A House of Dynamite (2025)

 

A HOUSE OF DYNAMITE  (2025)  ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2

    D: Kathryn Bigelow

    Rebecca Ferguson, Idris Elba, Jared Harris,

    Tracy Letts, Gabriel Basso, Anthony Ramos,

    Moses Ingram, Gbenga Akinnagbe, Greta Lee

"Fail-Safe" for the 21st century.

Movie Star Moment: Lillian Gish

 

Lillian Gish as The Woman Who Rocks the Cradle

in "Intolerance" (1916)

    Lillian Gish is generally considered to be the silent era's greatest dramatic actress. On screen starting in 1912 (and active into her 90s), she played a series of beleaguered heroines in films like "Broken Blossoms", "Way Down East", "Orphans of the Storm" and "The Wind". She did some of her best work for D.W. Griffith, who cast her in a pivotal cameo in his groundbreaking epic "Intolerance". 

    With a narrative of unprecedented scope and ambition, "Intolerance" tells four different stories from four different centuries simultaneously, cutting constantly between them. The connection is a recurring shot of Gish as a woman rocking a cradle, providing Griffith with a transition device and the film with something like transcendence. 

    Why Gish took such a small role in such an ambitious project when she was arguably Griffith's biggest star is a matter of some speculation, but there she is, never on the screen for more than a few seconds, endlessly rocking the cradle, an image of simple humanity linking the bloodthirsty ages, the eternal cinematic mother of us all.

Misunderstood (2014)

 

MISUNDERSTOOD  (2014)  ¢ ¢ 1/2

    D: Asia Argento 

    Giulia Salerno, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Gabriel Garko,

    Carolina Poccioni, Anna Lou Castoldi, Alice Pea

The protagonist in this movie is a smart, inquisitive nine-year-old girl named Aria, traipsing around Rome between the two broken poles in an affluent but dysfunctional family. He mom's a concert pianist and borderline out-of-control diva plowing her way through a series of sketchy boyfriends. Her dad's a superstitious movie actor whose tenuous stability is severely tested when the girl brings home her best and newest friend, a black cat. It's a rough, ragged piece of work, reflecting the girl's view of her world, or Argento's approach to filmmaking, and possibly both. Charlotte Gainsbourg disappears into her role as the mother. I kept watching her, thinking, okay , when's Charlotte Gainsbourg going to show up, and then realized, oh, that's her. Giulia Salerno, who plays Aria, is remarkable, and the image of her walking the streets alone with a duffel bag and a cat in a carrier could stay in your head long after the rest of the movie slips away. 

Lawrence of Arabia: The Battle For the Arab World (2003)

 

LAWRENCE OF ARABIA: THE BATTLE FOR THE 

ARAB WORLD  (2003)  ¢ ¢ ¢

    D: James Hawes  

It's no accident that the original ad art for David Lean's 1962 epic "Lawrence of Arabia" was an ink-drawn head shot of a man whose face was completely obscured. More than 100 years since he helped lead the Arab revolt against the Turks during World War One, T.E. Lawrence remains one of the 20th century's most elusive historical figures. This documentary covers the basics and gets at some of the politics involved in Lawrence's wartime adventures and the disastrous impact of the post-war settlement that carved up the Middle East. The filmmakers spent a lot of time and money on reenactments, which look real good but aren't at all convincing when viewed side-by-side with archival footage, and especially with multiple actors playing Lawrence. As for Lawrence himself, the warrior/scholar/ 

spy/recluse/exhibitionist who alternately relished his time in the spotlight and shrank away from it, he continues to be what he always was and seems likely to remain: an enigma.

Jacky In the Kingdom of Women (2014)

 

JACKY IN THE KINGDOM OF WOMEN 

    D: Riad Sattouf                        (2014)  ¢ ¢ 1/2

    Vincent Lacoste, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Didier Bourdon,

    Anémone, Michel Hazenavicius, Valérie Bonneton

An upside-down Cinderella story set in a society where women wield absolute power and men are sheep. Charlotte Gainsbourg plays the Prince Charming figure, faced with choosing a mate from thousands of groveling, submissive men. There's a reveal - a literal one - at the end that's both a shock and somehow not much of a surprise. As satire, this is a little too on-the-nose, and as comedy it's a little too silly, but . . . Charlotte Gainsbourg. The odds of it ever playing in Iran or Afghanistan are zero. 

Memphis Belle (1990)

 

MEMPHIS BELLE  (1990)  ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2

    D: Michael Caton-Jones

    Matthew Modine, Eric Stoltz, Tate Donovan,

    D.B.Sweeney, Billy Zane, Sean Astin,

    Harry Connick Jr., Reed Diamond, Neil Giuntoli,

    David Strathairn, John Lithgow, Jane Horrocks

The eight members of a B-17 bomber crew take off on their 25th combat mission, their last before they go home. Things do not go according to plan. This movie gets a couple of things right that a lot of World War Two movies don't. The haircuts fit the period and the flyers are young - barely older than kids - and the bickering banter between them sounds real. Once they get in the air, it's a white-knuckle flight all the way. Buckle up. 

