Carancho

Sosa (Ricardo Darin) is an ambulance chasing lawyer who isn’t above staging accidents when there aren’t any ambulances to chase. Lujan (Martina Gusman) is an EMT so addicted to the thrill of going out on calls that she needs to inject herself with heroin to calm down after every shift. They’re not exactly the nicest people to be sure, but that doesn’t make the passion that erupts between Sosa and Lujan any less believable thanks to two incredible performances. The story has more twists and turns than an out of control roller coaster, and writer/director Pablo Trapero makes you feel every one of them. It’s a ride you want to go on again and again.

Who took the Bomp? Le Tigre on Tour

As much fun as it is to watch Le Tigre in concert in this movie, it is the interviews with the band’s three members — Kathleen Hanna, Johanna Fateman and JD Samson – and the scenes of their interacting with each other and their fans that makes the film work so well. They make infectious pop music, but they never sing a song that doesn’t mean something to them or promote their pro-feminist agenda. Agree with them or not, the passion they bring to everything they do is impressive. The fact that they make you think as much as they make you want to dance is, too.

TO

The stunning visual look of this pair of anime films from director Fumihiko Sori — created using stop motion anime — is unlike just about any other anime out there today. And that’s a good thing, even if it takes a bit of getting used to, especially the lifeless look of the characters eyes. Thankfully, the stories are strong and the voice-acting spot on. The first movie, Elliptical Orbit is an adventure about galactic terrorists trying to destroy the world’s energy supplies. The second, Symbiotic Planet, is the story of two star-crossed lovers whose romance is played out against the background of a planet-wide plague. They’re both good.

Green Lantern: Emerald Knights

Rather than just tell a straightforward Green Lantern  adventure, this DC Universe Animated Original Movie uses a GL adventure to introduce the audience to some of the less recognizable characters in their upcoming live action movie. It’s a bit of a mixed bag, but the stories are so well told (and so richly animated) that it’s almost a matter of individual taste. Some may enjoy the story of Kilowog (voiced perfectly by Henry Rollins) while others may get a bigger kick out of Mogo’s story. The overall story of Hal Jordan (voiced by Nathan Fillion) trying to introduce a new recruit called Arisia (Elisabeth Moss) to her new career, ties it all together nicely.

In Her Skin

When the perfect daughter of the perfect parents doesn’t come home from her dance class, the parents start hounding the local police to do something because, even though she’s only been missing for a few hours, they know in their heart that something is wrong. They’re right, too, but even a worried parent’s imagination can barely comprehend the full story of what happened until it’s too late.  Based on a true story, writer/director Simone North does a good job of unfolding the facts in a way that always keeps us guessing even if we think we know what will happen in the end. The cast, particularly Ruth Bradley as Caroline  Reid, the troubled young woman at the heart of the mystery, is excellent.

Every Little Thing

Documentarian Nicolas Philibert and crew take us on another interesting adventure, this time at the La Borde psychiatric clinic where the residents are rehearsing their annual production for friends and family. This time, they are doing the absurdist classic, “Operette,” by Witold Gombrowicz, a play whose dialogue and drama is stranger than almost anything the clinic residents see in their own imaginations. Since Philibert refuses to identify who is who, part of the fun of the film is trying to guess who is a patient and who is a physician at the facility, a task that only grows more complicated as the strange play starts to take form.

Nice Guy Johnny

Just when it looked like Ed Burns would wind up petering out his promising career as a filmmaker starring in an endless series of other people’s crappy movies (27 Dresses, One Missed Call), he falls back, regroups and delivers a fresh, funny and thoroughly enjoyable romantic comedy. It’s the story of a young guy with dreams of having his own sports talk show on the radio and the nearly disastrous weekend he spends with his kinda sleazy uncle (Burns). It’s not only written and directed by Burns, but the movie gives him the best role he’s had in a long, long time. Welcome back.