It’s been a year since the Sundance debut of John Wells‘ directorial debut, The Company Men. Films like these are a rare breed. It’s not only a small type of film (despite its star power) that is more than difficult to get off the ground nowadays, but it’s also tackling a timely and difficult topic. Who wants to go see a film about job loss in this climate? Well, that’s a hurdle and a question Wells overcame. Even with the hopeful and upbeat outlook of Wells’ first feature film, it’s sure to be a hard sell for some audiences. Yes, Up in the Air tackled a similar matter and ended up doing gangbuster business, but that also had George Clooney‘s wit and charms at the center of it to make it an easy sell. This isn’t a film with irresistibly likable leads, but instead follows genuinely believable modern day workers. Hopefully, as I’m sure the extremely friendly and well-spoken director hopes as well, more than a few people will look past its downer concept.

This week, Fat Guy Kevin Carr trolls around hospitals looking for a scorching hot young doctor who doesn’t want a real relationship but would rather have someone she can have copious amounts of sex with many times throughout the week. Upon returning from that fantasy land, he heads to a job-placement agency to rub elbows with laid-off corporate executives who have trouble making ends meet so they can pay the lease on their Mercedes. Kevin is handing out grades for No Strings Attached and The Company Men, and the grades are not good.

In the late 1970s, the FBI went into business creating Abdul Enterprises. They weren’t selling Paula Abdul memorobilia (considering that she wouldn’t even be famous until a few years later); they were trying to see if members of Congress would attempt to bribe a (fake) foreign dignitary. Some did. The whole thing was coined the Abdul Scam (or Abscam for short), and shouted all over the nightly news. It resulted in several convictions. This is the tale that Ben Affleck might be looking to as his next directorial effort. The script for American Bullshit was written by The International writer Eric Warren Singer according to Deadline Williamsburg. They also note that Affleck has to choose between this, a story about New York Yankees wife-swapping in the 70s called The Trade, and a life-do-over movie about a middle-aged man who becomes 18 again called Replay. And, you know, the other half-dozen projects he’s thinking about doing. The FBI would make for the most interesting subject matter here, and it would be a nice lateral move away from the crime dramas of Boston.

This week, Fat Guy Kevin Carr is stuck in an elevator reviewing movies, but he realizes that being in there with the Devil isn’t nearly as bad when you’re also stuck in there with faux-slut Emma Stone. To pass the time, he robs a few banks in The Town of Boston with Ben Affleck and embroiders a scarlet Easy A on his chest. Sigh… if only he had worn a shirt when he did that…

One of the best films of 2007 was Gone Baby Gone, a mystery/drama set in a Boston neighborhood that focused on a detective couple tasked with finding the truth behind a little girl’s disappearance. It’s a fantastic movie in almost every way from the story to the acting, from the direction to the way it challenges the viewer to think about the costs of our convictions. Occasionally lost amongst the praise is the fact that the film is the directorial debut of Ben Affleck. Fans cheered his new found success behind the camera, detractors begrudgingly credited everyone but Affleck, and the majority of the movie-going public ignored it all together. (Seriously, if you haven’t seen it yet go rent it now.) Three years later Affleck has returned to the director’s chair with The Town. He’s also returned to the crime-ridden streets of Boston in this tale of a group of friends who moonlight as bank robbers. It’s not the weighty and complex success Gone Baby Gone was, in fact it’s fairly generic and basic in its structure, but Affleck and friends still manage to deliver one of the most exciting and satisfying thrillers to hit screens this year.

For 36 days straight, we’ll be exploring the famous 36 Dramatic Situations by presenting a film that exemplifies each one. From family killing family to prisoners in need of asylum, we brush off the 19th century list in order to remember that it’s still incredibly relevant today. Whether you’re seeking a degree in Literature, love movies, or just love seeing things explode, our feature should have something for everyone. If it doesn’t, please don’t assault our eardrums by talking to us in a Boston accent. Part 10 of the 36-part series takes a look at “Recovery Of A Lost One” with Gone Baby Gone.

After his directorial debut Gone Baby Gone knocked us on our collective rear-ends, Ben Affleck had us believing that we could let go of all of the things he’s done as an actor that could be labeled as less than good. Or more to the point, all of those terrible roles he’s taken. The talented guy who co-wrote Good Will Hunting was back in the world of telling well-crafted stories. It gave me hope for his next film, The Town, even before they started announcing an awesome cast that included Jeremy Renner, Rebecca Hall, Jon Hamm and Blake Lively, among others. But now — with this first trailer — I can’t avoid being excited about this film. I first caught the trailer in front of my Inception press screening. And 30-minutes into Christopher Nolan’s film, I couldn’t stop thinking about The Town. Now that’s a lasting impression. I like this director Ben Affleck far better than his actor doppleganger. See for yourself after the jump, where I’ve positioned both the official synopsis and the trailer.

I’ve already heard several folks here in Park City draw lines between John Wells’ recession drama The Company Men and Jason Reitman’s Up in the Air. That’s not exactly true. But it also isn’t a bad thing.

There were a lot of bad movies released during the past decade. That’s not anything that distinguishes the aughts from any other decade before it, but then most of these movies were bad in the usual, torturous ways.

With Bill Nighy’s claim that he doesn’t like watching himself in movies, I figured I’d take the opportunity to suggest the practice to a few other actors. But it’s not exactly what you think.

Remember when Ben Affleck was Hollywood’s new dramatic ‘it’ kid? Well, it looks as if Chris Pine is ready to follow in his footsteps…

Kevin Carr looks ahead to this week’s movie releases, taking aim at Gamer and All About Steve while being a little kinder to Extract..

A hilarious concept, a great cast, a talented director and yet somehow Extract falls flat.

So here we are with another weekend of movies that Hollywood deemed unfit for critical consumption. Meh! Such is Labor Day weekend. Go rent a DVD or Blu-ray instead of heading to the cinemas. There’s much more quality stuff out at the video store than in the theaters this week.

With just a week to go, Miramax is (gasp) actually marketing a new Mike Judge movie. It’s like it’s a real movie! Hitting theaters near you and everything!

Gossip Girl star Blake Lively is getting herself into some real drama. This time, it won’t be of the high society variety, it will be as part of the ensemble cast of director Ben Affleck’s The Town.

Mad Men uber-star Jon Hamm, also known as Don Draper, has signed on to star alongside Rebecca Hall in Ben Affleck’s upcoming directorial work The Town.

Kevin Carr reviews this week’s new movies: State of Play, Crank: High Voltage and 17 Again.

When veteran print reporter Cal McAffrey (Russell Crowe) begins investigating the murder of a young drug addict and notes connections to a story regarding the supposedly accidental death of one of Congressman Stephen Collins’s (Ben Affleck) aides, he teams up with the newspaper’s political blogger Della Frye (Rachel McAdams) and digs deep enough to find a major corporate conspiracy that threatens the democrat nature of our homeland security.

Neil has his tail between his legs because he hasn’t seen any movies this week, but he still maintains that he is awesome. Kevin enjoyed a nice dose of Zefron, and the Fat Guys remember two important things: If you white, you Ben Affleck; and Chic-fil-A is delicious!