Mental real estate is growing scarce as the Marvel Cinematic Universe continues to expand, introducing dozens of new characters (both super-powered and not) every year for fans to get acquainted with. Mere months after the jam-packed, super-sized Avengers: Age of Ultron hit theaters, we’re visited by the Ant-Man, a funny little fellow whose brothers in arms aren’t Asgardian gods or raging green monsters, but tiny critters skittering about, virtually invisible to the naked eye. Where does a mini-hero like Ant-Man fit into the pantheon of larger-than-life superheroes? Will anyone even notice?

Probably not. Peyton Reed‘s Ant-Man is a respectably entertaining cog in the MCU machine, but it does little to set itself apart from its beefier big brothers. It’s got things other Marvel movies don’t: it’s a heist movie; Ant-Man’s the first superhero father (Hawkeye’s a secret agent!); the action is small-scale (and very easy to follow). But Reed ain’t foolin’ nobody. This is as formulaic a movie as Marvel’s ever produced. Its third act is a lot of fun, but everything beyond that feels safe, as if the movie is afraid to dive into the loony ideas it dips its toes into (James Gunn‘s Guardians of the Galaxy dove straight into the deep end, positioning it as the cooler, edgier alternative to the Avengers). If only all superhero movies could be as courageous as their mighty protags.

Michael Douglas anchors the film as Hank Pym, a scientist who in the ’70s invented a super suit that grants its wearer the ability to shrink down to bug size while retaining the strength of a 200-pound man, essentially making him (or her) the stealthiest, most dangerous super soldier the world’s ever seen. Fearing the chaos that would ensue should the technology fall into the wrong hands, Hank hides his invention away to never be found again. Fast-forward to present-day, and it’s found, again, by his former protégé, Darren Cross (Corey Stoll), who’s taken over PymTech and plans to unleash an army of shrinking suits on the world.

Unwilling to let his ass-kicking daughter, Hope (Evangeline Lilly) don his old suit, he employs talented thief Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) to infiltrate Cross’ labs and steal back the dangerous tech and end this mess. Scott’s just been released from prison and has vowed to give up his former life of crime, but Hank promises to help him reunite with his young daughter (Abby Ryder Forston), who lives with Scott’s ex-wife, Maggie (Judy Greer, underutilized again) and her husband (Bobby Cannavale). Unable to secure a clean job due to his dirty record, Scott agrees to take on the proverbial “one last job.”

Formulaic. Formulaic. You can smell the tropes from a mile away. Just as the plot gets set in motion, the film screeches to a halt as we watch Scott learn to use the Ant-Man suit and speak to ants with his mind (it’s a protracted training montage). Running parallel is a story of father-daughter resentment, which comes to a head in a terrifically acted scene between Lilly and Douglas that nonetheless makes you feel absolutely lousy in an otherwise largely comedic affair.

Rudd always seems to know how to make a scene funny, but seldom do I find his smartass-ness downright hilarious. He’s a comedian of modest talents, though he’s well-rounded and handsome enough to make him a viable leading man. He gets a passing grade. His greatest strength as an actor is that he’s pretty hard not to like, which in the case of a movie like Ant-Man comes in handy: we genuinely want to see him reunited with his daughter. (Just for the record, Ryder Forston is insanely adorable; she’s missing her two front teeth, so none of us stand a chance.)

The surprise standouts of the cast are Tip “T.I.” Harris and Michael Peña, who play Scott’s bumbling burglar buddies. Peña’s comedic delivery is off-the-charts good, and he actually sort of makes Rudd look bad; Rudd’s jokes get mild chuckles while Peña’s makes the audience explode with laughter. Stoll has a great look, his powerful frame and villainously bald head making him more physically imposing than your typical mad scientist. If you blink, you’ll miss his best moment: somberly, like an abandoned child, he asks his former mentor why he pushed him away. Hank replies, “Because I saw too much of myself.” The movie’s pervading theme is one of the passing of generations, which stimulates little thought and doesn’t lend the movie much richness. It does, at least, give the story a solid foundation.

