A cold-blooded Nazi in hiding

Watching the Argentine thriller The German Doctor gave me a sick feeling -- which is precisely what a film such as this should do. In adapting her novel Wakolda, director Lucia Puenzo tells a fictionalized story about Nazi doctor Josef Mengele. Auschwitz's Angel of Death fled to South America after the war and managed to elude those who sought to bring him to justice. No need recounting Mengele's crimes, which are skillfully implied by Puenza. The story begins when Helmut Gregor (Alex Brendemuhl), a doctor, takes up residence at a seaside hotel run by a husband and wife team (Diego Peretti and Natalia Oreiro). The couple's daughter Lilith (Forencia Bado) isn't growing at a normal rate. The myserious Gregor offers to help the girl, quickly revealing that his interest has a frighteningly sinister edge. As it happens, the family has located in a part of Patagonia where German influences prevail. Desperate to see her daughter progress, mom accepts Gregor's help: Dad is more suspicious. The story is made creepier by the fact that we know Gregor's true identity long before either Lilth's mother or father. The German Doctor is a speculative story that gets under your skin. It's weirdly chilling.

Gun fire blasts hole in this thriller

For a while, I thought Cold in July was going to be a thriller with something more on its mind than pouring a heaping mound of pulp over an oft-visited thriller landscape. Michael C. Hall plays Richard Dane, a Texas father who shoots an intruder (Dane's trigger finger slips) during a middle-of-the-night burglary. Dane is torn by feelings of guilt and fear, particularly when a man claiming to be the father of the dead intruder (Sam Shepard) shows up seeking revenge. Director Jim Mickle, who co-wrote the screenplay with Nick Damici from a novel by Joe R. Landsdale, puts lots of intriguing elements in play, but increasingly tilts the movie toward outrageous plotting, Texas color (a la the Coen Brothers) and a disconcertingly violent conclusion. Still, the movie features fine acting -- not only from Hall and Shepard, but from Don Johnson who shows up as a quirky private detective who also runs a pig farm. Vinessa Shaw has a nice small turn as Dane's wife, Ann. There's plenty tjim m admire here, but an over-the-top shoot-em-up finale offers the easiest (and least rewarding) sort of satisfaction.