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There are basically two kinds of movies: movies that feel real, and movies that don’t. Breaking Upwards is the former.

You know what I mean, right? Watch most any blockbuster rom-com and you’ll see it: the witty one-liners, the perfect hair and makeup, each scene crafted to be either funny or emotional (but not both). Such movies can still be enjoyable, but as you watch them there’s a part of you that says: this isn’t real. People aren’t really that way, they don’t fit into neat categories like that; people in the real world are messy and complicated.

The people in Breaking Upwards are messy and complicated. Daryl (played by Daryl Wein, who also directed) and Zoe (played by Zoe Lister-Jones) love each other, but they’ve been together a long time and they feel something is missing. They decide to spend a few days… … Movie Review: Breaking Upwards

This is a fantastic movie, in every sense of the word.

Shutter Island crackles with power. From the moment Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) first approaches this island for the criminally insane, the pressure begins to build, and for a full two hours, it pushes inexorably toward crescendo. The story is slow but relentless, each new revelation drawing Teddy – and the audience – closer to the brink. By the time the credits rolled, I was exhausted.

(That’s a good thing.)

Watching the trailers, you might get the impression that this is a horror movie. It isn’t. It’s a mystery; and though the mystery starts as “What’s going on at Shutter Island?” it slowly becomes something else: “Who is Teddy Daniels?” The answer is far from simple, and as Teddy descends deeper into the maze of contradictory clues, the world outside Shutter Island begins to… … Movie Review: Shutter Island

I am not now, nor have I ever been, a twelve-year-old girl, so perhaps I’m not the best person to write this review. Certainly the twelve-year-old girls in the theater I visited seemed more than pleased by this movie, judging by the occasional squeals of “PERCY!!!” and general giggling. But perhaps you belong to a different demographic and you have a niece, a little sister, or a daughter who has sweet-talked you into driving her to see this movie. Just how much pain are you in for, you may wonder?

Well, it’s a bad movie, to be sure; but as bad movies go, it’s reasonably entertaining.

The plot is full of fresh ideas and surprising twists, if you’ve never seen a movie before. Percy Jackson is just your average White Teenage Male protagonist going about his boring high school life, when one… … Movie Review: Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief

The Book of Eli is a beautiful movie with a lot of problems. Whether you like it will depend on whether you think the beautiful parts outweigh the problems. For me, it was an enjoyable experience overall, but not one I’d recommend to everyone.

It’s a fun movie to watch, especially at the beginning. Denzel Washington’s character, Eli, is a guy we all recognize from a hundred other movies: the Quiet Badass. He’s a humble, religious man, just passing through, and he doesn’t want any trouble. He even says this line at one point, to a thug who picks on him in a bar: “I don’t want any trouble.” It’s hard not to grin at a line like that, because it means somebody’s about to get their ass kicked, and Denzel Washington has an advanced degree in ass-kicking.

But there’s more to this… … Movie Review: The Book of Eli

If you’ve seen Superbad, Juno, or Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, you’re familiar with the character Michael Cera seems to always portray: a likeable young guy who is soft-spoken, uncertain, kind, and sometimes courageous. You may be wondering if you’ll get more of the same from Youth in Revolt. I’ve got good news and bad news. The bad news is Cera doesn’t explore much new acting territory; the good news is it’s a terrific movie anyway.

To be fair, the film does give Cera some slightly different material to play with. He actually plays two characters. There’s Nick Twisp, the nice guy described above, and there’s Francois Dillinger, a “supplementary persona” Nick creates to win over his dream girl. Though he only exists in Nick’s mind, the movie treats him like a separate person, and we get lots of great scenes… … Movie Review: Youth in Revolt

Before I start, I have to say a few words about Avatar from a technical point of view. You have a choice of format; you can watch it as a traditional (2-D) movie, you can see it in 3-D on a traditional movie screen, or you can see it in 3-D on an IMAX screen. If you go the IMAX route, be warned: IMAX may not mean what you think it means. It used to be that IMAX meant a huge, six-story-tall screen, but that’s no longer the case; most theaters advertised as IMAX these days are only slightly larger than traditional movie screens, and the IMAX name refers only to the camera technology, not the size of the screen. I watched it in the 3-D “IMAX Lite” format, but for all the hype, I don’t believe the choice of formats… … Movie Review: Avatar

The signs were all there: a severely delayed release; a less-than-inspiring, action-focused trailer; the casting of A-list stars in a minor roles; an unproven director; a limited release for a big-budget film; and the overwhelming challenge of adaptation. We ignored them, and this is what we saw.

There was all that positive feedback from festivals, after all.

John Hillcoat’s film version of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road is currently in select cities. As with all adaptations, there are two groups of concern: those who have read the book and those who have not. The former group will instantly be impressed by the visual realization of another post-apocalyptic America, this one hardly recognizable, although featuring on-location shots, including post-Katrina New Orleans. The visual effects are seemless, giving the audience an authentic experience, furthered by the drab color pallet. If the novel (or Fallout 3) was your previous high-water mark for depicting… … Movie Review: The Road

Brothers is a movie about the bonds of family, and the terrible effects of war on those bonds. I am an only child and have never been in a war, so I have a hard time gauging how realistically the film portrays these elements. But putting realism aside, I can say that Brothers is a powerful and engaging experience, albeit flawed.

The film revolves around the Cahill family. Captain Sam Cahill (Tobey Maguire) is a Marine sent to fight in Afghanistan, leaving behind his devoted wife Grace (Natalie Portman) and their two daughters, as well as Sam’s brother Tommy (Jake Gyllenhaal). Tommy, who just got out of jail, is a stark contrast to his heroic brother, a fact their veteran father never lets them forget. But with Sam gone, Grace is lonely, and Tommy is available.

Many war films would stop there,… … Movie Review: Brothers

There are two major groups of people who will watch Twilight: New Moon. The first group is what I will call the movie’s “target audience.” You know who you are. The second group is the people who will be dragged to the theater by members of the first group.

If you’re in the first group, you can stop reading now. This review will be irrelevant. If you’re in the second group, there is probably one question in your mind: just how bad is this thing going to be?

Answer: not that bad, actually.

Despite what Rotten Tomatoes says, New Moon is much better than its predecessor. The original Twilight had a variety of problems: bad acting, endless angsty brooding, characters who couldn’t finish a damn sentence without pausing, and above all, the fact that basically nothing happened in the entire movie. You’ll be… … Movie Review: New Moon

Surely one of the most demanded titles on the medium, Fight Club is finally on Blu-ray. Does the film hold up ten years later? Does it warrant yet another release (along with the regular DVD and two versions of the Special Edition)?

Let’s start by saying that if you haven’t seen this movie and recognize sex and violence as valid artistic mediums capable of social commentary and emotional connections, then you should. Rent it, borrow it, buy it in any form; just watch it.

The cinematography, as with all of director David Fincher’s work, is some of the best in contemporary film. The plot is unique and interesting and the performances (from Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, and Helena Bonham Carter) are so memorable that they are now part of the cultural zeitgeist. Furthermore, it’s the only good adaptation of a Chuck Palahniuk novel so… … Review: Fight Club 10th Anniversary Blu-Ray