Thankfully, the movie gets really darned good once the big heist gets underway. After an hour or so of mediocrity, things really click into place; the action becomes more playful and inventive, and the actors start to let loose (especially Peña’s character, who sucks so bad at going undercover he just starts clocking security guards left and right and talking smack over their unconscious bodies). The final battle takes place in a little girl’s bedroom, and the ensuing visual gags are wildly entertaining and super funny. Ant-Man‘s micro-comedy isn’t as funny as the stuff Pixar did with the Toy Story franchise, but it comes close, which is a major compliment.

If Ant-Man‘s finale wasn’t so great, I wouldn’t hesitate to suggest you skip the movie entirely. References to other movies in the MCU (a certain winged Avenger makes a guest appearance) are cute and fun, though your enjoyment of that stuff depends on your geekiness level. Edgar Wright had an infamous falling-out with Marvel Studios partway through production and was replaced by Reed, and I wonder if the balls Ant-Man seems to be lacking went away along with the Shaun of the Dead mastermind.

Prior to the release of her wildly successful third novel “Gone Girl” Gillian Flynn published another mildly success novel, “Dark Places.” Following last year’s much-discussed release of Gone Girl, Dark Places is set to follow suit in a new thriller starring Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult, Christina Hendricks, Chloë Grace Moretz, and Corey Stoll with a brand new international trailer released today (yay, France!). Pretty Things and Sarah’s Key director Gilles Paquet-Brenner adapted the book and directs the film, his first new project in half a decade.

Theron stars as Libby Day, a woman whose family was brutally killed while she was a child. Her brother was accused of the murders but now a secret crime-solving society called The Kill Club force her to re-examine that painful day and uncover the truth. The film opens in France on April 8th, but U.S. distributor A24 Films has yet to set a domestic release date.

Dark Places trailer

Dark Places poster

Kyle Patrick Alvarez (Easier With Practice) has been gifted the very first crack at translating the work of acclaimed writer David Sedaris to the big screen with C.O.G., a soul-seeker dramedy adapted from one of Sedaris’ short stories. Faithful followers of Sedaris who’ve been thirsty for a cinematic adaptation of one of his darkly comic short stories won’t find in C.O.G. quite what they’ve been waiting for as it fails to capture the emotional potency of its source material. Thanks to thin, tinny writing, these characters come off as duller, more pedestrian versions of Sedaris’ larger-than-life creations, despite powerful, multi-layered performances supplied by the game cast.

Jonathan Groff plays David, a pompous, preppy Yale student (he lets you know with a big fat “Y” on his sweater) who travels West on a Greyhound with the mission of “getting his hands dirty”, battling his long-repressed homosexuality, and discovering true happiness. Foolishly, he believes that by hunkering down with the working-class world for a while, he’ll be able to clear his mind of clutter and sort out nagging sexual insecurities.

He begins his odyssey picking apples on an apple farm (beautifully shot), run by the hilariously prejudiced Dean Stockwell. David finds himself unable to jibe with his fellow apple pickers (almost all hispanic), partly due to the ignorance he’s brought with him from the East coast. Still, he’s a good kid, and he makes an earnest effort to make friends with strangers. He’s just a little misguided.

Groff’s cockiness and pretension feel natural and often drive the humor, though he never comes across as completely obnoxious or unlikable. There’s a boyish innocence to him that he retains throughout the film, no matter how brash or arrogant he gets. It’s a complex role–there’s a growing thunderstorm of sexual and religious bewilderment and frustration bottled up in David, and Groff conveys the inner conflict well.

After being promoted from the orchards to the sorting plant he meets a friendly, flannel-wearing, blue collar man’s man named Curly (played with panache by Corey Stoll) who…well…let’s just say he comes on a little strong. Also at the plant, David meets a shit-talking apple-sorter, Debbie (Dale Dickey), and later a legless Gulf War vet named Jon (the great character actor Denis O’Hare) who reveals the meaning of the titular abbreviation and attempts to convert David to Christianity, or some variant of it.

Jon is a tornado of rage, jealousy, small-mindedness, and unwavering faith, though he’s got enough kindness in him to take David under his wing. It’s an unpredictable, ever-evolving role, and watching O’Hare embody it with such conviction is a joy. The scenes between Groff and O’Hare are the film’s best—their companionship is touching, yet it always feels deliciously volatile. The rest of the damaged characters aren’t given much to do, though the actors make the very best of what they’re given. The segmented, episodic format of the narrative makes every moment feel transient, fleeting, so that nothing ever sticks. Characters come, they go, we move on.

