D-Slice

I really enjoyed Baghead, the first film from the Duplass Brothers that I have seen. It is a nice, simple premise film that makes it seem like a good enough filmmaker can make a movie out of any premise and still make it enjoyable. But Baghead's most positive factor is that the characters exist in a reality, full of awkward moments, humor, and surprising bursts of actually scary moments (although not overtly and not in excess) that I really enjoyed. Steve Zissis provides a particularly funny performance and Greta Gerwig is always fun to watch, especially because this was when she was in her early, breakout indie films. I feel like Steve Zissis could have gone on to bigger roles in bigger films, but, ah. In short, this is a breezy, funny, real, admirably small, and kinda scary film, and that is something to cherish.

This is an engrossing, maddening, intriguing, and extremely well made documentary about a murder case that is easily comparable to the live action David Fincher film Zodiac in the way that it seamlessly moves through countless facts and interviews without losing the viewer. The documentary has a complex story to tell and does so effortlessly. The film is also has a very straightforward manner that works very well in a documentary setting. An incredible documentary, one of 2011's best.

Courageous, like many of the Kendrick brothers' previous works, is truly only for the converted (myself included in that group, that doesn't mean that I have to like any Christian film that rears its head). I can't help but to say that this movie did impress me, though. The filmmaking is quite impressive, considering its humble origins. The Kendrick brothers have proved that they have come a long way from Flywheel and proudly show off their more developed sound and production values (this is their first film to surpass the million-dollar-budget mark), but that doesn't compensate for most of the rest of the film. While it is an improvement in subtlety and nuance in comparison to Facing the Giants and Fireproof, that does not make it subtle; it is anything, but. The first twenty-so minutes are not bad, but once Adam and his cop pals start discussing religion, it gets weird. The film verges on being, unintentionally and with good intentions, overtly racist. They meant well, but they need a more observing eye in the editing room saying: "Do you think we should have made every single bad-guy black, and the poor characters Mexican?". I believe that this question of unintentional racism could just be over-scrutiny from me, but look over the film again and you might find many plays into stereotypes. Granted, this film succeeds at the actual filming and action a bit more so than I thought it would, I actually enjoyed some of the action when I took it out of the context of the film, but the action may serve two purposes: a metaphor for courage in the home and a ploy to pull in audiences. Once again, this is probably over-analyzing from me, but make note of it. Overall, the message is very powerful, but needs better delivery. Is there any other way to bring out a character's reaction to their daughters' death than through weeping only, I ask? Crying is just fine, but wasn't quite the reaction of depth I had hoped for. All-in-all, if you are a film critic, you will while despise Courageous, a Christian, you will praise it, and if both, you may feel conflicted. This film does need to be seen by the converted to keep the faith, but without any reach to the others, it may defeat the purpose of the message it could have conveyed so well, but I knew it wouldn't be able to.

What a superb film! Incredibly inpactful and thrilling. Great performances all around, with a beautiful score and amazing writing to go hand in hand with the Sidney Lumet touch. How this film was snubbed for not even a single Oscar nomination, I will never understand. Michael Shannon and Albert Finney bring such great energy and power; Hoffman and Hawke really express the confusion in the **** that takes place. The melodramatic performances rarely seem over done because the thrill is amped up to 14. This film physically punched me in the face: no ****

Rango is indeed a quirky film; certainly not for kids, but still very satisfying. Not only a great comedy, animation, and adventure film, but also a great western. Rango is probably the first good film of 2011 and most people would agree with me. Plenty of great action and dialogue push this film along and it keeps on pushing until the end. The movie's theme is much more deep than I expected and the writing is excellent; something you would expect from a Pixar film. In short, I was happily surprised with Rango.

The film lacks a certain amount of emotion, and maybe that's because it's so harsh (especially around the middle of the picture), but it sure does satisfy. Unstoppable is funny when it wants to be, has a great attention to detail and old-school, edge-of-your-seat action. Chris Pine and Denzel Washington shine as a duo. Due to the great cinematography and sound (not Academy Award worthy, however), the audience gets the feel of the immense power of the train which provides consistency throughout the film. Overall, this movie brings back the classic intensity and fun that brings back memories of 'Speed' with Keanu Reeves.

This movie is so awesome in every way. It manages to prove that a funny man can break our hearts (which would happen again in Punch Drunk Love with Adam Sandler some time after). This film has one of the most original story-lines from '98 and is written to perfection. The balance of originality and great writing, not to mention Carrey, isn't the only thing that delivers a power punch. It is the message, that is explained in such a manner that even the people not searching for depth in the first place can find it, that is amazing. The depth of thought that the writers went through to get to the theme that "whatever world we are born in, we will instantly believe is real" is astonishing. The Academy made big mistakes in '98: 1. Saving Private Ryan not winning Best Picture, and 2. The Truman Show not being nominated for Best Picture, Actor, Score and Cinematography (the first two getting a win wouldn't have been an upset to me). Basically, if you want a wholly original film that is funny, heartbreaking and thought-provoking, The Truman Show is one of the best picks.

This movie is potentially the most powerful film I have seen in my life. Amazing performances from Robert De Niro and Christopher Walken that surely raised them to ****. The Russian roulette scene absolutely tore me apart. That scene is potentially the most emotionally powerful scene of cinema I have ever seen. The amazing thing about this movie is that, while not only touching on issues of war and post-war syndrome, this movie shows us classical themes of friendship and brotherhood. I pretty much felt like I had just been punched in the face by a wave of awesomeness when it finished. This is, by far, one of the best movies ever made. Period.

