Title: I Don’t Know How She Does It Reviewed by: JM Willis Directed by: Douglas McGrath Starring: Sarah Jessica Parker, Pierce Brosnan and Greg Kinnear Running time: 89 minutes , Rated PG-13, Available on DVD Kate Reddy, a financial executive juggles her career and responsibilities as a wife and mother of two, as rivals, friends and family comment in awe to an unseen/unheard interviewer.  Kate breaks the fourth wall as she explains “how she does it.” I  stumbled upon the Uma Thurman box office bomb Motherhood a few weeks ago while channel surfing at my parents’ house, and found the storyline in comparison eerily similar. Mom has to juggle being…

Relations between the countries of Iran and the United States may be ill at ease, but Iranian cinematic import “A Separation” — just off its Golden Globe Best Foreign Language Film win and a Best Screenplay feting by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, the first such honor from the organization for a foreign film — is capturing the hearts and minds of plenty of American cineastes. The movie is a multi-layered familial drama about a married couple (Peyman Moadi and Leila Hatami) attempting to resolve elder care issues, their teenage daughter’s needs and the potentiality of a divorce when a misunderstanding turned legal problem with their new maid renders these problems secondary. Sophisticated…

Title: Angels Crest Director: Gaby Dellal Starring: Thomas Dekker, Lynn Collins, Mira Sorvino, Jeremy Piven, Kate Walsh, Elizabeth McGovern, Joseph Morgan A description or listing of all the recombinant parts of drama “Angels Crest” runs the risk of making it sound more interesting than it actually is. An adaptation of a missing-child novel by Leslie Schwartz, director Gaby Dellal’s wintry indie is a not very subtle and generally unpersuasive stab at tapestral grief-as-elegy. If cinematic skill lies partially in making an audience feel things they’ve felt before, but in new and different ways, “Angels Crest” is a highlighted, underlined, out-of-date textbook, dogmatic about its presentation, no matter how overly familiar it…

Title: Cook County Director: David Pomes Starring: Anson Mount, Xander Berkeley, Ryan Donowho, Polly Cole, Makenna Fitzsimmons On the small screen, AMC’s “Breaking Bad” has shined a light on the production of methamphetamine, and wrung much drama from the heightened stakes of a seemingly regular family man’s descent into moral and criminal contravention. Writer-director David Pomes’ effectively grimy “Cook County” takes a look at the ravaging effects of the same drug from a user’s point-of-view, detailing the familial chaos surrounding three generations of addicts living in rural East Texas. A gritty, pungent drama with some nicely attuned performances, the film is well worth seeking out for fans of off-the-beaten-path independent…

Title: Shame Director: Steve McQueen Starring: Michael Fassbender, Carey Mulligan, James Badge Dale, Hannah Ware, Nicole Beharie, Elizabeth Masucci Years ago, when the NC-17 rating was first created, it was serious-minded, almost grim explorations of adult sexuality like “Shame” that its champions no doubt had in mind. Of course, along came the campy “Showgirls,” which didn’t help matters. Mostly, though, the NC-17 rating was a non-starter for Hollywood studios not only because they tend to instinctively shy away from art and controversy like a cat avoids rain, but also because many newspapers — bowing to the tom-toms of local morality police — refused to carry advertising for NC-17 films, which made…

Title: Melancholia Directed by: Lars von Trier Starring: Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Kiefer Sutherland Putting his antics aside, von Trier is indeed a talented filmmaker, though I doubt that’s ever been up to much debate. “Melancholia” is his newest film following the heavily controversial Antichrist which enraged and divided audiences due to its graphic imagery. But in “Melancholia”, we have a different type of animal, and I’d argue that it could be equally as controversial–just not necessarily in the classical sense (which involves gratuitous violence and sex in today’s entertainment world). Like a majority of his films (if not all), “Melancholia” stars a female protagonist surrounded by utter gloom…

Title: Answers to Nothing Directed by: Matthew Leutwyler Starring: Dane Cook, Elizabeth Mitchell and Julie Benz Answers to Nothing wants to be a lot, but it falters in a big way. First, it seems like Crash-lite–which is the biggest problem. Second, it’s an ensemble piece. Ensemble pieces are hard enough to create, and here we have a director working with amateurish storytelling and directing. It might sound harsh, but sadly, it’s true. Writer/ director Matthew Leutwyler wanted to infuse the film with feelings of redemption and guilt, and it ultimately comes off as contrived. All of that together is the recipe for a poor movie — and an even worse…

Title: Answers To Nothing Director: Matthew Leutwyler Starring: Dane Cook, Julie Benz, Elizabeth Mitchell, Barbara Hershey, Zach Gilford, Erik Palladino, Kali Hawk, Aja Volkman, Greg Germann, Miranda Bailey, Mark Kelly “Answers To Nothing” is an unfortunately all-too-apt title for director Matthew Leutwyler’s sprawling thematic think piece, which focuses on the hard knocks and self-deception of a disparate group of Los Angelenos. The filmmakers seem to be reaching rather nakedly for early Paul Thomas Anderson territory here, but the copped moves come off less as artful homage and more as the nervous half-formed duplications of a mentee who’s left the nest too soon. While Ryan (Dane Cook) and Kate (Elizabeth Mitchell) try to conceive…

Title: Light of Mine Director: Brett Eichenberger Starring: Ji Tanzer, Rebecca Sanborn An in-competition entry in the recent and ongoing AFI Fest’s “Breakthrough” section, which spotlights movies located solely through the festival’s cold submission process, director Brett Eichenberger’s “Light of Mine” is a reflective, strikingly photographed little relationship drama about a man grappling with impending blindness, and the notion of how to forge a path for a future he won’t be able to see. After being diagnosed with hereditary optic neuropathy, photographer Owen (Ji Tanzer) is despondent. Already suffering from vision loss in one eye, he’s told to expect fairly rapid deterioration in his remaining eye. His wife, Laura (Rebecca Sanborn), aims…

Title: The Green Director: Steven Williford Cast: Jason Butler Harner, Cheyenne Jackson, Julia Ormand, Illeana Douglas, Bill Sage, Karen Young, Christopher Bert, Boris McGiver Gay cinema, perhaps understandably, was for a period of many years preoccupied with coming out, which, as a defining moment in the lives of many homosexuals, was ripe for dramatic exploitation. There are, though, of course thousands of other stories that are a part of the gay experience, and so it’s its own small success that something like “The Green,” about a juicy suburban sex scandal in a world tipping ever closer to true marriage equality, could unfold, and only tangentially and occasionally be about its main…