If you want to understand the philosophical themes the Nolans were going for with this series, you’ll get the best representation in The Dark Knight. So this film doesn’t break new ground philosophically but you’ll have plenty of fun watching a lot of ground get broken. [More]

The narrative that humanity needs to be redeemed seems circular: humanity needs to be redeemed because it’s dysfunctional, but it’s dysfunctional just because it needs redemption. We can accept that it needs to be redeemed but we also seem just to accept that it never will be—a conclusion we don’t, and probably can’t, accept. [More]

Okay, it's campy, scientifically ridiculous, predictable, and somewhat poorly acted. But it's a hell of a lot of fun. [More]

This film evoked in me what Sam Keen calls a “fire in the belly”—that emotion that is characterized by a longing to be more than we are—or perhaps its more accurate to say to be the best of who we are. [More]

The hero, because his mind has been opened, is the only one willing not to accept what he’s being given. We’re meant to believe that his addiction makes him the least free. The film plays with this idea and turns it on its head. [More]

Sure, there’s a lot of CGI-fueled action, hot women in tight pants, popular actors having a lot of fun, and even a Stan Lee cameo for the true believers. But the film is manipulative in all the wrong ways. [More]

Wes Anderson's films look at the world sideways and through the bizarre, show us what we’re missing in the routine. Moonrise Kingdom uses this formula to unearth some wonderful insights into something as routine as human love. [More]

In an age when moral ambiguity in film is the norm (even our heroes are not really all that heroic), the movie does attempt to draw sharp lines between heroes and villains. It also attempts to show how the law (or the practice thereof) isn’t always the best device to make that distinction. [More]