Badlands (1973)

Three Kings, written and directed by David O. Russell begins with a quasi- documentary moment. We see, off in the distance, a soldier with a weapon in his hand waving it aloft — we cannot tell whether it is as a gesture of surrender or threat — as Sgt Troy Barlow (Mark Wahlberg) in full…

The Skulls is a movie about a secret, all-male society at Yale which hardly even attempts to disguise the fact that it is based on Skull and Bones, an élite group whose membership is said to include both the George Bushes. So, too, “The Skulls” in the movie go around saying to each other “a…

A visually and dramatically impressive movie spoiled, in the end by a merely coy unwillingness to lift the artificial curtain between reality and unreality

A charming, unpretentious little movie from Mexico that gradually reveals to us hidden depths and a surprising emotional power

Le Huitième Jour(The Eighth Day) by Jaco Van Dormael begins with a somewhat whimsical attempt to portray the world as seen through the eyes of Georges (Pascal Duquenne), a Downs syndrome sufferer. Like Genesis (the pop group of the same name makes an appearance later in the film), it begins “In the beginning. . .”…

Yet another illustration of Hollywood’s failure to learn the lesson that less is more — particularly when it comes to spooky mysteries