"The Social Network" still has me reminiscing about how awesome it was. Jesse Eisenberg deserves an Oscar, Andrew Garfield, Justin Timberlake, and Rooney Mara all deserve nominations and this film itself deserves induction into the American Film Institute. The thing about The Social Network is that with all the garbage released in the theaters worldwide, this one has the same flare of a wide release film, but the pure awesomeness of a limited release film. The writing is perfect. It had absolutely no flaws anywhere. Writing this good doesn't come around often, so if you love amazing films, you cannot call yourself a movie lover if you do not see this film. Go, run as fast as you can to the nearest video store and GET THIS FILM. I cannot even describe it well enough. That is how awesome this movie is; it is so good that my mind cannot put it in words. David Fincher, you have your name and style written all over this movie and you should be proud: it is by far the greatest American film to come out this year, maybe the best of the decade and one of the best of all time. THINGS ARE GOING SO FAST THAT YOU DON'T WANT TO BE LEFT BEHIND. SEE THIS MOVIE AT ALL COSTS!

Winter's Bone has managed to create a hero who is 100% grit. Ree Dolly is potentially one of the greatest movie heroes ever; completely solemn and brave as hell, only thinking of her family and has no hesitations as to do so or not. Jennifer Lawrence deserves an Oscar and John Hawkes, at least a nomination. The setting was perfect and the cinematography was very well done. This movie wasn't that tense, to me, but the overall performance of the cast and the great writing proved this film to be greatness.

The first time I watched this, It was very difficult to understand, and I think that can be said for pretty much all of the people who saw this movie. I had to review it again to understand it and I realized that Ben Stiller gave quite a good performance and the writing is actually quite good and funny. Some of the events still confuse me, but I still defend this movie, saying it has good writing, great performances and an unconventional storyline which is hard to find these days.

Let me start of by saying this: I have a sister with down syndrome. It is not the same disability as the main character of this film but she is disabled. I am allowed to be a bit critical of this film without being deeply hated. Alright, that has been established. To begin, I don't know what it was running against, but I'm not sure this should have won best picture. Sure, Hoffman's performance is astounding, but the movie's greatness solely relied on just that. It deserved a nomination for it's writing and a definite win for acting, but this movie probably got a lot of sympathy for being one of the first films to touch on the subject of people with disabilities. This poked too much fun at the disabled for me to feel for this movie. At first, it displays the behavior of a disabled person as entertaining, then decides that it shouldn't poke fun at the disabled and Tom Cruise suddenly has been changed by his brother. Predictable and a bit hypocritical. Don't get me wrong, this is a good movie, just not the great one that everyone thinks it is, at least to me. In short, if you want to see a movie with an astounding performance and heart, watch this movie. But just compare this movie to I Am Sam for a moment from a point of view similar to mine. Disabled people aren't for us to give our sympathy to just based on who they are. Don't feel bad if you don't think this is an awesome movie because we all have our opinions.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

I enjoyed Burn After Reading for it's unconventional plot and hilarious performance from Brad Pitt. So many stupid people played by a cast of awesomeness. But this movie was missing quite a few things. It didn't really have a great impact and I think I know why. The Coens found great success with their Best Picture winner No Country For Old Men and tried to re-create that success, and who wouldn't? They created some form of success, but this movie fell short of being memorable. The performances of the stupid people in Washington felt a bit overplayed at times and some of the jokes we admit are funny, but not very. Still, Pitt's acting shines in this one, so I'll say that this movie is okay in my book.

This film didn't take me by surprise by how awesome it was. When I first saw the trailer for it I knew it would be another great Nolan film. Absolutely, 100% original, the most original film of the year, maybe the decade (yeah, I'll say it). As far as acting and performance value, no one steals the show, but every character is at least a bit intriguing. Incredible visuals and score. The intensity and edge of your seat suspense doesn't end for an entire hour of the film. The screenplay is wonderful. At times, it moves a bit too fast, but with an idea this complex it kind of had to move fast. Astounding direction from Christopher Nolan. As far as entertainment goes, if they can give us better than this, I would love to see it.

I was quite happily surprised by this film. Very little cliche in the dialogue and a little bit more in the events that occur in The Town, but the heart of the film beat out all of the pure violence to make it a little less of an action film and a lot more of a drama. Great job on Jeremy Renner's part as well as on Affleck's for a great direction. Not a nominee for best director at the Oscars this year, but it would be great to see him up there. In a year of a king with a speech impediment, a man who invented facebook, a doppelganger fearing ballerina, and many others, this film puts itself up with the big dogs, but falls a tad short of being properly recognized. This was a good film. At moments when I was really worried for The Town of being predictable or cliched, I was happy to find original plot twists, though minor and a very nice look on the business of robbery in the town where it flourishes the most. The whole "robbers are people too" theme seemed a tad bit cheesy, but after saying this I feel bad because this is a good movie, not one of my favorites, but it does it's job of providing smart dialogue, good performances, stylish action sequences and great direction.

I think to fully appreciate About Schmidt we have to first view it as a drama, then as a comedy. It excels at both heartbreak and humor, but when you get down to it, you are given a great theme (not given away too easily as to be a cliche; some of the humor is, though), compelling and interesting characters acted pitch perfectly and a quite original plot line. Awesome screenplay and an awesome movie overall.

Absolutely amazing film. This was probably the first movie that ever actually affected me in a big way. Perfect casting, amazing performance from Javier and a perfect use of pretty much no musical score whatsoever. It's a western, but not the type of western I had expected. So different from any other film I had ever seen before it, I really was blown away by the amazing direction. This is the type of movie I love. It isn't really moved along with action and suspense (though it has plenty of both), but by character interaction and dialogue. Potentially the best western of all time.