7) Run & Jump
In a recent, startlingly in-depth interview with Charlie Rose, Bill Murray offered a fairly straightforward and seemingly obvious explanation of why actors known for comedy so often fare just as well in dramas: “you have to be able to play straight to play funny.” This is something that is almost so obvious that it evades us, but it makes perfect sense. The latest example of this is former Saturday Night Live cast member Will Forte, whose relatively serious performance in the relatively serious Nebraska has drawn wide praise. He’s in equally fine form in Run & Jump, a story of a family trying to keep it together in the midst of more health-related hardship, although this one is far lighter than The Broken Circle Breakdown.
February is notoriously a bad month for new releases, although with The LEGO Movie and Robocop turning out surprisingly strong, this year may buck that trend a little bit. Nevertheless, there are plenty of alternatives for a night in at the movies thanks to a steady stream of nice little video on demand selections like the ones I’ve covered here.