Frozen, Disney’s latest animated feature, promises a fresh take on the traditional fairytale, with stellar animation and voice work making it one of the studio’s best films in years. Kristen Bell and Idina Menzel co-star as two sisters in this loosely based adaptation of Hans Christian Anderson’s ‘The Snow Queen’. The score is absolutely fantastic and there are so many memorable and loveable characters in Frozen that it is sure to be a hit with the whole family.

Elsa (Menzel) and Anna (Bell) are sisters in a mystical Nordic kingdom called Arendelle, where their parents are the King and Queen. Elsa, the elder of the two, has a magical power to create snow and ice – but she has difficulty controlling this power and its strength only grows with year that passes. So Elsa is forced to shut herself off from the world, shutting her door and leaving Anna alone in the empty halls of their palace for years. Upon Elsa’s coming of age to the throne of Arendelle, the castle doors open to a flood of people from as far and wide as the neighboring kingdoms. With all of the commotion and pressure, Elsa feels stressed and in a sense cornered, and her powers reveal themselves. After being heralded as a monster and a danger to all, Elsa runs to the mountains to live in solace in an ice palace she built for herself.

Anna, naïve and playful in her youth, goes on an adventurous quest to find Elsa and get her to come back down to Arendelle. The main motivation for her journey is that Elsa’s powers have frozen over all of the fjords and streams of the kingdom, and so an end to this harsh and sudden winter is desperately needed, but Anna also wants to rekindle the close relationship she had with her sister when they were children.

This sisterly narrative is a fresh take on the traditional Disney fairytale, and there are so many other wonderful characters to enjoy here. There’s Kristoff (Jonathan Groff), a clumsy but well-intentioned young man who sells ice for a living, and aids Anna in her search for her sister. Kristoff is partnered with his reindeer Sven, a cute companion with a personality not too far off from his owner. Later on in the story, Anna, Kristoff, and Sven are joined by Olaf (Josh Gad), a humorous and caring snowman determined to experience summer. All of these characters are charming in their own way, but Disney and writer Jennifer Lee never forget to include many heartfelt moments as well.

The animation on display in Frozen is also worth marveling at, and Arendelle and Elsa’s ice palace both look beautiful. The voice acting is strong, and the singing stronger still. Robert & Kristen Lopez wrote a handful of terrific songs for this film, from the instant-classic “Let it Go” to the joyous “For the First Time in Forever”. All around, Frozen is certainly worth watching with your family and friends, its cute and warm characters exist in a world of song and snow, and the thematic content presents an original take on the well-known Ice Queen story, suggesting she may just be misunderstood and looking for a way to get her family back. This movie is immensely entertaining, and shows that Disney can still crank out top-class family films, something worth celebrating as the generation born after the 1990s ‘Disney Renaissance’ begins to discover and indulge in Disney’s trove of animated treasures.

Set in the small town heartland of America’s Rust Belt, Out of the Furnace exudes the beat-down nature of this Pennsylvania town set around a steel mill. For a sophomore feature, director Scott Cooper feels awfully aware of how to utilize the various tools at his disposable to paint the bleak image of these mean streets. Unfortunately the same cannot be said for plotting, as Out of the Furnace suffers greatly from pacing errors that hinder its performances and keep it out of the realm of greatness it aspires towards. While there are moments where everything seems to come together for this film, on a whole I found Out of the Furnace less satisfying than it should have been.

Christian Bale stars as Russell Blaze, a man who works at the mill just like his father did before him, trying hard to make an honest days pay while balancing the care for his dying father and his relationship with Lena (Zoe Saldana). Bale plays Russell with a stoic grace, evoking our sympathy as his life crumbles around him. After an unfortunate stint in prison, during which Russell’s father passed away and his girlfriend shacked up with the town police chief, Russell emerges a man with little left to lose.

His younger brother Rodney (Casey Affleck) has escaped work in the steel mill by joining the army and completing three tours in Iraq, but now that he is back in Braddock Rodney is having trouble adapting. As Russell comes out of prison his brother is in debt for gambling, which he is trying to pay off by fixing himself in underground bare-knuckle boxing fights. Rodney tries to get rid of his debt with one big fight that he gets his friend John Petty (Willem Dafoe) to set up for him out in the hills of New Jersey.

