We sent our favorite photographer (and Laurie’s main squeeze) Michael Lavine to The Sundance Film Festival to check out the festival and report back to us on what’s good this year. _____________________________________________ While deeply entrenched in the insanity known as Sundance, I spend most of my time shuttling from theater to theater, waiting in line, watching movies and then talking to strangers about said movies while waiting in another line or standing uncomfortably close on another shuttle. I’m averaging about 4 movies per day, and fresh in...

Calling all Wes Anderson junkies: if you haven't already feasted your eyes upon the new trailer for Moonrise Kingdom, it's about time that you do. Set in 1965, the story follows Suzy and Sam, two New England preteens who fall in love and run away together. After a wave of panic washes over the town, the local sheriff enlists the help of an eclectic yet endearing group of boy scouts in search of the runaways. At some point, the sublime Bill Murray is half-naked with...

Last week we broke the news that there may be a Bridesmaids sequel without Kristen Wiig. We're still trying to make sense of this--it's like some hellish nightmare where somebody's eaten all the marshmallows out of your super-adult breakfast cereal. But do not fret! Friends with Kids, due out this spring, rounds up a lot of faces from the star-studded cast and promises to deliver laughs and/or raised eyebrows. Remember last year when all these movies were coming out with the same plot? You know--the ones...

  So I finally gave in after a few weeks of protest and went to see the Hollywood remake of "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo." Though I tried to keep an open mind while watching, I found it almost impossible not to constantly compare it to the original Swedish version directed by Niels Arden Olev. The fact that Hollywood (specifically director David Fincher) had the gall to remake the film in the first place is infuriating. The Oplev version came out not even three years ago,...

I didn’t become a fan of Japanese animation until I was in college, (my mom forbade me to watch Sailor Moon as a kid because she thought it was sexist) and while I’m not a huge fan of anime/manga, I'm in love with the Studio Ghibli films. Co-founded by genius writer/director/animator Hayao Miyazaki, the studio won an Oscar for Best Animated Film in 2003, with Spirited Away. If you didn't catch that flick, you may have seen the amazing Ponyo, Princess Mononoke, or My Neighbor...

Hands up if you’ve seen Bridesmaids! OK, keep your hands up if you’ve seen it more than once. Trust me, you’re not alone. People all around the world—girls and guys alike—fell in love with the comedy film Bridesmaids last year. I’m sure many of them would love to see a sequel, too—that is, if you’re not too disillusioned by the fact that 90% of sequels are only half as good, at most, as the original. (Believe me, I’ve seen some duds.)   But if a sequel does...

Oh, Meryl. Is there anything you can’t do? You’ve been nominated for 16 Academy Awards, won two, and recently became the oldest cover star in the history of Vogue magazine. Now you’re racking up rave reviews for your stunning performance as Margaret Thatcher, a woman slightly less whimsical than say, Julia Child, but a woman who you nonetheless convince us to root for. This is what’s confusing about The Iron Lady (directed by Phyllida Lloyd)—Streep is so good as Thatcher that you sort of forget...

There's just something about Lisbeth Salander, the brilliant hacker who's the central character in Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy. Although the author never lived to see his books in print, he might have been amazed at how the world has become obsessed with his rather unique protagonist. Lisbeth is a genius, quite possibly on the autism spectrum, bisexual, heavily body modded, and defiantly self-reliant. She takes swift and brutal vengeance on those who have wronged her or her loved ones, although the understandably cagey woman has...

Pariah is the coming-of-age and coming-out story of seventeen-year-old Alike, played by Adepero Oduye, a former pred-med student turned actress. Alike is caught between worlds; she lives in a nice brownstone in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, where her parents are in deep denial about their daughter's lesbian identity. Mom Audrey (Kim Wayans) wants her to dress more like a nice girl who goes to church on Sunday, while her dad Arthur (Charles Parnell) is a cop who knows deep down his daughter is gay but...

Review by Anna Bean The Diablo Cody-Jason Reitman dream team is back with another take on adolescence, but where Juno had its leading lady in a position to grow up too fast, the 37-year-old principal of Young Adult hasn’t yet embraced her adulthood. Mavis, played pitch-perfectly by Charlize Theron, is a Kardashians-watching, Diet-Coke-guzzling ghostwriter who pens Waverly Prep, a fictional young adult book series. Recently divorced and living in a high-rise in Minneapolis with her yippy little dog, Dolce, Mavis medicates her anxiety and depression with...