The story of a brave, innocent immigrant gets a glorious re-telling. Never fear, for this emotional but unsentimental tale of an Irish lass making big decisions features a breakout performance by Saoirse Ronan, an actress who melts hearts with one flash of her blue eyes… Brooklyn Blu-ray 20th Century Fox 2015 / Color / 1:85…
That scarlet woman Ingrid is back from exile, and hypocritical Hollywood is not complaining — Anatole Litvak and Arthur Laurents make an intriguing romantic-psychological mystery of a bogus Romanoff Duchess who surfaces in 1928 Paris to claim the crown fortune. Good roles for Yul Brynner and Helen Hayes as well. It’s a strange intersection of…
All hail Frank Tashlin! America’s subversive secret weapon of the 1950s made incredible adult live-action cartoon movies that satirized all the sex and vulgarity denied by the mainstream. In Technicolor! Political incorrectness meets lollypop-sweet sentimentality in a farce that transcends good taste. Susan Slept Here Blu-ray Warner Archive Collection 1954 / Color / 1:66 widescreen…
Looking for a visionary and poetic film with something relevant to say about the ongoing personal tech revolution? Brilliant vintage film clips, many from experimental films, show how our desire for ‘connectivity’ reached critical mass. With brilliant editing, evocative music and a stirring narration read by Tilda Swinton. And it even has a sense of…
Did Quentin Tarantino stumble this time out? His tale of western killers sharing a snowbound cabin builds almost zero suspense, and the verbal excess and violent grossness lack Tarantino’s usual clever, wickedly funny edge. And 70mm cooped up in a dim interior? It’s A Long Day’s Journey into Lincoln Logs. Totally dig Jennifer Jason Leigh…
Superb filmmaking! Edward Yang’s chronicle of the children of Chinese exiles in Taiwan follows one teen’s strange story of accidental delinquency, muted romance and pervasive violence in a closed society fed on American Rock ‘n’ Roll and Cold War militarism. Almost exactly as long as Gone With the Wind, Yang’s intimate epic is one of…
Two guys, some guns, a suitcase full of cash and the open road: what could go wrong? Val Kilmer and Michael Madsen meet their match in Joanne Whalley Kilmer, a neo-noir bad news dame if there ever was one. The murderous melodrama stretches the length of Nevada; director John Dahl adds the cops and the…
Dutch doctor Rebecca Gomberts built a reproductive clinic on a ship, sailed it to countries where abortion is outlawed — Ireland, Poland, Portugal, Spain… and got responses from thousands of women in need. It’s an advocacy docu about an activist experiment that’s moving around the world, promoting positive change. Vessel DVD Kino Lorber 2014 /…
It’s the classic paranoid conspiracy that won’t go away… and that seems more possible with every passing year. Laurence Harvey is a remote-controlled assassin, and Frank Sinatra seems to be under a little hypnotic influence himself… or are we just imagining it? John Frankenheimer and George Axelrod concoct a masterpiece from the novel by Richard…
Kathleen Collins’ name made a big cultural rebound with a single review in The New Yorker — of an independent movie she wrote and directed in 1982. It’s a confluence of important black theater and filmmaking talent — Collins, Bill Gunn, Duane Jones, Billie Allen and, in the background, William Greaves and the history of…
Guns! Bombs! Assassinations! Blackmail! Fritz Lang invents the escapist super-spy thriller! To seize a set of political documents the evil Haghi dispatches the seductive agents Kitty and Sonya to neutralize a Japanese security man and our own top spy No. 236. (that’s 007 x 33,714.2857!) It’s a top-rank silent winner from the maker of Metropolis….
