Elite Squad: The Enemy Within

It's been a really long time since America has made a great crime drama. It really seems like most great crime genre films I see are foreign. There are movies like Miss Bala (Mexico), Bullhead (Belgium) and Snowtown (Australia) that take more of a deeper look of their characters while at the same time delivering mind-blowing action and excitement. But taking this approach isn't the only way to do the crime genre correctly. There are movies like Hard Boiled and Infernal Affairs (Hong Kong) that show the life of dirty cops in a corrupt city. The new film from José Padilha, "Elite Squad: The Enemy Within," shows the corruption of the police force, government officials and drug dealers in Rio de Janeiro.

Interview: Shawn Bercuson, Founder and CEO of Prescreen

Meet Shawn Bercuson. He is the founder and CEO of Prescreen.com, a new social media platform to deliver the right movie for the right person. This platform is makes movies highly sharable to your friends. I had the opportunity to talk to Shawn about his time at Groupon.com, the Sundance Film Festival and the founding of Prescreen.com and what it can do for you.

Signing up for Prescreen is free, so I encourage our readers to sign up and "discover one new movie, each day."

Interview: Shawn Bercuson, Founder and CEO of Prescreen by RudieObias

Rudie Obias: So doing some research on you, you went from VP of Business Development at Groupon to founding Prescreen. How did you go from that transition from Groupon to Prescreen?

‘The Amazing Spider-Man’ Swings Into Gear: Our Impressions of The Untold Story Presentation

There has been some doubt over the reboot of the Spider-Man franchise. Will audiences respond to this character as they did when the original film came out back in 2002? Is it too soon to bring back this franchise? In fact, the third and most recent film was released in 2007. Is it possible "The Amazing Spider-Man" will be forgotten this summer? It’s sandwiched in-between comic book heavy hitters "The Avengers," coming out on May 4th, and the third and final film in Christopher Nolan’s Batman series, "The Dark Knight Rises," set to come out on July 20th. With all these questions in the ether, Sony decided to put together a worldwide event, showcasing the talent behind the reboot, in theaters on July 3rd.

Compliance

Not many movies out there solely exist to examine human nature in its most diabolical and haunting form. Most movies want to deliver a good story with interesting characters, but a movie like “Compliance” comes once in a decade. I can’t remember the last time I watched a movie like “Compliance” that had me squirming in my seat while I wanted so badly to yell at the screen. Yes, “Compliance” is a horror movie only it’s not interested in giving audiences gore, blood or even thrills, it wants you to think about why what we’re watching is so horrific.

The End of Love

During the Sundance Film Festival, there are a lot of mopey, twenty to thirty-something men trying to come to terms or deal with their current or past relationships. I try to take these movies as they come and try my hardest not put them in a corner. Sometimes they work wonderfully, take Mike Birbiglia "Sleepwalk With Me," and sometimes they don't at all, take Paul Dano in "For Ellen." In the directorial debut of actor Mark Webber, "The End of Love," manages to take this Sundance trope and infuse it with something personal, his son.

"The End of Love" follows the story of a struggling actor and single father named Mark (Mark Webber). He tries to balance being a single father of Isaac (Isaac Love, also Webber's actual son) with trying to land acting gigs while he tries to reconcile his past mistakes. While some may find this story be somewhat exploitative, the sheer fact Webber casts his own toddler son could be made as an argument, but it manages to transcend the genre and elevates the film to something that is heartwarming, while being heartbreaking (Thanks Mark!), and completely a bold coming out for an unique independent voice.

Room 237

Stanley Kubrick is known as, arguably, the greatest filmmaker of all-time. Each one of his films is so rich that it feels like 10 films from any other filmmaker. His most ambiguous film is his 1980 release of “The Shining.” The adaptation of Stephen King’s widely-popular novel was critically and commercially disappointing. It was even nominated for a few Razzie Awards including worst movie and worst director of 1980. How could, arguably, the greatest filmmaker of all-time have such a magnificent failure in his body of work? The new documentary from Rodney Ascher explores many conspiracy theories behind “The Shining’s” content and Kubrick’s intentions with making this film. As a display of editing and storytelling, “Room 237″ is a triumph of film criticism.

Beasts of The Southern Wild

Creating a world is not an easy feat. And to do so in a low budget way, which can be believable adds to the level of skill in creating that world. It’s extraordinary to think that “Beasts of The Southern Wild” is the first feature from Benh Zeitlin, it has a certain maturity of world view that most filmmaker’s obtain in a lifetime. “Beasts of The Southern Wild” is a wonderful movie but the filmmaking can use more worldliness.

Shut Up and Play The Hits

LCD Soundsystem’s last show was on April 2nd 2011. The band dismembered afterwards but announcement the upcoming breakup was released a few months before. Going into this last performance was captured on film and the result is this documentary by Will Loveless and Dylan Southern. It serves as half a documentary and half interview by writer Chuck Klosterman with the mastermind behind it all, James Murphy. In the interview, Murphy reflects on the last 6 years of LCD Soundsystem, the reasoning behind the breakup and his future. But in regards to “Shut Up and Play The Hits” as a whole, it’s a love letter to the LCD Soundsystem fans but not much else for general audiences.

The Words

Writing is a fundamental practice in communication. To make yourself understood through written words is probably the most engaging and intimate feeling you can have with someone without actually meeting them. Through your words is how we know you. So in Brian Klugman and Lee Sternthal’s film, “The Words,” examines the truth behind words but only does it in a piecemeal, surface level and cinematically lazy way, that I question why couldn’t these words be more clear. After all, aspiring for mediocrity is a fool’s errand.

John Dies At The End

There’s a tradition of horror movies screening at the Sundance Film Festival that will shock, delight but always entertain the usual highbrow moviegoer. What I love about this festival is simply capturing the indie spirit of filmmaking no matter what the genre. So every year there are a few oddball horror films that you wouldn’t believe unless you saw. I can honestly say, I have never seen a film quite like “John Dies At The End.” The new film from director Don Coscarelli, at times, works but for the most part it feels as if I’m not in on the joke going on here.