The Sessions (2012)

The Sessions (2012)  

Written and Directed By: Ben Lewin, Based on an Article by Mark O'Brien  

Why I Saw It: Lots of reasons -- mostly for John Hawkes and Helen Hunt  

My Verdict: Definite thumbs up.

Thirty-eight-year-old writer and poet Mark O'Brien (John Hawkes) survived polio as a child, but he is paralyzed and spends most of his life in an iron lung. His intelligence, good humor, and wry wit win people over, but for the most part, he lives a lonely life, surrounded only by personal aides.

Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011)

"Martha Marcy May Marlene" is an amazing cinematic jolt to the nervous system, plain and simple. It stars Elizabeth Olsen as Martha, a girl who escapes to her sister and her brother-in-law's lakeside retreat after involving herself with some scary people.

   But this is not the ordinary "victim escapes near death -- victim fights  back story." By intertwining Martha's new life with scenes from her past, we are forced to confront the ambiguities of the situation -- is Martha being followed, or does she simply perceive it that way? Was Martha crazy before the events leading to her escape from the cult?

   What exactly is Martha's secret? On the surface, she seems like a normal young girl, but inside her subconscious, an inner war rages. Elizabeth Olsen knocks it out of the park as fragile, damaged Martha, running from inner demons and stuck in a constant state of shell shock.

Guest Post: Batman Villains That Could Have Been

I'd like to welcome Zack Mandell and thank him for contributing this post to On Page and Screen. Zack is a movie enthusiast, writer of movie reviews, and owner of www.movieroomreviews.com which has great information on actors such as Philip Seymour Hoffman. He writes extensively about the movie industry for sites such as Gossip Center, Yahoo, NowPublic, and Helium.

It’s a real shame, but as of July of this year, Christopher Nolan ended his attachment to the Batman franchise.  Since 2005, the famed British auteur has delivered a trio of films about the caped crusader, all of which many fans would argue rank as some of the greatest comic book films of all time. Indeed, many critics have even gone as far as to say that the second film, “The Dark Knight,” ranks among the greatest films of all time no matter the genre.