No, that’s not the worst named law firm ever. I have been on a movie binge lately and vowed that I would try to write at least a little about each film I see. So here are my thoughts on three extremely different movies I saw this week:

Lovely Bones

I am torn about this film. Cinematically it was compelling and visually beautiful at times. But the story bothers me. The violent rape and murder of a young girl is a grisly topic, and being a father of girls scares me to death. And Lovely Bones seems to treat it a little too lightly in this film. Also, I am unsure how to feel about the purgatory of sorts the character is stuck in – why are her only companions the other victims of this guy? Roger Ebert had such a problem with this he called the film deplorable – read his review here. I won’t go that far, but remain unsure how to feel. Stanley Tucci played a creepy murderer – but I swear he was doing a Dustin Hoffman impression at times!

Iron Man 2

What can I say? It was action on top of action, with a bunch of movie stars (Samuel Jackson, Scarlett Johansson, Gwyneth Paltrow) and some great actors (Robert Downey, Sam Rockwell, Don Cheadle and Mickey Rourke) and an upcoming director Jon Favreau. How could it fail to entertain? To me Rockwell and Rourke really stole the show – they were great. Downey was his typical entertaining self and the others were all a bonus. A very solid sequel to a meaninglessly, but entertaining franchise.

Greenburg

What a great film, thank goodness we have an art house cinema here that picks up these off-the-radar gems. I love simple movies with complex characters. Movies that don’t follow a usual Hollywood script or rely on plot twists or special effects. A movie that just explorers the human condition. The director and co-writer Noah Baumbach continues his string of great films. Ben Stiller took the role after Mark Ruffalo pulled out due to his brother’s death. Ruffalo is one of my favorite actors and I would love to see how he would have performed in the role. But Stiller was great – he delivered humor, rage, vulnerability, and the list goes on. I highly recommend it to Cinephiles. Despite what Roger Greenburg says, life is not wasted on people.