The Purge (2013)

“The Purge” is horror with a nasty serving of satire that slashes at the Tea Party elites who think wealth makes them holier than anyone below them, and yet angry at anyone who dares have a bigger house or a nicer car. I dug it. Ethan Hawke plays a self-satisfied hawker of home security devices in year 2022 of a post right-wing-revolution “New” America. Money is God. Guns are the Holy Son. The NRA might be running the show. One day each year, true “patriots” –- the haves -– are allowed (encouraged) to rape and murder at will, with the bottom of the economic chain the true target. But, Hawke’s quirky liberal teen son (Max Burkholder) opens the family fortress to a hunted veteran and soon preppy masked hunters come house crashing. (The sociopathic leader is unfailingly polite and dressed in a blazer with a haircut that screams edgy Young Republican. I knew assholes like him in college.) Writer/director James DeMonaco might not have a great film, but it’s daring, even if the end has too many pointers and Lena Headey’s wife remains flat. (I had hopes the “good” son might turn a shocking path, but did not happen.) B

Belle (2014)

“Belle” is inspired by history, a 1770s Scottish painting of a half-black woman named Dido Elizabeth Belle on equal level with her Anglo cousin. The posing thumped historic, with the slave trade going on full hell tilt. “Belle” leans standard fictional Brit family drama cum courtroom thriller hoopla, thought it scores marks for telling that Britain and America built their empires on slavery. Fact. Story: Dido (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) is raised by distant, but wealthy relatives (Tom Wilkinson and Emily Watson) when life already was bleak for women –- zero rights. Her obstacles are fierce. Nonetheless, she finds suitors, one an anti-slavery proponent (Sam Reid). Meanwhile, Wilkinson’s high-court judge hears a case on slave cargo and insurance. His decision could topple the sick practice and bring economic ruin. (No more free labor.) Belle obsesses on the case. She swipes evidence, dressed in a hooded robe that had me thinking “Jedi.” Heroic Reid shouts so many truth and justice speeches, I thought, “He’d make a great Superman!” Miscast Tom Felton doesn’t help as a snarling bigot. Is he aware he’s no longer playing Malfoy? Amma Asante’s drama is problematic, yes. Look past that. B

Nebraska (2013)

Alexander Payne has made many drama/comedies with characters stuck in shit situations that skate the line of full-on farce. In “Nebraska,” Payne goes back home to tell a story about an old guy who won’t go out happy or content, but in a mess. Similarities to “About Schmidt” end here. Woody Grant (Bruce Dern, just damn amazing) is on the edge of dementia, brought about by age, hastened by booze. Woody reads a scam advertisement letter and thinks he’s won a $1 million and no one not his wife (June Squibb) or son (Will Forte, long past “SNL”) can convince his otherwise. The son decides a car trip to “collect” the faux prize will cure pop, with a stop in Walt’s dying hometown as a balm. Payne’s tale -- written by Bob Nelson -– plays at the great losses Nebraska and much of America has suffered, with cars lasting decades a thing of the past, and days of families building their homes by hand a faint memory. The movie is great in those moments, especially in stark black-and-white. But Payne introduces too many dull hick stereotypes too often, and one gets the sense that his American mourning comes with a wink. B+

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010)

It’s been ages since I saw Oliver Stone’s “Wall Street.” The 1987 classic is a blur to me, but Michael Douglas’ portrayal of Gordon Gekko – the hedonistic shark who swum in evil – remains in memory. Who knew a whole generation of real Wall Street tycoons would take Gekko as God, and bring about economic turmoil that nearly crippled our nation? With Stone’s return to Gekko’s world, I thought the man would burn furiously as he tackles the 2008 economic crash. No. Forget the trading floor, this is a dead slaughterhouse of missed opportunities, ham-fisted symbolism, and an outrageously happy climax that betrays every point that comes before it, and every principle held by those who distrust unguarded capitalism. We focus on hothead stockbroker Jake (Shia LaBeouf), whose girlfriend (Carey Mulligan) is the daughter of Gekko, himself eight years out of prison. Gekko sees our hero as an “in” to his daughter; Jake sees Gekko as an “in” to ambition. This triangle raises questions it can’t answer, including, “Why would a left-wing reporter who hates Wall Street live with a stock broker cub shark?” Pathetically, Stone no longer cares if “greed is good” or not as he races to a ludicrous ending. D

Killing Them Softly (2012)

