Looper

**SPOILER-RAMA!**

It’s basically The Terminator. But the filmmakers go out of their way to pepper the plot with futuristic gismos and rules and subplots and paradoxes, all seemingly designed to distract you from realizing that it’s basically the same plot as Cameron's opus. Another way they try to distract is to anchor the movie with great actors giving great performances, raising this from a b-movie, time-travel gimmick into an intensely watchable sci-fi parable. So while it might not be completely original, it’s a fun night at the movies.

End of Watch

Made in a faux documentary format, it reminded me of the show “Cops.” The acting and cop detail are top notch. The personal lives of the main characters are explored deeply and respectfully. But it’s the moments of levity, when the cops are giving each other the business, that really make the movie shine. It makes you want to go up to a cop and thank them for all of their hard work and service, but know that they’re going to laugh at you behind your back as soon as you walk away.

The Possession

Don’t have a lot of strong opinions about this. It’s a low-budget, PG-13 creep fest that adeptly maneuvers through all of the well-worn clichés of a “child possessed” movie. Efforts to make it unique by making it the “Jewish Exorcism” are successful, in that it’s a slightly different spin on the familiar tale. There are no embarrassingly bad moments, but nothing trail-blazingly original, either. (I laughed several times when the demonic girl screamed, "Don't touch my box, daddy! No one touches my box but ME!") Religious stuff tends to be really scary to some. God, the devil, demons, and spirits remind people about their mortality, which is innately terrifying. But in terms of a movie plot, the spiritual hullabaloo can always be resolved by the simple reading of some book or incantation. Story-wise it’s kind of anticlimactic but cinematically there’s always plenty of set dressing askew and child vomit to be mopped up.

The Master

Is it or is it NOT about Scientology? It sure seems like it is. But more specifically it's about one guy, a war tarnished, sexually frustrated simpleton, played with balls and intensity by Joaquin Phoenix, who falls for the sci-fi sermons of a charismatic author. Impeccably directed, it imprints lasting scenes and images that dare to confront but never resolve the reasons why someone would join a cult. I found my mind drifting away during sequences that float separately from the plot, which intend to be symbolic or just cinematically pretty. But the one-on-one face offs between Phoenix and his life coach, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, are riveting. My mind also keeps going back to a scene on the beach, where Phoenix first hilariously assaults a woman-shaped sandcastle, but then lies next to it, longingly.

ParaNorman

Norman can see dead people. They’re everywhere! So it’s not a mind-blowingly original premise, but the animation is very cool and there are parts that are actually pretty scary. It seems like the producers are hoping for A Nightmare Before Christmas holiday tradition -- something timeless that kids will watch over and over again, every Halloween. I’m not sure if it’s all THAT. But it’s still an enjoyable family flick.