006) Yet another supremely idiotic and pretentious film of a dysfunctional family in the Noah Baumbach tradition. When will these amateurs realize that a compelling narrative requires characters with whom the viewer can identify and sympathize? A few words of Hungarian are spoken (rather, mangled) by a misfit math whiz in the opening scene, and it's supposed to be a big friggin' mystery where these secret words come from. Haven't any of the characters heard of a reference desk? Bye bye Messerman.
	Julie & Julia (2009) Half an okay movie. As always, Meryl Streep is remarkable, here portraying the second titular character ("French Chef" Julia Child). The film comes to a halt when focusing on the first: a thoroughly unappealing and downright boring Brooklyn chick who thinks that emulating J.C. will give her life some meaning. Instead, she alienates everyone, especially the viewer. Nora Ephron's heavy-handed humor hardly helps.
	How Awful About Allan (1970)Was a time when the Big Three actually assembled some genuine talent for their telefilms, as in this 1970 production. A little bit Baby Jane (sans the humor), a little bit Norman Bates (sans the artistry) and a lot of cheap hokum are featured in this well-cast and marginally creepy Gothic tale of patricide, hysterical blindness, and family secrets.
	Angel Heart (1987)Ultra-stylish (and yes, ultra-silly) supernatural noir thriller of a 1940s Lower East Side private dick who finds himself ensconced in a case involving Harlem black magic and New Orleans voodoo. Angel Heart features two great performances (Mickey Rourke and Robert De Niro) and one poor one (Lisa Bonet), though the real star is the brilliant art direction and lighting.
	The Hurt Locker (2008)Extremely tense, gripping account of an IED squad in Baghdad, that effectively shows how George W. Bush waged war not only on Iraq, but on our own young people as well. The narrative sinks into cliche on occasion, and reportedly, the supposed realism is a total crock. Still, although it's Hollywood, at least it's very good Hollywood.
	Winter's Bone (2010)Another triumph for director Debra Granik. In the Missouri Ozarks, a meth-cooking dad goes missing before a court date, putting his family and their land in jeopardy. His resourceful teenage daughter (Jennifer Lawrence), having steered clear of her extended familys criminal ways, must put herself in grave danger to find him before its too late. Granik conjures a superb sense of place and mood, with virtually every scene pregnant with the hushed threat of explosive violence.
	Who Is Harry Nilsson (And Why Is Everyone Talkin' About Him?) (2006)Finally! America's all-time greatest singer-songwriter, and really, the closest we have to a genuine "Fifth Beatle", gets a sliver of the credit he deserves. A who's who of pop artistry is featured in this wonderful documentary that gets everything right: Brian Wilson, Jimmy Webb, Randy Newman, Van Dyke Parks, Paul Williams, and so many others are interviewed, relating Nilsson s incredible genius, and his premature and precipitous fall. Sadly missing are Pete Ham, Tom Evans, John Lennon, and of course Harry himself.
	F For Fake (1973)Brilliantly edited, thoroughly engrossing, and overwhelmingly intellectually appealing hodgepodge of fact and fiction, fake and forgery, as Orson Welles takes us on a deconstructive tour (de force) of the unexpected value of the charlatan in society, especially focusing on the forgery of art and the art of forgery, with the wonderfully appealing Elmy de Hory as our (anti-)hero. Decades before its time in terms of technique, F for Fake may well be a masterpiece.
	Friendly Persuasion (1956)Leisurely-paced Civil War era soap opera (that succeeds far better as social commentary than as light comedy) of an Indiana family that begins to slowly rebel against its loving matron's manipulative religious beliefs. As war finally engulfs them, pragmatism prevails, and they abandon their Quaker-inspired pacifism. Fine performances by all involved, along with a great Dmitri Tiomkin score (and classic title song) make this a winner, though the happy ending is a bust.
	They Shoot Horses, Don't They (1966)Nightmarish depiction of a Depression era dance marathon at a California seaside resort; the poor desperate souls who will sink to any level of degradation to win the cash prize, and the amoral scoundrels who run the proceedings. Extremely well done, but unremittingly grim.
	The Silent Scream (1980)The Hitchcock/Herrmann homage in the opening credits unwisely sets this one up for disappointment from the start. Roger Kellaway's scoring remains interesting, but director Denny Harris is no Hitchcock, and (The) Silent Scream is merely an amateurish Psycho ripoff; not as bad as some, but not worth seeking out either. Juli Andelman is appealing as one of the college kids renting rooms in the doomed mansion; Yvonne deCarlo's role is little more than a cameo.
	I Am David (2004)A Bulgarian youth escapes from a post-war labor camp with instructions to head north to Denmark. Barely tolerable episodic adventure yarn for undiscriminating pre-teens; subtlety, realism, and good acting are clearly not priorities here. Only Joan Plowright emerges unscathed.
	The Believers (1987)Clumsy and style-less occult nonsense from once-credible director John Schlesinger, with Martin Sheen as a grieving Midwest widower who moves to New York only to find himself and his little boy increasingly at risk at the hands of some Santeria nogoodniks. Even "The Possession of Joel Delaney" was better than this garbage.
	My Father My Lord (2007)Searing portrait of a warm and loving Orthodox family in Jerusalem: a Rabbi, his devoted wife, and their sensitive and precocious little boy. But make no mistake: My Father, My Lord is a lucid and stinging indictment of the religious, and more broadly, of religion as a whole. The universality of its condemnation is underscored by its imperfect simulacrum of Orthodox practice. Beautifully and hypnotically presented, with a gorgeous cello-based score, it cogently makes its point and leaves us to think.
	Rasputin The Mad Monk (1966)The performers (especially Christopher Lee in the title role) chew up the scenery in this Hammer (and cheeser) assembly line production that lacks soul, conviction, and historical accuracy. A compelling feature film about Rasputin, one of the 20th century's most enigmatic figures, has yet to be made.
	The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter (1968)Devastating portrait of a good-hearted and lonely deaf mute (Alan Arkin in a career-making performance), and the lives he affects in a small southern town. Magnificently evocative of its time and place, this filmization of the Carson McCullers novel captures both the sweetness and cruelty of the south in the 60s. A winner on every level.
	Kadosh (1999)This Jerusalem-based exploration of the stifling oppression of Orthodox women and the emotional stuntedness of Orthodox men is decidedly Bergmanesque: slow, studied, somewhat pretentious, and anthropologically questionable (for example, did any Jew--Orthodox or otherwise--give a hoot about the Gregorian millennium?), but it is at least superior to the trivial and Hollywood-ized "A Price Above Rubies". Might be worth a casual look.
	Dead Tired (1994)Enjoyable but very silly story that mixes fanciful and real-life stars, as actor-writer-director Michel Blanc comes to realize that he has a troublesome and law-breaking double moving in on his career. It's not Kafka, it's not 8½, its not Stardust Memories, and it won't save French cinema (which it acknowledges is in a sorry state) but it's good for a few laughs.
	Talk To Me (2007)Formulaic biopic of ex-con turned very plain-talking and charismatic DC media personality "Petey" Greene, enlivened by great performances by the whole cast, and a very enjoyable profanity-laced screenplay. Along with the country as a whole, it loses momentum after the assassination of Martin Luther King.
	Down To The Bone (2004)In the Hudson Valley in the months after September 11th, a struggling young mother of two tries to get clean; no easy task with users and enablers all around her. Documentary-like independent feature with excellent, naturalistic performances, and no-nonsense direction by Debra Granik, who also co-wrote the superb screenplay. Highly recommmended. [Full disclosure: I knew "Debbie" Granik in Edinburgh, during our respective third-years-abroad, 83-84]
	Compulsion (1959)A sordid Chicago murder that Middle America could really eat up, especially since the perpetrators were wealthy and arrogant intellectual homosexual Jews (Leopold and Loeb, here renamed Steiner and Strauss). Bradford Dillman is the more genuinely sociopathic "top" and Dean Stockwell the somewhat sympathetic and more complex "bottom". Minor flaw: despite Orson Welles' bravura performance as the atheist anti-capital-punishment crusader Darrow, the film actually slows down upon his late arrival.
	Night Train (2009)“The Treasure of the Sierra Madre” with a Rod Serling twist sounds cool, yeah? It’s not! Dreadful dreadful movie of a found gem stash and a troublesome corpse on a train, with lousy acting, ludicrous scripting, and laughable special effects. Even its sole bright spot—the sets—is obscured by gaudy holiday lights. With Rocky Horror’s Richard O’Brien as…Mrs. Froy!! Hitchcock is rolling is his grave.
	Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter...And Spring (2004)The setting—a temple calmly floating on a mountain lake—belies a tale of incipient sociopathy: childhood animal torture, adolescent rape, and eventually, of course, adult murder. I doubt it was the intention of Mr. Kim, but for me, this is merely a cautionary (and predictable) tale of the dangers of religious fundamentalism and its attendant cycle of sexual repression. There, I said it. So sue me.
	13Tzameti (2005)Much like Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”, 13 Tzameti explores the appallingly arbitrary nature of life and death, or, rather, survival and murder, as a young French worker becomes unwittingly ensnared in the criminal underground. Repugnant, sure, but genuinely compelling, and marred only by its predictable finale.
	In The Loop (2009)Obnoxious with a capital "O". Obnoxiously edited, obnoxiously filmed, obnoxiously scripted. Fans of TV's The Office might cozy up to these super-glib vignettes that focus on a sound bite slip-up from a Downing Street apparatchik during the last gasps of British imperialism in the Middle East, who ends up in damage-control mode in DC. All others, beware.
