The Johnny Depp science fiction film “Transcendence” has been kicking around theaters for the past two weeks, but there’s a smaller gem of a movie—independently co-written and co-produced by Kate Cohen, one of “Transcendence’s” producers that's only available for streaming.

It’s called “Away from Here,” and like “The Woodsman,” it treats a normally sensational subject, adult sex with minors, with refreshing

(this is Screen Comment's second review of "Nebraska") American indie cinema also has its giants. Just like his cohorts Wes Anderson and Jason Reitman Alexander Payne has, after directing only a few movies, spearheaded this other cinema in which America and its history fill the screen and the script. As it were in “Nebraska” America is the focus. Not the one that’s portrayed by superheroes but indeed the one that we've come to gradually forget.

In the department of gems to discover, “Starlet,” by Sean Baker.

Once in a while we’re lucky enough to come upon an excellent film that had somehow slid under our radar screen. I’m thinking “Tiny Furniture,” showered with awards at indie film festivals, written about, lauded but attracting only a small audience. As a writer, I was green with envy when I finally saw it. How can an author be so smart, so hip, so original, in a context done

David Chase has gone from “The Sopranos” to taking a sixties-rock nostalgia trip with “Not Fade Away." It’s a film that knows its subject well enough, and even has E-Street Band member Steven Van Zandt to help pick the bluesy rock-infused soundtrack. And yet I don't know what I'm supposed to take away from the band focused on here. Doug (John Magaro) is a New Jersey kid inspired by The Rolling Stones, and girls, to start a band with

“Promised Land” is the movie that Matt Damon and John Krasinski of “The Office” teamed up to write. Damon was even going to direct at one time before scheduling conflicts encouraged them to bring on Gus Van Sant. Damon is Steven, vice-president of a natural gas company who travels with his partner (Frances McDormand) to the rural town of McKinley in order to buy up people’s land and drill for gas. He promises money

“Jack Reacher," based on the Lee Child novel “One Shot," begins chillingly enough with the stigma of the recent tragedy in Connecticut. A sniper looks through his scope and guns down five people in cold blood. But while “Reacher” is far from perfection it doesn’t deserve this kind of relevance, either. The shooting inquiry brings Reacher (Tom Cruise) to Pittsburgh. He’s an investigative officer acquainted with the suspect believed to be

"Zero Dark Thirty" may be the best unentertaining movie I've seen this year. This is Kathryn Bigelow’s second film based on the war on terror, and it is just as much of an imperfect as it is an interesting take on the past decade as “The Hurt Locker,” and has roughly the same type of main character in it. “Zero” is very easy to follow, comes off impeccably well-researched and has a terrific performance sure to get some award consideration

“The Guilt Trip” is the kind of film you'd want to take your aunt to in order to make up for not calling her often enough during the year. Or anyone who enjoys predictable and fluff entertainment, for that matter. "Breezy," "cute," and "nice" apply, with Barbara Streisand and Seth Rogen doing their damndest best to make these qualifiers stick. The "Funny Girl" performer plays Joyce, a lonely widow who devotes most of her time to her only son Andy

So who’s ready for another nine plus hours of hobbits, dwarves, orcs, elves, and Gandalf? Honestly the way director Peter Jackson, taking his fourth trip to Middle Earth, has worked this first of “The Hobbit” trilogy; it will feel like it’s going by in a flash. I’m so impressed with what he’s done here; proving again that nobody could do a better job of bringing J.R.R Tolkien’s stories to the screen quite like him. This one starts with the dwarves

A romantic comedy may feel like a strange new direction for director David O. Russell (“I Heart Huckabees,” “The Fighter") but his adaptation of Matthew Quick’s namesake novel is a winner, serving up equal parts romance and uplifting drama. What of Bradley Cooper 2.0? He plays a demanding role to perfection. His Pat Solatino, a bipolar Philadelphia man who spent eight months in a psych ward after a brutal beating put on