For several weeks (months?) I’ve been acutely aware of the new Hitchcock film starring Anthony Hopkins as Alfred Hitchcock. Anyone who’s seen a movie lately will know why it’s so easily brought to mind. Hopkins, in full character, has been greeting movie-goers to a funny parody asking people not to text during the movie as […]

I feel cheated. The previews for Anna Karenina did absolutely nothing to prepare me for the unique approach of this telling of the famous Leo Tolstoy story—and I suspect this was very much on purpose. Many people are probably familiar with the tale as there have been decades of books movies, plays and more. However, […]

The Perks of Being a Wallflower is based on the best-selling novel by Stephen Chbosky. The people I saw it with had heard of the book but hadn’t read it. I had no idea about its origin so I went into the story entirely cold. I didn’t expect much based on the previews I’d seen […]

The other film of the week is Woody Allen‘s latest endeavor—To Rome with Love. Here we get a tale that involves us in the story lines of several groups of people all centered around Rome. First there’s Hayley and her new Italian boyfriend Michelangelo (Alison Pill and Flavio Parenti) and her parents, Jerry and Phyllis (Woody Allen and Judy Davis) […]

Here’s a film we didn’t plan to see. My party and I were there to catch another film (Brave) when one of the people in the group suggested we see the new Woody Allen movie first and then see the other film making it a double-header. So, we went about getting tickets and found our […]

I love when you find a film entirely by surprise. I happened to be out taking a long walk around Philadelphia and needed a nice respite. That’s when we walked into one of the most popular art house theaters in town and decided to give this little known film a shot. The film is Your Sister’s […]

A magazine tracks down the mysterious poster of a strange advertisement regarding time travel in Safety Not Guaranteed. This is one of those surprising “can do” types of films that doesn’t seem like it has a chance only to keep snuggling up to your emotions and catching you by surprise time and again. Much about […]

Thankfully I got a chance on Saturday to catch the art house film The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. Here’s a film that boasts a bevy of European and Asian heavyweights that seemed too good to be true. The story involves several retiring Brits who, due to varied circumstances, are either drawn-to, or driven to retire in a […]

Earlier this year I noticed a bit of buzz regarding an upcoming movie that sounded intriguing but also extremely risky. The film—The Artist—is quite novel in that it’s a silent movie. Yep, in 2011 a film studio decided to take a chance on a quirky, fairly perilous venture and shoot a complete silent film. It’s […]

I don’t know anyone that wouldn’t pause for a moment to ask, “Do I really want to see a movie that’s supposed to be a comedy about cancer?” It’s just something that—like bacon and ice cream—shouldn’t be mixed—or so one might think. 50/50 is a film written by Will Reiser, a young comedy writer who […]

Woody Allen movies are generally a hit-or-miss affair to the extreme. When they hit they really resonate and create wonderful lasting memories that can be shared with new viewers time and again or even with a bunch who’ve already seen the film a dozen times. When they miss they miss so completely that you wonder […]

On a lazy Sunday with little else out that seemed worthy I decided to give Bridesmaids a shot. Why the reluctance? Well, first of all, I think the star, Kristen Wig is cute but I never found her all that funny on Saturday Night Live. They also tried the bait-and-switch approach I despise by suggesting […]