Another overblown blockbuster from the J.J. Abrams factory. Star Trek Into Darkness features many cliffhangers, explosions, phasers, photon torpedoes and other Trekkie lore – and it also assimilates incidents that echo 9/11 and War on Terror into the plotting [...]

Black & White Noah Baumbach comedy depicts an unstable girl in New York trying to find her way in an expensive city. Greta Gerwig plays the girl Frances Ha, lovable but at the same time killing her own opportunities. Part of her failures come from her loose acrid tongue, part of it is not seizing invitations [...]

Meant to be viewed by those who have followed and admired Canadian actor-writer-director Sarah Polley over the years. Stories We Tell is a candid family documentary that chronicles how Sarah was conceived by an extramarital affair. It might also shed life as to how she came up with the idea and construction of her previous [...]

Spineless. The English Teacher is a Julianne Moore as spinster movie that could have gone for subtle and introspective instead of broad and witless farce which it wanes into. Ms. Linda Sinclair is losing faith after going on a series of bad blind dates (aha!). Moore nearly [...]

Baz Luhrmann’s distinctive razzmatazz on a celebrated American novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The Great Gatsby starts fast with giving us New York of the Roaring Twenties. The speeded up camera wizardry captures the drunken highs and elations of aristocratic partygoers, in that sense, it’s a virtuoso humdinger like [...]

If you need a great movie about blackmail, this is it. The Deep End (2001) opens with a seedy nightclub scene in Reno (Mom attempts to bribe a man with the promise to stop seeing her son) and then settles into the unassuming everyday family life of waterfront Lake Tahoe. The mercurial Tilda Swinton [...]

I admit I thought I was going to tune-out, but as it turned out, I was actually fervidly drawn into this film. What Maisie Knew has the audacity to follow the perspective of a 6-year old girl (played by newcomer Onata Aprile) and dares to stay there. Her parents (Julianne Moore and Steve Coogan, both uncompromisingly self-absorbed) are divorcing and [...]

Captivating character study profile of a notorious hitman who lived a double life with his wife and daughters who he dearly cherished. The Iceman is a perfect vehicle for Michael Shannon who is cementing himself as one of the more compelling character actors, here as the cold and detached Richard Kuklinski. The supporting roles are well-cast [...]

I didn’t get its vibe for a half hour but eventually saw more emphasis on self-mocking comedy than action. It’s easy to have a misplaced vibe with Iron Man 3 since it is somehow a departure from the previous two. Do I think some might be disappointed that Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) doesn’t gear up [...]

A blast in the booty. Iron Man (2008) remains an ecstatic joy to see Robert Downey Jr. let it rip. Downey is the quintessential billionaire Tony Stark, the man inside Iron Man. Film after film, Downey retains his indie edge with his cocky and flippant personality without flipping [...]

Titles I happened to check out on Netflix in the month of April 2013 listed from best to worst:

Michael Bay’s attempt at a true crime story is sometimes a force to reckon with, but it still leaves you wanting more about what really happened. Pain & Gain leans in on three Miami bodybuilders who kidnapped and extorted from a snotty multi-millionaire in 1995, but a number of holes in their scheme come back to bite [...]