SAVING GENERAL YANG (2013)

One of the most emotionally-involving films I've seen in some time, Saving General Yang tells an important story in Chinese history - the tale of the legendary General Yang Ye, who in northeast China in 986 A.D. was abducted by the Khitan army, in revenge for a supposed past wrong.  But the Khitan army won't stop there, for General Yang has seven sons and the real plot is to set a trap for - and slaughter - the seven sons (two of whom have never before been to war), crushing the Yang family for good.  The film becomes a tense race against time, as the brothers set out to find their father, facing their family's greatest enemy in the quest to bring their father home.  Even with great fight/action scenes, the relationship between the seven close brothers - to each other, as well as to their honored father - also sets up an emotional core to the film that elevates it to near must-see status, even for those who normally might not be fans of this genre.  LOVED IT. (not rated)  ****1/2

SAVING GENERAL YANG trailer

AIN'T THEM BODIES SAINTS (2013)

In the same gritty, realistic style that made 1967's Bonnie and Clyde a film where you grew to care for two of the most notorious gangsters in American history, David Lowery's Ain't Them Bodies Saints turns the same soulful eye on the lives of Bob Muldoon (a beautifully understated Casey Affleck) and Ruth Guthrie (Rooney Mara) in 1970's Texas.  Small-time crooks caught up in a shootout, when a pregnant Ruth shoots a deputy it's Bob who takes the blame, going to prison to spare her the ordeal.  Years later, when Bob breaks out and starts out across Texas to reunite with Ruth and a daughter he's never known, he's determined to put things back the way they were - as Ruth (who only wants a better life for herself and her daughter) questions whether they can have that again ... or if she even wants it.  The cinematography here is gorgeous, tone somber but nonetheless involving due to the great sympathy you will have for these characters - the unquenchable desire to see everything turn out okay for them, even when that seems impossible. (rated R)  ****1/2

AIN'T THEM BODIES SAINTS trailer

FANTASTIC MR. FOX (2009)

The beauty of Wes Anderson's Fantastic Mr. Fox is that it both pays homage to AND also revitalizes the art of stop-motion animation many of us grew up loving.  George Clooney voices the intelligent, urbane, sly Mr. Fox, who promises to give up his poultry-stealing ways and settle down upon learning his wife (Meryl Streep) is pregnant.  Flash forward years later, Mr. Fox working as a newspaper columnist to support his wife and pre-teen son when he relocates the family from their underground dwelling to a beautiful tree above-ground ... right in line of sight of Boggis, Bunce and Bean, three of the meanest poultry farmers alive.  Finding himself reverting to his thieving ways, when Mr. Fox goes too far and the farmers retaliate - putting Mr. Fox, his family, and all their animal community in peril - it's Fox who must use all his wiles to save the day.  Based on the children's novel by Roald Dahl, the film captures Dahl's style, characters and mood down to the most minute detail.  Quirky, funny, lovable film. (rated PG)  ****

FANTASTIC MR. FOX trailer

THE BEST OFFER (2013)

Geoffrey Rush, one of the finest actors working today, has never better than here, playing world-renowned auctioneer Virgil Oldman, an eccentric, solitary man in full control of both his life and those around him.  Living in Italy, Virgil dines in fine restaurants, lives in a home straight out of Architectural Digest, and is a man so guarded, he's never even known love (or great kindness) from a woman.  Enter Claire, a reclusive heiress seeking Virgil's help in valuating and cataloging her deceased parents' exhaustive furniture/art collection for auction.  Claire's inconsistencies of mood and lack of follow-through have Virgil abandoning the job at first, but soon he becomes obsessed with the oddly reclusive (she refuses to even meet him face to face) young woman, his heart softening as - for the first time in 60+ years on earth - he finds himself falling in love.  But this is no ordinary love story; there is a dark side even beyond Virgil's growing obsession with Claire, and the film has a few surprises in store - for Virgil and viewers - that you won't see coming. (rated R)  ****

THE BEST OFFER trailer

MIDNIGHT LACE (1960)

Though not quite up to the quality of an Alfred Hitchcock production, Midnight Lace is an obvious homage to the director, telling the story of a newly-married American heiress, Kit Preston (Doris Day), living in London with her husband Tony (Rex Harrison), who suddenly becomes the target of a stalker who claims he will kill her before the month is over.  First approaching her in the fog, then via telephone, the anonymous maniac grows ever-closer ... even as circumstantial evidence builds that maybe Kit is actually imagining the whole thing.  The suspicion is doled out effectively - to Kit's husband, her aunt, the shady son of the Preston's housekeeper, a hunky construction foreman - while at the same time making the viewer question Kit's sanity ... all well-handled and grounded by a searing performance by Doris Day, who supposedly had her own mini-breakdown from making the film.  While the ending might not be wholly original, it's a taut high-wire act getting there.  And yeah, even in 2014 the killer's voice remains amazingly creepy. (not rated)  ***1/2

MIDNIGHT LACE trailer

U WANT ME 2 KILL HIM? (2013)

