A lot of military stories ladle on audio-visual artifice, in an attempt to create an impactful audience identification with the disorienting nature of war or its psychological after-effects. “Return,” however, is a subjective document that plays out against the banality of everyday existence, wherein crisis unfolds in slow motion, and sometimes almost imperceptible strokes. The film stars Linda Cardellini as Kelli, a Rust Belt supply line soldier who comes back from a tour of duty and experiences a vague, free-floating sense of dislocation from her plumber husband Mike (Michael Shannon) and two young girls, and in the din of domestic homecoming dramas, the film is a striking, humane, low-fi offering….

While many directors are all too content to mine a seam, German-born filmmaker Wim Wenders (“Wings of Desire,” “The Buena Vista Social Club,” “Paris, Texas,” the ambitious “Until the End of the World”) has enjoyed a delightfully diverse career, jumping back and forth between narrative and nonfiction works. His latest film, the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar-nominated documentary “Pina,” taps into his decades-long friendship with the late, lauded choreographer Pina Bausch, imaginatively exploring her work in 3-D by utilizing the dancers of her Tanztheater Wuppertal ensemble. In a wide-ranging, half-hour chat — with Dave Matthews Band, the Yeah Yeahs and other light rock tunes unfolding at a remove in the background of the lush…

According to Ryan Reynolds, “Daniel’s a guy you want to buy stock in,” and after seeing Safe House, I’d have to agree. Safe House is director Daniel Espinosa’s fourth feature, but his very first American film. It stars Reynolds as Matt Weston, a young CIA agent assigned to a Cape Town safe house, which basically equates to a glorified babysitting job. He reports to his post, listens to some music, throws a ball against a wall and goes home. Sounds like a relaxing day, but not for a guy who’s itching to become a CIA case agent. No experience? No case agent gig. Matt’s luck changes, for better or worse,…

Meet Alex Russell. Well, actually there’s a chance you have already met this young actor as he does have a pair of shorts and features on his resume, but his upcoming release, Chronicle, is most certainly of a higher power. The film begins from Andrew’s (Dane DeHaan) perspective, as he recently decides it’s time to pick up a camera and document his daily life. Russell comes in as Matt, Andrew’s cousin and the guy responsible for keeping Andrew from completely falling off the social ladder. Matt’s not a big fan of Andrew’s new hobby, but the camera comes in handy when Andrew, Matt and Steve (Michael B. Jordan) stumble upon…

Ben Bray came to acting through his career as a boxer. He got his start 23 years ago when he was asked to audition for a part. “It was all an accident,” he said when talking about how he got started in the business. “I was very lucky,” he said. “I was very fortunate.” This acting role led him to be trained by the big stunt coordinators like Ron Stein and others. “They took me under their wing,” he said. “23 years later, I went from stunt man to coordinator to now–I’m a second-unit director.” In “The Grey,” Bray plays Hernandez, a character that has an interesting dichotomy. “I think…

Make way for Joey King. At just 12-years-old, the young actress has already starred in her own feature film, Ramona and Beezus, and tacked on about eight other big screen titles to her resume. But, of course, it’s not just about lengthening your list of screen credits, but lengthening that list with films of quality and boy does King have some potential hits on the way. Next out of the gate for King will be the third installment of Christopher Nolan’s Batman series, The Dark Knight Rises. Then, on March 8th, 2013, King will grace the screen as China Girl in Sam Raimi’s Oz: The Great and Powerful. But wait;…

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…

Elijah Kelley made quite the splash as Seaweed in 2007′s Hairspray, but the triple threat opted to put two of his talents aside for the sake of history. Kelley stars as Samuel ‘Joker’ George in the upcoming film Red Tails. Inspired by true events, the film focuses on the Tuskegee Airmen, a group of African American pilots segregated to their own airbase during WWII. Despite Joker and his buddies’ ability in the air, the army refuses to let them act as bomber escorts, assigning them to merely pick off ground targets. However, when Col. A.J. Bullard (Terrence Howard) steps up on their behalf, the boys get their opportunity to fight…

90210 keeps Tristan Wilds pretty busy, but there’s no way the actor would pass up a chance to appear on the big screen as one of the iconic Tuskegee Airmen. Wilds plays Red Tails‘ Ray ‘Ray Gun’ Gannon, one of the first African American aviators in the US Army during World War II. Along with his co-Airmen, specifically Easy (Nate Parker), Lightning (David Oyelowo) and Joker (Elijah Kelley), Ray is stuck shooting ground targets like trains and trucks while the white pilots are honored with the mission of defending US bombers from the Germans. However, when the guys finally get their chance to fly and fight for their country, they…

According to a recent survey in “Car and Driver,” texting while driving is more dangerous than operating a motor vehicle under the influence of drugs or alcohol, and those who send text messages while driving are 23 times more likely to be in a car crash. While she fortunately hasn’t been one of those statistics, singer JoJo (http://twitter.com/JoJoistheway) felt strongly enough about the issue to step up and encourage her fans to take part in AT&T’s “It Can Wait” pledge to stop texting while driving. Recently, ShockYa had a chance to talk to the 21-year-old — who has sold more than three million albums worldwide – about why she’s involved in the campaign,…