Wonderful World: This one played at SIFF last year, and I totally missed it. Matthew Broderick plays pessimist Ben Singer; divorced, jobless, and completely hopeless. When his roommate gets sick, hot sister Khadi arrives and shakes up Ben’s world. Sounds pretty formulaic, I know, but I’m interested.

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Up in the Air: The ever-adorable Clooney seems tailor-made for the role of Ryan Bingham – a charming, smart-ass loner in fear of losing the job he LIVES for. An expertly clever take on a story told many times over, Reitman elevates this to perfection, with the two female leads (Anna Kendrick & Vera Farmiga) rockin’ it to the extreme. I’m definitely adding this one to my collection.

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{Alice in Wonderland opened in Seattle Friday, 3/5, and is playing at The Neptune, The Meridian 16 and the IMAX}

I love pretty much everything Tim Burton does (outside of Planet of the Apes), but I admit: I was a little worried about this based on the previews. I went in expecting an over-the-top slap-sticky version of Alice, and ended up being pleasantly surprised. Except for one dance scene that takes place at the end, as a whole I thought it was pretty great.

Taking place 13 years after she originally falls down the rabbit hole, a quirky doesn’t-quite-fit-into-Victorian-England-19-year-old Alice (Mia Wasikowska, who was clearly born to play this part) stumbles into Wonderland, or Underland, as the residents call it, while fleeing from an arranged marriage to a floppy aristocrat.

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Where the Wild Things Are: Love it or Hate it, you have to give a movie props for causing so much debate. I’m personally in the LOVE category, totally in awe of the special F/X, and the way in which it made me remember my childhood struggles with emotional fondness. If you’re at all curious, give it a watch and see how it affects you.

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The Crazies @the Metro and Meridian: Normally I wouldn’t recommend anything with Timothy Olyphant, but since I’ve had a years-long crush on Radha Mitchell, I’m hoping she’ll balance it out. Also, I’m partial to a film called The Crazies – because it just puts it out there. No mystery. It just is. Let’s see: small town, sudden insanity, murder, and possible buckets of splatter? I say yes (Amazingly I have never seen the original 1973 Romero film – need to remedy that before I see this one!).

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The September Issue: I’ve been dying to see this (although I totally hate that they're selling it as "the REAL Devil Wears Prada"), since I missed its short run in Seattle last year. A chance to see the mysterious and iconic longtime editor of Vogue, Anna Wintour, putting together the biggest issue of the year? Yes, yes and yes. I have a serious love/hate relationship with the fashion & beauty industry, so I’m curious as to which way this will sway me….even if I think I already know the answer.

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Hunger: I hesitate to use the word "buzz" – but Michael Fassbender (from Inglourious Basterds) is getting all kinds of acclaim for his role as an IRA volunteer Bobby Sands, who organizes a hunger strike in 1981 as a protest to improve Britain’s Prison conditions. Sounds depressing, but I’ll give it a try because Fassbender intrigues me:

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Getting tired of formulaic rom-coms designed to tug at your heartstrings yet? Most of the film-going audience must not be, based on the amount of laughter & "aww"s I heard at the screening for Valentine’s Day. 

But this is directed by Gary Marshall! The guy who gave us such classics as Pretty Woman! And Beaches! And those Princess Diaries movies everyone loves! Of course, he’s also responsible for the train wreck that is Georgia Rule, but I digress. Gary Marshall should know how to make a romantic comedy, and yet all he’s done here is take a bunch of popular actors and fit them into an anthology of predictable scenarios designed to make audiences go all soft & gooey. Let me break it down for you:

Ashton Kutcher is the loveable boy-next-door type, who asks gorgeous, work-obsessed girlfriend Jessica Alba to marry him. Meanwhile, his best friend & girl-next-door/grade school teacher Jennifer Garner is sleeping with selfish a-hole Patrick Dempsey. WHAT WILL HAPPEN?

Bradley Cooper (mygod WHY is he in everything???) meets military Captain Julia Roberts on an INTL flight into LA, and marvels at her strength and courage! Also, she’s on leave for just 24 hours to "visit someone special". How endearing.

Mailroom boy Topher Grace has luckily stumbled into hot sex with office temp Anne Hathaway, who has a burning *secret* to conceal, and Queen Latifah plays Anne’s sassy temp boss (of course she does), who is also pro-ball player Eric Dane’s Agent (and he has a burning *secret* too! Ooooh). 

Jessica Biel gets stuck playing the unfortunately stereotypical lonely single girl who has an anti-valentine’s party every year and chokes down her unhappiness with boxes of chocolates followed by 4-hour treadmill sessions, and then ends up collapsing in tears into the arms of a total stranger: local sports news reporter Jamie Foxx. Oh yeah, he's a player who HATES Valentine's Day.

(take a deep breath, we’re not done yet)

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Eschewing the usual romantic-comedies (while fully admitting that I own quite a few of those too), I thought I’d pick a few films that make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside in lieu of everyone’s fast-approaching favorite holiday to hate: Valentine’s Day.

Kissing Jessica Stein: In 2002, friends Jennifer Westfeldt (who has been John Hamm’s lady for 9 years!) & Heather Juergensen co-wrote a comedy about what would happen if two single ladies burnt out from bad dates decided to give it a try with the same sex. The end result: one of the best things I’ve ever seen on film to laugh & cry at – and it makes me sad that whenever I mention it, most people don’t know what the hell I’m talking about. 

Favorite moment: Helen asks two random horndogs at a bar why the idea of two women kissing is so exciting.

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A Serious Man: The Coen Brothers really wowed me with this Best Picture-nominated black comedy about the disintegrating life of Larry Gopnik in 1967. Michael Stuhlbarg is PERFECT as a good guy suffering through a tidal wave of bad luck: his wife is leaving, his kids don’t respect him, his brother is suicidal, and he’s being blackmailed by a student for a passing grade. Turning to his faith for answers, Larry visits (or tries to, anyway) 3 Rabbis for advice, with each result being more hilarious than the last. I really, really love this film you guys.

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