The Constant Gardener

The Constant Gardener tells the story of Justin Quayle (Ralph Fiennes), a British diplomat in love with nature, especially plants. Justin is a man somewhat introverted but complacent, who, despite believing in his ideals, does almost nothing to rebel against his  monotonous and hypocritical working life.

Moneyball

Aaron Sorkin's scripts tend to be synonymous of quality and indisputable sharpness and we have examples of it both on television, with the acclaimed "The West Wing of the White House”, and in the magnificent film script he wrote for “The Social Network”. In “Moneyball”, he co-wrote the script in collaboration with Steven Zailian (adapting it from the book by Michael Lewis by the same title). He leads us into the world of professional baseball through a character who lived beyond the sport, without caring about the economic impact that it could have on him and who believed in the possibility of using other methods to make a good team without spending millions in order to succeed.

Take Shelter

"Take Shelter" is a film of a bizarre beauty. One of the most touching recent dramas, one of the most shocking thrillers, and if you can appreciate it, a bottomless pit of references, metaphors, subtleties.

Because "Take Shelter" is one of those films that creates fascination, whose final scenes connect with the first ones, scenes that can generate in the viewer vivid dreams and visions on an endless loop. It is also a “world movie”, with an impeccable visual consistency, capable of building a powerful imaginarium.

Casablanca

1942-2012: 70 years are more than enough for something to become a legend, especially if that something is Casablanca. It is without a doubt one of those few movies where you can legitimately make a face if someone tells you they have not seen it. Everyone saw it, everyone knows it, everybody likes it. I am no exception.

Toy Story

The first Toy Story movie was produced by Pixar and distributed by Disney in 1995. The second chapter was supposed to be a home video from the start; but the success of the first film pushed the decision of releasing it in the theaters instead, in 1999. Over 10 years later, in 2010, Andy is a grown up and so are the kids who were watching Buzz and Woody for the first time in the 90s.

In Time

A science fiction story, but a quite innovative and analytical one. You could say it is a way of seeing our lives in which our time is not just stuck in our hands. On the other hand, this film could be related to the phrase "money buys everything". I understand its difficulty in attracting an audience, because  even bigger movies like Inception had the same risk. However, I think that in this case the main scepticism may come from the presence of Justin Timberlake and the unknown director Andrew Niccol.

Battleship Potemkin (Bronenosets Potyomkin)

"Battleship Potemkin" is a movie partially based on real events that occurred in the port of Odessa (Russia) during the week following to June 26, 1905.

The sailors of the "Battleship Potemkin" have had enough of abuse and, when they try to force them to eat rotting meat, they decide to revolt. Full of expressive images, almost like a photo album, "Battleship Potemkin" represents the magnification of the figure of the masses and of the collective cause.

The Thing

The prequel to John Carpenter's "The Thing", from 1982, turns out to be a good complement to the franchise and to the whole "Alien" inspired movies genre. It is unfortunate that it has not acquired the required attention for producing a whole future trilogy, which is, I can tell,  the dream of some followers.

Submarino

"Submarine" is the story of two brothers without resources, chased by a tragic past. Nick, a traumatized ex-convict, fights against his painful memories and loneliness while trying to reconnect with his younger brother, a single father and heroin addict.

Movies and Food

"Bring some chocolate with you". That is the suggestion that a friend of mine received from another friend when we went to the movies to see "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" in 2005. My friend followed the advice and I probably should have had too: the movie has chocolate everywhere and, not very subliminally, at one point you want it too...badly. 

Drive

I cannot help comparing this film to the video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. This is especially because they use dark tones in the background, while the color white predominates in the costumes of the protagonist and the title is in contrast with the color pink. So you may say this is new in the world of cinema, but someone who has played one game in the series will find it somehow familiar, like a copy or, better, a film inspired by the game.

Project X

Immediately after watching "Project X", if asked to define it, we would say that it is a combination of "Superbad" and "The Hangover"; a definition that not only does not seem to be opposed by its producers, but that they even seem to like.

