The DUFF Mae Whitman gives a fantastic performance in this sweet, funny film. Many reviewers have called this the next Mean Girls or Easy A — but it's nowhere near as clever or original as those two entries in the teen comedy canon; every beat happens exactly as you'd expect ...

Amira & Sam Martin Starr (HBO's Silicon Valley) as a former soldier living in New York City who falls in love with an undocumented Iraqi immigrant (Dina Shihabi). Lovely cinematography by Daniel Vecchione, who captures New York twilight at its most magical. First-time writer/director Sean Mullin particularly adept at character ...

Black or White* Kevin Costner and Octavia Spencer star in this family melodrama as opposing grandparents of a young biracial girl fighting for custody of her. Everything about this sentimental, heart-tugging flick — from the twinkly score to the moral lessons learned to the ghostly visitations from dead spouses to ...

January is the time of ice and snow, a time of frigid winds and frozen soil. January is also the chilly, unforgiving landscape where movie studios dump their least-desired product, the little-marketed titles they expect nothing from. In recent years, appropriate for a month of short days and cold nights, ...

American Sniper I'm torn on this one. My first instinct was to grade this slightly higher for what is a gripping, well-acted war movie that explores the toll relentless killing takes on a soldier. However, the politics of this thing make me uneasy. That the film offers an overly simplified, ...

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes Despite the clichés/flaws in the screenplay, this is a MAJOR achievement. Grade: B+ Edge of Tomorrow So many things to praise in this Groundhog Day-meets-Starship Troopers of a movie. A perfectly cast Tom Cruise at both his smarmiest and most vulnerable. Emily Blunt ...

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 No. Grade: D+ Belle Showcasing a jaw-dropping star-is-born performance by Gugu Mbatha-Raw, this film is beautiful to look at and emotionally engaging, while offering perhaps the most fascinating historical story ever told in a British costume drama. Grade: B+ Chef So charming and sweet. Mouth-watering food. ...

Bad Words Not funny enough to redeem its detestable lead character nor to justify its preposterous premise, coming across instead as just plain offensive. But I did love the adorable little boy. Grade: D+ Divergent Does a fairly interesting job of world-building... but script is so predictable and supporting characters ...

If ever there was a film that existed only as a Hollywood vanity project, it would be After Earth. Indeed, this new science fiction adventure thriller stars the real-life father and son team of Will Smith and Jaden Smith, who — beyond a brief prologue and the occasional flashback — ...

After the first sequel to The Hangover proved to be identical to the original, only transferred to a new setting and less funny, I confess that I wasn’t exactly champing at the bit to sit through a third go-round of director Todd Phillips’s Tales of the Wolf Pack. To my ...