	Bug (2006)Good acting, claustrophobic staging, and youthful, spirited directing aren't enough to salvage this offbeat misfire from William Friedkin. An exceedingly slow build up begins the sabotage of this psychological thriller of a schizophrenic who believes (duh!) the government has planted bugs in his system. It goes completely over the top when his symptoms are transferred to the down-on-her-luck woman he has shacked up with. Persona this ain't!
	Suture (1993)Influenced by Frankenheimer's Seconds and Teshigahara's The Face of Another, Suture--a thinly-plotted story of murder and stolen identity--is marred by poor acting, overzealous camerawork, and college-level scripting with sophomoric references to Freud and Descartes. It's a "psychological thriller" with no psychology and no thrills. As the thief is white and the "lookalike" victim is black, is this supposed to be a commentary on race relations?
	Broken Embraces (2009)Despite the typical wealth of talent on hand, and Almodovar's characteristic surplus of intrigue and multi-leveled madcap melodrama, Broken Embraces--an (acknowledged) homage to Peeping Tom (and Vertigo, and probably 100 other great films) in which a blinded filmmaker revisits his past and comes to resolve some long-standing mysteries--is somewhat uninvolving, lacking in the emotional opulence of his best films.
	See No Evil (1971)Moderately effective but thoroughly unpleasant thriller of a recently blinded Mia Farrow who slowly discovers a series of grisly murders at her relatives' country estate. Now, of course, the killer is after her as well, and thus ensues a rather repulsive and repetitive series of near misses, along with some questionable commentary on sex roles and class.
	ZPG: Zero Population Growth (1972)Crummy-to-middling Gerry Anderson-esque science fiction. In an overpopulated and over-polluted future, the fascist state (that actually has some cogent criticisms of 20th century society) outlaws the birth of children. As the law-defying parents, Geraldine Chaplin and Oliver Reed try their best. Earns points for its scattershot artiness.
	Marian (1996)The continuing plight of European Roma is portrayed in graphic detail in Marian, the story of a neglected boy sent at the age of three to a harsh institutional setting by the Czechoslovak state, and who inevitably spirals into a life of violent crime. Unmannered performances and striking cinematography are partially undermined by a periodically confusing narrative that loses momentum in its overlong final act.
	The Two Of Us (1967)Complex and moving portrait of an ignorant though kindly-hearted old peasant (an incomparable Michel Simon) who forms a loving relationship with a boy from Paris who, unbeknownst to the old man, is a Jew in hiding. All the while, Petain's poisonous propaganda pours from the radio. As always, Georges Delerue's scoring adds immeasurably.
	Mongol (2007)Mongol (ostensibly the story of a young Genghis Khan) bears all the hallmarks of an "international production": actors who can't relate to each other, and who consequently fail in resonating any emotion (Sun Honglei being the sole exception). Instead, emphasis is placed almost exclusively on repetitive blood-soaked action scenes. Might be worth a look if you've ever wondered what Mongolian sounds like when spoken with a thick Japanese accent...
	The Great Gatsby (1974)Stuffy and lifeless, Jack Clayton's interpretation of The Great Gatsby plays more like a 70s network miniseries than a legitimate filmization. With a script (by Francis Ford Coppola) hellbent on emphasizing the superficialities of plot rather than capturing the feel of the book, the actors are given precious few opportunities to invest their characters with nuance.
	$ (1971)Terrific thriller--the sort that seemed to come one after another in the early 70s--with Warren Beatty and Goldie Hawn as a couple of high stakes crooks in Hamburg. Smart, funny, and exciting throughout, $ is also notable for its extended chase scene, lasting a good fifteen minutes.
	1408 (2007)A smaller, leaner version of Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining"? Perhaps. But a better comparison would be Jim Henson's experimental oddity "The Cube". A cynical myth-debunking "ghost writer" (John Cusack), haunted by his little girl's death, believes he is trapped in a hotel room in which many have died gruesomely. Is the psychological torture he endures there all in his guilt-ridden head? Genuine thrills keep this one quite gripping until the 2/3 mark, at which point repetition begins to set in.
	Demon Seed (1977)The finest film David Cronenberg never made, in Demon Seed Julie Christie is raped by a rather ambitious and randy computer. Superior, chilling special effects (especially the topologically acrobatic obelisk) and funny Star Trek and Batman references overshadow the silly holes in the story. Rather effective, actually.
	Closer (2004)It’s easy to see what attracted Mike Nichols (“Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”, “Carnal Knowledge”) to this four character play in which the characters, two intersecting (rather, crashing) couples, react off each other’s sexual and emotional insecurities in hurtful and hateful ways. While no one here is remotely likeable, and the story reads more like a telegram than a fleshed out drama, still, the stylized twists and turns and emotionally charged intrigues manage to hold one’s interest.
	The Girl In The Cafe (2007)Rule, Britannia! At the G8 Summit in Reykjavik, the British do all they can to "wipe out poverty" while the rest of the world scoffs. Insufferably smug, self-righteous and politically simplistic, The Girl in the Cafe is an insipid soapbox screed--and a big fat wet dream for middle-aged heterosexual men--masquerading as an intimate May-October romance.
	Savage Grace (2007)Personality disorders rarely make for compelling drama, as they deprive the narrative of motivation, development, and resolution. The studied, pretentious Savage Grace, which traces an incestuous and ultimately murderous upper class expat family from the 40s to the early 70s, provides a whole family of them. Though completely uninvolving, it's too inconsequential to thoroughly hate.
	Dawn Of The Dead (2004)I've always been of the opinion that only lousy movies should be remade, never good ones: why mess with a good thing, when you can instead improve upon a bad one? What a surprise, then, that this remake of the 1978 classic is so strong. This is a superior zombie flick: slick, smart, sophisticated, and a non-stop thrill-ride!
	District 9 (2009)Aliens stranded in Johannesburg. A too-obvious metaphor (the de facto Apartheid of France's Muslim Cites, Australia's Aborigine slums, Pre-Holocaust Europe's Jewish ghettos, and of course, pre-liberation South Africa itself) coupled with laughable implausibilities in the story-telling (the team leader going door to door getting 2,000,000 signatures? The mothership being fully operational all this time? etc., etc.) make for a laughable, if fleetingly enjoyable, B-movie experience.
	Avatar (2009)Visually spectacular, Avatar is done in by a painfully hackneyed/vapid/banal "noble savage" story that would make even Aldous Huxley cringe. And what a coinkydink: the Na'vis' vocal tract configuration is identical to Homo Sapiens'! There's nothing new under the sun. Ours, or any other, it seems.
	The Island (2007)Unable to cope with the guilt of his cowardice during the war, a man lives out his life as a charlatan mystic (is there any other kind?) at a seaside monastery. Despite (or, rather, exactly because of) the striking high contrast photography and unvaryingly somber tone, this reads suspiciously like a tongue-in-cheek genre exercise. I get the feeling that Director Pavel Lungin is trying to have one over on us, and I, for one don't appreciate being made sport of.
	Brother (1997)A thuggish and suitably anti-Semitic and xenophobic youth, just discharged from a stint with the army, gets to apply the tricks of his trade when he secures employment as a hitman for his big bother's syndicate in St. Petersburg. Something of a Russian "Lacombe Lucien", "the banality of evil" is explored in painful, sometimes uncomfortably funny, but ultimately quite affecting detail herein. Definitely worth a look
	Russian Ark (2002)All films are stunts at one level of analysis, but Russian Ark is a stunt like no other. In one seamless take we tour the opulent splendors of the Winter Palace, tracing its history from Peter the Great to the fall of Nicholas II. Viewers can choose to be distracted by the gimmick, or instead allow themselves to be enveloped by the dreamlike surreality where past and present, Slavophile and Westernizer, and nostalgia and revulsion manage to sit comfortably side by side.
	The King Of Masks (1999)Superb performances, excellent period detail, and well-handled explorations of human relationships (between master and pupil, high artist and street performer, the law and the masses) are the highlights of this pre-revolutionary Sichuan-situated drama of an old and kindly "king of masks" and his search for an apprentice to pass on his secrets. Its gentle and delicate charms are sustained until the last act, when, unfortunately, the story descends into hokum.
	The Sea Inside (2004)Despite a magnificent performance by Javier Bardem (acting only from the neck up and buried under remarkably convincing makeup), The Sea Inside does not make good on the promise of its title, as we get only fleeting glimpses into the tumultuous inner world of its protagonist, a quadriplegic who wants to end his life. And with too many undeveloped subplots, an ending that should have been overwhelming instead feels undercooked.
	Ae Fond Kiss (2004)Poor Glaswegian Roisin is getting it from all sides. She falls in love with an appealing Scottish-born Pakistani who is nonetheless an apologist for his family's and community's appalling bigotry, and meanwhile, her job is put in jeopardy due to the Catholic Church's intolerance of her "living in sin" with said Pakistani. Excellent naturalistic performances are a major asset.
	Whatever Works (2009)Spent talent Woody Allen has made yet another hopelessly stagey, stiltedly-written, and questionably cast film about self-indulgent New Yorkers and their existential crises. God in heaven knows that I am sympathetic to bitter atheistic ranting, but I have simply run out of good will for Poor Woody One Note.
	Dark Matter (2007)A promising Chinese grad student is rebuffed by his advisor, and eventually decides to take matters into his own hands. A superb performance by Liu Ye and a clever title do not overshadow the fact that Dark Matter gets almost everything completely wrong--wrong about American academic life, wrong about the nature of mental illness, wrong about personal responsibility. With its misplaced sympathies, the director ultimately embraces a perverse anti-intellectualism. Even Meryl Streep can't save this one.
