A BETTER LIFE Review (3 out of 5 stars)

The small and humble film A BETTER LIFE concerns a good man, who happens to be an illegal immigrant, working exhausting hours as a day laborer so his teenage son can relocate to a better neighborhood and school.

We empathize with these souls as we follow them into a world, invisible to most, of people living in fear of deportation. The movie lacks a political agenda, merely aiming to show life as it really is on such margins of society. Told in a straightforward and unsentimental style, LIFE centers itself as much around our country's undocumented residents as the tender father-son relationship that brings us to such unknown territory. It's the first film featuring an almost entirely Hispanic cast that I can recall seeing since 2007's UNDER THE SAME MOON, and it’s significantly better (although in all fairness, they're very different stories).

Carlos Galindo (Demián Bichir) is a gardener whose retiring boss Blasco offers to sell him a step toward autonomy: his pickup truck. After borrowing money from his sister Anita, a nurse, mother, and now citizen by marriage, he purchases the vehicle and takes on Blasco's route through the splendor and luxury of Malibu and West LA's estates.

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CARS 2 Review (3-1/2 out of 5 stars)

Pixar's twelfth animated film is among the best of its progeny, overflowing with creativity, eye-popping visuals, clever and engaging storytelling and the minute details of a mechanized world on an IMAX screen.

It's a giant leap from the tepid 2006 prequel, part international spy flick and part immersive adventure spanning a colorful, cartoon globe. The ambitious plot extends from Japan to Paris, the red-tiled roofs of Rome and august London (with a "Big Bentz" clock tower) and proffers secret agents, high-tech gizmos, unexpected suspense and races that — this time — are actually exhilarating to follow. It shows a maturity and sophistication the first CARS lacked, yet for the most part remains appropriate for children. (Although parents be warned: cartoon violence does lead to one character’s death, by torture no less.) Overall it's sweet natured and laugh-out-loud throughout and accomplishes the Herculean task of weaving the nonsensical idea of a planet full of living, breathing, chattering, cars — let alone spy cars — into an absorbing, relatable, highly memorable adventure.

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GREEN LANTERN Review (1-1/2 out of 5 stars)

We've seen everything in this re-imagined DC Comics tale in one form or another before. It's a sporadically entertaining experience at best (with fun special effects); a bloated and predictable blockbuster at worst. Not a single character is fleshed out, from the dashing yet occasionally self-effacing Hal Jordan (Ryan Reynolds) to Peter Sarsgaard's initially sympathetic nerd-turned-villain, Dr. Hector Hammond. (And Blake Lively just can't act.)

One would assume that joining an intergalactic police force would prove a complicated venture requiring more than a bit of explanation, but GREEN LANTERN doesn't bother with such pesky details. We're hurried through the convoluted back story and in the end feel betrayed by the filmmakers' contempt for their audience. Adding insult to injury, the $200 million movie shoplifts from mega-hits TOP GUN and the STAR WARS and original SUPERMAN films (even mimicking John Williams' superb score from the latter).

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BEAUTIFUL BOY Review (2 out of 5 stars)

Bill and Kate's 18-year-old son Sammy goes on a shooting rampage at his school and causes multiple fatalities before turning the gun on himself. The tragedy takes the parents completely by surprise and forces the pair on a stomach-turning roller coaster of grief, rage, guilt and resentment, as Bill's career and their relationships outside the house suffer amidst societal condemnation.

There are few surprises to this story. The parents, already contemplating separation when disaster strikes, seesaw from angry to despondent and hysterical to silent. When Kate seems to be recuperating and fixes up the house to sell, Bill plummets into a fresh round of insanity upon returning to work and threatens to again bring her down with him. I find it odd that neither see a psychiatrist: Bill tells his boss fuck off when he insists upon it. But unfortunately for the story, they isolate themselves in their grief and so suffer in a vacuum — making for a one-note and fairly self-indulgent screenplay. BEAUTIFUL BOY feels meant to be a journey in self-discovery, yet there’s little evidence of such in the writing.

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SUBMARINE Review (3-1/2 out of 5 stars)

SUBMARINE's deadpan style, wonderfully bizarre characters, and meticulously arranged shots call to mind the style of Wes Anderson, specifically in RUSHMORE, another cleverly understated, tenderly hilarious comedy centering on a neurotic, stone-faced teen. In this case, Craig Roberts plays Oliver Tate, a confused fifteen year-old living in the British burbs who's dually obsessed with classmate Jordana (Yasmin Paige) and his parents' shaky marriage, a veritable Max Fischer minus the confidence.

Like most teenagers, the precocious Oliver over-analyzes his world to the point of distraction. He invents his own sense of reality, imagining his death and an outpouring of grief a local news reporter breathlessly describes as "incredible… unprecedented" and entailing "scenes of quiet devotion." Girls who never acknowledged him lapse into hysterics in front of a quickly growing, candle-lit shrine, all narrated in a hilariously melodramatic tone that pervades the film to come. Resembling a little man in his upturned coat collar, coiffed hair, tie and briefcase, he's the weirdo people react to as well as the proverbial straight man.

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