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It’s hard to make a film where the female lead may or may not be a participant in one of the most heinous crimes in American history. Robert Redford’s film attempts just that. What level of guilt she does have is not the point. This is a film about ideals and defending them in the most trying times. The story might be almost 150 years old, but it still resonates today.

Frederick Aiken (James McAvoy, X-MEN: FIRST CLASS) fought in the Civil War for the Union where he was wounded in battle. After the war, he returned to law. He like so many Americans was shook to his core when President Abraham Lincoln was murdered. Senator Reverdy Johnson (Tom Wilkinson, MICHAEL CLAYTON), who was key in keeping Maryland from seceding, took accused conspirator Mary Surratt (Robin Wright, THE PRINCESS BRIDE) on as a client out of principle. But he felt as a Southerner, he only hurt the woman’s case, so he enlists the reluctant Aiken to take his place.

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Brad Furman’s crime thriller can comfortably be described as a yarn. While this is at feature length, this is the kind of detective story that fans of LAW & ORDER will like. What makes this a bit more theatrical and less procedural is the central character, played smarmy and charmingly in equal doses by Matthew McConaughey.

When he’s not a soon to be tamed womanizing romantic lead, McConaughey is in a suit playing a lawyer. Here he is Mick Haller, a defender of all sorts of lowlifes. The counselor works out of his classic Lincoln and since getting a DUI has Earl (Laurence Mason, THE CROW) chauffeuring him around. Bondsman Val Valenzuela (John Leguizamo, MOULIN ROUGE!) usually forwards him the scum he represents, but he has a choice client for him this time. Louis Roulet (Ryan Phillippe, CRASH) comes from money and they have a family lawyer. So why would he want Haller to get him out of a battery charge for which he insistently claims he is innocent of?

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In this animated world, villainy is a corporate venture. Master criminals live among the average citizens, clearly out in the open. The gothic mansion of baddie Gru sticks out in the same row of suburban family homes. To fund criminal ventures, the villains apply for loans from the Bank of Evil (formerly known as Lehman Brothers).

Gru (Steve Carell, GET SMART) wants to be the top criminal mastermind, but he has competition in the newcomer Vector (Jason Segal, I LOVE YOU, MAN), who just stole the Great Pyramid, which he has stowed in his backyard, painting it blue so that it blends in with the skyline. Gru; along with his mad scientist cohort Dr. Nefario (Russell Brand, GET HIM TO THE GREEK) and hundreds of his minions, yellow pill-shaped sidekicks who get giddy over troublemaking; go to the Bank of Evil to get the funding for his biggest caper yet — steal the Moon. But before he can get to the Moon, he has to build a rocketship and steal a newly created Chinese shrink ray. The key to getting the ray — three orphans named Margo (Miranda Cosgrove, TV’s ICARLY), Edith (Dana Gaier) and Agnes (Elsie Fisher).
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At one point in Stephen Daldry’s THE READER, a teacher tells his class that the key element of Western literature is secrets. People keep secrets for noble reasons or selfish reasons or to conceal shame. Sometimes the reasons aren’t that clear. Michael Berg has secrets and so does his lover Hanna Schmitz. When they’re revealed how does that change the way they look at each other and themselves?

Michael Berg, played as a young man by David Kross and as a grown man by Ralph Fiennes (THE ENGLISH PATIENT), was fifteen when he came down with scarlet fever. A kind trolley toll taker named Hanna (Kate Winslet, REVOLUTIONARY ROAD) helped the young man home. When he is well, he takes her flowers to thank her for her kindness, which begins his obsession with the thirtysomething woman, who loves to be read to. Their affair consumes Michael, but he can’t reconcile his strong emotions with Hanna’s casual feelings toward him. As these kinds of affairs often do, it lasted a mere summer, but had a profound effect on Michael throughout his life. During law school, he sees Hanna again, as an accused Nazi guard. This revealed secret shakes his worldview, and his view of himself.

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Brett Morgen’s follow-up to his captivating doc THE KID STAYS IN THE PICTURE, which chronicled the life of infamous Hollywood producer Robert Evans, takes an unconventional approach to the story of the trial of the Chicago 8, a group of the leading anti-war demonstrators following the riots that occurred at the 1968 Democratic National Convention. Mixing contemporary protest music with motion-capture animated court re-enactments and archival film footage, the story of the demonstrations and the following trial are intercut creating drama, humor and poignancy. Including defense attorneys William Kunstler and Leonard Weinglass into the group, the Chicago 10 were railroaded by a system that seems to be putting the 1960s youth culture on trial not just eight individuals.

In re-enactments of the trial, an all-star cast voices the key characters. Hank Azaria (TV’s MAD ABOUT YOU) voices Abbie Hoffman, who eagerly steps into the spotlight as the key character. The curly longhaired iconoclast was as much a showman as he was an activist. He viewed the entire political system as a carnival fueled by mass media’s desire for big ratings. He never lets an opportunity slip by to provoke the aged conservative judge Julius Hoffman (Roy Scheider, JAWS). At one point in the trial when Bobby Seale (Jeffrey Wright, CASINO ROYALE) demands that his rights be recognized, the judge has him gagged and strapped to his chair. Despite only being at the Convention for one day, the Black Panther founder was charged with the rest as a conspirator to riot. Highlighting even more what was really on trial, prosecutor Thomas Foran (Nick Nolte, 48 HRS.) calls poet Allen Ginsberg (Azaria) to the stand and asks him to recite his poem about wet dreams. What did that have to do with the riots?

