Infinite Playlist Has Finite Appeal

Michael Cera and original storytelling make this a winner

(NEWSER) - Critics generally love the inventive storytelling of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, a very modern romance that stars Michael Cera. It's based on a graphic novel, and it shows.

• Joe Neumaier, Daily News : "Plugged into some kind of mental electrical socket by director Edgar Wright, this is a romantic adventure for the ADD age, a pop poem for Millennials that could just as well be titled Scott Pilgrim vs. the Old Ways of Storytelling."
• Eric D. Snider, Film.com : It's "an exuberant mixture of comic books, video games, and hipster romance," tied together with "unconventional filmmaking techniques." It might be the norm in 10 years, but "for now it's almost revolutionary."

If you're not sick of Michael Cera, you'll probably like it

(NEWSER) - Youth in Revolt was shot in early 2008, which, Ty Burr of the Boston Globe notes, was “before some of us started getting tired of watching Michael Cera play Michael Cera.” If you aren’t tired of Cera’s adorably dorky shtick, you’ll find Youth a sharp and funny, if familiar, effort. Here’s what critics are saying:

• Miraculously, Youth “has enough charm to make us feel something for its shy, gangly protagonist,” writes Stephanie Zacharek for Salon , “and enough bite to keep us from wanting to kill him.”

Subprime rom-com maxes out the clichés

(NEWSER) - Chick-lit flick Confessions of a Shopaholic is one victim the credit crisis should have claimed, say critics. Isla Fisher stars as a credit card addict who lands a job at a financial magazine, but her considerable comic gifts are wasted by a script that turns her into a "babbling ninny," Moira Macdonald writes in the Seattle Times. More»

Bland rom-com fails to rise above heap of clichés

(NEWSER) - Fish-out-of-water romantic comedy New In Town takes an old recipe and follows it to the letter, say critics. That's not a good thing. Renee Zellweger stars as a cynical Miami exec sent to cut jobs in an icy Minnesota hamlet full of warm-hearted folks, with results you can see coming "all the way from Duluth," John Anderson writes in Newsday. More»

Lame rom-com makes Bride of Chucky look like Dr. Zhivago

(NEWSER) - It's only January, but Bride Wars looks like a perfect match for the Worst Film of 2009 title, say critics. It's a "synthetic chick-flick-rom-com-formulaic-retread," writes Ann Hornaday in the Washington Post. Kate Hudson and Anne Hathaway star as a best friends who become fierce enemies when their weddings at New York's swank Plaza Hotel get booked on the same day. More»