Extravagance And Subtlety Go Hand-In-Hand In Love, Simon

Just as many movies about teenagers in the 1980's looked to John Hughes as their creative guiding light, 2010's movies about teenagers turn to John Green for inspiration. Not every single movie about teenagers is like this (The Edge of Seventeen, for instance, isn't really all that reminiscent of Green's works), but it's hard not to see how the author of books like The Fault In Our Stars has influenced modern-day media about the struggles of teenagers, especially in terms of how dialogue spoken by teenage characters is written. I wouldn't want every movie about teenagers to feel like it emerged from the shadow of John Green, but The Fault In Our Stars was an extremely well-done motion picture, so I say there are worse films that movies like Love, Simon could be emulating.

Take A Ride With The Gloriously Energetic And Meticulously Crafted Baby Driver

Considering how Edgar Wright's first four movies had such heavy doses of high-quality action, stylish editing, and rapid-fire dialogue, it dawned on me midway through Baby Driver that Wright's basically been toying with the key ingredients of gangster movies for his entire career. It's like he's been fine tuning his instruments in various ways across his four previous classics until he was finally offered the chance to make an out and out gangster film. Well, now he gets to do just that with Baby Driver, a new crime movie he's directed that's been generating insane amounts of praise for months now ever since it premiered at the South by Southwest festival back in March.

The Space Between Us Gets Lost In Space

How come more of these romantic dramas aren’t from a female perspective? Like, any person of any gender can enjoy a romantic movie but these particular movies do have a notable female fanbase and are typically marketed towards women, not to mention that the most famous of these features (The Notebook, Twilight and The Fault In Our Stars for instance) are told through the prism of women. It’s kind of odd to me then that so many of these movies go for an overtly male perspective that relegates women to the sidelines as thinly sketched romantic interest material. Wouldn’t you be better served getting a woman as the face of the project and tying the premise into issues facing specifically women instead of treating your target audience as just a poorly defined object for your male protagonist to covet?

Fault In Our Stars Director To Tackle X-Men Spin-Off, The New Mutants!

As the X-Men cinematic franchise prepares to expand next year, hopes are high for this 15 year old film series. In addition to a new X-Men feature (Apocalypse) due out next May, new spin-offs centered on Deadpool and Channing Tatum as Gambit will help take advantage of all the storytelling possibilities this universe has. Now a new project has emerged; a film centered on The New Mutants!

The Divergent Series: Insurgent Review

To Live And Divergent In LA

In the year since Divergent was released, so much has changed for the cast. Shailiene Woodley (along with Divergent co-star Ansel Elgort) dazzle in The Fault In Our Stars, Miles Teller starred in one of the best movies of the past few years, Whiplash, and Theo James did.....uh, I think he signed on to star in a reboot of the Underworld movies. Simply put, these guys have done some great work since the first Divergent film, which makes seeing them return to this franchise disappointing, especially considering how lackluster it is.

Get Lost In The Trailer For Paper Towns

Few movies took me as much by surprise last year as The Fault In Our Stars. I thought that movie would be a cliche ridden mess (though an extended trailer actually convinced me that the movie may have something more to it), not a thoughtful exploration of pain and grief. As one might imagine, that sort of quality makes me eager to see the next adaptation of piece of work by John Green (the man who wrote The Fault In Our Stars book). It turns out that such a film is one the way, this one called Paper Towns. It comes out July 24th, but the first trailer can be viewed below now!

Nine Actors Who Deserve Oscar Recognition This Year, But Won't Get It

The Academy Awards are a confounding presence in Hollywood, their awards have a major impact on any given winner or nominees life. However, the ceremony seems to have a stern refusal to give notice to anything that utilizes comedy, action or animation, a bizzare practice that means much of Hollywoods best features get no recognition. A similar lack of recognition is inevitable for these eight actors, whose roles this year were superb showcases of their talent, but due to numerous factors (release dates namely) won't be given proper recognition. Without further ado, here's Nine Actors Who Deserve Oscar Recognition This Year, But Won't Get It!

