What have you accomplished in the past 48 hours? WARNING: The following sentence may make you feel a tad lazy. Recently, Michael McVey and a five-person team made an entire film — wrote, shot, edited and scored — from scratch in just 2 days. It was part of the Boston 48-Hour Film Project. And his short, "Manna," cleaned up at the awards ceremony. As we prepare for the project to descend on Providence, R.I. the weekend of July 13, McVey sent along five of his favorites from Boston's fest along with his comments. (Note he limited himself to films that have been posted online.)

McVey and the man behind the Providence 48-Hour Film Project talk with Edgar Herwick on Boston Public Radio at noon.

SILENT FILM: "Bitter Sweet" by Movie Magic Media

BUDDY FILM: "Tristan & Arabella" by the Brownie Theater

MOCKUMENTARY: "Slyder Fishpuss' Wondrous Marvels of the Ancient World" by Pica Films

DRAMA: "Quitting" by Wax Idiotical

DARK COMEDY (Age Restricted): "Miss You, Mom" by Pass the Porridge Productions

"Manna" by Skiffleboom Productions

"Making of 'Manna'" by Skiffleboom Productions

Like the romance it portrays, Seeking a Friend for the End of the World is brief, sweet, funny and sad. It's also tonally uncertain and occasionally foolish, but somehow these flaws never derail the story's wistful pleasures, not the least of which — if we ignore an unpleasant speech by Patton Oswalt — is its pleasing lack of the frat-boy vulgarity that has come to define so much of the genre.

Even when wobbling dangerously between tragedy and comedy, Lorene Scafaria's screenplay (she also directed) resists the lifeline of cheap-and-cheesy: She'd rather end a scene with a question mark than a dirty laugh.

Brevity is the film's mantra and driving force — specifically, if an asteroid were scheduled to pulverize your planet in exactly 21 days, how would you spend your time?

It's a fascinating question that Scafaria never fully explores, mainly because she's not that kind of filmmaker.

Hers is a microview: Like her 2008 script for the charming Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, which unspooled over the course of one tune-filled night, Seeking a Friend filters big themes through the lens of a single, tentative relationship.

On one side we have Dodge (Steve Carell at his most crestfallen), an insurance-company drone whose wife has fled to the arms of her secret lover.

On the other floats Penny (Keira Knightley), a flappable pixie with a wrong-for-her boyfriend and a fanatical attachment to her vinyl record collection. Penny, it seems, bonds best with people — and objects — that require a lot of nurturing.

Thrown together during a riot (riots and raves appear to be humanity's top two end-of-days choices), Dodge and Penny make a rather uneven deal: She will help him locate his first love if he will help her reach her family in England.

As title cards and TV news mark the apocalyptic countdown, the movie becomes a quirky travelogue peppered with offbeat, episodic encounters.

While some are more successful than others — a stopover with Penny's survivalist ex-boyfriend subtly nails the way past loves prepare us for their successors — together these segments create an emotionally off-kilter atmosphere that feels appropriately precarious. One hinges on such a shocking development that, for a second, laughter and horror are one and the same.

Stumbling occasionally but never completely falling, Seeking a Friend faces the fear of death not with images of widescreen digital destruction but with small moments that sidle up when we least expect them.

In this the film is helped immensely by the casting of Carell, an actor who carries an inner wound into every role. Dodge looks like a man who has lived with knowledge of the apocalypse all his life, and Carell uses that terror to isolate his characters. Watching a scene where Dodge is expected to participate in a suburban orgy, I couldn't imagine another performer of his generation so clearly embodying socially awkward alienation.

Filled with poignant nudges toward human connection — including the final sign off of an emotional news anchor — this uneven disaster comedy has no need of the couple's unconvincing declarations of love. Their friendship is miracle enough.

Copyright 2012 National Public Radio. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

Not since Walt Disney's heyday has an animation company enjoyed a creative — and technically innovative — run like Pixar, now on a two-decade stretch that started with Toy Story in 1995 and continued with modern classics like Finding Nemo, Monsters Inc., The Incredibles, WALL-E, Ratatouille and two Toy Story sequels that took on improbable depth and complexity. Over the years, the only persistent knock against Pixar is its lack of one thing Disney movies had in spades: female heroines.

