■ The Dark Half
George A. Romero is notorious for resuscitating the zombie legend to pop culture, but departed from the undead with this 1993 horror. Based on the novel by Stephen King, The Dark Half is a Castle Rock version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde based on one of King’s favorite themes: the dark power that can be unleashed by the author as demigod. Timothy Hutton stars as both the author and as his evil twin.
■ The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari hasn’t looked this good since its 1920 debut. The Kino Classics digital restoration, painstakingly assembled from surviving prints, shines with nary a scratch and with the original color tinting. The German Expressionism classic is a disturbing tale of the power of suggestion unfolding in a pointedly unreal, unsettling setting where the shadows are painted and angles all wrong. The film asks: What if the director of the asylum is insane?
■ Style Wars
Tony Silver may have started out doing a documentary of New York City’s “writers” (as graffiti practitioners call themselves) but his 1983 film Style Wars also serves as a record of New York’s early-’80s hip-hop scene. Breakdancing, rap and graffiti were facets of the subculture closely observed by Silver. For many of the youths he interviewed, tagging represented a chance to stand out from anonymity, even if few of their names rose to fame.
■ “Quincy, M.E.: Season 7”
Forensic medicine has become a hot topic on TV, but “Quincy, M.E.” (1976-1983) was decades ahead of the pack. “Quincy” was a topical melodrama but the topics were often prescient, including lax penalties for drunk driving, lack of handicap access and problems with for-profit health care. The chief pleasure, however, is Jack Klugman’s star performance as a wisecracking medical examiner intolerant of fools, corruption and big wigs who put themselves above the public interest.