Brad Pitt's grim crime thriller “Killing Them Softly” already has much box office notoriety: A money loser slapped with an “F” from CinemaScore. Hell with that. This is ballsy filmmaking of the highest order. Andrew Dominik -– who made “Assassination of Jesse James” with Pitt -– is behind “KSF” as director/writer, and he is not out to please anyone. We follow two low-end criminals (Scoot McNairy and Ben Mendelsohn) who rob a mafia-run card game, and escape with cash in hand and angry men in pursuit, one of them a world-weary hit man played by Pitt. “KSF” is set in 2008, during the economic meltdown and Obama/McCain election, and Dominik uses the panic and uncertainty of the time to explode the panic and uncertainty onscreen. There are no heroes, jokes, or happy endings. It’s a devastating punch about real criminal life, peppered with sad-sacks, drug-users, and average joes in over their heads. Not necessarily evil. Unintended fuck-ups. Dominik dares say our politicians, Wall Street bankers, and Founding Fathers are/were no different. It's the American way. Even a tedious slow-mo killing and oddball fireworks scene can’t hide that “KSF” is shockingly true cinematic art. A-

Detropia (2012)

No matter one’s politics, everyone knows the American economy started tanking in 2007 and crashed in 2008, and has yet to really recover. The documentary “Detropia” is about, of course, Detroit, and its past glory crushed by a collapsed auto industry hit hard by economic woes, international competition, and its own greedy execs who would rather pay foreigners pennies per day. Directors Heidi Ewing, a native of the city, and Rachel Grady, from the East Coast, talk to union reps, a retiree running a dying restaurant, and a video blogger among a few others helpless to save their homes. The city’s broke and every cure is bad and –- in the idea of creating massive farms -- lunatic. Ewing and Grady offer no answers or judgments, nor do they talk to big wigs or CEOs, but they do show some ironies -– including an opera house that plays to the rich, while the jobless suffer outside. One man sings in an abandoned train station that must have buzzed with a few hundred thousand people every day. It’s certain things will never be the same in Detroit or in America. Grady said she wanted subliminal. That’s cool. But it’s also fleeting. B+

Land of the Dead (2005)

Three years before the economy collapsed, and six years before Occupy Wall Street tried to shake America out of its cloud of greed and luxury, George Romero – the original Zombie King – made “Land of the Dead,” a rebel grandchild of a grandparent that was once its own kind of hell-raiser. Dig it: In a post-zombie-apocalypse America, the ever-shrinking human population is walled up inside Pittsburgh, divided into two classes – the peasants, fighters, and scavengers on the street, and the privileged suits atop a glass-and-steel tower, safe from harm. Of course the stomach-chomping zombies will come, and the rich will flee, and the down-trodden will do the right thing. Romero goes full satire, casting ex-“Easy Rider” Dennis Hooper as a Donald-Trump-like lunatic carting around cases of money in a world where money is useless. Grimly, the bloody delicious irony zombie shuffles its way stage left as the third act loses its head just when the story demands this world be burned by the hand of an evolved zombie who once pumped gas as a living minimum wage slave. B-

Tower Heist (2011)

With “Tower Heist,” director Brett Ratner has quite the timely revenge story: Employees at a high-end NYC apartment building (Trump Tower, actually) seek payback when the owner (Alan Alda) turns out to be a Ponzi-pushing Madoff maggot. The plan: Steal $20 million in stolen loot said to be hidden in Money Bags’ penthouse during the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade. Our Mad-as-Hell Occupy heroes are played by Ben Stiller, Casey Affleck, and Gabourey Sidibe, and their tempers are righteous: Why not strike back at the Wall Street pricks who steal from us every day? Yet all piss and blood get lost amid subpar “Ocean’s 11” shenanigans. Problems abound: The one-trick pony is predictable, we’re never sure who’s in on the Robin Hoodery as characters appear and disappear nonsensically, and either bad editing or worse writing (or both) kills scene after scene. Eddie Murphy (who concocted the story years ago with a nastier streak) owns the film as a local spitfire, loose-cannon crook brought in for the job. Too-stiff Ratner foolishly drops Murphy for long periods to focus on Stiller’s “Parents/Fockers” goof. (Remember when Stiller had balls?) Talk about robbery. B-

The Other Guys (2010)

In every testosterone-filled cops and their partners flick, there’s always the barely in-focus fellow detectives, no name extras taking up space. No one cares if they die by gunfire. Unlikely partners in every way (casting, too) Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg are those men, one a paperwork nerd, the other a hot-headed dunce, in “The Other Guys.” When the cliché super cop heroes – played hilariously by Samuel L. Jackson and Dwayne Johnson – die not pulling off a stunt every movie cop pulls off, our “Guys” enter the fray. In a red Prius. Director/co-writer Adam McKay gleefully throws one of those impossible-to-follow coincidence plots at us as a greedy Wall Street tycoon (Steve Coogan) runs amok. Explosions and car chases abound, all sickly ridiculous, and yet not out of place in any “Lethal Weapon” movie. McKay ridicules mega-masculinity, the hot wife syndrome in every guy flick, and the economy. The bad guys get a bailout. Talk about realism. Ferrell is genius uncorking rage, and Wahlberg is a good straight man, although clearly uncomfortable yelling “I’m a peacock!” Still, great laughs. B+