Oscar Isaac creates a memorable human dud in Joel and Ethan Coen’s impressive music world drama Inside Llewyn Davis. Carey Mulligan costars.
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Woody Allen is pissed and it shows in the mordantly thoughtful and beautifully acted social satire Blue Jasmine. Cate Blanchett stars.
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Jean-Pierre Melville’s Un Flic is a great neo-noir. Alain Delon stars as the cop, Richard Crenna as the crook, and Catherine Deneuve as the femme fatale.
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While focused on anti-gay bigotry in Uganda, Call Me Kuchu is a reminder that bigots and their potentially deadly hate are found all over the planet.
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Jeff Nichols’ unusual psychological drama Mud makes great use of its Arkansas locations. Reese Witherspoon and Matthew McConaughey star.
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Abbas Kiarostami’s Tokyo-set drama Like Someone in Love offers a stylish and intriguing look at a dysfunctional ‘love triangle.’
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Greta Garbo in Queen Christina. Queen Christina (1933) movie review: Queen Christina movie review: Greta Garbo masterpiece One of the most ambitious productions of the early 1930s, the Greta Garbo…
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Pedro Almodóvar’s brazen 2004 ‘gay film noir’ Bad Education is 1 of the most daring exemplars of the noir genre. Gael García Bernal and Fele Martínez star.
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Best Actress Oscar winner Joan Crawford is terrific as the devoted mother of psycho daughter Ann Blyth in Michael Curtiz’s 1945 noir Mildred Pierce.
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Best Actress Oscar winner Natalie Portman rises to the challenge in Darren Aronofsky’s brilliantly multilayered thriller Black Swan. Cast: Mila Kunis.
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Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s capably acted urban family drama Tokyo Sonata exposes the seemingly inexorable unraveling of Japan’s traditional social fabric.
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Tomas Alfredson’s Let the Right One In features a refreshingly mature blend of character study, budding romance, and supernatural horror.
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The true-to-life sex romantic comedy-drama Young People Fucking is both provocative and sporadically surprising. The cast is uniformly good.
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David Gordon Green’s Pineapple Express is a surprisingly entertaining mix of action and silliness. James Franco and Seth Rogen star.
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A story about true love – between 2 male friends – the 1925 Cobra is Rudolph Valentino’s most effective star vehicle. Nita Naldi costars.
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Esteban Sapir’s black-and-white, near-silent morality fantasy The Aerial / La antena is both daringly innovative and lovingly nostalgic.
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In the unsettling thriller Targets, Peter Bogdanovich points out that life and art are irrevocably intertwined. A superb Boris Karloff stars.
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David Mamet’s commercially unsuccessful morality tale Redbelt is possibly his most impressive to date. Chiwetel Ejiofor leads the capable cast.
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Contemplative Woody Allen comedy Stardust Memories is 1 of the most profound films ever. Marie-Christine Barrault and Charlotte Rampling costar.
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South Seas sex worker Joan Crawford proves herself a fine dramatic actress and destroyer of pious missionaries in the vastly underrated drama Rain.
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Inspired by the Bugsy Siegel and Virginia Hill affair, Vincent Sherman’ skillful crime drama The Damned Don’t Cry is Joan Crawford’s second best Warners movie.
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Starring gay MGM contract actor William Haines, the pre-Code comedy Western Way Out West features gay innuendoes just about everywhere you look.
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In Tom Forman’s Victorian but engrossing melodrama Shadows, Lon Chaney brings dignity to his Chinese victim/savior stranded in racist England.
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An homage to unconventional families mixed with social commentary, Charles Chaplin’s 1921 movie The Kid remains just as touching 9 decades after its release.
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Silent era veterans Erich von Stroheim and Betty Compson deliver quality performances in James Cruze’s engrossing psychological drama The Great Gabbo.
Ulrich Seidl’s deeply affecting Paradise: Love focuses on the relationship between a middled-aged Austrian tourist and a young Kenyan man.
Possibly Louis Malle’s best film, the Oscar-nominated semi-autobiographical drama Au Revoir les Enfants focuses on the tragic friendship between two boys.
Best Actress Oscar winner Olivia de Havilland delivers a shrewd characterization in Mitchell Leisen’s heartfelt To Each His Own.
Jay and Mark Duplass’ clever indie comedy-thriller Baghead isn’t your average ‘cabin in the woods’ movie. Cast: Greta Gerwig and Ross Partridge.
Writer-director Francis Veber’s The Valet movie is his latest hilarious French farce. Cast: Daniel Auteuil, Gad Elmaleh and Kristin Scott Thomas.
Leonard Kastle’s The Honeymoon Killers rivals better-known fare partly thanks to Shirley Stoler and Tony Lo Bianco’s charismatic performances.
The genius of Lon Chaney and the best production values that MGM could buy make William Nigh’s ‘exotic’ Mr. Wu movie adaptation a must-see.