Flakes is a neighborhood breakfast fantasy -- a funky, retro shop dedicated to cereal. You walk in, pick your crunch of choice, and are instantly served a bowl of cereal that you can enjoy with the quirky members of your community. But it's not all Corn Flakes and Cheerios -- there's a large wall of selections from the new to the old, discontinued, and hard-to-find varieties. It's history in a bowl, served without the capitalist cleanliness.

In a film, there's a number of ways this can play out that could make for a memorable and lovable indie experience. However, while Flakes mixes the worlds of High Fidelity, Reality Bites, Clerks, and Empire Records, it does so without the verve and life that made each of those lovable classics.

Student films must be graded on a curve, and Flakes is basically a student film. If you overlooked the fact that the three leads are all moderately high-profile actors, I'd estimate the budget to be less than twenty thousand dollars. Most of the action takes place in or around the titular establishment, a cereal bar in which slackers and stoners assemble on a daily basis to eat their favorite cereals -- everything from standard fare like Cheerios to rare delicacies like Fruit Brute -- and make of themselves a quirky movie character. The two leads are a boyfriend-girlfriend, Neal Downs (Aaron Stanford) and the improbably named Miss Pussy Katz. (Zooey Deschanel) Their boss at Flakes is a 60-ish hippie played by Christopher Lloyd, and his performance is the biggest thing hindering my plan to give Flakes a better review than it deserves. Lloyd comes from some long forgotten school of acting where naturalism is never as a good a choice as creating a character with such a forced way of speaking that no one could ever mistake them for a human being.

With a movie like this, they base their plot on whatever is on sale at the 'cliched plot device' factory, and it appears that what was on sale that week was 'business is threatened by newer, flashier rival across the street.' A nerdy businessman comes walking into Flakes one day and is impressed by the concept but dispirited by the stoner attitude -- he doesn't get what Flakes is all about, man! -- and determines to open an upscale cereal bar directly across the way which will put Flakes out of business. This causes much tension. Miss Pussy Katz -- I can't believe I keep having to type that -- and her boyfriend have a number of rows over how Flakes should respond to the crisis at hand and the loyal customers alternately declare their loyalty or decamp to the new establishment across the street. As bad as this all sounds, there are a couple of things about Flakes that I really liked, and I'm more than happy to point them out and to remind everyone that this is from the director of Heathers.

Though it has this certain "Lifetime Movie of the Week" quality about it, The Cake Eaters is one of those films that sneaks up on you a half hour after the credits roll. Pic, which marks Mary Stuart Masterson's directorial debut, is charming when it needs to be, and careful not to become too melodramatic. It's one of those comfortable quiet films where most of the action is non-verbal and the characters rarely ever say what's really on their minds. But when they do, the dialogue is delivered in a way that's so personal, you almost feel like that awkward third party -- the ear that's not supposed to be hearing all this. Set in one of the many small towns of Upstate New York, most of the drama revolves around two families; each dealing with their own separate tragedies.

The Kimbrough's, which consist of Easy (Bruce Dern) and his two sons Beagle (Aaron Stanford) and Guy (Jayce Bartok), are still trying to come to terms with the recent death of their wife and mother. Things become a bit complicated when Guy returns home after disappearing to New York City for three years in search of those rock star dreams. Thus, he missed his mother's slow, agonizing death; he wasn't there when the cancer was at its worst. And he never made it to the funeral. Meanwhile, Beagle was at his mother's side every moment of every day -- even in the end when not even Easy could stomach the sight of his deteriorating wife. Throughout the film, there's this thick tension between all three men; tension that turns to anger once it's revealed to Beagle that his father had been having an affair for years.

