http://www.mountainx.com/movies/ en webmaster@mountainx.com Copyright 2009 2009-11-18T05:00:10+00:00 http://www.mountainx.com/movies/review/black_rain http://www.mountainx.com/movies/review/black_rain#When:04:00:10Z Classic Cinema From Around the World will present Black Rain at 8 p.m. Friday, Nov. 20, at Courtyard Gallery, 9 Walnut St., in downtown Asheville. Info: 273-3332. Review: Shohei Imamura’s uncompromising look at the aftermath of the bombing of Hiroshima, Black Rain (1989), is an uncomfortable film to say the least—though not always for the reasons one might suspect. Oh, there’s no denying that Imamura’s depiction of the actual bombing of the city—and its immediate aftermath—is powerful. Indeed, this is perhaps the most horrific recreation of the events I’ve ever seen, despite an obviously constrained budget. It’s not just that Imamura offers a series of startlingly grim and unshakable images—the child with the blistered skin who is unrecognizable to his relative, the mother “comforting” a charred baby, the man wanting to know “where” Hiroshima is—much of it has to do with the way in which no one can actually comprehend what has happened, what could have possibly done this. Powerful as this is, it’s only a minor portion of the film, which is… 2009-11-18T04:00:10+00:00 http://www.mountainx.com/movies/review/raven http://www.mountainx.com/movies/review/raven#When:04:00:10Z The Hendersonville Film Society will show The Raven at 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 22, in the Smoky Mountain Theater at Lake Pointe Landing Retirement Community (behind Epic Cinemas), 333 Thompson St., Hendersonville. Review: After three more or less straight—or at least non-comedic—attempts at bringing Edgar Allan Poe’s work to the screen, Roger Corman opted to turn Poe’s poem “The Raven” into a comic horror/fantasy, with the aid of Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, Boris Karloff and a very young—and very awkward—Jack Nicholson, in his 1963 The Raven. The film is one of those creations that has its moments without being anywhere near what its pedigree suggests it ought to have been. The story is a simple one about battling 15th century magicians played with great enthusiasm by Messrs. Price, Lorre and Karloff, who are more childish than sinister, which is actually the point. Price is Dr. Erasmus Craven, a benign practitioner of magic, who spends most of his time—as one might expect, given the source poem—“mourning for the lost Lenore,” his late wife. Indeed, he’s been reciting the poem in question when a raven… 2009-11-18T04:00:10+00:00 http://www.mountainx.com/movies/review/education http://www.mountainx.com/movies/review/education#When:04:00:10Z The Story: A 16-year-old schoolgirl embarks on a romance with a somewhat mysterious 30-plus-year-old man. The Lowdown: A star-making performance from Carey Mulligan, a human and witty screenplay, and beautifully modulated direction make this an unusually accomplished coming-of-age story. Review: “I’m going to Paris, and I’m going to smoke and wear black and listen to Jacques Brel,” announces schoolgirl Jenny (Carey Mulligan) early on in Lone Scherfig’s An Education—a funny, touching, often extremely wise coming-of-age story set in the drab middle-class world of 1961 England, where such ideas as the ones she puts forth were radical and chic. This was pre-Beatles and very much pre-“Swinging London.” This was a world in which it seemed very likely that even the people doing the voices for children’s puppet shows on the BBC were wearing formal dinner clothes. It was also a world that was just itching to explode into something new, and though she doesn’t know it, Jenny is part of that explosion. It’s this world and Jenny’s place in it that Scherfig’s film—with the help of novelist Nick Hornby’s screenplay and a startling performance from Carey Mulligan—explores … 2009-11-18T04:00:10+00:00 http://www.mountainx.com/movies/review/more_than_a_game http://www.mountainx.com/movies/review/more_than_a_game#When:04:00:10Z The Story: A documentary focusing on the high-school exploits of NBA star LeBron James and his high-school basketball teammates. The Lowdown: A perfectly agreeable documentary, but it lacks flash and will only really be of interest to sports fans. Review: Kristopher Belman’s More Than a Game is a great example of a movie being perfectly fine given what it is. But even at that, what the film is just isn’t much. It’s a look at the high-school years of basketball superstar LeBron James, but the film is never able to transcend its standing as a