A slice-of-life indie-looking movie about a peevish, aimless young man (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) facing cancer. Except it’s mostly not really about the young man’s struggle with cancer; it’s about his difficulties with girls (Mom included). Once you have that down, it’s easier to see why most of the film seems to …
James Gunn did a little movie about dysfunctional superheroes called Super and landed a big budget feature about same called Guardians of the Galaxy. Josh Trank did a little movie about angsty adolescent superheroes called Chronicle and landed a big budget feature about same called The Fantastic Four. Now Gavin …
A young woman trapped in an abusive relationship (Anna Kendrick) becomes the unwitting participant in an intervention staged by her two closest friends.
While house-sitting at the posh home of one of her clients, a yoga instructor’s (Rosemarie DeWitt) husband (co-writer Jake Johnson) unearths a gun and what appears to be a human bone buried on the property. This plot gizmo is dispensed with almost as fast as it arrives. This leaves ample …
A friendship between a pair of ‘spoken for’ co-workers at a Chicago brewery gradually heats up in what has to be the sweetest, most romantic, and non-judgmental 90 minutes you’ll ever spend in the company of functioning alcoholics. With top comedic performances in Butter and now Drinking Buddies, Olivia Wilde …
A small-scale, big-star character study of exceedingly humble ambition. Anna Kendrick (Up in the Air, Drinking Buddies, Pitch Perfect) is Jenny, a young woman who goes to live with her brother Jeff (writer-director-star Joe Swanberg) and his wife Kelly (a charming Melanie Lynskey) after a bad breakup. She promptly goes …
John Krasinski directs and stars in a family dramedy involving, wait for it, an uncertain young man on the cusp of fatherhood who returns to his hometown when his mother falls ill. With Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Anna Kendrick, Charlie Day, Sharlto Copley, Richard Jenkins, and Margo Martindale as Mom.
Steven Sondheim's musical theater meditation on the complication, compromise, and carnality that adulthood brings to the fairy-tale world of children's fairy tales, gently Disneyfied for younger audiences eager to sing along. (Don't fret when Johnny Depp's leering Big Bad Wolf lifts his leg to block Little Red Riding Hood's progress; …
How to gussy up your completely conventional story of boy-meets-girl, boy-marries-girl, boy-gets-famous, boy-moves-on? Well, you could start by chopping up the timeline so that we start with the heartbroken ending, cut to the ecstatic beginning, slam to a curdled late-period fight, and work from there. Oh, and you could also …
Ditzy dipsomaniacs (Aubrey Plaza and Anna Kendrick) bucking for a free Hawaiian vacation fill the need of the titular siblings (Adam Devine, whose performance fails to live up to his last name, and Zac Efron). The laughs never start as these four knotheads, whittled from the same block of wood, …
Sam Rockwell at his most charismatic as a chipper, dancing, partially-reformed hitman with a heart of gold and a sense of the world’s metaphysical currents, getting chased around New Orleans by Tim Roth in a Southern accent while he attempts to romance the irrepressible Anna Kendrick. (He’s totally honest with …
The problem: geek culture has ascended to the point where it's difficult to portray, say, college guys who do a capella renditions of pop songs as lovable losers who have to triumph over their own peculiarity to win the respect of their peers. Even if they're not the Big Men …
The problem: geek culture has ascended to the point where it's difficult to portray, say, college guys who do a capella renditions of pop songs as lovable losers who have to triumph over their own peculiarity to win the respect of their peers. Even if they're not the Big Men …
Charm is a delicate commodity, especially when you're grinding it between the millstones of high camp and naked sincerity. In 2012, the celebration/spoof of a cappella college groups Pitch Perfect managed to preserve it, thanks mostly to the light touch of star Anna Kendrick. But the grim arithmetic of sequels …
Hyper-performing single mother and strangely struggling mommyvlogger Anna Kendrick crosses paths with mysterious and free-spirited career gal Blake Lively. The two bond over martinis and mutual admiration: Kendrick is taken with Lively’s passionate marriage and aggressive attitude; Lively likes Kendrick’s down-home sweetness and motherly devotion. But the marriage doesn’t keep …