School of Creative and Performing Arts graduate Todd Louiso (Love Liza) helms this indie drama about Amy (Melanie Lynsky), a recently divorced woman who moves back home with her parents just as her father prepares to seal a business deal that could set them on course for retirement and a trip around the world.  

Israeli writer-director Avi Nesher adapts Amir Gutfreund’s novel set during 1968 — a year after the Summer of Love, about a teenage boy (Tuval Shafir) hired by a matchmaker (Adir Miller) who survived the Holocaust and has set up shop behind a movie theater that runs only love stories.  

Author Stephen Chbosky adapts and helms this take on his novel centering on an introverted freshman named Charlie (Logan Lerman) who gets pulled into the orbit of a pair of independent-minded seniors (Emma Watson and Ezra Miller).   

A sketchy take on the Glee phenomenon, Pitch Perfect dances around Beca (Anna Kendrick), a Barden University freshman who would rather be producing music from her fresh beats than singing staid acapella tunes with an all-girls group desperate to beat their male campus rivals in competition.  

For the couch-bound adrenaline seekers, the American Express/Tribeca Film series offers up Sleepless Night, a French production from Frederic Jardin (of the 2002 comic drama Cravate club) that mines similar territory.  

This animated monster mash-up from director Genndy Tartakovsky finds Dracula (Adam Sandler) running an exclusive getaway resort for the paranormal set with assistance from his good buddy Frankenstein (Kevin James).  

The mob of the future maintains its iron grip on society by utilizing the ultimate existential weapon — time travel. When they want to get rid of someone, that person gets sent back in time where a waiting killer executes them, closing the loop on that person, permanently.  

This uplifting educational drama from Daniel Barnz stars Maggie Gyllenhaal and Viola Davis as a pair of mothers who team up to take over their failing school, if only they can fight the overwhelming bureaucracy of the school system, the attack-dog stance of the teacher’s union and the general apathy of parents who have lost hope.  

This year’s seventh annual Downtown Dayton LGBT Film Festival lineup definitely addresses a new honest reality, this striving for a sense of urgent authenticity, both through the films and the celebratory events.  

My drive back from the Toronto International Film Festival cracked open the protective cinema dome, and it did so with a vengeance. NPR rudely awakened me to the news of the attacks on the Libyan embassy that resulted in the death of U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens.