At the movies: TAR.

 Deeply satisfying and musically exquisite. Also, Nina Hoss rules.

At the movies: Hanna.

So I'm totally digging on the new Joe Wright film. You could take this exact script and make it as a big dumb exploding action blockbuster, and instead, he takes it and makes it work the arthouse runway like a classic art thriller. Love it.

At the movies: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

Based on an F. Scott Fitzgerald short story, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is the tale of a man who is born as an old man and whose body, as it grows older, becomes physically younger. With this unique perspective, Button is able to view the triumphs and tragedies of life in a way that no one else can.

After years of making adventurous films that pushed narrative and technical envelopes, it appears that David Fincher has decided to swing mainstream, and in the process, he's racking up countless critics' awards and praise with effusive comparisons to Forrest Gump and Big Fish.

Sadly, those comparisons are apt, as this Curious Case is stuffed to the gills with vague platitudes and what sounds like wisdom if you don't listen too hard. Brad Pitt gives 110% in the titular role, but so much digital work is involved in his performance it creates a vast disconnect with the audience. I'm happy that David Fincher is getting commercial respect, but let's hope his next film aims for a bit more than, ultimately, twang-y blather.

Curses! Foiled again.

Well, it seems as if that plan I had for absorbing the knowledge of an alien civilization in order to take over the world but instead either transcending this plane of existence or dying horribly as my body incinerates from the inside out is over and done.

Oh well.