Right off the bat in Lincoln, director Steven Spielberg gives us one of his signature moments, a framing device in the story that is supposed to be based on historic facts that smacks of pure invention and threatens to derail our investment in, not just the individual moment, but the film as a whole.  

Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace now feel like warm-ups for newbie Bond star Daniel Craig, pacing laps before the full-on marathon. If you buy this analogy, then Skyfall must be seen as the race of Craig’s life, the one where he, in those final tough miles, breaks free of the pack with cool confidence and a steady hand at the helm (Road to Perdition director Sam Mendes).  

Slowing down, in the Buddhist way, is all about opening oneself up to the cacophony of life. Audiences should keep this notion in mind during screenings of The Sessions, the new film from writer-director Ben Lewin, featuring John Hawkes in one of those quietly human performances.  

With all the movements to instill a local and/or regional focus on our consumer urges counter-balanced by the narrowing of our reach, thanks to technology, what is the difference between local and global? What would 19th century hipsters think of the accessibility present in today’s world?  

The term “visionary” gets tossed around way too casually, much like “genius,” but Samsara, Ron Fricke’s documentary (based on the concept and treatment he developed with Mark Magidson) more   

An old-school video game villain named Wreck-It Ralph (voiced by John C. Reilly) lumbers around smashing buildings that the game’s hero Fix-It Felix (Jack McBrayer) repairs for points and acclaim. But, one day, Ralph desires to have a life beyond where he stays during off-hours — the muddy trash heap right across from Felix’s skyscraper filled with friends and family — and he goes off the grid to earn a gold medal.  

I’m not certain when the feeling set in for me, but at some point during the Flight screening I attended, I was overcome with the sense of observing the dark days of Stevie Ray Vaughan, the virtuoso Texas guitarist who died in the early 1990s after years of working as a sideman (most notably with David Bowie on his 1980s classic Let’s Dance) and taking center stage with his own band.  

I had to catch myself in Toronto during the festival press screening of Cloud Atlas, the new film from Tom Tykwer and the Wachowskis (Andy and Lana), and carefully consider what it would mean to define their adaptation of David Mitchell’s book as “novelistic.”   

Cos was, and still remains, your crazy uncle at the family reunion who seemingly was always around whenever something happened and was able to recall the situation in order to put someone — maybe you — in their place. I’m nearing my mid-forties now, and I’m starting to recognize myself in that role.
  

Five years after the mysterious disappearance of Katie (Katie Featherston) and her nephew, paranormal activities emerge in a new suburban community.