A group of friends follow a strange series of messages, leading them to a cute, otherworldly being in search of a way back home in Earth to Echo. Three close-knit friends, struggling with the imminent end of their friendship thanks to a highway project that will level their neighborhood, find themselves captivated by one final […]
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 […]
A variation of a popular saying is “nothing exceeds like excess.” In the case of summer blockbusters, it almost seems like a game for directors to see how much they can cram into the running time to please the eyes and ears if not the mind as well. When I saw the trailer for Transformers: […]
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 […]
Buddy cop movies work best when there’s just as much humor or more as there is investigation into some crime. If you think back through the entries in some of the best franchises in this genre like Beverly Hills Cop, Rush Hour, Lethal Weapon and even The Heat, you also realize that one of the […]
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 […]