This animated tale about a young girl growing up in Iran during and after the Revolution as personal freedoms are inexorably removed is simultaneously touching and difficult to watch.
All in Intelligent
The Polish Brothers' NORTHFORK
This is a beautiful, entrancing, enigmatic, and mesmerizing movie about death.
Neill Blomkamp's DISTRICT 9
So many things are done right with this imaginative and exciting film that it’s hard to know where to start:
Saul Dibb's THE DUCHESS
I’m a sucker for 18th Century costume dramas, especially if part of the time is spent in sailing ships. This one, despite being landlocked, is heads above most.
It’s a pleasure watching an intelligent adult film. It’s even better to see one that treats a difficult subject with great clarity despite underlying moral and legal ambiguities. Most of all, it’s great to see such a film with a great cast working from a great script.
Walter Salles' THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES
What a great film this is. It’s a thoughtful, contemplative, sometimes sad, sometimes funny, road picture.
Andrew Stanton's WALL•E
My first reaction to seeing Pixar’s WALL•E was “This is better than Coruscant!”
Alex Proyas' “DARK CITY”
This is what I wrote in my blog when, once upon a time in Indiana, I found myself working late at night with the TV turned on:
Steven Spielberg's AI: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
I grew up with the science fiction of Clarke, Asimov, and Heinlein. At their best they wrestled with humans coming to terms with very large ideas and concepts in stories that spanned years and vast distances. I especially loved depictions of the far future.
Satoshi Kon’s MILLENNIUM ACTRESS
One of the most mature, evocative, creative, and melodramatic movies I’ve seen all year is an animated film, directed by the same director (Satoshi Kon) as the realistic yet disappointing (to me) potboiler Perfect Blue and of the excellent Tokyo Godfathers.
Steven Soderbergh's SOLARIS
The film superbly rendered on this DVD bears repeated watching. All aspects are masterfully done. It is an adult, literate, and intelligent film that swings back and forth between intellectual challenge, mystery, and wrenching emotion. The music and visuals are stunning.
Steven Spielberg's MUNICH
That the issues raised by this faux history of events kicked off by the massacre of Israelis at the 1972 Olympics are still so relevant is a testament to Spielberg’s intelligence and sense of morality.
It also helps that he’s a terrific film-maker who is willing to attack complex topics in an intelligent, personal, and thoughtful way.