Marty: Breaking the Rut

Betsy Blair and Ernest Borgnine. Photo: MGM Paddy Chayefsky originally wrote this story as a teleplay, which was filmed in 1953 as part of The Goodyear Television Playhouse, an anthology…

Ben-Hur: The Gospel of Judah

Charlton Heston. Photo: MGM The kind of film that starts with a five-minute overture, Ben-Hur is about as classic a 1950s Hollywood blockbuster as they come. Burt Lancaster was reportedly…

The Karate Kid 

Dre Parker (Jaden Smith) and his mother (Taraji P. Henson) move to China; the boy is bullied in school by a kid who doesn't like the newcomer, but Dre turns…

X-Men Origins: Wolverine 

In the 1840s, a young boy discovers that he has special powers; 160 years later, he's a veteran of every American conflict since the Civil War, but is about to…

Last Year at Marienbad: Haunting Memories

Photo: Cocinor I remember watching this French New Wave classic in film school, being oddly fascinated by it even though we watched many other similarly slow-going movies that were anything…

The Serpent’s Way 

In 19th century northern Sweden, a widow (Stina Ekblad) loses her home to a salesman (Ernst Günther) who makes her a deal; it’s the beginning of a humiliation that will…

Glowing Stars 

Liv (Annika Hallin) and her 13-year-old daughter (Josefine Mattsson) are planning a trip to Thailand, but when Liv’s cancer gets worse they temporarily move in with her strict mother (Anki…

Westworld 

Some time in the future, two tourists (Richard Benjamin, James Brolin) go to Westworld, a theme park built like a city in the Old West where the gunslingers are played…

The Queen and I: Behind a Monarch’s Veil

Queen Farah and Nahid Persson Sarvestani. Photo: SVT Nahid Persson Sarvestani grew up in the town of Shiraz, Iran in the 1960s and ’70s. Life was simple, but as a…