“With kids, what’s the first language they speak? Well, that’s emotion…Even if they don’t understand the specifics of what is being talked about, if they see a character is upset or fearful or happy, they respond to that.”

The film falls off a gigantic cliff during its final act, melodramatically and clumsily throwing down an obnoxious and unnecessary flashback that undercuts all of the beautiful work Winslet, Schoenaerts and Rickman had delivered up to that point.

The Australian import The Little Death is a suburban sex comedy that’s too tame to make much of an impact yet also just icky enough at times to border on repugnance…[It’s] prone to introducing a clever gag only to beat it into the ground until it’s no longer of value, oftentimes forgetting less is more especially as it pertains to eliciting laughter from the audience.

What’s interesting is that, as crazy as that destination might be, as thought-provoking as elements might become, it’s the stuff that happens long before the denouement that gives this Sundance and Seattle International Film Festival favorite its memorable staying power.

It’s too fractured, too skit-oriented, too amused with itself to worry about telling a cohesive story where three-dimensional characters are developed and genuine emotions are crafted. It takes almost a full half an hour before the actual main plot kicks in, even longer for it to reach the preordained conclusion, in-between a frenetic hodgepodge of attempts at coal-black satirical comedy filled with my more misses than hits.

I don’t care what the haters say, I love Wolfen…It’s filled with exquisite moments that get my pulse racing and bring a smile to my face. Warner Archive’s Blu-ray presentation is sensational, and even with no special features to speak of this is a disc fans should have been racing to get their hands on the moment it went on sale.

Intimate, profound and deeply emotional, this is a magnificent portrait of world events and how religious fundamentalism is perverting theological dogma in order to feed its own insidious hunger, director Abderrahmane Sissako delivering a character-driven stunner that only gets better with each subsequent viewing. Magnificent.

I’d never watched HBO’s The Wire before receiving this complete series package in the mail for review, I now can’t imagine living in a world where it does not exist. Living up to the hype, I get why many consider this the greatest series in the history of television.

Relative newcomer Moore is outstanding. He’s the one that keeps the movie on track, never allowing it to drift too far into absurdity or sentimentality, anchoring the proceedings with a complex, potently effective portrait of youth in revolt.