Changing Lanes ( C )

The subtext of humanity is nudged below a series of grave practical jokes Affleck (as the victimized saint) and Jackson (a recently sober/separated father or two) play on each other. The message is wrapped up with a bow and served at the end with almost no connection to the day’s events – unless you count pure exhaustion.

Daughter From Danang ( B+ )

One of the most objective documentaries about culture and identity I’ve seen, layers peeling so smoothly, we don’t feel it shrinking our comfort zone, thrusting us into life at its most emotionally complex. The filmmakers seem to be trapping us into creating a logical conclusion while simultaneously doubting ourselves to the last.

Frailty ( B )

Under what looks like a decade of dust, Paxton creates an unpredictable, edgy character we never feel quite comfortable rooting for. Toss-up, though, whether it’s his menacing presence that’s so eerie, or the fact that he spends so much of the movie snapping people's heads open with an axe as his children look on in awe.

Happenstance ( C )

Every character doing tiny, seemingly insignificant things which wind up changing something comparatively larger for another character – a formula which only serves the infuriatingly bland misadventures sure to elicit constant comparison with another, vastly superior, thematically similar Audrey Tatou movie.

The Happiness of the Katakuris ( D )

If only the Katakuris could engage in one activity that didn’t seem hopelessly staged to garner laughs, Miike’s film might not fall somewhere between a being a horrendous musical where every number is identical and a hypothetical television sitcom where the same thing happens to the same characters every week.

How to Kill Your Neighbor's Dog ( C )

It is nice to see Branagh in a down-to-earth role (unfortunately, it’s the least possibly appealing: a playwright, successful in the past, who is simultaneously attempting to survive his wife’s loudly ticking biological clock, an identity crisis and a bout of writer’s block). If at all possible, let’s try to be a little less familiar next time .

Human Nature ( C+ )

I see Charlie Kaufman’s name on the script, and blindly stumble into Michael Gondry’s vacillating, decidedly one-note film sporting a performance by Tim Robbins with such little sincerity, it almost matches the intensely ordinary tone of the film. For better results, play it with a straight face.