Underrated/Overrated

UNDERRATED

‘Beginners’: This warmly eccentric romantic comedy from writer-director Mike Mills has its problems (Mélanie Laurent’s female lead is an example of the paper-thin “Manic Pixie Dream Girl” character type), but the film’s sweetly raw view of relationships shines. Starring Ewan McGregor as a young artist grappling with his recently out gay father as well as the complexity of intimacy with Laurent, the film’s warily hopeful heart is a soothing antidote to explosive summer fare.

ReadyMade magazine: Given the ongoing hard times in its industry, maybe it’s not so surprising this publication dedicated to DIY home design, crafts and cooking couldn’t last. Frankly, how can you sell ads celebrating consumer culture in a magazine that by definition rebels against it? Still, when it came to learning how to take matters into your own hands through recycling, reusing and know-how, its inventive tips were in a class by itself. RIP, ReadyMade.

OVERRATED

Selling ‘Art in the Streets’: From Technicolor subway cars to the stenciled satire of Banksy, this show at the Museum of Contemporary Art does a laudable job celebrating the rich culture of graffiti art. But even as its odd replica of the Lower East Side of the ‘70s strives for realism (complete with a faux-filthy men’s room), seeing the rebellious movement translated into corporate co-branded fashion in the MOCA store is a depressingly contradictory coda. Don’t exit through the gift shop.

The sustainability of ‘Wilfred’: On one hand it’s an underratedly gutsy move for FX to air this surreal adaptation of an Australian series, which features a guy in a filthy dog suit as the foil to a reserved (if possibly insane) neighbor, played by Elijah Wood. But for all the goofy pleasures the show’s conceit provides, its charms start wearing off pretty fast once the novelty of watching someone capture the grosser aspects of a dog’s id wears off.