Klimt (2007) ***

This is what a certain Martin Kelly wrote about this film on imdb.com: "I didn't know too much about Gustav Klimt before watching this film and I didn't leave the cinema all that enlightened either.  This pretentious and baffling movie informs us of the following: that Klimt painted lots of pictures of naked women, he swore quite a lot, he wasn't religious, he had lots of illegitimate children and his mother and sister were mentally unstable. Fascinating (...) If Klimt's story isn't worth telling, then why bother? And if a film had to be made, couldn't the filmmakers have produced something at the very least coherent? This is the kind of movie which gives biopics a bad name. Definitely one to avoid unless you enjoy being confused and bored". This hilariously obtuse comment must be even more amusing to those familiar with the work of Raoul Ruiz, who directed "Klimt", because compared to the Chilean-born filmmaker's other cinematic accomplishments (such as "Le Temps retrouvé" or "Trois vies et une seule mort"), "Klimt" is a remarkable example of complete clarity, perfect coherence, edge-of-your-seat excitement and utter lack of pretensions. The film stars John Malkovich as the famous Austrian painter whose lavish, sexual masterpieces came to symbolize the Art Nouveau style (or "Secession") of the early 20th century. Saffron Burrows, Georgia Reeve, Julie Brauning, Ariella Hirshfeld and Verena Mundhenke make memorable appearances as his muses and models. As Martin Kelly correctly points out, Klimt's life was hardly dramatic in itself. But Raoul Ruiz actually manages to squeeze every ounce of drama out of his otherwise uneventful life story. It's far from a perfect movie, but it's as good (or better) as its subject matter allows it to be.

The Brave One (2007) ***

Sicko (2007) ***

Michael Moore's best movie in years, a hilarious indictment of the health care insurance system in the United States. He's as manipulative as in all his other movies, but this time, unlike with the pro-Saddam Hussein's ''Fahrenheit 9/11", at least he's fighting for a good cause.

A l'interieur (2007) ***

Excellent horror movie from France, about a pregnant woman in danger.

Hostel: Part II (2007) ***

The ''Hostel'' series is doing to Eastern Europe what ''Deliverance'' did to the American South. With memories of the Holocaust still fresh, and additionally inspired by recent accusations of illegal CIA-run torture camps for Al Qaeda prisoners (see this post for more details), the ''Hostel'' series presents Eastern Europe as this dangerous land where Communists-turned-capitalist psychopaths lure innocent young people to be killed and tortured for a price. And while the first ''Hostel'' (2006), with its Germanic villains, was clearly trying to evoke the Holocaust, ''Hostel: Part II'', with its two American villains, might have very well been inspired by those CIA torture camps stories. And the film certainly feeds on the same kind of anti-Eastern Europe prejudice and bigotry that makes Western liberals so determined to prove their accusations concerning illegal detention of Muslim terrorists in Eastern Europe. Directed once again by Eli Roth (with Quentin Tarantino still as executive producer), ''Hostel: Part II'' is different from its predecessor in several respects. For once, it’s now about girls - Beth (Lauren German), Lorna (Heather Matarazzo), and Whitney (Bijou Phillips) – touring Eastern Europe on the cheap. On a train, they meet Axelle (Vera Jordanova) who takes them to the same hostel deep in the wild woods of Slovakia, where the horny guys from the first film met their gruesome end. This time, there is a bit less sex and nudity, and - SPOILERS ALERT - unlike the guys from the first film, who seemed to fuck every available Euro-chick in sight, the poor girls here don't even get to have any sex (not even once) before being strapped to torture chairs or hanged naked upside down. A possible lesbian attraction between Beth and Axelle is hinted upon, but never explored, implicitly or explicitly. But while the film has almost no soft-core nude scenes - except for a scene with Vera Jordanova, Iveta Rucka and two naked girls swimming in a fish tank - it more than makes up for it with a truly disturbing scene involving Lorna and a cruel descendent of the infamous Hungarian countess, Elizabeth Bathory (Monika Malacova), who likes to bathe in the blood of virgins (and Lorna is a virgin). It is quite a surprise to see the star of Todd Solondz's ''Welcome To The Dollhouse'' perform in such a graphic, erotic, gory and demeaning scene. Unfortunately, it's mostly downhill after that. Is it because the film was directed by a man that its only killing of a woman by a man takes place offscreen, while the most graphic and shocking murder scenes involve women killing other women or men ? The ending is quite predictable (telegraphed well in advance when Whitney mentions Beth's inheritance), but it still packs a wallop. And it's way more disturbing than the conventional ending of the first film (neatly betrayed at the beginning of ''Part II'').

Mr Brooks (2007) ***

Love In The Time Of Cholera (2007) ***

The Lookout (2007) ***

Zodiac (2007) ***

David Fincher's take on the infamous serial killer from San Francisco.

In The Valley Of Elah (2007) ***

Shrek The Third (2007) ***

The fun continues.