	The Fool Killer (1965)In the rolling countryside of post-Civil War American Gothic, an abused runaway (Edward Albert) meets a shell-shocked veteran (the wondrous Anthony Perkins) who, despite his mental trauma, has a perfectly healthy hatred of religious hypocrisy. Very much of a piece with the better known Night of the Hunter, The Fool Killer is both darkly haunting and achingly wistful in its exploration of the pair's odd and tragic love, and is replete with highly stylized editing and cinematographic touches that belie its low budget origins. Most memorable.
	Ship Of Fools (1965) On the eve of Hitler's ascent, a German cruise ship of, well, fools, leaves port in Mexico. The human condition is laid bare in this extremely effective (and affecting) melodrama by Stanley Kramer. Long and novelistic, Ship Of Fools is unsettling in its unflinching exploration of our foibles (after all, we're all on this ship). Many outstanding performers--among them Michael Dunn, Vivien Leigh, Simone Signoret, and especially Oskar Werner as the ship's deeply unhappy doctor--keep one engaged to the end.
	The Deep End Of The Ocean (1999)A movie about the abduction of a child had better be damned good if it hopes to overcome its lightning-rod subject matter. The Deep End Of The Ocean is, in fact, not good at all. The characters are poorly drawn, cliche-ridden, and wooden, including Michelle Pfeiffer who (imagine!) really misses her abducted son, and (yawn!) a cameo by Whoopi Goldberg as a down-home dyke with a heart of gold. And when they recover their son, what about his life? What about his friends at school? Was this turkey originally made for Lifetime?
	Solaris (1972)Tarkovsky's most conventional film is also one of only two that might be called derivative (see also The Sacrifice; Bergman). The existential and epistemological themes explored herein bear the clear mark of Kubrick, who also cagily framed his philosophizing within a science fiction context four years earlier. As with all of Tarkovsky's films, Solaris is possessed of long, lingering images, characters prone to protracted metaphysical discourse, and a stunning visual vocabulary.
	Shadows Of Forgotten Ancestors (1964)Transfixing, visually spectacular tale of a nineteenth century Carpathian peasant, his loves and his losses. Parajanov’s Shadows Of Forgotten Ancestors, while superficially merely a series of day-to-day vignettes, is indeed a whole far greater than the sum of its parts; lyrical, epic, transcendent. A masterful, sensual feast, with haunting sounds and dreamlike images that are unlikely to be forgotten.
	Ashik Kerib (1988)Stylized in the extreme, Ashik Kerib thumbs its nose at convention (both of the Soviet and Hollywood varieties), by mockingly--and overwhelmingly effectively--mixing and matching at will both its filmic and its cultural references. Clearly possessed of an erotic fixation on his protagonist (Yuri Mgoyan), Parajanov, late in his career, is working at the peak of his skills. A sumptuous visual masterpiece of gorgeous costumes, Caucasian folk arts, that, at 74 minutes, knows not to outstay its welcome. Highly recommended.
	Ikiru (1952)A lowly anonymous bureaucrat is diagnosed with stomach cancer, and becomes obsessed with life, and those who are living it. Perhaps, in the short time left to him, he can learn their secret, and finally live for himself, and for others. Subtle, gentle, and devastating, Ikiru is marred only by an overlong second act.
	A Dirty Shame (2004)Perhaps inspired by Baltimore's fin de siecle VD epidemic (yes, that was for real), John Waters' A Dirty Shame--the story of Sylvia Stickles (Tracey Ullman) and her neighbors, for whom a conk on the head induces an insatiable sexual appetite--fails due in great part to his own pioneering work in the filth genre of the 60s and 70s; this sort of flick plays in Peoria nowadays. Forced and contrived where Waters used to be free and spontaneous, A Dirty Shame is consistent with the assertion that you can't go home again.
	Forbidden Games (1954)Deeply affecting story of a Parisan girl (a five year old Brigitte Fossey in a remarkable performance), who witnesses the death of her parents in a Nazi air attack. Taken in by a peasant family, she forms a lasting bond with the young son (an equally appealing Georges Poujouly). The simple pleasures of childhood mischief and playfulness are relentlessly juxtaposed to--and ultimately overshadowed by--the awful realities of violence and war. The lyrical score and the haunting ending add immeasurably.
	Starman (1984)Superior science fiction for kids and adults alike. Jeff Bridges is just great as an alien taking the human form of Karen Allen's recently-deceased husband. Stranded in Wisconsin, he coerces her to drive him to his rendezvous point in Arizona. Sure you can guess the rest and give it a miss, but you'd be depriving yourself of a genuinely heartwarming, moving, and above all imagininative cinematic experience. Simply wonderful!
	Them! (1954) "Attack of the Giant Ants"!! The action scenes are so effective--here like "Aliens", there like "The Third Man"--that one wishes for a bit less exposition, and a lot more "kill 'em all" violence. A cautionary tale exploring the dangers lurking ahead in our post-war atomic world, "Them!" boasts both brains and brawn.
	The Thing From Another World (1951) Extremely well done horror / thriller / sci-fi / monster movie of an intelligent blood-eating vegetable-man who crash-lands in Alaska (it's much smarter than it sounds!), with innovative overlapping dialogue that was highly unusual for its time (this was before Altman, who was innovative on this front even by today's standards). The only real disappointment is the unimaginative rendering of the alien itself.
	Phase IV (1974)An astronomical anomaly unleashes an ant assault in Arizona. Microphotography is the star of this lean, stylish flick, courtesy of title-sequencing master Saul Bass. Don't expect much in the way of characters, plot, or even acting. Just dig the creepy, mysterious mood. The real mystery, however, is what possessed Bass to pursue such an offbeat topic.
	The Possession Of Joel Delaney (1972)Sporadically effective but mostly silly supernatural thriller of a Park Avenue divorcee (Shirley MacLaine), and her vaguely incestuous relationship with her troubled younger brother (Perry King) who may or may not be possessed by the spirit of a Puerto Rican killer. The Possession of Joel Delaney offers some evocative period detail of NYC in the depths of its 70s despair, but it's carelessly directed, moderately racist, and disquietingly unpleasant.
	Never A Dull Moment (1968)Not your typical Disney fare--far too much mob-styled violence-by-innuendo makes it inappropriate for young children--Never A Dull Moment (a story of an actor mistaken for a mob hitman) unfolds in contradiction to its title. Dick Van Dyke is a brilliant mime, but neither he nor the gorgeous NYC cityscapes can elevate the paper-thin plotting and overall air of banality into something worth watching.
	The Spiral Staircase (1946)A traumatized woman who lost her ability to speak in childhood may be next in line for a serial killer targeting "imperfect" female victims. The splendid photography and lighting might be a reason to take a look at this soapy Gothic murder mystery set in a foreboding mansion on a dark and stormy night, but the hackneyed and melodramatic story might be a reason to approach it with caution.
	The Deep End (2001)An intense and taut Hitchcockian thriller of blackmail on Lake Tahoe, with Tilda Swinton as the "any(wo)man" who'll do anything to protect her family. The Deep End is especially effective due to its complex characters, its plausible plot convolutions, and its overall sense of "Jeez, I could see this really happening to someone!" Fine work by all involved.
	The River (1997)Unbelievably boring, pretentious, and amateurish film of modern alienation in Taibei. Well, it certainly alienated me! One-dimensional characters offer no way in for the viewer, engendering absolutely no sympathy for their "diseased" lives. Tsai Ming-Liang's "talent" is heralded as revelatory in some quarters. If ever there were a case of The Emperor's New Clothes, this is it! (Watch Todd Haynes' "Safe" instead.)
	Indian Summer (1993)Inexplicably lensed with day-glo filters, Indian Summer depicts a reunion of 30-somethings at their teenage Jewish sleep-away camp. (Fear not! The film is sanitized fur de goyim; neither "Jew" nor "Israel" is ever uttered.) The humor is infantile, the drama banal. I was at Jewish sleep-away at just about the same time as these folks were, and I couldn't find anything to identify with here--that's how bad this film is. A most idiotic little movie.
	Steam (1997)"Enchanted April, Part 2": Instead of the English finding their zest for life in Italy, here, Italians find their zest for life in Turkey. A businessman leaves his wife for a supposedly simpler life with a local boy in Istanbul. (Simpler? Just wait until the boy's parents find out!). With nothing to say, the film contrives a completely unmotivated and ludicrous finale. Don't wake me for "Part 3": "Turks in...Burkina Faso"?
	Hiding And Seeking (2004)Exceptionally moving documentary of a remarkable father--the child of Holocaust survivors--who tries to instill a little rachmonos (mercy) in his xenophobic sons, whose completely justifiable bitterness towards the gentile world manifests itself as genuine bigotry. After he and his family travel to Europe and find the Poles who saved his father-in-law's life, the father succeeds...maybe.
	The Prisoner Of Second Avenue (1975)Even in a clunker like "Last of the Red Hot Lovers", Neil Simon imparted affectionate quirks to his angst-ridden, teetering-on-the-edge NYC protagonist, but here, Jack Lemmon's character is bitter, sardonic, and unpleasant from the git-go, and so instead of identifying with his urban plight, we can only sympathize with his ever-supportive wife (an excellent Ann Bancroft); come the resolution, we don’t even care. The few stabs at humor are broad, obvious, and over-punctuated by Marvin Hamlisch’s obtrusive scoring.
	The Conrad Boys (2006)Amidst the antiseptic splendor that is the OC, we follow the life and love travails of a coming-of-age gay youth and his bad-boy squeeze. Apart from the lead (played by the director), the acting is somewhat assured at times, but really, this film has nothing to say, and doesn't know how to say it.
