Aubrey Plaza is a snark-a-chino priestess, with that ever-present sideways glower and so-hard-she-shits-nails deadpan.

Quarter-life ennui meets time travel. The former is charming and bittersweet (with Jeff's reformed playboy and subsequent revenge-relapse at the expense of and to the benefit of the nebbish Arnau), but the latter lacks both psychological and scientific explanation. *Spoilers* Kenneth IS revealed to be delusional if not paranoid, so I'm guessing his real reason for going back wasn't to bring back his assumed-dead sweetie but to keep himself from driving her away. Is he aware of this somewhat alarming coping mechanism? If he's falling in love with Darius throughout, why doesn't he just tell her the real reason? Was it an act, or is he still legit kerazy? It doesn't take much for Darius to trust him again. Then if they're going back to save Darius' mom, shouldn't they consider the butterfly effect consequences trumpeted in nearly every time travel movie?

You know a movie isn't great when the best part is Nicolas Cage. "The Croods" is...surprisingly crude - in terms of even minimal historical accuracy and in terms of strong female character development (which I'm not sure they were going for, but if you get Emma Stone, our Big Red It Girl of the moment to voice your heroine, you ought to deliver something for her to work with besides grunty ogling of neanderthal beefcake).

The Crood family's hunting and problem solving tactics are really too cartoony, yet still not funnier or cleverer than the X's and O's of football strategery. I guess I was expecting an element of realism. The movie doesn't really start until Eep meets Guy who miraculously has AAALLLL the answers to prehistoric civilization: fire, shoes, critical thinking skills, musical instruments, slithey pets that act as belts, need I repeat: fire?? shoes??? critical thinking skills???? Where the hell did he come from?!

Rachael Leigh Cook is hot, mm'kay? In trying to uglify herself though, she contracts an unfortunate case of Vapid Face Syndrome.

To slake a hankering for classic 90s teen movie, I gave "She's All That" a re-gander and found that it hasn't held up like "10 Things I Hate About You" or "Clueless" or even the first two "American Pies." This "Pygmalion"-lite is deserving of its "Not Another Teen Movie" treatment with its easily recognizable stereotypes and suspension of disbelief. Ducky-esque Jesse is blustery and useless, and even the group dance to Fatboy Slim's "The Rockafeller Skank" (of which I never knew the title) seems lame and dated.

Most movies of plays are just filmed versions of the plays, but playwright David Lindsay-Abaire actually uses the medium of film to create atmosphere, momentum, and chemistry. The play is a lot of TELL - and rather good, imagistic TELL; it won a freakin' Pulitzer - but in this adaptation, we get to see all the SHOW: Becca and Jason's acquaintanceship evolving throughout the movie (instead of just in the penultimate scene in the original script), Becca punching out a random mom at the grocery store, Becca breaking down at seeing Jason going to Prom.

Nicole Kidman deserved her Oscar nod. Her posture is stooped, her eyes are bored but darty, and she gets so close to crying but never does (until the end). Miles Teller (who plays cute and dorky Willard in the new Footloose) is wonderful as the repentant teenager. In disagreement with Flixster reviewer, Jim Hunter, I was rather impressed with Aaron Eckhart's emotional outburst. He didn't seem so much angry as heartbroken and at the end of his rope.

However, upon second viewing, I find the movie much sadder than the play, which DLA explicitly said not to do in his script notes. The music is sad and mellow and the shots of Becca's day-to-day life overdramatize her dazed emptiness. Izzy, the fuck-up sister, is also under-utilized whereas she provides much necessary comic relief in the play.

Upon recent viewing a few years ago, I thought the supporting characters more annoying than I did when I was younger, but the film is nevertheless a classic.

Upon yet another recent viewing, I found the songs more awkward and expository, and even reading-is-sexy Belle comes off as damselly and over-accommodating, not to mention rash and passive aggressive. Perhaps my once-unbridled enthusiasm for the film has been dampened by buzzfeed's barenaked ass-whupping of the "classic's" glaring plot holes http://www.buzzfeed.com/donnad/questions-disney-forgot-to-answer-about-beauty-and-the-be