New York, New York

The big apple, the city that never sleeps, the capital of the world: New York. I have never even been there, but I know what it looks like, I know where to go shopping, I know where the coolest places to go out are, where to not go if you want to stay alive, how much it would cost to leave on Central Park East, how to get from Jersey to The City...how is that even possible? Books, music, cinema and TV have been celebrating this city for ages, just like long dead poets used to chant about ancient Rome.

Antichrist

We start with a really beautiful and detailed epilogue, a brilliant photography and shots accompanied by classical music to contrast the harsh sequences to follow, glorifying the mixture of black and white and colored shots.

The Grey

"The Grey" tells us the story of a group of workers at an oil company in Alaska. When the plane that was transporting them crashes in the snow, they try to survive the inhospitable cold and particularly a pack of wolves.

The premise of this film does not sound very exciting. But the dialogues, performances and especially the technical execution make it one of the best films I've seen so far this year.

Breaking Bad: just a very long movie

Movies are movies and TV shows are TV shows: thank you very much. The funny thing is that sometimes TV shows are as good as movies because they are  able to overcome the usual flaws that they have (dilution, lack of intensity, repetition) and all that remains are the good things (like the depth and detail of narration).

Schindler's List

It was 1971 when there was a big change in the life of Steven Spielberg. Due to the movie "Duel", filmed for television, Spielberg showed the ease with which he could maintain the viewer's attention and made ​​himself known as a leading man when it comes to science fiction themes. Four years later he released "Jaws", movie that opened him the doors of Hollywood, placing him away from the rest of the average directors and showing some vestiges of what would become his future works. The ease in which he handled the adventure genre led him to produce works that turned into  blockbusters, such as "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," "ET" and the trilogy  of "Indiana Jones".

Chronicle

To ask yourself "what would you do?" Is probably not the best you can do because, to be honest as we should be,  having an extra gift, extra to the ones that we already have, many human beings on this planet would go after someone for revenge or try to find a way to benefit from this new gift. The success of a film like “Chronicle” relies on the power to talk about common things but in the language of a fantastic film.

Three boys with different, contrasting personalities  get together when involuntarily they acquire the ability to master telekinesis. This turns them into something less than invincible, as if during adolescence you realize you can achieve your own ideas and  feel a sense that you can succeed at everything that we do.

Melancholia

The wonderful end of the world by Lars VonTrier.

 

With some extremely beautiful moments and really aesthetically accomplished sequences, the director Lars von Trier made a film, a portrait, about depression, about human psychology at the end of the world. Two significant performances, by Kirsten Dunst and Charlotte Gainsbourg, are keys in order to accomplish this.

A planet called Melancholia is approaching the Earth and threatening to destroy it. In a beautiful location, Justine held her wedding with her sister and family. The party suffered many delays and Justine does not hide her unhappiness with her actions.

The Tree of Life

Incredible sensorial journey by Malick, featuring the most ambitious film of his brief, intimate and intense career, an invitation to let yourself go with every connection that everybody has with its environment and the universe. Amazing.

Back to the Future

Back to the Future is my all-time favorite movie or, better, movie trilogy. Marty McFly and Dr. Emmet Brown lead us in an incredible adventure without moving an inch away from sunny Hill Valley, California. At least, they don’t move in space, but they move a hell of a lot in time. Traveling on their trusted Delorean, thanks to the mythical flux capacitor, they end up in 1955, in 2015, in an alternative 1985 (their present) and in the far west…sometimes willingly sometimes by accident. Their aim is usually to fix what they have messed up during their “time trip” and go back to the future, which is 1985.

Essential Killing

Killing for survival...

An Afghan soldier (Vincent Gallo) is imprisoned after killing three American soldiers. The imprisoned soldier, after a car accident that is taking away the prisoners, escapes from his captors. And from there, there is a desperate escape, an authentic struggle for survival.

Valhalla Rising

Despite the ambiguity of its promotional image, this movie is not "300" with Vikings: it is a violent film shot in an extremely beautiful way and with a story full of metaphysics. Mythology, nature, death and silence blend magnificently in this film by Nicolas Winding Refn; a movie in which it is not easy to understand all the symbolism and whose main actor, Mads Mikkelsen, performs in a way that leaves you speechless.

