House (1977)

Kumiko Oba in “House,” with seven teenage girls and a white cat whose eyes beam green sparks.
Watch Out for That Disembodied Head, Girls
By MANOHLA DARGIS
Published: January 15, 2010

Delirious, deranged, gonzo or just gone, baby, gone — no single adjective or even a pileup does justice to “House,” a 1977 Japanese haunted-house freakout. Directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi, this energetic exemplar of pulp surrealism began surfacing in the United States last year, playing at events like the New York Asian Film Festival. Now, in advance of the Criterion DVD, which will be released later this year, it is receiving its first, must-see-now domestic theatrical run at the IFC Center in New York. A midnight movie in lysergic spirit and vibe, this was a film made for late-night screening and screaming. More

The Book of Eli (2009)

Denzel Washington stars in “Book of Eli.”
In This World, It Pays to Be a Loner
By MANOHLA DARGIS
Published: January 15, 2010

A road warrior of a different sort, the title character played by Denzel Washington in “The Book of Eli” spends much of the story traveling by foot across an eerie landscape, a long and quick knife at the ready. The brown, dusty environs look familiar and not, dotted with abandoned cars and the occasional corpse. When Eli pauses, the camera settles near his feet, and the sky opens above him like a sheltering hand. With his green jacket and unsmiling mouth, he looks like a veteran of an unknown war, a soldier of misfortune — though, given the fog of religiosity that hangs over the movie, he might be an avenging angel. More

Into the Closet

By Linda Greenhouse

Has anyone noticed that now that lesbians and gay men have left the closet to assert their equal rights as citizens, their adversaries seem to be running for a closet of their own? More

Sure!

I buy a trio of Norton Antivirus, and Microsoft extends their service for six months -- for free. Curse you Microsoft! I coulda waited six months to buy the Norton...