“The rumors of my promiscuity have been greatly exaggerated.” The Scoop: 2010 PG-13, directed by Will Gluck and starring Emma Stone, Amanda Bynes and Penn Badgley Tagline: Let’s not and say we did Summary Capsule: A high school eschews the usual student response to ‘The Scarlet Letter’ to instead embrace it for fun, popularity & [...]

“It’s only when we wake up that we realize something was actually strange.” The Scoop: 2010 PG-13, directed by Christopher Nolan and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page Tagline: Your mind is the scene of the crime. Summary Capsule: a man skilled at infiltrating dreams to extract information dreams of returning to his children, [...]

“Scott, if your life had a face, I would punch it.” The Scoop: 2010, PG-13, directed by Edgar Wright and starring Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Jason Schwartzman Tagline: An epic of epic epicness Summary Capsule: A slacker bass player has to defeat not only his dream girl’s seven evil exes but also his own [...]

“Greetings, programs!” The Scoop: 1982 PG, Directed by Steven Lisberger and starring Jeff Bridges, Bruce Boxleitner, and Cindy Morgan Tagline: A world inside the computer where man has never been. Never before now. Summary Capsule: A brilliant young programmer finds out the world of computers is more complicated than he imagined when he gets reconstituted [...]

Running Scared is a film that covers a lot of ground and while it never seems rushed, it does expect to think at least as well as its heroes.

“There is no spoon.” The Scoop: 1999 R, directed by Andy & Larry Wachowski and starring Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, and Carrie-Anne Moss. Tagline: What is The Matrix? Summary Capsule: The world’s not what it appears to be, as a group of cyber-fighters jack with evil computer AI.

“School today was like Guantanamo with a lunch period.” The Scoop: 2009 PG, directed by Todd Graff and starring Gaelan Connell, Vanessa Hudgens, and Alyson Michalka Tagline: Band Together Summary Capsule: An outsider finds the massive battle of the bands at his new high school to be laughable – until the hottest girl who’s ever [...]

“It was like the redder the moon got up there, the closer people were gettin’ jerked to hell!” The Scoop: 1973 R, directed by Willard Huyck & (an uncredited) Gloria Katz and starring Michael Greer, Marianna Hill and Joy Bang Tagline: In order to live, they will take you one by one . . . [...]

“So, gentlemen, let’s discuss the prospect of ending the war tonight.” The Scoop: 2009, directed by Quentin Tarantino, starring Brad Pitt, Christoph Waltz, and Mélanie Laurent. Tagline: Once upon a time in Nazi-occupied France. Summary Capsule: A wronged young woman and a guerilla squad of Jewish Americans follow converging paths of vengeance against the Nazis [...]

As much as I enjoy reading the infinite ‘Best of’ lists that percolate across pop culture touchstones throughout Decembers, manifesting my own lists is as easy as that whole ‘blood from a stone’ endeavor. I don’t consider my aesthetic tastes up to the task of saying Fighting is a demonstrably better film than the Friday the 13th [...]