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Kim Hollis: I'm always a sucker for musicals, and I'd qualify Pitch Perfect in that category. I just thoroughly enjoyed the film and David is right - Anna Kendrick is just fantastic. I also really happened to like Adam DeVine, the guy who played Bumper (even though I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to like that character at all). I listened to the soundtrack for a couple of days after I watched the movie. It is admittedly a touch corny, but I just don't mind at all.

Jack Reacher was kind of a fallback option after Zero Dark Thirty was so full that only the front row was open, meaning I couldn't watch that movie comfortably. Instead, I went to the theoretically more empty Jack Reacher, though that crowd wound up being surprisingly significant as well. It's a fairly rote procedural, and although Tom Cruise is up to his usual solid performance, his co-star Rosamund Pike is simply dreadful. Like David, I found myself thinking that the book was probably a fun read, and wishing I'd consumed this material that way instead. I will say that Werner Herzog is nice and weird (can Herzog be anything else?).

Taking the procedural idea in an entirely different direction is Zero Dark Thirty, which I did eventually manage to see. It is utterly gripping, albeit cold. If you're looking for rah rah jingoism, you're not really going to get it here, which I think is absolutely the right call for this particular story. I feel a lot of discomfort in cheering for the death of any real-life person (even if I understand the emotions that lead to that sort of response). Yes, Chastain is as good as you've heard (though if I'm choosing Best Actress, Jennifer Lawrence gets my vote for Silver Linings Playbook). What I found most striking about the film is the way it made me reconsider my own belief system. The film is not pro-torture. I'm not saying that. It does take you out of your comfort zone with regards to any preconceived notion you may have, though. I expect that if someone is against torture, they may come away from this film pondering whether it might not be justified in certain circumstances (I still say no, but it's not as easy an answer as I thought it was). I also think if someone was pro-torture, the depiction of it may be rough enough to make it less certain. I really admire the way that Bigelow makes her audiences think.

Flight is a sort of unpleasant movie with a singular performance from Denzel Washington. I would have been happier if the film had not taken what I saw as the easy way out. Without going into too many spoilers, I think there was a way to bring the film to a close that would have been more challenging and thought-provoking. It can be really tough to watch a showcase where the featured character is a wholly unlikable person.

Finally, The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a really wonderful little movie with a warm heart. Emma Watson is indeed a revelation; she has truly grown as a performer. I would be remiss if I did not also mention Ezra Miller, who infuses his character with a great deal of humanity and genuineness. Having just read D.T. Max's biography of David Foster Wallace, I found it to be an interesting bookend for commentary about writers (or potential writers) experiencing depression/mental illness that can be debilitating. It's sort of a bittersweet story, but it really resonates.

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