Summer cinema highs and lows

This summer saw the usual cavalcade of bombastic, would-be blockbusters, beginning in May with the release of "Iron Man 2," which, while not a terrible film, nevertheless failed to register past the final frames, serving mainly as an adequate place keeper for the upcoming "Avengers" films.

Perhaps the summer's most anticipated film for both critics and fans was "Inception," director Christopher Nolan's follow-up to his acclaimed Batman film "The Dark Knight." While the film was a hit at the box office, there was a bit of a backlash against it, with some criticizing it as emotionally weak. The film's remarkable special effects were truly breathtaking, though the film is often derivative of its forbearers, including, most notably, "The Matrix."

"Toy Story 3," purporting to be the final film in the franchise, continued Pixar's unparalleled hit streak and added another beautiful achievement to that studio's already bursting catalog.

Many other films found wide audiences in spite of their grim reviews. "The Last Airbender," directed by M. Night Shyamalan, was uniformly panned by critics for its wooden acting and shoddy use of 3-D technology (the effect was added post-filming.) However, the film earned healthy box-office totals, and Shyamalan is now at work on a set of sequels.

Also, "The Expendables" saw writer/director/star Sylvester Stallone trotting out every action movie star he could find, past and present, only to hold them hostage in a film as musty and warmed-over as dinner at Planet Hollywood.

"Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World" which opened in August to generally excellent reviews found little success at the box office and was deemed a commercial flop.

The summer wasn't completely devoid of excellent cinematic choices. As usual, you just had to know where to look. Director Lisa Cholodenko's excellent "The Kids Are All Right," a family drama starring Annette Benning and Mark Ruffalo, was widely acknowledged as one of the best films of the year and will certainly garner attention come Oscar time.

While "Eat Pray Love," based on the best-selling book, has found a mass audience, those inclined to seek out a more nuanced take on these same themes should see Tilda Swinton's role in the sumptuous, melodramatic "I Am Love," which was filmed entirely in Italian, with Tilda playing an immigrant wife of a rich Italian manufacturer struggling to maintain her grip in a foreign land. The absolute best film of the summer, however, was "Winter's Bone," a spectacularly grim and gritty look at a family torn apart by addiction and poverty in the rural Ozarks.

So next summer, as the usual parade of big, burly films muscle themselves onto movie screens, it's best to remember one time-tested rule: the multiplex may have the big comfy seats and ample parking, but the art house is almost always showing something much more special.