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.

A Dangerous Method (2011)

A peek into the lives of 19th century psychologists Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud through the lens of one of their patients. The film centres on Jung's desire for professionalism and moral integrity as it is challenged by a masochistic patient who occasionally has psychotic episodes.

The film is a product of Canadian director David Cronenberg whose previous work also focuses on the the mentally disturbed or abnormal. This one seems more grounded in reality and easier to follow than say, Naked Lunch. I'm not sure I agree with his bent on pushing for us to follow our passion so that we can be released (it seems he leaned much more on Freud's side of the debate in the film).

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Los abrazos rotos (2009)

In Pedro Almodóvar's Broken Embraces we get a view of regret years after a tragic incident. In this case we follow a director who had an affair and where his lover is killed.

As he has in the past, the Spanish writer/director depicts characters with diminished physical or mental abilities. I think this puts enough distance between the viewer and the characters so that we can more objectively appreciate the internal struggles. But this one felt just a bit too distant as the characters were just that much more selfish.

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Wanderlust (2012)

Just a comedy about a commune in the spirit of Funny Farm or The Great Outdoors - city folks are just funny out of their urban environs. This film is full of cliché and one-liners.

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Edvard Munch (1974)

A great skill was used to develop the film I just watched. It paints the portrait of celebrated and groundbreaking 19th century Norwegian artist Edvard Munch - famous for "The Scream." For three hours and forty minutes we survey scenes from Munch's life filmed as though it were a documentary where the characters are aware of the camera. Some characters are interviewed. Munch's diary is read as it was written, in the third person. And a narrator pronounces the chronology.

Beginning in a Protestant Christian home as a part of the middle class in Norway's capital city, Munch is surrounded by death, illness, and a social order that extorts and mistreats the lowest classes and their children. After losing his mother, he emerges into manhood and begins his rebellion with a group of bohemians who challenge every aspect of their culture. It is here that conflict arises between he and his father, but more strikingly it is where the great theme of his life's work begins: the threads that bond men and women together.

The series of failed relationships cast the learning and altogether rejected artist into a class all his own. He depicts the world in swirling colours, faces with pale and sickly complexions, and fades the sensory organs of his subjects where they meet their lovers.

Edvard Munch gains enormous popularity during his life while being lambasted by nearly all art critics across Europe. Pressing through all of this, Munch advances his new art form: visual psychology.

This is a masterpiece, unlike anything I have ever seen.

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Blood Simple. (1984)

One of Joel and Ethan Coen's greatest films (and their first), Blood Simple carries us through the major splash created by an adulterous affair followed by a murder. The setting is a small town in Texas and the protagonist is the wife of an embittered bar owner. She decides to carry-on with one of the bartenders and they both become the target of a hit man.

The Coen's help us through the painstaking agony of covering up murders, escaping murder and committing murder using superb film techniques and selfish characters.

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Cyrus (2010)

Cyrus is a momma's boy - home-schooled by his single mom and very coddled. When his mom starts to date, Cyrus becomes quite possessive and subversively sabotages this threatening relationship.

There is some fantastic acting here, just really sincere characters. The story is comedic, but carries enough sentiment to give it a little bit of a lingering reflective quality.

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Due Date (2010)

Robert Downey Jr. gets stuck driving across the USA with Zach Galifianikis. The antics: simply ridiculous. I'm not sure if this was a more self-conscious version of Planes Trains and Automobiles, but it failed to surpass it's predecessor in comedy and sentiment. It did beat it with crude content.

That said, I did laugh. I didn't cry.

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The Social Network (2010)

The Social Network is a hipped up version of Mark Zuckerberg's rapid and ruthless rise to wealth and power as the founder of Facebook. The remarkable thing is that even if you don't care about Facebook or Zuckerberg, the film stands on its feet as an innovative and a supercharged pace narrative about relationships.

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Black Swan (2010)

Darren Aronofsky gives us another psychological thriller, more in the genre of Requiem for a Dream and Pi than The Wrestler. This time rather than the drug underworld, the academic underworld, and the wrestling underworld, he brings us to the flashy ballet underworld.

Natalie Portman plays a dedicated dancer who longs to be featured as the solo dancer in the upcoming performance of Swan Lake. The choreographer is doubtful of her possibility for passion, but she strives to prove her ability - to the point of turning herself quite literally into character.

I think the thrill of this movie overshadows the apparent profundity. I'll have to give it another watch sometime and give it the study it deserves.

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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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Tirez sur le pianiste (1960)

Shoot the Piano Player is a black and white French classic about the resurrection of a piano player facing his demons. And it really plays out like a pre-cursor to post-modern thrillers with all of their twists.

