With The Double Hour, screenwriters Alessandro Fabbri, Ludovica Rampoldi, and Stefano Sardo may have solved a problem that has been plaguing hack scenarists for decades: how to improve upon or meaningfully subvert that old chestnut, the ‘all just a dream’ device.

No matter how you feel about the legalization of drugs, it’s hard to deny that America’s complicated love affair with using and criminalizing substances is one of our epic stories. Although marijuana has made some in-roads, we’re still a long way off from Amsterdam (or Hamsterdam). What we do have is a patched-together, highly-hypocritical mixed message: pop culture is Pineapple Express, while policy is mandatory minimums. When the book is eventually written, Florida will have a chapter of its own.

In Italian, the word ‘mammone’ loosely translates to the American English equivalent of “mama’s boy,” though, through the power of cultural coding, its meaning packs a far greater punch. The term has both provided fodder for comedians — for instance, Roberto Benigni’s Johnny Stecchino portrays the title character as both a cold-blooded mafioso and an excessively mother-loving son — and has also been the subject of more serious sociological commentary about the changing role of masculinity in the country.

Morning: marred military man’s memory murky, misplaced moniker; mission: master multiple machinations of manufactured moribund moment-memories as mass movie-murder menaces millions! The year is 2011: the phrase “source code” has entered the English lexicon, but enough of movie-going America doesn’t know what it means that a mixed metaphor can be constructed: this is… Source Code.

Keanu Reeves and James Caan make a strikingly unusual comedic pair. Both have worked in practically every genre, taking on scores of lead and supporting roles, but they’re categorically different types of actors. In a career spanning 50 years, Caan has been one of the industry’s most inscrutable and gifted journeymen, known for his prolificacy as well as his odd choices. Reeves has been nearly as hard to define, though the discussion in his case leads me to wonder: How did he become such a bankable star?

About a quarter of the way through Soul Surfer, a sweet and innocent little girl, who never wanted anything but the chance to rise early so she could surf often, is viciously, violently attacked by a shark. This moment came as a great shock to the audience with whom I saw it, which is a little strange, given that the shock is directly preceded by an underwater shot of a menacing presence approaching the girl’s surfboard from below.