Grade: A- | Genre: Biopic/Drama/Musical
Summary: Johnny Cash picked Joaquin Phoenix to play him in his biopic. Cash is looking down from heaven very pleased with his choice right about now.

'Tis the season of good movies, and it's about time after the previous famine of this year. Two biopics have released me from the doldrums of utter boredom recently. One flick that transported me was Capote, and now Walk the Line has made a believer out of me again. In both biopics the actors seemed to approach the roles from different paths, however, both movies deliver amazing, gut-wrenching performances. The major difference with Phoenix's performance was his wise decision not to attempt to speak exactly like one of America's symbols of rough and ready manhood, Johnny Cash. Phoenix knew where to "walk the line," so to speak. Hoffman became Capote, morphed into him, and that was appropriate for Capote was not worshiped like Cash. Phoenix's genius is that he captured the great man's soul, his essence, and gave it to us on film, and that is also the brilliance of this movie. The story it is a tad conventional but then most great love stories are. While it is not word for word Cash's biography, the film delivers a complicated love story and a look into the early life of an American troubadour. This film does not disappoint. James Mangold provides a faithfully reconstructed life of Cash, although he bends the facts just enough to make it more palatable for those who adore Cash.

Grade: B+ | Genre: Drama
Summary: Proof is a very good film. Gwyneth Paltrow really makes this film a must-see. She is inspired in a way we haven't seen in a long time.

Gwyneth Paltrow hasn't been basking in the Hollywood limelight for a while now. Proof marks her fourth movie in three years, and her acting caliber has been slight at best. I mean who was responsible for letting View from the Top escape from the studio lot? These days she's more known as the wife of Coldplay frontman Chris Martin, mother of an Apple and for occasionally spouting relationship advice to her ex Brad Pitt from the cover of People. With all this superficiality, it can be easy to forget that she has a first rate actress rumbling about inside her, waiting for that one juicy role that she can let herself go. Remember Shakespeare in Love? Her portrayal of Catherine in Proof is evidence that her acting chops haven't dulled with the turn of years. They've just been quieted in hibernation, waiting to cat stretch and hungry to devour a rich character like this troubled mathematicians daughter.

Grade: B | Genre: Drama
Summary: Okay, I get it already, men are bad, women are good. A well made, gritty drama that is hard to watch, goes for the jugular, and almost misses the heart.

In North Country, director Niki Caro of Whale Rider fame, has recreated another unfamiliar culture brilliantly and in the process managed to scoop up an Oscar winning cast to perform this strong drama, but North Country delivers a harsh message at the expense of the book it was "inspired" from and without the subtle grace needed to carry it off. I am not saying this is a bad film, in fact in today's marketplace, it is a powerhouse of a drama, with Oscar-baiting scene after scene in it, but it is almost too much to bare with the relentlessness of continual harassment that the character Josey Aimes endures from nearly every male in her life. Screenwriter Michael Seitzman has taken this rather dated material from a novel based on the first sexual harassment class action suit in this country, which changed the fabric of the American workplace forever. The problem for me is that the original story was far more moving and powerful than the cliches I find in this script, and that is a shame for it was a hell of a story.

Grade: A- | Genre: Indie Rock
Summary: Whenever anybody is asked to describe the music of Pink Mountaintops, they talk that it's all about sexing. All right cool, what music isn't? Calling them the band that likes sex is like saying Mick Jagger is the guy that likes tight pants. It might be the most noticeable aspect, but it isn't the only one.

The core of Pink Mountaintops is Stephen McBean. He has quite a history with heavy music (punk, goth, metal), and it bleeds through on Axis of Evol. Think of what you'd want to listen to if you were wrestling a crocodile or riding a Harley at night in the middle of nowhere. It's like that. It gets you pretty damn pumped.

Grade: B | Genre: Comedy/Drama
Summary: Not exactly a feel good movie, in fact a bit of a bummer, but there is a bit of David Spritz in all of us

Nick Cage has probably cornered the market on quirky, offbeat roles and while some of his performances work and some do not, this time Cage nails a great performance. Cage plays David Spritz, a sad everyman whose life echos the lives of the many who never quite arrive at the place that they envisioned for themselves. Spritz is a tragic hero who does not even know his own worth and that fact could be said for many of us. This troubled weatherman believes his failed marriage can be resurrected, lives under the gazing disapproval of his Pulitzer prizewinning father, Robert (Michael Caine), has an overweight daughter and a son in counseling. Life is a not exactly sparkling for Spritz and his response to his problems can be both bizarre and pathetic. In this film, directed by Gore Verginski, of The Ring and Pirates of the Carribean fame, a melancholy life is on display and it is not pretty. In fact, this movie delivers a rather morbid story of a minor Chicago celebrity, rummaging around in the chaos of his existence and reacting to most events rather inappropriately. While the story will not have you smiling when you leave the theater, it is a thought-provoking movie, with sensitive performances by Cage and Caine, and moments of true comedy that are not just thrown in, but are earned the honest way.

