Chuck Bowen

The huge party at the center of 'Christmas Eve in Miller's Point' is among the great parties of recent American cinema.

Monster clowns in “Terrifier 3” and “The Apprentice.”

These films are animated by controversial issues that imbue their gothic hugger-mugger with intimacy and intensity.

The state's premiere film festival begins in Charlottesville on Oct. 30.

“A Different Man,” “Woman of the Hour” and “Oddity” all concern male masks.

Noirvember on the Criterion Channel.

Sean Baker’s “Anora” can’t seem to decide if it’s a genre movie or a more ambitious examination of how money dominates the lives of marginalized people living in society’s shadowy corners. This subject matter is Baker’s forte, and he mined it confidently in films like “Tangerine” and the especially audacious “Red Rocket.” In “Anora,” though, it feels like Baker actively wants a hit on his terms, and he dilutes his strengths as well as the general pleasures of a genre film. It’s a worst of both worlds situation.

Most movies look positively robotic and undernourished next to the swaggering, moving, endlessly inventive, and influential 'Seven Samurai.'

Ninety-plus years have done little to dilute the swaggering power of Howard Hawks's Pre-code American gangster masterpiece 'Scarface.'

“Bird,” “Blitz” and “Hot Frosty” all pivot on heroes searching for connection.