‘Damsels in Distress’ (2012)
Eleven years ago, “Barbie” mastermind Greta Gerwig was known not as the director behind a billion-dollar blockbuster, but as one of the most charismatic actresses on the indie film scene. His talents are well showcased in witty, often relatable comedies of manners and satire of campus life. The writer and director is Whit Stillman, who helped define smart, chatty ’90s indies with his triple play of “Metropolitan,” “Barcelona” and “The Last Days of Disco”; this, his first feature in 13 years, is a welcome return to form. Gerwig is at her complex best as Violet, who helps her friends (Megalyn Echikunwoke, Carrie MacLemore and Lio Tipton, all memorable) navigate the hapless boys of the fictional Seven Oaks College; Adam Brody is likably squirrelly as the campus cad.
‘The Seagull’ (2018)
Gerwig’s frequent leading lady Saoirse Ronan is one of many familiar faces in the ensemble cast of this well-crafted adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s theatrical classic. Brian Dennehy, Billy Howle, Elisabeth Moss and Corey Stoll also appear, as residents and guests of a charming estate outside Moscow, although Annette Bening shines in the brightest role of Irina Arkadina , the funny and heartbreakingly complex diva of the Russian stage. . Director Michael Mayer tries hard to jazz up the text with flashy camera movements and excessive scope, but those momentary distractions don’t detract from the good action on display here.
Liam Neeson’s third act as a hero of pulpy action pictures has seen its ups (“The Grey”) and its downfalls (the “Taken” sequel of your choice), but this tightly-wound potboiler is one of the real highlights. He stars as Bill Marks, an ex-cop-turned-air-marshal who battles a mysterious killer who strikes down passengers — one every twenty minutes — of an international flight. Director Jaume Collet-Serra takes the right approach to this somewhat silly premise, making the picture a cross between Agatha Christie, “Airport” and “Speed,” and the ensemble cast (which includes Michelle Dockery, Scoot McNairy, Julianne Moore, Lupita Nyong’o, Linus Roache and Shea Whigham) help keep this wild flight on course.
‘Drug War’ (2013)
Celebrated Hong Kong action auteur Johnnie To (“Election,” “Triad Election,” “Breaking News”) brings his decades of filmmaking to bear in this fast-paced, furiously entertaining crime epic. There are so many characters and so many subplots (as is To’s custom), but the premise is simple: a bad guy (Louis Koo’s ruthless drug kingpin), a good guy (Sun Honglei’s dedicated undercover cop) and a pursuit. To’s breathless set pieces are as relentless as ever, but the picture is about more than action; he gives dimension to what might be cartoon characters, and examines the human consequences of the titular conflict.
The true story how a beloved East Texas hitman killed a wealthy widow makes for a thorough character study (or, perhaps, a pointless true-crime documentary on Netflix). Instead, director and co-writer Richard Linklater achieves a delicate and precise blend of dark comedy and small-town portraiture, thanks in no small part to a cast that includes Jack Black (the “School of Rock ” Linklater star) as the mortician, Matthew McConaughey (Linklater’s “Dazed and Confused” star) as the district attorney who prosecuted him and the great Shirley MacLaine as the victim, a characterization he built between Ouiser from in “Steel Magnolias” and Beelzebub.
‘A Hologram for the King’ (2016)
Tom Hanks movies are still a thing in 2016, but few paid attention to this light but lofty adaptation of Dave Eggers’ novel. Maybe it’s a little weird, too steeped in the hands-off style and indie sensibility of its director Tom Tykwer (“Run Lola Run”), but it’s an undiscovered gem of Hanks’ late era. He stars as Alan Clay, a recently divorced and undeniably desperate American consultant in Saudi Arabia for what is intended to be a brief sales pitch to the Saudi government. But days passed as he waited for his audience with the Saudi king, resulting in an unexpectedly effective combination of insightful character study and “Waiting for Godot”-inspired absurdism.
‘Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story’ (2017)
Few movie stars of the 1930s were as sparkly and seductive as the Viennese vamp Hedy Kiesler first called, and first known for her startling in-the-buff turn in the 1933 Czech import “Ecstasy.” But this is not just a story of Old Hollywood stardom. Lamarr lived an eventful and exciting life, of sin and scandal and, above all, of invention — especially his development of a communication system that became the foundation of modern Wi-Fi, GPS, and Bluetooth. She’s a woman far more dynamic and complex than any of the characters she’s played, and Alexandra Dean’s documentary tells her story with passion, verve, and abundant (not to mention well-earned) compassion.
‘Radio Unnameable’ (2012)
For decades, Bob Fass was an entertaining voice for New Yorkers at night — the overnight host at WBAI-FM, an early developer and practitioner of “free-form radio,” who opened his phone lines and airwaves to various looking callers and outlaw entertainers. Paul Lovelace and Jessica Wolfson’s loving documentary tells the story of Foss’s show and his life (to the limited extent that they are separate from everyone else), through a fascinating collection of archival audio recordings, photographs, film and memories, from his early days of searching to the loosely organized and sometimes uncontrolled gatherings of what he calls his “cabal” of loyal listeners. In Fass’s show, insomniacs and night workers and eccentrics find not just a megaphone, but a community; Lovelace and Wolfson’s film gently draws the line between contemporary high-tech counterparts, while still longing for the idealism and possibilities of the past.
