This Thanksgiving, You Should Be Thankful for THE HUNGER GAMES

With the release of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2, the successful Hunger Games film series comes to a close. Well, in today's franchise culture, no series is ever really finished. I'm sure some intern somewhere is scrambling to find some way to extend the series. But for now, Mockingjay Part 2 is the series finale. This film series is something to be admired because of how remarkably consistent the films are. And this franchise successfully satirizes the franchise culture. The Hunger Games movies were brainy blockbusters, never cashing in on easy spectacle at the expense of high-minded themes and relevant political statements.

One of the more interesting things about The Hunger Games is the extremely shrewd casting of Academy Award winner Jennifer Lawrence. When she was cast in the first film back in March 2011, the actress was already an Oscar nominee for Winter's Bone and poised to become a respected young actress. However, with the release of the first film, she catapulted to fame. The film broke box office records and her performance was highly appreciated. And she had already become a part of the successful reboot of the X-Men franchise.

SPOTLIGHT is Going to Win the Academy Award for Best Picture

At the end of September, I saw the trailer for Spotlight and predicted it was going to win the Best Picture Oscar. I'm not alone; the buzz around the film is that it's a top contender, or at least one of them. I've been watching out for the movie to see if its buzz can be maintained. How many times have we seen "surefire" winners flame out before December (remember when we thought Inside Llewyn Davis was a major player?). But the critical reception for Spotlight is still strong after its limited release last week. Having seen the film, I can tell you: it's out of this world.

Spotlight comes to us from low-key but skilled director Tom McCarthy (The Station Agent, Win Win), from a screenplay by McCarthy and Josh Singer (Fringe). The film stars Oscar nominee Michael Keaton (Birdman), Oscar nominee Mark Ruffalo (The Kids Are All Right), Rachel McAdams (Midnight in Paris), Liev Schreiber (Ray Donovan), John Slattery (Mad Men), and Brian D'Arcy James (Game Change). The film co-stars Oscar nominee Stanley Tucci (The Lovely Bones), Jamey Sheridan (Homeland), and Billy Crudup (Watchmen). Japanese cinematographer Masanobu Takayanagi (Silver Linings Playbook) shot the film, with editing by longtime Tom McCarthy collaborator Tom McArdle and score by the Oscar winning composer Howard Shore (Lord of the Rings trilogy).

A Seemingly Insignificant Moment in BRIDGE OF SPIES Perfectly Captures "The Spielberg Touch"

Steven Spielberg is a master filmmaker. Spielberg is so good so that his best films are on their own level, and even his weak films boast of keen directorial choices and moments of pure awe. It's hard to pin down exactly what "the Spielberg touch" is. For one thing, Spielberg has mastered so many genres that it's not like he excels at just one thing. Also, some of his films seem so simple in concept, execution and/or theme that much of their power seems effortless. Spielberg just cares about moviemaking in ways I'm not sure many of his successors could even imagine.

When I saw his latest film, the Tom Hanks starring espionage drama Bridge of Spies, I wondered if I would be able to pinpoint "the Spielberg touch." While making my way to the East Village cinema where I saw the film, I ran over some of Spielberg's most affecting scenes: Laura Dern and Sam Neill first seeing the dinos in Jurassic Park, the rolling ball in Indiana Jones, the mom leaving David in A.I. Artificial Intelligence. But these are Big Moments, of course Spielberg would take care to present them gracefully and beautifully.

The Harmonious Ensemble of HUM SAATH SAATH HAIN

One of my favorite movies growing up is Hum Saath Saath Hain, Sooraj Barjatya's epic love letter to harmonious extended families. This movie definitely has its detractors: it's cheesy and for about two hours features a lot of singing, dancing and joking around. As they say it "has no story." On the surface it's squeaky clean and sweet to the point of saccharine. The film does have many charms, many of which come from the stacked ensemble.

The film's main stars are a terrific bunch of actors, all of whom bring different things to the table: Salman Khan, Karisma Kapoor, Saif Ali Khan, Tabu, Sonali Bendre, and Mohnish Behl come from different sides of Bollywood. The three guys are believable as brothers, and the ladies each have their unique personas to give life to their characters. These six actors really dominate the film and their romances and friendships are fun to watch and ultimately heartwarming. Then the film even has a long list of respected character actors including heavyweights like Alok Nath, Reema Lagoo, Neelam, Himani Shivpuri, Satish Kaushak, the late Sadashiv Amrapurkar, Ajit Vachhani, Shakti Kapoor, Mahesh Thakur, and a host of actors from television, regional films and the stage,