October 10, 2008
Import Export (2008) ****
After "Dog Days" (2001), Austrian director Ulrich Seidl comes up with another provocative satire about contemporary society. This time, his merciless camera observes (among other things) the lives of Ukrainian prostitutes and their Austrian clients. The film was presented at the Cannes Film Festival to wide critical acclaim.
The Dark Knight (2008) ****
Arguably the best "Batman" movie ever (which also makes it the greatest "superhero" movie of all times). Directed by Christopher Nolan ("Momento", "Batman Begins"), it's a fascinating parabole about modern terrorism, drawing bold parallels between Batman's vigilantism and Bush's War on Terror. Heath Ledger, as Joker, is absolutely mesmerizing, making Jack Nicholson's Joker look sane, reasonable and even boring by comparison. The action scenes are top-notch. Christian Bale's weird Batman voice is the only weakness of this otherwise perfect movie.
Don't Look Down (2008) ****
Eliseo Subiela's masterpiece and his only film where eroticism and romanticism fuse together effortlessly rather than cancel each other out (which was unfortunately the case in some of his earlier pictures such as "The Dark Side of the Heart" and "Don't Die Without Telling Me Where You're Going"). Gorgeous Antonella Costa, last seen in "Cobrador In God We Trust", spends almost the entire film completely naked, while introducing a young sleepwalking student into the joys of tantric sex.
Absurdistan (2008) ****
September 9, 2008
Wall-E (2008) ***
From Andrew Stanton (director of "Finding Nemo" and co-director of "A Bug's Life") comes this entertaining cartoon about a small waste-collecting robot who embarks on a space journey that ultimately decides the fate of mankind.
Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008) ***
Woody Allen moves to Spain and the results are both refreshing and entertaining. It's a vaguely Henry Jamesian story about two more-or-less innocent American women discovering love and sex among ultra-sophisticated European artists. Scarlett Johansson's third movie for Woody Allen, making her now one of his regular leading ladies (and muses), after Louise Lasser (1969-1972), Diane Keaton (1972-1979 and 1993) and Mia Farrow (1982-1992).
Happy-Go-Lucky (2008) ***
Sally Hawkins won a well-deserved Golden Globe as Best Actress (Comedy or Musical) for her cheerful and effervescent performance in this cute British comedy directed by Mike Leigh.
Tropic Thunder (2008) ***
Terrific film, part action flick, part Hollywood satire, with amazing performances, hilarious dialogue and perfect pacing. Robert Downey Jr is outstanding as a Method actor who is never out of character, but it's Tom Cruise who steals the movie as a insanely ruthless movie mogul named Les Grossman, who eats actors, directors and agents for breakfast, chews them for lunch, and spits them out for supper. Great fun. Directed by Ben Stiller, (yes, the same Ben Stiller who 12 years earlier directed the insipid "Cable Guy"). Ethan Coen co-wrote the script.
Doubt (2008) ***
Superlative film about a priest suspected of child abuse. Meryl Streep gives another outstanding performance, but Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Amy Adams are very impressive as well.
Encounters At The End Of The World (2008) ***
Werner Herzog's Oscar-nominated documentary about Antarctica.
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The Informers (2008) ***
Trouble The Water (2008) ***
Hurricane Katrina from the point of view New Orleans' ghetto residents. Hard-hitting, eye-opening, angry, one-sided and fascinating.
Entre les murs (2008) ***
Excellent, Palme d'Or-winning French film about a high-school teacher and his unruly students. It makes "Blackboard Jungle", "Stand And Deliver" and "Dangerous Minds" look childish by comparison. It's a very realistic depiction of the modern French society, where different ethnic groups coexist uneasily.
Papa à la chasse aux lagopèdes (2008) ****
Bolt (2008) ***
A Disney animated version of "The Truman Show", with a dog in Jim Carrey's role. Constantly surprising and entertaining.
Pineapple Express (2008) ***
A tarantinesque farce about two potheads caught in the crossfire of a drug gang war.
C'est pas moi je le jure (2008) ***
Quite an amazing film about a seriously disturbed little boy. A very black comedy with a weird sense of humor.
Roman Polanski: Wanted And Desired (2008) ***
Excellent documentary about the famous (and controversial) film director.
À l'ouest de Pluton (2008) ***
Excellent film about wild youth in Canada. Set on a single night when perfect chaos reigns, it's an amazingle well-made, low-budget gem.
Che (2008) ***
It's a curious and bewildering film. The first part, "The Argentine", describing the Cuban Revolution, is slow-moving, devoid of much tension, conventionally directed, and further weakened by unnecessary flash-forwards to Che's speech at the United Nations in 1964, where he failed to say anything even remotely memorable, only repeating the same old leftist talking points. (Not a mention, however, is made of Che's great speech in Algiers in 1965, where he condemned the Soviet Union and its policies - a speech that may well explain his death in Bolivia two years later). Also, the first part was shot in Puerto Rico instead of Cuba, making the climactic Battle of Santa Clara lack authenticity. As result, "Che: Part One" is simply a conventional piece of Communist propaganda, identical to countless Soviet films about revolutionary heroes and far less innovative than most Cuban films on the same subject. By contrast, the second part, "Guerrilla", describing Che's disastrous Bolivian campaign, is actually quite good - brilliantly directed, tense, often very exciting, beautifully shot, and most importantly, filmed in exactly the same places in Bolivia where Che used to operate. There is also another reason why both parts are so different - the Cuban episode was based on Che's official memoirs that he had plenty of time to re-edit after the Revolution, eliminating all the darker aspects of the struggle, and selectively showing only the most positive moments. By contrast, the Bolivian campaign was based on Che's unedited notes that were found when he was captured. And those notes honestly and vividly describe the life of a guerilla as it really was - ugly, unromantic and pathetic. And even more remarkable is the fact that this pro-Communist film was made by a capitalist American filmmaker during the presidency of George W. Bush, directly contradicting Che's misconceptions about the United States.
"Che: Part One - The Argentine" **
"Che: Part Two - Guerilla" ***
"Che: Part One - The Argentine" **
"Che: Part Two - Guerilla" ***
Babine (2008) ***
A Tim Burton-ish fairy tale about a strange little village in Quebec and the tribulations of its resident village idiot, who gets in trouble with the new parish priest.
Maman est chez le coiffeur (2008) ***
Warm, bittersweet and nostalgic film about a young girl and her brothers coping with being abandoned by their mother. Excellent performances all around.
Son of Rambow (2008) ***
Marvellous British comedy about two kids making their own "Rambo" movie. Similar to (but way better than) Michel Gondry's "Be Kind Rewind" - far more imaginative, delirious, bizarre, unconventional and surrealistic.
Elle veut le chaos (2008) ***
Excellent film about Canadian rednecks. A visually stunning work, a perfect example of the "rural gothic" genre. Winner of the Best Director Prize at the Locarno Film Festival.
August 8, 2008
Le crime est notre affaire (2008) **
A French adaptation of Agatha Christie's "4:50 from Paddington", already filmed in 1961 as "Murder She Said". The main difference here is that instead of Miss Marple, the case is investigated by a ditzy wife of a police colonel.
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