[Sparkle]

Fruitvale Station: best film I've seen in a long time, so genuine, its from the heart and heartbreaking; it's a beautiful, powerful little independent film by a first time director. This film was overlooked by most of the major awards shows this year - their loss, this film outshines most every other film nominated in the top Academy Award categories.

American Hustle: I h.a.t.e.d. it. I really wanted to get up and leave less than 10 minutes in. I was so disappointed, I had really high hopes, I love David O'Russell's films, I loved the Jennifer Lawerence/Bradley Cooper pairing in 'Silver Linings Playbook' ... but this film just fell flat for me, it felt completely disingenuous on every level. It featured a cast of wholly unlikeable 2-dimensional characters, the actors did a good job with what they had, but what they had was a whole lot of nothing. The screenplay was full of holes and jokes that missed their mark, the direction was meandering and self-indulgent. The only upside to the production were the costumes, hair & make-up design --- it says something when the only redeeming aspects of a film are Amy Adams navel plunging necklines and Jennifer Lawerence's hair. What a hype-machine they generated for this mediocre movie, it irritated me that I bought into the hype. And it definitely doesn't pass the Bechdel test. :P I know my opinions on this are in the minority.