The poorest survivors of a global meltdown fight an oppressive class system aboard a perpetual-motion train in Snowpiercer. The year is 2031. With global warming growing worse 17 years ago, the people of Earth conceived a grand plan to restore the world’s climate. They sprayed the atmosphere with a chemical that, instead of solving the […]

A loud, crude, obnoxious woman heads on a road trip with her ballsy, whisky-loving grandmother in Tammy. Tammy (Melissa McCarthy) is a brash, overweight, overbearing, loser. Her demeanor costs her both her job and her husband in a single day. With nowhere else to turn, she heads to her mother’s house, but Mom (Allison Janney) has […]

It all seems as if it was thought up by someone who’s never managed to properly use a remote.

A burned-out music producer and forlorn songwriter work together on a new album, bringing them peace and passion in Begin Again. New York City is no stranger to countless untold rags-to-riches stories and nearly as many rags-to-riches-to-rags stories. Dan Mulligan (Mark Ruffalo) hopes to be one of the few that can turn the corner, adding a […]

An aimless, down-on-his-luck history professor goes on an unexpected journey with his estranged family in The Discoverers. Lewis Birch (Griffin Dunne) has seen better days. This once highly-regarded academic now finds himself working as a part-time professor at a small, unremarkable community college. His divorce, years ago, has left him distanced from his his droll […]

An eerily detached loner with a singularly obsessive focus chases after the men who ran off with his car in The Rover. In a dystopian Australia, after a devastating economic upheaval, everyone’s left to fend for themselves for their own daily survival. The collapse turns most of the sparse populace into desperate opportunists or outright bandits. Eric […]

Four young men leave the tough streets of Newark, New Jersey, to create a historic rock sensation in Jersey Boys. They were the biggest rock group in America before another fab four came over from England to rewrite rock history. In 1951, small-time hustler Tommy DeVito (Vincent Piazza) fills an opening in his local band with his golden-voiced […]

A straight-talking, unfiltered New York comedienne’s one-night stand brings an unanticipated focus to her life in Obvious Child. Donna Stern (Jenny Slate) is a take-charge kind of woman, albeit with often dubious effectiveness. Even though her Mom thinks she should be doing more with her 780 SAT score, she prefers the challenge of the local comedy […]

An adolescent viking and his pet dragon encounter a disturbing clan that threatens the peace in How to Train Your Dragon 2. 2010’s animated film How to Train Your Dragon was one of my five best for the year. It introduced us to the story of young Hiccup (voiced by Jay Baruchel), the awkward but inventive son […]

Three college friends head off to catch a computer hacker and find themselves forever changed by their incomprehensible fate in The Signal. Nic Eastman (Brenton Thwaites) and Jonah Breck (Beau Knapp) are freshmen computer geeks from MIT. They’ve recently been captivated by the exploits of a new, renowned hacker who broke into MIT’s network. When the hacker, […]

A slowly-dying, remote harbor community needs a doctor to close a deal to save its future and plans to get one by any means in The Grand Seduction. The picturesque but isolated town of Tickle Head, on the coast of Newfoundland, has struggled for decades to remain relevant. Its better days are just a distant memory […]

Two middle-aged, wayward prep-school  teachers debate the value of their chosen subjects in Words and Pictures. The history of the written word goes back more than 5,000 years. The history of art-based imagery goes back even further. Both have captured the best and worst of humanity throughout our storied existence. Poets, playwrights, painters and psychopaths […]