The hill country in Jersey they drive out to is ruled by the haunting presence of meth-head psychopath Harlan DeGroat (Woody Harrelson). Harrelson is this film’s most engaging quality with his terrifying performance here, perhaps his most fear inducing work since 1994’s Natural Born Killers. Up in his woods he serves his own kind of justice, one that doesn’t involve the police. When Rodney and John Petty go missing up in DeGroat’s territory Russell digs out his hunting rifle and goes in search of his brother.

Despite its many strong performances, all by actors who are immensely talented, Out of the Furnace just doesn't seem to warrant its full two hour runtime. Perhaps the flaw is that the previews promised a violent tale of revenge, whereas in reality the film lacked the pacing to be truly tense. Or maybe the bigger problem was over-anticipation of a film produced jointly by Leonardo DiCaprio and Ridley Scott starring Christian Bale. However, I believe the true problem that stopped Out of the Furnace from being as great as it should have been is the script itself. Set in a crumbling town in recession-ridden America, Out of the Furnace is finely acted and filmed with excellent camerawork, yet the motivation behind the plot and the pacing of the film make it suffer. This movie has almost everything going for it, but in the end it doesn’t know where it wants to go with it all, and therein lies the disappointment of a film that could have been much better. 

Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio’s fifth collaboration may seem like a three-hour opus honoring debauchery and self-indulgence in all forms, but if you look deeper the expertly executed film is at its core a story of addiction and a commentary on who our society rewards. Like many of Scorsese’s antiheros, Jordan Belfort becomes addicted not only to more drugs than any healthy person could stomach, but also to the adrenaline and greed of his lifestyle. With an energized lead performance by Leonardo DiCaprio and stellar camerawork all around,The Wolf of Wall Street is one of Scorsese’s finest films of the 21st century, and would feel right at home alongside the likes of other Scorsese masterworks such as Goodfellas or Casino.

At the ripe age of twenty-five Jordan Belfort moved to New York to pursue the fortune that suited his aspiration. Hired by a prominent Wall Street brokerage firm, Belfort soon loses his job on the infamous Black Monday as his new employer tanks. Recovering quickly he finds a job out on Long Island selling penny stocks – businesses that aren’t big enough to be listed on the NASDAQ and trade for only a couple cents a share. Jordan soon becomes an expert at stuffing bad deals down the gullible throats of the average working class person who’s just trying to get rich quick. After meeting the wheezy Donnie Azoff (Jonah Hill) at a diner one morning and befriending him, the two rent out an old garage and start their own brokerage firm.

At first the two sell more penny stocks to naïve investors who simply don’t know any better.  Then Jordan changes the name of the company to Stratton Oakmont to attract more lucrative and wealthy investors, and with his nearly unparalleled sales skills the firm swiftly grows into a large operation with real offices and several dozens of employee. Before they know it Stratton Oakmont was making more money than they know what to do with, and thus begins the immense levels of depravity and debauchery. From Quaaludes to hookers to midget tossing, the management of Stratton Oakmont had no problem with spending their newly earned wealth on every car, yacht, beach house, and mountain of cocaine they could set their eyes on.

For the next several chapters of the film we watch on as Belfort and his partners descend into further circles of decadent self-gratification. Only three days after his divorce is finalized, Jordan has his beautiful new girlfriend Naomi (Margot Robbie) move into his new Manhattan penthouse with him. As Stratton Oakmont’s parties begin to grow out of hand, with sex and drugs rampant, the authorities begin to close in on Jordan from all sides. The FBI and Agent Patrick Denham (Kyle Chandler) begin tracking him, and the Securities and Exchange Commission start poking around his offices. Belfort is forced to launder his money and hide it in a Swiss bank account with Jean Dujardin playing the corrupt Geneva banker holding his fortunes.

What may shock some is that The Wolf of Wall Street is based on the true story of Jordan Belfort’s fortunes and crimes of the 1990s. His brutally honest memoir, which the film is based on, recount his years of drug abuse, sex, and greed with detail and have been laid out with minor changes in this film. Leonardo DiCaprio plays the depraved years of Belfort’s life with an electric performance that both entices us with his natural charm and disgusts us with the shock of his actions. As the film progresses, Belfort descends to new levels and we begin to fear not only for his own safety but also for that of those around him.

