Category: Movie of the Week

Movie of the Week: ‘Shadow of the Vampire’

Jeff Mitchell

AHFW takes a trippy trip to 2000 and a look back at E. Elias Merhige’s highly memorable “Shadow of the Vampire” starring Willem Dafoe and John Malkovich.  Merhige’s flick is part-drama, part-comedy and part-horror, as it retells director F.W. Murnau’s (Malkovich) making of “Nosferatu” (1922).  The wrinkle is that Murnau personally hires actor Max Schreck (Dafoe) to play Count Orlok, but this unknown thespian displays bizarre behavior and – for some reason – never removes his makeup. Mmm, it makes you think that maybe….. Well, don’t speculate, we recommend that…

Movie of the Week: ‘Animal Kingdom’

Jeff Mitchell

AHFW’s Movie of the Week inspired a vastly successful television show, sort of like “MASH” (1970) did.  Robert Altman’s comedy classic, however, and “Animal Kingdom” (2010) have very little in common, except blood is spilled in both films…and television shows. “Animal Kingdom” (2010) – The walls of justice close in on a Melbourne (Australia) bank-robbing family within a cloudy, confusing Shakespearean atmosphere.  Led by matriarch Janine Cody (Jacki Weaver), she and her kin decide to fight back with methods that they understand: revenge and betrayal. At the center of the storm…

Movie of the Week: ‘Toni Erdmann’

Jeff Mitchell

AHFW’s Movie of the Week reaches across the pond to Germany and the Oscar-nominated “Toni Erdmann” (2016).  Who is Toni Erdmann?  Well, no character in the movie is officially named Toni Erdmann, but Winfried (Peter Simonischek) – a father desperately seeking attention from his daughter Ines (Sandra Huller) – actually creates an alter-ego with the said moniker. Really?  Yes, and AHFW not only thinks that Huller deserved the 2016 Best Actress Oscar, but director Maren Ade’s picture is one of the very best of the decade! Here’s our full review:…