Aileen Wournos Documentaries (1992 and 2003)

Almost 10 years after Nick Broomfield released his first documentary on the investigation conspiracy and inept defense of America's first female serial killer, he's subpoenaed to a Florida court to testify on the defendant's behalf. Haunted by Wornous' confession that she lied about killing her first victim in self-defense, Broomfield travels to her childhood home and along the highways of Florida to explore the elements that contributed to her pathology. More proof that the desire to be loved can be dangerous.

Dedication (2007)

"Life is nothing but the occasional burst of laughter rising above the interminable wail of grief." That's just one of many gems crafted by Henry (Billy Crudup), the anxiety-ridden children's book author who loses his long-time illustrator and friend and is subsequently paired up with Mandy Moore, channeling Ally Sheedy from The Breakfast Club. Not quite romantic comedy, not quite edgy independent, Justin Theroux’s directorial debut is at best a mild romp on the dark side that will make you want to see Billy Crudup in better days.

I Walked With a Zombie (1943)

Love makes people do crazy things, and in Jacques Tourneur's moody masterpiece it leads to betrayal, Voodoo, and murder. Unlike the grotesque images of the undead of more contemporary movies, which have their own merits, the living dead of this film help build the dark suspense that ends in an echo of the Fall.

Party Monster (1998)

The self-titled "shockumentary" chronicles the spiraling popularity of the club kid phenomenon in New York City, the life of club kid and party promoter Michael Alig, and Alig's murder of drug dealer and wannabe club kid Angel Melendez. Think Manson family with glitter. Unfortunately, despite Michael Musto's reaching, this biopic lacks the sort of political and historical context the directors so patiently included in their expose on porn, and without which the subjects remain unsympathetic in every way.

My Architect: A Son's Journey (2003)

Architect Louis Kahn's son explores his father's legacies of monumental, sacred space and multiple families. A touching and often sad portrait of an elusive father, the film is only uncomfortable when Nathaniel Kahn ambushes his subjects with his true identity. It also seemed a bit sacreligious to rollerblade across the courtyard of the Salk Institute. Was this a big "fuck you" to his father, or was it supposed to indicate whimsy?

Tillsammans (2000)

The constant struggle between self-actualization and compassion plays out among residents of a Swedish commune in 1975. Not short on messy life lessons, this heartfelt experiment earns its feel-good finish.

The Red Shoes (1948)

Inspired by the Hans Christian Anderson tale, this Technicolor feast captures the imagination more with the ballet within the movie than the love story frame. What keeps our tragic heroine from dancing when her replacement is the dancer she replaced for those very same reasons? Moral of the story: despite 1980s cliches, toe shoes, especially red ones, are beautiful.

My Brilliant Career (1979)

The turn-of-the-century drought-stricken outback and Judy Davis' unkempt hair play as important role in Gillian Armstrong's manifesto of independence as does the refusal of Sam Neill's passionate proposal. The contrast between mansion and muddy field goes a long way in illustrating the vagaries and duties of the feminine life in 1897.

The Andromeda Strain (1971)

Although the filmmakers took great pains to showcase authentic scientific instruments throughout the film, the actual "science" of this movie pales in comparison to the art direction, which is delightfully similar to Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory, released that same year.

Brick (2005)

Newbie filmmaker Rian Johnson took a stupendous risk with his debut movie. In danger of alienating teen moviegoers as well as fans of the hardboiled gumshoe story, Johnson succeeded in seamlessly melding the two genres. This isn't child's play. It's noir at its fast-talking, all-for-a-dame best.

In answer to a desperate phone call from his ex-girlfriend, Brendan Frye (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) steeps himself in a murder mystery worthy of Jake Gittes, complete with beatdowns, territorial kingpins, and a complicated relationship with the law, i.e. his high school's administration. Under pressure to throw the VP a bone, Frye begins his investigation with his best imitation of Cool Hand Luke, and what ensues is a tense and fun unraveling of a dark and ironic underworld. The only downside to this somber comedy is that there's not more to unravel to connect it to the bigger picture. In light of recent news, I suggest something like water rights.

For more nerdy noir fun, check out the glossary on the movie's official site.

The Pumpkin Eater (1964)

I used to think I didn't much "get" Harold Pinter. His work is most-often described as "absurd" or "obscure," and he's a playwright. So it was with a little hesitation and the remote still in hand that I began watching Pinter's adaptation of the Penelope Mortimer novel "The Pumpkin Eater," shown as part of marathon to celebrate the birthday of Anne Bancroft on TCM. After making it through the disorienting staggered timeline of the opening, the movie eventually opens up into an honest treatise on the complicated ways in which differing pathologies battle for dominance, despite a professed love.
Jo (Bancroft), a war widow with six children, leaves her second husband, a musician, for screenplay writer Jake (Peter Finch). Smothered by his new brood, Jake proves unfaithful, brazenly moving a young lover (Maggie Smith) into the house and having on-location trysts with starlets once his movie career takes off, whereas Jo seeks her identity through motherhood, only later to be coerced into abortion and hysterectomy by Jake. When Jo's hard-won capacity for denial is confronted by one of the cuckolded husbands (James Mason), she flees back into the arms of her ex-husband and then to the house she and Jake are building from a converted windmill. Her days of solitude are finally interrupted by her family, including a contrite Jake, and they reconcile. Their marriage serves to illustrate how mutual attraction can quickly devolve into mutual torture when angst and neuroses are allowed free rein, yet the emotional ties that bind stay.

Bancroft imbues Jo with a pathos that makes it difficult to judge her as pathetic. Her craft can be commended for the seemingly effortless move from maternal instinct to jealous rage over the live-in lover Philpot, as well as in the underplayed breakdown at Harrod's. However, it's probably to Pinter's credit that the crucial scene in the beauty shop comes off as borderline unreal. Did Jo's own guilty imagination put those words in her neighbor's mouth? And does it really matter?

Eastern Promises (2007)

In this expose of London's Russian mob world, David Cronenberg continues his obsession with flesh. The corpus delecti: corpse missives, revealing tattoos, and a pink-cheeked orphan. When midwife Anna (Naomi Watts), of a more acclimated Russian blood, seeks a translation for the diary of a dead underage Russian prostitute, she unwittingly sets broken allegiances and disparate motives into play, including those of aspiring mob-star Nikolai (Viggo Mortensen).

Beguiling Nikolai is the key player, and unlike Mortensen's last disappointing appearance in a Cronenberg vehicle, this character's motives are tantalizingly clouded by a murky undertone. Yet, in what some are calling one of the most significant fight scenes in cinematic history, it's clear that Mortensen keeps nothing up his sleeves but a compelling show of strength while at his most vulnerable. This is Cronenberg's special brand of ambiguity where characters, both noble and selfish, are at constant cross-purposes.