All the Kind Strangers

Director: Burt Kennedy

Cast: Stacy Keach, Samantha Eggar, John Savage, Robby Benson

Genre: Thriller 1974

Running time: 73 mins

Rating:★★½ 

A photojournalist, Jimmy Wheeler (Stacy Keach) is on his way to California for his story. During his journey, in the middle of the country, he passes a seven year old boy carrying grocery bag that is bigger than he is. As the kind stranger that he is, Wheeler offers the boy a ride home. However, unbeknownst to Wheeler that in the middle of nowhere that's in the middle of nowhere, a group of orphan's who plan on making him their "Pa". And he is alone on this particular honor nor the first.

For a television film, it brings a backwards Lord of the Flies quality while dealing with how parents' beliefs and discipline can affect there children. Well, especially if the parents happen to die five years prior and no neighbors around. What is interesting and a huge relief is that it doesn't hold your hand or completely spells it out for you of what happens to Jimmy Wheeler(Keach) or Carol Ann/"Ma" (Samantha Eggar) each time they attempt to escape. You witness the aftermath and this ignorant-savageness with something very wrong about these kids, especially the eldest and leader Peter (John Savage). 

Aside from the eerieness of the orphans, the sometimes a little to vagueness of what exactly happened to their real parents or how they came to decide to lure and imprison adults to become their new parents or why no one came to find these adults or whatever happened to Wheeler's cameras, this film is a pretty good example or taste of a Seventies' Thriller. Stacy Keach is, well, Stacy Keach...enough said (on of the greatest American actors). To have Samantha Eggar (The Collector 1965) as a co-star is all you need as reasons to watch this film.

Angels Crest

Director: Gaby Dellal

Cast: Thomas Dekker, Lynn Collins, Elizabeth McGovern, Joseph Morgan, Jeremy Piven, Mira Sorvino, Kate Walsh

Genre: 2011

Running time: 93 mins.

Rating:★★

The small working-class of Angels Crest is a tight-knit community resting quietly in one of the most vast and stunningly beautiful valleys of the Rocky Mountains. Ethan (Thomas Dekker), one of the town's residents, is a young father but not much more than a kid himself. He has no choice but to look after his three year old son Nate, since Nate's mother, Cindy (Lynn Collins), is an alcoholic. Then one snowy day, Ethan's good intentions are thwarted by a moment of thoughtlessness, resulting in tragedy. A local prosecutor (Jeremy Piven) haunted by his past pursues Ethan, and the ensuing confusion and casting of blame starts tearing the town apart.

With an "apartment" in what seems to be an old factory with a "Peter Pan"-esque appearance. Childlike drawings on the walls, birthday party decorations, windows cracked with holes, and Ethan and his son, Nate sharing a bed. No mother around, just a couple of Lost Boys about to play Indians and make snowmen in the snow. The first question that comes to mine is why do they need to drive up part of a mountain and into the woods to make snowmen? The Ethan character tries to points out the majestic view of the clouds surrounding the icy mountain ahead of them to his son, yes, but it seems a bit foolish. Especially, when it's quite clear that he has enough trouble taking care of himself, let alone his improperly dress son. Then again, there wouldn't be a film or a plot if Ethan was sensible. It would be sensible not to leave your sleeping son (locked or not) in the freezing cold to witness the quiet peacefulness of pure nature, just saying. Geez Louise, when the mother is introduced, she's a fucking wild alcoholic whore of a woman who only seems to own up to her motherly duties or love is when Nate goes missing. 

Wow, what a winning pair they must have made. Both having major issues with their gender-parental role models. They both realize that they're going to have to leave Neverland and grow up...if they can. Overall, it's a meh film. You know what the plot is, but it isn't captivating enough to care that the sequences were poorly and predictably piece together. There really wasn't much character development. Yes, you understand and empathize the tearing of the soul kind of remorse the two parents are going through, but, but it was so vapidly executed as a whole that the producers and director can mask their major failure with pulling on the audience's emotions. 

The Night They Raided Minsky's

Director: William Friedkin

Cast: Jason Robards, Britt Ekland, Norman Wisdom, Bert Lahr

Genre: Comedy 1968

Running time: 99 mins. 

Rating:★★★

Rachel (Brit Ekland), a beautiful young Amish woman who leaves her Pennsylvania home and comes to New York City in hopes of becoming a dancer and ends up doing something quite different: inventing the striptease! Raymond Paine (Jason Robards), the somewhat sleazy star of Minsky's burlesque show, who takes an interest in Rachel's many charms. But his admiration is challenged by Chick Williams (Norman Wisdom), Raymond's comedy partner for the past ten years. And when Rachel's dress is torn accidentally, she plays it up and finds herself the object of even more affection- from the very appreciative audience! The leader of an anti-vice group has everyone arrested, but not before Rachel becomes the toast of the town.

Burlesque, where one can come view society being made fun of and girls are a bit vulgar. Now, where does that leave a pious, shy, and naive Amish young woman like Rachel (Brit Ekland)? Especially, when she has runaway from home and her father is looking for her. Well, what starts out as a clever ploy to fool the newspapers and police becomes a battle of morals and the most glorious sensuous striptease!

This film is definitely an example of the kind of comedy made in the late sixties, but is far from being timeless. There's a predictability in its comedic realness. Two guys falling for the same girl, who holds tight to her beliefs and is more aware of the things that are strange to her than the men's affection. She is also naively unaware of the role she is playing in the overall scheme until discovers a new (sometimes dangerous) confidence in herself. The original 1968, The Producers, with a slightly similar theme, is timeless (probably, as in definitely, due to it being a Mel Brooks' film - enough said)! The film does have one of the most beloved character actor, Denholm Elliott (Trading Places, A Room With A View, Raider's of the Lost Arc), so that works to its favor. It also a demonstrates the era from which burlesque was born with vaudeville qualities plus sex that conflicted with Puritan ethics impressively. The clips of actual daily city life, burlesque, and forties flapper music, to give the film a more "historically" real base, can be a little overdone.

The Bird Can't Fly

Director: Threes Anna

Cast: Barbara Hershey, John Kani, Tony Kgeorge, Yusuf Davids

Genre: Drama 2007

Running time: 89 mins.