Martin Scorsese and his entire crew have put in some tremendous effort on this film, making it one of his best pieces in years. The score is, as always for Scorsese; pitch perfect, the casting; spot-on, and the camerawork magnificent. Different editing styles and physical camera lenses were used for scenes before and after Jordan and his friends got high to distinguish between environments. This also seeks to enhance the narrative, as Jordan can’t really recall everything that happened when he was on some of his Quaalude binges. 

Embedded in The Wolf of Wall Street are many scenes of hilarity, over-indulgence to rival that of Roman emperors, and a deeper tragedy. Through its laughs and raunchiness the film makes a scary commentary on contemporary America that feels extremely relevant to the consumer excess and materialistic hedonism of the popular media. Working from Terrence Winter’s bold and ballsy script, Martin Scorsese has crafted one of the most enjoyable and boundary-pushing films in years. His fifth collaboration with Leonardo DiCaprio commands whirlwind performances from all it’s cast, and may be one of their best films together. Ultimately, this is a film about the high-speed hedonistic lifestyle of Wall Street power brokers in the early ‘90s, and about addiction in all forms; from sex to drugs, with the most alluring and powerful pull being that hunger for the almighty dollar.

Spike Jonze’s Her is an emotional, funny, bold, and beautiful motion picture. Captured with incredible cinematic talent and splendor, Her tells a touching story that engages audience and stirs sympathy. Through it’s tremendous performances across the board, stirring score, and talented cinematography, this has to be one of the year’s most interesting films and one certainly worth getting excited about.

Joaquin Phoenix stars as Theodore Twombly, a quirky writer drifting through a lonely existence in a not-too-distant future Los Angeles. His work entails composing love letters for other couples, a job I can imagine people taking up pretty soon. When not on the job Theodore checks his emails on the train home like so many of us today, he plays videogames alone in his tidy apartment, and seems to enjoy the small doses of human interaction he does have. Theodore is also still in the process of recovering from the collapse of his marriage with Catherine (Rooney Mara) and has retreated into his own shell.

As the wounded protagonist Joaquin Phoenix is phenomenally cast, we can see the pain and confusion in his eyes and feel the loneliness of his heavy heart in the atmosphere of the film. A truly stellar actor for a number of reasons, Phoenix transforms into the stumbling and sympathetic role of Theodore with such ease that the character almost breaches the void to becoming a real person to us. Such goes the theme of the film, as Scarlett Johansson breathes life into the voice of Samantha, an operating system that Theodore falls in love with. The question of whether Samantha is aware enough to develop her own true feelings and to cultivate a unique personality is left for us to decide, but with Johansson’s terrific voice acting we, along with Theodore, seem to suspend belief enough that she really exists in the room with us. The power of the performances is so key to this film that I can not imagine anyone else in the roles say for Phoenix and Johansson.

After buying this new operating system and answering a few set-up questions, Theodore is introduced to Samantha for the first time. With her friendly yet oddly seductive voice, Samantha and Theodore develop a friendship as she cleans his computer's folders and writes emails for him. The level of interaction the two have is so deep and continuous that Theodore almost can’t help himself but begin to care for Samantha, as she helps him rediscover his own thrill to learn and adventure and be joyous. Together the two visit the beach, the circus, they even go on a double date with Theodore’s coworkers.

While set in the near future, writer and director Spike Jonze doesn’t focus on the scientific side of things, such as questioning whether an OS like Samantha is really an invention close to being reached. That isn’t to say that there are many subtle commentaries on society present here, from everyone strolling the concourses and bridges of Los Angeles with their phones out to some clever little jabs at video games. Nor is this film about the collapse of human interaction, in some ways Samantha gets Theodore to leave his apartment and to meet new people more so than he did before. Amy Adams plays his compassionate and quietly friendly neighbor with a delightful energy, and the two develop a unique and platonic friendship. In some ways Theodore and Samantha’s relationship is just as much about love in the era of technology between two humans as it is between a man and his OS.

