Shorts (2009)

With the G-rated comedy Shorts, James Spader has yet another role that he can finally show to his mother. With deadpan wickedness, he commits himself to his role as the shifty chief of the Black Box Company, a electronics manufacturer that produces something that looks like a cross between a Blackberry and a Rubik's Cube. Director Robert Rodriguez works with a kinetic verve in bunch of scrambled shorts--hence the title--about the same thing: a rock that grants wishes. The movie is for the kids, and Rodriguez has to be admired for trusting them to figure out a non-linear story, James Spader and pointed commentary on how communication technology distances us further from the people we are in touch with. –Hillary Titley