Emily Taylor (Rooney Mara) is the wife of Martin (Channing Tatum), an inside trader who has just finished his four-year prison sentence. Despite the return of her beloved, Emily is feeling symptoms of depression, which eventually results in her attempting suicide by driving her car directly into the concrete wall of a parking garage. Emily survives and is taken to the hospital where psychiatrist Jonathan... 

I love Oscar nomination day. Usually I’ll take off time from work and watch as the announcements are made live – the feeling of wonder, amazement, and sycophantic glee is almost tangible as the names are listed off. Then, it’s quick to the website to post the nominations along with (not-so)witty commentary as to where the nominations are good and bad. Unfortunately, this year, I am way too far... 

For the first time in all of my years of doing this, I’m not incredibly thrilled with my end of the year list. As usual, there are movies appearing on other people’s lists that I haven’t gotten to see, and unfortunate timing means I won’t be seeing them for another couple of weeks at the best. Rather than hold out on my “Best of” list for 2011 until the point that... 

For the completely oblivious, the title of The Ides of March is an allusion to Julius Caesar, who was warned to “beware the Ides of March,” which wound up being the date that he was betrayed by his statesman and stabbed to death. While George Clooney’s The Ides of March doesn’t have anyone stabbed to death, it does play heavily with the theme of betrayal, although who is betraying who (or what)... 

The Retrospectives are an idea I’ve been rolling around for a number of years now, even going back to my time with Cinema Blend. You see, it’s bothered me that we decide in the heat of the moment which film was better that year. We can’t decide what movie was the best movie in a given year just as we can’t determine if a year is going to produce a good crop of wine. It takes... 

Ever since Clint Eastwood brought a soul of regret to the old retired gunslinger in Unforgiven, it’s become the “in-thing” to portray characters later on in questionable careers feeling regret and the impossibility of redemption as they look back at their own lives. Several movies have already tackled the theme this year alone, as recently as The Expendables turning it into a weak B-story. The... 

There’s an irony in Rafe ranting about the need for an intelligence-based rating system in an episode that gets its title from his confusion over episode numbers last week. Still, it’s a way of rating movies that’s worth a consideration. We also follow up last week’s behind-the-scenes venting, review The American, and the crew talk about the Emmy awards, the Hugo awards, and... 

Initially, Up in the Air carried no appeal for me. Despite high praise from just about everyone I know in the movie community, the movie looked like standard Oscar fodder, with an unimpressive ad campaign. Even with Jason Reitman at the helm, a filmmaker I usually enjoy immensely, I didn’t expect much from the George Clooney picture, and expected this to be the first Reitman project that left me... 

It’s an episode so long we couldn’t possibly cram it into our traditional hourlong format (a technical malfunction with the timer notwithstanding). Inside you’ll hear reviews of Sherlock Holmes, Up in the Air, and Family Guy: Something, Something, Something Darkside, as well as the finish of James Cameron month with Strange Days and True Lies. We also offer some long-overdue opinions... 

How much of The Men Who Stare at Goats is real is up for debate. The movie wisely opens with the statement that more of it is based in truth than many of us would believe. Frankly, the entire concept of the film is so ludicrous and absurd that it’s hard to believe any of it is truth, yet looking at the lengths the military has gone into in order to get an edge over the enemy, it’s hard not to believe...