Almost unexpected here is the level of humor, as Spike Jonze expertly navigates from heartbreaking scenes to comedic ones with only a few moves in between. Also unique to the emotional level of the story is how Jonze navigates our sympathy towards Theodore, and then later away from him towards Samantha for a time and even his ex-wife Catherine before back to Theodore. This way we understand and feel for all of the human characters in this film. Filmed with beauty and written with intellect, Her is one of the most original, and one of my favorite, films of the year.

Cate Blanchett leads Woody Allen’s latest film with great confidence in her disillusioned lead character Jasmine. Her superb performance drives the film, and Allen’s thoughtful writing pays tribute to Tennessee William’s American classic “A Streetcar Named Desire” in this wonderfully tragic comedy.

Blanchett’s Jasmine is a disheartened Manhattan socialite who has lost near everything she previously had held dear. Her husband Hal (Alec Baldwin) was a wealthy con artist who seduced and married her but cheated at any chance he got and had become immensely wealthy on a series of fraudulent real-estate investments and fictitious corporations. When the government came in and took all of Jasmine’s designer clothes and bags, and then her husband hung himself in prison, she had no choice but to move in with her sister in San Francisco.

Ginger (Sally Hawkins), Jasmine’s adopted sister, lives at quite the opposite end of the spectrum from her distanced sister. Ginger bags groceries and lives in a cramped apartment with her two sons. She’s once divorced and in a serious relationship with Chili (Bobby Cannavale), a blue-collar worker with gusto who Jasmine looks down upon and later even turns her sister against. Ginger’s contrast with Jasmine is one of the focuses of this feature, as Jasmine mumbles to herself while she downs Xanax and liquor, Ginger is relatively happy with her two boys and simpler life. Yet through their dysfunctional interactions we see that both of these women are at their core insecure about who they are.

The Australian-born Cate Blanchett plays Jasmine with a miraculous blend of wilting melancholy and disarrayed persistence; this is a performance worthy of an Academy nomination. Blanchett’s Jasmine evokes the qualities of a contemporary Blanche DuBois in her delusional pursuit of a savior, and her dealings with her sister’s social circle. For Jasmine, the opportunity to achieve the life she aspires to presents itself in her relationship with the wealthy politician Dwight (Peter Sarsgaard), who somehow believes her fictional personal history. Ginger too tries her luck at finding a healthy relationship with a sweet man, yet both women encounter trouble along the way.

Blue Jasmine is Woody Allen at his near best, with all the wit and emotion as his greatest works on display here. Cate Blanchett leads an all-round great cast as the mentally unstable Jasmine, in one of her finest performances to date. While Jasmine is the focus of this film, Allen writes all of the side characters with such zeal that each could be studied in their own right, such as Ginger’s re-evaluations of her own choices in life once her world is entered by her estranged sister. Crafted with an obvious love for story-telling and powered by an outstanding lead actress, Blue Jasmine is one of Woody Allen’s best works as of yet.

Pixar has done it again, created a wonderfully cute animated comedy that has a lot of heart. While this film suffers in comparison to the first Monsters flick due to some sequel curse (or in this case prequel curse), Monsters University is still a good movie in its own right. With great voice acting, some terrific animation work, and a strong enough storyline, Monsters University certainly doesn’t disappoint.

Mike Wazowski (Billy Crystal) is a young and cute one-eyed green monster who dreams of bigger things. After a class trip to Monsters Inc. where he meets a ‘scarer’ voiced by John Krasinski, Mike decides that he too will become one of the most prestigious roles in the monster world, a scarer; someone who ventures into the toxic world of the humans and collects the scream energy needed to power their world. However, Mike is small and unintimidating, focusing on studying textbooks to become the next great scarer.

When Mike gets his acceptance to Monster’s University, he is instantly thrilled and on the right course to fulfill his dreams, until he collides with James P. Sullivan (John Goodman). Sullivan, the son of a famous scarer, seems to have coasted on his family name and scary-looks for most of his life. After a fight with Mike in class, the fearsome Dean Hardscrabble (Helen Mirren) throws the two of them out of the scare program entirely, and so to prove their worth the two young monsters must team up with each other and a rag-tag group of misfits in the small fraternity Oozma Kappa, and together this band of monsters must prove to the campus that they can fit in, and that they are meant for greater things. This involves entering in the annual “Scare Games”, a competition between fraternities and sororities to prove which team consists of the greatest scarers on campus, where Oozma Kappa must band together if they want to succeed; meaning Mike and Sullivan have to start getting along.

