John Carter

However, some striking concepts are portrayed elegantly. The entire screening reminded me of what it must feel like to mine for gold in a filthy shaft. Conditions are hazardous and nauseating, the structure is rickety and unsound, but for every mound of mud there are infinitesimal nuggets of great worth.

Many of the things the film propounds are simply not true, but that makes them no less beautiful to watch.

Robot & Frank is a curious entry on this list, as there is nothing negative about it. This seemed another opportunity to grumble, “The Twilight Zone did it better,” except this time someone actually did it just as well.

Admittedly, any film about a therapeutic machine taking care of someone with early onset Alzheimer’s in the “near future” isn’t likely to make for a rollicking good time. Yet that is precisely what ticket buyers received. The film’s subject entry lists: Drama, Comedy, Crime, and Sci-fi. Remarkably, it delivers on each.

Use whatever time you might have wasted listening to Anne Hathaway be an insufferable bore about playing her role a half-dozen actresses have portrayed better and see Robot & Frank instead.

All these films are highly entertaining and at some points brilliant. They do not conform to a middlebrow world’s pedestrian expectations, but they are worthwhile. What is wanted from film is a story unseen before or at minimum done in a way unseen before.

Instead of a stale telecast, anyone willing to open their mind to the reels above will find the true winning choices for spending your Sunday evening at the movies.