gussied-up ESPN special. This, however, doesn’t stop Belman from a game attempt. The draw here, of course, is James, but the film is less about him than it is his relationship with his high-school teammates and their friendship. The movie begins with James and three best friends (Dru Joyce III, Sian Cotton, Willie McGee) all on their eighth-grade team, then follows the guys through high school and James’ sudden stardom and the media circus that followed. Presumably, the idea behind the movie was to create a real-life equivalent to the uplifting sports movie and mix it with a coming-of-age tale. There’s no shortage of drama … 2009-11-18T04:00:10+00:00 http://www.mountainx.com/movies/review/pirate_radio http://www.mountainx.com/movies/review/pirate_radio#When:04:00:10Z The Story: The story of renegade broadcasters operating from a ship off the coast of Great Britain in 1966. The Lowdown: An altogether splendid period piece about camaraderie and rock music with great performers, a killer sound track and a screenplay that’s as warm as it is witty. Review: I approached Richard Curtis’ Pirate Radio with serious trepidation. Here was a film that came out in the U.K. and Australia as an early-summer release called The Boat That Rocked. It drew mixed reviews and then languished over the summer, only to re-emerge stateside as Pirate Radio and cut by 20 minutes. Still, I’ve liked most of Curtis’ screenplays and truly loved his directorial debut, Love Actually (2003). Plus, the cast was better than good and the premise was solid, so I had cautious hope that it at least wasn’t going to be a disaster. The opening was brilliant, setting just the right tone for a movie that’s both a love letter to 1960s rock and a snapshot of a certain—peculiarly British—aspect of the era. I settled in with heightened expectations, only to find that the film seemed to have trouble quite defining what it was doing. All that changed about 15 minutes in with a quiet scene where c… 2009-11-18T04:00:10+00:00 http://www.mountainx.com/movies/review/twenty_twelve http://www.mountainx.com/movies/review/twenty_twelve#When:04:00:10Z The Story: Roland Emmerich’s take on what happens when the Mayan calendar runs out. The Lowdown: Grotesquely overlong and overproduced, but if you want to see the world end without actually being there, it’ll probably fill the bill. Review: No, it’s not good. Don’t be silly. It cost $260 million—none of which seems to have been spent on the screenplay—and it’s either dumber than your proverbial box of rocks, or it’s the savviest put-on imaginable. I’d kind of like to believe the latter, but the collected works of director/co-writer Roland Emmerich argue against that. This is the guy who gave us Independence Day (1996), Godzilla (1998), The Day After Tomorrow (2006) and 10,000 B.C. (2008). In other words, Emmerich is a filmmaker with a seemingly endless taste for property destruction and a mind that doesn’t boggle at the idea of people being able to outrun the cold (Day After Tomorrow) or woolly mammoths being used to build the pyramids (10,000 B.C.). ‘Nuff said. Although it’s grounded in the dubious belief that the Mayan calendar predicts that the world will end on December 21, 2012, the film is only fl… 2009-11-18T04:00:10+00:00 http://www.mountainx.com/movies/review/awara http://www.mountainx.com/movies/review/awara#When:04:00:10Z Classic Cinema From Around the World will show Awara at 8 p.m. Friday, Nov. 13, at Courtyard Gallery, 9 Walnut St., downtown Asheville. Info: 273-3332. Review: When I sat down to watch Raj Kapoor’s Awara (1951) I groaned at the prospect that rather than the 168-minute British print, it might turn out to be the 193-minute Indian version—168 minutes later, I’m almost sorry it wasn’t the 193-minute print. Wow—what a show! It’s definitely not like anything I’ve ever seen before—simply because it’s like about 30 things I’ve seen before, but all packed into one movie. Yes, I know the basic notion of the Bollywood film as a kind of grab bag cinema that stops dead for production numbers and isn’t necessarily known for being too good to wantonly “borrow” from other movies. And this certainly falls into that realm, but it’s also bizarrely brilliant in and of itself. Everything about the film is fascinating—including the connections of its cast. Hindi superstar Raj Kapoor co-stars with his offscreen lover, Nargis. His father in the film, P… 2009-11-11T04:00:10+00:00 http://www.mountainx.com/movies/review/chocolat1 http://www.mountainx.com/movies/review/chocolat1#When:04:00:10Z The Hendersonville Film Society will