Only Recommended Films (Rated 8-10)

[8] Brad Pitt, Anthony Hopkins, and Aidan Quinn star in this sprawling, family melodrama set in early twentieth century Montana, where the Ludlow family works their ranch in the untamed wilderness. Hopkins plays the patriarch, a pacifist and single father who is dismayed when his sons express desire to enlist in the first World War. Pitt and Quinn play the elder brothers, and Henry Thomas …

[8] Paul Verhoeven (Soldier of Orange, RoboCop) brings his devil-may-care attitude toward sex and morality to this slice-of-life story about three young Dutch boys who dream of escaping their restrained provincial lives by winning motor cross competitions. One of the boys, Rien (Hans van Tongeren), has a real chance of unseating the current champion (Rutger Hauer), while Eef (Toon Agterberg) struggles with his sexual identity in dark ways, …

[8] Mel Gibson headlines this M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable) sci-fi thriller about a single father (Gibson) of two young children and his younger brother (Joaquin Phoenix) who discover mysterious crop circles in their fields. Signs unfolds like George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead, depicting a global nightmare — in this case, alien invasion — from the claustrophobic perspective of one family …

[9] With this re-telling of Dracula and Nosferatu, director Robert Eggers (The Witch, The Lighthouse) re-solidifies his position as the most exciting artist working in cinema today. Eggers casts Lily-Rose Depp and Nicholas Hoult as a Ellen and Thomas Hutter, a young couple living in 1838 Germany. Their lives are torn apart when Thomas, a real estate agent, is called upon to visit Transylvania where …

[8] The Earthling is an odd, disconcerting sort of film that nevertheless casts a spell and is a bit hard to shake when it’s over. It stars William Holden (Sunset Boulevard) in his penultimate film performance, playing a terminally ill man who returns home to his native Australia to die alone in the vast wilderness. Once there, he lives off the land, sleeping in makeshift …

[9] One of the surest ways a film can win my heart is by letting me into the lives of characters aching for healing who achieve genuine, emotional human connection. It’s why I love films like Pump Up the Volume, The Breakfast Club, Sideways, or Little Miss Sunshine. Telling this kind of story convincingly and without too much sentimentality is an astonishingly difficult thing for …

[8] Writer/director Quentin Tarantino wraps up his cartoonish revenge tale with all the returning cast and crew. Vol. 2 is less visceral and more character-oriented than Vol. 1, taking us back to the fateful day when the eponymous Bill ordered his Deadly Viper Assassination Squad to murder Uma Thurman’s ‘Bride’ character and everyone else at her wedding rehearsal. It also features Thurman’s battles with the …

[8] Uma Thurman stars as an assassin doling out hot vengeance on the colleagues who betrayed her when she tried to come clean and start a peaceful, civilian lifestyle. After being shot in the head and losing her unborn child during a wedding rehearsal, Thurman’s character spends four years in a coma before waking up and creating a five-person kill list. Volume 1 of the …

[8] [This review contains spoilers.] Cate Blanchett stars as a fictional celebrated conductor whose life begins to unravel after an alleged affair with a music student comes to light. Her character, Lydia Tár, breaks the glass ceiling in the rarified world of classical music. Her accomplishments — including an Oscar, Emmy, Tony, and Grammy — are all the more newsworthy because she is a woman …

[8] Barbarian is about the worst Airbnb rental in the history of the universe. Writer/director Zach Cregger builds suspense from the get-go, with co-stars Georgina Campbell and Bill Skarsgård giving convincing performances as strangers double-booked at a house in the middle of a highly sketchy Detroit neighborhood. They agree to share the house, but then strange things start happening. A secret door is discovered in …

1 2 3 51