Invaders from Mars (1953) **

Terrific first half hour then there's too much footage of tanks and the finale goes off the rails. Along the way it's well filmed and for the time fairly provocative.

Chess of the Wind (1976) **

Nice to look at but the story is not compelling and the characters one dimensional.

The Killer Is Loose (1956) **

Boffo finale and a terrific Wendell Corey performance saves this police procedural that sorely lags in the middle.

“Megadoc” Shows Francis Ford Coppola Going for Broke on “Megalopolis”

A revelatory sequence in “Megadoc” shows Coppola arguing with the cinematographer, Mihai Mălaimare, Jr., about the lighting of a shot, which Mălaimare wants to keep consistent with other shots in the scene, for the sake of a conventionally smooth edit. Coppola says that Mălaimare has no business anticipating how the film will be edited, and the director lays down the law: “To me, your job is not to match all the light. Your job is to get beautiful images of the scenes that we have.”

Modern cinematographers need to learn this.

Possession (1981) ****

A film that never condescends, featuring a trio of superb performances. It's often harsh but always true to the story and the point.

The Thursday Murder Club (2025) *

The gracefully ageing stars make it watchable...to a point.

To the Devil a Daughter (1976) **

Handsomely produced and lushly filmed with a top notch cast, ultimately silly but always watchable. Nice to see Dick Widmark as the hero for a change.