Rating:★★★★

Melody (Hershey) returns home to Fairlands for the funeral of her estranged daughter June. But the town has almost disappeared under the encroaching desert. She also has to confront the fact that she has a 10 year-old grandson, River, whose existence she knew nothing about prior. Melody decides to take River away with her but he is resistant. He has worked out an ambitious plan to survive, by breeding the ostriches he and his mother used to feed. His father, Scoop, an idle musician and the town's postman, wants her to leave because he has a secret to hide. A series of confrontations ensues until Melody discovers the truth. It's only when a sandstorm forces Melody and River to take shelter together, that Melody faces some painful facts about her past, which allows both of them to reach an understanding and begin a new future together.

Mourning and embalming of a woman by a group of women who obliviously love the recently deceased. Though no words are spoken, there in the darkness of the night with only the candles beacon this brief initial encounter from the loving community of women giving the audience an intuitive sense of the emotions being endured. Then in a quick switch of pace, we view a no-nonsense-cold-private chief, Melody (Barbara Hershey), who likes things are certain way, has worked hard to be in the position she's in, and seems to be damned if anyone will do anything to bring her off her high horse. Except for the phone call relaying her estrange daughter's, June, death. The chaos of the pouring rain and the rush of people in the night mixed with the multitude of transportation issues through the deserts of Africa, and the hauntingly lack of civilization in a dying villiage illustrates the psychological termoil Melody is struggling with. And it is clear that Melody has forgotten how to put herself in others' shoes, to trust in others' judgement, and compassion for others, when she first attempts to interact with River (Yusuf Davids). In River is where she has met her match, for he is a natural born leader, stubborn, curious, and a vast imagination, which makes the development of the two's bond more desirable to watch develop. The flies that constantly swarm River's father, Scoop (Tony Kgeorge), seems to symbolize either death or deadly secret that he is not telling Melody. 

But is the symbolism behind the ostrich and the egg? Why, like The Lord of the Flies, does River have his "followers" trying to catch one? Why is the name of the hotel, where Melody use to work, disappearing into the desert? Perhaps, the life she thought she knew or never got a chance to know, especially with her daughter, will be long gone and forgotten if nothing is done to keep it alive. You learn that there were many misunderstandings and misguided hatred between River, Melody, and Scoop that when they are finally able to connect with the love they shared towards June, a rebirth and new freedom occurs. The ostrich is the free spirit and a rare beauty, which was June in River's mind. Perhaps it was the same for Scoop and that is why he kept the letters from being given or sent to/by June. Scoop was trying to tame and caged her in all the wrong ways that it unintentionally killed her, therefore leaving him with regret and a desire to fix his mistakes with River.  Melody, herself, tried to cage June in a way that made June rebel and unable to tell her own mother that she was pregnant. The ostrich egg was River waiting to be hatched and cared for, loved, and tamed. 

This film has so many underlining themes that it is impossible pick them up or fully understand in one sitting, which makes it a more beautiful and powerful film. Though the TV quality in the cinematography gives the illusion  that it is going to suck major, at least intially, it becomes more apparent that it is a well thought out tool to allow the audience to bare witness (a fly on the wall, if you will) to the events that unfold throughout the film. 

Hello Herman

Director: Michelle Danner

Cast: Norman Reedus, Martha Higareda, Garrett Backstrom, Rob Estes, Andy McPhee

Genre: Drama 2012

Running time: 88 mins.

Rating:★★★

Sixteen-year-old Herman Howards (Garrett Backstrom) makes a fateful decision. He enters his suburban school and commits a terrible act violence. Seconds before his arrest he emails his idol, infamous journalist Lax Morales (Norman Reedus), telling him, "I want to tell my story on your show." Haunted by his own past, Morales is forced to confront the troubled teenager, now an inmate with an uncertain future.

"If we hope to heal the pain, we must first discover the cause." -Ancient Proberb. This opening quote is the theme to how the stage is being laid out and the events that unravel into plot. Though, some of the more recent films that I've seen in which the "act" or the end scene is shown to the audience first, in an attempt to intice the audience to immediately fixated on how the character's got that point that they choose not to avoid, have annoyed the shit out of me because of the way the film presents it. Films like The Scenic Route, a man having crazied stare with a Mohawk , sitting down in the middle of nowhere, covered in blood, his buddy dead on the ground, and that's it! Hardly a " Oh my God, Dude! This film is gonna be badass! I gotta see what happened!" This film, however, touches a base with everybody. Similar events that we have either experienced first hand or stories reported on the news, but we never thought that much on how or why it came to this point, where adolescents commit such violence.

Indeed, we all have issues and demons or even a troubled past, but never result in murder and violence. Lax Morales (Norman Reedus), a journalist and this boy's idol, definitely seemed to demons or skeletons in his closet that he desperately trying to surpress.  Why, exactly? We're not sure yet. Now, when the two characters start doing their dialogues, Morales brings up an interesting subject ( one that has been on parental and political minds as to it having any affect on the youths' morals) of video games, where the objective is to shoot as many people as you can, in order to score more points. He also asked the typical question as to if Herman (Garrett Backstrom) was bullied at school by other students and/or teachers. Herman seems overly cocky (as usual with this age group, they don't know shit because there's still a lot they haven't dealt with. For the most part, many of them are still in the safety of their parent's money and household), asking personal questions about Morales' past violent actions that can never be taken back. A past that may have been for a story, but doesn't make Morales feel almost just like Herman. It is a bit frightening, what can be found on the internet: like downloading shooting games that made it "easier" for Herman to do what he did and instructions on how to make your own pipe bombs. Psychological issues that bring up Morales's question as to why his mother didn't suspect anything or figure it out. Things don't just happen, there are always psychological and physical elements or interactions taking affect that can intertwine further back than one is consciously or unconsciously aware of. Parents or other people can sometimes be so wrapped up in their own business, unresolved psychological issues, or say/do something to that person that they maybe unaware on how that person may interpret or be affected by it. Again, things don't just happen! Oooo you can find things in the internet that doesn't mean you know everything because you haven't experienced everything first hand. Ignorance will always come back to haunt you eventually. "I didn't do anything," can still make a person of fault to a tragic outcome. By the end of the film, both characters come to finally deal with their own demons and come back to their humanity. 

This film is one to question the audiences own life and decisions as well as the decisions made in society. We are not as alone as one may think of themselves. 

The Majestic

Director: Frank Darabont

Cast: Jim Carrey, Bob Balaban, Brent Briscoe, Jeffrey DeMunn, Amanda Detmer, Allen Garfield, Hal Holbrook, Laurie Holden, Martin Landau, Ron Rifkin, David Ogden Stiers, James Whitmore

Genre: Drama 2001

Running time: 154 mins.

