POP! LIST: TOP 10 FILMS OF 2011

POP! LIST: TOP 10 FILMS OF 2011 

BY JAKE MATHISON/February 15, 2012

10. REAL STEEL (PG-13)
One of the year's biggest surprises, Shawn Levy's Real Steel is a great underdog story and sensational pop filmmaking-- especially if you're a sucker for anthropomorphic robots or Hugh Jackman, or both.


9. YOUNG ADULT (R)
Jason Reitman's Young Adult is a purposefully uneasy film, meant to hit home and hit hard, allowing for an extremely interesting, nuanced performance by the venerable Charlize Theron.

8. THE IDES OF MARCH (R)
George Clooney's big year was punctuated by his poignant political thriller, The Ides of March, which in a turn of cinematic magic, saw him sparring with heavyweight Ryan Gosling.

7. THE DESCENDANTS (R)
Alexander Payne's The Descendants is a lovely, forthright film built around an unusually vulnerable performance by the stalwart George Clooney as a father trying to piece his family back together.

6. THE HELP (PG-13)
Tate Taylor's Civil Rights-era exploration, The Help, is an talent tour de force that features phenomenal work from its ensemble cast, including Viola Davis, Emma Stone, Octavia Spencer, Bryce Dallas Howard and Jessica Chastain.

5. 50/50 (R)
Joseph Gordon-Levitt is fantastic as a young cancer patient in Jonathan Levine's touching 50/50, which also features another great turn from the meltworthy Anna Kendrick.

4. MIDNIGHT IN PARIS (PG-13)
Marion Cotillard dazzles in the charming time travel flick, Midnight in Paris, which down the road, has the potential to be considered one of Woody Allen's finest, most approachable films.


3. DRIVE (R)
In Drive, Nicolas Winding Refn takes us on a timeless, complex joyride through the seedy backstreets of gritty L.A. with a resurgent Albert Brooks and two of the very best young talents working in the industry, Ryan Gosling and Carey Mulligan.

2. ANOTHER EARTH (PG-13)
Mike Cahill's feature debut, the duplicate Earth drama Another Earth, took the festival scene by storm, and for good reason-- it's full of fresh, character driven sci-fi goodness and features a bold, breakthrough performance by writer/actress Brit Marling.

1. THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO (R)
David Fincher's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo impressively outdoes the Swedish original (an excellent film in its own right) in every way, and Rooney Mara's Lisbeth Salander will leave you gobsmacked.

COMING SOON: 10 WORST FILMS OF 2011 

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LATE NIGHT MOVIE SERIES: EYES OF LAURA MARS (2/11/2012)

LATE NIGHT MOVIE SERIES: EYES OF LAURA MARS (1978)

BY JAKE MATHISON/February 11, 2012

Eyes of Laura Mars piqued my interest for a couple of reasons. The foremost being that George Lucas, after seeing some of its early test footage, hired its director, Irvin Kershner, to helm The Empire Strikes Back. But it also caught my eye because it's based off a spec script by horror legend John Carpenter. Double the intrigue, double the fun.

It's a typical '70s Gothic mystery flick about a shock photographer named Laura Mars, played by Faye Dunaway (Chinatown), who gains the ability to see through the eyes of a serial killer. And as expected, it's as ridiculous as it sounds.

Though it's beautifully shot, the film is wildly inconsistent and its plot lacks even a single coherent thread running through it. In fact, the film's story is so counter intuitive and confusing that even its Wikipedia description had no idea what was going on (I've since fixed this to the best of my ability). The pacing is also atrocious, and Dunaway dreadfully overplays every line to the point where you'll wonder whether or not she's having some sort of seizure. Worse yet, the never ending red herrings are just plain obnoxious and the twist ending is unbelievably silly.

