Anne Pick

It's Kind of a Funny Story is the type of movie I find myself thinking about hours after the viewing and often into the next day – not necessarily because of the story, or the cast, or the movie itself. Rather, I find myself dwelling on the themes the film deals with and how they relate to real life, or at least my life. In this case it's stress, the pressure to succeed and where to find happiness. Those are challenges that everyone can relate to, at least at some point in our lives.

Facebook launched at the beginning of 2004, with the goal of putting the entire social experience of college online. At that time, it was all about exclusivity, you had to have a Harvard.edu e-mail address, but the website that would soon change the world and how we communicate and interact was soon opened up to colleges across the country. In the fall of 2004, I was a freshman at the University of Oregon and within the first few weeks I'd heard people talking about something then called “thefacebook” and how it was finally at Oregon. Facebook fever took over the campus and just like in The Social Network, the new film that chronicles the beginnings of Facebook, the phrase “Facebook me” was now a part of our vernacular.

There are several films I have been looking forward to this fall, chronologically the first being Easy A, starring Emma Stone as Olive Pendgerghast, a Hester Prynne for the digital age. Going in with such high expectations often times can be a downer when the movie doesn't live up to those, but Easy A was exactly what I wanted, by evidence of my wild laughter in the theater. Rather than account what was right and wrong with the film and wax critically about it, I am going to give you a list of the reasons why you should see this hilarious piece of teen comedy.

It's officially autumn and as the leaves start to fall it means several things, but the most exciting in the hearts of cinephiles across the region is the return of our very own independent film festival, BendFilm. We were lucky enough to get a sneak peek at the festival's lineup, that this year features 88 total films and added screenings at The Oxford Hotel. Check out our early picks, sure to satisfy your cinematic hunger before the festival, which kicks off on October 7.

Do you remember when you flipped? The time in your life when you stopped thinking boys had cooties and all you could think about was when that cute boy in your math class would finally make a move and kiss you? Rob Reiner's Flipped takes on the coming-of-age tale of first love, where two middle schoolers learn what it means to be head-over-heels.

They say you can't judge a book by its cover, but we're all guilty of it. What they should probably also say is: You can't judge a movie by its poster, which is exactly what I did before I saw The American, starring George Clooney. On the poster, Clooney is running with a gun in his hand with a stern look of concentration on his face. I was expecting an action-packed, James Bond-esque film, except that Clooney is an assassin instead of a spy. I was mistaken.

In the Swedish-language series' second film, Noomi Rapace and Michael Nyqvist reprise their roles as Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist, upping the action quotient while discovering the literal and metaphorical repercussions that come of playing with fire.

For the last few months, I have been torn as to whether or not I wanted to read Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat Pray Love, before watching the movie adaptation. A few of my friends who've read the book dote on the incredible journey Liz takes to find herself. Others say it's filled with too much whining and that she's selfish. As it goes, I didn't read the book before watching the movie. Now I can't decide if I want to.

“I wanna know Ramona, am I the only one? Tell me. And she said, 'You're not the only one, but you're the best, Bradley.' And now I'm waiting for my ruca.” – Sublime
Whenever I think about Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, I can't help but sing the lyrics to Sublime's “Waiting for my Ruca” in my head. Most likely it's because Scott's love interest is named Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), but as I thought about it, the song had relevance to the film. Scott must defeat Ramona's seven evil exes in order to continue dating her, and she tells him he's the nicest, best guy she's ever dated. In this case though, instead of waiting, Scott must kick some ex-lover ass Nintendo-style to win the game of love.
Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera) lives in Toronto, plays bass in a mediocre rock band called Sex Bob-omb, lives with and shares a bed with his gay roommate Wallace, and since his ex-girlfriend dumped him and moved to Montreal to become a famous rock star, he has taken to giving himself haircuts. The latter explains why Cera looks younger and younger, despite playing a 22-year-old, which is his actual age. Cera basically plays the same character he always plays, which is essentially what I imagine to be himself. It's clear, after a string of roles that includes Superbad, Youth in Revolt, and my personal favorite, Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, that Cera has the market cornered on the geeky, lovelorn leading man.

Through the last two Batman films, Michael Caine has stood in Batman's shadow as his faithful butler and confidant, Alfred. Now, in Harry Brown, Caine steps into the role of the vigilante set out to avenge his friend's death and to clean up his chaotic neighborhood. He may not be a masked avenger, set out to protect Gotham from a laundry list of super villains – but Harry Brown is a citizen who thinks things have gone too far and decides to take matters into his own hands, just as caped crusaders have been doing in film and literature forever.
In Harry Brown, Caine plays the title character who lives in a South London housing development that's been overrun with youth crime. The film opens with a disturbing cell phone video of a gang initiation in which a boy is joyriding on a motorbike and shoots and kills a single mother pushing her two-year-old in a stroller in the park. A young gang has taken over a public underpass and has also taken to bullying Harry's friend, Leonard, by shoving dog feces and burning newspaper through his mail slot. The crime rate is through the roof and it seems the police aren't doing anything to stop it. When Leonard goes to the underpass to defend himself with a military bayonet, he is beaten and killed by the gang.