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After debuting at this year’s Sundance Film Festival followed by a TV premiere on Showtime, this true-life crime tale comes to DVD. Based on court transcripts, this story of child abuse looks at the conditions that lead to an adult babysitter torturing the teenage girl under her care, while allowing her own children, along with neighborhood kids, to continue a serious of sadistic attacks.

Sylvia Likens (Ellen Page, JUNO) had parents who were members of the carnival circuit. Upon moving to a new town, her parents don’t want to take her and her younger sister Jennie (Hayley McFarland) on the road again, so they leave her in the care of single mother Gertrude Baniszewski (Catherine Keener, BEING JOHN MALKOVICH), who they only recently met. With seven children of her own and the promise of $20 every week from the Likens, Gertrude doesn’t think twice about adding two more kids to her care. But when her eldest Paula (Ari Graynor, MYSTIC RIVER) gets pregnant and has a misunderstanding with Sylvia, Gertrude’s harsh punishment tactics come out.

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Fred Schepisi’s A CRY IN THE DARK was an unexpected entry on AFI’s recent top-10 courtroom dramas list. Based on a true story, the drama deals with the price a couple pays when they are convicted in the court of public opinion following the death of their daughter. Driven by a powerful Oscar-nominated performance from Meryl Streep, the film watches as religious prejudice and a media hungry for sensation lead to the conviction of an innocent woman.

Lindy (Streep) and Michael Chamberlain (Sam Neill, JURASSIC PARK) took their three children on a camping trip in the Australian outback. One night cooking dinner, Lindy noticed that a dingo had wandered into their tent and took off with their baby. After an extensive search, the baby was never found. Due to their Seventh-day Adventist beliefs, they quickly found peace with what happened as God’s will. Their lack of the “proper” reaction in the public eye made many doubt their story. After they are not charged during an first inquest hearing, the case was reopened after new forensic evidence was found. As the public opinion turned against them shaky forensic evidence and biased experts lead to their conviction.

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With its big name stars and big star moments, this slick courtroom drama was good Oscar bait material for director Rob Reiner in 1992. There was no way of knowing at the time that the film would only gain weight in the future for events that couldn’t even be thought of in the early ’90s. Set at Guantanamo Bay, the crime story revolves around the death of a marine private and the possible orders that were given that might have lead to his death by the abuse of other soldiers. Aaron Sorkin’s script deals with the following of orders that are not just and a military code of conduct that has become warped. Looking back now, the film almost seems hauntingly prophetic.

Lance Cpl. Harold Dawson (Wolfgang Bodison, LITTLE BIG LEAGUE) and Private Louden Downey (James Marshall, TV’s TWIN PEAKS) have been charged with murder for the death of William Santiago (Michael DeLorenzo, ALIVE), the weakest soldier in their unit. Lt. Cdr. JoAnne Galloway (Demi Moore, ST. ELMO’S FIRE) believes the deaths were the result of a hazy ritual called Code Red, which went awry, and wants the case as a way to expose the practice. Her superiors are playing politics and decide to go with Lt. Daniel Kaffee (Tom Cruise, RISKY BUSINESS), a skilled lawyer who has never seen the inside of a courtroom because he is the master of the plea bargain. Along with researcher Lt. Sam Weinberg (Kevin Pollak, THE USUAL SUSPECTS), Kaffee and Galloway dig deeper into the case and hit nothing but stonewalls from those involved.

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Jerry Seinfeld’s big return is a B- at best. It’s like honey sweet, satisfying, but it’s not something that goes to your head. Even more so than Pixar’s RATATOUILLE, this is an animated film for adults, which is not a negative comment in the least. Visually the little ones might find some of the sillier or more brightly colored moments entertaining, but most of it will buzz right over their heads. Where the film really succeeds is in creating its world. The parallels between the bee world and the human world are at times ingenious.

Barry B. Benson (Seinfeld) has just graduated from college. Because of their short life span, bees only have to go for three days. Barry and his best friend Adam Flayman (Matthew Broderick, ELECTION) go off to their first day at the hive, where they have to choose one job to do for the rest of their lives. This idea scares Barry, who decides to head out into the outside world to see what is out there. Along his journey, he ends up almost swatted by the brutish Ken (Patrick Warburton, TV’s THE TICK) if it were not for the pretty florist Vanessa (Renee Zellweger, BRIDGET JONES’S DIARY). Barry breaks bee law and talks to Vanessa to thank her for saving his life. Quickly, Barry is smitten by Vanessa, and on a trip to the grocery store, he discovers the truth about human’s theft of honey. So with the help of Vanessa, Barry decides to sue the human race.

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Tony Gilroy moves from the writer of the BOURNE series to his first directing gig with this solid corporate thriller. With a fairly straight-forward visual style leaving the flare to the script structure, Gilroy is blessed with a cast filled with the likes of George Clooney, Tom Wilkinson, Tilda Swinton and Sydney Pollack. Each actor gives first-rate performances, driving this very believable tale of corporate greed and deception.

Clooney plays the title character, a fixer for a major law firm. He refers to himself as a janitor; the man who cleans up the dirty laundry of the firm’s high paying clients. He is called in when, during a deposition in a billion dollar lawsuit, the firm’s chief litigator Arthur Edens (Wilkinson, IN THE BEDROOM) strips down naked and professes his love for the young woman testifying in the 15-year-old contamination case. Chief legal advisor for uNorth, the company being sued in the class action suit, Karen Crowder (Swinton, DEEP END) is appalled when she sees the tape of Edens. When Clayton comes to her, he doesn’t make her feel confident that the problem will be adequately taken care of, spurring her to take matters into her own hands.

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