Grandma (2015)

Road trip movies are both a rich seam of comedy history and a horrifying one.  For every classic, there are ten frat boy comedies with as much originality as a joke about airplane food.  In other hands, Grandma may well have ended up with a title like Bad Grandma and ended up heading down that route.  In the hands of writer-director Paul Weitz, this story of a woman trying to help her granddaughter raise money for an abortion is a touching and real piece of cinema.

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Bridge of Spies (2015)

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While in a perfect world you want to enter every cinema free of expectations and ready to be wowed, there are times when you know what to expect.  No one goes into the latest churned out Paranormal Activity film expecting greatness.  While walking into a Steven Spielberg directed, Coen brothers‘ scripted and Tom Hanks‘ starring film is more like slipping into a hot bath.  You kind of know you are in safe hands.

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Carol (2015)

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Oscar season tends to see us being served up a lot of crap.  Overly emotional films stuffed with showy performances designed to catch the eye of the Academy.  For every work of art, there is ten that just outright stink.  However, every now and then one comes along that blows everything else out the water.  A film that nails real emotion on the big screen.  Carol is one of those rare breeds.

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Covering the Best

Covers.  They are as much a part of music as anything else.  A great cover can put a band on the map while murdering a classic is never a good career move.  So what makes a cover stand up?  Why are people like Marilyn Manson and Johnny Cash as well known for their interpretations of someone else’s music as they are their own?  While others efforts are scorned.

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