What is Movie News After Dark? It’s a nightly movie news column that is currently incensed with its own author, as it has determined that he is a giant wuss. Seriously? You almost let a little stomach bug get in the way of doing the news?! Pansy. Now, on with the good stuff. The shortlist for the Best Foreign Language Oscar has been released. Among the contenders listed in notes from Jeff Wells is Bullhead, a recent pickup of Drafthouse Films and standout film of this year’s Fantastic Fest line-up. Our own Luke Mullen called it “damn near a masterpiece.” That’s high praise, if I’ve ever seen it.

Would you vote for Matt Damon for Congress? The people of fake New York sure seem to be ready to do so, as long as his toothy-grin politician character in The Adjustment Bureau can keep his pants on… and with Emily Blunt running around in high heels, that’s not an easy task. But something tells us that a mysterious force might keep him in check to make that happen. One of this spring’s speculative fiction films comes to DVD and Blu-ray, based on a story by Phillip K. Dick, and we give it a $1000-a-plate treatment with our latest drinking game.

The Adjustment Bureau, loosely adapted from a Philip K. Dick story, takes on one of science fiction’s stock themes. Fans of Lost, for example, or Minority Report or The Matrix will recognize the classic struggle between fate and free will at the heart of the picture, the clash between the universe’s plan for us and our desire to carve out our own destiny. It’s familiar, quasi-religious territory rendered with stylish flair by writer-director George Nolfi and cinematographer John Toll. Set in a Manhattan rife with dapper henchmen in fedoras and swanky buildings with long marble foyers, captured in sweeping camera movements and symmetrical compositions, the film has the look of a production of weighty, spiritual import. Yet that stylistic edge services a love story that starts flat and never gets going. It’s a forced and altogether empty conjoining of two moderately likable, exceedingly bland individuals that inspires none of the deep, transcendent passion required of a narrative so immersed in spirituality.

The newest adaptation of a Phillip K. Dick novel just added a stellar actress to the project. Either that or she’s way too young for Matt Damon. Whatever you think.

The story, with action, romance and sci-fi overtones, sees Matt Damon playing a politician who falls for a ballerina only to find mysterious forces keeping the two apart. That sounds about right when you add that it is loosely based on the work of Philip K. Dick.