Atlanta‘s Hometown News Site

The sheep in THE SHEEP DETECTIVES know far more about people than people would probably like, although they don’t always understand what they’ve heard. (Yep, you heard that right) Their shepherd reads murder mysteries out loud, conversations drift across the pasture, and scraps of human behavior slowly become the basis for an entire worldview. That makes their attempt to understand death both funny and strangely affecting. They may get the details wrong, but some of their conclusions about the humans around them are uncomfortably accurate.

During SHOGUN’S NINJA, it becomes clear that nobody involved was particularly concerned about whether all of this belonged in the same movie. Sword fights and clan rivalries share the screen with flying ninjas, hidden treasure, years of revenge plotting, and a soundtrack that occasionally seems to have come in from another decade. Director Norifumi Suzuki keeps piling one choice on top of another until the excess becomes part of the fun. Trying to make sense of the combination almost feels beside the point. Yet, somehow, with all of this, it just works.

BLEEDER shows us a man who gets paid to take a beating, and writer/director Jeremy Max wastes very little of the film’s 17 minutes explaining why anyone would willingly live like that. The money matters, but the punishment does too. Physical pain gives Bleeder something to concentrate on, something easier to understand than the grief waiting for him when his body gets a chance to recover. What initially sounds like an extreme way to make a living gradually reveals itself as a carefully maintained form of avoidance.

Val Kilmer spends much of the runtime of THE SAINT disappearing into one identity after another, and the disguises are a big part of what makes his version of Simon Templar so entertaining. Phillip Noyce also gets some mileage out of the idea that changing his face, voice, and personality comes easier to Simon than letting anyone see who he actually is. That gives the movie a little more to work with than the elaborate cons and international intrigue surrounding him.

Laura Mathews is supposed to help Ben Jordan adapt to life after spending 15 years in prison for murder. The more time she spends with him, the less certain she becomes that he belonged there in the first place. That gradually pulls her beyond the limits of her job and into a case where sympathy, attraction, and her belief in Ben become increasingly difficult to separate.

ENEMY AT THE GATES takes place during the Battle of Stalingrad, but director/co-write Jean-Jacques Annaud is just as interested in the stories being told about the fighting; he’s looking at something deeper than just the fighting itself. Vasily Zaitsev’s skill as a sniper makes him valuable for reasons beyond the soldiers he kills, as the Soviet army turns his success into a symbol meant to give its people something to believe in.

Matt Larkin thinks he’s destroying his carefully arranged future for love. The reality is that he’s doing it because he wants to become the sort of person who would destroy his future for love. That gives FRESH HORSES more substance than its reputation suggests, even when the film struggles to understand the young woman placed at the center of Matt’s awakening. There’s something here that I wish the story would have looked deeper into.

FATHER MOTHER SISTER BROTHER finds Jim Jarmusch observing families who have plenty to say to one another but rarely know how to say it. That’s such an interesting exploration of what family means and how it functions. Across its three stories, conversations drift around resentment, silences and the rituals people fall back on when genuine connection becomes difficult.

A throne can somehow even be emptier with a king sitting on it. KING OF THE IRON WILL understands that rule is partly a performance, sustained by ceremony, architecture, fear, and the expectation that everyone else will continue believing. When those supports disappear, the crown remains, but its authority begins to resemble costume jewelry resting on the head of a lonely man.

Adults often misunderstand a quiet child for an uninformed one. Dovile watches her parents discuss living arrangements, conceal resentments, contradict their own principles, and pretend that the family remains manageable. She also hears reports of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, observes the adults around her judging one another’s responses, and absorbs fears that no one has explained. Her face becomes an unofficial record of everything Marija and Vytas believe they’re keeping from her.

TO USE A MOUNTAIN spends most of its runtime in communities that can look different depending on who is doing the looking. To federal agencies searching for places to bury nuclear waste, these stretches of Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, Utah, Washington, and Nevada can be evaluated through their geology, distance, and risk. For the people already living there, none of those places are empty land waiting to be studied.

BLOOD SHINE doesn’t portray Brighton West as an innocent man trapped in the wrong house. He carries the entitlement of a filmmaker accustomed to controlling the room, the story, and the women placed in front of his camera. His captivity is horrifying, but Emily Bennett and Justin Brooks refuse to make it morally uncomplicated. Brighton may not deserve what happens to him, though the film understands that victimhood doesn’t retroactively erase the person he was before the door closed.

