A blistering look at amorous alienation in which scenes of graphic sex underscore the differences between physical and emotional intimacy, Patrice Chéreau’s Intimacy pulsates with desperate, miserable passion. Having up and left his wife and kids, Jay (a magnificent Mark Rylance) spends his nights working as chief bartender at a trendy club and his days…

Lars von Trier returns to Dogville’s chalk-outlined stage with Manderlay, the second act of his “America” trilogy in which martyr-turned-righteous avenger Grace (Bryce Dallas Howard, somewhat more soft and childish than predecessor Nicole Kidman) discovers that slavery still exists, 70 years after its abolition, on the titular 1933 Alabama plantation. Well-intentioned but wholly ignorant of…

As with Rosetta and The Son (the latter of which has grown on me tremendously since my original, somewhat critical, review), Belgian auteurs Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne’s L’Enfant (aka The Child) is another rigorously austere masterpiece infused with intense humanism. The Dardennes’ documentary-influenced stylistic trademarks (watchful hand-held cinematography positioned behind characters, drab on-location sets, no…

There’s not much to say about Roman Polanski’s Oliver Twist other than that it faithfully reproduces Charles Dickens’ novel without markedly improving upon David Lean’s lush 1948 version. Beginning with a woodcut opening credit sequence transforming into a live-action scene, Polanski’s film captures the grimy, unforgiving nastiness of a Victorian London in which maltreated young…

Fantabulous transvestite Patrick “Kitten” Brady (Cillian Murphy) haphazardly drifts through the ‘60s and ‘70s in Neil Jordan’s magic surrealism-tinged fable Breakfast on Pluto, a peculiar concoction made up of The Crying Game’s gender-bending and The Butcher Boy’s period realism. Kitten’s escapades serve as a filter for Jordan’s examination of the era’s political and social upheaval,…

The first of six upcoming hi-def movies from Steven Soderbergh (all of which will be simultaneously released by HDNet films in theaters, on TV, and on DVD), Bubble is a far cry from Full Frontal, the director’s previous (awful) collaboration with screenwriter Coleman Hough. Set in small town Ohio and populated by a cast of…

Chronicling the nightlong odyssey of ulcerous alcoholic Lazarescu (Ion Fiscuteanu) during which he journeys back and forth between Bucharest hospitals hoping to be cured of various fatal ailments, Cristi Puiu’s stunning The Death of Mr. Lazarescu is a prolonged, uncomfortable experience akin to sitting in a foreboding doctor’s office waiting room with a group of…

Thought forever lost, Sam Woods’ 1922 melodrama Beyond the Rocks was recently discovered in a Netherlands museum with only two minutes of footage found to be beyond repair. Restored and screened at this year’s 43rd New York Film Festival, this unique piece of silent cinema is notable for pairing two of the era’s biggest stars,…

Atom Egoyan attempts to expose the seedy underbelly of glamorous 1950s showbiz with Where the Truth Lies, somehow not realizing that few still retain any illusions about their matinee idols’ moral spotlessness. Pill-popping Vince Collins (Colin Firth) and sex fiend Lanny Morris (Kevin Bacon) are a Martin and Lewis-style tag-team who, twenty-odd years after their…