This is a banner weekend for movies at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Not only are they unspooling a retrospective on the Quay Brothers but they are also unreeling a bona fide classic war (or anti war if you’re reading the signs) movie, Gillo Pontecorvo’s The Battle of Algiers. Pontecorvo broke the mold on war procedural movies with Battle of Algiers (1966), a film that examines France’s war with Algeria in the late ‘50s. A film on urban guerilla war, Battle of Algiers exists as a blank canvas of battle that can be read two ways. In one sense ... Read More »

The Dick Van Dyke Show: The Complete Series Blu-ray Box Set (Image Entertainment, 11/13) combines all five seasons of the landmark ‘60s sit com along with an incredible array of extras. You want to pace yourself here and with this much material you can return to the glorious days of black and white for months on end. There are 158 episodes and yet that’s the tip of the iceberg as nearly every one of the 15 discs has awesome extras. People who didn’t live through the golden era of television may be hard pressed to recall how solid the writing ... Read More »

Malcolm McDowell doesn’t always play the bad guy or exclusively star in horror movies, and in fact if you gazed at his over 100 credits you’d notice an equal number of regular roles as villainous ones. For every appearance in a Silent Hill or Halloween movie McDowell has also played a principal in movies like Easy A or done a voice-over in an animated film like Bolt. “We just got renewed for a third season,” McDowell tells Free Press Houston in an exclusive interview regarding the series Franklin & Bash. “I like being on that show because it’s a fun ... Read More »

Hitchcock is a movie about famous dead people played by famous contempo actors. With a lesser cast this biopic helmed by Sacha Gervasi (Anvil: The Story of Anvil) would be a cable movie. As Hitchcock stands it bears interest mainly because of the talent on display and the scenery mulching skills of leads Anthony Hopkins and Helen Mirren as Mr. and Mrs. Hitchcock. (“Mr. Hitchcock.” “Just Hitch, hold the cock.”) It was easy enough recognizing modern thesps fitting into historical characters like a tight glove: Scarlett Johansson as Janet Leigh, Danny Huston as Whitfield Cook, Toni Colette as Hitch’s secretary, ... Read More »

Killing Them Softly will absolutely bowl you over. Basically a crime drama, KTS walks quietly and carries a big stick. While the whole affair starts to unwind you keep expecting a conventional approach to a tale about the robbery of a mob run gambling den, but thankfully KTS never moves with any semblance of conventionality. Not to say it’s experimental; rather it’s a talky character study highlighted by overcast cinematography. Killing Them Softly has the highest pedigree one could hope for. It’s based on a novel by George Higgins who also wrote The Friends of Eddie Coyle. Coyle was made ... Read More »

Cut To The Chase: The Charley Chase Comedy Collection (11/6) offers five hours of comedy shorts on two discs, many directed by Leo McCarey (Duck Soup) between 1924-26. Chase has been hidden but not forgotten by time, overshadowed by true innovators of cinema like Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. Chase will make you smile but next to Chaplin or Keaton watching his silent two-reelers is practically academic. Some of the actors that appear in the Chase comedies would go on to prominent careers of their own in the ‘30s, like Fay Wray (King Kong) or Oliver Hardy (part of the ... Read More »

This Thanksgiving week some of the best films of the year open: Silver Linings Playbook, Life of Pi and Anna Karenina. (There’s no “the” in these titles putting the weight on the first word.) All three, besides being based on previous novels, offer unconventional approaches to cinema. If you go to the cinema on a regular basis these films will be like movie manna. If you see less than a dozen films a year you will find that these films appeal to the discriminating viewer. If you see a couple of films a year, what are you doing here? Silver ... Read More »

In the spring of 1940, French director Marcel Pagnol began working on his film The Well-Digger’s Daughter. That same year the northern half of France fell under German occupation. Although Pagnol’s work was forced to take a three- month intermission,that same year in December, The Well-Digger’s Daughter was released in France’s unoccupied southern zone. Whether or not Pagnol anticipated the Nazi regime’s rule when he undertook making the Well-Digger’s Daughter remains unclear; regardless, the premiere of this sentimental drama could not have come at a better time for the dispirited French. The hyperbolized story of The Well-Digger’s Daughter offered temporary relief when the forward-thinking nation of France had ... Read More »

No matter which way you want to view Red Dawn the film is a win win situation. On one hand it’s a rah rah go team America narrative. On the other hand it’s an apt allegory for America’s invasion of Iraq and how a guerilla insurgence can never be truly defeated. Red Dawn, opening wide this week, depicts an invasion of the Pacific Northwest by North Korean troops and in fact is a remake of a 1984 film by the same name where Soviet and Cuban troops invade Colorado. In both cases a group of teens and young adults go ... Read More »

How do some films fall through the cracks? This Must Be The Place deserves some love for its view of life that is both severe and serene. TMBTP was made nearly two years ago; a collaboration of Italian helmer Paolo Sorrentino (Il Divo) and actor Sean Penn. Penn plays a make-up wearing rocker named Cheyenne who lives, while not quite a recluse, a sheltered life. Having made millions during the close of the new wave era Cheyenne now lives in a manse in Ireland with his wife (Frances McDormand), refuses to play music and makes even more money playing the ... Read More »