*** Bullhead. We weren’t sure what to expect of this movie (I guess a violent European crime thriller), but we sure didn’t expect a nuanced and sometimes brutal character study. Fascinating and odd and kind of messed up, in a good way.
*** The Hunger Games. I may have a few quibbles, but this was very well done. Jennifer Lawrence was great, Josh ( Read more... )

*** Mean Girls. I’ve been wanting to watch this one again for a while, to see if it was still as good as I remembered. It was. When I first saw it, I thought that Lindsay Lohan girl was great and had a fantastic future in front of her, but I guess now we can give a lot more of the credit for this movie to Tina Fey’s writing. The supporting cast is ( Read more... )

**** Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. Terrific. I don’t really want to compare it to the terrific Alec Guinness version. Gary Oldman makes it his own, and the supporting cast, direction, and look of the film are all great.
 

*** Glee, Season 2. There are a lot of annoying characters on this show, and I didn’t think the musical numbers were as good as in season 1. At this point though, I think we’re watching almost entirely for Britney. But overall still not a bad way to pass the time.
 

*** The Trip. Obviously, you have to be in the “enjoys Steve Coogan” camp to enjoy this one, as it’s more of the usual. As usual, he plays a (fictionalized?) womanizing, self-centered, insensitive version of himself, Rob Brydon plays a (fictionalized?) goofy, annoying version of himself, and they goof off and see what happens. It was pretty funny.

*** Midnight in Paris. A charming way to pass some time. The best parts were the various actors having a good time hamming up characters like Hemingway and Dali (I am.. Dali!).
** Drive. Already reviewed.
 

We’ve seen this movie before. The hero does bad things but is not a bad man. He’s singlemindedly very very good at something that other people use for evil, but he’s pure of spirit. He is good at what he does but not very good at any other aspect of life; he’s a naif, a child. His skill and singlemindedness define him as a good person, even if he ( Read more... )

*** Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. We watched part 1 and part 2 in August. They were sort of long, and a lot of it seemed pointless and boring, and the whole “deathly hallows” thing seemed like a silly distraction from the horcrux business, and then the ending was kinda eh, and Snape (AKA the only interesting character in the whole series) ( Read more... )

*** Intelligence. It’s been called “The Canadian Wire” because, like the Wire, it involves criminals and police and surveillance and it’s set (and made) in Canada. It’s not the Wire, but it’s pretty good. Some really good characters and good story arcs over the course of its 26 episodes. I got into that obsessive must-watch-next-episode mode, which ( Read more... )

*** Source Code was gripping and compelling, but pretty much falls apart as soon as you think about it too carefully. It mostly works while you’re caught up in it though.
**** Easy A. Awesome. If you liked Heathers or Mean Girls (I need to see that again and see if it holds up after all this time), you will like this. It’s very smart and well- ( Read more... )