show Chocolat at 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 15, in the Smoky Mountain Theater at Lake Pointe Landing Retirement Community (behind Epic Cinemas), 333 Thompson St., Hendersonville. Review: Since it played here on its original release at Christmas 2000, Lasse Hallström’s Chocolat has cropped back up on local screens at least twice—maybe more. Well, it’s back again, because the Hendersonville Film Society is doing an “A to Z” theme this month and wanted something that began with a “c.” Fair enough. It’s a good choice, but it’s also a choice I’m written out on. Couldn’t they have picked Caligula (1979)? That starts with a “c,” too, and it would give me an excuse to see it. For more on Chocolat,  see http://www.mountainx.com/movies/review/chocolat.php. 2009-11-11T04:00:10+00:00 http://www.mountainx.com/movies/review/men_who_stare_at_goats http://www.mountainx.com/movies/review/men_who_stare_at_goats#When:04:00:10Z The Story: A fact-based—at least in part—comedy about the U.S. Army’s experiments in the use of psychic powers. The Lowdown: An enjoyable, often very funny film that never quite crosses the line to be the defining satire it seems to have had in mind. Review: Any film that combines the talents of George Clooney, Ewan McGregor and Jeff Bridges, features the Small Faces’ “Itchykoo Park” on the sound track, and dares to call itself The Men Who Stare at Goats has to be onto something. And Grant Heslov’s The Men Who Stare at Goats is. It is also, unfortunately, not the great movie I’d hoped for—and cautiously anticipated. Instead, it’s a likable little movie that feels more indie than most indies, isn’t afraid to shamble along, and, sadly, seems oblivious to the fact that it’s in dire need of a bigger ending. The film has a loopy charm that just gets it past the things that don’t quite work. Just the right tone is set by the opening disclaimer that informs the viewer that what’s about to appear on the screen contains a lot more truth than is likely to be believed. In other words, The Men Who Stare at Goats is based on fact, but it’s an… 2009-11-11T04:00:10+00:00 http://www.mountainx.com/movies/review/christmas_carol http://www.mountainx.com/movies/review/christmas_carol#When:04:00:10Z The Story: Charles Dickens’ classic Christmas ghost story gets the Disney treatment. The Lowdown: An overblown, but occasionally interesting, version of the story that often seems more like a theme-park ride than a serious attempt at telling the tale. Review: It’s not by any means accidental that the opening title reads, “Disney’s A Christmas Carol,” since whatever else this latest take on Charles Dickens’ story is, it’s Disney-fied to the teeth. Nearly everything about the film is bigger, glossier, broader and more desperate to make an impression than it needs to be. It’s a film so determined to make you notice it, that it comes across like an obnoxious child screaming, “Look at me!” It’s less a movie than the plans for a theme-park ride—a feeling that’s exacerbated by letting director Robert Zemeckis loose on it with his beloved motion-capture animation. The creepy, rubbery-faced characters might have been remonkeyed from figures out of the Hall of Presidents or the Country Bear Jamboree. The funny thing about all this is that while I disliked this version of A Christmas Carol, I didn’t actually loathe it with every fiber of my b… 2009-11-11T04:00:10+00:00 http://www.mountainx.com/movies/review/box http://www.mountainx.com/movies/review/box#When:04:00:10Z The Story: A couple in financial straits is given a box with a button on top, which—if they decide to press the button—will give them $1 million, but also kill someone they do not know. The Lowdown: A surprisingly engaging thriller that’s too odd and un-Hollywood—but in a fascinating kind of way—to be for everyone. Review: In 2001, director Richard Kelly made Donnie Darko, a strange little movie with teenagers about time travel and predestination. The film became a cult hit, but it’s ultimately more clever than good. One can only assume that this modest success gave Kelly the leeway to make Southland Tales (2006), a bloated, sprawling, odd film that might best be described as a bizarre mix of Paul Thomas Anderson, David Lynch, Phillip K. Dick, Repo Man (1984), a plethora of divergent pop-culture references and a cast full of B-list celebrities. Needless to say, the movie bombed at Cannes and did no better after being re-cut and barely getting a stateside release. So, it’d be no surprise to find Kelly reined in and forced to make a simple, straightforward