As a director, Pavel Lungin represents one of European cinema’s greatest unsung talents – a visionary craftsman with an unapologetically innovative and idiosyncratic world view – which probably explains why several of his features have never secured stateside release. The filmmaker, a Russian Jew from Moscow who took his directing bow about 18 years ago at the ripe old age of 41 (after years of authoring screenplays), did so with the assistance of European megaproducer Marin Karmitz (also responsible for backing Louis Malle’s apotheosis Au Revoir les enfants). The resultant debut, Taxi Blues, won Lungin the Best Director Award at Cannes in the spring of 1990. I screened the movie for the first time this week and felt blindsided by how emotionally uncompromising it feels and by the multi-layered sophistication of the narrative. For those in the mood for something a little bit different than the usual video store haul, this one’s worth a look.

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The recent DVD re-release of Newhart Season One (a series for which I carry very fond childhood memories) , struck a nostalgic chord, given the recent deaths of co-star Tom Poston and his off-camera wife, series finale-capper Suzanne Pleshette, and coincided rather neatly with the 25th anniversary of the program’s first year. It inspired me to begin working my way through this three-disc set over the past week, and in re-watching the old episodes, I continually felt amazed by the degree to which American situation comedies have matured, developed, and expanded the scope of their ambitions over the past few decades. Watching this three-camera sitcom after years away is akin to opening a time capsule of early ’80s Reaganite pop culture – and occasionally, but far from often, a pleasurable experience.

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In my original review of I Am Legend, I dubbed the film “more of a tantalizing, middle-of-the-road misfire than an outright failure.” Having recently had the opportunity to view the alternate theatrical version of the film included in Warner Brothers Home Video’s upcoming two-disc special edition of I Am Legend, that original sentiment takes on even greater meaning than it did in the original review.

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Films as blissfully evocative as Louis Malle’s 1963 Le Feu Follet (The Fire Within) appear perhaps once or twice a decade. Arguably the most intelligently crafted and elegantly-produced movie of Malle’s forty year career (and – in this editor’s opinion – one of the eight or ten greatest films of all time), this little psychodrama tries something so courageous and original that it thoroughly upset many viewers upon release, and kept others away in droves with what they perceived as a depressing subject and an onslaught of dour pessimism. Couple this with the most unfortunate release timing imaginable in its given decade, and one can understand why the picture flopped in the States. Now, some 44 years later, The Criterion Collection has contracted with Nouvelles Editions de Films to distribute much of the Malle catalogue on disc, and Le Feu Follet is poised for reconsideration and rediscovery. An official issue date hasn’t yet been posted on the Criterion site for the DVD, but until that release day arrives, we’ll have to hold our breaths. (It is still available in an old VHS version by New Yorker, for those who don’t mind hunting and pecking). Time and again, this little overlooked masterpiece is one to cherish and will inevitably beckon its admirers return.

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An adaptation of Bari Wood’s cult novel A Doll’s Eyes, Neil Jordan’s In Dreams is a surrealistic, gothic thriller that received a harsh critical drubbing when it first bowed 9 years ago this month. Watching it on home video, I found it neither as pretentious nor as cliched as most critics did; in fact, I regard it - though not 100% successful - as one of the most interesting and underrated horror films of the ’90s. Adventuresome genre lovers might want to give this one a look.

The story concerns children’s book illustrator Claire Cooper (Annette Bening) a woman who moves to a farmhouse near a local reservoir with her young daughter Rebecca (Katie Sagona) and airline pilot husband Paul (Aidan Quinn).

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Spoiler Alert: If you haven’t ever seen it, Stanley Jaffe’s much underrated theatrical feature Without a Trace incorporates an unusual resolution that prompted many critics to pan it, upon its release back in late 1983. I both disconcur with that initial response and admire the film for admirably tackling a difficult narrative problem. In discussing this film, there is absolutely no way for me to avoid revealing the ending here. Therefore, major plot spoilers will follow – and anyone who wants to keep the film’s suspense or final revelation intact should avoid reading my essay.

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Back in 1974, critics around the world mercilessly pummeled controversial director John Boorman’s unique science-fiction opus Zardoz – deriding it as pretentious, as unintelligible, as ludicrously over the top. Yet this outing deserves some serious reconsideration. My own conviction, after a recent viewing of Twentieth Century-Fox’s 2000 DVD release, is that it marks the case of a film with fascinating thematic tropes and narrative structure, and strong central performances from a game cast – but that these assets are collectively obscured by the picture’s miniscule budget and some of the most garish production design in memory. That doesn’t qualify it as an unjustly maligned masterpiece, but it does make the picture well worth a second glance in 33-year hindsight and potentially frees it from some of the charges levied against it.

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Those of us who spent our formative years in the eighties have a unique set of images etched indelibly into our collective psyches: the fall of the Berlin Wall, several most unfortunate trends in hair and bang styling, and those charming yet inexplicably odd Rankin-Bass holiday specials. When I find myself humming the chorus to that catchy ditty from brother misers Snow and Heat on a random March afternoon, it leads me to two startling conclusions. The first, obviously, is that I never have been, nor ever will be, cool. Secondly, as much as I love a man in a red fur suit, Santa is moody and prone to canceling Christmas when faced with the slightest insult. Take these instances:

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