On the plus side, we do get a very good (albeit nasal) performance from a young Tommy Lee Jones, and the late Raul Julia turns up briefly as a creepy former beau. It was also clearly shot on location in New York City in the late '70s, so it does have that authentic, seedy disco era vibe to it. And it's easy to see why Lucas became so enamored with Kershner, as there is a lot to love about the film's production quality and the ethereal, dreamlike way it was shot. It's also a very good stylistic example of the giallo genre. But you can't polish a turd, and the script is just that. Though, to Carpenter's credit, the story does have good bones, and with a little common sense and a lot of revision, it could be ripe for a remake someday (even though Jessica Alba already came close in her impotent 2008 vehicle The Eye).

Quite frankly, if you're big on substance, give this one a pass. It's all style here. But with that being said, I'd still probably pick up a copy of Eyes of Laura Mars if it ever came out on Blu-ray, if only to admire its shear beauty with a proper transfer and better resolution.

BEST LINE: "I'm completely out of control!" -- Laura Mars (Faye Dunaway)

Eyes of Laura Mars is rated R and is available from Amazon on DVD or as a digital download

LATE NIGHT MOVIE SERIES: INNERSPACE (2/8/2012)

LATE NIGHT MOVIE SERIES: INNERSPACE (1987)

BY JAKE MATHISON/ February 8, 2012

Growing up, the first VCR we owned was a top loading movie muncher. But for the longest time, we had barely any VHS cassettes to feed it. And the only place in town that rented them was a bizarre combination ice cream parlor & porno shop run by a blind couple. So I mostly resigned myself to watching things that had been taped for me by relatives in Minneapolis with cable. I had a copy of Superman II, complete with an interrupting speech from President Reagan (the '80s equivalent of a special feature), and also a partial copy of Innerspace that was missing somewhere between 5-10 minutes of establishing scenes and Dennis Quaid's buttcheeks.

I must have played those tapes until the ribbons tore. And as such, I'm particularly ashamed to admit that I never saw those first few scenes of Innerspace until I happened across a copy caged in some discount bin at Wal-Mart a few years back.

Needless to say, it's still really frakking good. And with the added bonus of those previously unseen (at least to me) first 10 minutes, it's even better. Dennis Quaid buttcheeks and all. It's a badass, sci-fi lite micro-epic. I mean, who wouldn't want to get miniaturized and injected into Martin Short? Yes, the science is ambiguous. Yes, the characters are ridiculous. But you can't go wrong with Quaid's charismatic grin, Short's manic physicality and Robert Picardo as a tech fencing cowboy. And if that's somehow still not enough for you, it's also a pretty good reminder that Meg Ryan used to be hot.

Innerspace is easily Joe Dante's best film (sorry Gremlins), and even as it approaches its 25th anniversary, it remains fresh, stylistically sleek and most importantly, still funny.

Now, where's that Blu-ray Warner Bros.?

BEST LINE: "I'm possessed!" -- Jack Putter (Martin Short)

Innerspace is rated PG, and is available from Amazon on DVD or as a digital download

ONE FOR THE '90s (2/4/2012)

ONE FOR THE MONEY (PG-13)

BY JAKE MATHISON

February 4th, 2012

Starring: Katherine Heigl, Jason O'Mara and Daniel Sunjata

Directed by: Julie Ann Robinson

Written by: Stacy Sherman (screenplay), Karen Ray (screenplay), Liz Brixius (screenplay) and Janet Evanovich (novel)

One for the Money is a dated film that may have worked, and even worked well, a decade ago. But as it stands, it's not fresh enough to keep an iPhone era attention span, and its obvious '90s shtick mostly misfires when translating to its modern setting. It's a shame, too, because this is probably Katherine Heigl's (Knocked Up) least offensive role in, well, forever. But the Stephanie Plum of One for the Money clearly hasn't aged well as a character, and the film's weaksauce plot is only barely masked by the explosive charisma of Jason O'Mara (TV's Life on Mars and Terra Nova) as an ex-flame on the lam. Fans of the cozy mystery genre, without a particular allegiance to Ms. Plum, would do better to revisit 1998's brilliant Zero Effect instead.

