The Legend of Hell House (1973)

The owner of a haunted house employs a small group of people to spend five days living in it to see what they can prove about the afterlife.  There's a psychic, a physicist (and his wife), and a survivor of the last group that attempted to stay in the same house.

Nice creepy vibe with some genuinely scary moments. Alas, the expositional and almost silly end reveal nearly undoes the whole thing.

B-

The Company Men (2010)

Greedy company downsizes Ben Affleck out of his cushy job and then goes and downsizes Chris Cooper and Tommy Lee Jones right out of their, more senior & cushy positions.

It’s a little TOO timely to be affecting, but it’s not a bad movie by any means. At least it didn’t have any false “HA HA, we discarded workers will, without missing a beat, immediately unite to make a new company that bankrupts the old one and teaches those bastards a lesson in humility and the importance of PEOPLE over MONEY!” that I was expecting with my eyes roll-ready.

Kinda quiet and almost boring, which is the price it pays for the reality of the situation (I also enjoyed that they didn’t try to make privileged corporate boy Affleck likable right away).

B-

Temple Grandin (2010)

Amazing and inspiring story of Grandin, who was diagnosed with autism at age 4 -- back when autism was understood as a kind of childhood schizophrenia.

It's just gorgeously told. Temple understands the world in pictures and the director gets that across by giving us flashes of how she’s processing new concepts and phrases. Prejudice and triumph both get through marvelously here. A fantastic, beautiful, and important film.

A

Nora's Will (2010)

aka: Five Days Without Nora

Divorced woman in her 60s commits suicide, but is sure to meticulously plan a family passover for everyone who will gather after her death. Quietly funny and also kind of heartbreaking with love, in the end, triumphing over petty religiosity.

Not a homerun, but a sweet look at a different kind of family.

B-

Make Believe (2011)

Documentary following five different entrants (one a duo from South Africa) as they prepare for and compete in the annual Teen World Magic Seminar.

The movie was really focused on the kids rather than the magic -- which was great when the subject was Derek McKee (shyly sweet), Hiroki Hara (ethereal enchanter), or Nkumbuzo & Siphiwe (infectiously upbeat)...but NOT so great when the subject was either Bill Koch (annoying attention seeker) or Krystyn Lambert (magic's answer to Tracy Flick), both of whom I couldn’t help but actively root against.

So, yeah, it was interesting but basically an examination of the people involved in a hobby I don’t really “get.”

B

The Next Three Days (2010)

Impressively smart movie about a woman in jail for the murder of her boss and the husband who both believes in her innocence and is determined to get her out.

The last quarter of the movie or so -- the evasion sequence -- elevates an already good film to great. I only wish that they’d stopped there. Going out of their way to make SURE there was no ambiguity about the wife’s innocence was overkill. It almost felt like the filmmakers were abiding by the Hays Code: we can't let the audience root for someone who might be an honest-to-goodness murderess! A killer should never get away...NOR would she deserve a husband who loves her! Make sure the audience know that she's worth their sympathies!

Definitely takes it down a notch.

B+

Frozen (2010)

A couple and his best friend go skiing and, because they think that skirting the rules that everyone else follows is fine behavior, get stuck on the chair lift when the slope closes down for the week. It’s very high, very cold, a little more wolf-infested than expected, and -- for reasons inexplicable -- none of the three ever zip up their jackets completely or pull their hoods tightly together.

It’s not horrible and there are some truly tense moments, but it’s both low-rent and low plot.

C-

RED (2010)

This was a waste of film (or whatever it is they use nowadays...at the very least it was a waste of time). The only thing it had going for it was its good-natured vibe.

Retired assassin Bruce Willis flirts over the phone with a drone in the pension department and, when he's targeted for death, she's the one he runs to. And then he digs Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich and Helen Mirren -- the old gang -- out of retirement to help him. I’ve seen this sort of stuff before; heck, EVERYone's seen this sort of stuff before. The attempts to make it rompish fell flat.

In short: no good.

C-

X-Men: First Class (2011)

I don't claim to be a fan of comic-book movies, but I thought the first three installments were fine. This prequel, however, felt very slight. The kids' powers (exception being Raven, the blue shape shifter) were laughably weird.

Fassbender is magnetically intense (good thing he's playing Magneto, eh?), but I'll wager he thought that the movie's tone would be more serious than it ended up being. And, oh wow, January Jones canNOT act. It’s a miracle that she does so well as Betty Draper. My guess is that it's the only role she'll ever get right.

C

Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work (2010)

Celebrities -- and, more specifically, comedians -- are a different breed. They are driven and desperate while being both tough and sensitive. I don’t envy them one little bit.

Although I've been a fan of Rivers for a long time, mostly for her honesty on her short-lived talk show and her willingness to "go there" when interviewing award-show-goers on the red carpet, I discovered during this film that I simply don’t find her stand-up very funny. I think she relies more on shock and ribaldry than cleverness -- but I’m still rooting for her.

This was a fascinating peek behind the curtain at a woman who will never stop working -- and she works hard -- because she'll never stop craving attention and acceptance. It's hard to know whether to admire or pity her.

B

Never Let Me Go (2010)

I did it in the wrong order again, dangit! I read this lovely lyrical book several months back and then saw this...which I'm sure robbed me of some of the pleasures of this haunting film version.

The filmmakers did succeed in capturing the poetic “otherworldly” feel of these young lives -- it was a gorgeously quiet movie -- but they missed completely some of the subtext. On its own merits, I think the movie works, though it’s a bit more of a downer than it needed to be. In stripping down the story, they stripped away a bit of what made it such a compelling one.

B

Food, Inc. (2009)

Eye-opening, but not in quite the way I expected. I was grossed-out, sure -- but not nearly so much that I would swear of meat because of it. I did come away resolved to eat organic foods as much as possible, both for health AND to do my part to stick it to corporations and government regulations.

Ugh. Sometimes I’m disgusted by what our country gets up to.

B

Biutiful (2011)

Scattershot, confusing, depressing, and ugly.

Bardem finds out he’s dying of cancer but still juggles his two kids, crazy ex-wife, untrustworthy brother, and low-level criminal organization. Oh and he can see ghosts. It took a true act of willpower to get through this mess.

D