Review: Save the Date (2012)

* *
Director: Michael Mohan
Starring: Lizzy Caplan, Alison Brie, Martin Starr, Mark Webber, Geoffrey Arend

Save the Date has a great cast and a strong premise. Its characters, though somewhat self-obsessed, are at least believably so, and there's a ring of truth to a lot of the character moments in the film. The flaw is in the execution, in a narrative overstuffed with contrivance, and which strains to force its characters into situations of increasing distress, as if hopping from crisis to crisis is more interesting than watching them deal with just one. Still, it has its moments, even if they are a little few and far between.

Review: Admission (2013)

* * 1/2
Director: Paul Weitz
Starring: Tina Fey, Paul Rudd

Admission is the kind of movie you should dislike on principle. It's a paint by numbers romantic comedy that takes no chances and, really, it's the kind of movie Hollywood needs to make less of, not more of. Yet, it is blessed by the strength of its two leads, who exude enough charm and talent that they make it seem more compelling than it has any business being. It's not enough to make it "good," exactly, but it is enough to make you like it despite its flaws. I realize that it probably sounds like I'm damning it with faint praise, but I actually did like Admission a fair bit. It's not the best thing anyone involved has ever appeared in, but it plays well on a lazy summer evening.

Review: Capturing the Friedmans (2003)

* * * *
Director: Andrew Jarecki

As usual, the truth lies somewhere between one story and another. Andrew Jarecki's riveting documentary Capturing the Friedmans is ostensibly about the criminal case which resulted in the imprisonment of a father and son, but really it's about how a family which was never too strong to begin with completely fell apart under the intense pressure and scrutiny of a trial and a media frenzy. Making use of a wealth of footage captured by David Friedman, the family's eldest son, Jarecki creates a fascinating portrait of family dysfunction couched in a "did they or didn't they" legal narrative.

Friday's Top 5... Cate Blanchett Performances

#5: Hanna
Granted, the accent can be a bit iffy, but Blanchett's performance as the relentless government operative/wicked stepmother figure is brilliant nevertheless.

Review: Smashed (2012)

* * * 1/2
Director: James Ponsoldt
Starring: Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Aaron Paul

What seems like fun - or, at the very least, like a good story - at one point in your life can take on darker tinges later on, particularly when that "fun thing" becomes an every day occurrence that threatens your livelihood and your life itself. James Ponsoldt's Smashed is an addiction drama wonderfully free of pathos, one which defines addiction according to its characters, rather than defining its characters according to their addiction, and recognizes that rock bottom is the beginning, not the end. Anchored by a brilliant performance by Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Smashed is a small but very affecting drama.