Inspirational sports movies comprise a hallowed genre, one with some great names. Remember the Titans, Miracle, and Rocky all share a common theme—something America can believe in. They follow the story of a man or group of people that face impossible odds and tremendous adversity, and though they may doubt themselves, through the help of some close friends and sheer power of will, they stare adversity in the face and come out victorious. What is most amazing about these films is that they are all based on true stories. Now one of sports’ greatest “triumph over adversity” stories has come to the big screen in the form of 42.

In Oblivion, Tom Cruise stars as Jack Harper, a droid technician monitoring the aftermath of a great war between humans and invading aliens. The humans won the war but lost the planet to radiation. Jack and his partner Victoria (Andrea Riseborough) are the mop up crew, repairing droids to mop up the remnants of the alien army. But Jack (his memory erased before his mission) is not sure they should leave with the rest of humanity to a new settlement on Titan.

Terrence Malick’s latest film, To the Wonder, like his acclaimed previous works—most recently 2005’s Pocahontas tale The New World and 2011’s polarizing The Tree of Life—is a bold exercise in pushing the experimental limits of commercial filmmaking. As ever, the reclusive Malick works with a sizable budget and acclaimed Hollywood stars to create movies that nonetheless break the rules of “acceptable” storytelling. To the Wonder is a love story at its core, but it’s a story communicated with barely any dialogue, impressionistic handheld camera work, quick editing, and enigmatic voiceovers. Malick’s style may infuriate many viewers, yet for those in tune with his sensibilities, the results are astonishing.

Caesar Must Die, directed by Paolo and Vittorio Taviani, made its first international debut outside of NYC this past Friday, brought to campus for a screening by the Italian club. The film follows the inmates of Rebbibia, a maximum-security prison in Rome, throughout their rehearsal and staging of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar.

G.I. Joe: Retaliation is a fine example of dumb fun done just right. This sequel to 2009’s Hasbro toy-inspired G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra doesn’t rewrite the rules of the action movie playbook, nor is it likely to inspire any truly lasting impressions. But for purely mindless, popcorn-movie blow-’em up spectacle, you can do a lot worse (see Michael Bay’s Transformers movies for just how much worse).

Most movie fans out there know that horror is a difficult genre to pull off. Our culture has simply grown more and more difficult to scare, and writing a quality movie that is designed entirely to terrify someone is just not an easy thing to do.

The Place Beyond the Pines has perhaps the best trailer of the new year—a majestic, sweeping vision on fatherhood and the consequences of decisions fathers make told in just two and half minutes. The film, directed by Derek Cianfrance (Blue Valentine) tells essentially the same story in just under two and a half hours. Pines embodies the plight of a good film whose trailer—vision—is just a bit better than the feature presentation, despite powerhouse performances from leads Ryan Gosling and Bradley Cooper to go along with beautiful cinematography.

Admission, staring Tina Fey and Paul Rudd, is about saying yes—to another person, a situation, your past—and that there’s no secret formula to getting into college, to living your life. But Admission also teaches us that there’s no secret formula to making a good movie, and that sometimes we have to say no to even two of our favorite actors. No offense, Tina and Paul.

Spring Breakers is a movie of lurid excess and absurdity existing somewhere in the strange netherworld between pop, art, and trash. Unsuspecting multiplex audiences everywhere, attracted by the star power of James Franco, Selena Gomez, and Vanessa Hudgens, will likely go in expecting a raunchy college comedy. Art house audiences, drawn in by the pedigree of director Harmony Korine, may expect a high-minded, earnestly moralizing movie about the decadence of today’s youth.

Dean's List

College seems to be on movie studios’ collective minds lately, from the Hangover-style raunchfest 21 & Over to the Tina Fey comedy Admission to the controversial, dubstep-fueled Spring Breakers.
With such a proliferation of college movies at the multiplex—not to mention the spring fever of housing season here at Boston College—The Scene chooses our favorite college-themed movies.