Wow, last night was like watching a two-hour feature film, but really it was the “Once Upon A Time” season finale. I was a bit worried to start the whole time travel thing, because that can get so confusing, but everything went smoothly. Everything was going so smoothly in fact that, with ten minutes left of the finale, everyone was 100% happy and content. Viewers are intelligent and we know there is no such thing as a happy ending, especially in a finale. Here’s a quick little recap of the shocking cliffhanger and what I was thinking each step of the way.

Calling all foodies and film fans – if you’re craving an introspective story about family, fear, and finding the strength to follow a dream, Jon Favreau serves it up in “Chef.” Though he’s most recently known for his work helming big budget blockbusters like “Iron Man” and “Iron Man 2″ Favreau steps outside the expected with “Chef” – a lighthearted comedy about a man’s personal journey to reignite a passion, and reconnect with his son. “Chef” follows the story of Carl Casper (Favreau), who decides to start a food truck business after losing his job at a high profile restaurant. The journey takes Casper across the country, bringing new experiences, challenges, and the opportunity to spend some overdue time with his son, played by Emjay Anthony.

Nobody ever said our 20′s were going to be easy. Sure, they come with their fair share of perks, but not even the blessings of wrinkle-free skin, a fast metabolism, and the freakish ability to function with a hangover can save you from the perils of paying off student loans in a job-less economy. As if weeding out your college drinking buddies isn’t hard enough. In the spirit of the quarter-life crisis, and transitioning into adulthood, I went on a search to find some cinematic support either inspired by, or featuring characters currently experiencing the all-too-familiar trials and tribulations that come along with being a 20-something in this week’s installment of The Watchlist.

What have I been watching? This week I delved into the music of “The Doors” and “The Magic Flute” as well as the comedic ramblings, stories, and musings from Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon in Britain’s TV-to-film adaptation of “The Trip.” Read on for information, and insight in this week’s edition of The Watchlist.

Welcome to the first installment of The Watchlist – a new weekly column all about what I’m currently watching and what I thought about it. My name is Erin Darling, and I’m a LA-based TV/web host, writer, and producer. For the past few years I’ve been mainly covering, reviewing, and hosting shows about movies, and as a result I end up watching a lot of ‘em. Between screenings, homework for projects I’m working on, and/or nights in with my Netflix account, I normally watch between 7 and 10 films per week. Some of them old, some of them new, some of them virtually unheard of outside of uber specific niche communities of which I’m clearly not cool enough to belong. I digress. The point is, there’s a huge world of cinema out there, and it’s a fascinating world I’m constantly exploring. Now I’m here to share my discoveries with you!

If you’ve been patiently awaiting to see what Neill Blomkamp would do next after 2009′s District 9, let me tell you, Elysium is well worth the wait. Visually speaking, this was the best movie I’ve seen this year, and yes…that includes Man of Steel. Elysium is so visually spectacular I could probably watch it again right now with no audio at all. I mean, my favorite part of this movie was a slo-mo robot kill. Enough said. For my complaints, highlights, and overall score, check out the full movie review here!

Britney Spears occupies a weird, unique space in the pop spectrum. She’s been compared to past greats like Madonna and Kylie Minogue, but she lacks the latter’s self-aware creativity and mentioning her in the same breath as the former is, frankly, insulting. A common complaint with Spears is that she doesn’t write her own songs, which, the argument goes, somehow equates to a lack of talent, but the same can be said of Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson, Frank Sinatra… the list goes on. She isn’t blessed with the preternaturally skilled vocals of a Mariah Carey or a Tina Turner, but her music has never been about her voice so much as her personality. And her personality is just what has carried her this far, when contemporaries like Mandy Moore and Christina Aguilera are becoming Starbucks whores and public laughingstocks, respectively. Spears is the ultimate pop chameleon, transforming from sly school girl with enough sexual innuendo to inspire thousands of illegal fantasies to a robotic dance-floor dominatrix, confident enough to overcome tabloid dramas that have ruined lesser stars. In many ways, Spears needed that separation from her past self to become the four-on-the-floor mistress she is on Femme Fatale. Calling Britney a pop singer is doing the term a disservice; she is much more of a pop bellwether, subject to the whims of the Top 40 crowd and more than happy to adapt to environments that have cruelly undone lesser icons. There’s a reason Aguilera’s last album sold barely north of 110,000 copies and Spears’ single “Hold It Against Me” has the most aggressive beat on mainstream radio today. Spears shows a willingness to reinvent herself that belies her fragile personal life and, most importantly, keeps her on the cutting edge of pop music.

An eternal question in the indie industry – keep doggedly pursuing your artistic vision, maybe one defined by jagged bursts of post-punk and a singer whose just as likely to veer into screeching wails as he is a soulful hum, or get your shit together and make something perhaps more palatable for your average rock listener? It’s not too hard to see on what side Mine Is Yours falls – producer Jacquire King, whose behind-the-boards work catapulted Kings of Leon from Southern rock also-rans to multi-platinum lords of radio, is on hand, and singer Nathan Willett is content to focus on “love and relationships” in his lyrical matter…