Billy Crystal and John Goodman lead a great cast of celebrity voice actors, including Helen Mirren, Sean Hayes, Aubrey Plaza, Charlie Day, and Alfred Molina. A small number of actors revise their voice roles from the 2001 Monsters Inc. such as Frank Oz and Steve Buscemi as Randall Boggs. Each of the many supporting characters in this lively animated cast brings something special to the movie, and there are plenty of likeable new characters this time around. The friendships that develop between these characters are unique and show the true heart of this film, finding the tone Pixar is looking for.

Monsters University serves as an effective prequel in that it flushes out Mike and Sulley’s characters with far more depth, helping our understanding of the beginnings of their lasting friendship. While not the most original work to come from Pixar studios, the animation is still stellar and there are a handful of loveable new characters to be experienced here. Featuring a story about friendship (and to an extent the experience of getting older), Monsters University is a welcome addition to the list of Pixar graduates, though we know this studio to be capable of far greater.

This Is the End is one of the most audacious, tasteless, and hysterical comedies in recent years. It shocks and awes viewers with its blend of grotesque horror, verbal and physical comedy, and its ability to laugh at its stars. Every actor in this movie plays themselves, or at least some dramatized version of themselves, and this provides for some great jokes about Seth Rogen’s The Green Hornet, James Franco’s artsy personality, or Jonah Hill’s post-Oscar nomination arrogance. Even without the hellfire and vulgarity, this movie will still be remembered for having several of the greatest cameos in a long time.

Seth Rogen, playing himself, welcomes his old pal Jay Baruchel to Los Angeles for a weekend of chilling out, until Seth brings Jay to a massive party at James Franco’s house. In attendance are a myriad of celebrities, from a perverse and coked-up Michael Cera to Rihanna. The initial conflict in the film is the tension between Seth Rogen’s new friends in Hollywood and Jay Baruchel, but pretty soon the world starts to end in spectacular fashion, with the earth opening up and the Hollywood hills burning throughout the night. As the few survivors, James Franco, Seth Rogen, Jay Baruchel, Jonah Hill, Craig Robinson, and Danny McBride barricade themselves in Franco’s lavish house to live through the apocalypse.

What follows is a strange fusion of horror comedy with some inviting insider jokes and devilish destruction. After Danny McBride eats and drinks a large share of their supplies, angers rise in the house, as well as old tensions resurfacing. As the gang use Franco’s art to barricade the doors, film make-believe sequels to some of their real-life movies, and generally panic about a lack of water, the situation outside doesn’t seem to be improving. By the climax with an anatomically correct Satan, so much has transpired on-screen most viewers won’t be quite sure what hit them. Whether it works or not, I’ll let you decide for yourself.

As said earlier, one thing This Is the End certainly does well is its many incredible cameos. Without giving away too much, I’ll reveal that Emma Watson, Channing Tatum, Aziz Ansari, and a certain boy-band all make hilarious appearances here. In addition, the main cast all poke fun at themselves through sometimes harsh comebacks. This feels like more than just a bunch of friends hanging out in front of a camera, like Grown Ups did, instead the actors here all seem to be putting in true effort to make us laugh, playing themselves like they would any other character.

While its crazy in its own wild way, This Is the End is also quite hilarious, and is without a doubt one of the best comedies of the year. The leads are all well established as a crew from Judd Apatow’s films, and so their ability to spoof themselves is a great joke that most audience members will be in on. Even if you don’t know these actors from other films, there’s still plenty of humor to be offered here, from the physical, to the vulgar, to the downright strange. An exercise in the self-mockery of actors, This Is the End blends horror comedy with the ridiculous in hilarious fashion, and with great success.

