“Sorry, sir. Take that out of my tip.” In 2009, comedian and television personality Steve Harvey gave women the keys to the castle. His best-selling book, Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man, flew off the shelves after day-time talk show appearances allowed him the forum to explain how men simply don’t ‘love’ the [...]

“She’s not mine” Sadly—or perhaps not—The Lucky One did not instill a need to rectify my neglect of watching or reading author Nicholas Sparks‘ previous works. A romantic drama that falls prey to all the tropes you know and love/hate, the roller coaster ride of emotions it wants to be ends up little more than [...]

“My grandmother doesn’t let me out of the house without coupons” If quirky indie had a handbook, Moon Point would be a film ripped from its pages. Beginning with a handmade credit sequence of cardboard Valentine’s cards with names of the cast and crew a la Napoleon Dynamite‘s geek chic, you know what to expect [...]

“Does this hat make me look fat?” The memory of All-4-One lives on in a laugh-out-loud lip-synched rendition from Ryan Reynolds in the romantic comedy Just Friends. A film suggested to me by many, their descriptions always began with an, “it’s stupid, but really, really funny.” They were not wrong as any substantial plot involving [...]

“How did you get it?” We all strive to be pure, to be worthy of those we love. Oftentimes, however, such illusions of grandeur are nothing more than a façade to hide who we really are. Even in dream the titular petty thief (David Amito) of Beware Pickpocket sees himself as the bloodied punching bag [...]

“You officially have a stalker—ME!” It’s the kind of gentlemen’s agreement you can see yourself making in the heat of a drunken bout with self-pity: swear off the opposite sex for a year in order to cleanse your soul of the one who left. For brothers Grant (Neil Brookshire) and Ancel Fox (Aaron Toronto) it’s [...]

“Let’s say I sleep in nothing but Yardley’s Lavender” After the all awards season hoopla, I guess I expected more from My Week with Marilyn. My favorite kind of bio pic—depicting a finite amount of time in a famous person’s life rather then the full duration—it’s interesting that I find it closest in alignment to [...]

“Why is she listening to that old man?” It’s really too bad that Timothy Dowling, Marcus Gautesen, and Simon Kinberg decided their script for This Means War needed to include romance. I don’t know if they were trying to create the ever-elusive film men and women can enjoy equally, but throw Chris Pine and Tom [...]

“I actually really like the paint in the bedroom” A road movie that surprisingly doesn’t fall prey to the easy tropes of its brethren, Take Me Home uses the American landscape as a backdrop to its journey through the tumultuous expanse of two lost souls. States fly by in seconds without a mention, just glimpses [...]