It’s always exciting to watch a talented young performer get his or her start, then move on to defy earlier typecasting, and finally reach that coveted career tipping point where suddenly he or she is everywhere. Actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s been through the first two stages, and in the last couple years has continued what seems [...]

One of the year’s biggest small-cinema surprises is author Stephen Chbosky’s deftly affecting screen adaptation and direction of his own 1999 semi-autobiographical novel The Perks of Being a Wallflower. The film, like the novel, chronicles the coming of age of sensitive freshman Charlie (Percy Jackson & the Olympians‘ Logan Lerman) as he navigates the social [...]

As a screen writer, David Ayer made a name for himself in the early ’00s with high-octane, macho guy action scripts for Training Day, S.W.A.T., and The Fast & the Furious. Almost all of Ayer’s films (including 2005′s Harsh Times, which he wrote and directed, and 2008′s Street Kings which he directed) take place on [...]

It’s understandable if some scratch and/or shake their heads over the need for (and wisdom of) a new Judge Dredd movie 17 years after Sylvester Stallone completely missed the point in 1995. But writer-producer and long-time Danny Boyle collaborator Alex Garland (The Beach, 28 Days Later, Sunshine) has come up with a gritty, stylish new [...]