	Cutter's Way (1981)Smart dialogue, subtle characterizations, and thoughtful, detailed direction are the highlights in this underwhelming story of a driven, bitter Vietnam vet (John Heard, outstanding) and his reluctant, lackadaisical buddy (Jeff Bridges, solid as always) as they try to nail a local Santa Barbara fat cat for a sordid murder. (This version subtracts Jack Nitzsche's wonderful closing song, alas.)
	Gran Torino (2008)However well-intentioned its only-in-America optimism, Gran Torino--the story of a hardened widower whose heart melts like butter as he falls in with his troubled Hmong neighbors--suffers from its non-professional cast, its tin-eared dialogue, and its campy employment of Catholic iconography. Sure, I welled up all the way through it, but I hated myself in the morning.
	Punk: Attitude (2005) A reasonably informative documentary about the origins of punk (The Velvet Underground, The Stooges, The MC5, The New York Dolls), it's New York heyday (Ramones, Television, The Voidoids), its exportation to London (Sex Pistols, Clash), its dribbling into Los Angeles (Black Flag, Weirdos), and its ultimate commercialization. The interviews vary from from the articulate (Chrissie Hynde, Mick Jones), to the ridiculous (especially uber-bozo Henry Rollins).
	Ushpizin (2005)It's not every day one gets to see a slice-of-life film set in Jersusalem's all-Haredi Mea Shearim neighborhood, but apart from the unusual setting--which, it must be said, adds a great deal to the picture--this well-acted dramedy is sweet enjoyable fluff, but not much more. And where was the pitum??
	The New World (2005)Terrence Malick is now batting .750. It will still earn him MVP, but here, finally, he whiffs. The two leads are both problematic. Colin Farrell as John Smith seems capable of only one expression (knitted brow, vacant stare), and Q'Orianka Kilcher as Pocahontas is clearly of a different ethnic make-up from the Americans depicted herein. Most offensive, the European characters are clearly delineated, while the Americans are little more than an undifferentiated "red menace". This film is really just a tone poem; a gorgeous, sexy, ethereal tone poem, but a tone poem nonetheless. (And listen as James Horner apes Arvo Part.)
	Defiance (2009)A remarkable true story, passably handled, of Jews who escape to the forests of Byelorussia, and, against all odds, survive the Holocaust. Alas, all the standard Hollywood shortcuts are here--the schematic Jewish prototypes (the socialist intellectual, the pious religious thinker, etc.), the fast-cutting, confusingly filmed battle scenes, the unnecessary romantic entanglements--and thus the overall impact is needlessly muted.
	The Fountain (2006)Imagine that the most pretentious, insipid progressive rock band of the 70s (say, Yes, or Emerson Lake and Palmer) were given 20 million dollars to make the movie of their dreams. They'd probably hand back something like this puddle of utter bilge. Stay away. Stay very away.
	Lacombe Lucien (1974)Deeply affecting and complex portrait of a Zelig-like thug, who, upon being rejected by the French resistance, drifts into collaboration with the enemy, simply because it is something to do. His new-found sense of purpose--however banal--is put to the test when he becomes infatuated with a Jewish girl. Flawlessly rendered, Lacombe Lucien is a masterful exploration of how cowardice and stupidity may live awkwardly side by side with humanism and love within an unexamined self.
	Star Trek (2009)As with many Star Trek installments, this adventure patently translates into a very current event. Here, Nero the Romulan represents Ahmadinejad the Islamist, bent on destroying the Vulcan homeworld (that's Israel to you and me--Spock and the Vulcans always being Star Trek's stand-in for the Jews, who do not exist in the franchise). Far too many pointless action scenes break up the telling of the tale, and the "alternate timeline" provides a pat explanation for the many inconsistencies with Trek's canonical history..
	Carnal Knowledge (1971)Superb, haunting exploration of how dreadful men can be to women, Jules Feiffer's script follows Art Garfunkel and Jack Nicholson as they plow through relationships, wholly incapable of forming lasting bonds, cheating on each other as readily as they cheat on their women. Cynical, pessimistic, depressing, and, as directed by Mike Nichols, magnificently realized.
	Rosenstrasse (2003)Plodding, poorly paced, awkwardly staged, and boring, Rosenstrasse would have us believe that Germany was bursting at the seams with love for the Jews, except for a few strategically-placed nasties. We’re supposed to marvel at the supposed courage of a few Aryan women who want their “gentle” Jewish husbands back, and simply gloss over the fact that, by 1943, German and European Jewry were well on their way to extinction. I’ll have none of it.
	The Barbecue People (2003)A complex (and complicated) exploration of a family of Iraqi Israelis, their long-held secrets, their shames and their lies, as they converge and collide for Israeli Independence Day in 1988. One suspects that many aspects of this subtle, beguiling, and rather inscrutable film make perfect sense to Mizrachis in Israel; the rest of us can only appreciate it from afar.
	The Grey Zone (2002)At the end of World War Two, as Hungary is finally being relieved of its 500,000 Jews, a young girl survives the gas chambers at Auschwitz. The Sonderkommando—the coterie of Jews the Germans use to keep the liquidation process running smoothly (for four months, after which time they are murdered and replaced)—find themselves saddled with an “unnumbered” problem. Raw and a-filmic, The Grey Zone is based on a true story.
	Paper Clips (2004)As if the election of Obama weren't enough, we also have this moving documentary about a very ordinary southern town that embarks on a most unordinary project involving Holocaust remembrance; a further reason to feel proud and lucky that we live in America. Dayenu!
	The Lathe Of Heaven (1980)Ursula Le Guin's thinly veiled defense of reactionary politics relates the story of a man who has the power to make his dreams come true, and his state-assigned therapist who attempts to harness this power to improve the world. As every attempted improvement backfires, the lesson is that we should just accept the world as it is. It's like a Twilight Zone episode as written by Bill O'Reilly or Pat Buchanan.
	Lilith (1964)Dramatically compelling (though scientifically flawed) story of a young veteran (a very young and handsome Warren Beatty), who, due in part to his late mother's mental illness, decides to work at a local private rest facility. There he meets Lilith (a very young and beautiful Jean Seberg), who manipulates him both sexually and psychologically. Beautiful black and white photography, and a subdued cerebral approach make for a haunting, lump-in-the throat cinematic experience. Gene Hackman practically steals the film in a brief cameo.
	The Visitor (2007)A hardened widower finds his heart when he discovers two illegal immigrants innocently squatting in his city pied-à-terre. A quiet, studied drama of small vignettes and subtle characterizations that successfully navigates its cliche-laden narrative, The Visitor is a stinging indictment of the harsh vicissitudes of Bush/Cheney(/Nader)'s new order in America. Let's hope it fast becomes a period piece. Still, it should be remembered that illegal status is just that: illegal. (After a year-long work contract in Montreal I dreamed of staying in Canada, but I left because I am law-abiding.)
	End Of The World (1977)I saw this movie when it originally came out (as the butt-end of a double bill with Laserblast--another real winner!). The only things I remembered were that it was very underlit, and the planet Earth gets blowed up real good at the end. Lovely. (I'll spare you the "spoiler alert", and just tell you that my memories were quite accurate--nothing else happens in this loser of a movie.)
	Sphere (1998)Barry Levinson lacks the skill to make anything remotely coherent out of this cross between Forbidden Planet, The Abyss, and especially Solaris. A fine cast is wasted as their characters--who are provided absolutely no training by the government--are sent deep underwater to investigate an alien presence that, of course, messes with their minds. Really, mind-numbingly stupid.
	Wanda (1971)In the unforgiving landscape of Pennsylvania coal country, an empty-headed waif walks away from her kids and falls in with a cruel small time crook. Barbara Loden's bleak and pathetic Wanda can be seen as the serious flip-side to "Strangers With Candy"'s Jerri Blank. Nicholas T. Proferes' cinematography in particular is extremely effective. Highly recommended.
	Come And See (1985)Completely gripping from the first frame to its appalling, horrifying ending, Come and See is a harrowing, unflinching, and overwhelmingly powerful depiction of German atrocities committed in Byelorussia during World War Two, as seen through the eyes of a young boy. Unforgettable.
	Divided We Fall (2000)A rare "Holocaust movie" in which good and evil, or more prosaically, partisan and collaborator, are not so clear cut, Divided We Fall relates the story of a reluctant Czech anti-hero and his more genuinely heroic wife, who find themselves stuck hiding a Jewish youth. At turns tense and funny, the convoluted narrative is far too contrived (and the stuttered photography far too annoying) to be genuinely effective, but the shades of gray in the characterizations, including an ethnic German Nazi sympathsizer who probably has figured out the secret, is a refreshing change of pace.
	The Rules Of The Game (1939)Part Python-esque slapstick farce, part scathing social commentary, part Upstairs-Downstairs domestic drama, part Altman-esque verbal ballet, this remarkable French film set at a country estate weekend party at the dawn of WW2 is way way ahead of its time, and can just as easily be misunderstood today as when it was first released.
	Targets (1968)"God, what an ugly town this has become". So says Boris Karloff as he limos through the Valley to a personal appearance at a Reseda drive-in in this thematic cross between "Peeping Tom" and "Day of the Locust". A unique visual vocabulary (appropriated en masse by Tim Burton for Edward Scissorhands) combines with a superbly suspenseful story of a sniper on the loose. The result is a lean minimalist masterpiece, a genuine landmark of American film. Too bad no one's ever seen it!
