[5] Bizarre, lavish misfire featuring Audrey Hepburn as a jungle girl who falls in love with a political refugee played by Anthony Perkins. The movie’s beautiful in a kitschy kind of way, but the story is slow-moving and suffers from the lack of any strong characters. Perkins gives a incredibly awkward performance, overacting at times and barely registering at others. Hepburn probably does the best …
[7] It’s fun to watch Greta Garbo defrost in Ninotchka. She plays an oh-so-serious Russian sent to Paris to straighten out the sale of some allegedly stolen jewels. Melvyn Douglas gets in her way. At first, he’s an annoyance, but a curious one. Her no-nonsense attitude toward him makes for a unlikely cinematic romance. The highlight of their courtship is a restaurant scene where Douglas …
[8] Three girls and a teacher mysteriously disappear during a 1900 school picnic at a strange rock formation in this Australian film from director Peter Weir (Witness, Master and Commander). Weir uses his trademark poetic license to suggest a supernatural cause, but don’t look for a firm answers — the film is based on a true story that was never solved.
[8] Director William Wellman took a full year to shoot it and was nearly fired for his perfectionism, but the gamble paid off. Wings was a huge success at the box office and became the first ever Oscar-winning Best Picture. At two-and-a-half hours, it runs a little too long, but it’s well paced and very well acted. The spectacular aerial battle sequences are what the …
[7] Based on the novel Washington Square by Henry James, The Heiress centers around Catherine (Olivia de Havilland), a shy, socially inept young woman who gets swept off her feet by a dashing young destitute (Montgomery Clift). When her father (Ralph Richardson) accuses the man of preying on his daughter’s inheritance, he threatens to cut her off. Putting all her faith in her first love, …
[9] Two Arkansas boys discover a wanted man (Matthew McConaughey) hiding out on an island who needs their help to find his girlfriend and escape a small army of bounty hunters. There’s a resounding echo of Shane here, with McConaughey putting in another fine performance after his career-turning appearances in Magic Mike and Killer Joe last year. (Welcome back, Matthew!)
[9] I love me some ensemble dramas, and August: Osage County does not disappoint — even if it does hit a little too close to home for comfort… but then whose life isn’t affected by drugs and closeted skeletons these days? Three sisters and their motley crew of significant others converge with other family members after their patriarch goes missing. The siege becomes an intervention …
[9] Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor star in this harrowing true story about a vacationing family torn violently apart by the 2004 tsunami that ravaged Thailand. The natural disaster is recreated in the opening act, seen through the eyes of Watts’ character as she desperately tries to grab hold of her eldest son as the tidal wave sweeps them both inland. She’s thrashed, cut, and …
[8] SPOILER REVIEW: Natalie Portman is incredible in Black Swan, the story of a ballerina who must tap into her ‘dark side’ to play the Swan Queen in a New York City performance of Swan Lake. Portman’s performance is a variation on Ingrid Bergman’s in Gaslight, another psychological thriller where you’re never quite sure if things are really happening or if our protagonist is going …
[10] Director Paul Thomas Anderson (Boogie Nights, Magnolia) serves up a masterful study of two ambitious men — a turn-of-the-century oil prospector driven by capitalism and a young preacher eager to grow his flock. The two men come to conflict on occasion, with the prospector’s young son often caught in the middle. But as times of prosperity drift closer to the Great Depression, the prospector …
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