Over the years, Hollywood has managed to condition the viewer with particular movie-going expectations.  We expect to be entertained.  We expect a good story.  And we expect that story to have resolution.  In the Oscar-nominated film Doubt, writer/director John Patrick Shanley goes against this notion of a nicely wrapped Hollywood story when he chooses to leave the film's central question unanswered.

Doubt centers itself around the tenuous working relationship between a free spirited Catholic priest, Father Flynn (Philips Seymour Hoffman), and the parish's austere Principal, Sister Aloysius Beauvier (Meryl Streep).  When Father Flynn begins to give both special recognition and time to the school's first black student, Sister Beauvier begins to suspect inappropriate sexual behavior between the two.  Sister Beauvier successfully rallies suspicion and the audience is left with... did anything happen?

James Marsh's documentary Man On Wire is captivating on many fronts. The film tells the story of the French, high-wire-walker, Philippe Petit's illegal performance between New York City's World Trade Center's twin towers in 1974.

First, there is the Ocean's 11-like scheming, planning and executing of the long planned performance. Or, there is the fertile ground which spawned such an amazing feat: the bohemian, play-infused life-style that Philippe and his friends live. And then we experience the glaring paradox between what the twin towers inspired Philippe to do, and what it inspired others to do on September 11, 2001.

Sometimes it's hard to know how to take an EP.  Is it a bridge between albums? Is it a look at what is to come? Is it a small group of songs that don't fit on the upcoming/past album? I'm not sure I can definitively answer any of those questions in regards to Bon Iver's recent EP Blood Bank, but it seems safe to say that Justin Vernon (Bon Iver) isn't just a one trick pony.

Blood Bank finds Vernon experimenting with some new sounds and leading the band from behind a new instrument (an electric piano) for a number of the songs on the EP.  The collection of four songs begins with the title track, which isn't too much of a leap from where Vernon left us at the end of Bon Iver's first album, For Emma, Forever Ago.  There might be a little more rock & roll to it, but the song "Blood Bank" has the catchy melody, distinct phrasing and cryptic lyrics that populate For Emma, Forever Ago.

I love moments in films. The bus scene in Almost Famous. John Cusack holding up the boombox. Falling Slowly being played in the back of a music store. While they don't tell the whole stories they are a part of, they serve as the icons by which we remember them.

The most recent film I saw at Sundance, Adam, has a few moments that I will remember long after the credits were done rolling. Being here at Sundance Film Festival, I felt it pointless to talk about films that few people can actually see, but with the announcement that Fox Searchlight bought this film yesterday, I'm sure this will be out soon. What grabbed me about this film, amidst the romantic moments of a not so simple love story, were the disarming moments where this story gives you a clear glimpse of what a life in NY is like for a mid-twenties male with Asperger's trying to make sense of his life.