The Hunger Games (2012)

At Amber's prodding, I read the books prior to watching the movie. I must say that I was take with them - the whole female anti-hero, land of excess vs. desolation dichotomy, and kids killing kids themes kept me turning the pages. I thought the film was faithful to both the book's tenderness towards it's victims and to the social issues brought up by the story.

Not sure why this felt more like a TV movie than a actual film, could be the odd, ever present sense that it is futuristic and backwoodsy at the same time. It is geared for teens, so things are over explained and that takes a fair bit away from a good story.

It's Kind of a Funny Story (2010)

A teen checks himself into the psych ward at a local hospital due to depression (girl and family problems). He is placed in the adult ward since the youth one is under renovation. There, he encounters real mental patients and gains a healthier perspective on life.

The film is worth watching just for the dream sequence / music video of Queen's Under Pressure. But it's also a really enjoyable and touching film.

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Moonrise Kingdom (2012)

Wes Anderson's latest fable is set in the 1960s on a fictional island off the coast of Massachusetts. The hero is a foster boy at a summer camp for boys who has fallen in love and has planned an elaborate escape for him and his melancholic girl. The police (Bruce Willis), campers (Edward Norton, parents (Bill Murray and Frances McDormand), and social services (Tilda Swinton - who they always call Social Services) chase them down.

There is tons of humour, vulnerability and style. One of Anderson's best.

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Animal Kingdom (2010)

This film is too over the top I think, but maybe I just don't know the Australian trailerpark crime culture well enough. The crime and the response to crime seems cartoonish without trying to be.

An orphaned teen cousin ends up living with his criminal uncles and ringleader grandmother. The police will go to any lengths to get them and they will do anything to avoid getting caught. Some rather horrific stuff really.

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Never Let Me Go (2010)

This terribly moving film begins at the edge of sanity where children are raised in an idyllic setting and then harvested for their organs once they reach adulthood. The organ donors live out their purpose without questioning why or without really believing that they have any other purpose. Aside from the heavy sentimental reaction I got from watching their young lives get snuffed out, I was pushed to consider the idea of free will as it was presented in the film - and I always appreciate that opportunity!

As I often do, I really appreciated the gentleness in the film and the easy pace as it massaged the fate of the characters into our minds.

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Dreaming of Julia (2003)

This is not an especially compelling account of the revolution in Cuba. It's told through the eyes of a boy from a middle to high class family who watches the adult scandals pre-revolution and the ultimate disintegration of his family during and after the revolution. I would be more sympathetic if it weren't so boring! The characters try too hard to be colourful and the dialogue is flat.

Beware! It also goes by the name Cuba Libre.

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This is England (2006)

The large meta-narrative of Britain and it's use of nationalism and violence to dominate in the world is replayed in the life of a young boy who is caught up in the skinhead movement of the 1980s. Mourning the loss of his father in the conflict of the Falkland Islands, Shaun is drawn in by the kindness of skinhead punks in backwater England.

I was particularly moved by the lack of pretension that the skinheads had. They genuinely cared for each other and shared their feelings frankly. The anger they directed towards immigrants was a misguided frustration with a nationalism that simply gave them groundless entitlement.

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Taking Woodstock (2009)

Ang Lee is remarkable in how diverse his projects are and this one pushes into remarkable territory. While he maintains the sensitivity that most of his films have, he captures americana during an era of transformation in a collision between rural and urban, the hippy and silent generations, and the peace that was necessary between all of the shifting tectonic plates of the 1960s.

Taking Woodstock takes the legendary summer concert to a personal level by focusing on the planners and more specifically, the family/town who hosts the hordes.

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Super 8 (2011)

Film makers J.J. Abrams and Steven Spielberg created here is an homage to sci-fi pop films of the 1970s and 80s where children are the stars and magic is in the air (think E.T. meets The Goonies). The movie is appropriately straddles the two decades as it is set in 1979. The young actors are set on making their own movie on super 8 film and inadvertently draw attention to themselves when they are caught shooting at the site of an alien escape. The feds are on their trail as the kids try to solve the mystery.

The film is masterfully shaped and expertly executed making for a really fun movie to watch.

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Breakfast on Pluto (2005)

The Crying Game still haunts me even though I saw it nearly 2 decades ago. Its director delivers this true tale of an Irish transvestite's coming of age in a time of political, familial and religious turmoil. Cillian Murphy convincingly plays Kitty who is in search of his mother in London and meaning in his life.

Quite a beautiful film.

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Flashbacks of a Fool (2008)

Quite a poignant film that gives selfishness and self-gratification a story. The story catches up with Joe Scot at the beginning of his fall from grace as a successful lead actor. Then the story returns to the beginnings of this actor's life and draws the parallels for the viewer.

Daniel Craig's role is minimal as most of the film takes place in Britain when his character is a teen, but Craig delivers tremendous regret on the sleeve of someone who is still only skin deep.

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The History Boys (2006)

This is quite a smart film that does much more than The Emperor's Club and other prep school dramas about inspiring teachers and their disciples. The History Boys emphasizes the dark parts of the education system and of humanity - particularly their English and History profs.

A group of academically gifted boys give a small and not very prestigious British school some hope of legitimacy if they can pass their exams and enter some of the top universities in the country. As a young teacher is hired to prep them, the joy of learning begins to die as they pursue marks instead of knowledge.

