When you have a film that boasts the comedic talents of Lake Bell and Simon Pegg nothing can go wrong. In MAN UP, Lake Bell is Nancy, a woman who is a master of words but less skillful in love. When Nancy is accidentally mistaken by Jack (played by Simon Pegg) to be his blind date, she decides to be impulsive for once and just go along with it. What follows is a hilarious, rollicking romp of schemes, sparring, and slapstick humor.

Elle (Lily Tomlin) is an academic/erstwhile poet with an acerbic tongue and a combative attitude. When Elle’s granddaughter Sage (Julia Garner) arrives at her doorstep with an unwanted pregnancy and little money, they embark on a journey that involves Elle ringing up old acquaintances to collect enough money for an abortion. What ensues is a day of episodic reunions, some painful, some joyful, and most raucous and downright funny.

Ever since the “Twilight” franchise the label “vampire film” seems to invite derision or at the very least weariness, from viewers who believe that stories of vampires have long outstayed their welcome. And yet, regardless of the ambivalence towards vampire films there's no shortage of filmmakers willing to take a stab at them. The results run the gamut from the painfully mediocre to the prodigiously inventive.

Beautiful, heartbreaking, ambitious, and spiritually invigorating. “The Salt of the Earth,” a new documentary directed by Wim Wenders and Juliano Ribeiro Salgado, gives social documentary photographer Sebastião Salgado (the co-director’s father) center stage and illuminates his life’s work with a focus on his photography work and travels. Salgado’s photographs cover diverse subjects, from migrants to workers to

There are a lot of ways that “The Hunting Ground” echoes “The Invisible War,” director and writer Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering’s last documentary. Both are films that expose the ugly side of celebrated institutions, with “The Hunting Ground” taking on star universities and “The Invisible War” confronting the U.S. military. Both lay bare the banality of sexual violence that occurs within these institutions

Ethan Hawke’s first feature documentary “Seymour: an introduction” makes no attempt to be comprehensive about the life of its titular subject, classical pianist Seymour Bernstein. Instead, it focuses on what drew Hawke to Seymour: his sagaciousness and reflections on music, artistic devotion, and life. Eighty-seven years young, Seymour is a guru who not only mentors in piano playing but also

A lot of the buzz surrounding “Still Alice” revolves around Julianne Moore’s Oscar-worthy performance as a woman struggling with Alzheimer’s. And upon viewing there is no denying that Moore’s performance is the film’s winning factor. However, that is not to say that “Still Alice” is not a well-made film, because it is. Shot for less than five million dollars over the course of twenty-three days “Still Alice” is a spirituously-beautiful film that casts an

While the film’s plodding pace and largely muted action may be discouraging for some viewers, “Year” triumphs from the slow and gripping tension of its character drama. Writer and director J.C. Chandor (“All is lost”) has proven to be especially adept at depicting characters battening down the hatches. His first film “Margin Call” was a taut Wall Street drama set during the onset of the 2007-08 financial crisis. In “All is Lost” a man battles it out

“Song of the sea” is a spectacular film that explores the Celtic myth of Selkies, a mystical being that can change form between human and seal, through a simply-told and heartwarming story about a brother and a sister. “Song,” a traditionally-animated film, is also a visual feat. And despite a few moments in which the visual eclipses the story “Song” is a successful continuation of animation storytelling. The film, by director Tomm

“Citizenfour” is in many ways a hard film to swallow. Not only is its subject matter, the unlawful surveillance of the American public by the NSA (National Security Agency), one that courts controversy and debate but the way filmmaker Laura Poitras tackles this subject, head-on and at times drily, might be off-putting for some audience members looking for a more rounded discourse. And yet despite its occasional