IN THEATRES...
* Argo, Ben 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 Plums, Vincent Paronnaud and Marjane Satrapi's disappointing follow-up to Persepolis.
* Flight, starring 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.
* Detachment, an 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 Five, the 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.
