Nerd in the 'Noke

A Most Violent Year (2014), R, 125 minutes - Just about any sort of promotion leading up to the release of A Most Violent Year would lead you to believe that it is the most recent entry into the gangster film genre.  But, while a couple of characters certainly have connections to that seedy underside of life, the film actually focuses on one man's efforts to avoid that lifestyle. That man is Abel Morales (Oscar Isaac), an immigrant owner of a heating fuel company in New York City in 1981 (statistically one of the most violent year's in the city's history).  Over a few month period, hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of his company's fuel has been stolen by truck hijackers causing major complications in his business plans on multiple fronts.  Abel finds himself juggling a police investigation into his financial dealings (thanks primarily to his wife's and business partner's connections), push back from the truck driver's union to arm themselves again...

Selma (2014), PG-13, 128 minutes  - There are certain historical figures that society almost demands a certain level of quality from the finished product when a film is being made about their lives (or a portion thereof). Martin Luther King, Jr. is one of those figures, and Selma lives up to those lofty expectations. Selma retells the story of the struggle for equal voting rights for African Americans in Alabama in 1965, specifically the organization of a non-violent march between Selma and the capital of Montgomery led by Martin Luther King, Jr. (David Oyelowo). A law had previously been passed granting African Americans the right to vote, unfortunately, there was no legislation keeping local governments from blocking that right to vote for any number of completely arbitrary reasons. One such reason portrayed in the film was an African American woman trying to register to vote. She had completed all of the necessary paperwork, but when she submitted it, she was asked ho...

Interstellar (2014), PG-13, 169 minutes  - There are a handful of directors whose films I will make the time for no matter what.  It doesn't matter how much I know or have seen of one of their films, I know that I'll enjoy it.  Christopher Nolan is in that group and I have tried very hard to avoid any other information about Interstellar that could spoil the film.  These efforts were undoubtedly helped by our recent move - I just haven't had the time to browse the web and inadvertently stumble across something spoilery. At an undisclosed time in Earth's future, the planet has become increasingly uninhabitable.  Each year more and more crops fall to blight and corn is one of the few that has not yet been infected.  The atmosphere has deteriorated and vicious dust storms are a regular occurrence.  Most of the planet is focused on trying to adapt their way of life to cope with the changes, but a secretly re-constituted NASA (they had been shut down to...