	The Steamroller And The Violin (1960)Hauntingly beautiful story, set in the crumbling rubble of a Moscow under transformation, of a sweet and precocious child musician, and the kindly, lonely worker who takes a serious shining to him. The music (for church organ, solo violin, and full orchestra) and the photography (oftentimes with images multiplied in mirrors or distorted in rippling water) are enthralling, and the surprisingly linear narrative (with its wistful, dreamlike ending), is ineffably touching. For adults and children alike, The Steamroller The Violin would make a memorable double bill with The Red Balloon. A masterpiece.
	The Legend of the Surami Fortress (1984)Parajanov's obsession with bilateral symmetry, his unwillingness to provide close-ups of his performers, and the stunning natural scenery, combine with primitive jump-cuts and casually jarring studio looping (such as echoic stage whispers in an open field) to create a heightened sense of unreality. Don't worry about the story (a Georgian folk tale); just revel in the remarkable imagery. This would make a thought-provoking double bill with the Chinese film "Ashima".
	Missing Victor Pellerin (2006)Absolutely fascinating and totally absorbing mockumentary of a Montreal-based con-/fine-artist who mysteriously vanishes at the height of his popularity. It's part-expose, part-mystery, part-Rashomon POV exercise, part-self-referential parody, remarkably acted and painstakingly assembled. Don't miss this one!
	What A Way To Go! (1964)Slight, silly, and corny...but also colorful, clever, and charming. This farcical tale of a woman (Shirley MacLaine, perfect) who keeps losing her husbands while gaining their fortunes, doesn't really hang together, but its who's who cast, backed by the likes of Betty Comden, Adolph Green, Nelson Riddle, and Edith Head, and the outstanding, outrageously opulent production, make for a genuinely diverting few hours.
	Rebel (1985)Slick, vibrant production, the always-appealing Matt Dillon, and, most of all, the late, great Ray Cook's magnificent orchestral underscoring, are, alas, insufficient to salvage this undernourished WW2 story of an American who tires of killing Japs, and deserts while on medical leave in Sydney. Especially marred by several absurd, anachronistic musical numbers (which Cook had nothing to do with).
	Hollywood Dreams (2007)At this late date it would be naive to think that Henry Jaglom would--or could--rise above his lo-fi indie origins, but here, he really sinks low indeed, as everyone in Bel Air goes gaga for a grossly unappealing "starlet" (Jaglom squeeze-of-the-week Tanna Frederick) who hogs all the screen time with her egomanical histrionics. It's like an L.A. "Smithereens", and all that that entails.
	Rachel Getting Married (2008)Superbly acted fly-on-the-wall Cassavetes-styled portrait of a Borderline Personality, and the havoc it wreaks on her family, even during her sister's wedding weekend. But is it fair to expect viewers to marvel at the performers, and also expect them not to squirm in discomfort as they watch a family that will never, ever be healthy?
	Chicago (2002)With a second-rate book and a middling score, Chicago on Broadway was of interest primarily for its Bob Fosse choreography. You don't get that here, of course. Instead, you get close-ups and jump-cuts which fail to disguise the fact that no one here can dance, and a soundtrack that doesn't even attempt to hide the fact that most of the actors can't sing (the wonderful Queen Latifah excepted). You have been warned!
	What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993)A typically bloodless performance by Johnny Depp sabatoges this otherwise mildly diverting near-remake of The Last Picture Show. Why bother?
	The Fugitive Kind (1959)Tennessee Williams, Sidney Lumet, Marlon Brando, 1959: it can't miss, right? Well, not quite. Neither Lumet nor Brando seem sure what to do with this sub-par Williams melodrama about a small time hustler/drifter who, dallying with the straight and narrow, enmeshes himself in the romantic intrigues of a (poorly delineated) southern town. Oddly, there are too few dramatic peaks here, and the viewer is left rather dissatisfied.
	Malena (2000)No story? No problem! No script? No problem! This endlessly repetitive tale of a boy obsessed with the town sexpot goes nowhere fast, is rife with a contrived sense of whimsy (then doom), and makes no use of its Fascist Italy setting. It's like a locked groove. Skip it.
	The Pawnbroker (1965)Way up Park Avenue, a Holocaust survivor (Rod Steiger)—a former professor who has succumbed to utter bitterness—intermingles with his pawnshop employee, an ambitious and sagacious Puerto Rican youth (Jaime Sanchez), as well as Harlem’s underworld of prostitution and heroin. As life whirls on all around him, the pawnbroker finds he cannot escape the loss he has endured, and all outstretched hands—from his employee, from a lonely spinster (Geraldine Fitzgerald)—are coldly rebuffed. Boris Kaufman’s lensing (at once stylized and verite) and Quincy Jones’s exotic scoring, are major assets.
	Tempest (1982)While the scenes set in New York crackle with a modicum of wit and and sophistication, the lion's share of this aimless, seemingly endless misfire by Paul Mazursky creeps at a snail's pace on a deserted Greek island, where Philip/Prospero (John Cassavetes) is supposedly looking to re-energize his unhappy (though financially successful) life. Despite a formidable array of talent on hand (Gena Rowlands, Raul Julia, Susan Sarandon, Vittorio Gassman, Molly Ringwald), this one can easily be skipped.
	Faithful (1996)The setting of a potential murder victim exchanging witty repartee with her would-be killer has been done to death, but Paul Mazursky can always be counted on to bring intelligence and urban wit to even the most mundane of tales. Here, he gets such engaging performances from Cher and Chazz Palminteri (who also scripted), and his direction is so slick and sophisticated, that even a cliche-laden tale such as this is pulled off with real panache.
	Dogpound Shufffle (1975)Folks, if you have kids, or if you've ever been a kid yourself, you'd be wise to watch this wonderful, heartwarming story of an embittered tap-dancing bum (Ron Moody) and his sweet-natured mouthharp-playing young tag-along (David Soul), as they attempt raise the funds to get the former's dancing dog out of the East Vancouver pound. A true undiscovered gem, this film is a genuine marvel of intelligent direction, warm humor, fine performances, and uplifting music.
	Where's Poppa? (1970)What the--!? Extremely odd (and oddly paced) low key black comedy in which an incompetent lawyer (George Segal) tries to rid himself of one woman (his senile mother, the always excellent Ruth Gordon, though she has little to do), and acquire another (Trish Van Devere). Appallingly offensive humor about Alzheimers Disease, black-on-white crime, male-on-male rape, child abuse, and incest (!!) limits the appeal, but God bless Carl Reiner for trying. Barnard Hughes is a standout as a fascist admiral.
	Fatal Instinct (1993)Calling this spoof of legal/cop thrillers "hit-or-miss" would be charitable. This is a real disappointment from Carl Reiner, who should know better than to attempt the sort of verbal/visual pun humor mastered by the Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker team--Reiner's obvious inspiration here.
	Woman In The Dunes (1964)The myth of Sisyphus. An entomologist, finding himself trapped at the bottom of a sand pit in the ramshackle house of a peasant woman, comes to realize that he has all he would ever need: sustenance, and companionship. Teshigahara’s erotic masterpiece is a sumptuous feast for the eyes and the ears.
	Distant Journey (1949)“Auschwitz. Majdanek. Treblinka…Only a few survived.” There would seem only two ways to effectively convey the Holocaust in film. Spielberg’s unflinching verite approach, and this, Alfred Radok’s surrealistic expressionist nightmare, which replaces blood and gas with light and shadow, angle and curve. The remarkable mis-en-scene, with its multi-layered labyrinthine sets and Ravel-inspired score, conspire to create a genuine cinematic masterpiece. Watch this movie. You will never, ever forget.
	A Perfect Couple (1979)In this lighter-than-air slice of urban romance, a plain Dick (Paul Dooley, excellent) and plain Jane (Marta Heflin, sickly looking) try to eke out a romance, away from their burdensome familial and professional obligations. A pleasant departure for director Altman, its partial success is tempered by inevitable comparisons to master-of-the-genre Paul Mazursky. (Unforgivably, the digital transfer of this music-heavy film—with its decidedly Starland Vocal Band-esque popcorn mush--suffers from flawed audio.)
	Fool For Love (1985)In this "opened-up" filming of Sam Shepard’s play exploring long-buried family secrets and forgotten memories, Altman provides thoughtful, stylish direction in the New Mexican desert. Still, while the performers (including Shepard himself) do what they can with a maddeningly uneven, pretentious, go-nowhere script, when the pay-off finally comes, you may wonder if it was really worth the effort.
	Beaufort (2007)Gripping and intense drama depicting the last days of Israel’s occupation of southern Lebanon in 2000, and the flawed, agonized young commander whose decisions can mean life or death for his troops. As Hezbollah’s rockets relentlessly rain down, one may be reminded of John Kerry’s famous question “How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?” Greatly abetted by claustrophobic sets and very effective electronic scoring.
	Melinda And Melinda (2004)Hmm. Well, apparently, one thread here is supposed to be a comedy, and the other a drama, but damned if I can tell which is which. In this tale of vapid, disgustingly rich NYC pseudo-sophisticates and their idiotic problems, tin-eared dialogue abounds, and Radha Mitchell's supposedly Park Avenue origins are betrayed by an accent that varies between Beverly Hills and Maida Vale. Really, this is truly awful filmmaking.
	Little Children (2006)Unable to transcend its literary origins, Todd Fields’ exploration of Bostonian suburbanites in various stages of emotional stuntedness is fine on mood, but rather lacking in sympathetic characters. Indeed, among the harassers, adulterers, and pornographers portrayed herein, it’s a child molester (played by comeback kid Jackie Earle Haley), who finally emerges as the one character we identify with.