On the centennial of the Easter Uprising and just a few days past St. Patrick’s Day, WHV present’s Neil Jordan’s biopic epic of Ireland’s most beloved patriotic hero — a militant who stood up to the English occupiers. It’s the role that should have cemented Liam Neeson’s stardom. Michael Collins Blu-ray The Warner Archive Collection…
Director Jacques Rivette just passed away back in January. There’s more interest lately in his 12-hour opus Out 1, but if you’ll settle for just 2.5 hours, this unique early New Wave feature will take you inside Rivette’s world of artists, students, and refugees from political persecution, all in conflict in a sunny Paris of…
It’s the final Hollywood film by the legendary Ziegfeld star Marilyn Miller, and it’s also a terrific talkie feature debut for W.C. Fields — with one of his dazzling juggling bits. But the real star is director William Dieterle, whose moving camera and creative edits rescue the talkie musical from dreary operetta staging. Her Majesty,…
She’s beautiful, desired and enjoys a social mobility in the improving Italian economy… but she’s also a pawn of cruel materialist values. Stefania Sandrelli personifies a liberated spirit who lives for the moment, but who can’t form the relationships we call ‘living.’ Antonio Pietrangeli and Ettore Scola slip an insightful drama into the young Sandrelli’s…
“It’s like… I can feel the colors, man. The colors are running down my fingers, into my bones!” One had to be there, trying to talk to someone on drugs, to know what it was like. Roger Corman took his own experimental trip and decided to make a movie about it. For social relevance, the…
Get yer terrific long-suppressed film history right here, folks — this is what it takes to get your movie banned in East Germany in 1965: Günter Stahnke makes a drama revealing forbidden capitalist-style competitiveness and dastardly backstabbing in a state-run industry. Think any of those Party censors would object? Spring Takes Time DVD DEFA Film…
Lock your doors! Hulking menace Victor Buono gets the full-on psycho treatment, based (very) roughly on early reports of The Boston Strangler. The ‘baby doll’ killer also prefigures the fiendish Richard Speck. Burt Topper’s film is routine but ex- Baby Jane star Victor Buono’s performance is decidedly not. The Strangler DVD-R The Warner Archive Collection…
An Encore Edition brings back Fritz Lang’s searing police corruption tale, with the great performances of Glenn Ford, Gloria Grahame and Lee Marvin aided by several pots of fresh, hot coffee. As is usual, Fritz Lang leads the way in modernizing a genre — this one is a keeper. The Big Heat Blu-ray Encore Edition…
This forgotten Alistair MacLean action thriller packs a rare starring role for the young Anthony Hopkins — he’s really good as secret agent Philip Calvert, battling gold thieves in the Scottish Isles. He’s got a James Bond attitude in a more down-to-Earth adventure. When Eight Bells Toll Blu-ray KL Studio Classics 1971 / Color /…
Look out! Here come two A.I.P. horror pix from the soggy end of the Poe cycle: the first features Jason Robards, an impressive cast and a disorganized storyline. The second is an almost-good Lovecraft horror with interesting performances from Dean Stockwell and Sandra Dee. Murders in the Rue Morgue and The Dunwich Horror…
This proto- juvenile delinquent epic launched celebrated WW2 warrior Audie Murphy on the road to Hollywood fame, fortune and more troubled times. Audie commits every crime short of shooting dogs and nuns, but those wacky liberal social workers still give him the benefit of the doubt. Director Kurt Neumann backs our hero with expert acting support from Lloyd…
The formidable Penelope Spheeris penetrates L.A.’s punk and glam rock scenes, connecting with surly malcontents that would greet a normal docu with flipped fingers and snarled four-letter words. The result is much more than a collection of rare music performances. Things are as loud, as profane and as twisted as ever. The Decline of Western Civilization…
Savant goes back five years to praise Steven Soderbergh’s superb pandemic thriller, the one that warns us to never, ever shake hands with a gourmet chef. Don’t worry, only between 25 and 40 million people die… in the first year. Now go wash your hands. Contagion Blu-ray Warner Home Video 2011 / Color / 1:85…
Blinded by science! And no, it’s not a sequel to Donovan’s Reef. Lew Ayres yanks the living brain out of a dying millionaire, plugs it into his mad lab gizmo, and is soon obeying the know-it-all noggin’s telepathic commands to scheme and murder. Gene Evans and Nancy Reagan assist in Curt Siodmak’s creative, compelling tale…
The sequel to the epic Julie Andrews road show picture wasn’t a hit, but it tells a good story of its own. Charlton Heston is okay but the central character is a Chinese immigrant played by Tina Chen. Against all odds, the peasant matriarch survives plagues and leprosy to found a family dynasty for the…