With the vibrant Scottish adventure Brave, the company sets about solving that political problem by offering a distinctly 21st-century princess — strong and rebellious, swift with a bow and uncompromising in her quest for self-determination. Yet they've also solved the problem the Pixar way, which means family comes first, whether it's the surrogate bonds of Cars and Toy Story or the close-knit units of Finding Nemo and The Incredibles. Everything that's good about Brave — beyond the expected eye candy, anyway — stems from the push and pull between the princess' ambition and the demands of family tradition. Pixar may specialize in reinventing genres and creating new worlds, but this theme draws from a vast emotional reserve.

But there's a lot that isn't good about Brave, too, or at least that's woefully conventional by Pixar standards. Beyond the strong core relationship between Merida (voiced by Kelly Macdonald), the film's frisky Celtic princess, and her equally iron-willed mother, Elinor (voiced by Emma Thompson), Brave creates a universe that's beautifully rendered yet thinly imagined, with rote mythology and a wealth of lowbrow gags. At its worst, it would be tempting to say that Pixar is playing on rival DreamWorks' turf — all one-liners and blocky character designs — if DreamWorks hadn't stepped up its game recently with Kung Fu Panda and How to Train Your Dragon.

With an unruly shock of red hair that makes a statement well before she opens her mouth, Merida has more in common with her father, King Fergus (voiced by Billy Connolly), a man of lusty appetites, than her mother, who asserts a quieter power that's rooted more in wisdom than in brute force. When Merida comes of age, Elinor surprises her with the news that suitors from three different clans will compete for her hand in marriage, an arrangement Merida rejects as thoroughly as her mother's lessons on proper etiquette.

Like many a fairy tale princess, Merida flees to an enchanted forest and comes upon a witch, but the spell she hopes will change her mother's mind has unintended consequences. Viewers are better off discovering what happens to Elinor for themselves; suffice it to say that Merida's mother will finally be forced to listen to her for once.

The mother-daughter scenes in Brave have a marvelous tension that turns from dramatic to deftly comic when the spell takes effect and transforms Elinor completely. And the issues between them are not trivial: Granting her daughter the freedom she craves — freedom from all men, not just princes — isn't a simple case of Elinor getting hip to changing times, but a threat to the tenuous peace between clans. For Merida, part of growing up is understanding that personal fulfillment isn't the only consideration, but something that has to be reconciled with the needs of those closest to you.

Brave hits on this powerful message eventually, but it gets there by way of run-of-the-mill plotting and strained attempts at comic relief, from the shenanigans of Merida's three trouble-making little brothers to the bungling oafs in the other clans. The future of Merida's kingdom depends on her family's sustaining a fragile relationship with their neighbors; turning the latter into lovable half-wits and blowhards lowers the stakes a little. While the character of Merida answers Pixar's cultural critics emphatically — and offers young girls a spirited wild card to add to their gallery of satin-gowned Disney princesses — the studio hasn't imagined a vehicle worthy of her.

Copyright 2012 National Public Radio. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

When you think of Masterpiece’s Downton Abbey, the first thing that comes to mind might be Highclere Castle, which “plays” Downton Abbey itself. Or maybe the mind-boggling “proper-ness” of practically every single character depicted.

One especially powerful aspect of Downton you may not have noticed – at least consciously – was the music you heard.

In a way, that’s as it should be. The score was written by John Lunn and accomplishes precisely what any film score must: a ratcheting up of the emotional trajectory of the story while simultaneously going unnoticed.

You might imagine Lunn as a wizard-like composer in a meticulous process, weaving together strands of silvery sound to form a gorgeous tapestry. But as he told me, that’s not exactly how the process started:
 

To hear more about Downton Abbey from actress Elizabeth McGovern, visit The World.

Here's a look back at Season 2:

Watch Downton Abbey I Wonder Preview on PBS. See more from Masterpiece.

BOSTON — Need to escape from the family this month? Finally have time to catch up on all the movies you missed? WGBH News has recommendations for your vacation viewing from critics Jared Bowen, Ty Burr and Joyce Kulhawik and host Emily Rooney.
 
Topping their list are two films about films.
 
Must-see: The Artist (Ty, Jared, Joyce)
Who knew a silent film could capture our attention in the era of… well… “Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol”? And it’s a crowd-pleaser, not arty. As a silent movie star wonders if the arrival of talking pictures will cause him to fade into oblivion, he sparks with a young dancer set for a big break. Serious Oscar buzz. Opens in Boston on Dec. 23.
 
Runner-up: Hugo (Jared, Ty)
Martin Scorcese’s first film sort-of-for-kids (not at all just for kids), set in 1930s Paris. An orphan who lives in the walls of a train station is wrapped up in a mystery involving his late father and an automaton. Ty: The first 3D movie I've ever seen where the gimmick really works.