The crazy antics of the Griswold family are out in display in grand fashion in this hilarious Christmas movie. If you aren’t familiar with the National Lampoon Vacation movies, then this will be a fine fit for you, because instead of vacationing across the country or to Europe, this time around the Griswold’s have their family come visit for the holiday season. What follows is a whacky and at times hysterical tale of a man who just wants a big old family Christmas at home.

Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase) is so determined to have the perfect family Christmas he always dreamed of, that we open with him driving his wife Ellen (Beverly D’Angelo) and two kids Rusty and Audrey (Johnny Galecki and Juliette Lewis) out into the woods to cut down that perfect tree. The Griswold family’s luck being what it is, the simple tree cutting ritual turns into a highway chase, a frozen hike, and the eventual realization they didn’t even bring a saw.

Then the family arrives. So many people are packed into the Griswold house for Christmas its hard to keep track of them all, with Clark’s old aunt and uncle perhaps standing out the most. While the family engages in the usual sort of bickering and playful arguing that so many big families are used to around Christmas, no one even notices the dirty RV pull up into the drive way with Clark’s near-hillbilly brother-in-law Eddie (Randy Quaid) with his family and their slobbering dog. The series of holiday scenes that follow are frequently up and down; with some stirring huge laughs, and other facing trouble with pacing or simply suffering in comparison. We see various members of the family embark upon last-minute Christmas shopping, go tobogganing, or decorate the house – leading to some hilarity about Clark’s determination to have a memorably decorated house, even if that means putting up hundreds and hundreds of strings of lights.

Chevy Chase is loveable in his role as the persistent father who is determined to give his family a wonderful Christmas. Even though his actions frequently lead to chaos instead of cheer, this certainly won’t be a holiday season the Griswolds’ easily forget. Some of the most memorable moments come directly from Chevy Chase, with his delivery near perfect on lines like “Surprised Eddie? If I woke up tomorrow with my head sewn to the carpet I wouldn’t be more surprised than I am right now”.

Written by the same John Hughes who gave us such 1980s classics as Pretty in Pink and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, this movie suffers from pacing in that it has all the great jokes it needs; but it doesn’t seem to know where to go with them. That being said, Christmas Vacation remains one of the all-out funniest Christmas movies around, and a personal holiday favorite of mine.

Based on the true story that made waves back in 2009, Captain Phillips tells the true story of the Maersk Alabama, an American freighter ship taken hostage by pirates miles off the coast of Somalia. Director Paul Greengrass, who brought us the fantastic docu-dramas United 93 and Bloody Sunday, employs all of his usual techniques to make this film stand out. He finds substance beneath the facts, but doesn’t exaggerate to the extent of losing honesty. In the incredibly talented Tom Hanks he finds a strong lead in the titular role of Richard Phillips, and surrounds him with a number of new and unknown actors who all perform terrifically. Captain Phillips is a tense and thrilling feature with strong camerawork and great performances.

Back in 2009, Captain Richard Phillips helmed a large cargo ship called the Maersk Alabama out of Oman with a route around the Horn of Africa to Mombasa. As they pass a little too close to the coast of Somalia – a detail which actual crew members suggest that Captain Phillips is to blame for, and thus shouldn't be portrayed as any hero – two small skiffs appear in the distance on their sonar. A single pirate ship manages to latch on with their ladder, and armed with AK-47s they have little trouble capturing the Maersk Alabama’s main deck and control room. The unquestionable leader of the pirates Muse (Barkhad Abdi, a Somali actor new to big screen) tells Phillips at gunpoint that he is the captain of the ship now.

Captain Phillips tries his best to keep the crew safe and the pirates satisfied through negotiation and appeasement, later even seemingly offering himself up for their taking. The crew hide down in the hold, and Phillips tries his best to keep their presence unknown as he is forced to lead Muse around the ship. The climax of the film is a long and incredibly tense series of scenes in which Phillips is taken by Muse and two other pirates into the small escape pod and shot out to sea. With the piracy becoming a bigger story, the US Navy finally arrives on the scene, and we are presented with a terrifically tense finale.

Tom Hanks is excellent here as Captain Phillips, and while I think some people are seriously overstating things by calling it his best work, I still want to emphasize his skill and talent on display in this film. Captain Phillips would not be the work that it is without Hanks holding it all together. He is memorable and terrific in so many tense scenarios, balancing calm and fear with success. His supporting cast are all strong, particularly Abdi as Muse, who shares a number of scenes with Hanks and more than holds his own.

