Gomorra (2008)

Gomorrah can be likened to a less visually stunning Italian City of God. Kids entering mob gangs in Naples - how they are initiated, how the gangs are accepted in the communities, and the trauma on members and the community. It's worth watching.

Disgrace (2008)

A tremendously powerful and original film that tackles South Africa's culture of violence. The Australian-made movie is based on a South African novel by J M Coetzee which makes me want to seek out this guy's work. A professor loses his status in the academic world because of some blatant abuses of his position. He seeks refuge at his daughter's ranch in rural South Africa only to be faced with a culture of violence he is not able to so easily accept as his own indiscretions. The biggest revelation of this film is its treatment of rape and how it is understood so differently in the Eastern Cape.

Etz Limon (2008)

A government official moves to the edge of one of Israel's borders with Palestine. One the Palestinian side, a lemon grove grows right to the border of the back yard and this is seen as a security risk by the Israeli government as a sniper could easily hide in the grove and harm the official. So the grove is ordered to be cut back with significant impact to the grove's owner, a Palestinian widow.

This David and Goliath battle happens in the press and in court.

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Revanche (2008)

This Austrian film takes a look at entitlement through the lenses of a thief and a childless mother. The two stories converge on one event where a police officer kills the theif's girlfriend as they flee a crime; the officer's wife has no kids. The thief retreats to the country to help his grandfather with preparations for the winter. While he's there, he plots his revenge on the officer.

I had trouble empathizing with any of the characters except the officer and the grandfather as they seemed to exhibit the most natural types of emotions. The others thought they deserved more than what life had dealt them. The film has a wonderful ending though and the pace is enjoyable.

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35 Rhums (2008)

This is what I love about European dramas (the not shocking ones) - ordinary people facing ordinary struggle in ordinary time. This French film focuses on an immigrant transit train conductor and the people in his life. Rather than focusing on racial tensions that are commonplace in Paris, it relies on his humanity and the dynamics of his relationships - particularly with his daughter.

Punctuated at times with tragedy and selfishness, the film is more of a celebration of life, the great reasons to raise your 35 Shots of Rum.

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Goodbye Solo (2008)

Empathy confronts free will in this sorrowful tale of hopelessness. A taxi driver, Solo, is contracted to drive a man one-way to a cliff on an upcoming date. Solo recognizes that this is essentially assisting this man's suicide, so he works towards befriending the aging and cranky man.

The dynamic between the upbeat Solo and the vacant William is superb - a contest of influence of wills, especially considering Solo's personal problems and the enormous possibilities for failure in his own life.

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Tulpan (2008)

Asa has big ears and because of this he can not find a wife. He lives on the steppe in Kazakhstan (the real one, not Borat's) with his sheep herding brother-in-law and family. Asa is torn between the big city life (personified by his peddling buddy) and his current rural life. The promise of a wife does not seem to be on his horizon.

The desolate and remote setting and characters eclipse the story though. Amazing birthing scenes of lambs appear twice in the film which alone make the film worth watching.

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Good Dick (2008)

This movie stays clear of sentimentality as it deals with a couple really broken people. The first is a homeless video store clerk. The other is one of his patrons - a hermit who rents porn. He becomes fascinated with this hardened woman to the point of obsession, but in a good way. Helping her helps him grow out of his slump (plus he can crash at her place).

It is ultimately a story of redemption, and a good one at that.

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Nollywood Babylon (2008)

The makers of this documentary display a two pronged story pairing the burgeoning low budget high profit film industry in Nigeria with the prosperity gospel being preached in Nigerian mega churches. It is a fascinating look at what are often one dimensional issues.

We learn of how the video industry started and it's relationship to animist witchcraft and then we follow it is being used to promote Charismatic Christian values such as how to get rich and famous by making movies.

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Låt den rätte komma in (2008)

Let the Right One In is an intimate and gory tale of revenge and love. It is far less glamourous than other vampire movies made - kind of gritty like the Night Watch and Day Watch films from Russia - perhaps because it comes from Sweden, not the United States.

A boy, low on the social status at school, befriends a new neighbour girl who doesn't leave her apartment much. Her father involves himself in collecting fresh blood in some of the most graphic and disturbing scenes of any film I've seen - his daughter feeds on the blood as she is an ancient and lonely vampire.

