Author: Laurie Coker

By Laurie Coker Rating: C- Broken people make for extremely interesting stories to watch.  Like a train wreck, their lives, dysfunctional and desperate, are difficult to turn away from. Colin Firth and Emily Blunt star in Arthur Newman, and their powerful performances make up for a dreary tale, one with little going for it and… Continue reading Review: ARTHUR NEWMAN

By Laurie Coker Rating: B- “Old dead white guys – that’s all we read!” These words have come from countless students of mine over the past 25 years. While we have worked to change that, some “old white guys,” will always be on high school reading lists. Thousands of teens across the nation read F.… Continue reading Review: THE GREAT GATSBY

By Laurie Coker Rating: C+/B- With the huge popularity of shows like Dancing with the Stars and So You Think You can Dance, many of us have dance fever. As a lover of dance (though I never took lessons), I watch those silly shows and enjoy movies with similar themes.   offers a twist on traditional… Continue reading Review: MUSICAL CHAIRS

By Laurie Coker Rating: A Few films can sustain characters like Richard Linklater’s films Before Sunrise (1994), Before Sunset (2004) and now, nine years later, his newest in the series Before Midnight, but because they are richly drawn and immensely engaging, we following along in their lives with interest and curiosity. We can find comfort… Continue reading SXSW 2013 Review: BEFORE MIDNIGHT

By Laurie Coker Rating: B While certainly not perfect, Iron Man 3  is, plain and simple, FUN!  Most of which can be attributed to Robert Downey Jr.’s playful, wit-ridden delivery and wild antics. Director (and co-writer with first-timer Drew Pierce) Shane Black who is better known behind the pen (Lethal Weapon) than in front, gives… Continue reading Review: IRON MAN 3

By Laurie Coker Rating: B- “The company you keep is a direct reflection on how people perceive you.” These words, from my mother, resonate in my mind, and I have passed them on to my son and my students. Robert Redford’s new movie The Company you Keep demonstrates the very notion of my mother’s (and… Continue reading Review: THE COMPANY YOU KEEP

By Laurie Coker Rating: B+ Some films try too hard to be monumental productions and others not hard enough, so when I first saw the poster for Tom Cruise’s newest film Oblivion (I avoid trailers), my first thought was “oh no, this will be Cruise’s Waterworld,” but I was wrong. Director Joseph Kosinski, who gave… Continue reading Review: OBLIVION

By Laurie Coker Rating: B+ Before the theatre went dark for the screening of Starbuck, someone told me that Vince Vaughn just wrapped up the American version of the French-Canadian film about a man who donated sperm multiple times in his youth and who discovers that of the 560 plus children conceived, nearly 150 are… Continue reading Review: STARBUCK