Much Ado About Nothing is an astonishing creation overflowing in passion, energy, romance and humor. Whedon has done a glorious thing with this Shakespeare classic, and as summertime surprises are concerned, this ranks right up there with some of the best I’ve ever had the pleasure to see.

It’s a venal shell game where grey overwhelms all of the black and white ideals Sarah originally held, making her ultimate destination all the more emotionally affecting in the process.

“Going through a difficult experience isn’t the end of the line. There can be hope. It’s out there; you just have to grab it.”
– Scott McGehee

The Kings of Summer shouldn’t work, the fact that it does a pleasant summertime cinematic revelation I couldn’t have been more thankful for.

Before Midnight, like its predecessors, is a masterpiece, and I have a feeling I’ll be holding it near and dear to my heart for the rest of my life.

A modern day adaptation of the Henry James novel, What Maisie Knew is an emotionally-charged, delicately authentic knockout tale of a child learning to circumnavigate an adult world while maintaining her wide-eyed exuberance about life and its potential in the process.

It’s ebullient and joyous but still laced without the proper amount of pain and pathos, everything working in incandescent tandem with its various pieces in order to make the movie come alive to its own free-flowing beat. Make no mistake, Frances Ha is a stunning achievement, an exercise in pure cinema that’s as rare as it is spectacular.

“I wanted to tell a story that was emotionally true, and these people didn’t know how heroic what they were doing would turn out to be. For them, they had to believe they were all going to die. There was no other way to look at the situation.”
– David France

How to Survive a Plague is sensational, and without a doubt France’s debut is one of the more profoundly inspiring motion pictures I’ve seen this year.