Philomena

It was so easy to see that this movie would transmit a feeling of pity! It had everything for it to happen. A really young woman who becomes pregnant in Ireland during the fifties, a family that despises her because of this, a Catholic convent who submit her to a brutal regime of work in exchange for "supporting" her and her child, an adoption that occurred without her approval and fifty years after the events, a regret that has lasted a lifetime.

American Hustle

It is not easy being another person. It involves considerable effort, just as those minutes spent at the beginning of American Hustle by Irving Rosenthal, trying to hide his bald head in order to be able to go out with enough confidence. But that's why it is good to pretend to be someone else: we can hide our flaws.

Dallas Buyers Club

Two fixed Oscar winners. If I would like you to watch Dallas Buyers Club my first argument would be: watch it for the magnificent and exciting interpretations of Jared Leto and Matthew McConaughey in characters that most certainly will give them the coveted prize within a month. 

The Counselor

The feast seemed served. A spectacular cast, a very talented writer adapting his own novel to the screen, a director that has an extensive trajectory. I went at the theater with faith and even though after the first half hour nothing happened I thought the story might take us somewhere, but not... an hour later we were still moving in circles between characters we had seen in other stories and pseudo-philosophical dialogues inviting us to fall sleep.

Young & Beautiful (Jeune et Jolie)

François Ozon (Director) has made a wide variety of films as different as psychological thrillers , musicals, marital conflict , disease , society , youth , maturity , comedies , dramas and mystery. It seems that the challenge for him is to do something different than before, while keeping his style and further developing his characters.

Two Mothers (Adore)

Anne Fontaine's film "Adore", based on a short story by Doris Lessing, tells of the relationship between two mature women and two young men (each other's sons), an issue that in some societies still, just as it used to be, is a taboo. This topic has been treated extensively by films with different approaches.

Prisoners

Be prepared, that was the best advice Keller Dover received from his father. A hurricane, a flood can happen, or any misfortune that makes people lose control. However, no precaution is good enough  when the worst nightmare a parent can face, the kidnapping of your own daughter, actually happens. In this unfortunate situation the question posed by the viewer is obvious: how far would a father be willing to go to save her? Keller has it very clear. Without too much trust in the police, rabid and driven by the basic need to save his little girl, his determination will make him cross the line.

Volver

Undoubtedly in Pedro Almodóvar's drama world, he is the king of melodrama. It's almost impossible not to get wrapped up in his bizarre plots involving a wide variety of feelings and issues from maternal love, parental hatred, female solidarity, relentless criticism to “machismo”, to the desire to kill and be forgiven, tales about childhood and hometown, family dramas, aging, sickness, life, death and superstitions. 

The Machinist

The first thing that strikes you when watching “The machinist” is the extreme thinness of Christian Bale who plays the tormented Trevor Reznick. Anderson, the director, wants precisely this effect and we are bombarded with close-ups of the face of the protagonist being all consumed, his ribs and spine standing out.

Outbreak

In 1967 Billy Ford (Morgan Freeman) discovers a virus in Zaire called "Motaba" with a death rate of 100% and which kills within 24 hours of infection. The U.S. government assumea that bombing the infected population will destroy the only outbreak.

Evil (Ondskan)

What are the limits of power? Who do we blame or point at as evil? Who deserves to be punished and how? These are just some of the questions raised by the Swedish film “Evil”. In Sweden, during the fifties, within a conservative and rigid society, the young Erik Ponti, played impeccably by Andreas Wilson, seems to be out of control because of his temper, violent and irascible. Despite this, at home he stands stoically the punches that, for whatever reason, his grim stepfather inflicts on him.

The Impossible

A mother will do anything for her children. Starting from little things, like exchanging sits with the eldest of her three children on the plane that is taking the family to spend a nice holiday in Khao Lak, Thailand, so that he will not argue with his younger brother. This happens a few seconds before the sound of the turbine breaks the tranquility of a blue and cloudless sky, as if it were a warning. The unthinkable can alter what we see in a blink.

Looper

Clearly, the time travel issue is one of the most attractive that can be explored by fiction, to bring characters from different periods together, to witness to the life of someone or simply to address the perennial debate over whether changing something in the past creates a different timeline (something reflected brilliantly in an episode of the Simpsons by the way). However, in "Looper", time travel is a catalyst for the real story and not the backbone of it.

Silver Linings Playbook

"Silver Linings Playbook" was already an attractive movie thanks to its director and cast, especially the two main characters, two young stars with legions of fans; but interest further increased after its success at the Toronto Film Festival.

Argo

Most successful spy films usually develop around impossible missions, conducted with the most spectacular resources ever seen and with glamorous fighters capable of defeating a small army with their own hands as main characters. The actual espionage, I believe, cannot be like that.

Open Hearts (Elsker dig for evigt)

"Open Hearts" tells a heartbreaking story, for both the protagonists and spectators, at least for those who can identify themselves with one or more of its characters.

The story begins by showing how happy Cæcilie (Sonja Richter) and Joachim (Nikolaj Lie Kaas) are: this is not a perfect idyll, but a couple who gives and shows each other sincerity and tenderness; a handsome young couple who without being seducers has been seduced. By all accounts, this is a couple who will be facing a very long story.

Into the Wild

"Into the Wild" is the true story of Christopher McCandless, a young man who  breaks free from his parents and chooses a life devoid of material possessions and in constant movement.

Pieta

Bad people are bad, but they are people all the same. Do they deserve pity? Compassion? Sympathy? Empathy?

This movie, winner of the Golden Lion at the 69th Venice Film Festival, makes the viewer wonder about these questions. The self-investigation, in my case, was stirred by the continuous alternance of sweet and disturbing moments. The delicacy and intimacy of some feelings is crushed by the "disgustingness" that surrounds them, which, however, makes them seem all the more strong.

Gomorra

Two men driving in an old Italian road in a luxurious black SUV. The oldest one, who is driving, stops the SUV and tells the other passenger to throw the basket full of peaches, received by an old woman, on the grass, "Do not you realize how bad they smell?" Tells the oldest one to the young man, who throws it away a little skeptically.

Fight Club

Imagine the cold vacuum of the barrel of a Colt 22 caliber pressing to the back of your throat, the piercing pain of your knees smashing on the wet pavement, the rattle produced by the gun barrel against your teeth because of the earthquake shaking whom holds the gun. Try to imagine what it is likely to think of at times like this; of what comes to mind; what the asphalt can do to your pants; if the gun itself is clean; how many times a tooth can be beaten before it breaks.