2013

[7] Jason Sudeikis and Jennifer Aniston star in this comedy about at pot dealer (Sudeikis) who hires a stripper (Aniston), a lonely teen virgin (Will Poulter) and a homeless girl (Emma Roberts) to pose as his nuclear family as he smuggles an obscene load of marijuana out of Mexico. We’re the Millers generates laughs by seeing this team of misfits hide their agenda (and their …

[8] Joaquin Phoenix stars in writer/director Spike Jonze’s sci-fi romance about a divorced man who falls in love with a computer operating system. Her takes place in a not-so-distant future in which society has become increasingly reliant on technology to fulfill our emotional needs. Phoenix’s operating system, named Samantha and voiced by Scarlett Johansson, is constantly evolving. Like a human being, she learns from trial …

[7] Writer/director Jeremy Saulnier (Green Room) serves up an attention-worthy revenge tale with Blue Ruin. Macon Blair stars as a loner who let his life fall apart after the double murder of his parents. When the man convicted of the crime is released from prison, Blair enacts his own deadly vigilante justice. But unfortunately, the cycle doesn’t end there. Worried his victim’s family might seek …

[7] In this revenge drama from writer/director Scott Cooper (Crazy Heart, Black Mass), Christian Bale seeks vigilante justice after Woody Harrelson murders his brother over gambling debt. Casey Affleck plays the brother, a young man suffering from post-traumatic stress after four tours of duty in Iraq. The rest of the esteemed cast includes Willem DaFoe, Forest Whitaker, Zoe Saldana, and Sam Shepard. Out of the …

[7] Naomi Watts and Robin Wright play childhood friends who grew up together and are practically inseparable, even in their 40s. Their young adult sons, played by Xavier Samuel (The Loved Ones) and James Frecheville, are also best friends. The four spend a lot of time together. Their world is kinda claustrophobic, but in the best, most beautiful kind of way living on the ocean …

[7] Nicolas Cage stars in his most interesting movie in many years. He plays an ex-con in an impoverished Southern community who becomes an unlikely role model for a 15-year old boy (Mud‘s Tye Sheridan) who is dealing with an increasingly abusive, alcoholic father (Gary Poulter). Cage and Sheridan are top-notch, and Garry Hawkins’ screenplay, based on Larry Brown’s novel, never stoops to sentimentality. Director David …

[5] A Princeton admissions clerk takes a chance on an ‘alternative school’ kid when she discovers he may be the child she gave up for adoption many years ago. Despite the intrinsic charm of both Tina Fey and Paul Rudd, this movie is neither funny nor romantic, and the stakes are never high enough to keep you from dozing off. The third act, in particular, …

[7] As much as I hate remakes on the whole, this new Evil Dead movie greatly surprised me with how well made it is and how genuinely scary and tense it is. It also avoids contemporary horror pitfalls — the characters aren’t douche bags and there is none of that bullshit monochromatic photography going on, for starters. Maybe the bar is just really low now, …

[8] This documentary focuses on the negative impact of keeping Orca whales in captivity for amusement park entertainment. It specifically focuses on the story of a whale named Tilicum and how he came to be a breeder and performer at Sea World in Orlando, Florida. The primary interview subjects are former Sea World trainers, who talk about breaking up family units, withholding food from the …

[7] Matthew McConaughey stars as Ron Woodruff in this true story about a womanizing electrician whose given thirty days to live after doctors discover he carries HIV. The year was 1985 and the American government was loathe to take HIV/AIDS very seriously at the time, with most people believing it was only a ‘gay disease.’ Indeed, Woodruff loses many of his old buddies when they …

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