The relationship between the two young ones is both disturbing and comforting. Not an easy film by any means and there does run the risk of glorifying some of the violence, but I believe the frankness of the scenes pushes us from enjoying them. I'm not a vampire flick fan, but the film is very well made.

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Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father (2008)

I can't imagine how long it took to edit this film. Originally intended as a memoir film for a child about his dead father consisting of dozens and dozens of interview with the deceased's friends and family, it becomes a film about a grave injustice and gut wrenching tragedy.

An independent documentarian travels the U.S. and Britain to tape interviews and ends up in Newfoundland where Zachary, the orphaned baby of his murdered best friend is living jointly with his grandparents and mother, is living. Zachary's mother is also accused of murdering the boy's father and is fighting extradition to the U.S.

The emotional impact of the film is huge and you can not end the film without a palpable sense of rage.

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El Superstar: The Unlikely Rise of Juan Frances (2008)

A friend of mine recommended this teenage boy level mockumentary about a white American becoming a music superstar in the Latin scene. It has a couple laugh out loud bits, but on the whole become quite tiresome as the actors are on par with a Mexican telenovela and the circumstances are way over the top.

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Throw Down Your Heart (2008)

Bela Fleck is an American banjo virtuoso. He travels to Uganda, Tanzania, Gambia, Senegal, and Mali in search of the roots of the banjo. What he finds is a remarkably similar style to what bluegrass is in North America. Fleck records songs with local celebrity musicians and with entire villages producing a beautiful fusion of sound.

The music is certainly the best part of the film. The other part is how it reveals an affluent American's reaction to Africa and Fleck is caught a little bit in the headlights as he is struck by poverty, simplicity and contentment.

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Food, Inc. (2008)

This polemic puts the microscope on the food production industry of the United States of America. We learn, not so surprisingly, that it is rife with huge lobby groups and corporations that continue to muscle their way over the small farms.

Oh, we also learn that corn is in everything.

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Il divo (2008)

Well, I can't say I had much of a clue as to what was going on as I watched this stylish bio pic on Giulio Andreotti, a corrupt Italian parliamentarian. But I thoroughly enjoyed this visual feast!

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The Informers (2008)

The writer of American Psycho presents another morose view of humanity and American culture on the west coast. It's the mid 1980s when drugs had grown up, music was synthesized, and AIDS was detected.

Some rich, spoiled kids stir it up in their broken families while demonstrating horrific disaffection towards any painful experience. There's lots of sex, lots of treachery, and lots of brokenness giving way for any rejoicing at the least emotional reality.

The film is well-made, its the sentiment that is hard to watch. I did have a hard time sorting out the dozen young men who make up the younger generation cast.

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One Week (2008)

Without taking any firm positions, One Week crosses dying, relationship, and purpose with a journey to the west coast of Canada. And despite the real possibility that the movie is going to be corny (and it is a little), I was pleased with its genuine sentiment.

Joshua Jackson plays a man diagnosed with cancer who decides to leave his job, his fiancée and treatment for a while to discover why he is alive. His conclusion does seem rather selfish, but he comes by it honestly.

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Unmistaken Child (2008)

When a lama dies in central Asia, one of his disciples seeks out his reincarnated image in this fascinating documentary.

The film outlines the process of selecting a successor to a Buddhist spiritual leader and demonstrates the care and faith required to do so. The disciple becomes convinced that a toddler in a mountain village clearly demonstrates his master's qualities and presents him as the heir to this spiritual power. The child is presented with several objects, some belonging to the deceased lama, and if he can pick the right ones, he is clearly the new lama.

There are some rather heart breaking scenes - and perhaps they would be euphoric to a Buddhist.

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Heaven on Earth (2008)

This Canadian film explores the dark side of long distance arranged marriage.

Chand leaves her family in India to join her new future husband in a suburb of Toronto. She is quickly resented by her mother-in-law and is viewed as a liability in her new family. Chand copes with the abuse she suffers through fantasy and finds the strength to rise against her oppressors.

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Hunger (2008)

In 1981, British Northern Ireland prisons took in Irish Republican Army soldiers (some would call them terrorists). To draw attention to their cause, several of these prisoners decided to end their lives through a hunger strike. This film chronicles the final weeks of Bobby Sands in an unprecedented realism from the beatings delivered by the guards (of whom we get an intimate portrait as well) to the shut down of Sands' body functions. Hunger is terribly affecting and the film presents the Irish struggle in a balanced way.

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