Fast paced and fluffy, Tower Heist is a spectacle-laden comedy with widespread appeal. Even Alan Alda's Bernie Madoff-styled antagonist gets a soft treatment so as not to offend the "1 percent" of potential audience members his evil character represents.  

Filmmaker Steve James is apparently incapable of making an uninteresting documentary, even when his subject matter might presumably be thoroughly played out. James, who has already garnered enough film-festival awards to merit multiple mantelpieces, tackles Chicago's soaring crime rate, and in particular the work of CeaseFire, a community-based interventional program founded by epidemiologist Gary Slutkin.   

Stephen Myers (Ryan Gosling) — the precociously successful political media consultant at the center of The Ides of March — knows how to handle his business. Sure, he might believe that the man he’s working for, Pennsylvania Gov. Mike Morris (George Clooney), is the best candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination and the man who can do the most to make America better. But he’s also just fine with feeding a specious allegation about their opponent to the media, just so it will require time spent to fight it off.” If you’re looking for a starry-eyed idealist in The Ides of March, whose utopian dreams might be crushed by harsh reality, you best look elsewhere.  

Max Minghella is no stranger to film sets. As the son of the late filmmaker Anthony Minghella, the now-26-year-old Max would watch as his dad worked with a bevy of capable actors and crew on such films as The English Patient, The Talented Mr. Ripley and Cold Mountain — experiences that still inform his own approach as an actor today.   

The rapidly growing international film festival circuit has become a vital alternate distribution network, a place where smaller, less overtly commercial films can find audiences eager to experience works that once more readily graced art-house and specialty cinemas. And while the young, still-evolving Cincinnati Film Festival (CFF) might not have the reputation or infrastructure of a Sundance or the many well-established smaller fests across the U.S., it’s quickly making its mark.  

The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) is not only the biggest and most vital film festival in North America — it now rivals Cannes as most important cinematic event on the planet. More than 300 films (the majority of which were world, international or North American premieres) from 65 different countries screened during the 11-day festival (Sept. 8-18).   

Ryan Gosling and Nicolas Winding Reyn. Audiences should get used to seeing these names together, because this could be the start of a beautiful collaborative relationship. It would be one based on a real love of movies — good gritty Hollywood movies — proving that there doesn’t have to be any shame involved in enjoying films made simply to entertain.