Far From the Madding Crowd is a passionately literate piece of cinematic entertainment well worth seeing.

Not great, not terrible, maybe just a bit better than okay, Hot Pursuit isn’t going to win any awards or be remembered in any great detail by those who see it, true, but as mid-afternoon diversions go it’s hardly the worst I’ve ever seen.

The Estonian import Tangerines, a Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award nominee, is a spellbinding treat, a delectable antiwar polemic of understanding and forgiveness that breaks the heart just as it uplifts the soul.

Avengers: Age of Ultron isn’t anything more than what it initially appears to be, and for most viewers I imagine that’s going to be, not just fine, but positively super.

There will be few motion pictures released to domestic theaters in 2015 that are better than Clouds of Sils Maria.

Adaline’s story captivated me, heart and soul, her long journey to love’s doorstep a timeless sojourn I was glad to be a part of.

What makes the film genius isn’t how it makes the world of high fashion relatable to the masses and not just the one-percent that can actually afford the clothing (which, shockingly, it does) but more in how in-depth it chooses to document a work place in transition.

But ultimately this is Crowe’s showcase and his alone, and as such The Water Diviner, while not without its faults, still makes for a fine directorial debut and is thus worthy of a look.

5 to 7 might be slight, but it is so in ways that matter, and like a piece of delicately elating pulp romantic fiction it ends up being a page turner worth reading all the way to the mushily agreeable end.