• January 14, 2014
• At Home, Drama

Sutter, the central character in The Spectacular Now, is like John Cusack’s Lloyd Dobler from Say Anything. He’s charming and cute in kind of a boy-next-door way. He is...

• August 14, 2013
• Action, At Home, Fantasy

I can only guess that The Mortal Instruments series of books is much better than this film. After all, the story seems to pick and choose from the hot genres,...

• July 7, 2013
• At Home, Comedy, Drama

Liam James stars (in the Chris Makepeace role) as Duncan, an introverted 14-year-old, who’s dragged along when his well-meaning mom (Toni Collette) and her asshat boyfriend Trent (Steve Carell,...

• May 27, 2013
• At Home, Drama, Fantasy, Romance

There is something refreshing about seeing a surly teen girl a movie who is not a pushover like Twilight’s Bella. Lena (Alice Englert) is new in town. She is...

• December 14, 2012
• At Home, Drama, Television

I heart the Shout! Factory DVD label. Like Criterion, they are making a name for themselves by putting out carefully thought-out DVD releases of, in their case, TV shows...

• September 24, 2012
• At Home, Comedy, Family

Tara (Debby Ryan) is a quiet kid at her high school in always-sunny Seattle (har!). She freezes up when her teachers call on her, and she has a huge...

• September 20, 2010
• At Home

Directed by Will Gluck (Fired Up!), the film centers on wallflower Olive Penderghast (Stone), who agrees to pretend to have sex with a gay classmate (Dan Byrd) so the...

• July 11, 2010
• At Home, Comedy, Drama, Music

Unlike the sweet confectionary pop of the High School Musical films (which I kinda like), Bandslam one-ups Disney by making a totally accessible teen film which still has some...

• April 28, 2010
• At Home, Crime, Drama

The film is based on late poet/rocker Jim Carroll’s book The Basketball Diaries, which itself is based on his own life as a teen heroin addict. In a curious...

• April 17, 2009
• At Home, Comedy, Drama, Fantasy

17 Again wastes no time appeasing its target audience: In the opening sequence, we get to see Zac Efron shirtless (six-pack gleaming with sweat), shooting baskets with ease, smiling...

• March 15, 2009
• At Home, Documentary

Documentary filmmaker Nanette Burstein followed a handful of high-school seniors for their last year of school in small-town Warsaw, Indiana. With gossip, crushes, rejection, peer pressure, and bad skin,...

• December 25, 2007
• At Home, Comedy, Drama

Juno is just the type of hipster, slangy comedy that will be a huge cult hit and inevitably get a backlash as it gets more and more adored (see...