Short Term 12

A 20-something supervising staff member of a residential treatment facility navigates the troubled waters of that world alongside her co-worker and longtime boyfriend.

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Director: Destin Cretton

Writer[s]: Destin Cretton

Starring: Brie Larson, John Gallagher Jr., Rami Malek

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Short Term 12 is a reincarnation of a short from writer/director Destin Cretton, and it was the film of SXSW 2013 festival, winning both the Grand Jury Narrative Feature Award and the Narrative Audience Award. The film has received loads of award nominations from the indie film industry and is currently sitting at 100% on RottenTomates from the top critics, and now it’s finally available for home viewing.

Afternoon Delight

Rachel is a quick-witted and lovable stay-at-home mom. Frustrated with the realities of preschool auctions, a lackluster sex life and career that’s gone kaput, Rachel visits a strip club to spice up her marriage and meets McKenna, a stripper she adopts as her live-in nanny.

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Director: Jill Soloway

Writer[s]: Jill Soloway

Starring: Kathryn Hahn, Juno Temple, Josh Radnor, Jessica St. Clair, Jane Lynch

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Afternoon Delight was the first film I heard about from Sundance 2013. I follow Josh Radnor on the social medias, and I saw that he was doing this movie, and the trailer caught my eye and attention. It never really got a big release, so it has taken me a year to finally see it, but I’ve never seen Kathryn Hahn in a leading role, and she’s always friggen hilarious, so the wait was worth it.

Inside Llewyn Davis

A week in the life of a young singer as he navigates the Greenwich Village folk scene of 1961.

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Director: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen

Writer[s]: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen

Starring: Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan, John Goodman, Justin Timberlake, Adam Driver, Garrett Hedlund

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Folk music has never really been my thing, but it has been growing on me the past several months, just in time to see this pseudo-musical following a folk singer in 1961 New York. In fact, the first time I really every enjoyed the genre was from some music in the Coen brothers’ past film O Brother, Where Art Thou? when I was just 10 years old. That is an all-time great film, by the way, which is why I have been eagerly awaiting the arrival of Inside Llewyn Davis.

Her

A lonely writer develops an unlikely relationship with his newly purchased operating system that’s designed to meet his every need.

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Director: Spike Jonze

Writer[s]: Spike Jonze

Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Amy Adams, Scarlett Johansson, Chris Pratt, Rooney Mara, Kristen Wiig, Olivia Wilde

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The original synopsis for Her when it was in pre-production was something along the line of: “A man falls in love with his phone operating system”. Okay, so, a guy falls in love with Siri, and the story is being written by the director of Being John Malkovich and Adapation., so it’s gonna be some weird, mind bending experience. I was honestly excited to see it, but when trailers started coming out and full plot summaries were revealed, it turns out that this is a more serious, in-depth, true, loving story than I ever imagined. It’s a love story of our near future; a prediction of what is just around the corner.

12 Years a Slave

In the antebellum United States, Solomon Northup, a free black man from upstate New York, is abducted and sold into slavery.

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Director: Steve McQueen

Writer[s]: John Ridley [screenplay], Solomon Northup [original work]

Starring: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender, Lupita Nyong’o, Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Dano, Brad Pitt, Michael K. Williams, Paul Giamatti

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Steve McQueen is a director of unparalleled ability. 12 Years a Slave and 2011’s Shame are two dramas that literally couldn’t be any better. His ability, vision, and artistry was clearly no fluke in Shame, for he has even surpassed that film with this one that tackles our world’s worst ever crime: slavery.