2.5/5 stars

One for the Money is rated PG-13 for violence, sexual references and language, some drug material and partial nudity

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THE DIABLO IS IN THE DETAILS (12/18/2011)

YOUNG ADULT (R)

BY JAKE MATHISON

December 18th, 2011

Starring: Charlize Theron, Patrick Wilson and Patton Oswalt

Directed by: Jason Reitman

Written by: Diablo Cody

Young Adult is a wickedly delicious film. It's a perverse, brutally honest depiction of the mundane and unfulfilled lives we lead. And because of that, it's beautiful.

Charlize Theron's (Monster) Mavis Gary is a refreshingly loathsome character. As the ghost-writer of a series of popular YA (young adult) fiction novels, she has achieved a modicum of success, but under somebody else's name. And even though she's clearly a bright and talented individual, she's also a selfish, neurotic and paranoid narcissist, and seemingly always has been. Recently, she appears to have added depressed, alcoholic divorcee to that list.

When an old flame, played by Patrick Wilson (Watchmen), sends her an e-mail regarding the birth of his child, she obsessively sets off to win him back, ending up on an unavoidable collision course with her small Minnesota hometown and the people she's desperately tried to leave behind.

For many, Young Adult will be a hard film to stomach. It's comprised almost entirely of wholly unlikable, extremely complex characters. And it's going to hit close to home for anybody who grew up or still lives in a small town in middle America. But the film does a good job of spreading its blame equally, and it spends a great deal of time tackling the juxtaposition between the various levels of the unfulfillment spectrum.

Theron is pretty spectacular here. She's everything Diablo Cody's (Juno) script asks her to be and more, spewing electric dialogue and effortlessly painting a portrait of Mavis's often schizophrenic turns between loneliness and scathing condescension. And Patton Oswalt (Big Fan) is surprisingly good as a former classmate whose broken physical state mirrors Mavis's broken emotional state.

Although Cody's post-Juno work has been a mixed bag, in reuniting with director Jason Reitman (Juno, Up in the Air) she appears to have recaptured a little bit of her former magic, and together they have sculpted something bold, genuine and definitely worth investigating.

In a way, Young Adult is like a brawl between two opposing forces that hold nothing but contempt for one another. And it's fascinating to see that play out. But don't go into it expecting Cody's warmer, more charming fare, because other than a writer's credit, it has little in common with Juno. However, if you appreciate darker, more divisive themes, you're in for a real treat.

4/5 stars

Young Adult is rated R for language and some sexual content

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POP! LIST: TOP 10 ACTRESSES UNDER 30 (2011)

POP! LIST: TOP 10 ACTRESSES UNDER 30 (2011)

BY JAKE MATHISON

December 12th, 2011

10. Felicity Jones, 28

Best Role: Like Crazy (2011)

Why She's #10: Though she's only recently become known to mainstream American film-goers, bright-eyed Brit Felicity Jones certainly appears to be the whole package. Her earnest performance in the recent indie drama Like Crazy showcased a strong young actress ready to break out across the pond.

9. Elizabeth Olsen, 22

Best Role: Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011)

Why She's #9: Liz Olsen broke free from her older sisters' shadow, and seemingly came out of nowhere to become the new "it-girl" of indie-drama. Better yet, her rise in stock is actually well-deserved. She's been willing to go to artistic lengths that many of her peers have not. Her wounded but powerful performance in Martha Marcy May Marlene proves that she puts in the work and takes her craft seriously.

8. Ellen Page, 24

Best Role: Hard Candy (2005), Juno (2007)

Why She's #8: Page has been mostly off the radar for the last couple of years, but it would be a crime to overlook her visceral breakout performance in 2005's Hard Candy. Page's best asset is her ability to seamlessly transition between gritty, stark dramas and meta-comedies like her Oscar-nominated turn in Juno.

7. Emily Browning, 22

Best Role: Sleeping Beauty (2011)

Why She's #7: Even though Sleeping Beauty turned out to be a pretentious dud, Browning deserves a spot on this list for being absolutely fearless in it. She gave absolutely everything she had in an incredible, gutsy performance-- a role that required not only full dedication, but also full exploitation. If nothing else, it was a calculated risk to get her noticed, and it worked beautifully.