thriller with The Box—and for a bit, this appears to be exactly the case. The film’s setup is based as much on Richard Matheson’s short story “Button, Button” as it … 2009-11-11T04:00:10+00:00 http://www.mountainx.com/movies/review/fourth_kind http://www.mountainx.com/movies/review/fourth_kind#When:04:00:10Z The Story: An utterly bogus “fact-based” tale of alien abduction. The Lowdown: Dishonest, tedious and lacking in the way of thrills, this is one of the key films to miss this year. Review: The first line in The Fourth Kind has Milla Jovovich calling herself an “actress,” so we know right away the film is lying. OK, calling herself an actress may not quite be lying, but it’s certainly either hyperbole or wishful thinking—something Ms. Jovovich proceeds to prove for the next 96 minutes in her portrayal of Dr. Abigail Tyler, an Alaskan psychologist. The story claims that Tyler, along with a number of her patients, has been playing guinea pig to a bunch of space aliens who appear to them in the guise of white owls—one of which has seemingly stabbed (or perhaps pecked) Tyler’s husband to death. Director/writer Olatunde Osunsanmi’s premise is that his film is a blend of archival footage involving the “real” Abigail Tyler and her patients, interviews with Tyler (conducted by the director himself) and Hollywoodified dramatic recreations of the events depicted. To this end, the players have on-screen … 2009-11-11T04:00:10+00:00 http://www.mountainx.com/movies/review/breaking_in http://www.mountainx.com/movies/review/breaking_in#When:04:00:10Z The Hendersonville Film Society will show Breaking In at 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 8, in the Smoky Mountain Theater at Lake Pointe Landing Retirement Community (behind Epic Cinemas), 333 Thompson St., Hendersonville. Review: Despite containing one of Burt Reynolds’ best performances, Bill Forsyth’s Breaking In (1989) did no more for the Scottish filmmaker’s Hollywood career than Housekeeping (1987) had. Of course, it didn’t help that the film had about zero name value apart from Reynolds, was mis-marketed as a comedy/heist movie and came out through Sam Goldwyn. I suppose it was not exactly unreasonable to present the film as a caper comedy, since there is a caper and the film is amusing and doesn’t end with a tragedy. The problem is that the caper is neither particularly elaborate nor impressive, and the comedy is fairly tame. What you actually have here is a small-scale character comedy about the relationship between a seasoned thief, Ernie (Reynolds), and the young man, Mike (Casey Siemaszko), he takes under his wing as an apprentice. It’s a pleasant, shambling affair from the days before independent film became as formulaic as its mainstream … 2009-11-04T04:00:10+00:00 http://www.mountainx.com/movies/review/h-man http://www.mountainx.com/movies/review/h-man#When:04:00:10Z Classic Cinema From Around the World will show The H-Man at 8 p.m. Friday, Nov. 6, at Courtyard Gallery, 9 Walnut St., downtown Asheville. Info: 273-3332. Review: While not as iconic as his Godzilla (1954), the always interesting—and generally underrated—Ishirô Honda created one of his best works with The H-Man (1958), a strange mix of sci-fi, horror and gangsters. In some ways, the film is largely of a piece with much of Honda’s work—especially his 1950s output—in that it’s grounded in fears of the result of nuclear radiation. That preoccupation isn’t all that surprising given the country of origin where the specter of a nuclear attack was something more than a “what if” scenario. The film gets down to this point in its very first shot—a hydrogen-bomb test. Rather than awakening—and transforming—some gigantic mythical beast (as in Godzilla), The H-Man concerns itself directly with the possibility of the effects of nuclear fallout on human beings. In the context of the film, the fallout produces the H-Man—a kind of li… 2009-11-04T04:00:10+00:00 http://www.mountainx.com/movies/review/one_crazy_ride_riding_solo_to_the_top_of_the_world http://www.mountainx.com/movies/review/one_crazy_ride_riding_solo_to_the_top_of_the_world#When:04:00:10Z One Crazy Ride will be shown at 8 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 7, and Riding Solo at 3 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 8, both at the Carolina Asheville Cinema 14. Riding Solo will also be screened at 8 p.m. Friday, Nov. 6, at Firestorm Cafe & Books. All screenings are free admission. Review: I cringed when I was asked to take a look at these two travel documentaries by Gaurav Jani done from motorcycles. They