In 2005 writer-director Rian Johnson made a memorable film called “Brick” which combined the private eye-crime noir genre with a high-school setting and made us start to wonder if Joseph Gordon Levitt was going to have a career past being the alien teenager on “3rd Rock from the Sun.” Now no one is wondering anymore as Levitt teams up again with the director for “Looper,” the year’s most ingenious and thought-provoking

Whatever happened to misbegotten youth? Don’t you long for the old days, when young misfits were French, ran everywhere and stole things? What happened to the old days, when a good American movie character could look forward to a life of crime on screen? Nowadays they take medication. And moan about not being popular. And make mix tapes and try to get people to feel sorry for them. Has American youth taken a turn for the

Writer-director David Ayer really likes cop-themed movies. He’s done all kinds of them, from frivolous fun ones ("S.W.A.T") to police corruption (“Street Kings,” “Dark Blue,” “Training Day”) ones. These have all been riveting in their own way and “End of Watch” is no exception, but this is fairly new territory in that it breaks down the brotherhood of cops. Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Pena play Brian and Mike, South

Life's about curveballs. Case in point: no one expected Clint Eastwood to debate an empty chair at the Republican National Convention. Likewise no one likely thought his first acting role since 2008’s "Grand Torino" (SEE our review) would be in something so draggy and lightweight as “Trouble with the Curve. ”Eastwood's Gus is all growl, stubbornness and agitation--look out, furniture. A baseball talent scout, he

“About Cherry” strives to display the porn industry—or at least its San Francisco chapter—in a more positive light than in “Hardcore,” “Boogie Nights” and other outwardly leering, inwardly moralistic takes on the subject. The directorial debut of author Stephen Elliott, who worked as a stripper in his twenties, and co-written by porn star Lorelei Lee, the film is refreshingly devoid of rape, drug-induced degradation and other staples of the genre. It wants

There’s been talk about Richard Gere’s performance possibly getting an Oscars nod but after just seeing Jack Black in “Bernie” and considering Daniel Day Lewis’s “Lincoln” is coming out soon it’s hard to get overly excited about Gere. He plays Robert Miller a hedge fund C.E.O. attempting to merge his company with a large public bank while hiding the fact that he’s lost nearly all of his money in an investment deal. But this is

Bachelorette is a total mess and I mean that as a compliment. It’s in the hysterical, drug-laced vein of “Pineapple Express,” in which none-too-bright, self-obsessed characters not only dig themselves deeper into a hole, but are too intoxicated to notice their own descent. Advertised as a darker take on the girls-can-be-gross-too humor genre "Bachelorette," which was directed and adapted by Leslye Headland from her 2007 play

In some alternate reality, critics waited with bated breath for the release of an Oscar-worthy “Resident Evil: Retribution.” On this earth, however, they were sharpening their knives for director Paul W.S. Anderson’s fifth entry in the videogame-based “Resident Evil” series. Considered under standard film criteria, “Retribution” unabashedly meets those expectations. Yet Anderson nonetheless creates visual

The most nagging flaw of "Liberal Arts," Josh Radnor’s self-consciously precious second film, comes to full fruition in a late scene, showcasing the hilariously tart-tongued Allison Janney (who also nearly saved "Juno" from its bout of cutesiness). Jesse (Radnor), an ill-at-ease thirty-five year-old college admissions director, has been straining to reconcile his conflicting feelings for an unusually refined, virginal college sophomore

“The Words” is a nested film with three intertwined stories about writers and as such will be followed with rapt attention by any writer in the audience. Whether anyone else will be interested in a movie filled with good intentions but whirring on empty, I’m not sure. For starters, Montreal once again trying to pass off as Paris once again feels off. But then, the entire movie—by first-timers Brian Klugman and Lee Sternthal—feels off. It