6. Jennifer Lawrence, 21

Best Role: Winter's Bone (2010), The Beaver (2011)

Why She's #6: At 21, Lawrence is the youngest actress on this list, and her Oscar nod for Winter's Bone has seemingly blown the doors of her burgeoning career wide open. And though she may project a sort of heartland strength, she is also more than capable of digging deep and playing off a hidden, quiet sensitivity.

5. Anna Kendrick, 26

Best Role: Up in the Air (2009), 50/50 (2011)

Why She's #5: Anna Kendrick is the new breed of American sweetheart. She's snarky, yet still extremely likable, having used her tremendous sincerity and relatability to garner the first of what should be many Academy nominations. Even with that exposure, she remains underrated, and has the talent to really sneak up on you.

4. Rooney Mara, 26

Best Role: The Social Network (2010), The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (2011)

Why She's #4: David Fincher shocked the industry when he handpicked the relatively unknown Rooney Mara to play the title character in his remake of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo-- but from all early indications, he appears to have hit a home-run. Mara made a big impact with her small amount of The Social Network screentime, putting Jesse Eisenberg's Mark Zuckerberg in his place. She's strong, determined and poised to make a big splash this year.

3. Carey Mulligan, 26

Best Role: Never Let Me Go (2010), Drive (2011), Shame (2011)

Why She's #3: Carey Mulligan is a gifted emoter. She has an uncanny ability to say everything without saying anything. She's tough, hardened and at her best when playing emotionally damaged and/or vulnerable characters. She's also been experiencing a meteoric rise as of late, and her upcoming performance in the controversial NC-17 piece Shame is sure to garner some Academy attention.

2. Anne Hathaway, 29

Best Role: Rachel Getting Married (2008)

Why She's #2: Even though she's the veteran presence of this list, Anne Hathaway is still something of an enigma. Her powerhouse performance in 2008's underrated Rachel Getting Married pushed her career to the brink of greatness, but she has since found herself in the unenviable position of repeating that success. In many ways, her career has mirrored recent Academy darling Natalie Portman. Hathaway's been the rock of a lot of inferior fare, so it's fair to assume that it'll only be a matter of time before she finds her Black Swan.

1. Alison Brie, 28

Best Role: Community (2009-), Mad Men (2007-)

Why She's #1: Besides being an absolute knockout, Brie's amazing combination of intelligence, physicality and impeccable comedic timing have made her a versatile force to be reckoned with. She's not afraid of taking bold risks or gambling stylistically with her choices, and her instincts almost always pay off with huge dividends. She's a duel threat on TV's Community and Mad Men, shooting to the top of this list because she's a true chameleon, capable of playing any role in any genre.

THE RAINBOW DISCONNECTION (12/9/2011)

THE MUPPETS (PG)

BY JAKE MATHISON

December 9th, 2011

Starring: Jason Segel, Amy Adams, Rashida Jones and Chris Cooper

Directed by: James Bobin

Written by: Jason Segel, Nicholas Stoller and Jim Henson (characters)

It's a good time, and it tries really hard. That might seem like an oversimplification, but that's The Muppets in a nutshell. It's not the drastic reenvisioning most were expecting when Jason Segel (Forgetting Sarah Marshall) became attached to the project as a writer. And it's definitely not a reboot. It never pushes the envelope, but it's a mostly charming, family-friendly film full of safe choices, archetypes and retro goodness.

When Gary (Jason Segel) takes his girlfriend Mary (Amy Adams) and his little Muppet brother Walter to Los Angeles for a vacation, they inadvertently stumble across nefarious oil monger Tex Richman's (Chris Cooper) plot to destroy the relic Muppet Studios and spend the remainder of the film attempting to reunite Kermit with his old pals for a last-ditch studio saving effort.

There's a whole lot of Muppety merriment and nostalgia involved, with throwbacks to the days of telethons, '80s robots, New Coke and the like. All of this works. And there are some really good, honest moments for Kermit as well, with him spending most of the first act as an aging, defeated, and emotionally spent frog.

