Contributor: Adam R. Holz

After serving as an associate editor at NavPress’ Discipleship Journal and consulting editor for Current Thoughts and Trends, Adam now oversees the editing and publishing of Plugged In’s reviews as the site’s director. He and his wife, Jennifer, have three children. In their free time, the Holzes enjoy playing games, a variety of musical instruments, swimming and … watching movies.

In the Lonely Hour

Sam Smith’s debut album is titled In the Lonely Hour. But it could just have easily been called It’s a Sad, Sad, Sad, Sad World.

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A Single Man

In the 1960s a professor mourns the death of his homosexual partner. At stake for him? The meaning and resonance of relationships … and life itself.

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Splice

Two scientists decide to play God by combining human DNA with that of animals. The unintended consequences go from bad to worse to … much worse.

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How to Train Your Dragon 2

So while How to Train Your Dragon 2 is every bit as entertaining and engaging as its predecessor, it’s traded some of the whimsical, childlike wonder for a more nuanced examination of good and evil.

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Everybody’s Fine

Robert De Niro steps into the shoes of a lonely widower trying to reconnect with kids who are all harboring damaging secrets from their perfectionist father.

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Platinum

Have marriage and maturity slowed down country music’s resident working-class wild child?

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Mr. & Mrs. Smith

Brad Pitt! Angelina Jolie! What more is there to say about this assassin/spy flick? Well, actually…

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“All About That Bass”

All the components of newcomer Meghan Trainor’s neo doo-wop hit add up to having a healthy body image. But a saucy sexiness subtracts from the positivity.

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“Good Girls”

There’s a boy band tsunami swirling out in the Pacific—and it’s about to hit American shores in the form of four lyrical lads from Australia. Too bad their music isn’t as “good” as this track’s title suggests.

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The Secret

As Justin Bieber’s career veers erratically into Michael Jackson eccentricity and rock star debauchery, the Internet has graciously served up the heir apparent to his arguably vacated teenybop throne.

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Green Lantern

Another superhero takes to the skies, flying over familiar territory. Does he stay true to the will of the green, or fearfully give in to the yellow?

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Blended

The exasperating result is a movie that gets so much right even as it insists on blending in so much of Adam Sandler trademark naughtiness.

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My Soul to Take

Wes Craven’s latest nightmare revolves around the ghost of a serial killer who’s apparently returned to wreak vengeance upon the seven children born the night of his death.

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“Cheerleader (Felix Jaehn Remix)”

The couple is on their way to marriage, but, as the song suggests, as things start heating up, it gets distasteful long before OMI puts a ring on it.

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The Fault in Our Stars: Music From the Motion Picture

The Fault in Our Stars is one of the most tragic romantic stories about love and death in recent memory. No surprise, then, that its soundtrack echoes those aching, yearning, mournful … and hopeful themes.

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