BRIGHTON ROCK - This neo-noir remake of the gritty 1947 crime thriller moves the drama to the mid-60s, during the clashes between Mods and Rockers. Pinkie is a sociopathic teenage hoodlum who decides to woo mousy waitress Rose when he figures out she has evidence that could implicate him in the murder of a rival gang member. Helen Mirren plays Rose's protective boss, determined to uncover the truth of the gangster she had been sleeping with.

CONTAGION - Steven Soderbergh directed this frighteningly realistic story of a global pandemic, that will make you want to "stop touching your face," as CDC intelligence specialist Kate Winslet scolds her co-worker. It's bureaucracy vs. bloggers and widespread panic in this masterful thriller, also starring Matt Damon, Marion Cotillard, Laurence Fishburne, and Gwyneth Paltrow as patient number one.

MIDNIGHT IN PARIS - Woody Allen's latest is a celebration of 'Golden Age' nostalgia and the people who still find themselves falling for old romantic cliches. A night-and-day contrast with his last film, the oddly mean-spirited WHATEVER WORKS, it is difficult not to get drawn into the warmth and fuzziness of this one.

FISH STORY - What do a 1970s Japanese punk band, a giant comet headed straight towards Earth in 2012, a record store owner, hostages on a cruise ship, and a bullied kid have to do with each other? That is the premise of FISH STORY, which has absolutely nothing to do with fish (the title is taken from a bad translation by the punk band for one of their song titles).

THE BLACK POWER MIXTAPE 1967-1975 - Compiled from Swedish television footage of the era, which sought an unbiased, outsider view of racial tensions in America. This intense documentary includes interviews and footage of Stokely Carmichael, Angela Davis, and Louis Farrakhan that show sides of them that American media has never portrayed.

JULIA'S EYES - Produced by Guillermo del Toro, this Spanish thriller stars Belén Rueda (THE ORPHANAGE) as a woman investigating the mysterious death of her blind sister, while slowly going blind from the same illness. Spain has been putting out some reliably sophisticated and suspenseful thrillers, and this one did not disappoint!

RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES - This was one of my favorite films of 2011 and I believe it's one of the most sophisticated "summer blockbusters" I've had the pleasure of watching. James Franco stars as a scientist whose possible cure for Alzheimer's sets in motion the events that lead to the ape takeover of Earth seen in 1968's PLANET OF THE APES. This is an interspecies father-son story, a repression and revolution story, and a tear-jerker all wrapped in one. If AVATAR deserved an Oscar, this certainly does as well.

SHAMELESS - This Showtime remake of the brilliant British series about a scrappy family in a Manchester housing project sets the action in a dilapidated Chicago neighborhood. William H. Macy is the perpetually drunk patriarch of six kids who survive on his disability payments and social security checks fraudulently secured for a dead aunt. Emmy Rossum plays the eldest daughter, forced to take care of her five brothers and sisters while her father is pub-crawling or passed out on the floor. Not quite as gritty as the original, but it's a pretty good remake nonetheless.

THE TEMPEST - Julie Taymor (ACROSS THE UNIVERSE, TITUS) turns to Shakespeare again with this unusual adaptation that transforms the sorcerer Prospero into a woman (played by Helen Mirren, always worth watching).

PORTLANDIA - Portland, the city where "the dream of the 90s is still alive," and where people just can't bring themselves to eat chicken until they've traveled to the farm where it was raised, sometimes looks an awful lot like Arcata in this hilarious new series from IFC. Fred Armisen of SNL, and Carrie Brownstein of '90s grrl band Sleater-Kinney star, with guest stars including Steve Buscemi, Kyle Machlachlan, and Aimee Mann.

APOLLO 18 - Another "found footage" thriller, this one is set on the moon during a mysterious, top-secret 1970s moon landing sponsored by the Dept of Defense. A low-budget indie with a vintage 16mm film look, it builds suspense in its mix of claustrophobic spaces and the vast, meteor-pocked landscapes of the moon. Jumping between the many cameras recording the mission, including especially creepy shots from a motion-sensor camera outside the astronauts' landing craft, this one is admittedly gimicky, but it's still an edge-of-your-seat entertainment experience.