This UK thriller, based on a true story, details the obsession of handsome, popular high school jock Mark (Jamie Blackley), as he begins falling for a girl he's only "spoken" to online named Rachel.  Rachel, hidden away in a witness protection program, is being abused by her criminal boyfriend Kevin, and one night elicits a promise from Mark that - no matter what happens - he is to look after her younger brother John (Toby Regbo), one of Mark's classmates and a quiet, shy boy that everyone bullies.  At first only being nice to John because of Rachel, the two become good friends - and allies, when Rachel dies from a supposed suicide, in finding her real killer:  Kevin.  The film opens with Mark being arrested and interrogated by world-weary D.I. Sarah Clayton (Joanne Froggatt), the rest of the film going back to tell a story of lies and deception where no one is who they appear to be - and where a friend can become your enemy (and vice-versa) in the blink of an eye.  A compelling indie film, despite its anti-climactic ending, thanks to the two leads. (not rated)  ***

U WANT ME 2 KILL HIM? trailer

KILL YOUR DARLINGS (2013)

The true story of a murder involving (to one degree or another) THE iconic poets of the Beat Generation - Allen Ginsberg (Daniel Radcliffe), Jack Kerouac (Jack Huston) and William Burroughs (Ben Foster) - begins in 1943, when shy Paterson, New Jersey "good boy" Ginsberg is accepted to Columbia University in New York. It's there he meets the charismatic Lucien Carr (Dane DeHaan), who introduces Allen to liquor, drugs, the party lifestyle .. and the expansion of his mind and life, as a writer, that becomes Ginsberg's addiction.  As the four pals begin to redefine how people think, feel and live through their controversial new literary movement, their own genius, wild lifestyle and bold choices grow more daring, dangerous - and deadly.  The four leads (Radcliffe, a genuine talent, breaking further away from Harry Potter than ever) bring the script to dramatic life on-screen ... the film also firmly securing another notch in the belt of Dane DeHaan as this generation's Leonardo DiCaprio. (rated R)  ****1/2

KILL YOUR DARLINGS trailer

STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS (2013)

**2014 OSCAR NOMINEE**
Though never a Trekker, per se, I fell hard for J.J. Abrams' 2009 Star Trek reboot; that, to me, was a near-perfect merging of action, character, and story.  Two elements of which - character and story - are lacking in this sequel, about the crew of the Enterprise being dispatched to capture a one-man superweapon (a terrific Benedict Cumberbatch), whom Captain Kirk (Chris Pine) then has to enlist for help when an enemy from within threatens all of Starfleet (and the world).  While the action/special effects are top-notch, there's no character development here (Bones comes off a caricature of his TV counterpart, the "romance" between Uhura and Spock touched on so tepidly you wonder why it's even in the film), the action overshadows a weak story (by the end chase scene I was just wanting it all to be over), and the death of [SPOILER] was plain ludicrous as a dramatic ending, as you knew from jump how that was going to turn out.  Not terrible, but coming after 2009's Star Trek this is a poor imitation at best. (rated PG-13)  ***

STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS trailer

THE THIN MAN GOES HOME (1945)

The fifth (out of six) comedy-mystery feature film, starring William Powell and Myrna Loy as Dashiell Hammett's iconic characters Nick and Nora Charles, is both a departure from the usual series and a personal favorite of mine.  No constant martini drinking or big-city locale here; no, this film has Nick and Nora heading back to Sycamore Springs - Nick's hometown - to visit Nick's parents in small-town suburbia.  Nick's dad, a prominent local doctor, has always had a reserved relationship with Nick, whom he always wanted to practice medicine instead of solving crimes ... but when a hometown boy is shot on Nick's parents' doorstep, seconds after telling Nick he has to speak to him, The Charles's learn that Nick's hometown harbors a few skeletons in the closet - and a murderer prepared to kill again.  From snappy one-liners to a nicely-plotted mystery, genuinely funny moments to the dynamite on-screen chemistry of Powell and Loy, this "homespun" entry to the Thin Man series is a real treat. (not rated)  ****1/2

THE THIN MAN GOES HOME trailer

THE BOOK THIEF (2013)

**2014 OSCAR NOMINEE**
Liesel (Sophie Nelisse) is a young girl in World War II Germany who is given up by her mother in the hopes of giving her a better life.  Living with her adoptive parents - a stern mother (Emily Watson) and childlike father (Geoffrey Rush) - as the war in Germany grows Liesel learns to read for the first time, books both transforming her imagination and fueling her resistance of a nation going mad with oppression.  When her new parents take in a Jewish refugee, hiding him in the basement, Liesel finds a friend who also has a love for literature ... and the first crush of love via Rudy, a neighbor boy, whom she badly wants to trust in a world where you can trust no one.  The Book Thief is engaging, beautiful, and ultimately satisfying in its tale of the Holocaust as seen through Liesel's eyes - yet, good as it is, in the end there is something lacking, almost sugarcoated ("Disney-fied"?) in its emotional impact, though the subject matter is handled with such grace even young people would enjoy - and benefit from - seeing it. (RATED pg-13)  ***1/2

THE BOOK THIEF trailer