Five years ago, while the central characters in Knocked Up were dealing with an unexpected pregnancy, supporting characters Pete and Debbie struggled through their marriage and parenthood.  For his fourth feature as writer-director, Judd Apatow and stars Leslie Mann and Paul Rudd are doubling back into their relationship with "the sort-of sequel" This Is 40.  The first trailer has arrived online, and it doesn't disappoint, promising that potent blend of Apatow-approved drama and comedy (both observant and over the top).

There's a strong chance you may not have seen Drive in theaters back in September, and if that's the case, then it's too bad.  Drive is one hell of a movie, one that's very different from what the TV spots made it out to be.  As of today, it's available on Blu-ray and DVD, so you can rectify the mistake of not having seen it, but if you're still on the fence about this movie that looked like it could just be Ryan Gosling in a rehash of The Fast and the Furious, the first seven minutes are now available to view online, free of charge. 

With just days to go before the Oscar nominations are announced on January 24th, it is now time to narrow down the predictions to 5 in each category. Rather than list each name alphabetically, the contenders have been listed in the order of their likelihood of receiving the nomination. In each category, the 5th slot could possibly go to a “dark horse” instead…

January 12th - 14th inaugurates the First Annual Wayne Federman International Film Festival, which will showcase Garry Shandling, Margaret Cho, Kevin Pollak and others as curators to their favorite films. The series, which is the first of its kind, will feature two comedians and movies per night for a very reasonable price (shockingly reasonable for L.A., in fact). But, you might be asking, who is Wayne Federman, and why is he hosting a so-called International film series at Cinefamily?

The first thing you should know is that you’ve probably seen him dozens of times. He has had small roles in a wide range of movies and TV projects including Curb Your Enthusiasm, Funny People, Step Brothers, Knocked Up, The 40 Year Old Virgin and Legally Blonde, so Federman has had many opportunities to crack his sharp wit. The second thing about him is that he is a self-admitted film nut who, truly, loves the cinema and watching films on the big screen. That passion motivated him to gather a few of his favorite colleagues and have a reason to see some classics in 35mm with fellow cinephiles.

I recently had the chance to speak with the festival’s creator and namesake, Wayne Federman, who shared with me how his love of cinema and comedy brought this event to fruition.

With the 84th Academy Awards only three months away, it’s time to go on record with some Oscar predictions. The race is officially on, with front-runners beginning to take the lead and dark horses waiting in the wings to shake things up. Several movies have still not yet been released, but every film that hopes to qualify for the Oscars will be in theaters by the last day of December. Let's take a look at how the six major categories are taking shape, with the top ten contenders fighting for five coveted slots…

So Drive arrives in theaters in a matter of mere hours, and if you're on the fence as to whether or not you should throw down your hard-earned cash for a ticket, we can only advise that you do.  The movie is, in many ways, the antithesis of bloated, meaningless spectacle; it's a lean, thrilling picture that unspools scenes of almost unbearable tension and shocking violence, but is also genuinely touching.  Ryan Gosling plays the mysterious and monosyllabic lead, but Drive is also packed with straight-up excellent actors filling out every substantial role.  Albert Brooks and Bryan Cranston are two such actors, and each has a new behind-the-scenes featurette highlighting their character and contribution to the film.

In the last official clip we saw from Drive, Bryan Cranston was introducing Ryan Gosling's unnamed hero to a less-than-trustworthy chap played by Albert Brooks.  The simple clip provided a good feel for many of the things that Nicolas Winding Refn's superb film does oh-so well, and Gosling, Cranston, and Brooks are all damned fine actors, but the clip lacked a crucial ingredient that is part of the film's success.  That would be the endlessly lovely and staggeringly talent Carey Mulligan, who plays a major role in the story. 

Two new clips from FilmDistrict both include plenty of Mulligan and Gosling doing what they do in Drive, and while neither is crazy-spoilery, it still might be best to save yourself for the movie itself, especially since there's only about a week until it hits theaters.  So if you're already convinced, then don't peek at your Christmas presents, but if you still need a little push to get your but in a seat for Drive, then take a look.

Reading a cut-and-dry description of Drive, it might seem like some other movies you've seen.  Yes, Ryan Gosling plays a loner stuntman who spends many a night driving a getaway car for all manner of crooks, and yes, he does inevitably get in over his head.  As directed by Danish auteur Nicolas Winding Refn, though, what seems like a fairly generic action movie becomes so, so much more.  It's a wildly confident movie, one that knows how to use silence to build near-unbearable tension and also to develop relationships between well-drawn characters without resorting to on-the-nose dialogue.  A new clip demonstrates this quite well as Bryan Cranston (whose role is probably the most talkative one in the whole film) introduces Gosling to Albert Brooks, and you can tell right away that these guys are coming from very different angles.

"Hey girl, it's me, Ryan Gosling.*  Oh, thank you.  Yeah, it was pretty cool when I dropped my groceries in order to stop a fight in New York.  Anything for my fellow man.  You know what's way cooler than breaking up fights though?  My new movie Drive, in which I play a strong, silent type of mechanic and movie stunt driver who also gets behind the wheel of a getaway car every now and then.  I wear leather driving gloves and have a toothpick in my mouth a lot of the time, but both actually tell you something about my character.  It's directed by my new BFF Nicolas Winding Refn, and as this new international trailer proves, it's awesome.**  The trailer gives a little to much away, but if that's what you need to be convinced to put your butt in a seat at your local multiplex, then girl, give this trailer a watch."

To simply summarize the story of Drive is to entirely miss so much of what makes the film special.  We've all seen films involving getaway drivers before, so when you hear that Ryan Gosling plays a stuntdriver/mechanic/aspiring racer who occasionally moonlights as a wheelman and inevitably gets into a dangerous situation, you're not liable to be terrible impressed.  The film is executed with incredible style, featuring moments that are pretty much iconic and surprisingly soulful characters.  Like the international poster before it, a new domestic poster for the film puts Gosling's unnamed hero front and center, right where he's supposed to be.  And this time he's even behind the wheel, toying with his signature toothpick.