Because sport movies are better

Sport is the last thing on my mind: it is the last on my priority scale, I have a hard time understanding what the fuss about it is, why there is so much money in it and so on and so forth. And yet, when it comes to sport movies, I am the biggest fan. Maybe everyone needs a certain amount of sport adrenaline in their lives, but given that I am not an admirer of real sweat, I need to fall back on the romantic version of it: namely, sport movies.

Contagion

The most recent natural disaster that we have had in real life is the tsunami and the subsequent nuclear disaster happened in Japan in 2011. We cannot yet safely weight what impact all this had not only in the Japanese economy and its society but around the world too.

The Debt

 John Madden, director of the multi award-winning movie "Shakespeare in Love," presents us this time with "The Debt", a film with the premise of being a solid thriller with historical references and a good squad of actors, which has translated into good box office results.

When we cheer for the bad guys

It's known that storytellers can sell us whatever perspective, whatever idea, whatever reality. It is up to us and our sensitivity to question them and, eventually, buy them or not.

However, at first impact, if the perspective of the story is that of the traditional villain, we tend to cheer for him. I am not talking about the compassion and sympathy we sometimes feel for the villain when, at the moment of his defeat, we see all the dramas of his childhood that had turned him. I am talking of the movies in which pirates, criminals, vampires, thieves and killers are the main characters and we want them to win.

Extreme Creativity

Some might consider him a genius, for others he is just a manipulator of emotions, for those, that is, that think to be more original than his class.

Elia Kazan was an informer and a traitor, Leni von Riefenstahl a Nazi convinced of the superiority of the Aryan race, Cecil B. De Mille a fascist, not to mention Roman Polanski and his well-known scandals, including the sex abuse of a minor. But they are all extraordinary directors, who have written some of the most brilliant pages in the history of cinema. So, why does everyone attacks Lars von Trier for being a perfect fool, and a genius?

Lilja 4-ever

I needed to get something off my chest in order to be able to get out of the couch after watching "Lilja 4-ever." Lukas Moodysson achieved here his best work with his most international success, besides earning the "Guldbagge" award for the best Swedish film of 2002.

Billy Wilder: immortal genius

When The Artist won the Academy Award for best movie, Michel Hazanavicius, the director, wanted to thank three people for this success: Billy Wilder, Billy Wilder, Billy Wilder. He had mentioned him before as well, when he was giving his ritual speech for winning as best director. This guy must really like Billy Wilder, mustn’t he?  The fact is that I don’t see who cannot like this absolute master, writer and director, of comedy in all its forms and declinations. Billy Wilder is definitely my favorite artist of the old Hollywood, and I must say that I struggle to find a heir. Active from the 30s to the 80s, with the peak of his career from the late 40s to the 60s, Wilder considered himself a writer more than a director and, in fact, he was more prolific with the screenplays. My favorites are the ones where he was both writer and director, but in his long career he delivered tons of masterpieces, working with the best of the best, always a guarantee of success for his producers and distributors.

Warrior

If we review recent year films we will not find much about boxing. Often, sport themed movies typically are used as an excuse to present an historical context or as an explanation of the characters background; but in any case we do not have many true films about fights.

A Better Life

The story of movie is based on the obstacles that Carlos Galindo (Demian Bichir) faces: he is an illegal Mexican immigrant living in Los Angeles with his son (José Julian) and he strives to give his son a better life, the one that he did not had.

The Vow

The Vow is a romantic movie, not conventional at all: that's what caught me the most about its story. The plot is quite easy and straightforward: a couple meets under a very particular circumstance of destiny, they start dating, fall in love, get married... but nothing can be perfect if there is no change... A tragedy happens: the couple is involve in a car accident, and the girl loses her memory. The worst part is that the girl, Rachel McAdams, has no memory of anything about her relationship with her husband, Channing Tatum, and what both go through is extremely difficult to overcome.