The Lone Ranger

Makes me want to watch Dead Man again.

Elysium

Sometimes I get tired of movie solutions to social injustice that are based on fantasy, even if the movie itself is pretty good.

Pain & Gain

Like Fargo only really "real" this time.

This is the End

is just about how I picture it happening, if the Christian fundamentalists are right.

After Earth

I guess M. Night Shyamalan movies are even less interesting without a twist.

The Place Beyond the Pines

Not just a modern film noir but a sort of grim, wheel-of-life, cops and robbers and barons tale.

Trance

Because we need to remember there are good little hypnotherapy movies every now and then.

Oblivion

Derivative, yes, but at least they stole mostly the better bits from their inspirations.

This Is Forty

Minutes too long.

Warm Bodies

It's not quite George Romero but with so many subtexts you almost forget it's a zombie romance.

Cloud Atlas

It should have been a television serial drama but it works reasonably well even as a movie.

Top of the Lake

Campion's masterful, sophisticated, unusual mystery begins with a disturbing event, and just gets more unpleasant from there.  http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/top_of_the_lake/

Side Effects

First Contagion, and now, this. Soderbergh is making some creepy movies.

Upstream Color

Lynch and Malick have a slightly scifi love child.

Silver Linings Playbook

Overhyped, but still top drawer "indie."

William Friedkin talks about the casting of Linda Blair in the Exorcist

William Friedkin talks about the casting of Linda Blair in the Exorcist after a rare screening of his "Sorcerer" in San Jose at the Camera Cinema Club. Some NSFW audio is present.

William Friedkin disses Terrence Malick's "To The Wonder" camera style as undermining his enjoyment of the film

Lincoln

Spielberg can almost add to his accolades the besmirching of one of my idols.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Other than the anachronistic soundtrack, remarkably true.

Life of Pi

The dumbest exploration of blind faith since Forest Gump, and the silliest attempt to validate blind faith since....

Flight

Zemeckis should probably update his classic rock music collection, on his way to an Al Anon meeting, instead of wallowing in this one-note, give-it-an-extra-hour-because-Denzel-is-so-good (he is) simplistic Puritan morality tale.