Veronica Mars

Kristen Bell reprises her television role as a wise-cracking gumshoe in a seedy Southern California beach town in Veronica Mars. The CW/UPN series was canceled in 2007, but retained a cult following strong enough to get this film funded through Kickstarter. It opens with a very TV-like recap of the series, as Mars relates her time as a teenage amateur detective and her stormy relationship with bad boy Logan Echolls (Jason Dohring), who is now under suspicion for murder. This critic has never seen a single episode of the series, but the appealing merge of sleazy modern noir and wiseacre humor here makes me wish that I had. However, with visuals that mimic the perfunctory, shot-reverse-shot efficiency of a TV show, Veronica Mars never feels like anything more than a very special episode, a treat for hardcore fans and a curiosity for everyone else.