Spider

A great 45-minute movie crammed into a 90-minute package! Essentially a Twilight Zone episode about a crazy man and his crazy memories of his murdered mother, Spider relies heavily on the gloomy cinematography of Peter Suschitzky, mostly because about half of the movie is just shots of wallpaper and paint peeling. When the story is moving, though, it’s fun, if not deep. On the plus side, Miranda Richardson gives one of the best performances of this or any odd-numbered year. On the minus side, Ralph Fiennes gives a sort of Boris-Karloff-meets-Rain-Man performance as the titular Spider. There’s a cool plot twist, but if you haven’t guessed it after the first 45 minutes then you probably have the cranial capacity of our commander in chief. If you do decide to go see this movie, bring something to read.