Green Zone (2010)

This MIGHT have been interesting if it were at all timely...but it's way too late for a "we been lied to!!!!!!!!1111" movie about WMDs in Iraq. Since it's not eye-opening, it's not at all affecting.

I mean, you've either already heard this stuff dozens of times or you've worked pretty hard not to.

C

Winter's Bone (2010)

Much like Persuasion, I only realized how good the story was quite late in the film. At least an hour had gone by before I kind of started putting together what was actually happening. Up until that point, it felt a little gratuitous in an "aren't those people who live in the Ozarks stupid and savage for no reason!?" way.

Once I'd gotten enough information, though, I was able to reflect on what I'd already seen and it made me marvel at its restraint and power. I worry that a lot of people won't bother to think back...or even finish the thing.

B+

The Last Command (1928)

A surprisingly decent silent about a Russian general escaping the angry masses to become an extra in Hollywood...who's cast as a Russian general in a movie...directed by a revolutionary he'd imprisoned more than a decade earlier.

Sounds convoluted, but it's told with economy and emotion. It just worked.

B

The Moon is Blue (1953)

I might have been more charmed by this if I didn't find the lead so very off-putting. She had that kind of studied cutesiness that makes me want to cut a bitch -- she was like an older Vanessa Hudgens but with a LOT more dialogue (trust me, that's much worse than a quiet cutie pie).

Every time David Niven was on screen, the proceedings came to life and made the whole thing almost worth the time.

C+

The Crazies (2010)

This does exactly what it should do: delivers fast-paced scares without too much talk. I love Timothy Olyphant -- even as I find it funny that he's so often cast in lawmen roles -- and his no-nonsense attitude works great here.

B

The Secret of Kells (2009)

This looks exactly like one of those beautiful picture books that adults who neither have nor understand children are always buying for children. Yes, it's pretty, but it's the same kind of pretty for more than an hour and, without an interesting story to go along with the visuals, it just feels like it goes on and on. And on.

I'm also still not sure that I was ever let in on the secret.

D+

Living in Oblivion (1995)

The subject matter -- the struggle and frustration of trying to make a film with no money, shoddy equipment, and actors far more diva-y than their talents warrant -- is right in my zone of interest. And the actors were obviously having a ball committing to screen the laughable difficulties that they've surely experienced first-hand.

That said, it couldn't help but get tiresome since the hook was "everything goes wrong." Yep, everything. Every single time.

Ugh.

C+