Coming to the big screen this week is the story of three brothers who made and ran moonshine in Franklin County, Va., based on a book by local novelist Matt Bondurant with a screenplay written by Nick Cave. This indie release, directed by Aussie John Hillcoat, brings together a stellar cast in what ultimately is a beautifully filmed ultra-violent action drama but a missed opportunity to go deeper. What we get is a temporarily diverting two hours, but a film that doesn't really stay with you or scream "classic'" after the credits roll. One thing does stay with you long after the twitch-…

Those who live in the Washington area can rightly claim Mike Birbiglia as their own.  He was inspired to take up stand-up comedy while studying screenwriting at Georgetown University.  He has risen to the top of his career, selling out shows all over the globe, and releasing numerous successful recordings.  Now, the feature film adaptation of his critically-acclaimed one-man show, "Sleepwalk With Me", which won this year's Best of Next award at Sundance Film Festival, is coming to a limited number of big screens near us.    The movie is the true story of how Birbiglia discovers he has rapid …

This movie is not for the normal, usual, run-of-the mill cartoon movie fan. No. If your kids who are less fans of Mickey Mouse and more fans of Jack from Nightmare Before Christmas, or your tweens prefer Dr. Who to the Whos in Whoville, or if your family decorates more for Halloween than for Christmas, this is your kind of movie.  If this sounds like you, you will be able to relate to and feel sympathy for the hero of ParaNorman. He is not like everyone else. He has trouble fitting in. So many of us horror movie lovers, and fans of zombie, vampire and slasher movies, can relate. Until lately…

In a world where teenagers are the stars and films are green-lit based on the number of explosions, it behooves us adults to put our cinematic money where our mouths are and support films with actors who stand for the older members of the audience, especially when these actors represent the very height of thespian prowess. Hope Springs is about a couple, played by Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones, who have been married for 31 years. They venture (at the behest of Streep's character) to Maine to attend a  week of intensive marriage counseling to try to bring back the intimacy missing in their …

"Moonrise Kingdom" is coming to theaters in a much wider release this Friday.  Cinema Siren places this film as one of the top of 2012, and shows in this case the director's genius for creating a mythic, nostalgic world vaguely tethered to reality that is thoroughly engaging and wholly charming.   Wes Anderson's latest and best effort stars two newcomers as young lovers running away together who must be found before a historic storm reaches landfall on the isolated island that is their 1965 home. Edward Norton, Bruce Willis, Bill Murray and Frances McDormand are all players in the ensemble …

In Greek mythology, Prometheus got in big trouble for handing over the secret of fire to mere mortals. In modern day, he represents the quest for human knowledge and achievement. Of course, he wound up tied to a rock and having an eagle peck his guts out every day. Apparently the team who embarks on their own quest for knowledge in the spacecraft that supplies the title of Ridley Scott's highly anticipated new film hadn't gotten the foreshadowing memo. For them, asking questions about human origin, and actively seeking answers, is the beginning of Bad Things happening, but then we audience …

Such promise. After Tarsem Singh's "Mirror Mirror" chose form over substance, we were hoping the dark take "Snow White and the Huntsman" offers on the age-old tale would be all it seduced us with in the previews. Oscar-winning stunner Charlize Theron as the wicked queen, Chris Hemsworth, the haughty hottie we love as Thor as the Huntsman, and Kristen Stewart bringing her mixed demeanor of demure ingenue and smoldering "git-er-done" Goth girl all presented in a nightmarish landscape…what's not to love? Lots. No question it out-designs "Mirror Mirror," which is no small feat. The actors embrace…

If you're like me, you may have pondered: "Why, 10 years after a MIB sequel that stunk up the theater like Edgar the Bug's rotting human skin, are they releasing another sequel? How can it possibly be worth seeing?" Well, you ask, is it? Oh yeah!  Definitely the best of the franchise, "MIB3" is a lot of escapist fun and breathes life into the adventures of these boys in dark suits. It succeeds most by using every detail of both the scripting and visual elements in the service of the story. This installment has neither the jokey "too cool for school" vibe of the first or the "too serious to …

I'm surprised blue and gold aren't the colors used on the movie poster for "Battleship," along with Go Navy! and Beat Aliens! If you leave your brain at the front door of the multiplex on a day you feel like rooting for the home team, you could do worse than vacillating between cheering and snickering for those two hours of this completely ridiculous, raucous mash-up of "Independence Day," "Pearl Harbor," and "Transformers."  Director Peter Berg, of "Friday Night Lights," "The Kingdom," and "Hancock," knows his way around the camera. So we can try to accept the fact that for some reason he …

Tim Burton, as the stylized director of such glorious oddities as "Edward Scissorhands," "Beetlejuice," and "Ed Wood," is the pied piper to the inner goth in all of us. So it is with a heavy heart Cinema Siren has to report "Dark Shadows," while it might have moments of loopy greatness and top-notch production and costume design, it is on the whole the most tragic of cinematic sins: A bore.   The greatness is in some particularly exciting and fast-paced scenes, that are strangely intermittent in its 116 minutes, and so at odds with the soap opera ploddings of the rest of the film. The first …

The first big entry in the blockbuster sweepstakes season is setting a very high bar indeed. For lovers of comic book heroes, watching this Marvel team of a lifetime suit up, bicker, beat each other up and save the world is akin to geek nirvana. It is the very definition of bigger, better, more! It is an explosion of egos, to be sure. They're like the dysfunctional family of superheroes, with one black sheep causing most of the trouble. Thor and Iron Man. Cap and Iron Man. Thor, Cap and Iron Man. How do they have the time and energy to fight anyone else when they keep beating each other to a …

Opening on Earth Day weekend, "Chimpanzee," Disneynature's latest True Life Adventure, is a documentary following the challenges of a two year-old chimp they name Oscar as he struggles to survive and find his place within his extended primate family.   His sweet mug alone is reason to root for him, but there's more to his story than the usual monkey business, and the viewers get to experience his unique journey up close and quite personally on the big screen.  The visuals of this movie are spectacular, with footage only the most expert nature filmmakers could create, and showing an intimate …

You did't think the Cinema Siren would forget you, did you? Here's a rundown of my favorite movies, perfect for any scenario you might fit into today. Enjoy! A Very Scary Valentine's: Five Horror Movies Perfect for Valentine's Day So you're sitting at home crying in your wine—Johnny doesn't love you, you've no Valentine? Well, suck it up. You think you've got unrequited love? At least you don't have webbed hands or have being brought back from the dead held against you.   Monsters in the history of cinema have proven time and again they'd kill for love, and where does it get them? Chased by …