Alvarez makes Oregon look divine, with its leafy landscapes and tranquil fields highlighted whenever appropriate. It’s a gorgeous backdrop, and the scenery becomes a character in itself. There are several electric moments scattered throughout C.O.G. (mostly involving O’Hare), but the transient nature of the storytelling will leave you cold. Each potential friend David meets turns out to be something shockingly different than what he’d expected, which is meant to feed the main theme: everyone’s got fatal flaws, but they deserve to be loved nonetheless. We should love these characters, but Alvarez hurries by them and doesn’t give us much of a chance to get acquainted.

Midnight in Paris is Woody Allen’s latest film about a man who loves Paris and nostalgia which Allen gracefully provides in a whimsy and romantic manner. Allen does for Paris what he has done for New York in the past, cinematically capturing the city perfectly. Most people can agree, this is Allen’s best film in years.

Gil (Owen Wilson) is a Hollywood movie writer who is trying to give a shot at writing a novel but not having the easiest time with it. He is on vacation with his soon-to-be wife Inez (Rachel McAdams) in Paris, a city that he adores every square inch of, especially when it is raining. He brings up the idea of moving there once they are married but Inez does not share the same passion about Paris as he does and she hates being wet. In fact, the couple do not see eye-to-eye on much it seems.

The couple happen to run into some old friends who are visiting the City of Light as well. I decline to say mutual friends as Gil does not care much for Paul (Michael Sheen), a traveling professor who considers himself an expert on every subject on earth. Gil finds him very annoying whereas Inez finds him charming and fascinating. Paul asks if the two would be interested in going dancing and immediately they both respond with different answers.

While Inez and Paul are out dancing, Gil decides to take a walk around the city. He had a fair amount to drink that night so getting lost was not hard for him to do. He ends up on some church steps as the clock strikes midnight it’s bell rings. A few moments later a vintage car full of drunken Parisians pulls up and invites him in.

When the group ends up at a party that is when Gil starts to notice something a little…magical. The first person at the party he meets is Zelda Fitzgerald (Alison Pill). She is very eager to hear that he is a writer himself so she calls over her husband to tell him the news, Scott Fitzgerald (Tom Hiddleston). He can barely believe what he is seeing.

He does not spend too much time trying to figure out how he ended in what he considers the golden age, the 1920’s, he just embraces it. Woody Allen does the same; he does not bother to explain how this time travel is possible as how is not the important part. Gil has always wondered what Paris was like in the 20’s and now he gets his chance to see it.

The next day everything goes back to normal but Gil can barely wait until midnight to see if the process repeats itself. He walks around until he finds the same church and waits for clock to strike midnight. When the bell rings sure enough the same old car pulls up transports him back in time. Gil runs into a long list of famous heroes including, Gertrude Stein (Kathy Bates), Ernest Hemingway (Corey Stoll) and Salvador Dali (Adrien Brody). Gil realizes he finally found some people he trusts to critique his novel, something that he has never done before and what other perfect people do so than Stein and Hemmingway.

The story really picks up when he is introduced to Piacasso’s lover Adriana (Marion Cotillard). He instantly develops a crush on her. Gil and Adriana share one big thing in common; they both wish they belonged in a different time period. It is when Adriana fantasizes about being in Paris in another time than the 1920’s that he finally comes to a realization that life is a little unsatisfying and you can never think the present is the golden age.

Gil comes to this epiphany shortly after he heavily considers leaving his fiancé for Adriana. He does after all, get along with and share more in common with Adriana than we ever saw he did with Inez. The film does a great job making it about impossible to feel pity for Inez, she never seemed right for Gil from the start.

It is no secret that Woody Allen often portrays himself with protagonists in his films, Midnight in Paris is no exception, Owen Wilson might be the best actor to pull it off to date. Wilson may not come to mind as the perfect person for the role but he proved otherwise. He played the enthusiastic writer who is sometimes neurotically long-winded remarkably well. The rest of the cast also do a excellent job, especially Corey Stoll as Hemingway.