State of Play: I know what you’re going to say – this has to be cheesy, right? Well, kind of. This is a love letter to print journalism wrapped around a political thriller (the end credits even show the print process for a daily newspaper from beginning to end). Russell Crowe plays the grizzled investigative journalist and doll-faced Rachel McAdams plays the young new-fangled blogger that Crowe teaches a few old-school tricks to. The film’s saving grace is that the thriller part centers on a shady government cover-up that’s just real enough to believe – and that Crowe & McAdams don’t end up in bed together.

Is it fantastic? No, but I can definitely recommend it for an entertaining 127 minutes – even if I had to look at Ben Affleck for some of them.

[Video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ME87tEX9Qw]

Join Us: ChrisB spoke to Director Ondi Timoner earlier this year (her latest film, We Live in Public, played at SIFF), and asked her about this film about a “creepy, religious cult in South Carolina”. What makes it even creepier in my opinion is that she says the “…cult members showed up looking like us, driving SUVs and BMWs and their compound is a suburban subdivision they built that looks like the one next door to it.” YIKES. I think I need to see this so my existing paranoia about suburbia can grow even bigger.

[Video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=On8NKZZvmqQ]

Unwigged & Unplugged: Live in Concert: Comedy icons and film collaborators Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer appear on stage sans costume to perform Spinal Tap classics and other stuff, which I’m sure will cause some rolling-on-the-floor-laughing-out-loud moments (and yes, I refuse to abbreviate that) – because they are all BRILLIANT!

[Video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlWqAQ1oB8g]