As you get older, it’s easy to forget that age when every moment of life seemed fraught with all possible feelings at the most dramatic levels. Life and death seemed to hang in the balance with each step you took, each encounter you had, each moment you spent, each choice you made.

But then, that’s what high school is all about.

Stephen Chbosky’s “The Perks of Being a Wallflower,” which he adapted from his young-adult novel, gets it right in too many ways to ignore. Yes, if you’re an adult – or, perhaps, even a college student – it’s easy to dismiss this early-90s tale as just so much emo venting by someone who is too sensitive to live. But that’s ignoring the film’s obvious virtues. (More…)

OK, here’s a promise: No jokes or puns based on the title of “Dredd 3D.” Fish in a barrel and all that.

Not that there’s much that’s memorable about Pete Travis’ reboot of a moribund movie franchise based on what is, by now, sort of a classic comic book. Sylvester Stallone used it as a vehicle a couple of face-lifts ago – and the fact that there hasn’t been a Judge Dredd movie since then probably speaks for itself. (More…)