Letters to God does have a lot a going for it. It lovingly tells the story of a young boy who bounces back from brain-tumor surgery for a time and inspires friends and family with his titular prayer-letters to God; it thankfully doesn’t drag us through tragedy-of-the-week territory, instead jumping right into Tyler’s attempts to reintroduce himself to life; it features a strong and appealing central performance from Robyn Lively as Tyler’s mom, Maddy; and nowhere do you feel like the producers are trying to sneak by with second-best. Even for its target audience, though, Letters might feel a little too much like a fantasy—as if the filmmakers themselves live on film sets rather than in the real world, and can no longer tell the difference.

This is a film that lets no one off the hook. We live in a screwed-up world, and we all contribute to the mess in some fashion, despite our best intentions. To Save A Life doesn’t hold out empty promises of a false but wide and comfy road to salvation. Instead, it demonstrates quite clearly that the path to God is narrow and treacherous—and that we travel it one life at a time. I’m encouraged that the Christian publishing industry, a necessary evil of sorts here in the West, has finally seen fit to acknowledge that “family friendly” isn’t the only viable form that products for the Christian niche market may take.

It was not that long ago when it felt like Jennifer Lopez was everywhere. She was the movie star of the moment, a pop star and a paparazzi favorite. Over the past few years, though, she managed to stay out of the spotlight and play the role of wife and mother. The Back-up Plan is her first movie since her pet project in 2006, El cantante. Her comeback actually began with a guest spot on How I Met Your Mother a few weeks ago which was both sexy and humorous. Unfortunately, The Back-up Plan is anything but.

As a movie buff, I’ve always been fascinated by the history of Hollywood personalities and few stand out from the pack like Orson Welles. As a wunderkind in 1941, Welles stormed into Hollywood and made Citizen Kane, a film many consider to be the greatest ever made. But before he invaded the movie business, Welles was a popular radio personality and had his own troupe of players at the Mercury Theater in New York. Director Richard Linklater’s new film Me and Orson Welles, tells the story of Welles’ famous 1937 stage production of Julius Caesar.