Some mini-reviews of stuff I watched over the holiday break

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button: I loved it. Yes, it has some flaws (it gave me the willies a little bit when the old guy/7 year lost his virginity, then came back and was still messing around with the 7-year old Fanning girl), and was a lot like Forrest Gump (a movie I really liked), but, wow, it really packed a whallop with me. Definitely a movie about the fleetingness of life - heck, let's just say it, this is a movie about death, which is actually kind of rare - and it hit good and hard with me.

The Visitor: They're saying that Richard Jenkins is going to get a Best Actor nomination this year for this film, and it's deserved. This is a quiet little movie about a middle-aged lonely guy who finds himself immersed in the lives of an immigrant couple. It's a moving little character study without a happy ending. Good flick.

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford: I'm not usually into westerns, but this is one of the best I've ever seen. A great story, it had me looking all around the internet lately for more details about the story. It's also an impossibly beautiful film, with some of the best cinematography you're ever going to see. It's too bad that Oscar went so crazy for the overrated No Country for Old Men last year; this film is its clear superior in my eyes.

Iron Man: Just the right balance of humor, drama, and thrills. A really cool movie.

Hamlet 2: There is a moment in this screwy movie in which Steve Coogan looks at his cat while he has writer's block, and sneers, "What is your fucking problem, man?" (it's at the 50-second mark in the trailer below). That moment made me laugh so hard that, literally, I had to pause the film and my sides hurt. This is a fun movie, some uneven moments but a great payoff with the performance of the play at the end.

Baby Mama: A nice little comedy. A few laughs, pretty innocuous overall, but Tina Fey continues to create gold with everything she touches.