The Help (2011)

Based on the novel by Kathryn Stockett, director Tate Taylor makes an overwrought tear-jerker with some bathroom humor about Southern black maids in the early 1960s. But the movie is well executed, thanks to good performances, especially by Viola Davis.

d: Tate Taylor | imdb.com | trailer | Charlie Rose
Let’s begin. | I need your help. | I got a job. | You is important.

Get Low (2010)

Robert Duvall is pefectly grizzlied and Bill Murray perfectly glib in a depression-era story of a funeral party, but the performances aren’t quite enough. The movie meanders and never delivers on wild stories of a hermit, settling for a too-safe third act.

d: Aaron Schneider | imdb.com | trailer

Carrie (1976)

I first saw “Carrie” in college on a brokedown VCR, which played everything in black and white. That version was scarier than the original. But even in color, Stephen King’s novel comes alive and every girl’s fantasy is realized — burning down their senior prom.

d: Brian De Palma | imdb.com | trailer