EDDINGTON

 With only four feature films to his credit Ari Aster has already become one of those directors whose name screams 'auteur' or maybe just 'cult' as he hasn't quite cut it yet at the box-office, (his detractors will say he's been working his way down since his first feature "Hereditary" and since nothing he's done since has been as successful either critically or commercially, they may he right), but if his subsequent films haven't quite nailed it there are few American filmmakers this ambitious.

A genre director Aster has always worked outside the box, subverting our expectations at every turn. Fundamentally he makes horror movies but they are not like anything else in the field. These are nightmares that sneak up on you and his latest, "Eddington" has its own nightmare already built into its scenario. Set in 2020 Covid has hit America if not the small town of Eddington, at least according to its covid-denying sheriff, (another superb Joaquin Phoenix performance), whose stance pits him against the town's mayor, (Pedro Pascal), so Joaquin decides to run for mayor, too. Meanwhile far from Eddington the Black Lives Matter movement is gaining ground and suddenly it seems the outside world is coming to town and not in a good way.

A black and bloody comedy "Eddington", like "Midsommar" and "Beau is Afraid" before it, can't quite sustain its length nor can Aster fully tie the many threads of his plot satisfactorily together but if you want to call this a failure it's definitely a brilliant one; smart, crazy, prescient and displaying real imagination. It also confirms its writer/director as someone whose films are fast becoming 'event' movies and who surely must have a masterpiece waiting in the wings.

FLESH AND THE DEVIL

 If "Flesh and the Devil" is remembered at all today it's for the onscreen passion of Gilbert and Garbo but there's a lot more to this tragic melodrama which is one of the last great silent films. There's Clarence Brown's direction for one thing, keeping the novelistic plot sensible and approachable and drawing from his two leads beautifully modulated performances and then there's William Daniel's splendid cinematography, (it's little wonder actresses loved him). The plot itself is that old chestnut of two friends falling out over a faithless woman, (Garbo milking it for all its worth), but in Brown's hands it takes on the status of potentially real tragedy. This is a film that really deserves to be better known.

THE OPPOSITE SEX

 OK, so it's not "The Women" and David Miller is no George Cukor but this 1956 musical remake has a cracker cast, is in Cinemascope and color and retains enough bitchy dialogue to make it something of a treat albeit a minor one. In their own way even the musical numbers are above average but it's that cast, (June Allyson, Joan Collins, Ann Sheridan, Dolores Gray, Ann Miller, Joan Blondell, Agnes Moorehead), that makes it so enjoyable.

Since the title is "The Opposite Sex" this version's got men, in this case Leslie Nielsen, Jeff Richards, Sam Levene, Alan Marshall and Dick Shawn amongst others and while not really necessary, (Cukor managed without them), are not unwelcome even if none of them can compete with the dames.

Allyson is a lot tougher than Norma Shearer was though poor Joan Collins is no match for Crawford but Dolores Gray makes for a perfect bitch and Ann Sheridan steals her scenes as the tough-talking broad who sticks by her friend. At best it's entertaining froth and very watchable but the original is the Real McCoy.