Culture

Natalie Portman is amazing. The 29-year-old actress has perfectly crafted her career – making stunning choices for the films she stars in and her most recent project doesn't find her veering off course. Black Swan stars Portman in a both mentally and physically challenging role as Nina, a ballerina who is cast as the Swan Queen in a ballet troupe's revamped production of Swan Lake. While the storyline may leave you a bit confused, there will be no question when you leave the theater that Portman should run away with the Academy Award for Best Actress.

What's that you say? David O. Russell, the guy who directed Spanking the Monkey, Three Kings and I Heart Huckabees made a boxing movie? Yes it's true that the king of quirky has made a straightforward boxing pic based on a true story, fueled by performances of compelling grit and layered intensities, simply entitled The Fighter.

Finally, the gods of Hollywood have fulfilled one of my biggest hopes and dreams in cinema – Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie are staring together in a movie. As pathetic as that may sound, you know you were secretly hoping for the same thing. The big question looming on everyone's minds though: Will they have the kind of chemistry we've made up for them in our twisted, celebrity-obsessed consciousness? And will the movie itself live up to our fantasies? Here's how The Tourist stacks up:

Tamara Drewe, the latest installment from director Stephen Frears, has both great moments and glaring faults. This is a black comedy adapted from a comic-strip-turned-graphic novel by Posy Simmonds, which itself is based on Thomas Hardy’s novel Far from the Maddening Crowd. In the countryside of a writer's retreat, the once ugly duckling Tamara Drewe, now a glamorous yet confused journalist with a life-changing nose job returns to sell her house. This Tamara is not to be confused with the B-horror film Tamara or its titular ax-wielding, cheerleader-killing machine, although that might have been the gimmick this flick needed.