Some great acting and writing (inevitable when it's based on a play).

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Savage Grace (2007)

Savage indeed! This is one of those sad true stories that reveals the underbelly of a sinful race of humans, exacerbated by wealth.

Tony is born into privilege and to a psychotic mother and fed-up father. The family lives nomadically traveling from villa to villa in Europe. It becomes clear that Tony suffers from neglect from his father and unnatural attention from his mother. No good results.

From a cinematic perspective, the film scores high. The progression of darkness is steady and the tension brews for quite a while before a stark and brutal finish. The actors superbly perform as the camera gives us perhaps too much to see.

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Alice in Wonderland (2010)

Lewis Carroll wrote this story to be made into a film by Tim Burton.

A victorian young woman named Alice is faced with duty when a rabbit distracts her for an instant. Next thing she knows, she is hurdling downwards into Wonderland and speaking with flowers, a dodo and a caterpillar named Absalom. She charms nearly everyone she meets and faces execution before ultimately being the champion.

This is not a children's movie. Burton brings an edginess to the story through darker artistic inspiration - the Queen of Hearts is beheading her subjects after all. The design is jaw dropping. All of the actors (voice and live action) draw you into their madness and desperation.

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An Education (2009)

An Education brings you back to innocence and then back again with a tremendous cast and a relatable story (it's true, so it better be relatable).

In the decade of existentialism and rock and roll, 15-year-old Jenny attends a British prep school and is on her way to Oxford. She meets and inadvertently enchants a man nearly twice her age who teaches her the ways of the world.

What could have ended up as a very sad story becomes one of strength and a testament to learning from your mistakes and building on what is good in your life.

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My Left Foot: The Story of Christy Brown (1989)

Daniel Day-Lewis delivers an amazing performance in the biopic of Irish artist and writer Christy Brown. 

Christy is born with cerebral palsy into a huge Irish family in Dublin. Because of the palsy, he is without speech for the first decade and a half and drags himself around using the only part of his body that he can fully control - his left foot. We discover who he is as he begins to express himself and participate with his community - even playing soccer while laying on his side in the street.

The film is a powerful telling of the story, but also in depicting the poverty and strength of will that the family demonstrated to care for and protect their son/brother in a time when society would have sent him to an asylum. Hugh O'Conor, the boy who played the young Christy Brown, deserves as much attention as Day-Lewis for the magnificent job he did.

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Gran Torino (2008)

There is very little of Clint Eastwood's films that I dislike. He consistently delivers human drama and tension that can be understood and empathized with.

Gran Torino tells the tale of Walt - a Vietnam vet with a racist streak and little tolerance for the aires that people put on. Walt becomes entangled with his Asian neighbours after his wife passes away. The end result is one of transformation and love. Can you tell I don't want to give away the plot?

I discussed this film at great length with my pastor before he preached a sermon about the film. You can watch/listen to the sermon here. We can see tremendous parallels between Gran Torino's and the transformation that the Gospel proclaims. There is also little room for pretending in the film which speaks volumes about truth. I was struck particularly by the action of grace at the end and analyzed how I accept/live the grace so tentatively even after understanding at what great cost it was given so lovingly to me.

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Stone Reader (2002)

A man discovers a giant of a book in his library that he meant to read 25 years earlier and never got around to it. After reading it and being thoroughly moved and inspired he decides to research the author and read his other titles only to discover that there is no information on him and there are no other books by the author.

The documentary filmmaker decides to shoot a film about the search for this master author. In its stead, the film becomes one about how we relate to books, their authors and how great books become successes.

From the get go, I was surprised by the method that the filmmaker used to draw in the audience and have them look at the books they've read and allowed to become a part of them (though he didn't give much time to reflect on them). We become active participants. The first action in the film is him talking about making the film with his camera man. He brings us backstage and into the editing room and talks about the making of the film as it's being made. This is kind of fun really.

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The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)

David Fincher (dir. Zodiac, The Game, Fight Club) delivers a thoughtful meditation on age in this adaptation of an F. Scott Fitzgerald short story.

Benjamin Button is born with the physical ailments of an elderly man but with the innocent mind of a child. As time passes in his Louisiana home his body becomes younger and his mind matures. The film chronicles this mysterious occurrence over a span of 80 years or so in American history.

The pacing in the film is slow, but also needed as much of the film depends on steady progression and the sense that time is passing. The acting is also superb, giving tremendous strength to the characters. The soundtrack isn't overwhelming as it may have been in a similar film like Forrest Gump, but rather very much a supporting and subtle element.

Overall, the film is a fortress in filmmaking and a generous contribution to the art.

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The Reader (2008)

Nothing is simple in this film. The Reader skips across the story of one woman's life at the times when she encounters a much younger man over a span of decades.

Hanna Schmitz is a tragic figure who because of circumstances and her own ignorance becomes the fall girl for postwar Germany. We see her through the eyes of a love struck high school student with whom she strikes up a summer of passion which includes her young lover reading to her. Scorned, she ends the relationship and they encounter years later when she is on trial for war crimes as a guard at a concentration camp.

The story is terribly sad and in many ways it mirrors Germany's history - a lovely nation brought down through ignorance and war guilt after The Great War. Her lover would be all of Europe who was initially seduced, but who later scorns the jewel of central Europe.

The writing, powerful acting, and superb pacing mark this film as one of the best ever made.

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