What type of horror/war film can you make in just twelve minutes? Well, you’d be shocked! The first warning comes through the fog. It isn’t a clear sighting or sudden attack, but a sound traveling across the battlefield with no understanding of where, or what it came from. The soldiers listening from their trench can’t identify it, and the darkness refuses to surrender an answer. TRENCH OF THE DAMNED understands that the unseen can be more frightening than an immediate confrontation, using the uncertainty of No Man’s Land to turn a temporary ceasefire into twelve tightly controlled minutes of dread.

Ricky and Billy possess the confidence of people who have learned just enough to believe they understand everything, a dangerous combination. They know their neighborhood park is threatened, recognize that local politics favors money over sentiment, and correctly assume that ordinary citizens have little influence over the outcome. Their mistake is thinking a fraudulent campaign fundraiser and a cryptocurrency can somehow correct that imbalance without destroying their own lives.

A “machine” doesn’t have to hate anyone to ruin a life. It only needs authority, data, and a population trained to interpret its conclusions as truth. CERTAIN THOMAS builds its dystopia around that chillingly ordinary proposition, imagining a society in which mathematical certainty has replaced moral judgment rather than merely assisting it. There’s no unstable computer broadcasting its intention to conquer humanity.

The command in the title sounds like something printed above a kitchen sink, which is precisely why it becomes sinister. BLESSED: LIVE, LAUGH, RUN! takes the language of reassurance and exposes the control hiding beneath it. Katie Madonna Lee’s 67-minute horror feature is angry, and visibly handmade. Its limitations are never difficult to spot, though neither is the conviction behind it.

POPEYE becomes easier to appreciate over time, because once we move on from the perceived expectations, the film can stand on its own. Robert Altman didn’t turn the sailor into a streamlined studio flick with songs, conflicts, and jokes aimed directly at children. He built an entire town (literally), filled it with eccentrics, and let Popeye wander through the streets and their lives as though he had stumbled into one of Altman’s ensemble dramas.

The sun in CELESTE IN THE SUMMER hangs over a day that refuses to end, bathing gatherings, conversations, and affectionate glances in the same warmth. Hobby Holmes allows that comfort to settle before exposing the unease beneath it. Perfection is easy to admire when nobody has asked who controls it.

As synthesizers swell, guitars point out the romantic turning points, and vocals assure us that every embarrassment carries enormous emotional importance. The songs are unmistakably tied to the 1980s, with several being catchy enough to survive outside the movie. Including the soundtrack CD with the Remastered Collector’s Edition isn’t just a nice bonus; it preserves the part of this production most likely to earn genuine affection.

Prince Derek looks at Princess Odette, tells her she’s beautiful, and then ruins everything by admitting that he can’t think of another reason to marry her. Odette’s response remains one of the best ideas in THE SWAN PRINCESS. She doesn’t accept physical attraction as proof of lasting love, even after their parents have spent years arranging their future together. Her refusal gives this fairy tale an unexpectedly perceptive starting point.

I’LL DO ANYTHING has the restless structure of a movie that remembers being something else. Scenes carry more energy than they can release, characters seem prepared to express emotions that never surface, and some of the transitions feel as though they were built around material that was never there. That impression isn’t imagined. James L. Brooks originally filmed the project as an elaborate musical before negative test screenings led him to remove nearly every song, write additional scenes, and reshape the remaining footage into a conventional comedy-drama. It’s a film that’s unique and intriguing, but also feels like you’re watching a puzzle with missing pieces.

Hector knows what war costs before the ships reach the Trojan shore. He understands that courage won’t protect his family, honor won’t restrain an ambitious king, and victory might only delay the destruction waiting outside the city walls. TROY surrounds him with men who speak eagerly about glory, destiny, and the names history will remember. Hector is the one man asking who will be alive when that begins.

The sunlight in THE STRANGER doesn’t offer warmth. It bears down upon faces, bleaches the landscape, and turns the beach into a place where thought and sensation become difficult to separate. François Ozon’s adaptation of Albert Camus’s novel is filled with beautiful images, though its beauty is rarely comforting. Every wall, suit, and exposed stretch of sand seems to reinforce the distance between Meursault and a world that expects him to behave in a certain way.

THE DESCENT: PART 2 can’t really start until it’s already weakened one of the original film’s greatest strengths. By following the alternate ending and sending Sarah back underground, the sequel gives up some of the finality that made THE DESCENT so devastating. Once the rescue team enters the cave, however, director Jon Harris finds enough claustrophobia, gore, and physical danger to make the return trip worthwhile.

Combining KILL BILL into one 253-minute feature doesn’t just remove a set of closing credits. It changes which parts of the story feel important. The House of Blue Leaves battle no longer serves as an explosive destination followed later by another movie. It becomes one severe step in Beatrix Kiddo’s pursuit of Bill, allowing the quieter and more personal material that follows to determine what the story ultimately means.