Pennies From Heaven (1936)

 

PENNIES FROM HEAVEN  (1936)  ¢ ¢ ¢

    D: Norman Z. McLeod

    Bing Crosby, Edith Fellows, Madge Evans,

    Louis Armstrong, Donald Meek, George Chandler

A wandering minstrel from Mukilteo, Washington, finds his carefree life being disrupted by a young girl, her grandfather and the caseworker who could have the girl sent to an orphanage. Louis Armstrong gets a song and Bing gets several, in what's either not much of a movie, or just enough, depending on your point of view. 

Violated (1953)

 

VIOLATED  (1953)  ¢ 1/2

    D: Walter Strate

    William Holland, Lili Dawn, Vicki Carlson,

    Mitchell Kowell, Fred Lambert, Jason Niles

A maniac is going around stabbing women with a pair of scissors and cutting off their hair. A pretty young model gets a job posing for a fashion photographer. A psychiatrist has a conversation with a guy who has a habit of stalking and molesting young women but says he won't do that anymore. The photographer comes on to a stripper who gives him the brush, but that might not be a good idea. The cops are questioning the usual suspects, and the psychiatrist will share his patients' confidential files with just about anybody. Connect the dots. 

Yesterday (2019)

YESTERDAY  (2019)  ¢ ¢ ¢

    D: Danny Boyle

    Himesh Patel, Lily James, Kate McKinnon,

    Joel Fry, Ed Sheeran, Robert Carlyle

A tuneful musical fantasy about a struggling singer/songwriter named Jack Malik (Himesh Partel) who gets knocked cold in a traffic accident at the moment the power goes out all over the world. He comes to in a world where nobody's heard of cigarettes, Coca-Cola, Harry Potter, or (most significantly) the Beatles. Seizing an opportunity, he cribs the Beatles' music and lyrics and soon finds himself being hailed as the greatest rock-&-roll artist of all time. There are complications. Another reminder of how amazing and timeless the Beatles' songs are, and a good choice to go on a double bill with Julie Taymor's "Across the Universe". Robert Carlyle has an uncredited cameo, delivering some sage advice that helps Jack navigate a tricky situation toward the end of the film. You won't recognize Carlyle, but you'll know who he's playing immediately. 

They Made Me a Criminal (1939)

 

THEY MADE ME A CRIMINAL  (1939)  ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2

    D: Busby Berkeley

    John Garfield, Gloria Dickson, Claude Rains, 

    Ann Sheridan, May Robson, Billy Halop,

    Bobby Jordan, Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall,

    Frank Riggi, John Ridgley, Ward Bond

In his second feature film, John Garfield plays a prizefighter who goes on the lam when he's framed for a murder and ends up on an Arizona date farm where the Dead End Kids are cracking wise and cooling their heels. Claude Rains steps out of character as a hard-boiled police detective determined to track Garfield down. The studio was Warner Bros. (of course). 

Trapped Ashes (2006)

 

TRAPPED ASHES  (2006)  ¢ ¢ 1/2

    D: Joe Dante, Monte Hellman, Ken Russell,

    John Gaeta, Sean S. Cunningham

    C: Henry Gibson, Rachel Veltri, Lara Harris,

    John Saxon, Scott Lowell, Joyce Bartok,

    Michèle Barbara Pelletier, Dick Miller

When six people on an exclusive studio tour find themselves trapped in a backlot haunted house, the tour guide suggests they follow the plot of a famous movie that was shot there and try to escape by telling each other horror stories. In one of the stories, a woman has a sexual encounter with a Japanese ghoul. In another, a screenwriter's life takes a twisted turn when a friend sets him up with his girlfriend. In a third, a woman's twin is a tapeworm. In the fourth (actually the first), an actress faces dire consequences when she has breast enhancement surgery (yuck!) and her boobs turn into vampires. And there's still the matter of how these people are going to get out of that house. Nothing that happens in this is all that exciting, and the movie's too goofy to be really scary - or maybe it's not goofy enough - but you could do worse than to put yourself in the hands of these filmmakers. Flash back to an earlier time, and it wouldn't be hard to imagine Boris Karloff or Vincent Price in the Henry Gibson role. 

Rampage (1963)

RAMPAGE  (1963)  ¢ ¢

    D: Phil Karlson

    Robert Mitchum, Jack Hawkins, Elsa Martinelli, Sabu

Robert Mitchum plays a guy who traps wild animals for zoos. Jack Hawkins plays a guy who shoots wild animals for his trophy room. Machismo boils over when Elsa Martinelli comes between them. Also, some real big cats.

Womb (2010)

 

WOMB  (2010)  ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2

    D: Benedek Fliegauf

    Eva Green, Matt Smith, Tristan Christopher,

    Lesley Manville, Peter Wight, Ruby O. Fee,

    Hannah Murray, Natalia Tena, Gina Stiebitz

A boy and a girl meet up on an isolated beach and become best friends. They separate when she moves away, but 12 years later, they reconnect and become lovers. Then there's an accident and things get strange. Cloning and incest are involved. This is an odd one, and a movie you could watch just for how it looks. It's beautifully shot, and director Benedek Fliegauf holds shots several beats longer than you'd expect, so you get plenty of time to take the images in. There's a stillness and slowness to the movie that's almost hypnotic, and a lot of those images feature Eva Green. Take a look.