1. TiMER
What if you could go to a boutique the size of a cell phone shop and purchase a wrist implant that counts down to the exact second when you’ll meet the one? I present to you TiMER, a rom-com about taking life’s detours. Oona (Emma Caulfield, Buffy the Vampire Slayer) is a high-strung orthodontist whose timer is blank, which means, unlike everyone else with a timer, she doesn’t know when she’ll meet her soul mate. And it’s driving her nuts. No longer willing to wait, she begins seeing a younger guy (John Patrick Amedori) despite the fact he’s only four months away from meeting his “one.”
After seeing this film, you may take issue with the flaws in the premise — for example, the assumption there’s only one soul mate per person, or that life is predestined. But existential dilemmas aside, TiMER is stocked with fresh faces and witty lines (who knew girls could be funny?). This movie proves how universally appealing rom-coms can be when Jennifer Aniston and Julia Roberts aren’t involved.
Director: Jac Schaeffer | Screenplay: Jac Schaeffer | Cast: Emma Caulfield, Michelle Borth, John Patrick Amedori, Desmond Harrington. Runtime: 99 minutes. Year: 2010.
2. The Wackness
In this Sony Pictures Classics production, Josh Peck (Drake and Josh) plays Luke Shapiro: a ghetto-speaking, pot-dealing, v-card carrying, white kid who seeks money, love, and psychiatric help during a hot New York City summer. Set in 1994, classic hip hop makes up the majority of the soundtrack, with songs like Will Smith’s hit “Summertime” and Notorious B.I.G.’s album Ready to Die getting airtime. While Luke has always been an outsider, his life begins to change for the better when he falls for the stepdaughter (Olivia Thirlby, Juno) of his psychiatrist (Ben Kingsley, Gandhi). But when his parents can no longer afford the rent, Luke is forced to sell even more weed in hopes of saving his family’s apartment.
Director: Jonathan Levine | Screenplay: Jonathan Levine | Cast: Josh Peck, Ben Kingsley, Olivia Thirlby, Famke Janssen, Mary-Kate Olsen. Runtime: 104 minutes. Year: 2008.
3. Bronson
If you’ve seen Inception, you’re already familiar with Tom Hardy, but you probably won’t recognize him in this film as he spends most of it naked, bloodied, or covered in body paint and crude oil. Bronson is the real-life, albeit highly stylized, story of Britain’s most violent and famous prisoner. Although Charles Bronson was originally sentenced to a mere seven years for armed robbery, his jail term was extended to life with the possibility of parole for violence against the prison guards and fellow inmates, taking hostages, and damaging prison property. Hardy’s portrait of Bronson takes the shape of an (unintentionally) hilarious, psychotic, violent artist. The role gave Hardy the freedom to showcase his depth as an actor, and he dominates the screen with the festering rage of a madman wringing out his own bloodstained t-shirt.
Director: Nicolas Winding Refn | Screenplay: Brock Norman Brock, Nicolas Winding Refn | Cast: Tom Hardy, Matt King. Runtime: 92 minutes. Year: 2009.
Funny man Michael Keaton’s directorial debut is short on laughs, in a good way. This drama begins with a young woman named Kate (Scottish actress Kelly Macdonald, No Country for Old Men) who flees an abusive relationship to start over in Chicago. After a sniper mysteriously murders an executive in her office building, Kate kindles an unlikely friendship with a stranger who falls ill on the stairs outside her apartment. The man, Frank Logan (Keaton, Multiplicity), turns out to be the killer the police are hunting. The Merry Gentleman is simultaneously dark and violent, muted and calm. A slow moving picture best viewed on a cold winter night.
Director: Michael Keaton | Screenplay: Ron Lazzeretti | Cast: Kelly Macdonald, Michael Keaton, Mike Bradecich. Runtime: 99 minutes. Year: 2009.
The cast of The Vicious Kind smiling for a change.
Bring forth the emotional pain! The Vicious Kind is a tale of jaded lovers, filthy, cheating girlfriends, and coping with parental scorn. Adam Scott (Step Brothers, ESPN Sunday Night Baseball ads) plays Caleb, an insomniac construction worker who chain smokes and has anal sex with a prostitute for fifty bucks (I didn’t realize that was the going rate!). After driving his college-aged brother and his brother’s girlfriend Emma (Brittany Snow, John Tucker Must Die) home for Thanksgiving, Caleb must reconcile his hatred for women (he thinks they’re all whores, including his deceased mother) with his overwhelming attraction to his brother’s girl. Scott shows impressive range in The Vicious Kind, swinging wildly between sarcasm, heartbreak, vulnerability, and fury. He carries the load from wire-to-wire in this dark comedy.
Director: Lee Toland Krieger | Screenplay: Lee Toland Krieger | Cast: Adam Scott, Brittany Snow, J.K. Simmons. Runtime: 92 minutes. Year: 2009.