Rating:★★

Peter (Jim Carrey), a Hollywood screenwriter who stumbles into tiny Lawson, California, with his memory blanked out by an auto accident. There, he's mistaken by the citizenry to be a long-lost war hero....an identity that Peter also comes to believe while restoring the town's shuttered movie palace and romancing the girl (Laurie Holden) he supposedly left behind. It's the perfect life and, perhaps, the perfect lie. But the truth is bound to surface.

A movie lover in the 1950's, living what he thinks is a perfect life in a city that's glamorous  Hollywood. B-movie screenwriter, whose work gets changed by higher ups and he doesn't haven't the courage to stand up for himself. His perfect wannabe actress girlfriend leaves him and lastly, he's being accused of being a Communist, making the studio wanting to do with him until it clears up. If it clears up. Some perfect life. It isn't until the accident and he lands himself on the shore in a small town with no memory that he finally finds genuine kindness and acceptance. However, he's being confused for someone else. With Martin Landau as your father, hell who cares.

It becomes apparent that prior to the accident, Peter was slowly losing the pure joy for moving pictures and his sense of self. Post accident, he is surrounded by people who still carry that joy in their hearts that is going remind Peter why he wanted to become a screenwriter in the first point. The latter, is getting a little ahead of myself because the Peter character lost his memory. Nevertheless, aiding in reopening the town's palace of a theater, The Majestic. Heartwarming as the film is and has an organically subtle story with continuity; the film is predictable. One could argue that similar to a great deal (not all mind you, I'm not implying that) of the films of the 1950's had a predictable formula. Therefore because this film is set in the fifties and it's plot is surrounded by the pure joy of movies that the predictability of the plot is reminiscent of that era in a modern way and shouldn't matter. Well, it matters to me, GOD BLAMMIT!

As a child, I loved Jim Carrey. When the Mask came out, I was like "yeah this man is the shit!" Now, he's up there with Will Ferrell, where if I never see another one of their films again, I'd be okay with that. There would have to be a really well casted group of actors working with them for me to possibly to reconsider. And this film does has a well-casted group of actors, it hardly changes my opinion on Jim Carrey.

The Help

Director: Tate Taylor

Cast: Jessica Chastain, Viola Davis, Bryce Dallas Howard, Allison Janney, Octavia Spencer, Emma Stone

Genre: Drama 2011

Running time: 146 mins.

Rating:★★★

A story about very different, extraordinary women in the 1960's South who build an unlikely friendship around a secret writing project- one that breaks society's rules and puts them all at risk. 

Though, the audience is easily transported back to the South and the Sixties, but isn't clear what the connection between the hired help being the glue of these Southern housewives, the ladies who desperately want to have children, and the one Southern lady who would rather be a serious writer than a "Stepford Wife." Black and white etiquette, overly polite, bigotry, racism, and always dressing to the nines is what Aibileen and Skeeter (Emma Stone) are fighting against to be themselves. The connection of the three groups is the novel Skeeter wants to write on what it's like to be maid, how it feels to be a black woman raising white children, and the prejudices of black maids using their white employer's toilet. With a little courage, maybe frustration, and spiritual guidance that Aibileen agreed to tell her story to Skeeter. Illegal it maybe and initial disapproval from other maids, but the courage to do what's right is one of the driving force to finish. It's disheartening to witness these black maids compassion, brains, and having more dignity that the white women and having to unwillingly submit to the unwritten law of the white world.

However, as the story continues to unfold, that there are even some white women having to abide by these unwritten law just to keep themselves from being shunned. When the book is finally published, stirs up trouble, but also brings forth the what needed to happen in their world. It's never to late to find courage in oneself, love your enemies, and to tell the truth.

Howl

Director: Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman

Cast: James Franco, David Strathairn, Jon Hamm, Bob Balaban, Alessandro Nivola, Treat Williams, Mary Louise-Parker, Jeff Daniels

Genre: Biography/Drama 2010

Running time: 84 mins.

Rating:★

Allen Ginsberg (James Franco) recounts the road trips, love affairs, and search for personal liberation that led to the most timeless, electrifying, and controversial work of his career: Howl. Pushing the limits and challenging the mainstream, the passionate, and provocative poem Howl and it's publisher find themselves on trial for obscenity, with prosecutor Ralph McIntosh (David Strathairn) setting out to have the book banned, while defense attorney Jake Ehrlich (Jon Hamm) fervently argues for freedom of speech and creative expression. The proceedings veer from the comically absurd to the passionate as a host of unusual witnesses (Jeff Daniels, Mary Louise-Parker, Treat Williams, Alessandro Nivola) pit generation against generation and art against fear in front of conservative Judge Clayton Horn (Bob Balaban). 

What an existential beginning? "Every word in this film was spoken by the actual people portrayed. In that sense this film is like a documentary. In every other side, it is different." In case you had any doubt it was 1955, it tells you and gives you footage, music, and photos of that time. The film is also begins in black and white. This is the world that Allen Ginsberg lives and writes about. This "documentary" and the way James Franco portrayed Ginsberg makes him seem like an typical egotistical artist. The surreal-impressionist, graphic novel animation of one of his poems is over the top. In fact the film's illustration of the events is as scattered as jazz, which may be the point, but it hardly keeps my attention. The past is in black and white, the "interview" with Ginsberg in washed out-dark contrast-blue undertones, and vibrant reds for the court trial. Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit!!! I'm coming to this film not knowing anything about this writer and leaving it with a artsy-fartsy-root cannal drilling- bore of a film that made me turn it off 18 minutes in. I went to art school, I don't need bare witness to someone who reminds me of people I knew while in school on screen. I can walk out the door and do that in person. This film is like "OK I GET IT! NOW GET ON WITH IT!" Franco narrating Ginsberg's Howl is like listening to the adults of the Peanuts' cartoon: Waaah, Wah, Waaaaah. Shut the fuck up! If I was interested in reading Howl, I would read it for myself not be lectured about it! It's ashame to turn it off so soon because it's wonderfully casted. Indeed, the majority of the films today hold your hand through the whole film, so that you understand what's going on without having to think at all! However, there are ways (not black and white guidelines or anything set in stone) to be subtle and allow the audience to ponder and understand what is going on under the surface of the plot. This film does not. It's a film that took too many drugs, drank to much coffee, and hasn't slept in days. 

Blue Sunshine

Director: Jeff Lieberman 

Cast: Zalman King, Deborah Winters, Mark Goddard, Robert Walden, Alice Ghostley, Stefen Gierasch

Genre: Horror/Thriller 1978

Running time: 90 mins.

