Interstellar:  

Directory Christopher Nolan has done a masterful job here with a sci-fi story that will become an icon in the annals of futuristic films in the same fashion as Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey.  Matthew McConaughey stars as Cooper, a farmer in what we first think is the dustbowl of the Dirty Thirties, but which turns out to be a near-future world in which global warming is destroying the ecology.  He is a former astronaut who is called back to duty with a secret project that is designed to find habitable worlds beyond our solar system by accessing a wormhole out past the orbit of Saturn, that may be the gateway to a new earth.  Time becomes a factor because hours in the wormhole are years on earth, and Cooper has to decide between missing the growing-up of his children, and trying to save humanity.  Many 2001-like references, and a film that will really make you think.  I loved it!  Rated 14A.

The Imagination Game:  

An outstanding based-on-actual-events story of Alan Turing who created the code-breaking device for the German Enigma Machine during the early years of WWII.  Turing, played to perfection by Benedict Cumberbatch, has to fight his peers, the military intelligence officers directing the project, and the social mores of the times in an incredible series of challenges.  He is brilliant as a mathematician, but lacks people skills.  Kiera Knightly co-stars in a brilliant film that deserved more at the Oscars. Rated 14A.

Wild: 

Reese Witherspoon stars as real-life adventurer Cheryl Strayed in this Oscar-nominated film based on Strayed’s book outlining her experiences on the Pacific Crest Trail across the top of the North American continent.  Strayed was at a point in her life where things were not working out and she chose to make this months-long journey alone in the wild, coming up against all manner of creature on four legs and two.  A polarizing film that had some hating it, some loving it, Witherspoon’s portrayal was appreciated by both factions. Rated 18A.

Face/Off (1997):

Director John Woo was at the top of his game when he teamed up John Travolta and Nicholas Cage as a pair of opposing factions, one who is believed to have murdered a young boy, the other who is apparently evil, but we haven't seen anything yet.  Woven into the plot is a bomb that will take out most of the city of Los Angeles, and the technology to remove a person's face and install it on another individual seamlessly.  This opens the door for Sean Archer (Travolta) to steal the identity of Castor Troy (Cage) and go to Castor's brother who knows how to defuse the bomb.  It's complicated, but as a pure action-adventure film with a couple of very good actors, the entertainment value is high.  Rated 14A.

The Factory (2012):  

John Cusak is a tough cop named Mike who is after a brutal serial killer.  He and his partner Kelsey (Jennifer Carpenter) turn over every lead, they get close, and then ... Mike's daughter goes missing.  What are the odds that the killer has her?  About one out of one I would guess.  Dallas Roberts plays the bad guy who has kidnapped Mike's daughter, having mistaken her for a prostitute, which is a story in itself.  Once this new issue is in play, no holds are barred and Mike takes the law and some unlawful things too, into his own hands.  Rated 18A.