Maybe you're like me and know next to nothing about classical music, string quartets, and the men and women who perform it. But none of those things kept me from enjoying A Late Quartet, an impressive indie film.

Lincoln may be what America needs right now to remind us what politics, for all its messy, dispiriting ugliness, can and should be about -- doing the right, moral thing to better us all.

The film follows five students, showing the impact chess and being on the team has on their lives, and how those gains may be erased when the economic meltdown forces budget cuts that may hamper the team's ability to compete at the highest levels.

A few weeks ago, I told a friend that I'd bet most North Korean soldiers would probably surrender for a few Big Macs and an iPhone 3GS. That's why the 2012 reboot of the 1984 cult classic Red Dawn strikes me as being so dumb.

Life of Pi is more about the nuts and bolts of a teenager surviving at sea and bonding with a tiger than a spiritual quest that asks hard questions about the wisdom, will, and existence of God.