Rating:★★

At a party, someone goes insane and murders three women. Falsely accused of the brutal killings, Jerry is on the run. More bizarre killings continue with alarming fruquency all over town. Trying to clear his name, Jerry discovers the shocking truth...people are losing their hair and turning into violent psychopaths and the connection maybe a drug all the murderers took a decade before. Soon, if Jerry can't stop it, the horror will become uncontrollable... the horror caused by Blue Sunshine!

Headaches, hair falling out, irritability, nightmares, and complete delirium with the full blue moon as the "guide" to each character being introduced until it finally comes to the party, where our hero Jerry shows up to the film. Then after the initial three murders and havin read the synopsis, I can help but wonder, if all this is happening because of a drug that people took a decade ago, what was the original intent of the drug? Was it an antibiotic? A vaccine? Or just the new drug to get off on? As Jerry continues to try to clear his name of the party murders, he breaks into the house of another murder scene with a similarity to the one he witnessed. He relives that murder in his mind, almost making wonder if he's starting to suffer the symptoms of the drug too. 

An acid drug, Blue Sunshine, sold by Ed Flemming, running forCongress candidate, back in his college years at Stanford ten years prior. You find that the people, who are suffering from the drug and are going on a killing spree, went to Stanford the same time Flemming did and bought from him. Why is this Flemming guy claming up then, when hearing the name of the drug (aside from the obvious)? The film never answers that and leaves the audience with Jerry tranquilizing Flemming's right-hand man with text on the screen about what was medically discovered about Flemming's guy and what the U.S. Government is doing to control the matter. Leaving the audience a bit frightened that this kind of thing could happen and no satisfying conclusion. 

Fantastic seventies' red undertones, dark contrasts, and magnificent make-up artwork! Kind of wish there were more violence, just so I can bear witness of the creatively inventive era in the special effects/ make-up. But at last, there wasn't and with its ending too, it left me a bit dissatisfied. It could have been pushed a bit further.

Ghosts of Mississippi

Director: Rob Reiner

Cast: Alec Baldwin, Whoopi Goldberg, James Woods, Craig T. Nelson, William H. Macy

Genre: Drama 1996

Running time: 130 mins.

Rating:★★★★

In 1963, Myrlie Evers (Whoopi Goldberg) worked for the conviction of the white supremacist who murdered her husband, heroic civil rights leader Medgar Evers, through two hung juries and over 30 years. 

As much as there has been great deal of people fighting for civil rights and as much as we have progressed in carrying out such equality, it is historical events as this film illustrates that reminds us two things. One, we haven't really progressed toward true equality and how much fear and ignorance will bring the true horror of mankind can lash out on each other. How can a woman, like Myrlie Evers, keep her dignity and her strength when racial prejudice is working against her? As well as many don't see the point rehashing the past through another trial when it's the past? Is it too late to do right thing? It is when it was a political crime, a loss of a beloved husband, and the murder still roams free. Determination and passion can achieve the goal in mind, but it takes patience too. 

But with most of the witnesses dead and most of the evidence gone, the only chance, lawyer, Bobby DeLaughter (Alec Baldwin) has in winning this case is to resurrect the dead! It becomes all too clear that THAT is easier said than done. "Legally integrated, but emotionally always segregated." Now, isn't that bit of truth hard to swallow and heartbreaking, even looking at the society we live in today.

But after justice was finally served, a feeling of overwhelming joy! It just goes to show that it is never too late to do the right thing! A compelling film from beginning to end!

Scenic Route

Director: Kevin Goetz and Michael Goetz

Cast: Josh Duhamel, Dan Fogler

Genre: Drama/Thriller 2013

Running time: 86 mins.

Rating:★

Life-long friends Mitchell (Josh Duhamel) and Carter (Dan Fogler) embark on a buddy, but end up broken down in the middle of a hostile desert. As their situation becomes more deadly, they defend into a brutally honest assessment of each other's lives. Their close bond is tested by harsh elements of nature and the unforgiving words traded back and forth. Soon their anger and fear pushes them into a deadly fight for their lives that is the ultimate test of their friendship.

It is quite clear that Carter (Fogler) is the most psychologically healthy and content with who he is of the two. He attempts to give a reality check on how much Mitchell has sold out and discarded the important things that used to be a part of who he was for a woman, who has him wrapped around her finger. Mitchell has therefore become a very repressed man and a yuppy. All Carter wants to do is reconnect with Mitchell he once knew, a man who loved another woman and played music, so he stages a break- down of his car. His plan works to no avail. 

With the vastness and lack of life-form, that the cinematography allows you to see, you feel just as frustrated as they do, but also sets a stage of what could be a battleground. This however, brings a predictability to the film. Yes, it is intriguing to be the invisible third party witnessing the chemistry of old friends reconnecting and being honest with one another, as close friends do, but putting them in the middle of nowhere...where! Where! Not a lot of people drive through very often and they have barely any food...Shit is going down! Why? Because it's a "Thriller" movie. Must keep the audience entertained somehow and have them anxious to tell all their friends to see, right? Money, money, money!!! I enjoyed Dan Fogler's performance the most, probably because his character is my kind of guy and the type of people that I like to surround myself with. But there's no real point watching the rest of the film because it already give you a glimpse of how this story ends.

London River

Director: Rachid Bouchareb

Cast: Brenda Blethyn, Sotigui Kouyate

Genre: Drama 2009

Running time: 88 mins.

Rating:★★★★

Set against the backdrop of the July 7th terrorist attacks of 2005, the story follows Elizabeth (Brenda Blethyn) from a small farming community in Guernsey as she travels to London in the immediate aftermath of the failing to her from her daughter. Elizabeth is disturbed by the confusion of the metropolis and above all, by the predominantly Muslim neighborhood where her daughter lived. Her fear and prejudice escalate when she discovers her daughter was converting to Islam as she keeps crossing paths with Ousmane (Sotigui Kouyate), a West African Muslim who has come from France to find his missing son. Although they come from very different backgrounds, Elizabeth and Ousmane share the same hope of finding their children alive. Putting aside their cultural differences, they give each other the strength to continue the search and maintain their faith humanity.

The cinematography introduces the two characters with very little close ups and more with vast open landscapes of cliffs, forests, vineyards, cathedrals, and wilderness. Illustrating how small and lost they are, searching for something that is missing, but seemly to psychologically enormous to find again. Both of them are trying to continue on with the normality in their daily lives, but it is quite clear that, whatever it is, it's eating away within. A spiritual answer desired and then the bombing happens, hope for that answer is demanded. Especially when both have their estranged adult children are missing. The two meet, when Ousmane notices that Elizabeth's daughter and his son know each other from Arabic classes at a mosque. Cultural differences clash and ignorance, mostly on Elizabeth's end, but the two must work together if they want to find their children. The bond Ousmane and Elizabeth form as they give each other hope and emotional support is extremely moving. Elizabeth soon realizes that they aren't as different as she thought. In the end, is finding what they who they were looking for, enough closure and peace in their search? 

