50/50 is an engaging cancer comedy with Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Seth Rogen. Margin Call is a taut financial meltdown drama with superb performances by Jeremy Irons, Paul Bettany and Stanley Tucci. Pedro Almodovar’s The Skin I Live In is a beautiful and disturbing thriller – Out There as only Almodovar can do. The Ides of March is a fine political drama with Ryan Gosling, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Paul Giamatti and George Clooney. Drive is a stylishly arty and ultraviolent action film with Ryan Gosling.
If you can still find it, don’t miss Take Shelter, Jeff Nichols’ brilliant tale of a psychotic breakdown with Oscar-worthy performances by Michael Shannon and Jessica Chastain. One of the Best Movies of 2011 – So Far.
I haven’t yet seen J. Edgar, Clint Eastwood’s biopic of J. Edgar Hoover, or the raunchy comedy A Very Harold and Kumar 3D Christmas or the psychological thriller Martha Marcy May Marlene. You can see trailers of upcoming films at Movies I’m Looking Forward To.
My DVD of the Week is Errol Morris’ gutbustingly funny documentary Tabloid. Other recent DVD picks have been Incendies (the year’s best movie so far), the romcom Crazy Stupid Love, the Jenna Fischer dramedy A Little Help , the heartwarming documentary Buck, the very original teen misfit movie Terri, and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Spy (1979).