Summer Movie Memories: How Did One Of The Worst Movies Of the Summer Became A Smash Hit?

Up until Labor Day, I'll be looking at seven different summer movies from Summer 2014 and analyzing what really made them stand out this summer, for reasons both good and bad. Obviously, SPOILERS for Maleficent lie ahead. 

The Maze Runner Gets A New Trailer Full of Twists And Turns (Get It?)

Lots of YA Novels are being translated to the screen this year, in hopes of jump-starting a new franchise. Mixed results have come from these movies, at least in 2014; Divergent and The Fault In Our Stars made big bucks, but Vampire Academy flopped big time. In terms of quality, I loved Fault, didn't care for Divergent, and didn't even bother with Vampire Academy, but just like superhero movies, it's each movies unique plot and not the exact genre these films belong to that lure audiences into the theater.

Box Office Predictions: Transformers Will Reign Over McCarthy, Aliens and Demons

In Box Office Predictions, I take a look at the forthcoming weekend and see how new releases and holdovers will fare.

We've got quite a meager bunch of movies for this particular 4th of July weekend. But even meager offerings deserve some predictions (even if I'm cheating a bit this time around since all the new releases have been out for a day already), so let's get to it!

Box Office Predictions: The Men Shall Beat The Boys

In Box Office Predictions, I take a look at the forthcoming weekend and see how new releases and holdovers will fare.

Well, as the $134 million gross of Ride Along indicates, Kevin Hart has become a comedic force to be reckoned with. Now, if he can conquer the box office in the very comedy friend summer moviegoing season, the man will join the ranks of Adam Sandler, Will Ferrell, Melissa McCarthy and the like as comedy titans.

Box Office Predictions: Make Your Choice...Dragons or Drugs?

Jonah Hills agent must be feeling very content now, as his client prepares to feature heavily in both of this weeks new releases that are likely each gonna top $50 million. The main question on everyones mind right now is which one will come out triumphant?

The Fault In Our Stars Review

Wow. That's Powerful

I've never a word of John Greens work. This was no accident; whenever I experienced The Fault In Our Stars in a movie theater for the first time, I wanted every aspect of its storytelling to be as much of a surprise as it could possibly be. As the 20th Century Fox logo came up though, I could tell I was likely the only one in the auditorium who hadn't been obsessively gazing over every page of the text this past week. Thunderous applause and cheers erupted from the crowd as the camera panned up to stars, and the approving noise got only louder once Shailene Woodley began to talk. 

The List!!!: 5 YA Novels-To-Movies That Have Changed Pop Culture Forever

In The List!!!, I do a list that just reeks of being click-bait, analyzing a particular topic or subject that pertains to something major occurring in pop-culture. This week, in honor of The Fault In Our Stars, I look at five YA novel movie adaptations that have had a particularly notable impact on pop culture.

I should note that, in terms of making it onto this list, I'm not talking entirely about quality of these five movies specifically (I haven't seen Twilight, for instance, rendering any critical thought on it beyond "Robert Pattinson needs to smile every once and a while" moot), but rather just what kind of impact they've had on film and pop culture. Onto the list!!

Box Office Predictions: Can Tom Cruise Conquer The Stars?

In Box Office Predictions, I take a look at the forthcoming weekend and see how new releases and holdovers will fare.

As late as 10 years ago, a summertime Tom Cruise tentpole could be guaranteed to be one of the biggest films of not just the season, but also the year. Since those days, he's been extremely more hit and miss, with his only $100 million features coming from Mission Impossible and a (hilarious I might add) cameo in a Ben Stiller film. Edge of Tomorrow has been dogged by both the press and audience members ever since it's first trailer came out, but extremely positive reviews seem to be turning the tide for the movie. I doubt it can all of a sudden churn even an Oblivion sized opening, but I'll be daring and say this thing just barely cracks $30 million.