Paper Heart - 5/10: An odd pseudo-documentary about love from comedian Charlyne Yi; she spends the first part of the film talking about she's not sure she can love anyone, then starts to fall for Michael Cera (playing himself). The final two-thirds of the film focuses on their relationship, showing the budding relationship and the inevitable issues they run into. It was kind of interesting, but also kind of annoying in many parts and I'm not sure it really succeeds in what it is trying to do.
Cyrus - 7.5/10: An indie comedy-drama from the Duplass brothers about a lonely guy (played by John C. Reilly) who ends up falling for Marisa Tomei, the mother of a 21 year-old son (Jonah Hill) who still lives at home. I really liked all of the relationships here and the back-and-forth between Reilly and Hill is great. It slows down in a couple of parts, but overall it was a pretty enjoyable, though sometimes uncomfortable ride.
Devil - 6.5/10: Relatively decent little horror/thriller. I thought they did a pretty decent job of ratcheting up tension and I was pretty wrapped up with what was going on inside the elevator. Outisde the elevator was a different matter; I did not care for much of anything outside there, aside from some of the feeble attempts to rescue the passengers and the narration was absolutely painful, I really wish they had done away with that all together. There were definitely a few cheesy parts as well, including the ending, but it was ok for what it was.
The Incredibles - 5.5/10: This was ok I guess, but I was hoping it would have been more fun. I think I maybe chuckled once, when Samuel L. Jackson's character was on screen, but aside from that it just kind of moved along predictably, not doing anything very interesting. I was not really bored with the film, but I was never really all that engrossed with it either. I don't know, not much else to say about this one.
Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai - 8/10: Forest Whitaker is an assassin for hire, following the general ways of the Samurai, living a very solitary life on top of a building. This is actually a pretty slow film overall, but I quite liked it; there are some great action/assassin scenes, but also many quiet, reflective scenes with Whitaker (who is great in this) that really make the film for me. I think this is the first Jim Jarmusch film that I have seen, but now I'll have to check out some more of his work. Good stuff.
KT