Nerd in the 'Noke

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...

Dallas Buyers Club (2013), R, 117 minutes - Much like Captain Phillips, Dallas Buyers Club is a story that is worth passing on to future generations.  While 1993's Philadelphia looked at AIDS from a legal rights point of view, Dallas Buyers Club is based on a true story that looks at the disease through a different lens: one of a man just trying to survive. Dallas, Texas, 1985 - Ron Woodruff (Matthew McConaughey) is an electrician who oozes the manly man stereotype.  He loves sex, drugs, the rodeo, and is quick to run off a string of homophobic slurs if the opportunity presents itself.  After going to the hospital for a work related injury, he's informed that extensive testing shows he is HIV+ and has about 30 days to live.  He launches into a homophobic rant and proclaims that 'nothing can kill Ron Woodruff in 30 days!' disregarding the information that Dr. Sevard (Denis O'Hare) and Nurse Eve (Jennifer Garner) provided.  After a day or two, he settles down...

The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), R, 180 minutes - Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio.  As far as I'm concerned, that's all you needed to tell me to get me into the theater to see The Wolf of Wall Street, negative reviews be damned.  Their track record together says it all: Gangs of New York, The Aviator, The Departed, Shutter Island.  You better believe I'd give them the benefit of the doubt. DiCaprio plays Jordan Belfort, and we watch his meteoric rise to billionaire status thanks to some grooming from Mark Hanna (Matthew McConaughey), a lot of smarts, and a fair share of questionable (morally and legally speaking) business tactics.  He's joined on his journey by Donnie Azoff (Jonah Hill) who quits his job and offers to work for Belfort when he is shown a pay stub for a single month that clears seventy grand.  Belfort collects a handful of other friends that have the drive to make big money and behind his brains they launch their own firm.  Success ...