Lucky

Director: Gil Cates Jr.

Cast: Colin Hanks, Ari Graynor, Ann-Margret, Jeffrey Tambor

Genre: Comedy 2011

Running time: 103 mins.

Rating:★

After Ben (Colin Hanks) I wins the lottery, Lucy(Ari Graynor)- his childhood crush- suddenly becomes obtainable. But she has hidden agenda...a desire to appropriate all of Ben's newfound wealth. Not everything is as it seems and Lucy realizes that she may have married more than she bargained for when she discovers Ben's pastimes include the occasional murder. As the bodies start to pile up, so do her problems and Lucy quickly appreciates that covering up for a fledgling serial killer is not as easy as it seems. If these newlyweds are going to make it work they will have to deal with some skeletons in their closet...literally. 

Geez-lousie, do these characters have some psychological issues that seem to stem from childhood. There are some people that we have all observed, from one point or another, who seemed to be stuck in their high school persona or shell. Their mannerisms, fashion sense, and hairstyle. Either life wasn't as good as it was in high school or it was so torturous that they can't move past it and grow into a better sense of self. Ben, Lucy, and their boss, Steve embody these traits, one way or another, as they are introduced on screen. A self-consciencous and timid individual with feeling that he could one day snap (almost in a similar manner as Terrance Stamp in The Collector or Anthony Perkins in Psycho), Ben has boring job as an accountant in a firm that withholds his childhood crush and also the receptionist in the firm, Lucy. A naive brat, who probably still plays with her dollies as an escape from her own lousy, dead-end life. A parakeet, who she was promised by the pet shop owner would speak words (even though it has been a year), is her newest "doll." Her fling with her boss, Steve, was most likely another way that she hoped would help escape her caged life into a better one. When he ends it, Lucy childishly pouts and daydreams what she would do to him as revenge. Steve was perhaps a jock or one of the popular people in high school, now has a successful job, probably a house, and wife too. But something is missing in his life and might have been the reason he had the affair with Lucy. However, it is clear that he is too much of a pussy and is worried what his co-workers, bosses, and perhaps his wife too would do if they found out he was fooling around with "trash." 

Then Ben wins the lottery with the only person who is overjoyed about this is his mother. Steve and Lucy want something from him masked with a "best friend" screen, but it's all very phony. And another little secret is revealed, a possible skeleton in his closet. Serial killer? A comedic Hitchcock rip-off? Oh yeah. Ben's a brunette and Lucy is a blonde. However, with everyone getting more around Ben with his "lottery win," you really hope he wacks them all off. I'll help! 

Ruby Sparks

Director: Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris

Cast: Paul Dano, Zoe Kazan, Antonio Banderas, Annette Bening, Steve Coogan, Elliott Gould, Chris Messina

Genre: Comedy/Romance 2011

Running time: 104 mins.

Rating:★★½ 

Struggling with writer's block and a lackluster love life, once-famous novelist (Paul Dano) creates a beautiful fictional character named Ruby (Zoe Kazan) who inspires him. But not only does this bring his work to life...it also brings Ruby to life...literally! Face-to-face with an actual relationship with his once-virtual girlfriend, Calvin must now decide whether to pen this love story or let it write itself.

Calvin is a very insecure and depressed writer in a rut and feeling like a complete failure. Who could ever love him for him, when he's only seen for one novel that he wrote when he was 19. Calvin has a dog named Scottie that he only got because his psychologist suggested it would help, but is just as afraid as Calvin is. We come to realize that he is a bit of a control freak especially when it comes to his relationships with women. It isn't until he meets Ruby in the park that he finally found his match and the inspiration to his next novel. The problem is she's from his dreams and his main fictional character. But no person, fictional or not, is simple as Calvin soon finds about Ruby. He may have written her, but she suddenly manifests Ruby is a extremely complex individual and a woman that he doesn't have as much control over as he thought. With that, comes the joys of romance mixed in with struggles and frustrations of a real relationship. The real questions to ask, "Is it making either of them happy?"  and "When is he going to tell her the truth?" Whatever the answers may be, Calvin found love, compassion, and a better sense of self.

Though this film is a fantasy, a romance, and comedic fiction, there are elements that is very relatable. Finding someone who will love you for you and visa versa can be very difficult and a lot of times seems pointless. Paul Dano's performance is a bit Woody Allen, which I'm not sure if it was intentional or not, but works very well for his character. A bit artsy-fartsy too with its dark contrasts and unsteady camera work. Yet, the modern architecture in Calvin's apartment is completely up my alley. And Annette Benning and Antonio Bandedas playing the parents is freakin' fantastic!! What a stranger than fiction sort of film!

The Road Killers

Director: Deran Sarafian

Cast: Christopher Lambert, Craig Sheffer, David Arquette

Genre: Action/Thriller 1994

Running time: 90 mins. 

Rating:★

While on a road trip, Jack Lerolland (Christopher Lambert) and family are horrified when a young boy is nearly run down by a carload of troublemakers. The group's ringleader, Cliff (Craig Sheffer), challenges the boy's father to a deadly game of chicken. Intent on eliminating witnesses, Cliff orders his friends to kill Jack while he kidnaps the family. The biz are gang's plan crumbling as they among themselves, revealing volatile tempers and shocking secrets. 

Let's take Mad Max, True Romance, and a bunch of Eighties' badass films as our inspiration for our camera shots, mixed in with some dry dialogue, upper-middle class twits, a sexually frustrated teenage girl, and a group of "punks" who are suppose to have no morals. What do we have? A bunch of unnecessary close-ups, redundant flashbacks on events that just happened bullshit! The dialogue and the character dynamic are so painstakingly and unbelievably idiotic that you, the viewer, lose all interest in finding out how the plot "thickens." Lastly, the washed out red undertones are completely useless in being anything for the storyline, except to give the illusion that it's "cool."

Bless Me, Ultima

Director: Carl Franklin

Cast: Miriam Colon, Luke Ganalon, Dolores Heredia, Bento Martinez, Castulo Guerra, Joaquin Cosio

Genre: Drama/War 2012

Running time: 106 mins.

