Brie Larson

Short Term 12

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  • Title: Short Term 12
  • IMDB: link

Short Term 12Written and directed by Destin Cretton, Short Term 12 is a little rough around the edges but delivers a compelling tale of supervising staff members and kids at a foster care facility for troubled children and teens. Brie Larson stars as Grace, a supervisor with a troubled past which is reawakened by Jayden (Kaitlyn Dever), the newest addition to the facility who reminds Grace of issues she’s done her best to suppress over the years.

Limited to mostly the locations of the foster care facility and Grace’s home with her boyfriend and co-worker Mason (John Gallagher Jr.), Cretton’s film focuses on the challenges Grace and Mason face every day as well as Grace slowly going off the rails due to an unexpected pregnancy and raw emotions and memories Jayden’s presence cause to resurface.

Cretton isn’t interested in making a mainstream Hollywood film. There are no easy answers. No one is fixed or healed completely as the credits roll. But despite the subject matter the movie is far from bleak.

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Don Jon

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  • Title: Don Jon
  • IMDB: link

Don JonWritten and directed by star Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Don Jon is a romantic comedy presented from the male perspective that’s likely to appeal more to men than women. A film about how a man loves porn more than the woman he’s with is certainly a tricky topic for a date movie (while making certain aspersions to the emotional porn of romcoms and Catholicism along the way), but Gordon-Levitt manages to pull off the intriguing premise even if it looses steam when the film takes its inevitable dramatic turn.

Jon (Gordon-Levitt) really only cares about a handful of things in his life: his friends, his car, his apartment, his religion, and, even more than the bevy of beauties the man takes home every night, his porn. And he really takes his porn seriously. You might even go so far as to call Jon a porn connoisseur. Even when he begins dating the stunning Barbara (Scarlett Johansson), Jon is incapable at letting go of his true love which is always presented in a series of quick-cuts featuring the sound his Mac powering and various porn clips before the inevitable shot of a wad of Kleenex hitting the trash can.

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The Solid (But Far From Spectacular) Now

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  • Title: The Spectacular Now
  • IMDB: link

The Spectacular NowAdapted from Tim Tharp’s novel of the same name by the writing team that gave us (500) Days of Summer and Pink Panther 2, The Spectacular Now is a movie of great moments than never really lives up to the promise of the edgy indie coming of age story it so desperately wants to be. Much like last year’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower (which is a stronger film), the movie rides a group of strong performances to just the right notes at times, but too often it also absent-mindedly gets lost in the melody.

Our story centers around Sutter (Miles Teller), a popular 18 year-old alcholic who begins hanging out with the shy and awkward Aimee (Shailene Woodley, who even without makeup is far too pretty and outgoing for the role) while trying to get over being dumped by his longtime girlfriend Cassidy (Brie Larson). Despite the cliched pairing of the cool dude with the uncool mousey chick who his friends can’t fathom why he would date (even though she’s the cutest girl in the entire movie), the story eventually takes darker direction (although not nearly soon enough for my tastes).

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21 Jump Street

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  • Title: 21 Jump Street
  • IMDB: link

21-jump-street-blu-rayWhen the police revive a cancelled 80’s undercover program because “the guys in charge of this stuff lack creativity and are completely out of ideas” a stereotypical angry black captain (Ice Cube) drafts two of the force’s least decorated officers (Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum) and sends them back to high school to stop the supply of a new synthetic drug.

Based on the 80’s television show starring Johnny Depp and Richard Grieco (both of whom make cameo appearances) 21 Jump Street is a funny, if juvenile and ultimately somewhat forgettable, film along the lines of Step Brothers. We’re given two characters who no one, including the audience, is expected to take seriously in a movie that pokes at least as much fun at its concept as it does celebrate its cliched nature. 21 Jump Street isn’t a movie you’re likely to go back to very often, but it works as a cheap rental with its share of laughs (as well as groans).

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Rampart

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  • Title: Rampart
  • IMDB: link

RampartWoody Harrelson stars as David Douglas Brown, a crooked cop forced to face up to his choices in the midst of the 1999 Rampart Scandal in which more than 70 Los Angeles police officers were implicated in the most widespread case of police misconduct in history.

The story is presented in the form of a character study of “Date Rape” Dave, a womanizing, bigoted bully who has daughters (Brie Larson, Sammy Boyarsky) from a pair of sisters (Cynthia Nixon, Anne Heche) and is facing charges of police brutality and viciously beating a man who crashed into his police car on camera.

In need of help Dave recruits a retired cop (Ned Beatty) and old friend of his father’s who puts him onto a heist that only gets him in further trouble with the LAPD. His involvement also puts an investigator (Ice Cube) from the District Attorney’s office on his case.

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