In spurts, there are also some really interesting choices and story elements at play in The Muppets. It's never revealed how Walter came to be Gary's little brother-- was he adopted, or is Muppetism some sort of genetic anomaly along the lines of dwarfism? There's plenty of fourth wall breakage. And Walter, Gary and Mary also seemingly live in a Truman Show-esque faux town that's always ready to bust out in song and dance upon command, yet observably relieved and exasperated of that routine when the trio departs on their Hollywood vacation. Needless to say, none of these non sequitur oddities are ever fully explained or developed, and it's a shame they weren't explored further instead of yet another greedy villain cliche or hokey Miss Piggy parody vignette.

The bottom line is that The Muppets, as a franchise, needs a facelift from an unlikely source--perhaps a David Lynch (Blue Velvet) or Guillermo del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth)-- because it's now clear that Jason Segel just isn't going to be that person. It's one thing to respect the source material, but there's simply no edge to this film. It doesn't tread enough new ground to stave off an inevitable reboot. Heck, it's not even the best Muppet film of the last twenty years, an honor which distinctly belongs to the underrated cult favorite Muppets from Space. But it's still a film full of life, love, and the pursuit of Muppetness, and how could anybody not dig that? Mahna Mahna.

2.5/5 stars

The Muppets is rated PG for some mild rude humor

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NEW TWILIGHT IS A VAMP-PYRE (11/26/2011)

TWILIGHT: BREAKING DAWN, PART I (PG-13)

BY JAKE MATHISON

November 26th, 2011

Starring: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Ashley Greene, Billy Burke, Anna Kendrick and Michael Sheen

Directed by: Bill Condon

Written by: Melissa Rosenberg (screenplay) and Stephenie Meyer (novel)

Twilight: Breaking Dawn, Part I is a muddled mess befitting an undead audience with infinite patience and forgiveness for a series that has gotten progressively worse since its inception, and now finds itself flatlined.

There is very little redeeming value to be found here. In fact, the first half of the film is so dreadfully boring it practically begs you to stake it (yes, I know I'm mixing my vampirical mythologies) and put it out of its misery. Over-saturated to the point of parody, it forces its victims to sit through an endless barrage of cheesy dialogue, shirtlessness and grossly ineffective musical montages.

The ever grody Kristen Stewart (aka the little boy from Panic Room) is her gaunt, depressing and miserly self here, while the regressing Taylor Lautner (Abduction) takes his huff and puff routine to unheard of levels of emo-camp craptasticness. Even the usually tolerable Robert Pattinson (Water for Elephants) seems to be sleepwalking through this dud. You know the acting is bad when your best performance is a two minute wedding cameo by Anna Kendrick (50/50), who we can only imagine is now having some serious regrets about ever signing that five picture deal in the first place.

Whether it's due to bowing to studio pressure or just general ineptness, director Bill Condon (Dreamgirls) is all over the map with this one, resulting in an exploitative first chapter to a double-feature that should never have been split in half. Yes, the teeny-boppers will get to scream at midnight, twice, but the world will be much worse for wear because of it. But on the bright side, if Twilight: Breaking Dawn, Part II is even nearly as bad as this cheap laugh-fest, it may just drive the final nail in the coffin of the recent bloodsucker resurgence.

1.5/5 stars

Twilight: Breaking Dawn, Part I is rated PG-13 for disturbing images, violence, sexuality/partial nudity and some thematic elements

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THE THREE MUSKETEERS (PG-13) (11/11/2011)

THE THREE MUSKETEERS

BY JAKE MATHISON

November 11th, 2011

Starring: Logan Lerman, Milla Jovovich, Matthew Macfayden, Ray Stevenson, Luke Evans, Mads Mikkelsen, Juno Temple, James Corden, Orlando Bloom and Christoph Waltz

Directed by: Paul W.S. Anderson

Written by: Andrew Davies and Alex Litvak (screenplay); Alexandre Dumas (characters)

The Three Musketeers is easily the worst film of the year. It's an unmitigated disaster that reeks of ineptitude on every level. It comes complete with tortuously absurd anachronisms, horrendous one-liners, pooping tickets for horses, and a 17th century Tim Gunn. Not since last year's abysmal Skyline, has a film been so ill-conceived from top to bottom as to leave us wondering-- what were the people who greenlit this garbage smoking, and how can I get them my script?

