Get Low (2009)

If you enjoy Depression era backwoods humor, you will most likely love this movie. If you appreciate good storytelling, I'm sure you will include this among your recent favorites. It is actually a movie about storytelling, sort of.

Robert Duvall and Bill Murray are prefect in their roles; a Tennesee hermit with 40-year-old secrets and a recently relocated Chicago hustler. They each have what the other wants and must bend a little to meet in the middle.

Sissy Spacek is dear as a quiet widow who returns to the old home town. Bill Cobbs knows more about Duvall's flawed character than most but is not about selling redemption. Lucas Black is the one who works to bring them all together.

Somewhere along the lines of Oh Brother Where Art Thou, this is a story of forgiveness. Everyone wants it, and everyone has some to give. No spoilers here, but we have to forgive ourselves somewhere down the line.

Watch this with someone who thinks the know all about that crazy old neighbor down the road.

Dirty Harry (1971)

Forty years ago a genre of cop stories was perfected and an iconic American folk hero character was "born". Before there was "I'll be back" and "Yippee-ki-yay, mother...", there was ""Do ya feel lucky punk?" and "Go ahead, make my day."

Clint Eastwood's Harry Callahan expressed what many were thinking at a time in our country when the concept of political correctness just getting it's legs. Some say the phrase "anti-hero" was coined to describe Dirty Harry. Was it a pro-fascism movie? Was it anti-liberal? You decide.

If you have not seen this movie or it's sequels, you owe it to yourself as movie fan to see what some consider the Father of Rogue Cop movies. Truth be told this genre was not new, but it was never done better. Dirty Harry was released the same year as The French Connection, another great in the same theme. They may have just been a reflection of what a large segment of the population was thinking then. Have times come full circle? Notice any familiar notions?

Watch this movie with someone who remembers the Silent Majority.

Tamara Drewe (2010)

Fans of the British comic of the same name should enjoy this. Writer wanna-bes should too. And, if you want to see a vague modernized version of "Far From the Madding Crowd", this may be something you'd like.

It is a basic predictable but funny, British romantic comedy.

Gemma Arterton plays the title role with apparent relish and zeal. Dominic Cooper and Luke Evans vie for her attention, as do many other members of the cast.

This a fun lite-fare movie to watch when all you want is to giggle at the comings and goings of a small English town.

Watch this movie with someone who dreams of being with a proper rock and roller.

Sex and the City 2 (2010)

True fans of the series should enjoy this installment. Movie snobs may not. Expect to be torn if you are both. All the regulars are back with a couple of great cameos and additions.

For me, the Liza Minelli cameo was the best. What a great surprise. Penelope Cruz and Miley Cyrus were also fun to see. Ron White was a surprise, but brief.

This movie is full of great one-liners and puns. But it is also full of examples of what it means to be an ugly american. That dulled some of the fun for me.

Watch this movie with someone who won't need to use a cheatsheet to remember who all the players are.

The Social Network (2010)

A good story? Check. Who among us does not have a Facebook account or know somebody who does? Well told? Double-check. Wise use of flash-backs and excellent cinematography makes an otherwise "normal" story more interesting.

Jesse Eisenberg is brilliant as Zuckerberg, the world's youngest billionaire and co-founder of Facebook. This is his story. As one telling line toward the end of the movie points out, the guy was not an asshole but he was trying very hard.

Social retards rarely realize the impact they have on others.

Another very interesting performance in this movie is by Justin Timberlake. He plays the guy who founded and lost Napster. Timberlake does a super job of showing how much impact this guy had on Facebook. Very interesting.

You don't need to have a Facebook account to understand this movie, nor do you need to understand computers or venture capitalism. But all those things will help. The dialogue is very fast and often technical or slang.

Watch this movie with someone who can explain at least 2 of the 3 things above.

Luftslottet som sprängdes "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest" (2009)

This is a very fitting end to the wild ride that this series truly was. Released in the US dubbed in English, I highly recommend watching in the original Swedish and letting the subtitles do their thing. There is not really that much dialogue anyway.

This addition has far less action and violence than the first two - well, except for the last 10 minutes. Don't miss them. Seriously, they tie the entire work together in one of the tidiest endings I've ever seen.

This movie is more of a psychological-courtroom drama than the psycho-thrillers that preceded it. There are plenty of answers to questions raised previously and a few new questions asked that are left for the audience to ponder. Brilliant storytelling.

Don't get me wrong there is plenty in this movie to be uncomfortable about, but less of it.

Do you need to see the first two to get this one? No, but you should see them to truly appreciate the final episode.

Watch this movie with someone who may or may not feel paranoid sometimes.

Inception (2010)

Twenty years ago Jane Wagner asked, through a character played by Lilly Tomlin, "What is reality anyway? Just a collective hunch." In this movie we return to that question. Is reality just an illusion?

Writer and Director Christopher Nolan may well be a cinematic genius. He is certainly one fine story teller. As many others have pointed out, this movie is a beautiful synthesis of new and old movie making. They are done so well together you almost forget the line exists between whats real and what CG. But that is, after all, the point of the movie.

Leonardo DeCaprio continues to impress me. I try very hard to not like him but every movie he does beats that impulse down with great gusto. The rest of the cast are very much in a supporting role here, but the names and their work are equally stunning.

Joseph Gorden-Levitt, Ellen Page, Tom Hardy, Dileep Rao, and Cillian Murphy, all young guns with good resumes join as senior cast with huge names; Ken Watanabe, Tom Berenger, Marion Cotillard, Pete Postlethwaite, and Michael Caine.

No spoilers here, but from the get-go this movie keeps you guessing about which reality is which. You will have to draw your own conclusions.

Watch this movie with someone who has vivid dreams.

Night Catches Us (2010)

This movie is good for those of us who remember the Panthers, and it is also good for those who have never heard of them. Anthony Mackie does a great job showing us a wide range of conflicting emotions. His character returns home to a 1976 Philadelphia neighborhood torn by racial and religious rifts. Kerry Washington plays the woman he left behind. Their relationship has changed as have most in the old neighborhood.

What's good here are the many directions Mackie's character is torn. Family pulls one way. Old friends and foes another. The secrets of his past pull yet another, as does his desire for the right people to know who did what to whom, when, and why. No spoilers here.

If you can ignore the cell antennas atop a building early in the movie you really do get the feeling of being "back in the day." The music is great and the surely not too much has changed in some parts of town. The cinematography is very good except for a few detail goofs, but they are very small. I loved the shot of the fireflies rising up out of the morning grass near the end of the movie.

No doubt similar scenes played out is all large US cities around this same time.

Watch this movie with someone who knows nothing of the strife and turmoil of the time.