“The Devil Wears Prada” - Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Stanley Tucci, Simon Baker

Streep is fabulous as the myopic driven editor of this fashion setting publication. She is a brilliant icy cold with glimpses of the heart beneath so fleeting you wonder if it is really there. Tucci is incomparable, it is rare that he isn’t stealing the scenes he plays and a good chunk of the movie. As the devoted and talented stylist, he has given his life and his heart willingly in desperate but ever elusive hopes of making it on his own. Hathaway masters the art of frump transformed to fabulous with a bit too much ease, but when one has the wardrobe of a thousand brightest and biggest fashion designers to choose from, how can you go wrong really. From her Audrey Hepburn big eyed gaze, to eminently stylish in all shades of black, those that say clothes don’t make the lady, haven’t seen Hathaway. Baker has possibilities but lacks depth, maybe it was just the glibness of his character, but I have difficulty imagining him in anything of depth. How can setting this in NYC and the romance and divineness of Paris ever go wrong! It can’t. I didn’t read the book, but loved the movie. SEE IT!

“Shopgirl” Steve Martin, Claire Danes, Jason Schwartzman

This was pretty cool, some incredible lessons and unfortunately the men that need to learn them won’t go see it with that title (at least I doubt it!) Danes has definitely been prettier (“Family Stone”) but shines in this light drama (I’m searching here…) We are initially thoroughly disgusted by her date with Schwartzman, what a loser. And it is easy to get caught up in the romance with millionaire mogul Martin, despite the “warning” signs. We ladies don’t often listen as well as we can! But both Danes and Schwartzman do a lot of maturing in this short film, finding themselves, finding their passions, and rediscovering each other. This was as good as many foreign films with a reality coating that Hollywood usually denies. Good for Martin!

“Akeelah And The Bee” - Laurence Fishburne, Keke Palmer, Angela Bassett

The title is kind of lame, I agree, but the movie isn’t. The last time I saw Fishburne and Bassett was the Tina Turner Story so it was hard not to imagine them somehow getting together in this. But fortunately, the Director, is his wisdom, didn’t make it about the grownups here but instead about how tough adolescence can be and how the lessons learned are invaluable throughout life. It is so easy to get caught in the traps of adulthood – responsibilities, financial concerns, family issues and much more – often it is difficult to see what is right in front of us. Keke Palmer does an excellent job in this and has a promising future as a serious actress if she keeps this up. She was intensely real as an unknown and held her own against the stars present. A wonderful metaphor for life and how not to be afraid of the opportunities presented but to go for it with gusto and find that we have more supporters than we ever knew. Everyone is always looking for a mascot or a mentor, it is up to us to be there!

“RV” - Robin Williams, Jeff Daniels, Cheryl Hines, Kristin Chenoweth

I can’t decide if I was generous here with my rating. I love Williams but haven’t seen him in anything great in a very long time; this was not the exception I had hoped for. RATS! This was almost one of those flicks that you get the impression that they were all out at cocktails one night and said lets go have a party on screen and get paid, except there wasn’t enough talent to make it work! The story is too old, overworked executive having lost sight of his priorities and family and gets lesson in getting it back. It had typical William’s humor, lots of physicality, but reverted to literal crap much too soon. Predictable with guffaws is best I can say. Missable.

“Art School Confidential” - Max Minghella, Sophia Myles, Jim Broadbent, John Malkovich

A dark tale of art school trials and tribulations complicated by a serial killer on the loose in the neighborhood. There is a lot of painful irony when the top student turns out to be a dirty cop, wife abuser, without a trace of talent but his crudeness on canvas turns him into a star. Meanwhile his fellow students slave away frustrated by their inability to make it. All but one that is. Minghella is just desperate enough to borrow the works of an artist and lush extraordinaire played brilliantly by Broadbent. He takes these as his own, only to find that there is a high price to pay. Malkovich is very effective as the affected art teacher, a snob for all seasons. Who ever imagined that art school would lead to accidental (or was it) manslaughter and fame behind bars for works not your own.

“The Shaggy Dog” - Tim Allen, Jane Curtain, Robert Downey Jr., Danny Glover, Kristin Davis

This was actually not bad, kind of campy, but overall fun. I love seeing Downey on the screen again. He really is a fireball of talent. You are never sure of his next move. Glover is strictly a cameo as is Curtain, both deserved bigger bites. Kristin Davis is harmless as Allen’s wife in the wings. She seems forever doomed to play the same character as she has mastered on Sex and the City. Some formulas work and this does for her, just incredibly predictable. Finally a safe flick for the whole family and kis on their own!

“American Dreamz” - Hugh Grant, Dennis Quaid, Mandy Moore, Chris Klein, Willem Dafoe, Marcia Gay Harden

If you have absolutely nothing else to do, and are utterly bored, you may want to, out of sheer desperation, rent this. It was the pits. I am astounded actually with talent the likes of Quaid, Dafoe, and Harden that it sank so low, but it did. Grant is only occasionally talented so I will forgive him. This is an absurd look at American Idol gone wrong, but not in a funny way just in a really stupid, hideous, sort of waste of film and time way. Don’t bother.

“Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio” - Julianne Moore, Woody Harrelson

Wow, off the charts fantastic. Based on a true story of a woman that raised 10 kids back in the day when the big companies ran contests for jingles and more, purchase required! These ladies had talent, creativity, and rhyme and rhythm to boot. Most of all Moore’s character had an indomitable spirit that rose above every challenge her alcoholic broke husband threw her way. She had a quiet but incredibly positive demeanor that blows you away. It is the age old lesson, it is all in how you process it. She did it with a smile and taught her brood the same, although I don’t think many of them were able to see past what she was able to. Harrelson gives a terrific performance as the deadbeat Dad, and no good husband that we want to hate, but she won’t let us. Instead she tries to show us why he is the way he is and how he used to be. WOW!