It's about France, and war, and boobies, and stuff. D'Artagnan, played by the aspiring Logan Lerman (Gamer), journeys to Paris to become a Musketeer, only to find the usual trio have become antiquated, drunken shells of their former selves. When yet another plot to control the throne is uncovered, it's up to D'Artagnan to whip the boys back into shape, save the world, and get the girl. And it's all handled with the subtlety and tact of a Tea Party rally.

Here, director Paul W.S. Anderson (Death Race) has managed to find a way to get the absolute worst out of a relatively talented cast. Only Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds) and Juno Temple (Greenberg) escape the ordeal relatively unscathed, but both deserve, at the very least, a brief shunning for ever allowing their names to grace this turd. Worst of all, however, is what should be a career-ending performance from Orlando Bloom (The Lord of the Rings Trilogy), who cackles through all of scenes, twirling his mustache like an old-timey railroad baron.

Honestly, The Three Musketeers is a steaming pile of unintended camp. It's a dreadful effort, avoidable at all costs-- one for all, and all for naught.

.5/5 stars

The Three Musketeers is rated PG-13 for sequences of adventure action violence

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REAL STEEL (PG-13) (10/14/2011)

REAL STEEL

BY JAKE MATHISON

October 14th, 2011

Starring: Hugh Jackman, Dakota Goyo, Evangeline Lilly, Kevin Durand, Anthony Mackie, Hope Davis and James Rebhorn

Directed by: Shawn Levy

Written by: John Gatins (screenplay), Dan Gilroy (story), Jeremy Leven (story) and Richard Matheson (concept)

If you don't like Real Steel, you're dead inside. If you don't love Real Steel, you shouldn't go the movies. It's a classic underdog story, and if you choose to embrace it for what it is, there's little doubt you'll remain in its corner.

Director Shawn Levy's (Date Night) Real Steel is very loosely based off a cult-favorite Twilight Zone episode written by legendary sci-fi author Richard Matheson (I Am Legend, Somewhere in Time). And while this new interpretation shares little in common with its predecessor, its essential moral remains the same-- all the nuts and bolts in the world are worthless unless you have the guts and heart to go with them.

Here, the ever-charismatic Hugh Jackman (X-Men) plays a washed-up boxer and deadbeat dad named Charlie Kenton who has run out of chances in life. To make matters worse, it's the not-too-distant future and human boxing has been KO'd, replaced for some years now by robot fighters in the ring. Charlie fights via these robots at county fairs, hustling and gambling his way into a series of bad bets and even deeper debt. He's just about toast when he's informed that his ex-girlfriend (and mother of his child) has died and he has been awarded custody of the son he years ago abandoned. The boy, Max, played by young Dakota Goyo (Thor) is a precocious and witty little punk who immediately reminds Charlie of himself. They spend the majority of the film pretending to have little time and even less use for each other. When Max comes across Atom, an old gen-2 model robot in a junkyard, Charlie reluctantly seizes one desperate last attempt to repair not only his career but also his relationship with his son.

Although Real Steel won't be mistaken for high art any time soon, it's still an ironclad piece of work. There is a populist vibe that runs through its entirety. And for all of its unavoidable hokeyness, it's equally workmanlike. There's nobody paychecking out of this one. This is the silly dream of a child set to screen with the dead seriousness of an adult. And it works. For that reason alone, director Levy deserves a lot of credit. It would have been quite easy to get sloppy with this material, but he doesn't-- the narrative is tight, the cast is steady and the dialogue never clunks. The result is a fast, fun, emotionally charged ride through the backroads of relationships, human and robot alike. Ultimately, the real joy of Real Steel is getting to watch these characters discover their humanity in the most inhuman of places.

