John Hughes' movies worked largely because they felt honest. I Love You, Beth Cooper doesn't feel honest. This is a movie where the title character faces off with an angry and violent boyfriend while wielding only a plastic lightsaber -- and still seems surprised at the beating that follows. This is a movie where Denis' best friend is named Richard Munsch (think about it, it'll come to you). The characters act in ways that are convenient, but never convincing. ...more

Well, I don't know about sub-version, but the guys from It's Always Sunny... certainly add per-version, and loads of it. Almost all Christmas trappings get the finger in the rear, from obvious ones like presents and Santa, but there's also a B-story extension of the song, "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus," and some Grinch story threads. Taken apart like that, it's a pretty solid entry into the Christmas-episode canon, though it was released on DVD first. (It's 43 minutes long, so you know it's going on TV later.) But this is an unedited version, and even when you look beyond all the holiday homage, it's also one of the best episodes of It's Always Sunny... ever. ...more

When you begin to read Houri, you are descending into Iranian airspace through the voice of Shahed, a man returning to his homeland on the third anniversary of his father's death. His name means “witness',” and through his eyes, Mehrdad Balali allows you to see his country juxtaposed in a time warp of culture. Shahed left Iran as a youth, running away to America. His father died in 1979, but this pilgrimage takes him back to a Post-Revolutionary Iran, a new world for Shahed. He steps out of the plane into a strikingly different climate upon his return. There is evidence of subjugation and authoritarian rule everywhere. The obvious, bearded men and veiled women. The more subtle changes would only be noticed by a “witness” from the past, missing landmarks, renamed streets, businesses that have vanished....more

In What the Bayou Saw, the familiar adage, “The truth will set you free” is portrayed in vivid and sometimes uncomfortable detail. Community college instructor, Sally Stevens harbors a secret that eats away at everything she touches, mostly her marriage and her soul. When Sally’s favorite student implicates three of her other students in a brutal assault, the burden of her past comes back to haunt her. Can she find healing from harmful traditions and the secret she swore to keep? This isn’t a formulaic story where readers will sit back in their easy chair able to predict what happens next. Layer by layer, the story unfolds exposing the cruelty of racism and the bitter pill of betrayal, mixed with the beauty and heartache of a hidden friendship....more

As an only child, whose parents were also only children, I value memories as something rare and fragile. Sometimes a doctor asks me something about my childhood medical history and I simply don’t know – and there’s no one alive who is likely to remember the answer to the question. So I’m inclined to value memory. But after reading Viktor Mayer-Schonberger’s The Virtue of Forgetting in the Digital Age, I’m now seriously inclined to also value the reverse. There are, from my youth, as is I think the case with most people, plenty of incidents that can still produce an inward cringe when I’m remind of them – and no doubt there were many more similar events over which my brain has drawn a merciful veil....more

Nightlight follows the misadventures of high school student Belle Goose who falls for Edwart Mullen, a classmate she believes to be a vampire. Nightlight opens with Belle Goose leaving Phoenix and moving to Oregon for the sake of her mother's relationship with street-hockey player Bill in what she describes as a "self-exiled, exile." Belle states "It's no big deal. I want to go. I want to leave all of my friends and the sunlight for a small, rainy town. Making you happy makes me happy." This is one of the first of many jabs at some of the blatant flaws in the original Twilight series....more

Following the hit Borat, Sacha Baron Cohen returns with a third character from Da Ali G Show – Brüno. Brüno is a gay Austrian fashion reporter who is fired after disrupting a Milan Fashion week catwalk. His lover then leaves him for another man, and Brüno decides to come to America to become a superstar. He tries unsuccessfully to become an actor and creates an over-the-top talk show, which the focus group hates. During the film he attempts to interview Harrison Ford, who is nastier than has ever been seen before, but he succeeds in interviewing Paula Abdul and other celebrities, as well as various senators. He also tries to make his name as a peace negotiator for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with less than spectacular results....more

It's always interesting when a film gets universally panned by critics and yet makes a crazy amount of money at the box office. Sometimes this is because the film just had a big first weekend before anyone heard the word of mouth reviews, but sometimes it is genuinely because mainstream audiences loved it and ignored the critics altogether. The Ugly Truth is a classic example. It came out in July and got hit hard by critics, but it made almost $200 million dollars in theaters. Could it be because of the widespread appeal of stars Katherine Heigl and Gerald Butler? Or that sometimes critics can be snotty and expect romcoms to be more than they are? Whatever the reason, the film will most likely do just as well now that it is out on DVD and Blu-ray. It's not hard to understand why....more

What can I say about Say Anything that hasnt been trod over a thousand times, sliced and diced to bits, ideas that still mean as much to a viewer as mush to Oliver Twist. Cameron Crowe is brilliant here in his directorial debut, and Randy Stone cobbled together a cast that is perfectly suited to each characters roles and even propelled the careers of some. Oh yeah, and there is a scene where John Cusack holds a boombox in the air, propelling a love so deep and angsty any given audience will yearn alongside him. If you havent seen it, rent it. Now. ...more

The thing I never really thought about before, but noticed while watching the new Anniversary Edition DVD of 1954 musical White Christmas, is that if the title song wasn't included, you'd have a movie that has almost nothing to do with Christmas. Take out Bing Crosby crooning the song at the beginning and a group rendition at the end and you could have an above-average Hollywood musical, rather than a perennial Christmas favorite. ...more