The rest of the best, in alphabetical order:
 
Bill Cunningham New York (Ty)
A documentary profile of the noted veteran New York City fashion photographer.
 
Bridesmaids (Jared)
Jared: “I definitely did not see a funnier movie this year.” Laughed so hard he actually cried. And how about something revolutionary: Give Melissa McCarthy the Oscar. Boston Society of Film Critics named her best supporting actress of the year, so maybe….

The Clock (Ty, Emily)
A 24-hour film installation made of clips from the history of cinema, all built around the moment when you see a timepiece… that’s synchronized with real life. Extended at the Museum of Fine Arts through Dec. 31.

The Debt (Jared)
Most people missed this, despite stars Helen Mirren and Jessica Chastain. Jared: Intense and riveting — it’s great when the film ends and you can finally catch your breath (which you’d been holding forever).
 
The Descendants (Joyce, Ty)
Joyce: Two thumbs up. Captured the reality of a person’s life. Ty: Not the greatest of Alexander Payne’s films, but still loved it — so many small human truths. Jared begs to differ: zero emotional resonance.
 
Drive (Ty)
A Hollywood stunt performer who moonlights as a wheelman discovers that a contract has been put on him after a heist gone wrong. Badly marketed to the public, it’s actually a moody, existential action film, Ty says.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (Emily)
The American film adaptation arrives. Violent, Emily says — but she liked it anyway. Jared admired the director’s refusal to sugarcoat the books.
 
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 (Jared) (kids’ pick)
Brought the magic back to a set of films that had gone off the rails. An exceptional end to the series.
 
The Help (Jared)
Glossy, slick and somewhat pat — but that doesn’t matter with an extraordinary cast led by Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer and Emma Stone.

Jane Eyre (Jared, Emily)
Michael Fassbender explodes off the screen (and into a year of prominence) in an exquisitely rendered film. Jared: “My heart was pounding — and I’m not one of those rom-com guys.” Emily loved it too.
 
Midnight in Paris (Jared)
Woody Allen. A quirky, sweet film with a most novel concept. Ty: Everybody likes that film. Allen’s biggest money-maker ever.
 
Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol (Emily)
Joyce: It’s a popcorn film, it’s about effects and it gives you your money’s worth. Ty: This is what Tom Cruise does best. Our serious host Emily admits she likes “all that kind of stuff.”

Moneyball (Ty)
The story of Oakland A's general manager Billy Beane's successful attempt to put together a baseball club on a budget by employing computer-generated analysis to draft his players.
 
My Week With Marilyn (Jared)
Jared: A "Vanity Fair" film — completely over-stylized — and for all that he loved it. Eddie Redmayne is utterly charming (even though he only ever smiles) and Michelle Williams absolutely captivating. Plus there’s a decadent supporting cast including Branagh, Ormond and Dench. Joyce: For me, the film is Michele Williams. Tried to resist Williams but couldn’t. Ty agrees: Extraordinary performance.

Le Quattro Volte (Ty)
Italian film: An old shepherd lives his last days in a quiet medieval village perched high on the hills of Calabria in northern Italy.

A Separation (Ty)
Iranian film: A married couple are faced with a difficult decision: to improve the life of their child by moving to another country or to stay in Iran and look after a deteriorating parent.

War Horse (Jared)
Horse-lover Jared says: The actual war crux of the film slips into Spielbergian rhythm and just gallops brilliantly. Joyce, however, was seriously disappointed in the last third. Ty: Ends up more cliché than it should.

Win Win (Ty, Jared)
The way we’re living now: A struggling lawyer and volunteer wrestling coach's chicanery comes back to haunt him when the teenage grandson of a client he's double-crossed enters his life. Stars the incomparable Paul Giamatti. Jared: Life made exquisitely funny.
 

BOSTON — This week's arts round-up has two themes: sparkly festive cheer and... addiction. WGBH News authorizes no conclusions about the nature of the holiday season. 

"High," starring Kathleen Turner
Cutler Majestic Theatre
Through Dec. 11

A playwright explores his own history of addiction in this play that stars Kathleen Turner as a nun — in a part written for her. Watch Jared’s interview with Turner in which she discusses her own brush with addiction.
 