3.5/5

Real Steel is rated PG-13 for some violence, intense action and brief language

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ABDUCTION (PG-13) (9/30/2011)

ABDUCTION

BY JAKE MATHISON

September 30th, 2011

Starring: Taylor Lautner, Lily Collins, Alfred Molina, Sigourney Weaver, Michael Nyqvist, Maria Bello and Jason Isaacs

Directed by: John Singleton

Written by: Shawn Christensen

With a little craftmanship, less cheese and more conviction, Abduction might have been a solid thriller. As is, it's a fun, juvenile joyride that is cut and done before you're allowed to groan too loudly. Taylor Lautner (Twilight) stars as Nathan Harper, a teenager whose world unravels when he discovers his entire life has been a lie, and he's thrust into a plot usually reserved for cheap spy fiction.

Lautner struts his stuff, flexing his ab muscles and brooding throughout like an emo Steven Seagal at senior prom. Luckily for him, his date is the entrancing British up-and-comer Lily Collins (Priest). Together, they spend an hour and a half evading bad guys and looking sexy while breaking light sweats. Along for the ride are a mishmash of shady characters with questionable allegiances, highlighted by veteran scene-sniper Alfred Molina (Spider-Man 2) as a dopey CIA agent. Sigourney Weaver (Ghostbusters), Michael Nyqvist (The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo), Maria Bello (Coyote Ugly), Jason Isaacs (The Patriot), and even an uncredited Dermot Mulroney (My Best Friend's Wedding) also turn up briefly.

Director John Singleton (Shaft) refrains from stretching himself or exploring riskier stylistic choices, and as a result Abduction is an average, straight-forward teen thriller that does just enough to keep you interested without, at least initially, questioning its internal logic. Think North by Northwest for the Twilight crowd.

2/5

Abduction is Rated PG-13 for sequences of intense violence and action, brief language, some sexual content and teen partying

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DRIVE (R) (9/26/2011)

DRIVE

BY JAKE MATHISON

September 26th, 2011

Starring: Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan, Albert Brooks, Bryan Cranston, Christina Hendricks and Ron Perlman

Directed by: Nicolas Winding Refn

Written by: Hossein Amini (screenplay) and James Sallis (book)

Although it may be impossible, Danish filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn's Drive will leave you desperately struggling to define it. It will simultaneously captivate and repulse you. It's a gritty, other-worldly dream loaded with purposeful contradiction and sloppiness. Here, Refn (Bronson) masterfully crafts a quietly chaotic, Kubrickian universe wherein silence is dialogue and dialogue is silence.

The brilliant Ryan Gosling (The Notebook) plays the titular unnamed driver, a mysterious Los Angeles transplant and sometimes Hollywood stunt driver who gets his kicks by moonlighting as a wheelman for the city's seedy underbelly. Gosling's ability to emote without saying anything is uncanny, and you can almost feel his legend growing in Brando like fashion. As such, Driver is a tough, multi-layered character to crack, and his walls often seem nearly impenetrable.

When Driver meets a young mother, played by the beguiling Carey Mulligan (Never Let Me Go), he finally begins to let his guard down. But her ex-con husband returns from prison to reclaim his family and Driver is reluctantly pulled into a heist gone wrong, finding himself in fast trouble with the wrong people (Albert Brooks, Ron Perlman).

This film is timeless. In fact, I'm not even sure it exists in any set time. Refn hasn't thrown us many breadcrumbs either-- save for the occasional sprinkling of some panko. The cast, from top to bottom, is fantastic. Albert Brooks (Modern Romance) shines as a disinterested mafioso. Mulligan digs deep into her character's loneliness and loathing, juxtaposing them with an enviable tenderness that inevitably drives our Driver to his epic conclusions. Drive is a tortuous ride that asks an endless amount of questions and gives almost no answers, but they're fascinating questions and there is great beauty in just how little this film actually reveals. It'll keep you in its stranglehold.