Rating:★★★★

Based on acclaimed author Rudolfo Anaya's novel, BLESS ME, ULTIMA is a turbulent coming-of-age story about a young boy growing up in New Mexico during World War II. When a curandera named Ultima ( Miriam Colon) moves in with his family, Antonio (Luke Ganalon) experiences a series of mysterious and terrifying events, which cause him to grapple with questions about his own destiny and the powers of this mystical woman.

At the start of the film, there is immediately a sense that the beauty and the patient enjoyment of nature, cycle, innocence, "the ways of men," and religion are key elements in setting the stage of where the story is about to act out. Streams transitioning from winter to spring, vast rolling mountains, the windmill rotating beneath the blistering sun, and the Virgin Mary painted on the side of a barn. These magnificent imagery with the narration, organically shifting from one to the next, are what intices the audience into taking the hints of the possible themes of the film. A mystical bond between Ultima and Antonio, as soon as they are introduced to the story. Why? We're not sure. We, the audience, are told that Antonio was the last child she "pulled out" from his mother. His sisters are debating whether or not Ultima is a witch. They are told by their mother that she is just a curandera, a healer who uses folk remedies.

"The smallest amount of good can triumph all the powers of evil." But what is the significance of the owl in correlation to Ultima? And the bond between her and Antonio are like kindred spirits who don't miss a beat. Patient and loving souls, who observe all and wait for the right moment before striking. Perhaps it is this that makes the owl so significance. We are later told that Ultima was given the owl as girl from a wise old man, as a bond of time and harmony of the universe. It is clear too, anger, ignorance, and rash decisions will get you nowhere with more consequences than one thinks. With pureness of heart and a willingness to see and remember the good in people, wonderous things will happen in time.

There is a question, asked at the beginning, that is revisited near the end. "Why is there is so much evil in the world?" Antonio asks his father this. His father replies that he doesn't think evil really exists that it is more a lack of understanding. Which is a very interesting thought to consider. One that we must look inside ourselves to answer. A very moving film that uses high and low contrasts with a red undertone beautifully to express the journey Antonio goes on while growing through the wisdom of and the bond with Ultima.

360

Director: Fernando Meirelles

Cast: Anthony Hopkins, Jude Law, Rachel Weisz, Ben Foster

Genre: Drama/Romance 2011

Running time: 110 mins.

Rating: ★★★½ 

A businessman tempted to be unfaithful to his wife, sets into motion a series of events that ripple around the globe, Vienna to Paris, London, Bratislava, Rio, Denver, and Phoenix, with dramatic consequences. A witnessing of an array of people of different social backgrounds and their relationships with one another. With that a reminder, "Everything comes full circle." 

How far will one go to, naively and degradingly, to get what one wants in life? There are always consequences. Does it always bring the happiness that one had hoped for? Or a feeling of entrappment and suffocation? All these questions bombarding and swirling around the mind as each of the characters are introduced with their stories that somehow weave into one narrative. The blue undertone is unclear as to how it aids in illustrating the story at first. Is the need for love, to connect, and for success the underlining themes of the film? Is having so much idealic hope for events to turn out great for once and then doesn't, a reason to stop trying? Then it goes back to the point of everything coming to a full circle. 

The characters are very relatable. The audience is surrounded, like a storm cloud, by the hopeless depression each one is entrapped by, going about their daily business because it's the only illusionary solution to get by. In the last decade or so, the idea of having a glimpse into the lives of complete strangers that are unconsciously connected. Though, it's a stretch and it's a film, it reminds the viewer that we are not as alone as we think and we are not all that different from one another. We all have problems. One interaction can sometimes change the course of one's life. However, taking risks can sometimes be necessary to go to the next phase in one's life and not always in a negative way.

It's refreshing to have a film that's not afraid to use subtitles interchangably, like its confident that the audience is able to figure things out on their own and literate. By the end of the film, the depressive, emprisoned, and suffocating blue undertones turn into a strange, but freeing warm undertones. 

Seven Years in Tibet

Director: Jean-Jacques Annaud

Cast: Brad Pitt, David Thewlis, B.D. Wong, Mako Jamyang, Jamtsho Wangchuk, Lhakpa Tsamchoe, Jetsun Pema

Genre: Drama/Biography/History 1997

Running time: 136 mins. 

Rating:★★★★

A true story of the adventure of an Austrian prisoner of war who is transformed by his friendship with the young Dalai Lama.

The intense, but very serene red and golden undertones with the Dalai Lama's beginning story versuses the harsh muted blue undertones with the Heinrich Herrer's (Brad Pitt) story is very curious and beautifully executed. Also, the warm climate versuses the cold icy climate to illustrate the two characters' differences in personalities is organically done. Heinrich's stubborn and anger issues gets him in trouble with his men, his relationship with his wife, up to when he becomes a war prisoner. 

As he and his unwanted companion try to make their escape to India to Austria, where neither have a real desire to go back, they find themselves unwilling be dragged into more trouble. Though in the mist of his long treacherous journey, Heinrich slowly and somewhat reluctantly dealing with the demons he left back home. He is lost at where his purpose lies. All the meanwhile, the Young Dalai Lama is trying to hold onto the joys and innocence of his childhood instead of fulfilling the prophecy.

While in Tibet, they are welcomed at the holy city Lhasa. Heinrich is taken back with the people's hospitality and  the difference in cultures, such as,"admiring the man who abandons his ego." The war continues, life continues to fail at getting any better or hold any joy for him. Will he learn from his mistakes or continue to be a victim to them? When Harrer is introduced to the Dalai Lama, he is taken back with awe and bewilderment. During their time together, Heinrich becomes a close friend and tutor to the young spiritual leader, while finally find a purpose and joy to life.

The film is beautifully shot that the audience feels just as trapped, as Herrer, in the situations he is put in and just as bewildered in the cultural and holy differences in Tibet. The Dalai Lama's innocence, simple joys in everything, and incredible wisdom makes me want to continue to have a desire to learn and be open to new things. Life might not turn out the way we want exactly, sometimes it turns out to be better in the long run. And finally, it is ok not to know everything right now.

The Odd Couple

Director: Gene Saks

 Cast: Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau

Genre: Comedy 1967

Running time: 105 mins.

Rating:★★★★

Two divorced-veteran funnymen, deciding to share a New York apartment, work together with precision timing of a vaudeville team, but always with brilliantly spontaneity. Lemmon plays fussy Felix, fastidious to a fault. He proves that cleanliness is next to insanity. Matthau is Oscar, who wreaks havoc on tidy room with the speed and thoroughness of a tornado. 