simply didn’t sound particularly appealing—and all the buildup I was given about Jani’s do-it-yourself filmmaking wasn’t helping matters. What a pleasant surprise the films turned out to be! Jani’s approach may be do-it-yourself, but what he does himself is more often than not visually stunning—even breathtaking. Both films are, as noted, travel documentaries. One Crazy Ride involves Jani and a small group of other motorcyclists as they make their way across uncharted roads in the Himalayan state of Arunachal Pradesh in northeast India. Riding Solo to the Top of the World features Jani doing a kind of Survivorman shtick as he travels from Mumbai to the remote Changthang Plateau in Ladakh, bordering China. The films are both visual treats and offer some interesting insights into the peopl… 2009-11-04T04:00:10+00:00 http://www.mountainx.com/movies/review/paris http://www.mountainx.com/movies/review/paris#When:04:00:10Z The Story: A multi-storied film about the lives of a number of people in Paris. The Lowdown: An often brilliant drama—or series of dramas—that focuses more on characters than plot, resulting in a satisfying, if not quite great, work. Review: When I saw the name of the writer/director of Paris, Cédric Klapisch, I had to look him up and discovered that I had seen—and reviewed—one of his films, L’Auberge Espagnole (2002). That was a film I’d greatly enjoyed, but one that did not stick in my mind, which makes me wonder whether this film—which I also enjoyed a good deal—will linger in the memory. Though similar in tone to L’Auberge Espagnole—just replace the small space of the house with the much grander canvas of Paris—I have an idea that Klapisch’s multi-storied ode to Paris has greater staying power. Whatever the case, as it stands now, I really liked the film—even at its most convoluted and soapy. I didn’t even mind the predictable sudden death of a character on a motorcycle. (There’s a certain way that characters on motorcycles are photographed in some movies that tells you tragedy is literally around the corn… 2009-11-04T04:00:10+00:00 http://www.mountainx.com/movies/review/coco_before_chanel http://www.mountainx.com/movies/review/coco_before_chanel#When:04:00:10Z The Story: The early life of Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel, charting her rise from poverty to the very edge of being the name in fashion. The Lowdown: A nicely drawn, beautifully produced biopic that benefits from a clear idea of what it wants and a wonderful performance from its star, Audrey Tautou. Review: Anne Fontaine’s Coco Before Chanel—a film that purports to show how Gabrielle Chanel became the world-famous Coco Chanel—is a perfect example of a sound approach to the biopic. Rather than wander all over the place trying to stuff an entire life into a couple hours of screen time, Fontaine’s film settles on a defining part of its subject’s life and focuses on it. In so doing, Fontaine—with the help of a nuanced performance from Audrey Tautou—manages to create a film that captures both the essence of its subject and the times and circumstances that helped to shape her. Compare this with Mira Nair’s Amelia—a sprawling work that barely bothers to address what formed Amelia Earhart—and you’ll see all the difference in the world. The film traces Gabrielle’s life from the abandonment of her and her sister at an orphanage to the very point of her emergence on the fashion scene—with a… 2009-11-04T04:00:10+00:00 http://www.mountainx.com/movies/review/play_the_game http://www.mountainx.com/movies/review/play_the_game#When:04:00:10Z The Story: A twentysomething attempts to teach his elderly grandfather how to “play the game of love” while also trying to woo his own dream girl. The Lowdown: Dull, formulaic, uninspired, stylistically inert tripe that’s better suited as lower-tier film-festival fodder or maybe as an insomnia aid. Review: Marc Fienberg’s Play the Game is being billed as “Andy Griffith as you’ve never seen him before.” I can safely say this is true: I have never watched Andy Griffith feign an orgasm while having his, uh, Opie orally satisfied by Liz Sheridan after she slips him a Viagra mickey. The real question is, however, was this something I needed to see? The answer, of course, is a resounding probably not. Just don’t tell writer/director Fienberg and the film’s producers this—they’ve basically mortgaged the entire film on the idea people actually want to watch this kind of thing, so much so that it pops up again after the credits. It’s not so much a problem with sexual frankness in this particular