Radio City Christmas Spectacular
Citi Performing Arts Center Wang Theatre
Through Dec. 28

Some people criticize the big, lavish production with canned music, but anyone with a soft spot for nostalgia will consider it — as Jared does — schmaltzy but fun. New music, new costumes and a 50-foot LED screen are the highlights this year, along with the Rockettes’ classic Parade of the Wooden Soldiers.
 
“Shame“
In theaters Dec. 9

This NC-17–rated film with Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan explores the darkest corners of sex addiction. Difficult to watch but an elegantly done psychological study.
 
“New Year’s Eve”
In theaters Dec. 9

Doing a 180… this irresistible ensemble flick with lots of stars is light, fluffy and made Jared happier than, and we quote, "a rum-soaked eggnog bender." Stay through the end credits.

BOSTON — What to do this weekend? Jared Bowen talks about the area's hottest arts events with WGBH "Morning Edition" host Bob Seay. This week, he's excited about "My Week With Marilyn," the new play "Captors" and the eclectic all-string group Childsplay puts on its annual series of concerts.

BOSTON — Don't be a chocolate turkey — start planning your nights out now with a special extended edition of theatrical treats due to next week’s holiday. 

“The Descendants”
The film opens this weekend in Boston featuring a deeply fictional performance by George Clooney (once and forever Sexiest Man Alive no matter what “People” says this year) as a dad. But before you run out: Despite the Oscar buzz, Jared thought the film lacked real emotional resonance or heft.
 
“Ain’t Misbehavin‘”
The Lyric Stage Company
Runs through Dec. 17
All the great “Fats” Waller songs, including Jared’s favorite “Your Feet’s Too Big,” get the holiday season on a roll.
 
“Arabian Nights”
Central Square Theater
Runs through Dec. 31
This retelling of folk tales from the Middle East and Asia is a collaboration between the feminism-focused Nora Theatre Company and the Underground Railway Theater, which often emphasizes puppets. The great programming around the show include seminars on puppetry, feminism and violence in children’s stories.
 
“The Nutcracker”
José Mateo Ballet Theatre
Nov. 25–Dec. 24
An obscure, little-known — well, it’s an alternative way to see the classic, in the hands of this Cambridge-based company. The show opens in Duxbury and then spends several weeks in Cambridge before closing at the Strand in Dorchester. Mateo’s original choreography is inventive and enthusiastic. 

BOSTON — El Camino de Santiago is a path for pilgrims which stretches more than 500 miles from France to Spain. It's arduous and emotional especially as depicted in the new film The Way which receives a very intimate treatment via a collaboration between father and son Martin Sheen and Emilio Estevez. "I've gotten to a place where yes, I am concentrating on things that are personal and excite me," Estevez said. He wrote, directed and appears in the film playing Daniel, the son to Sheen's cantankerous Tom.

A day into Daniel's trek on the Camino he's killed in a freak accident and when Tom arrives to retrieve the body, he decides to finish the journey for his son. The heavy subject matter did not deter Sheen. "Like any artist you go to that place where you store those sense memories and you conjure them up when the opportunity is appropriate," Sheen said referring to playing a mourning father as his real-life son stood on-set nearby.

Long before their first footfalls on The Way, Sheen helped his son chart the story. "I live pretty close to my folks about 200 yards down the street so there was no escaping [Sheen] while we were working on the script," Estevez said. "I'm like, 'oh my God he's got another idea,' I just got out of the shower." Screenplay in hand, The Way was filmed in sequence — following Tom's trek as he's joined by a sweet Dutchman, a jaded Canadian woman and a dejected Irishman.

A lot of real-life El Camino de Santiago pilgrims also became part of filming. "That gives it an added reality," Sheen explained. "Emilio is very careful not to get into anyone's way because that's a very sacred time for a lot of people, a lot of people in mourning. A lot of people are carrying a lot of serious burdens and they're looking for healing and they're looking for alone time to have a chance to reflect."

The Way is a film that follows disparate journeys, ones accented with humor and sadness, but dominated by Sheen's march forward. And for that reason it may draw comparisons to Sheen's other recent high-profile father-son relationship with the troubled Charlie Sheen.

"We're a family and we are supportive of each other no matter what," Sheen said. "We pull for each other, we pray for each other, we lift each other up and particularly when it's most necessary." After a legendary Hollywood career, Martin Sheen has found the way on-screen and off.

BOSTON — There have been any number of movies about cancer over the years, yet few have dealt with young people having it. But that's the case in 50/50. The movie was born out of writer Will Reiser's own diagnosis. Actor Seth Rogen says his friend, writer Will Reiser, was the worst person to get cancer.