Though the saying, "Opposites attract," usually thought of as a romantic reference, but when it's a platonic relationship between two guys or "buddies," it's comedic genius. We're introduced to our first character, Felix ( Jack Lemmon) is extremely miserable, with a bit of a flare for being over dramatic, and goes to a hotel in hopes to commit suicide. One can only assume that it is over his wife from the photos he takes out of his wallet and the wedding band that he takes off right before he is about to go through with the action. When the window fails to open, Felix goes to a strip club in hopes to cheer himself up. Oscar is introduced to the stage with a poker game with some buddies. The arraignment of Oscar's pigsty apartment is enough to make anyone's skin crawl in vommit. However, Walter Matthau portrays Oscar with such an asinine, carefree, and anger that it is fucking brilliant and captivating. One is left with two reactions, sometimes simultaneously; a desire to punch him and the desire to have that kind of balls to pull off the things that he does.

How they don't kill each other is beyond anyone. The one pushes the other's buttons, while being totally oblivious that he's doing it. It's freakin' fantastic!!! Felix is the "wife" and Oscar is the "husband." The comedy is witty, dynamic, and they have perfect timing in delivering the lines. But they are just what the other needs to deal with their issues. 

Killing Lincoln

Director: Adrian Moat

Cast: Tom Hanks, Billy Campbell, Jesse Johnson

Genre: Drama 2013

Running time: 96 mins

Rating:★★★★

Based on The New York Times best-selling novel, the film focuses on the events surrounding the assassination of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln ( Billy Campbell). While some aspects of the plot to slay Lincoln and cripple the newly forming union are widely known, much more of the history unfolds in this insightful epic account. As actor John Wilkes Booth ( Jesse Johnson) becomes increasingly obsessed with removing Lincoln from office, a secret plot form, and ultimately empowers Booth to carry out an event that will change America forever.

Though, a TV film, it is the fourth film within the last ten years to touch upon the events leading and after the assassination of President Lincoln. Of the first three films, The Conspirator is the only one worth while seeing, but the again it was director by Robert Redford so how can anyone argue the film's brilliancy. Abraham Lincoln, The Vampire Slayer and Lincoln don't even compare to the previously mentioned. A true National Geographic "documentary" with reenactments and narration by Tom Hanks, this TV adaptation is taking the educational truth and entertaining motion picture to a new level. Blurred into a captivating that any age will never want to forget one U.S. emfamous marker in history. It is truly astounding the extent this film goes to be accurate like never I have ever seen or desired to witness. In fact, that's how brilliantly the film has set its stage that the audience feel that they are but a fly witnessing these historic tragedy with no way of being able to intervene John Wilkes Booth's decision. The lighting is not in Hollywood traditional radiance, but in a more accurate candle lighting that would have been appropriate for the period, allowing the audience to feel more of a witness to these events. And though you know what is going to happen, you are unable or have a desire to turn away! Lastly, Billy Campbell is a more captivating Lincoln than Daniel Day-Lewis was.

A Touch Of Class

Director: Melvin Frank

Cast: George Segal, Glenda Jackson, Paul Sorvino, Hildegard Neil

Genre: Comedy/Romance

Running time: 106 mins. 1973

Rating:★★★

Being free and easy proves neither free nor easy for married Steve ( George Segal) and divorced Vickie ( Glenda Jackson) when they fall in love. At his harried best teetering between two households, Segal plays sometimes sly, sometimes fumbling Steve. As Vickie, Jackson slings verbal jabs and hotel furnishings with equal glee.

A Seurat-like cinematography is an interesting way to lay the stage for these to characters to first meet. A beautiful and tranquil connection on the surface, but taking a closer glance, one will notice the dots of problems that make up the surface that are bound to create many obstacles and tension. How much will one go to have "no-strings-attach" sex, especially when one of the parties involved is still married? Steve has definitely met his match, his confidence wavers and his power is over thrown. Vickie is a no nonsense, sultry, and a wee bit stuck up woman, who has unknowingly met her intellectual match. Her standards of life are broken by a man who isn't going to put up with those standards all the time. 

Both George Segal and Glenda Jackson have a magnificent comedic dynamic. You can't wait to witness how the one will get under the other's skin, while all the while hoping they will fall in love, in true cinematic tradition. This film is one example, where predictability is welcome when it's done well (script, the actors casted, classic snappily-quick-witty comedy, editing, cinematography). Lastly, my weakness for sixties/seventies architecture, interiors, and fashion are all incapsolated in one film, how fantastic!

The Box

Director: Richard Kelly

Cast: Cameron Diaz, James Madden, Frank Langella, James Rebhorn, Holmes Osborne

Genre: Sci-if/Mystery/Thriller 2009

Running time: 116 mins. 

Rating:★★½

Push a red button on a little black box, get a million bucks cash. Just like that, all of Norma and Arthur Lewis's financial problems will be over. But there's a catch, according to the strange visitor ( Frank Langella) who placed the box on the couple's doorstep. Someone somewhere, someone they don't know, will die. Cameron Diaz and James Madden play a couple confronted by agonizing temptation yet unaware they're already part of an orchestrated and, for them and us, mind blowing chain of events. 

It's set in 1976, Cameron Diaz is in it, and there's a mysterious box dropped off at 5:45 AM exactly, oh yeah, this is a recipe for a stellar film. I get more excited when my alarm clock goes off! Oh! Oh! Before one forgets, it's set in Virginia, which means Cameron Diaz with a Southern accent and apparently missing four of her toes on her right foot?

One has to wonder early on in the film, though, the subtraction of Norma's usual discount and Arhur's rejection on his astronaut application wasn't predictably deliberate ploy to get the couple tempted to push that red button. Well, no shit! Phew, glad that mystery was solved. The only thing this movie has going for it is Frank Langella's performance and the grotesquely C.G.I. that disfigured half of his character's face so fantastically glorious. Then the next obvious question, are the "someone"s who die, once connected to the pressing of that same red button and the same offer of one million dollars? Perhaps, but why? Is it a government experiment or an aliens's experiment?

The film is, however, posing and exploring an interesting psychological question of what are we willing to do to get the "prize," when there maybe a terrific consequence in return. A consequence that we have no control or choice over. Or do we?

Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee

Director: Yves Simoneau

Cast: Aiden Quinn, Adam Beach, August Schellenberg, Anna Paquin

Genre: Drama/History/Western 2007

Running time: 133 mins.

