I didn’t go to the movies last week. But I’ve been watching a lot of movies at home so I offer these film capsules. Enjoy!

“Once Upon a Time in the West” Italian director Sergio Leone helmed this sprawling tribute to American Westerns, which features Henry Fonda in a rare villainous role, Jason Robards as a wisecracking outlaw and Charles Bronson as a mysterious loner who’s quick with a gun and likes to play the harmonica. I’m a big fan of Leone’s “Dollars” trilogy (“A Fistful of Dollars,” “For a Few Dollars More,” and “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”) and although “Once a Time in the West” features the director’s trademark close-up shots, creative staging of violence and long, drawn-out takes, for the most part it lacks the manic humor of the “Dollars” films. Instead, it’s a serious, sometimes mournful rumination on the taming of the Old West, and the inherent conflict between businessmen and landowners, and cowboys who live by their own moral code. A good film, but if you’re interested in learning more about Leone, I’d start with “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.”

“Candy” The film world was robbed of a great talent when Heath Ledger died, and this little-seen 2006 movie offers fans of the late actor an opportunity to see him deliver a terrific performance — in his native Australia, no less — as a young junkie in love. (Ledger’s equally troubled wife is played by Abbie Cornish, who is also very good.) Both harrowing and depressing, “Candy” deserves a spot on my list of films about beautiful young drug addicts, which you can find here, and although it doesn’t do anything unique or ground-breaking, it’s a finely tuned, carefully observed movie with a keen visual sense. “Candy” also stars Geoffrey Rush, as a chemistry professor/heroin addict who mentors/enables Ledger’s character.

“Chicago 10” This fascinating 2006 documentary depicts the protests and unrest of the 1968 Democratic Convention, and the aftermath, specifically the trial of the famed Chicago 7, a group that included activists Tom Hayden, Abbie Hoffman and Bobby Seale, the founder of the Black Panthers. Particularly interesting is the film’s approach to its subject — “Chicago 10” weaves archival footage of the protests and riots with vividly animated scenes of the trial, using a script based on actual court transcripts and the voices of actors such as Jeffrey Wright, Nick Nolte and Mark Ruffalo. The effect is a galvanizing, exciting film that made me feel as if I was experiencing the events as they unfolded, rather than peering into a dusty time capsule. Some of the people portrayed in the film were unhappy with director Brett Morgen’s more creative flourishes — the soundtrack features contemporary music by artists such as Rage Against the Machine and Eminen — so here’s a link to an interview with Morgen, who explains why he did what he did.

“The Bank Job” This is a hard-nosed, old-fashioned little B-movie, about a group of British criminals planning a daring bank robbery. Set in 1971 London, “The Bank Job” is both a period piece and a heist movie, with a good dose of racial politics and international intrigue. Supposedly based on a true story, the film focuses on the robbery of the safety deposit boxes of a prestigious bank, and why British intelligence would have bothered to enlist a group of amateur criminals — led by the charismatic Jason Statham and sympathetic femme fatale Saffron Burrows — to steal the contents of a particular box. “The Bank Job” isn’t particularly special, but it’s well-made and entertaining, and I particularly enjoyed the tagline at the end of the film, which says that “Some Names Have Been Changed to Protect the Guilty.”

“The Untouchables” I’d never seen this acclaimed 1987 Brian De Palma film, about Eliot Ness’ efforts to take down gangster Al Capone in Prohibition-era Chicago, but I’d heard good things about it. So my expectations were high. But after watching it, I’d have to say it’s something of a mixed bag. It’s elegant and beautifully filmed, with the deliberate pacing and scope of a really good Western, but lacks the seriousness and focus of a truly great film. Kevin Costner makes a rather wan Eliot Ness, and though Robert De Niro is an entertaining Al Capone, he seems to occupy a different film from the rest of the characters. Even the film’s most famous scene — a shootout in a train station while a baby carriage bounces down the steps, in a nod to the Odessa Steps sequence in Sergei Eisenstein “The Battleship Potemkin” — got on my nerves. Sure, it’s cool and stylish, but it seems to have no purpose other than being cool and stylish. I guess I’m just not a fan of Brian De Palma, who is good at ripping off other directors, but never makes films that actually mean anything.

“Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day” This is a surprisingly charming film, a zany almost-screwball comedy about a poor woman (Frances McDormand) who impersonates a social secretary and lands a job with an aspiring actress (Amy Adams) in 1930s London. Fired from her governess job for being too strict, the no-nonsense Miss Pettigrew is just what the aspiring actress —who is involved with three different men and unable to commit to the one man who truly loves her —needs. The film has a great look, and is set in a world where beautiful, elegant people are always going to cocktail parties, listening to swing music and saying witty things about love and war. It’s pretty light entertainment, but it won over this cynic, so there you are.

Got a comment? A film recommendation? Add your thoughts below or e-mail me at sfoss@dailygazette.net.