Seth Rogan: "He was very sensitive and very neurotic. And somewhat of a hypochondriac."

Will Reiser: "Although it turns out I had cancer!"

Rogan: "Turns out you had cancer, so maybe you weren't a hypochondriac."

Reiser: "I would say, for like eight months, I would talk about how I was so tired."

Rogan: "We thought you had mono."

Reiser: "I would go to the doctor and there would be nothing wrong."

Rogan: "It did just seem ironic, honestly, that the one friend we had that was so neurotic — but he was probably neurotic because he had cancer. "

It's this wit that spawned 50/50 — a comedy loosely based on Reiser's own cancer diagnosis. It was when both men were working behind the scenes in Hollywood six years ago that doctors discovered a giant, malignant tumor along Reiser's spine. He wrote 50/50 two years later.

"When I was going through it I was at an age where I did not know how to talk about, express myself on an emotional level, and talk about what I was feeling and what I was going through and how difficult it was. I think for me writing the movie really helped, it was very cathartic in allowing me to get the full memories out," Reiser recalled.

Then, as now, he dealt with it with humor. 50/50 stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Adam, a young, neurotic twentysomething stricken with cancer. Seth Rogen, who also co-produced the film, plays close friend Kyle, just as he did in real life.

"Looking back, it was crazy what some people did to him. It was insane! It almost seemed like some people treated him much worse than they would have had he not been sick. It was too much for them to deal with so they lashed out," Rogan said.

But being twentysomethings, the pair also managed to use Reiser's diagnosis for some — to put it kindly — social leverage.

"It wasn't like we were going out trying to meet women. Seth's fiancé and he met while I was sick and that only helped him look more sympathetic. And I introduced them which also helped. Cancer brought you together," Reiser said.

"Exactly, it's true. It's like this guy has cancer and he's still trying to hook up his friend? He must be a great guy," Rogan said. "We got into Batman Begins for free right after surgery."

In real life though, as in the film, Reiser's battle with cancer was arduous especially for his parents.

"It was really emotional for my mom, she was crying on set. But also I think it was cathartic for her as well. I didn't get to tell her in person. I had to tell her over the phone, I was in Los Angeles, she was in New York. Her first instinct was to get on a plane and move straight to LA, which she did, and I had to put her on a plane back to New York. She was driving me crazy," Resier said.

Like Terms of Endearment, consider this an exceptional entry into the uncomfortable cancer canon.

BOSTON — As he and his sad sack team limped into the 2002 baseball season, Oakland A's General Manager Billy Beane was desperate for a new winning strategy. In Moneyball, a film adaptation of Michael Lewis's 2003 book of the same name, Beane (played by Brad Pitt) realizes baseball has become a game of Moneyball.

Given that the A's have little money compared to the major market teams, his new Assistant GM Peter Brand (played by Jonah Hill) devises a system of Sabermetrics — assembling a team by statistics, not salaries. "I see it as a movie about challenging the system and being undervalued and being an underdog and thinking differently," Hill explained during a recent stop in Boston. "That's the element I related to the most."

Hill's character, a Yale-educated economist, is actually an amalgamation of several number-crunching baseball brainiacs not unlike Red Sox GM Theo Epstein, whom Hill met in prepping for the film. "[The GMs Hill met with] felt the system was archaic and things hadn't changed in 150 years and maybe it was time to try something different," Hill said.

It worked for the A's who wound up pulling off a 20-game winning streak that season, an American League record. "I just looked at it as Billy was the bazooka and Peter was the ammunition," Hill said. "Billy acts on raw emotion and Peter's the most logical person in the entire world so together we form one perfect person to start something new, like Frankenstein."

The 27-year-old Hill has established himself over the last seven years in a string of comedies. Moneyball is his first drama. "I happen to have done a lot of comedic movies, but I love dramas and doing this…having this be the first kind of big drama that people will see me in with Brad Pitt and Philip Seymour Hoffman is a dream-like surreal experience," said Hill.

The newly slimmed down actor stars in the film alongside a legion of legends from well-known character actors to Pitt — the icon whose stardom looms large. "After the first couple of rehearsals I was like, I need to get over that because I need to focus on just killing it in this part because these guys trusted me, they gave me an opportunity to do something different and I'm not going to let them down," Hill explained. And he doesn't — helping to transform what could have been a cumbersome story about numbers and sports clichés into one of the most engaging films of the year.