Valhalla Rising (2009)

Valhalla Rising (2009)

[7] Nicolas Winding Refn (Drive, Only God Forgives) serves up this meditative drama about a mute, one-eyed, pagan strong man (Hannibal's Mads Mikkelsen) who fights for the entertainment of his Norse captors way back around the year 1000 AD. He finally escapes…
The Lovely Bones (2009)

The Lovely Bones (2009)

[3] Maybe Alice Sebold's novel is a different and more worthwhile experience. But not having read it, I'm pondering what the hell I'm supposed to take away from Peter Jackson's film adaptation of The Lovely Bones. The movie is about a dead…
No Mercy (1986)

No Mercy (1986)

[5] Richard Gere plays a Chicago detective out for justice in New Orleans, where he hopes to find a woman, played by Kim Basinger, who witnessed his partner's murder. Turns out Kim has a sad story and needs some rescuing of her…
Midsommar (2019)

Midsommar (2019)

[7] Writer/director Ari Aster left an impression with last year's Hereditary and follows up with another slow-burn, visually beautiful movie with incredibly similar structure and subtext. Midsommar is about a young woman named Dani (Florence Pugh) who experiences the tragic death of…
Yesterday (2019)

Yesterday (2019)

[6] Himesh Patel stars as a struggling singer/songwriter who wakes up from a street accident to learn the world is just a wee bit different than it was before he blacked out -- The Beatles no longer exist. There are other changes,…
Blue Ruin (2013)

Blue Ruin (2013)

[7] Writer/director Jeremy Saulnier (Green Room) serves up an attention-worthy revenge tale with Blue Ruin. Macon Blair stars as a loner who let his life fall apart after the double murder of his parents. When the man convicted of the crime is…
Staircase (1969)

Staircase (1969)

[6] Rex Harrison and Richard Burton star as aging gay lovers in this stage play adaptation directed by Stanley Donen (Singin' in the Rain, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers). The two men have been together for twenty years and work together as…
Crazy/Beautiful (2001)

Crazy/Beautiful (2001)

[6] Kirsten Dunst and Jay Hernandez star in this teen drama about a rich but troubled white girl and a poor but hard-studying Latino boy who fall in love. Before long, her party attitude begins to clash with his determination to succeed,…
Now, Voyager (1942)

Now, Voyager (1942)

[7] Bette Davis stars as Charlotte Vale, a nervous young woman whose emotionally abusive mother (Gladys Cooper) causes her to submit herself to a sanitarium. Under the care of her doctor (Claude Rains), Charlotte begins to gain the confidence to stand up…
Boy Slaves (1939)

Boy Slaves (1939)

[8] A young boy named Jesse (Roger Daniel) runs away from home to find a job and send money back to his mother, but along the way he falls in with a band of other runaways who are constantly avoiding the police.…