Paul Greengrass directs with all of his usual tools out in full display; such as his use of shaky hand-held cameras (which only Greengrass can truly pull off) or the intense fusion of truth and drama. In Captain Phillips Greengrass tells the story quite truthful to reality, yet somehow in the story and through the performances finds depth where there otherwise might not be – take many of Muse and Phillips scenes of extended dialogue, where they discuss each others’ jobs at hand and Greengrass finds universal recognition in the concept of a hard day's work of serving some boss.

In the end Captain Phillips surprised me for its excellent pacing and incredibly tense take on true events. Tom Hanks gives a great performance, as does his fellow cast. Paul Greengrass has crafted yet another fine film here, making Captain Phillips one of the best thrillers of the year.

Jeff Nichols’ third feature, Mud, is a coming-of-age story that channels the naivety of youth, the complexity of love, the intrigue of violence, and the mysteries of morality, all told in the Mississippi River valley in Arkansas. What starts off as an innocent adventure for two boys soon descends into so much more, first when they find a boat stuck up in a tree, and later as Nichols’ adds additional layers to the story. Wonderful characterization and a handful of stellar performances launch Mud to the levels it hopes for, with my only criticism being the relatively unsatisfactory final chapter.

Mud opens to two boys getting up before dawn to the sound of each other over walkie-talkies, all so that they can take a small outboard motor dingy up through the rivers on an adventure. Once they reach the mouth of their smaller channel they come across a large island with a blue and white boat stuck firmly in the trees, brought there by some flood. Ellis (Tye Sheridan) and Neckbone (Jacob Lofland) are quizzical and excited, at first claiming the boat their own. Then they come across canned food and magazines and realize that someone else is already living in their boat. Down by the shore they meet him, a man simply named Mud (Matthew McConaughey). With the snake tattoo on his arm, cross on his boot-heel, and stories to go with everything else, Mud is a romanticized folk hero for the boys.

For the boys, the boat is a pre-built tree house alone on their very own island. For Mud, it’s a place to hide away from the world in waiting for his true love, Juniper (Reese Witherspoon). We soon begin to learn about Mud’s murky past after state troopers begin checking cars on the local roads for him. The hints at his violent history, like the pistol poking out of his pants, both scares and entices the boys. When Ellis agrees to bring food for Mud, they have no idea what they’re getting involved in.

Ellis does not question Mud’s integrity throughout the film, as his devotion to Juniper (even when she doesn’t always offer him hers) gives him hope, as he makes his first ventures into romantic affairs and his parent’s relationship crumbles before him. Mud makes the boys, Ellis in particular, feel needed and he trusts them with the true stories of his life. At least the two boys take Mud’s stories to be true, but when we later hear conflicted versions of the story the boys begin to lose the naivety of taking everything at face value. As they continue to help Mud with food and then with other supplies for escape from both the cops and the more dangerous bounty hunters after him, the two boys mature substantially from their innocent beginnings.

Jeff Nichols’ creates many original characters each with substantial depth and growth throughout the story. His work with cinematographer Adam Stone on this picture is phenomenal, with wide-panning shots of rivers, light streaming through the trees, and the fitting soundtrack all adding to the ambiance. Nichols’ also draws from a variety of fiction as inspiration, from ‘Cool Hand Luke’ to ‘Huckleberry Finn’, complementing his own writing style and making the story fit in with themes of the American tradition. 

Matthew McConaughey gives yet another fantastic performance, continuing his streak of success over the past few years. Tye Sheridan is a promising young actor, and co-stars Sam Shepard and Michael Shannon are also both great additions to the cast. The entire film is elevated by some outstanding performances, but even more so by Nichols’ stellar writing and character development. He approaches complex themes like love from so many angles one could discuss this film for days, and while the conclusion is a potentially disagreeable, it doesn’t stop this film from being a great piece of work. Like the two boys leaving their comfortable tributary for the greater river, this film plunges them into the great unknown of adolescence, and is wonderfully enjoyable.