Pearl (2022):

British actress and writer Mia Goth co-wrote the script for this 'way-out-there horror film which is a prequel to the movie "X" from earlier this year in which a young group of filmmakers set out to create an "Adult" film using an out-of-the-way rundown farm for their setting. When the owners of the premises learn what the group is doing, the horror begins, and it’s a slasher-chiller in the most obscenely vulgar fashion imaginable, making the Texas Chainsaw Massacre look like a Winnie the Pooh movie. This one was shot simultaneously with the first film, and it tells the story as to how Pearl (Mia Goth) came to be involved with the movie-makers in the first place, and how she became the vicious killer portrayed in "X." It was 1918, the world was gripped in not only the end of WWI, but the Spanish flu epidemic that killed millions. Pearl lived on a farm with her father and domineering mother, but longed to be in movies. Her husband was overseas serving his country, and she took up with a projectionist in her small-town home and he began to direct her towards the world of pornography. I would say that this is for hard-core, explicit horror fans only. Rated 18A.

Three Thousand Years of Longing (2022):

This is an entirely new twist on the genie-in-a-bottle tales that were found in such places as the tales of the Arabian Nights and similar such folklore from the Islamic Golden Age. Tilda Swinton plays Dr. Alethea Binnie, a scholar and an academic, mostly all alone in the world but content, who attends an educational conference in Istanbul, Turkey in this fantasy drama. In a chance encounter, she finds an exquisitely ornate antique bottle, a beautiful piece of glasswork, and she buys it. Back in her hotel room, she takes her electric toothbrush to the bottle to clean it up. The top pops off, and in a smoky and dreamy special effect, she comes face-to-face with what is introduced to her as a Djinn (Idris Elba), the genie of the bottle. He is gigantic and fills the entire hotel room, but soon adjusts his size to something less threatening. Alethea has been struggling with her imagination of late, and is not sure that this is really happening, or if she is imagining it. The Djinn explains that he has been captive in that bottle for hundreds of years, and that she is now entitled to three wishes of her heart's desire in exchange for freeing him. Dr. Binnie is not naive. She knows the deal about genies and wishes and has no intention of falling into that kind of trap, assuming that he is real, which she somewhat doubts. She is a student of story and of mythology and listens to the Djinn's recounting of tales from the past, each story an explanation of yet another imprisonment in bottles of various sorts, and all of which have the three wishes attached, which always somehow goes bad. What blossoms here is a love story in a most unusual way. In the end, she must choose to believe and make wishes, or to walk away, if she can, and leave things as they were. What happens next is surprising and remarkable. In the early going, there is far too much dialogue, too many talking heads, but that settles into what becomes a whimsical piece of fantasy which I truly enjoyed. Directed by George Miller ("Mad Max: Fury Road"), shot in Turkey and in Australia. Rated PG, but there is nudity, a lot of it actually, and there are scenes of both sex and violence, so I would call this at least 14A.

Moonage Daydream (2022):

This cinematic voyage explores the life of David Bowie, the Man Who Fell to Earth, highlighting his creativity and his talent. Bowie died in 2016 at the age of 69 leaving behind an epic amount of product, from music to movies to creative writing, and he is seen here in archive footage written and directed by Brett Morgan who had the full permission of the Bowie estate to present the musical genius in the fullest of form. Surrounded by such legendary talent as guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughn who died at the age of 35 in a helicopter crash, Bowie had the instincts to align himself with the most significant talent available, and the results are impossible to refute - he is not everyone's cuppa, but he is a genius nonetheless. Rated 14A.

Falling for Christmas (2022):

This Netflix release looks, on the surface at least, an awful lot like a Hallmark seasonal movie, known for thin plots, beautiful people, and nice outcomes. It's certain that the casting of Lyndsay Lohan, sometimes showbiz bad girl, will get more attention than the storyline itself. Lohan's character here is named Sierra Belmont. She is an heiress, set to inherit a fortune that will make her a billionaire, she is engaged to the man of her dreams, and she has a ski accident in Utah that results in a head injury creating that standard romantic-movie device, amnesia. Sierra doesn't know who she is nor can she remember her past. She finds herself in the care of a blue-collar guy who is the owner of the ski lodge where her accident occurred. Did I mention that he is handsome beyond words? And that he has a precocious daughter who feels slighted by their temporary guest? In the days leading up to Christmas, we watch as two worlds collide, that of the uber-rich, and that of the working class. As for Lohan herself, after bouts of drug problems, challenges with such people as director Michael Bay whom she equated with Hitler, she left the Hollywood lifestyle and now lives in Dubai. Seeing her back in front of the cameras is a first in several years. Rated 14A.

All Quiet on the Western Front (2022):

WWI was a long, long time ago, having ended in 1918, but its stories remain as relevant today as when they were told during the heat of battle.  Based on the novel by Erich Maria Remarque, it follows the lives of some young German idealists who, their flames fanned by the State propaganda machine, sign up to fight against what they believe to be a monstrous enemy that deserves to be subjugated and put to death.  Actor Daniel Bruhl is Paul Baumer, who, along with his friends Albert and Muller, enthusiastically enlist fuelled by patriotism and in the strong belief in the just cause for which they fight.  Everything changes on the Western Front when the horrors of trench warfare become a reality, and when it becomes evident, piece by piece, that the cause for which they fight is neither noble nor just, but rather is dictated by the needs and desires of politicians safely ensconced back home in Germany.  Even though the date of the truce that will end the war has been announced, Paul and his surviving friends are ordered to continue to fight by the top brass so that Germany will have gone out on the offensive.  Rated 14A.