Black Snake Moan (2007) ***

"Black Snake Moan is the oddest, most peculiar movie I've seen about sex and race and redemption in the Deep South", wrote Roger Ebert. Not surprisingly, considering that he's referring to a movie in which Samuel L. Jackson chains a half-naked Christina Ricci to a radiator. What's more surprising is that the movie is actually about how Jackson and Ricci slowly become friends and come to love and respect each other. Written and directed by Craig Brewer (best known for his film debut, ''Hustler & Flow'', which won an Oscar for its song, ''It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp"), ''Black Snake Moan'' begins with Christina Ricci in constant need of sexual gratification. For her, it's either getting fucked, or falling to the ground and writhing as if under attack by fire ants. So when Jackson finds her beaten and raped on the side of the road, and chains her to that radiator, his motives are actually very noble - the idea is to cure her nymphomania through a radical withdrawal treatment. "I aim to cure you of your wickedness," announces Jackson, who bravely resists the temptation when Ricci offers herself to him in exchange for her freedom. It is the performances that make this movie. According to Ebert, Samuel L. Jackson considers it his best film role ever (not an obvious boast for someone who played Gator in ''Jungle Fever'' and Jules in ''Pulp Fiction''), but as an article in Variety rightly points out, "it is Ricci who will be remembered when all else about the film has been forgotten (...) Ricci is clad in scanty cutoffs, panties, midriff-baring shirts at most and often less. Here she is a feral animal, a force of nature, a wild thing with a ferocious physicality and a sexuality like Vesuvius in its prime. Her Rae is Eros unplugged, unquenchable, inexhaustible. Fascinating, scary and entirely debauched, Rae is the sort of female creature who has been seen onscreen many times before, but rarely, or perhaps never, so bluntly portrayed in a Hollywood studio film".

Live Free Or Die Hard (2007) ***

The best "Die Hard" movie since the first "Die Hard" movie. "Yippy-Kay-Yay-Motherfucker".

Il Caimano (2007) ***

Great satire about Sylvio Berlusconi.

Away From Her (2007) ***

Touching drama about an elderly couple.

Secret Sunshine (2007) ***

It's A Free World (2007) ***

Excellent British drama about migrant workers in London.

Mongol (2007) ***

The childhood and early adulthood of Gengiz Khan.

12 (2007) ***

This Russian remake of "Twelve Angry Men" (1957) isn't as good as the original, but it has a much more surprising ending.

3:10 To Yuma (2007) ***

Excellent western starring Russell Crowe and Christian Bale.

Fados (2007) ***

Superb musical film by Carlos Saura. It's the final part of his trilogy about Ibero-Latin music, after "Flamenco" (1995) and "Tango" (1998). This film is about fado music from Portugal.

The Orphanage (2007) ***

Excellent horror movie from Spain.

The Caregiver (2007) ***

Meet The Robinsons (2007) ***

Suprising Disney animated film, very different from their usual fare.

Chantal (2007) ***

Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix (2007) ***

The fifth ''Harry Potter'' film. Quite good.

The Babysitters (2007) ***

The Bourne Ultimatum (2007) ***

Terrific action film, the best in the series.

Across The Universe (2007) ***

War (2007) ***

Mad Detective (2007) ***

Memorable police drama from Hong Kong. Directed by Johnnie To ("The Mission") and Wai Ka Fai ("Too Many Ways To Be Number One"), it's an ingenious, often hilarious mix of "The Sixth Sense" and "Training Day".

Superbad (2007) ***

Hairspray (2007) ***

Excellent remake of the classic 1988 John Water's musical set in Baltimore in 1962. John Travolta is terrific as Nikki's mother, a role previously played by the one-and-only Divine.

Odette Toulemonde (2007) ***

A very profound film about what's truly important in life.

Persepolis (2007) ***

Animated film about the experiences of a young Iranian girl who grew up during the Khomeini's revolution and the Iran-Iraq War, went to study in Austria, came back to her country ruled by the Islamic police, and finally left to live in France. A bit overrated, it's still an excellent and innovative film.

Enchanted (2007) ***

Amy Adams is absolutely enchanting in this excellent spoof of Disney's animated musical fairy-tales. Entertaining and clever, this film manages the neat trick of simultaneously ridiculing and celebrating the conventions of the genre. Mostly live-action, but the film includes long animated sequences as well.

Sea Monsters: A Prehistoric Adventure (2007) ***

Excellent IMAX animated documentary about fearsome prehistoric dinosaurs living under the sea. Length: 40 minutes.

Factory Girl (2007) ***

1n 1996, Mary Harron made a film called ''I Shot Andy Warhol'' about radical feminist Valerie Solanas’s attempted assassination of the famous artist in 1968. Eleven years later, George Hickenlooper made a film called ''Factory Girl'', set mostly in 1965, which essentially explains why Andy Warhol deserved to get shot. The film stars Sienna Miller as Edie Sedgwick, the legendary New York socialite, model and actress, who had her Warholian 15-minutes of fame before dying of barbiturate overdose in 1971. She was 28 years old. The film doesn’t exactly accuse Andy Warhol and Bob Dylan of indirectly causing her death, but it comes fairly close. While Edie Sedgwick had other problems as well (among other things, she was sexually abused by her father since she was 8), according to the film, those two 60’s legends certainly didn’t help her at all to get over her demons. And while Bob Dylan isn't even identified by name, he has actually threatened a lawsuit against the movie. Stylistically, it's an impressive, if a bit conventional, effort. But what really makes this film great is Sienna Miller's courageous, fabulous and nuanced performance. Watch Edie Sedgwick's films like the brilliant ''Poor Little Rich Girl'' (1965) and the wretched ''Beauty #2'' (1965) to see just how accurate Sienna Miller's portrayal is.