Sweet Smell of Success (1957)

Ah! The overly dramatic dramas from the 50s! A reputation is on the line in this scandal layered story of a media tycoon and his flunky who is starting to develop a conscience. This is one of the great films that set a standard for morally ambiguous, down and out protagonists trying to do right. Plus it stars Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis.

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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Bridesmaids (2011)

No surprises really - it's a girls Hangover movie so it's a bit more sentimental and a little less crass.

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Gnomeo and Juliet (2011)

I had to try and keep my eyes open for this predictable and not very funny animation. They started with a title and built a film around it (a la Snakes on a Plane).

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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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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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Lovers in a Dangerous Time (2009)

I really enjoyed this Canadian indie romantic comedy drama - a lot of qualifiers, but the more something resembles real-life, the more it's going to reflect all of these. The film stars the same pair who wrote and directed the feature and according to DVD extras, it took three years to complete the project - which is set over a summer and fall in the small mountain town of Creston, BC.

A young woman returns to her hometown for a class reunion, but more to see her old best friend from high school. The two buddies spend time resolving personal struggles and awkward mutual attractions.

The realism in the movie (the actors aren't super gorgeous, the situations appear natural, the tension is not overdone and complex) brings a certain humility to the characters, reflecting the Canadian trait of being self-effacing. I hope the filmmakers get another shot at making another great film.

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Hors de prix (2006)

Audrey Tautou portrays a skillful gold digger on the French Riviera in Priceless. After a misunderstanding which leads to a tryst with a bartender, she makes it clear that she is not interested in pursuing a relationship that doesn't produce pricy gifts and extravagant holidays.

The bartender is willing to bet his entire savings and credit on winning her over though and so goes the tale. The film does a great job of making you suffer with the poor man's weakness in spending money so to win over his cruel muse.

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Divorzio all'italiana (1961)

Since the Roman Catholic Church forbids divorce, the only way to get out of a marriage is the either the unfaithfulness or death of one's spouse. When Ferdinando falls in love with his nubile cousin, he devises a ploy to get out of his marriage.

The film is quite clever in its portrayal of the very inept Ferdinando and we are completely flabbergasted that his cousin falls for him and at the grossly inept Italian justice system. But we laugh a lot thanks to ingenious acting.

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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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All the Days Before Tomorrow (2007)

This film has a Richard Linklater (Before Sunset, Before Sunrise) feel to it. Not much happens outside of the jumps in location and time. The two characters simply dialogue, so it's very much like a play. The trouble arises when the conversations aren't terribly engaging and the tension - often sexual - is not very compelling. The two protagonists jointly battle becoming romantically involve in order to preserve their friendship. Unfortunately for the viewers, the woman has little inhibitions, is very self-involved, and isn't that interesting.

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Doctor Zhivago (1965)

This is the first time watching Doctor Zhivago and what surprised me (and pleased me) the most was the genuinely flawed nature of the characters. While I despised some characters, they held my sympathy and while I loved other characters, I hated some of their decisions. Its tragedy and epic portrayal of the Russian revolution bring the film to an even greater height. It won't be the last time I watch it!

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Tangled (2010)

I enjoyed this modern, musical, Disney-fied take on the Rapunzel story. With such high returns on animated features these days, they typically gather a stellar crew of writers, animators, and producers.

As is typical, the side characters are the funniest and most interesting (the horse, the chameleon, the tavern crew, etc.). Some of the songs are fun, but a lot of them are sentimental crooning which, you know, get stuck in your head and will likely be memorized by young girls.

My pastor preached a sermon on this movie, likening it to a modern parable about identity and going home.

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The King (2005)

When an illegitimate son suddenly breaks onto the scene of a pastor's family, it is less about him and more about the family's reaction to him that is interesting. The unwelcomed visitor subversively destroys the family, but their initial unwelcome juxtaposed with their zealous southern faith makes for an interesting watch. All in all though, it's pretty tough to make any sense of the fierce violence and the young man's lack of remorse.

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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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The Corpse Bride (2005)

Brilliant animated feature! What could have been a very dark film is light, refreshing and full of hope - especially if those who are quite put off by the murky depths of the grave simply look at it as a parable (I could include myself in this category sometimes).

Tim Burton leads a troop of puppeteers and stop-motion animators to tell the tale of a Victorian fella named Victor who is betrothed to Victoria (I love it!) only to accidentally wed a corpse as he rehearses his lines in a cemetery. All of the characters - living and dead - give stellar performances and some of the puns are gut splitting hilarious (like when the maggot in the corpse bride's head pops an eye out and says "I'll keep an eye out for him.").

Fighting my dislike of celebrating death and all things spooky, I realized the amazing parallel that we have in Christianity: Christ, the bridegroom, will one day wed his church who's many parts will have been dead and so his bride could be considered a corpse. I think there is some valid parallel here. Some great resurrection images too (the young boy who approaches a walking skeleton, pauses, and then leaps into it's arms shouting "grandpa!").

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Hereafter (2010)

While I think this is terrific film making, I'm pretty dismayed with the message it promotes: we can hear from the dead. If we believe this, then we open ourselves up to extortion, theological heresy, and a life that can be interfered with by the dead.

The film itself tells of the struggle of three individuals all connected to this otherworldly dimension. One is a medium who wishes he could turn off his dead person sense. Another is a boy who tragically loses his twin in an accident and longs to hear from him. The last is a woman who dies momentarily and comes back to life and seeks answers to the things she remembers seeing.

Kudos to the tsunami creators - stunning sequence.

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The Adjustment Bureau (2011)

This is another adaptation of a Philip K. Dick story (Minority Report, Blade Runner, Total Recall) - written as usual to challenge people's ideas about free will.

David Norris has a promising political career that suddenly goes awry, but he manages to fall in love on the night of his election defeat. What happens next though is far more outrageous: agents prevent him from meeting the girl again. What agents? Well from the Adjustment Bureau of course - a sci-fi organization who makes sure everything is staying on track, God's agents, angels with hats if you please.

The film really can't be taken seriously since the story is full of holes and is actually quite ridiculous, but as a parable about free will, it can't be ignored. I was quite disturbed by it's conclusion actually.

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You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger (2010)

Woody Allen offers up another comedy about the insane consequences of participating in serial relationships and the constant hope and openness toward meeting someone more satisfying. We have two couples who become four couples.

There isn't much else to say, if you like Woody Allen, you'll like this one. It's silly, but riddled with truths (and debunked lies).

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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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