Review: Adventureland

       Kristen Stewart cheats on her boyfriend with a married man. I'm not talking about recent news from the gossip pages, I'm talking about a major plot point of the 2009 film Adventureland. Going into the movie, I wasn't aware of the film's renewed relevance, and I was stunned by the film's eerily accurate depiction of events in Ms. Stewarts life that wouldn't happen for another three years. The film also makes some important points that many people are looking past in light of this recent scandal. While the film acknowledges what Kristen Stewart did was shitty, it doesn't make her out to be the bad guy. Instead the Ryan Reynolds, the married man in question, is portrayed as the villain. He is, after all, the one who is married and is just as responsible. The movies asks why we are so quick to blame the woman, men can be just as terrible.

Review: Safe House

       The Bourne Identity started a trend in Hollywood. Certainly there had been numerous fast-paced thrillers before with complex plots and loads of shooting, but the Bourne franchise added certain stock characters, plot elements, and even visual filters that have since become commonplace in what I call the "smart-thriller" genre. Some of the films birthed into this trend have been good. Others not so much. Safe House is definitely the second kind.