scene or the movie in general, but rather how hammy and juvenile it is the way it’s handled. The film’s jokey sitcom humor and its sexual attitude of a pack of roaming high schoolers turns the movie into a … 2009-11-04T04:00:10+00:00 http://www.mountainx.com/movies/review/thirst http://www.mountainx.com/movies/review/thirst#When:04:00:10Z The Story: A Catholic priest recieves a blood transfusion that turns him into a vampire. The Lowdown: A long, unusual, thoughtful, bloody and frequently very funny horror film from Park Chan-wook that rethinks—or at least reshuffles—the vampire movie. Review: When I found out I was going to be subjected to 133 minutes of Korean vampire movie at a 10 a.m. press screening, I was, to put it mildly, able to contain my joy. I know Korean horror movies are highly prized in some quarters, but the few I’ve seen haven’t convinced me that they aren’t in many ways prized more for simply not being in English than anything else. You know, the old sense of feeling culturally inferior to everyone else. Of course, when our idea of vampires is Twilight (2008) and Sweden’s is Let the Right One In (2008), it’s no longer a feeling, it is cultural inferiority. That, of course, doesn’t immediately mean that every foreign-language vampire movie is golden, but in the case of Park Chan-wook’s Thirst we’re at least in some pretty interesting territory. Thirst isn’t in the same league as Let the Right One In. It is neither as radical a rethinking of the … 2009-11-04T04:00:10+00:00 http://www.mountainx.com/movies/review/michael_jacksons_this_is_it http://www.mountainx.com/movies/review/michael_jacksons_this_is_it#When:04:00:10Z The Story: A behind-the-scenes look at the creation of Michael Jackson’s This Is It show that was nearly ready to be performed at the time of Jackson’s death. The Lowdown: While your taste for this will depend almost entirely on your fondness or lack thereof for Michael Jackson, the film itself is an intriguing look at his creative process. Review: I am not a Michael Jackson fan. This is not a movie made with me in mind. I watched Jackson’s career strictly from the sidelines. I saw most—maybe all—of the music videos from his Thriller album only because they were inescapable if you watched MTV at all in 1983. Even though I never owned a Michael Jackson album, it was impossible not to have some knowledge of his music—to say nothing of his well-publicized and downright peculiar tabloid-driven life. My overall take was that Jackson was talented, strange and troubled. He crafted catchy pop songs that were simply not my cup of tea—and still aren’t. So I approached Michael Jackson’s This Is It as a non-fan, who nonetheless recognized Jackson’s merits without having any personal investment in them. I must say I was surprised at how interesting—and well done—This Is It turned out to be. Actually, it’s something more than interesting: … 2009-11-04T04:00:10+00:00 http://www.mountainx.com/movies/review/all_that_jazz http://www.mountainx.com/movies/review/all_that_jazz#When:04:00:10Z The Hendersonville Film Society will show All That Jazz at 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 1, in the Smoky Mountain Theater at Lake Pointe Landing Retirement Community (behind Epic Cinemas), 333 Thompson St., Hendersonville. Review: It’s big, it’s colorful, it’s brassy, it’s as egotistical as movies get—and it’s pretty pleased with its own cleverness. It’s Bob Fosse’s All That Jazz (1979), and whatever else it is, it’s not exactly like anything else—even if parts of it are like a lot of other things. In fact one of its original reviewers tagged it as a combination of “the worst of Fellini, the worst of Ken Russell and the the worst of 1940s Hollywood.” It’s not hard to see why. The Fellini is inescapable. Fosse almost might have called the film 8 1/2 with its story of a director trying to pull off projects and deal with his increasingly tangled personal life—not to mention the various mystical embellishments that crop up. The Russell mostly lies in the tone of the fantasy sequences, though there are more specific references. And the ‘40s Hollywood—well, let’s just say that the &#822… 2009-10-28T04:00:10+00:00 http://www.mountainx.com/movies/review/herb_and_dorothy http://www.mountainx.com/movies/review/herb_and_dorothy#When:04:00:10Z Herb and Dorothy will be presented by the Asheville Art Museum for one show only Thursday, Oct. 29, at 7 p.m. at the Fine Arts Theatre. Review: Herb and Dorothy (2008) tells the fascinating story of a pair of art lovers without much in the way of means—he’s a