The Spielberg Special

Just in case you weren't watching the Super Bowl, check out this very Spielberg-y Super 8 trailer. Rubbery CGI aside (especially the crinkling rail car door), it looks like an interesting flick.

Dystopia Today: Shock a smile on your kid's face

The world just gets weirder and weirder. A device conceived straight out of "Brave New World," some evil genius in Japan brings you the solution to a mopey, tantrum-prone child. Just strap this contraption on the kid's jaw and, with the push of a button, they'll be smiling in seconds flat. Perfect for picture day at school now that Photoshop can easily erase the baby-blue torture device.

Courtesy Geeky Gadgets.

Widescreen Awards: Adapted Screenplay

Joel and Ethan Coen exercise a light touch in adapting Charles Portis' novel True Grit. In doing so, they preserve some of the best dialogue I’ve ever heard in a western. It all rings true. It all speaks volumes about the characters through word choice alone.

The Town doesn’t seem as authentic as it would seem. For one thing, “The Town” — as the film is quick to say in a disclaimer — of today has been the benefactor or victim of urban renewal. For another, the dialogue seems to benefit from actors well-versed in the Boston accent. Where the film succeeds, however, is in its old-fashioned, tightly-written heist film script, penned by Peter Craig, Ben Affleck and Aaron Stockard.

Full disclosure. The Killer Inside Me, a first-person depiction of a Texas sheriff's deputy's descent into full-on psychosis, is one of my favorite pulp fiction novels. The film, particularly the ending, leave something to be desired. But John Curran’s script, with its regionally-specific dialogue and some beneficial plot tweaking, is not the problem.

Much has been said already about Aaron Sorkin’s (pictured) rapid-fire dialogue in The Social Network. It is impressive, but that kind of dialogue is only worthwhile if it’s handled effectively by the director and the actors. (It is.) The real strength of Sorkin’s screenplay is its delicate handling of a complicated story, its multiple perspectives and the broader impact Facebook has had on its creators and the rest of us.

Writer-director Scott Teems keeps the motivations of his characters always clear — though sometimes cloaked in several layers of self-deception — in That Evening Sun, an adaption of William Gay’s short story, “I Hate to See That Evening Sun Go Down.” Teems never loses sight of the characters' humanity and, when the tension is ratcheted up, you feel for both sides in the property dispute.

Widescreen Awards: Cinematography

All of David Fincher’s films have had a distinct visual style, whether he’s working with Darius Khondji (“Se7en”) or Harris Savides (“Zodiac”). The same can be said of The Social Network, but Jeff Cronenweth has tempered the Fincher-isms with a real sense of the technocentric world we’re living in. From the orange gaze of Connecticut streetlights to the white-out offices of Facebook’s California headquarters, the cinematography adds to both the drama and the reality of what’s on screen.

Benoît Debie unleashes some truly awe-inspiring images in Enter the Void. Long, seamless tracking shots follow characters down stairwells and through Tokyo streets, and tiny apartments illuminated by vivid, pulsing neon lights. Although some of the most impressive shots in the film are the work of computer programmers and graphic artists, everything between the pixels is no less fantastic.

Hong Kyeong-pyo does a great job providing the requisite deep, dark shadows, but he's equally adept at capturing Mother's human drama. The surreal moments that bookend the film's central mystery — both of the protagonist dancing away her pain — are critical to the success of the film. The first, a meticulously framed and lit scene through a field of tall grass, and the second, a chaotic shot that loses its character amidst the other dancers, are executed perfectly.

It's one thing to capture beauty on film. It's another to have that beauty stand for something. In I Am Love, Yorick Le Saux uses everything in his toolbox to craft breathtaking scenes of rekindled passion. The impassive sculptures of industrial Milan serve as a striking counterpoint to the glowing warmth of Antonio's food and the source of his inspiration, the Italian countryside. There are two types of beauty in "I Am Love;" one that inspires and one that stifles. Le Saux expertly captures both.

Beyond the threadbare plot and low-key acting, the true star of The American is Martin Ruhe's cinematography. The film, very much like director Anton Corbijn's previous "Control" (also lensed by Ruhe), feels as if it were conceived as a series of still photographs. No surprise then that Corbijn started his career as a photographer. There's a depth and breadth to the imagery here that's difficult to top and, most importantly, contributes to the atmosphere Corbijn's tried to cultivate.

A long trip somewhere else

What happens when you move to a new place and don't have the Internet set up in advance? You use the Internet a whole lot less.

Goodbye Delaware

A ferry on a foggy winter's day would be a great setting for a horror movie. There's the rocking of the boat, the noise of the engines, the blankness outside the windows and limited places to hide or run to. On top of all that, most people are zonked out on the two-hour ferry ride to Jersey, lost in sleep, a book or television. If someone else doesn't get on this, I might have to do it myself someday.

If today is the day you want to be bad

Apple has posted the trailer for Elektra Luxx (embedded below), director Sebastien Gutierrez's sequel to the soft-core anthology "Women in Trouble." In spite of the ridiculous plot and some incredibly clunky dialogue, the latter is an improbably good film. I've always liked Carla Gugino, although she's often relegated to cameos and thankless girlfriend roles (see: "American Gangster," "Sin City" and "Watchmen"). But she gives her all as a jaded porn star who, in the first film, learns that she's pregnant. Not earth shattering work, but worth the 95 minutes (it's on Instant Netflix, also a plus).

There's no evidence on hand that "Electra Luxx" will live up to its prequel, but that high profile cast (including Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Julianne Moore and Timothy Olyphant) must've been drawn to it for some reason. Or maybe, like the rest of us, they like seeing Gugino in a Girl Scout uniform.