Ferris Bueller’s Day Off somehow made me realize I’m getting older and more bitter, because I should have enjoyed my youth as much as I enjoyed the film. I kept nodding at certain lines and found myself looking for moments to be emotionally touched.

I loved the Sears Tower scene — how everything seems small and insignificant when you gain a bit of perspective. It’s a metaphor for life that speaks for itself. But it’s the Art Institute interlude that…

Love can be awkward, joyful, messy, wondrous, painful, rewarding, and heartbreaking… and Spoiler Alert takes you through all the phases of a love story, following a couple navigating the road to forever. It’s a beautifully crafted film that offers an honest look — warts and all — at a once-in-a-lifetime love that is destined for heartbreak.

Granted, it wasn’t exceptional. It’s predictable, and I can guarantee you’ll see the ending coming just from the premise. But it doesn’t matter because…

In a vast and gloomy estate, you’re greeted by a sign as cold as the cloudy night sky: “NO TRESING”, overshadowed by a large “K” atop the gate. The atmosphere feels like a prelude to mourning — a life gasping its final breaths. Then, in one of the many rooms that make up the manor, a mouth hidden beneath a thick, brushy mustache whispers a single word: “Rosebud”, the sound hanging in the air like a solemn echo. A life…

One thing about Alexander Payne is his penchant for harsh, uncomfortable comedy — and I mean that in a good way. His films are funny, but they make you uneasy for laughing, and with Election, he offers sharp, intelligent insights into the attitudes that shape American values.

Payne uses a high school class presidential election as an opportunity to lampoon everything that’s absurd about the American political system. Just like in our national elections, the winner isn’t necessarily the person…

There’s one thing that True Romance doesn’t lie about: its title. The romance is the core of the story and the soul of the film from beginning to end. As soon as Clarence Worley (Christian Slater) — a comic book vendor, Elvis Presley fan, and lover of old Kung Fu films (translation: a geek) — meets Alabama Whitman (Patricia Arquette), a hooker, we know and feel that for every step one takes, the other will follow.

What’s extraordinary about the…