MARGIN CALL - A more subtle look at the often psychopathic world of Wall Street than AMERICAN PSYCHO, this tense drama starring Kevin Spacey, Jeremy Irons, Demi Moore, and Stanley Tucci is set immediately before and during the 2008 market crash. A sort of dramatic re-enactment of INSIDE JOB, from the point of view of the stock brokers.

BURKE & HARE - John Landis (ANIMAL HOUSE, AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON) returns to the horror genre with this story of a couple 19th century Scottish rogues (Simon Pegg and Andy Serkis) who make money securing corpses for medical research. When competition among doctors brings up the bounty for fresh corpses, the two grave robbers take a more hands-on approach to keep the bodies flowing...

TOAST - Adapted from the autobiography of British food writer and TV host Nigel Slater, this foodie dramedy feels like something a G-rated Todd Haynes would have cooked up. The story of a boy competing in a culinary war against his stepmother, for his father's attention, it has two things that automatically make it watchable: Helena Bonham Carter, and a Dusty Springfield soundtrack!

WARRIOR - Tom Hardy (BRONSON) is an ex-marine competing in the world's biggest mixed martial arts tournament, which his father (Nick Nolte) trains him for. Meanwhile, his estranged school teacher brother (Joel Edgerton) decides to get back in the ring to claim the prize money and make ends meet for his family...

KING OF DEVIL'S ISLAND - Set in Norway's infamous Bastoy Prison, a juvenile reformatory in operation from 1900-1953, situated on a small island in an area of extreme weather. Stellan Skarsgard stars as the prison's warden, in this tale of a group of boys who revolt and attempt to take over the island.

DADDY LONGLEGS - Indie filmmakers Josh and Ben Safdie loosely based this story, about a man who would rather be friends with his children than be a parent, on their own father. Lenny (Ronald Bronstein) is perpetually frazzled during the two weeks a year that he gets to spend time with his young sons. A carefree theatre projectionist who sort of just lets life happen to him, he doesn't quite know what to do with them or how to take his responsibilities seriously... This is alternately funny and nerve-wrackingly suspenseful.

FRIGHT NIGHT - The director of LARS AND THE REAL GIRL helmed this surprisingly fresh remake of the 1985 vampire-in-the-suburbs movie. Colin Farrell is "Jerry," the handsome vampire next door, and Anton Yelchin is the geeky kid who discovers his true nature and does everything he can to keep him away from his single mother (Toni Colette). DOCTOR WHO's David Tennant is perfect as a cheesy Vegas magician with a penchant for vampire artifacts purchased on ebay.

BOBBY FISCHER AGAINST THE WORLD - The Cold War chess hero Bobby Fischer was a troubled genius whose high IQ didn't keep him from joining a cult or suffering paranoid delusions that Jews were conspiring against him (Fischer was Jewish). This documentary chronicles his life from U.S. champion at the age of 14, to the height of his fame beating Russian Boris Spassky, to his decline into secluded madness.

BLACKTHORN - Director Mateo Gil (writer of THE SEA INSIDE) creates an alternate history for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, in which Cassidy survives the Bolivian shootout, changes his name to James Backthorn, and spends his remaining time in Bolivia. The setting alone (especially the salt flats) are enough to make this stand out from most Westerns, but this is a highly satisfying movie in general.

THE DEBT - From John Madden, director of SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE. Helen Mirren stars as a former Mossad agent famous for capturing a notorious Nazi war criminal Vogel. In the present day, a man claiming to be Vogel shows up, and she must re-live her troubled past to uncover the truth. Jessica Chastain (TREE OF LIFE) plays Mirren's younger self during the man-hunt.

POINT BLANK - In this French thriller that manages to be more engaging than most, a registered nurse is given three hours to enable the escape of a prisoner under surveillance at his hospital. If he fails, his kidnapped, 9-months-pregnant wife will be killed.