4/5

Drive is Rated R for strong brutal bloody violence, language and some nudity

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CONTAGION (PG-13) (9/20/2011)

CONTAGION

BY JAKE MATHISON

September 20th, 2011

Starring: Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Laurence Fishburne, Jude Law, Marion Cotillard, John Hawkes, Jennifer Ehle and Elliot Gould

Directed by: Steven Soderbergh

Written by: Scott Z. Burns

When the unpredictable outbreak of a deadly virus occurs rapidly across the globe, an all-star cast (headlined by Matt Damon and Kate Winslet) is forced to frantically chew up dialogue and take their best shot at saving what's left of our world. Steven Soderbergh's Contagion is a slick, realistic nightmare about a near-miss with a natural apocalypse. Of course, we've seen this film before, but the "new" is in the nuances. Rarely does a director of Soderbergh's (Erin Brokovich, Traffic) ilk undertake a project that in all honesty should have been earmarked for someone like Michael Bay (Armageddon, Transformers), and as such we should be thankful for the added weightiness he immediately brings to the table.

Contagion knows how to pack a punch, and there are a lot of them to keep track of here. From Marion Cotillard to Laurence Fishburne, this film was judiciously cast to allow maximum exposure, impact, and resonance. Unfortunately, flexing this strength also becomes Contagion's one true weakness as there are simply too many happenings and too many characters for us to care about any one of them individually. The exception, however, might be Matt Damon's (The Bourne Identity, Good Will Hunting) portrayal of the film's true civilian, a Minneapolis father coming to terms with the sudden death of his wife (Gwyneth Paltrow) and the devolving world around him. Damon gives an intently focused performance here, being inadvertently linked to a seed of the outbreak, yet unable to do anything but survive until the next day.

There is a purposeful, frustratingly dull ache to this film, and it's really as much about cold, hard acceptance as it is about survival. Primarily set in Minneapolis (although filmed in Chicago), the bitterness of winter in Minnesota dutifully serves the enveloping struggle. Contagion is designed to hit close to home and succeeds, becoming worthy of hitting your wallets for-- at the very least-- a matinee.

3.5/5

Contagion is Rated PG-13 for disturbing content and some language

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COMMUNITY SNUBS ARE AN EPIC FAIL FOR EMMYS (9/18/2011)

COMMUNITY SNUBS ARE AN EPIC FAIL FOR EMMYS

BY JAKE MATHISON

September 18th, 2011

Like many of you, I'll be parked in front of the tube tonight for this year's Emmys, aka the Egregious Errors. And per usual, I'll take extreme pleasure in booing and guffawing the night away as the bigwigs of bad television take home the gold. Because like any award show, the Emmys get more wrong than right. They're not about content or ingenuity, they're antiquated popularity contests. And the more talented, but less known, often go overlooked.

This year, there is no more flagrant an oversight than the general absence of nods for the fantabulous NBC comedy Community. To not win is one thing, to not even be nominated is a gross violation and discrediting of the awards process in general.

Quite frankly, Community is the sharpest, most acerbic, most meta half hour currently in production. Creator Dan Harmon and his brilliant cast are not only boundary-breakers, but format visionaries. This is a show that painstakingly stop-motion animated their second season's Christmas special and dared to devote not one, but two episodes to cast-wide no-rules paintball games. In the process, Harmon has managed to revitalize Chevy Chase's stagnant career and introduce the world to budding stars Donald Glover and Danny Pudi. It's a show that breaks down every stereotype we have about the world around us, pulls no punches, and is actually funny. Not just ha-ha funny. This show is bust-a-gut funny.

Worst of all, however, might just be the epic snubbing of Alison Brie for "Supporting Actress In A Comedy Series." Brie's multi-layered portrayal of precociously perky Greendale goddess Annie Edison is not only spot-on, it's above and beyond. Though she's done some very solid work on AMC's Mad Men, Brie is truly in her element here, showcasing impeccable comedic timing while still providing her character with rare warmth, sensitivity and intelligence.

While it's hard to take anything away from Community and its seemingly endless list of talent, Alison Brie is really the heart of this amazing series and as such deserved (at the very least) a nod. Failing to do so is a laughable, if not criminal, offense. But I digress to the usual cliches... there's always next year, right?

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