Rating:★★★★

It begins powerfully with the Sioux triumph over General Custer at Little Big Horn. The action centers on the struggle of three characters: Charles Eastman (Adam Beach), a young, Dartmouth-educated Sioux doctor, Sitting Bull (August Schellenberg), the proud Lakota chief who refuses to submit to U.S. government policies designed to strip his people of their identity, their dignity and their sacred land - The Black Hills of the Dakotas; and Senator Henry Dawes (Aiden Quinn), one of the men responsible for the government policy on Indian affairs. While Eastman and schoolteacher Elaine Goodale (Anna Paquin) work to improve life for the Sioux on the reservation, Senator Dawes lobbies President Grant for kinder Indian treatment.

 

"It is easy to be brave from a distance. Easy, and often quite safe. Once there was no honor in killing, only necessity. Honor came with true courage.  But that day is long gone." Elaine Goodale (Anna Paquin) quoting an Indian saying, sets the stage of what is about to unravel. The horrors that mankind play on one another, when ego, greed, propaganda, and ignorance are embedded. Was "educating" in Christian and U.S. ways really the right method to have peace and improve life with/for the Native Americans or a way to have control over a group of people like savage dogs? What choices does one nation have when the enemy forces have what they do not? Honor and fighting for you beliefs in may not seem the immediate answer, but one that is the better route in the long run. Many questions on the events that already have known outcomes and organically retold in this film, still feel very unanswered. Suppose all one can do is to reflect on one's own actions as they choose to interact with others and the choices made. 

Wonderful use of muted earthy undertones mixed in with sepia photographs that allows the audience to feel as if they are back in the nineteenth century and witnessing these events that are safely out of harms way due to moldy history books and time. The landscapes are very well-thought out and breathtaking that one can't help but wonder, how much happier and simpler life must have been before the U.S.& destroyed it. Perhaps, it is nativity and blindness on my end for saying all of this for it is beyond my comprehension what it was like before, during, and after.

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

Director: John Madden

Cast: Judi Dench, Bill Nighy, Dev Patel, Tom Wilkinson, Maggie Smith

Genre: Comedy 2011

Running time: 124 mins.

Rating:★★½

When seven cash-strapped seniors decide to "outsource" their retirement to a resort in far-off India, friendship and romance blossom in the most unexpected ways.

The life they once knew and cherished has now come to a stop, when having to face the inevitable retirement. Avoiding death and aging, money and prejudices, These seven people will now make a journey to India where  seemingly black-and-white mentality will now have color and ways they could never imagine! You will never find many films that have two accomplished actresses with more gumption, as you will with Judi Dench and Maggie Smith!  Both of their characters sticks up their asses, one with racism and the other having to cope with doing things by herself without her late husband. And though the lot, being English, that they are the more civilized culture. But are they really? Is it simply ignorance that makes them start to wonder whether their trip is a good idea gone wrong? As their journey opens their minds, their revelation immersed in an alien culture that will help them find themselves again as the transition into the next phase of their lives. Which is most definitely not a means to an end, but an awakening joy!

The cinematography beautifully uses muted blue undertones in the beginning of where are the audience meets the state of the characters and then transitions into vibrant red and golden undertones when the characters allow themselves to let go of what they knew and start enjoying the unknown .

Anna Karenina

Director: Joe Wright
Cast: Keira Knightly, Jude Law, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Kelly MacDonald, Matthew MacFadyen, Domhnall Gleeson, Ruth Wilson, Alicia Vikander, Olivia Wilson, Emily Watson
Genre: Drama 2012
Running time: 130 mins.
Rating:★★★

At the twilight of an empire, Anna Karenina ( Keira Knightly), the beautiful high-ranking wife of one of imperial Russia's most esteemed men ( Jude Law), has it all. But when she meets the dashing cavalry officer Vronsky ( Aaron Taylor-Johnson), there is a natural spark of instant attraction that cannot  be ignored. She's immediately swept up in a passionate affair that will shock a nation and change the lives of everyone around her.

You, the audience have been welcome to view a new play on the stage. A play filled with surprises and elegantly choreographed. This is how the film lures you in to the story that is about to unfold. You are a witness of what is going on stage and what is going behind stage. The model train set that then transforms to an actual moving train, blurs the line of what is fantasy and what is reality.  A feeling of entrapment with longing for freedom resides in all of the characters, but especially with Anna Karenina (Knightly). It is with Vronsky (Taylor-Johnson) that Anna may have found her key to open the door to her dreams. A dangerous one, it may be, but one she cannot help herself from indulging in. However, will she like what she see before it destroys her?

The surreal dream-like imagery with its constant switch from duality from blue-icy bright to red-golden and dark undertones, hints that the fantasy will eventually collide into reality sooner than later. What starts as a seeming comedy turns into a tragedy. The film's constant duality is part of its charm!

Promise Land

Director: Gus Van Sant
Cast: Matt Damon John Krasinski, Frances McDormand, Rosemarie DeWitt, Hal Holbrook
Genre: Drama 2012
Running time: 107 mins.
Rating:★★★

Corporate salesman, Steve Butler (Matt Damon) has been dispatched in the rural town of McKinley with his sales partner (Frances McDormand) to offer much-needed relief to the economically hard-hit residents in exchange for drilling rights to their properties. What seems like an easy job for the duo quickly becomes complicated by a respected school teacher (Hal Holbrook), a slick environmental activist (John Krasinski), and Steve's interest in a local woman (Rosemarie DeWitt). As they grapple with a surprising array of both open hearts and closed doors, the outsiders soon discover the strength of an American small town at a crossroads.

The chemistry between Matt Damon and Frances McDormand is fantastic! It is very obvious their characters having being doing sales together for so long that they know how to push each others' buttons and how to bring out the best in one another. An almost brother-sister dynamic. Although, Frances McDormand out acts Matt Damon, which is no surprise because after all, she is Frances McDormand....enough said.

An Us-Them pride struggle along with a deep desperation for this small town folk to not let their town and their lively hood go bankrupt and die, this film, at the heart of it, is about Steve's journey through all this. It is not a romance film, though it touches on it lightly. Steve's journey starts out as an over-confident and competitive salesman, who will once again win over small town folk's "simple minds" and their greed for money. As things get complicated, his comfort zone and self-esteem are torn apart, the audience realizes with him that there are a lot of suppressed anger issues. Issues that Steve desperately tried to run away and rebel from. It is not until the "black and white" mind set of whose bad and whose good or whose right and whose wrong is shattered and betrayed, that Steve is able to deal with his demons. He is finally able to break free from his gilded cage and enjoy life again!