The protagonist has to reveal his former identity as a famous piano player as he seeks to save his corrupt family from gangsters and as he tries to embrace new love.

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Så som i himmelen (2004)

This Swedish film, As it is in Heaven, is one of the most beautiful stories of restoration and sacrifice I have ever been told.

A famous classical musician returns to his boyhood home when his health diminishes. Though he seeks solitude and an opportunity to enjoy the natural world, he is seduced into leading the local tiny church choir. As the choir develops, the town is changed.

The final seconds of the film are perhaps the most poignant and subtle moments of any film. I loved it! I shouldn't have lost the Academy Award to The Sea Inside.

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Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist (2008)

I hate to use this word, but this was boring. The music was ok, but the characters were uninteresting and the plot goes no where fast.

Two high school students discover what is actually important in a relationship (not physical lust and comfort). The point of the film has merit, it just doesn't deliver very well.

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Brideshead Revisited (2008)

This film is based on a book that, again, must be a much better read than a cinematic experience. It is another restrained British period piece.

The opening lines of the film deliver a lot of promise that our atheist artist protagonist will undergo some transformation, but in reality he undergoes an infatuation and suffers the consequences. This young and impressionable middleclassman enters the world of the British upper crust - a very Catholic family living at Brideshead, a posh palace. There he is enchanted by the homosexual son and then by the lovely and confident daughter, but ultimately by the riches associated with the family.

The cinematography deserves some mention as it became a part of the story in the way it brought our attention to some of the small details, as a writer might describe a setting.

Because the characters are so literally detached from reality it makes it difficult to connect with them. A decent movie, but nothing to be infatuated with.

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Four Rooms (1995)

Each of four directors tackle 1/4 of this quirky film. Tim Roth is the strand that holds the story together.

A new bellhop on his first day on the job on New Year's Eve is called to four different rooms. At each room he is asked to do things that are expressly forbidden either by his job description or by the law.

What is surprising about the film - which resembles more a collection of short films or four TV episodes than it does a feature - is that all four of the episodes are great. I expected Tarantino's to the best (which it was), but the other three were just as hilarious and suspenseful.

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Metroland (1997)

I watched this because Christian Bale has rarely made a film that I have not enjoyed - plus Emily Watson has always impressed me too. The two don't disappoint in Metroland (a British word for suburbia), but it does pan out a little thinly.

It is the late 1970's and Chris is happily married and works as a photographer for an advert agency in London. When his old friend visits and brings with him a lifestyle from the late 60's that Chris used to enjoy, he is force to re-evaluate his priorities and choices over the past decade.

The film presents an essay on being a cog in the system, being content with familiarity and monogamy, and regret. The acting performances are superb though the story as a whole won't move you too much despite the great themes explored.

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Shi mian mai fu (2004)

House of Flying Daggers is a disappointment storywise, though it contains some elegant and elaborate visual effects.

A group of rebel fighters who throw, um, daggers, are fighting the corrupt establishment. A luscious blind woman dagger thrower is captured but is rescued by an enchanted police officer. The plot cavorts like a live shrimp on a hot grill until it finally falls dead.

The film shared its eggs among the basket of special effects and flowing fabric and the basket of sentimentality.

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Elegy (2008)

Penelope Cruz and Ben Kingsley serve up a sensuous tale of aging in the selfish world.

Kingsley plays the playboy literature professor who manages to snare young students every semester without consequence. As he nears retirement, he discovers both how lonely he is and love for the first time. This is juxtaposed with his writings on the bacchanal heritage of the U.S.A. which permitted him such a selfish life.

The film is gentle and it comes from a female director so it doesn't glamourize anything. It is an honest look at what people who lived for the 60's are faced with today.

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Junebug (2005)

I was blown away by Junebug. I'm so glad it didn't pass into film archives without my seeing it first (it came out when I first moved to Guatemala, so I hadn't really heard of it until recently).

Madeleine, a cultured art dealer, quickly marries charming George in Chicago. A few months later they visit George's family in North Carolina. The culture shock is unbelievable for it to be in the same country. George's brother and parents are suspicious of Madeleine, but his sister-in-law, a high school drop out and a mouth that won't stop, is completely infatuated with Madeleine's refinedness. As the family interacts, we discover what is most important to each one.

The editing and photography are core to the style of Junebug. The racy couple from Chicago is contrasted with the slow and simple Southern folk. The traditional taboos that keep people from talking in the conservative family both keep the family together and apart as we see the secret lives of each one and the relatively superficial interactions on both sides.

The film is glorious.

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