Grade: B+ | Genre: Comedy
Summary: The chaos just fed on itself until the family lunacy hit fever pitch. While it was far from the best I've seen from Arrested, it was a quality set of episodes that aptly closed out this series of innovative comedy.

Quality television and ratings bonanzas rarely collide in the television cosmos. For each Lost and Desperate Housewives that prop up this universe, you have the Scrubs and Arrested Developments of this world, hording just as many Emmys while battling tooth and nail simply to make sure they have a time slot from week to week. It's hardly a fair system, but it rests on the almighty advertising dollar so its not going to change no matter how blue in the face we get. Truthfully, it's high time we relocate all the grade-A television to the cable tier of the dial anyway, giving the writers and producers the creative flexibility to push the outer bounds of fun and decency. Such is the situation devilishly funny Arrested Development finds itself after three embattled seasons at Fox. The network has finally pulled the plug on its best series after jerking its fans around all season by putting the comedy on extended hiatus and even crunching the series finale up into four episodes and planting it on a Friday night of all places. If it weren't for my priceless DVR box, I probably wouldn't have caught a single episode of season 3. Enough huffing and puffing about the evils of Fox, let's take perhaps our final look at Arrested Development.

Grade: B | Genre: Thriller/Horror
Summary: The Halloween season has already passed, but seeing Saw 2 is still recommended, as the twists, gore and great acting by Tobin Bell make the movie a suitable sequel.

After 2004's bone-jarring giallo homage Saw, Saw 2 writer/director Darren Lynn Bousman teamed with Saw scripter Leigh Whannell to amend Bousman's original script into a sequel. The only problem: how to top the original?

The answer, apparently, was the typical recipe for disaster, which is to throw more on top. More victims, more story twists, more gore, etc. Surprisingly, while this usually fails, Saw 2 manages to make it work for the most part.

Grade: C- | Genre: Drama
Summary: This was a really disappointing episode. If I wanted to watch E.R., I'd watch E.R.

Ever since the dawn of time, television shows have been fighting tooth and nail for the coveted slot of being the dessert for all those hungry Superbowl fans. This year ABC decides to leave its latest golden boy, Grey's Anatomy, in its usual time slot to show those blood thirsty pigskin followers where they're favorite pummeled quarterback gets shipped after the game. It seems the usually steady writers of Grey's felt the need to get a flair for the sensationalistic as this week's episode morphed into E.R. Maybe it's just me, but there is a reason the medical dinosaur E.R. is 15th in the ratings while fresh Grey's is consistently lodged in the top 10. If anyone should be smuggling away the magic formula it should be E.R. from Grey's. So this week's over-the-top drama explosion is a tad bit inexplicable, and a colossal let down for that once in a lifetime ratings coup.

Grade: C- | Genre: Modern Rock
Summary: I can only hope that after the excessive noodling and doodling they have served up this time, this once-impressive, fun, up-tempo bunch of guys can get back to what they do so well...writing catchy, memorable tunes.

All the hubbub that surrounded The Strokes sophomore release, Room On Fire, for being too short in length seems to have weighed heavy on the bands tousled heads. On the group's latest and least interesting album, First Impressions Of Earth, Singer/Songwriter Julian Casablancas has penned 14 new tunes almost as if to silence former critics. Nice try.

Apparently for The Strokes, more is less. What was once a very cool sound (as New York as the band The Velvet Underground from whom they take nearly every cue) has been chucked in an attempt to mature and expand their horizons. They have only made it clearer how good the last release really was.

Grade: B | Genre: Animation
Summary: Corpse Bride is a solid film with quality animation, a few holes in the storyboard and a crisis of audience. Fans of Tim Burton will be pleasantly surprised to see what the old master has conjured up this go around.

Years from now, we will look back on Tim Burton's films and see him as quite the visionary of our time. He redefined cool in starting the Batman franchise, showed us quirky can be riveting with Edward Scissorhands, and that cartoons aren't always for children in the Nightmare Before Christmas. He follows-up on his dark animated wonder with his latest creation Corpse Bride, just in time for Halloween. It's an intriguing little tale of 19th century marriage, mistaken proposals and finding love in the most unlikely of places. Its cleverly punny while coming together as the sweetest display of Claymation ever committed to film.