PLEASE GIVE: AND PLEASE WATCH

Kate: I'm not spending $ 200 on a pair of jeans for my teenage daughter when there are '45' homeless people living...
Abby: What does that have to do with anything? They don't want jeans!

Catherine Keener is one of the most under rated actresses of our time. She is lovely and amazing (ha ha) smart and tender, funny and authentic. In this film, she plays a New Yorker whose sense of guilt guides her misguided efforts to be a genuinely good person. For the lack of a more delicate explanation her family is waiting for their neighbor, a hilarious Ann Guilbert, a 90-year-old woman whose death will allow them to expand their apartment. While they are waiting, they make friends with the woman's daughters, Amanda Peet and Rebecca Hall. Intertwined in the storyline about life and death and real estate, there is the stories of the relationships between mother and daughter, husband-and-wife, sister and sister. It is a very honest film where there aren't no bad guys, just people who are trying to make things right and rationalize their actions. Basically, it's about people trying to get along with each other however misguided their attempts may be. It is a subtle and poignant film, not to be missed.

GET HIM TO THE GREEK: ANOTHER BROMANCE FOR THE TIMES

Aldous Snow: What you did was very spiteful, but it was also very brave and very honest and I respect you For Doing that. But the content of what you said has made me hate you. So there's a layer of respect, admittedly, for your truthfulness, but it's peppered with hate. Hateful respect.

So Aldous Snow (Russell Brand) is a previously existing character from the movie Forgetting Sarah Marshall. He is a drug fueled, sex crazed rock star and in this movie, it is up to Aaron Green (Jonas Hill) to get him from London to the Greek theater in LA. Of course Snow is on his worst behavior and pulls Green into all sorts of misdeeds and extreme situations which make it nearly impossible for Green to do his job. I thought this film had potential, and I love Russell Brand, but his performance in it simply fell a bit flat for me. I was expecting him to be on his top game, and maybe it was his way of trying not to overact, but that's one of the things that I was looking forward to. The biggest surprise in all of this was Sean Combs/P. Diddy/Puff Daddy or what have you, who plays Green's boss, Sergio. Who knew he could act, nonetheless be funny. His performance was reminiscent Tom Cruise's work in Tropic Thunder. Make time to watch the Line O Rama in the bonus features, especially Sarah Marshall's acting in Blind Medicine.

MY SON, MY SON, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE: (AWKWARD SILENCE)

Inspired by a true story this film directed by Werner Hertzog and produced by David Lynch was too bizarre of the movie to pass up. In true David Lynch fashion, it was indeed way bizarre. The story follows the events that led a young troubled man who stabs his mother locks himself in the house causing a huge scene and time for the flashbacks takes to explain how we got to this point. I really wish I had dropped some acid before watching this film, however that may have done some serious brain damage. It is a movie filled with dramatic pauses, unexplained actions, and of course, there's the dwarf. Grace Zabriskie is absolutely stunning, and always fun to watch. Chloe Sevigny is the man's fiancée who brings a tiny bit of sanity to the bunch. Michael Shannon is the man, and as compelling as he is to watch it is also almost revolting. There is not much likable about his character, but it definitely is entertaining. Hertzog mentioned something in his interviews about wanting to return to a low-budget film using great actors and portraying as reality. He does accomplish both these things, but the end result is such a bizarre film, had I not had the patience would have been difficult to see this one to the end. This film is not for everybody.

LEAVES OF GRASS: LEAVE THIS GRASS

I hate to harsh anyone's mellow, but I just did not enjoy Leaves Of Grass as much as I thought I would. I guess the reason I thought I would enjoy it was because I'm a huge fan of Edward Norton and in this movie he plays twin brothers, one, who although bright is pretty much a backwards pothead living in a small redneck town dealing with rival thugs. The other, is an established professor who is tricked into returning to his small-town roots upon hearing about the death of his brother. Surprisingly, Susan Sarandon makes an appearance as the boy's mother. While she is usually a highlight in any film, her talent goes pretty well wasted here. The rest of the movie turns into a redneck caper movie making some really huge leaps of imagination and plot, forcing a romantic interest with frankly a disappointing ending. The twin work was nowhere near as good as what they did in The Social Network, and in some places was just pretty darn silly. These are the times, that I am really happy that Redbox offers dollar movies. I still adore Edward Norton, but this is nowhere near his best work, in fact it may be his worst.

DON'T YOU FORGET ABOUT ME: BUT YOU CAN FORGET ABOUT THIS FILM

I don't think of kids as a lower form of the human species. -John Hughes

After making such a splash with a string of memorable and deeply touching movies that seem to effortlessly unearth the teenage soul and make it visible to the adult eye, John Hughes disappeared off the map. His last work was writing Drillbit Taylor under the pen name Edmond Dantes, a homage to the lead character in the Count of Monte Christo. However, there was a group of people, a very large group of people, who wanted to see John Hughes work again and perform the magic he was known for. This documentary, is about a group of such people. In 2006 a small crew from Canada decided to travel by van to Chicago in order to make some sort of plea to Hughes. I don't think they even knew exactly what they were going to do once they reached his hometown, but along the way they were able to visit some of his trademark spots local hangouts. To me, this only showed a lack of planning and a real naïveté of young film students in awe of the great man's work. What I did enjoy about this documentary were the comments made by Hughes' peers and actors from his more notable works. However well-intentioned fist movie was, it certainly fell flat of my expectations. Since Hughes' death in 2009, there have been many tributes and heartfelt accolades given publicly about the effect that his work had in cinema. While this documentary may have been well intentioned it didn't necessarily offer anything new or different to what I've seen. I suppose that I am glad to have seen this film however it didn't offer any stellar insight or make me appreciate John Hughes anymore than I already do.