North by Northwest (1959)

Thriller Rated NR

The VistaVision widescreen process results in perhaps the definitive cinematic sequence of the Alfred Hitchcock oeuvre: Cary Grant versus a crop-duster. Hitchcock uses every inch of the yawning screen to tease and terrify us, letting us think we know what is about to happen – and how – before yanking us in an unexpected direction.

Paranormal Activity 2 (2010)

Horror Rated R

“As a portrait of an American family under paranormal siege, this can proudly stand next to Poltergeist.

Nowhere Boy (2010)

Drama Rated R

“…depicts the bittersweet birth of musical genius.

Fahrenheit 451 (1966)

Drama Rated NR

Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 is a book made for the movies, yet Francois Truffaut failed it. Intellectual science fiction isn’t the French New Wave director’s milieu, of course, so maybe the project was doomed from the start. Even so, the movie is awkward, stilted and sabotaged by Oskar Werner’s bizarre lead performance (Julie Christie, in

To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)

Drama Rated NR

One of those books at whose feet the movies should cower, Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” is too astute, too well-observed and to sure of its own voice to ever be sufficiently translated to the screen. Even so, this stuffy effort by director Robert Mulligan is a disappointment. So much of the novel’s reckless

Joneses, The (2010)

Drama Rated R

A missed opportunity from 2010 that could have been so timely and brilliant that it’s almost painful to watch. Cowriter and director Derrick Borte takes a zinger of a conceit – the perfect family moves into an upscale subdivision, only they’re actually hired product pushers engaged in stealth, real-world marketing – and what does he

Dogtooth (2010)

Drama Rated NR

Want to feel good about your family? Watch Dogtooth. This Greek import centers on a mother and father who have raised their three children in perverse seclusion. Now approaching adulthood, the two sisters and brother have their own arbitrary vocabulary (“telephone” stands for “salt”), engage in daily contests in order to earn stickers and are

Megamind (2010)

Family Rated PG

"In terms of plot, Megamind is only slightly less complicated than Inception."

Fair Game (2010)

Drama Rated PG-13

“It takes awhile, but Sean Penn eventually manages to turn Fair Game into a political tract.

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010)

Drama Rated PG-13

“…bloated, obvious and – most damningly – immediately irrelevant.