Winter's Bone

Q: What’s the movie about?

A: When a teenage girl (Jennifer Lawrence) finds out that her father gave their house up for bail money to get himself out of jail, she must track him down or prove that he's dead in order to save the house where she is the main caretaker for her 12-year-old brother and 7-year-old sister.

Q: Who’s in the movie?

A: Jennifer Lawrence, John Hawkes, Dale Dickey, Garret Dillahunt, Lauren Sweetser, Isaiah Stone, Ashlee Thompson, Shelley Waggener, Tate Taylor, Sheryl Lee, Ronnie Hall, Kevin Breznahan,

Q: Is this movie worth the price of admission?

A: Proceed with Caution. It is very slow paced for a very long time before becoming a heart-wrenching thriller about a girl who will go to any length to protect her younger siblings.

Q: Will this movie make me laugh?

A: I'm pretty sure that in the town where this takes place, you could get killed for laughing.

Q: Will this movie make me cry?

A: Mostly it'll make you thankful about all the wonderful things and people you have in your life, because if you can a afford a movie ticket, you're already about a thousand times more privileged than the white trash in this story.

Q: Will this movie be up for any awards?

A: It has already won prizes at Sundance and Berlin, so I'm sure the Independent Spirit Awards will follow.

Q: How is the Acting?

A: At the ripe old age of 18, Jennifer Lawrence carries the movie practically all by herself. And considering there are rarely enough great roles for women, in a year, to fill all 5 spots at the Academy Awards, I wouldn't be surprised if she pulls an Ellen Page.

Q: How is the Directing?

A: Depressing, bleak, grim, meditative, cold, dank, and perfectly suited for this film... If you like that sort of thing.

Q: How is the story/script?

A: The stakes are high for the main character and her family, and the drama is intense, but I'm still not sure why everybody has to be such an a-hole to this poor kid, who's been forced into premature adulthood. As dumb as they are, the townsfolk have to realize that whatever her father did to piss them off, it has nothing to do with her. She didn't ask to be his offspring. And the fact that she is doesn't make her a bad person. It makes her the victim.

Q: Where can I see the trailer?

A: http://www.moviefone.com/movie/winters-bone/10024255/trailers

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Greenberg

Q: What’s the movie about?

A: A man with every therapy-worthy clinical condition you can think of (Ben Stiller) comes to L.A. to do nothing in his brother's mansion, and begins an incredibly unhealthy affair with his brother's assistant (Greta Gerwig).

Q: Who’s in the movie?

A: Ben Stiller, Greta Gerwig, Rhys Ifans, Mark Duplass, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Chris Messina, Merritt Wever, Juno Temple, Brie Larson, Dave Franco, Jake Paltrow, Susan Traylor, Max Hoffman, Zach Chassler, Mina Badie

Q: Is this movie worth the price of admission?

A: Proceed with Caution. When the veteran indie filmmakers start imitating the newest indie filmmaking trend, Mumblecore, but they do it with a combination of A-list celebrities and Mumblecore true-hearts, you should always beware of pretension.

Q: Will this movie make me laugh?

A: There's a moment when Greta Gerwig, who is considered the queen of Mumblecore, looks at an old picture of Ben Stiller, from when he was in a band and laughs, "Look at you. You're trying so hard to look casual!" What's funny about that is it's exactly what this film is trying to do.

Q: Will this movie make me cry?

A: It's sad and upsetting that any woman would allow herself to be treated the way Greenberg treats the lead actress, but many do.

Q: Will this movie be up for any awards?

A: I can't imagine the Spirit Awards overlooking an opportunity to get both Ben Stiller and Noah Baumbach in a room by nominating them.

Q: How is the Acting?

A: Personally, I enjoy the hard core realistic look and feel of Mumblecore acting, but the sad reality that comes with it is that without makeup and with natural lighting, these actors aren't much to look at.

Q: How is the Directing?

A: If you weren't already getting nauseous at the idea of someone kissing Ben Stiller (in a non-joking manner and with bad lighting), Noah Baumbach invites you to throw up again, in the way he shoots Stiller having oral and later regular sex with the girl, who despite the fact that she claims to like him, also looks like she might lose her lunch at any moment.

Q: How is the story/script?

A: Dark. Possibly comedic, although I'm not sold on that. The most laughs were gotten by the aforementioned sex scenes. But I think people were only laughing so as to hold back vomit. The dialogue is interestingly narcissistic. If you're an aspiring writer trying to get noticed, I recommend you imitate it. Not hard to do. Simply, every time one character says something, the next one replies with something completely unrelated that is about himself, and they go back and forth, until both people are talking out loud about their own issues without listening to, or responding to the conversation occurring next to them. People tend to think that stuff is brilliant, so go crazy.

Q: Where can I see the trailer?

A: http://www.moviefone.com/movie/greenberg/37679/trailers

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Adam

Q: What’s the movie about?

A: A romance develops between a man with Asperger's Syndrome (Hugh Dancy) and his beautiful neighbor (Rose Byrne).

Q: Who’s in the movie?

A: Hugh Dancy, Rose Byrne, Peter Gallagher, Amy Irving, Frankie Faison

Q: Is this movie worth the price of admission?

A: Proceed with Caution. While the movie clearly tries to shed light on what it is to live with Asperger's Syndrome, it's unclear if the filmmaker is trying to create sympathy for the bearers of this mental condition, or if this is a cautionary tale warning the rest of us to stay away from them.

Q: Will this movie make me laugh?

A: If you see any blurbs describing this film as a "romantic-comedy" (as I did), I would advise you never to read the trash-rags on which that was printed again, as a film is required to have jokes, in order to qualify for that label.

Q: Will this movie make me cry?

A: It makes me sad to think that if this film's depiction of Asperger's is correct, no one should ever date a person who has it... On the bright side, since one of the key elements of Asperger's is that you can't tell how other people are feeling, at least you would never have to know that you are not loved.

Q: Will this movie be up for any awards?

A: Not to go back to the whole "Half-retard" thing (see Tropic Thunder), but clearly Hugh Dancy took this role in the hopes that he would get recognized by award-givers everywhere. Unfortunately, his forced performance is one of the things that worked against the movie's success.

Q: How is the Acting?

A: Not only is Hugh Dancy's performance uneven, and way too autistic to represent the true functionality of a person with Asperger's, but he's also not nearly as attractive when he doesn't use his English accent. Rose Byrne proves to be a TV actress, at best... Although, I've never seen her on TV, and guest reviewer Russ says she's no good at that either.

Q: How is the Directing?

A: Since the director is also the writer, I have to blame him for the bad performances, as he had to have known the right way to deliver the lines, and wasn't able to get the actors to do it. If Hugh Dancy, for example, had simply trusted the words in the script, and said them like a normal person, instead of adding so many actorish mannerisms to them, the words alone could've gotten his social awkwardness across in a much more believable way. It's called trusting the script.

Q: How is the story/script?

A: For once, the script was better than the movie. Not by much, mind you, but with stronger actors, it could have been ever so slightly more compelling. And perhaps I would've understood what the author was trying to tell his audience about people who have Asperger's. Because I find it hard to believe that he went to the trouble of writing a film, raising money for it, going through an arduous production and post-production process, doing the festival circuit, and finding a distributor, just so that I could take away the message, "Don't bother with these people, they're not worth the effort."

Q: Where can I see the trailer?

A: http://www.moviefone.com/search/adam/trailers

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