Paranorman (2012, PG)

This is a stop-motion animation movie about an 11-year old boy named Norman who can see and talk to ghosts and whose town has a little-believed curse from a centuries-dead witch.  His family doesn't understand him, his classmates at school either don't want to associate with him or they downright bully him, and the various ghosts in town are generally really nice and like him a lot. 

The visual style is the first noteworthy aspect of the film.  I like that they animated the film with stop-motion techniques rather than the computer graphics which are so popular in animation these days.  I honestly don't know which is less expensive to employ, but I know stop-motion has to be very tedious to record, and I find it brings a certain charm to the film... maybe it just reminds me of the Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer movie I used to watch when I was young, though the animation in Paranorman is more elaborate and smooth (looks less like wood).  The color pallet is pretty dark with reddish-browns and eerie greens which you don't see too often in animation outside of Invader Zim.  There are no parallel lines or right angles in this film which adds to a cartoony quality but also the feel of unease.

Paper Man (2009, R)

This is a story about a writer played by Jeff Daniels (Dumb and Dumber, 101 Dalmatians) with serious social anxiety issues trying to make progress on his new book.  Lisa Kudrow (the show Friends) plays his successful doctor wife is awkward and she works back near their normal residence during the week and visits him on weekends.  Their marriage is a bit awkward and/or strained due in no small part to his mental emotional issues and his imaginary friend, Captain Excellent, played by Ryan Reynolds (Van Wilder, Green Lantern, The Nines) whose role is to keep Daniels from making dangerous decisions.  Daniels begins a strange and awkward interaction with a local high school girl played by Emma Stone (Zombieland, Superbad).

In addition to the aforementioned cast, Keiran Culken (Scott Pilgrim Vs The World, Igby Goes Down) plays Stone’s dark, depressed and hopelessly-stricken-with-unrequited-love lifelong friend.  The general concept of the movie sounded pretty cool to me, but the cast alone would make me watch it because I’m a pretty big fan of most of these actors (other than Kudrow, who I feel lukewarm about).

Pretty In Pink (1986, PG-13)

This John Huges film (The Breakfast Club, Ferris Beuler's Day Off) is about a high school senior girl (played by Molly Ringwald [The Breakfast Club, 16 Candles]) and her social/romantic interactions in an environment that has a strong divide between the wealthy and not-so-wealthy.  She's one of the have-nots.  Her best friend (your quintessential "friendzoned" guy) is played by Jon Cryer (Two And A Half Men.  James Spader (Wolf, Stargate) plays a douchebag rich kid who resents Ringwald for spurning his advances, and Andrew McCarthy (St. Elmo's Fire, Weekend At Bernie's) plays his best friend who is miraculously a nice rich guy and has mutual interest in Ringwald.