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Director: Timothy Linh Bui. Starring: Jessica Biel, Forest Whitaker, Eddie Redmayne, Ray Liotta, Lisa Kudrow, Patrick Swayze, Kris Kristofferson. Drama

SYNOPSIS: THE LIVES OF FOUR PEOPLE, ALL BATTLING SOME FORM OF LONLIENESS, INTERSECT DURING THE CHRISTMANS SEASON IN LOS ANGELES.

I can just cut to the chase on this one. Powder Blue is a very good film. The setup of the film will be familiar to anyone who has seen Crash or the Ripple Effect. An ensemble cast, multiple stories that intersect into one overall theme. Like the two flicks I just mentioned, this is extremely well acted, well directed, and the story is compelling.

Look, I'm one who believes real life is always more compelling than fiction, largely because it is real life. A single mother offering everything she can to care for her child, a man hurting unspeakably for the loss of his soul mate, a man trying to connect with his adult child who does not know him, a recently divorced woman looking for companionship in the only place readily available to her ...how could these stories not be compelling?

What's more, when the flick telling these stories has acting this good, you've got a wonderful movie. I know that, sometimes, those of us who love movies just want to veg out in front of the TV or big screen, not think too hard about anything, not worry about realism, and just be entertained for a couple of hours, not touched.

I can understand that, been there many times myself, expect to be there again. But, that isn't where I am all of the time and, even if I wanted to be, Powder Blue won't let you rest comfortably in non-thinking bliss.

The movie starts with a foreshadowing scene involving Ray Liotta (Good Fellas, Unlawful Entry) , a just released convict who is looking to fill in the one huge blank in his life after spending the previous 25 years in prison.

In short order, we meet an exotic dancer (Jessica Biel) who is focused soley on her son to the exclusion of almost everything and everyone else in her life; a former priest (Forest Whitaker, The Ripple Effect, The Last King of Scotland) who is cruising the streets of L.A., seemingly obsessed with the dregs of society and looking to ease enormous personal pain, a mortician with a big heart who is down on his luck financially (Eddie Redmayne) as well as a friendly waitress who is looking for love in her place of business . (Lisa Kudrow, Analyze This)

As good ensemble pieces do, Powder Blue is able to interweave these seemingly unrelated stories into one overall narrative, and keep us interested while it does so. Of course, the way it accomplishes this is by, first, being an interesting story and then by the good performances of the actors. Personally, I think Liotta and Redmayne stand out here with the way they bring their characters to life. That is not to shortchange Biel, who is wonderful and empathetic, or the wonderfully talented Whitaker or Kudrow, doing very well in the first non-comedic role I've seen her in.

As if the good work of the main characters is not enough, we also have a couple of small roles that are performed by a couple of real heavyweights, Patrick Swayze (Road House, Ghost) in an almost unbeleivable-for him-role as Biel's scumbag boss and Kris Kristofferson in a scene as Liotta's erstwhile friend and present benefactor.

There is a slight twist to the ending, but nothing you won't see coming, especially since this film is done in such a way as we the viewers know what is going when the characters don't, but the point of this film, in my opinion, is not to astound you with a twist, its to make you feel, relate, and empathize with the characters.

And it does that very well. If you like realistic stories and realistic characters, you need to pick this one up when you have the chance.

Directed by Hunter Richards. Starring Chris Evans, Jessica Biel, Joy Bryant, Jason Statham, Kelli Garner. Comedy/Romance.  Synopsis: A young man with a drug addiction and volatile personality deals with the news that his former girlfriend is moving across the country without telling him by crashing her going away party.

Now, for those of you who watch movies often and sometimes find yourself decrying the lack of imagination from Hollywood, this will warm your heart as it is a very different type of film, told in a unique and brusque way that, for some will be funny, but for others maybe not.

We meet Syd (Chris Evans) in the opening frames as he receives a phone call at his modest apartment. We don't hear the substance of the call, but its obvious from Syd's reaction-pretty much destroying his home-that he is not pleased with what he has just heard.  It soon turns out that the scoop Syd just received is that his former girlfriend, London (Jessica Biel) is moving away and having a going away party thrown at the spacious apartment of one her rich friends. Only problem is that Syd wasn't invited.

Well, old Syd drops the first of what will be countless F-bombs, verifies this information with a mutual friend of his and London's (Joy Bryant) and proceeds to start snorting prodigious amounts of cocaine as he resolves to crash the party. He meets up with a professional looking coke dealer named Bateman (David Statham) and the two of them snort some coke together, with Syd convincing his new friend to crash the shindig with him.

What follows is, primarily, the two of them in this spacious bathroom, doing line after line of cocaine, sharing some with the occasional visitor to the bathroom, and talking about deep topics such as religion and pain. Frankly, a lot of what they have to say is hilarious, though taken against the backdrop of their drug use, its is definitely what might be called "dark humor".

Much of the story is told in flashback, as we see a slightly more clean-cut Syd in some of his situations with London. Their relationship can only be described as "stormy" as the hotheaded Syd and the chameleon like London seemed to always have some major cross to bear, whether its Syd's incessant jealousy or volatile temper, or London's questionable practice of fibbing now and then to him.

The whole key to the story is believing that these two people have a strong attraction and love for each other, and think that they do as presented in the film. Whether they should, based on their shallow natures, is another question.

The acting in this one is very good, all of the main characters are good actors, though the majority of the story is built around Statham and Evans. Statham is especially good in his self deprecating yet self centered role. Evans is playing such a different character from the one that most probably know him from (Cellular) , that I had to look again to make sure it was the same guy, which is the mark of a good actor when its not dependent on makeup.

The ending is a little bit different, not surprising at all, but done in such a way as to leave us hanging as to what will happen next, or how we feel about the very different direction the story took in the last 15 minutes of the film. I didn't care for the ending all that much, but its the kind that 10 different people will feel 10 different ways about. 

Warning: if you pick up this film, you will see a lot of drug use, and a kind of glorification of the hedonistic lifestyle of the young and wealthy. If that bothers you, you may want to reconsider, although I think the point is to parody that life style and/or show its emptiness without love.

Some will really like London, some will really dislike it.

Aside from the "left me hanging ending", I liked it.