Saturday, November 3, 2012

SIDELINE: MORE REVIEWS FOR 10/12

My reviews of non-Criterion movies through October.


IN THEATRES...

ArgoBen Affleck takes a true story about a fake movie and turns it into genuine cinema.

Bill W.a documentary about the man behind Alcoholics Anonymous

Chicken with PlumsVincent Paronnaud and Marjane Satrapi's disappointing follow-up to Persepolis. 

Flightstarring Denzel Washington and directed by Robert Zemeckis. Apparently even turkeys can fly upside down.

Seven Pyschopaths, the comedy is dark and funny, the action appropriately visceral, but the second film from the director of In Bruges isn't as smart as it thinks it is.

Sinister, half a good horror movie, half a bad one, and the better half doesn't make it worth the time.

* If you live in Portland is to attend the Alfred Hitchcock festival at Cinema 21. Here is what I wrote up for the Mercury.



ON BD/DVD...

Bird of Paradise, a pre-Code picture from King Vidor, indulging in island fantasy cliches.

Black Sunday, Mario Bava's 1960 horror debut is spooky and sexy.

Chained, Jennifer Lynch's psychological horror movie doesn't quite link up.

Cinderella, Disney's animated fairy tale comes to Blu-Ray. It looks marvelous, even if it is one of the studio's more middling efforts.

Confessions of an Opium Eater, in which Vincent Price goes on a trip through Chinatown.

Detachmentan arty drama about teachers overstuffs the lesson plan, but Adrien Brody and thre rest of the cast are great.

Fear and Desire, the "lost" first film of Stanley Kubrick.

Mad Men: Season Fivethe best show on television keeps getting better.

The Penalty, a potent silent film starring Lon Chaney as a double-amputee bent on revenge.

Shut Up and Play the Hits, the documentary about LCD Soundsystem's last gig; features the full three-hour concert.

Three Secrets, Robert Wise's 1950 melodrama about a trio of women who may or may not be the mother of a young boy stranded on a mountain.

The Woodmans, a moving documentary about late photographer Francesca Woodman and the effect her suicide has had on her family.





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