	I'm Not There (2007)How to convey the unconveyable? This question is usually asked in critiques of Holocaust literature, but may also be applied to artistic explorations of genius. Unlike Scorcese, who raised more questions than he answered about his subject, Todd Haynes, in this kaleidoscopic Felliniesque exploration of Bob Dylan, acknowledges that we can’t even begin to understand who or what Dylan is. Give it time, watch it again and again, and it will surely emerge as a masterpiece.
	Focus (2001)Too Jewish? Superbly photographed and expertly lit in Hopperesque splendour, Arthur Miller’s exploration of wartime Father Caughlin-inspired American anti-Semitism takes a Kitty Genovese-like case as its jumping off point, as mistaken-for-Jews William H. Macy and Laura Dern confront the limits of their passivity in the face of racial hatred in deepest NYC. The support, led by David Paymer and Meat Loaf, don’t have enough to do, and the themes are hit a bit too hard, but the top-notch production compensates for the shortcomings.
	A Letter To Three Wives (1949)Thoroughly engrossing melodrama, laced with acid humor, of three Westchester wives who, as they're leaving for a day trip across the Hudson to Hook Mountain, receive a letter from a fourth woman, known to them for years as a rival, claiming to have run off with one of the their husbands. But which one? As we flashback into three turbulent marriages, we are treated to wonderful performances by all six (!) leads, as well as stellar support from the redoubtable Thelma Ritter and the rock solid Connie Gilchrist.
	The History Boys (2006)Some Yorkshire boys do sufficiently well on their A-levels to get a crack at Oxbridge in this gratingly glib and hopelessly stagey production. The History Boys is appropriately multi-culti: a black kid, an Asian Muslim, a gay Jew, a fatso, yet Britain was so far behind the times socially in 1983 (I know; I lived there then) that the self-loathing speechifying herein could have come straight out of The Boys in The Band (which took place fifteen years earlier), especially in one cringe-inducing scene between the Jewish student and his closeted teacher.
	The Night Of The Iguana (1964)John Huston filmed this highly stylized—really, vaguely surreal—interpretation of Tennessee Williams’ study of sexual repression and religious doubt. The leads—Richard Burton (as the hopelessly human whiskey priest), Ava Gardner (as the expat innkeeper--or was that Suzanne Pleshette…?), and especially Deborah Kerr (as the New England spinster)—are superb, all running from (for?) their lives in tropical Mexico. It’s enough to make me want to write a poem about Nantucket…
	The Bubble (2006)A gay Arab from Nablus finds refuge and romance among a set of young Bohemians in Tel Aviv’s Sheinkin Street, but along comes Hamas and rains on everyone’s parade, that is, bursts their bubble. Eytan Fox’s morality tale would have had a greater impact were it a bit less intent on getting its message through in the big finish, and instead stuck with the daily trials and tribulations of its players. Still, the thesis that homophobia promotes terrorism is a compelling one.
	Lan Yu (2001)Simple tale, subtly rendered, of a no-nonsense Beijing businessman who takes years to realize that the young architecture student he keeps for casual pleasures is really his true love. The domestic scenes especially are quite true to (Chinese) life, with friends and family oblivious to the romantic link between the two. Slightly diminished by an unnecessarily melodramatic coda.
	Solaris (2002)Hampered by several weak performances (including an appallingly mannered one by Jeremy Davies), this is nonetheless a surprisingly effective stripped-down interpretation of the Stanislaw Lem novel, in which an alien intelligence contacts human visitors by tapping their most guilt-laden memories, and conjuring replicas of the people who are the source of this guilt. Paradoxically, the replicas become more and more human-like as they begin to recognize their alien origins. An excellent performance by Viola Davis helps, as does the atmospheric score by Cliff Martinez.
	Michael Clayton (2007)R.D. Laing would have approved of this predictable corporate law drama, in which a manic-depressive lawyer (an excellent Tom Wilkinson) goes off his meds, and finally comes to his senses about his firm’s defending an Archer Daniels Midland-like conglomerate, responsible for poisoning the wells in rural Wisconsin. Tilda Swinton is also very good as a conflicted corporate villain, but the film really gives us nothing that hasn’t been done--and done better--many times before.
	Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man (2005)Amateurish and uninformative documentary dolled up with annoying special effects, consisting mostly of mangled cover renditions of many classic Leonard Cohen songs (fellow Montrealers Kate and Anna McGarrigle are clearly slumming here). Leonard himself gets in on the action, but only barely, embarrassing himself by lip-synching (poorly) in front of a clueless U2. Listen to the records instead.
	Advise And Consent (1962)Charles Laughton is outstanding as a loathsome Dixiecrat, but the whole cast is superb in this studied and somber portrait of a D.C. where policy is determined by who blackmails who. The scandalous skeletons include youthly dabblings in communist ideology, and same-sex romance. Some things never change.
	Exodus (1960)Leon Uris's epic novel about the founding of Israel is given a slightly flat but never boring treatment by Otto Preminger. It is quite faithful to history—the British colluding with European and Arab fascists to keep Holocaust survivors stateless, the internecine conflicts between the Irgun and the Hagana, between refugee Jews and Palestinian Jews, and (a good touch) the humanists that dotted all sides. Sal Mineo (who wasn’t Jewish) plays a far more convincing Israeli than does Paul Newman (who was--and runs the gamut of emotions from aleph to bet).
	Superbad (2007)Two high school buddies (Jonah Hill and Michael Cera,) trying to get alcohol for a party and "score some chicks", end up falling in love with each other instead. Shoddily directed, sloppily edited, and poorly ad-libbed (especially by Seth Rogan and Bill Hader), Superbad is partially redeemed by Christopher Mintz-Plasse in a very appealing performance as a lovable nerd. Achieving a new low in bodily fluid humor (pun intended), it's enough to give the “awful teen comedy” genre a bad name.
	Shampoo (1975)It’s L.A. Dolce Vita as Warren Beatty beds every woman from the Palisades to the Cahuenga Pass while his life—and Western Civilization (Nixon’s '68 victory is prominently featured)—comes crashing down. Lee Grant, channeling Barbra Streisand, is especially good, as is the Beatles and Beach Boys-heavy soundtrack.
	Forrest Gump (1994)Oh, I see. All you need is a good and pure heart, and life will turn out peaches and cream, that is, you'll get stinking rich...even if you're mentally retarded (or so the Republican propagandists behind Forrest Gump would have us believe). Tom Hanks is constitutionally incapable of delivering a nuanced performance, and Forrest Gump may well be his career nadir. The one clever gimmick is stolen from Woody Allen's Zelig of more than a decade earlier.
	Nights Of Cabiria (1957)Fellini treads a remarkably fine line between heightened sentimentality and hopeless cynicism in this tale of a hard-nosed prostitute whose life changes forever in a sudden moment of completely unexpected candor. In a truly remarkable performance, Giuletta Masina might go from elation to heartbreak with a curl of her lip or a tilt of her head—Harpo Marx, Charlie Chaplin, and Lucille Ball all in one.
	Juliet Of The Spirits (1965)A demure society woman (Giulietta Massina, playing against type) suspects her husband of taking a lover. As we explore her inner world, Fellini, drunk on color and Art Nouveau sets and costumes, provides kaleidoscopic and fantastical imagery where the apparent reality is no less bountiful in its splendor than is the fantasy. Nino Rota’s mod/mad carnival score is perfect.
	Duel (1970)The camera and the editing are the real stars of this tale of an emasculated husband (Dennis Weaver) menaced by a sinister semi in the California desert. Almost without dialogue, we wonder for some time whether it’s all in his imagination. Genuinely avant-garde and wonderfully amoral, Spielberg’s first film (made for TV in under two weeks) is completely gripping from start to finish.
	The Keys To The House (2004)An absent father returns to care for his now-teenaged son (the very appealing Andrea Rossi), mildly retarded and with severe CP. Not among his best works, The Keys To The House continues Gianni Amelio’s common theme of a young man finding (unromantic) love as a consequence of taking on new and unexpected responsibilities. While confronting some very painful truths, the film nonetheless seems slightly telegraphed, with a leitmotif of whizzing trains substituting for some much-needed character development.
	Heartland (1980)Wyoming, 1910: an ambitious widow and her little girl have left Denver for work on a cattle ranch in the rugged but stunningly beautiful hinterland, and, despite ongoing hardships, eventually find a sort of contentment there. Conchata Ferrell is remarkably good, as is her taciturn employer and eventual husband Rip Torn. Greatly enhanced by an especially moving ending, this film would make a terrific double bill with Days Of Heaven (yes, it's that good!).
	Ishtar (1987)Mildly enjoyable nonsense. Hoffman and Beatty play dumb, lovable no-talent smucks who fancy themselves the next Simon & Garfunkel. Out of desperation they take a gig in Morocco, and, as the plot sprawls as maddeningly as the Sahara itself, they unwittingly end up ensconced in an internecine conflict with international implications: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern In Syriana. Paul Williams' songs are cleverly awful, not awfully clever (and no worse than his own preceding solo album, the sad, terrible "...And Crazy For Loving You"!).
	Brothers Of The Head (2005)This Is Not Spinal Tap. A serious mock-rockumentary of a pair of conjoined twins who, strange as may seem, played punk in 1975, the year before it arrived in London from NYC (and named themselves after a Squeeze song released three years later). Brothers Of The Head is ultimately an exercise in style, making few attempts to emotionally grab the viewer. Clive Langer, who hasn’t written songs like this since Deaf School’s English Boys/Working Girls from 1978, does a fine job slumming.
