Velvet Buzzsaw (2019)

A satire set in the contemporary art world scene of Los Angeles, where big money artists and mega-collectors pay a high price when art collides with commerce.

This quite cynic satire has good direction and a well-cast ensemble obviously at ease in their roles, but loses perspective and its seriousness somewhere along its way into a horror tale.

Les frères Sisters (2018)

In 1850s Oregon, the infamous duo of assassins, Eli and Charlie Sisters, chase a gold prospector and his unexpected ally.

Excellently directed Western drama skillfully balances violent incidents with humorous passages and convinces with grandiose cinematography, period detail and, especially, the performances of the leading men.

Okja (2017)

A young girl risks everything to prevent a powerful, multinational company from kidnapping her best friend - a fascinating beast named Okja.

Likable, idiosyncratic tale with ecological and political overtones is imaginative and mischievous and somehow manages the balance bewtwenn silliness and seriousness.

Nocturnal Animals (2016)

An art gallery owner is haunted by her ex-husband's novel, a violent thriller she interprets as a veiled threat and a symbolic revenge tale.

Life (2017)

A team of scientists aboard the International Space Station discover a rapidly evolving life form that caused extinction on Mars and now threatens all life on Earth.

Standard sci-fi horror yarn in the vein of Alien and Gravity with a few, but not too many good moments.

October Sky (1999)

The true story of Homer Hickam, a coal miner's son who was inspired by the first Sputnik launch to take up rocketry against his father's wishes.

Halliwell (no star): "Based on the biography of a man who became a NASA engineer, this is a gently nostalgic flag-waver of smalltown Americana in the 50s, amiable but forgettable."

Maltin***1/2: "Sincere, heartwarming drama...Rich performances, well-drawn characters, and an old-fashioned sense of can-do American spirit make this something special." 

Tasteful produced and well-cast movie with a touch of nostalgia; entertaining, but once again an American success story of an individual making his way against social obstacles.

Moonlight Mile (2002)

As he copes with the death of his fiancée, a young man befriends her parents and must figure out what he wants out of life.

Saccharine melodrama has a good cast and is well made, but the multiple stories of love and loss have all been told better before.

Halliwell*: "Over-sweet account of how various individuals cope with loss; it has its moments, though they are not as many as one would hope."

Maltin**1/2: "Delicate material is handled with skill and good humor, until the young hero meets a woman who's too good to be true, and the story's credibility is derailed. Salvaged, to a great degree, by superior acting from Hoffman and Sarandon."

Nocturnal Animals (2016)

A wealthy art gallery owner receives a draft of her ex-husband's new novel, a violent thriller she interprets as a veiled threat and a symbolic revenge tale.

Brilliant direction and cinematography and an excellent cast can't quite conceal the inconsistency of embedding a fictitious thriller within a romantic revenge tale and making it its trigger; the ending therefore is more powerful than the novel and would work even without all the contrivance.

Everest (2015)

The story of New Zealand's Robert "Rob" Edwin Hall, who on May 10, 1996, together with Scott Fischer, teamed up on a joint expedition to ascend Mount Everest.

Detailed rendtion of a major mountaineering tragedy is extraordinarily well produced with some breathtaking cinematography; large cast succeed in making the dramacredible.

Nightcrawler (2014)

When a con man desperate for work, muscles into the world of L.A. crime journalism, he blurs the line between observer and participant to become the star of his own story.

The story has been told before (Billy Wilder's Ace in the Hole comes to mind), but Jake Gyllenhaal's portrayal of a soulless reporter adds a whole dimension of frightening demonical possession.

Zodiac (2007)

In the late 1960s/early 1970s, a San Francisco cartoonist becomes an amateur detective obsessed with tracking down the Zodiac Killer, an unidentified individual who terrorizes Northern California with a killing spree.

Unusually long, but suspenseful investigation not just of a mysterious killer, but also the obsessions it caused to three men involved with the case.

On rewatching: remarkable how subtle and intense the 70s settings are created; and the performances all around are excellent.

Maltin***1/2: "Riveting drama...Focus more on the manhunt than the crimes and shows how this frustrating case consumed the lives of reporters and detectives alike...Superbly made on every level,with meticulous re-creations of the 70s..."

Prisoners (2013)

When two little girls go missing, a father takes matters into his own hands as the police pursue multiple leads and the pressure mounts.

An otherwise ordinary crime drama is, although a bit overlong, enhanced by subtle and detailed direction, excellent cinematography and some highly nuanced performances.

Maltin**1/2: "Relentlessly dark and intense, this film depicts every parent's  nightmare but leaves the backstory of its obsessive cop (Gyllenhal) frustratingly incomplete and winds up in strangely perverted territory. Uncompromising American feature debut for director Villeneuve..."

Enemy (2013)

A man seeks out his exact look-alike after spotting him in a movie.

Somnambulant psychological drama conceived as one large riddle fascinates as a complex mystery, but the surprise end scene is grafted and quite a letdown.

Maltin**: "Ponderous psychological thriller...Strange, off-putting story, told in hushed tones,invites comparison to David Lynch's dreamlike films."

Donnie Darko (2001)

A troubled teenager is plagued by visions of a large bunny rabbit that manipulates him to commit a series of crimes, after narrowly escaping a bizarre accident.

Highly idiosyncratic and fascinating drama about adolescent otherness with a fantastic twist; at times quite reminiscent of David Lynch's work.

Halliwell***: "An engaging, darkly comic look at growing up in suburbia; lurid and deliberately confusing in its circular narrative, it is also bracingly original."

Maltin**: "Writer-director Kelly has ambitious and interesting ideas, but the film builds to an unsatisfying conclusion."