postal clerk; she’s a librarian—who still managed to build one of the most important collections of contemporary art. This is one of those documentaries that isn’t going to set the world on fire as filmmaking (there’s little in it that’s especially creative or unusual on that front), but nevertheless succeeds by offering a unique and compelling story that seems almost incredible. Herb and Dorothy Vogel met in 1960, and he introduced her to the world of art—while learning about it himself. The two even tried their hands at being artists themselves, an idea that gradually gave way to collecting rather than creating. What’s most interesting about this is the way in which Herb views this change without any sense of feeling thwarted. Instead, he sees it as a natural transition. Of course, … 2009-10-28T04:00:10+00:00 http://www.mountainx.com/movies/review/kika http://www.mountainx.com/movies/review/kika#When:04:00:10Z Classic Cinema From Around the World will show Kika at 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 30, at Courtyard Gallery, 9 Walnut St., downtown Asheville. Info: 273-3332. Review: One of the most underrated of Pedro Almodóvar’s films, Kika (1993) is nonetheless a great deal of not-exactly-wholesome fun of the kind that only Almodóvar can provide. Indeed, while it’s far from his best film, it stands a pretty good chance of being the filmmaker’s most gleefully twisted one—and if you know your Almodóvar, you know that’s saying a lot. Packed into one film we have a naive nymphomaniac, a lothario serial killer, a disturbed young man with bouts of catatonia, a lesbian housekeeper who’s constantly coming on to her employer, the housekeeper’s mentally-challenged escaped-convict-porn-star-rapist brother and a tabloid TV personality with a special videographer suit complete with movie lights for breasts. And, yes, of course, it’s all housed in a trashy plot of pop-culture contrivances—even down to a mystery that’s solved by watching Joseph Losey’s The Prowler (… 2009-10-28T04:00:10+00:00 http://www.mountainx.com/movies/review/baader_meinhof_complex http://www.mountainx.com/movies/review/baader_meinhof_complex#When:04:00:10Z The Story: The story of the rise and fall of the originators of the German terrorist group the Red Army Faction. The Lowdown: Unblinking in its violence and complex in its epic structure, this is powerful, unsettling filmmaking. Review: Do not be put off by a title that suggests some sort of psychological dissertation. Do not be cowed by the fact that Uli Edel’s The Baader Meinhof Complex is in German with English subtitles (there are occasional outbursts of English) or that it’s two-and-a-half-hours long. This is one of the most compelling films to come along in a while—and, believe it or not, it’s also what could be called “action-packed.” Don’t, however, assume that “action-packed” means mindless explosions, car chases and shootings à la Michael Bay. The action here is brutal and, while often excitingly staged, is not a glorification of violence, nor is it used gratuitously. This is a richly detailed, emotionally complex, character-filled examination of the German terrorist group the Red Army Faction (RAF) from the late 1960s through the late 1970s. Its origins as part of the overall political turmoil of 1968 are sketched in, but t… 2009-10-28T04:00:10+00:00 http://www.mountainx.com/movies/review/amelia http://www.mountainx.com/movies/review/amelia#When:04:00:10Z The Story: Biopic of Amelia Earhart structured as flashbacks during her final flight in 1937. The Lowdown: A glossy, superficial bio that won’t frighten the horses, but might put them to sleep. Review: If you took out the tepidly explored notions of an “open marriage” and the vaguest reference imaginable to possible bisexuality, Mira Nair’s Amelia could easily have been made in 1945. Even the depiction of Amelia Earhart’s (Hilary Swank) extra-marital affair with Gene Vidal (Ewan McGregor) is handled so decorously that it seems little more than our heroine making a faux pas by using the wrong fork at a formal dinner. In short, this is a rather dull, totally unadventurous biopic. The question arises as to just why someone would want to make an unadventurous film about an adventurous woman? That question becomes even more perplexing when you realize that this was done by Mira Nair, who isn’t typically associated with dull movies. Actually, Amelia isn’t as bad as the reviews would lead you to believe. There are, in fact, good things in it—not the least of which is Hilary Swank’s performance, and I am … 2009-10-28T04:00:10+00:00