	Peeping Tom (1960)By giving us a shy and handsome protagonist and a horrifying back story of child abuse, in Peeping Tom Michael Powell conjures heretofore unheard-of lump-in-the-throat sympathy for a serial killer. The Pirandello-esque murder technique involves the killer filming his victims watching themselves be murdered by him. Got that? Peeping Tom proves to be remarkably prescient in this over-photographed, all-trash-all-the-time world we live in.
	The Heartbreak Kid (1972)When he finds the girl of his dreams, it’s shiksappeal gone wild as Charles Grodin tries to extricate himself from his premature marriage to Jeannie Berlin. The laughs come in fits and starts (indeed, much of the movie is downright painful to watch) but they hit hard on arrival. Eddie Albert is astonishingly good as Cybil Shepard's oh-so-dignified (and probably Jew-hating) father.
	Mikey And Nicky (1976)A Jewish hood (Peter Falk) gets his Catholic childhood friend (John Cassavetes) a gig, and then, crushingly, is assigned to “take care of him" after the latter absconds with mob cash. As they stumble around Philadelphia all night opening wounds old and new, Elaine May’s verite filming--more Cassavetes in feel--only sometimes succeeds. The amazing support (including Ned Beatty and William Hickey), alas, is wasted.
	Awake And Sing! (1972)A bracing drama of a dysfunctional Jewish Bronx family during the ascension of Hitler, Clifford Odets's best known work sounds overwritten to modern-day ears. This filmed teleplay suffers from poor sound, and, much as I love 'im, Walter Matthau is miscast. Still, he and all the performers--especially Martin Ritt--are fantastic.
	Ed Wood (1994)“It's so bad it’s g…” Well, it’s just so bad. Neither Tim Burton nor Johnny Depp would recognize a genuine human emotion if it came up and socked them in the jaw. This supposed “character study” of legendary Z-director Ed Wood leaves one ice cold: not a single insight into Wood’s inner world is even attempted. Martin Landau does a great job as a broken down Bela Lugosi, but other than that, this is strictly amateur hour.
	Black Robe (1991)A bleak and beautiful rendering of Quebec’s early seventeenth century missionary period, religious conviction in Black Robe is convincingly likened to a sort of mental disease, inducing its victims to act regardless of the human consequences. (The Catholic Church held its grip on this land until the Quiet Revolution of the mid twentieth century.) Georges Delerue’s stirring score, and the remarkable period detail, greatly enhance the effect.
	This Is England (2006)Electrifying performances (especially by Stephen Graham and the young Thomas Turgoose) are the highlight of this emotionally complex and wholly believable account of a northern boy’s seduction by, and ultimate rejection of, the National Front. There’s not even a whiff of sentimentality for its early-80s post-Rude Boy setting, and the film is all the more resonant for it.
	House Calls (1978)Everybody Loves Walter. And why not? The man's an American treasure. Any comedy set in a hospital is inherently flawed, but Matthau and Glenda Jackson are delightful together, while the supporting cast--Art Carney, Richard Benjamin, and especially Candice Azzara as a Coney Island widow--is fully game. -Dan Solomon
	The Return (2003)A man returns to his family after twelve years, apparently having been isolated from the world, just him and the elements, with nothing but his wits to survive on. Taking them on a seemingly aimless roadtrip, he attempts to impart his acquired knowledge to his two boys, who are merely bewildered. The natural scenery is gorgeous, but, due to the nature of the narrative, the emotional payoff is somewhat muted. And did he really ever return?
	Love In the Afternoon (1972)Sort of “Brief Encounter” with a Parisian accent, Rohmer here makes the mistake of giving us a rather unlikeable protagonist, having him play out in real life what should be a wholly internal debate on fidelity. Were a woman so self-indulgently cruel to the men in her life, she would be called a tease, or worse. The acting and the dialogue are wonderful, of course.
	Safe (1995)Had Kubrick been a humanist, he might have come up with Safe. Todd Haynes' camera keeps a (safe) distance as Carol White (Julianne Moore) find herself increasingly unable to cope with modern living, while egomaniacal charlatans try to rob her of what little humanity she possesses. In this definitive south-of-the Boulevard Valley movie, the dialogue rings appallingly true, while lurking underneath, ex-Necessary Ed Tomney provides an all-pervasive hum. An absolute marvel: the best movie of the 1990s.
	Careful, He Might Hear You (1983)A lush and sumptuously staged period melodrama, CHMHY tells the story of a young Australian boy caught in a harrowing sibling rivalry among the elders in his life. Everything works here: the acting (especially the young Nicholas Gledhill as P.S.), the gorgeous color-drenched photography, and the verging-on-histrionic plot. Even the villain (Wendy Hughes) is portrayed as a complex and ultimately sympathetic character. The magnificently romantic score by Ray Cook is the icing on the cake.
	Claire's Knee (1971)In this irresistible slice of bucolic French life, a just-graying expat comes back to sell off his childhood summer home, and, right before his imminent marriage, gently inserts himself into the romantic intrigues of the young people he encounters. I don’t know if life really flows so easily, and if people are really this lovely, but, well…happy people with happy problems…
	Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959)A Frenchwoman, forever haunted by a forbidden love in provincial Vichy France, experiences an interlude of tenderness with a local man in post-bomb Hiroshima, and a flood of awful memories comes pouring back. As the city fades to sleep around them, the two are left to confront their impossible dilemma. Anyone who has loved and lost—especially in a foreign land—will find Resnais’s and Duras's work here almost unbearably resonant.
	The Face Of Another (1966)A remarkable assemblage of film techniques, Teshigahara's The Face of Another nonetheless plays more like a very precocious student's project: technically stunning, but emotionally undernourished. Frankenheimer's Seconds (also 1966) would make a good double bill; it's a more humanistic meditation on identity in a technologized society.
	Carnival Of Souls (1962)On a shoe-string budget and with cast of unknowns, director Herk Harvey has created a genuinely haunting cinematic experience, nearly (though not quite) in league with Peeping Tom, The Innocents, and even Psycho--the other macabre masterpieces of the era. Borrowing liberally from Rod Serling, and more subtly from Orson Welles (circa The Lady From Shanghai), it is, at last, an exploration of loneliness and alienation.
	Stalker (1979)A plea for peaceful coexistence among science, art, and religion. Tarkovsky’s microphone and camera find sounds and images of devastating beauty in the most unlikely of settings. Nothing redemptive occurs in the Zone (the forbidden region that may or may not have been visited by aliens), but the Stalker’s mutant daughter—tellingly filmed in color, as if she were the progeny of the Zone itself—may show the way to human salvation. A landmark artistic achievement.
	Starcrash (1979)This Z-Grade spaghetti space opera does make one genuine contribution to civilization: it shows just how dumb Star Wars really was, for if that film were stripped of its lavish budget, it would be revealed, in its bare naked stupidity, to be no better at all than this nonsense. Caroline Munro and former child preacher/swindler Marjoe Gortner star.
	Life Is Beautiful (1997)The idea that a child can be shipped to a concentration camp, and be fooled by his father into thinking it's all a game, is not only absurd, it is, in the words of film critic David Denby, "a mild form of Holocaust denial." This is a deeply offensive movie.
	Rocketship X-M (1950)The rather cavalier approach to pre-launch protocol provides a preview of the very soft science to come, but RX-M, along with Forbidden Planet and Robinson Crusoe on Mars, is about as "down-to-earth" as SF got, pre-"2001". Stunning black and white photography, one-hit-wonder Ferde Grofe's unobtrusive score, and Dalton Trumbo's sober screenplay combine to create an air of surprising seriousness.
	Syriana (2005)The script's willful obfuscation is merely a cynical ploy to disguise the fact that the writers lack the chops to create characters of any depth. The Americans must choose to deal with either an Arab Emirate playboy / tyrant-in-training, or his brother, a thoughtful would-be reformer. The latter opts to deal with China, and the Americans kill him and prop up the former. All the rest is dysentery.
	An Unmarried Woman (1978)An East Side sophisticate gets dumped by her husband, and eventually falls for a Soho artist. Cutting edge in its time, it is a testament to Mazursky's genius that today, An Umarried Woman plays as a mere slice of life. The supporting cast--especially Lisa Lucas and the verite Penelope Russianoff--is wonderful.
	The Man From Earth (2007)Well, Chekhov it ain't, but this talky, subdued one act drama by Jerome Bixby holds one's interest to the very end, challenging received wisdom concerning religion and science, and especially death. Toward the end, one character says he's going home to watch Star Trek. I wonder if the episode will be "Requiem For Methuselah," another Bixby-penned exploration of immortality.
	Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969) Perfectly capturing its time (though really, not dated at all—the themes are timeless), this movie reveals the “encounter group” culture as a house of cards: human nature and human foibles can’t be steamrolled by a charismatic personality encouraging us to simply “let go”. Mazursky allows his scenes, and by extension, his characters, to slowly develop, revealing (and allowing us to revel in) their refreshing intelligence.
	Sullivan's Travels (1942)Beneath the slapstick and quick-witted surface of this Preston Sturges film lies a fascinating exploration of the role of artists in society. Should they explore socialist realist themes, or instead, opt for capitalist escapist fare? While Sullivan ultimately chooses the latter, Sturges, in this film at least, explores a middle ground.
	End of the Century: The Ramones (2004)Joey was the heart, Tommy was the brain, Johnny was the fist, and Dee Dee...well, Dee Dee was the dick. In 1974, four misfits from Queens journeyed to an unexplored musical land, set up camp, and stuck it out for more than twenty years. Everybody's second favorite band is featured in this very informative and carefully assembled documentary. Most revealing is the unrelenting unhappiness of the band members, a bitterness toward life, and especially toward each other.
	Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)Boy Wonder Mike Nichols's directorial debut is a landmark cinematic achievement. Ernest Lehman's adaptation of Edward Albee's play is a heartstopper, and all four thunderously effective stars are remarkably photographed by Haskell Wexler. Only one thing: why would any academic want to be head of his department?
	The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T (1953)One of my all-time favorite childhood films (along with "Dog Pound Shuffle" [aka "Spot"], "The Boy Ten Feet Tall" [aka "Sammy Going South"], and of course, "The Wizard of Oz"), "...Dr. T" is a remarkable visual achievement, bringing Dr. Seuss’s Robert Weine-cum-Busby Berkeley childhood nightmare to vivid life. The remarkably underappreciated Hans Conried is brilliant as always.
	The Tenant (1976)The broad American English line readings give this film a somewhat whacked-out, feeling that (it might be argued) adds to the sense of dislocation endured by the meek Kafka-esque protagonist, a Pole in Paris played by Polanski himself (who is, lest we forget, a Holocaust survivor). After a slow start, Polanski, with his judicious use of zooming (that added so much to 70s cinema), begins to turn the screws on us tighter and tighter, as his character takes on the suicidal fantasies of his flat's preceding lodger. This tale of the onset of madness would make a good double bill with Altman’s Images.
	Walk The Line (2005)Got a minute? Because that’s how long it’d take me to convey every excruciatingly clichéd nuance of this oh-so-by-the-numbers biopic. It’s amazing how these Hollywood hacks can take a life—any life—and make it read like everyone else’s.
	The Way We Laughed (2001)Rich in atmosphere, this deeply moving drama from Gianni Amelio features his favorite actor--the amazing Enrico Lo Verso--as an uneducated Sicilian migrant in postwar Turin, doing all he can for his irresponsible little brother. In a shocking moment, the tables turn, and now, it seems the little brother must come to his older brother’s rescue. Few directors have Amelio’s sure touch and steady hand to successfully render such a subtle and affecting story. Masterful.
	Enemy Mine (1985)The first two-thirds of this alien war film consists of a disguised tale of gay seduction, sort of “Kiss of the Spider Woman” meets "Robinson Crusoe On Mars," cleverly conceived and passably handled. Alas, it descends into shoot-em-up mediocrity, squandering its formidable merits.
	Black Book (2006)Once, on an installment of SCTV that took place during "Sweeps Week", a special miniseries was plugged called "The Long Hard War", ostensibly about the horrors of WW2, but really just an excuse for some T&A. Hey, it was sweeps week after all, and Guy Caballero needed a winner. Along comes Paul "Showgirls" Verhoeven, and here, at last, we get to see "the Long Hard War" in all its glory. The only moment of any depth comes in the last 10 seconds of the film.
	The Pursuit of Happyness (2006)One man's hard work pays off, and he makes a killing on Wall Street. A feel-good movie? Strange, I didn't feel so good as the filmmakers so callously ignored the endless lines at the soup kitchens and flop houses. I guess these losers deserved their lot. A Republican propaganda piece if there ever was one.
	War of the Worlds (2005)One of the most effective nightmares ever committed to film, Spielberg’s remake of the Byron Haskin/George Pal original (a classic in its own right) is absolutely terrifying. The family drama, though inevitably somewhat trite, never overshadows the unrelenting and awful progress of the bigger story. We don’t always understand the strategies of the aliens, but why should we? They’re aliens!
	24 Hour Party People (2002)Botched. Steve Coogan's one-note performance is only the most obvious of this film's many flaws, and he's in practically every (claustrophobically tight) shot. Tracing the Jim Morrison-inspired Ian Curtis's downward spiral to the pill-popping Happy Monday's brief holiday in the sun, Manchester's remarkably rich musical legacy is held at arm's length throughout. No Fall? No Any Trouble? I didn't learn a thing.
	Little Miss Sunshine (2006)Trite, contrived, and sophomoric. Some fine actors are wedged into this unappealing and superficial story that has the pretense of sophistication because Proust is mentioned--and by a bearded gay man, at that! Arkin deserves an Oscar, but not for this piece of tripe.
	The Squid and the Whale (2005)"No hugging, no learning" indeed! Preposterously overrated cartoon version of urban family life. The director generates not an iota of sympathy for any of these miserable, nasty people. Even the supposed denouement is a meaningless muddled mess. Hateful, bitter, and most unpleasant. To be avoided!
	Hostel (2006)Selected for their nationality, innocent civilians in Europe take trains eastward, where they are tortured and murdered by gleeful madmen in a killing factory. Eli Roth's Holocaust metaphor looks intriguing on paper, but it is nothing more than a by-the-numbers gorefest.
	The Sugarland Express (1974)The remarkably fluid camera work and immaculately staged action scenes are an obvious taster of things to come in Spielberg's career. Most interesting, however, are the elements of uncertainty and ambiguity in how we relate to the characters, and the matter-of-fact depiction of Texas' abhorrent gun culture.
	Steel Toes (2006)In this quintessential liberal movie of a Jewish Montreal lawyer assigned to defend an Anglo neo-Nazi, superb perfomances by the two leads are partially undermined by unimaginative camerawork, stock attitudes, and a too-tidy ending. Still, it far outshines "American History X" in its exploration of the issues, and definitely deserved a better showing at the box office.
	Can She Bake a Cherry Pie? (1983)Michael Emil is a gas as a verbose neurotic in this Upper West Side story. The film suffers the typical Jaglom maladies (primitive production values, plot contrivances, mannered performances) but also possesses his usual strengths, especially in the subtle intelligence of the dialogue. A really good New York film. (Larry David has a bit part.)
	Blume in Love (1973)A masterpiece. A keenly observed modern love story, filled with winning, sympathetic characters, nuanced, knowing dialogue and brilliant performances by all involved. Although certain attitudes are sadly (rather, thankfully) dated (some may feel fatally so, and they may be right; I'd like to think that Mazursky regrets his insensitivity), the rewards far outshine the flaws, and the timeless themes nonetheless prevail.
	Lackawanna Blues (2005)S. Epatha Merkerson only gets to genuinely act on Law and Order once in an NYPD blue moon, but when she does, it's always a treat. In this story of an upstate New York woman who pours her grief over a lost child into a life of caring and nurturing for others, she truly shines, and is surrounded by an amazing array of talent. Some of the editing is distracting, but that's a minor quibble.
	Munich (2005)Another Spielberg triumph, providing a very realistic (if untrue) "imagined" follow-up to the Palestinian mass murder of the 1972 Israeli Olympic team. The Israelis are portrayed as conscience-stricken (holding fire when a red-coated little girl is in harm's way--an obvious reference to Schindler's List), while the terrorists go on with their lives wholly untroubled by their dastardly deeds--enjoying poetry readings, and shmoozing with their shopkeepers. Sure it didn't happen that way, but it captures bigger truths. A great film.
	The Terminal (2004)No one can assemble a film like Spielberg, and The Terminal, like everything he does, is a stunning production, concerning an international traveler caught in airport limbo when his home country's government fails. The weak link here is Tom Hanks, who is neither talented enough nor intelligent enough to bring any complexity to his role.
	Still Crazy (1998)In an era when "British comedy" is almost an oxymoron, and from a director not exactly known for his light touch, this was a delightful surprise. Even the unstomachable Billy Connolly is kept under control. Here's an intelligent and bittersweet story of a 70s schlock-rock band's reunion. Their songs steer from ELO-ish trip-pop (circa "10538 Overture") to Thin Lizzy-esque guitar rock, and they're really good! No surprise there, since Clive Langer, Jeff Lynne, and Chris Difford were involved.
	Quintet (1979)Altman’s third masterpiece of the 70s, Quintet is a visually and sonically spectacular study of a world in its final throes of death, both spiritual and physical. Requiring multiple viewings to fully appreciate, even a first-time viewer will languish in the unparalleled cinematic splendor of a darkening frozen world where life has lost all meaning. Unbelievably, Quintet was released the same year as Tarkovsky’s Stalker, making 1979 one of the greatest years ever in cinematic history.
	La Ceremonie (1996)A very likable well-off family ultimately meets its demise at the hands of an uneducated hateful woman that the family has given every chance to. If the goal of this film was, preposterously, to encourage one to hate the poor and love the rich, this movie succeeds.
	A New Leaf (1971)In a career of high notes, this may be Walter Matthau's highest of all. Elaine May's tale of a newly broke millionaire looking to marry--then murder--the mass of symptoms that is May's character is a hysterically funny movie that somehow fell through the cracks. Side-splitting scenes and unforgettable one-liners abound ("Don't let them out!!" "She has to be vacuumed after she eats!"). Essential viewing.
	Where the Truth Lies (2005)I was concerned when I heard that excellent if offbeat director Egoyan was given Rupert Holmes' superb novel to film. My concerns appear justified, as this movie has neither the look nor feel of the book, and ALL the leads are woefully miscast. Taken on its own terms, it's perfectly enjoyable, but not recommended for those who read (and, it hardly needs saying, loved) the book.
	Imitation of Life (1959)Juanita Moore gives a bravura performance in this deeply affecting melodrama, which ultimately focuses on a troubled black girl's ordeal with "passing". As Douglas Sirk directs, it is ironic that the colors here are so muted. This could have been intentional (given the subject matter), or it could be a bad digital transfer (I've never seen the film in a theater).
	A Private Matter (1992)Well acted and surprisingly well-written: no easy answers to thalidomide pregnancy are provided, and the characters are convincingly multi-dimensional. The direction at times is a bit flat, which is especially surprising given Joan Micklin Silver's excellent track record, though she's clearly working on a tight budget here.