July 7, 2009
Metastaze (2009) **
Average film about petty drug smugglers. A coproduction between Croatia, Serbia and Bosnia.
3 Idiots (2009) ***
General - zamach na Gibraltarze (2009) *
Historical drama about the last days of General Wladyslaw Sikorski, the Commander-in-Chief of the Polish Armed Forces during World War II. According to history, he died in a plane crash in Gibraltar. But according to this film, he was murdered there on the orders of the British governor. It's basically a Polish "JFK", but the conspiracy theory presented isn't very convincing, as it seem to include the Soviets, the British and anti-Sikorski Poles - a very unlikely coalition. In fact, the only reason many Poles opposed Sikorski was because he was perceived as being insufficiently anti-Soviet. To suggest that those Polish opponents of Sikorski would conspire with the Soviets (and the British) to kill him, is completely illogical.
Drzazgi (2009) **
Tragic and romantic film about love, ambition and many other problems. Set in a drab mining town in southern Poland, it's a depressing, but well directed, social drama. Interesting narrative structure.
La Teta asustada (2009) *
Dreadful Peruvian film about a very strange girl who puts a potato inside her vagina to avoid being raped. Inexplicably, it won a Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival.
Three Houses (2009) *
Georgian drama in three parts, set in three different centuries, connected by the same painting.
Caja negra (2009) **
Interesting Mexican film about the preparations for an assassination of a political leader.
The Faceless Dead (2009) **
Japanese detective story about a mysterious woman who steals the identities of other people.
Counterfeit (2009) **
Interesting Japanese film about counterfeiters, set shortly after WWII. Based on a true story.
Dukot (2009) *
Shocking film from the Philippines. The story concerns left-wing activists kidnapped by the military pretending to be Communist guerrillas. Based on a true story.
Andrés no quiere dormir la siesta (2009) *
Argentinian film about set during the military dictatorship in 1977, told from the point of view of a little boy.
Ulzhan (2009) *
Boring road movie set in Kazakhstan. Directed by Volker Schlöndorff ("The Tin Drum").
Ajami (2009) **
Complex Israeli crime movie that mixes Mideast politics and apolitical criminality in a tragic conundrum. The plot is very ingenious, but the film lacks style.
June 6, 2009
Adoration (2009) **
Directed by Atom Egoyan, it's a complex film about terrorism, racism and finding the truth. Far from Egoyan's best, but very typical of his oeuvre.
Love And Savagery (2009) *
Hopelessly dated film set in Ireland about a young man who falls in love with a girl who is about to become a nun.
Secret Of Kells (2009) **
Animated film about Irish monks facing devastating Viking raids in the early Middle Ages. The graphics are outstanding, but the story is surprisingly unexciting.
In The Loop (2009) *
Frantic and confusing English political satire about the behind-the-scenes schemings leading to the invasion of Iraq in 2003. The film foolishly tries to have it both ways (neither too "pro-war" nor "anti-war") and fails to score any points whatsoever (even easy ones, completely ignoring Saddam's quite numerous admirers at the time, especially in England). At the end, "the doves" come across as bumbling and incompetent fools, while "the hawks", though clearly mean-spirited, at least look competent and bright.
May 5, 2009
La Donation (2009) **
A portrait of a remote village in northern Canada, seen through the eyes of a physician.
5150 rue des Ormes (2009) **
A horror film about a young student held captive by a strange suburban family.
Before Tomorrow (2009) *
Very tedious film about a smallpox epidemic destroying a small Inuit community in northern Canada in the 1840's. Told from the point of view of the only survivors, an old woman and her young grandson.
RIP: A Remix Manifesto (2009) **
Canadian documentary film about the shocking abuses of the copyright protection laws.
Silence on vaccine (2009) *
Controversial documentary about the dangers of vaccination policies in Canada, United States and France. Politically right-wing, the film mostly promotes the views of vaccination skeptics such as conservative Republican Congressman Dan Burton of Indiana (who believes that his own grandson became autistic after being vaccinated). English title: "Shots In The Dark".
3 saisons (2009) *
Canadian film about two couples facing unexpected pregnancies and a man seeking revenge.
Une Tente sur Mars (2009) *
Bizarre, extremely pretentious documentary about an abandoned mining town in northern Canada and its Native inhabitants. Another predictable "white people are awful" diatribe, though its representation of Natives as hopeless drunks is hardly politically-correct.
Le Bonheur de Pierre (2009) *
Imagine "Jean de Florette" as a comedy, and you'll get "Le Bonheur de Pierre", a story of a gentle Frenchman (Pierre Richard) who inherits a small bed-and-breakfast in a little Canadian town, but finds himself hated and persecuted by his new neighbors. Amusing at times, but in a sadistic sort of way.
Je me souviens (2009) *
Atrocious, Communist-propaganda movie about labor struggles in a small mining town in Canada. Initially coherent, the film suddenly abandons its main political story mid-stream, and turns into a convoluted, incomprehensible mess. It's as bad as the worst films of Ed Wood Jr.
Les Grandes chaleurs (2009) *
A widow in her 50s has an intense love affair with a 20-year-old juvenile delinquent.
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