Ever seen one of those "slacker ensemble" comedies like Clerks, Empire Records or Waiting? Then you've seen just about everything that Michael Lehmann's Flakes has to offer. Too bad the thing feels like a half-hearted and flimsily-written quickie production that forgot to include a whole lot in the laughs department. Penned by first-timer Chris Poche and polished by the generally excellent Karey Kirkpatrick, Flakes feels like something that was slapped together in a week with little attention paid to factors like originality, charm and humor. Not only have you already seen this belabored concept numerous times, but you probably didn't like it all that much the last nine times it popped up somewhere.

Aaron Stanford and Zooey Deschanel (last seen together in Live Free or Die) play a pair of insufferably smug "ain't we cool" anti-establishment-style free spirits who spend their days selling caustic T-shirts and doling out bowls of cereal for a stiffly "wacky" group of customers. But when a smarmy young businessman moves into the neighborhood and aims to steal the "cereal restaurant" concept for his own nefarious needs, why, it's up to the whole gaggle of slackers to band together and save their cereal bar, goshdarnit! In an effort to pad out the running time, Stanford and Deschanel must also contend with a "he won't grow up / she needs more" subplot that goes exactly where you expect it to -- and it does so in rather lethargic fashion.

In college, they all knew each other. Four years later, they're starting to wonder if they even know who they are. The soul-searching isn't accidental: Michael (Adam Garcia) and Elise (Amy Adams) are getting married this weekend, and as all their friends gather around, each comes with a custom outfit and individual set of neuroses. Samantha (Melissa Sagemiller) is wondering if Rich (Aaron Stanford) is ever going to pop the question; Jennifer (Lauren German) and Lana (Mena Suvari) are both carrying some emotional baggage from their undergrad days; Quentin (Colin Hanks) has become a slick-haired, slick-talking agent, and Pockets (Jon Abrahams) is hiding a few old wounds behind his devil-may-care grin and mannerisms. And Michael and Elise aren't perfect, either. …

Written by Michael Perniciario and Timm Sharp, Standing Still is a look at that transitional period in life when you're drinking almost as much as you used to in college, but at least now you're doing it out of proper glassware. When I was younger, I loved movies like St. Elmo's Fire, as they offered a fascinating glimpse into a fantasy version of adulthood: Wow, look at Rob Lowe's apartment! As the years progress, though, you learn that, for example, movie apartments are always eight times the size of what real people with those jobs could actually afford (among many, many other things). And in time, those movies turn from fateful prophecy to unintentional comedy. Maybe if I were, like the characters, four years away from my university graduation -- and not 14 -- Standing Still might have had a slightly better effect on me; as it was, I felt like the oldest guy at the party, swilling bourbon while younger people worked through stuff I had (or hadn't) endured a long time ago.

As the release of X-Men 3: The Last Stand draws nearer, the people involved continue to have more to share regarding their thoughts on the upcoming film. Today's news comes from Aaron Stanford, who plays the role of Pyro in both X3 and the earlier X2. During an interview which was primarily for promoting his upcoming horror flick, The Hills Have Eyes, Aaron took a few minutes to share his thoughts on the character he portrays in the X-verse. Regarding the question of Pyro's swapped loyalties, Aaron stated "He's ... crossed over completely to the Brotherhood, which is Magneto's  side." No surprise there; it's well known that Pyro is a baddie for this flick. He continued by saying that Pyro has "kind of become Magneto's right hand man for this movie," ready and willing to serve in whatever capacity is needed. He also indicated that Pyro really unleashes himself in this film, getting the chance to show off the full extent of his powers.

Aaron also used the opportunity to praise fellow actor Ian McKellen and director Brett Ratner. He said he was thrilled to have the opportunity to work alongside such a talented and well-respected actor as McKellen - saying that he was awestruck by McKellen's ability to "turn little moments that I didn't think were anything special into extraordinary screen gems was great." He then moved to a defense of embattled director Brett Ratner, who has received a lot of negative comments since taking the helm from Bryan Singer. He said he understands why fans are dismayed over the loss of Singer, but promised that Ratner was a great replacement. However, Ratner's toughest job is to impress the audience, and that test is yet to come...