fantastic films for my friends
To begin with, it wasn’t my first pick. Let’s see, a movie about a possibly psychotic ballet dancer… Not exactly made for me. I had found Darren Aronofsky’s Requiem for a dream way too depressing, but this time he nails it with this little gem. Not great for a popcorn movie night out, but a fantastic performance by Natalie Portman, well deserving her Oscar win.
Whatever you think of the man himself, Roman Polanski is an amazingly talented director, and this might just be his finest movie. I know I may have to argue that statement when I finally get around to posting about Chinatown, but I stand by it. Great (and understated) performances by all the actors involved, and a taut thriller of a script like I haven’t seen in a while, make for a very enjoyable movie until the very last seconds.
In loving memory of Sidney Lumet this is my favourite movie from him. A great huis-clos setting, and a fantastic turn by Henry Fonda. When you sometimes despair about the Justice system, about Society in general, or your fellow human beings, this comes as a breath of fresh air and an ode to Reason.
Sometimes, you are just in the mood for something silly. And sometimes, it is good to be able to watch a movie with the whole family. Although Once upon a time in the West by the same Sergio Leone is still my favourite Western (up there with High plains drifter or The man who shot Liberty Valance, all for very different reasons) this one just makes me laugh. Every time. And sometimes, this is all that you need.
One of last year’s very pleasant surprises and a well deserved oscar for Kathryn Bigelow. Although to be fair the last few years best picture has been more or less on the mark since the triple fiasco of 2001 (Gladiator?), 2002 (A beautiful mind??), and 2003 (Chicago???). But I digress. Jeremy Renner is superb, both tense and human at the same time, the editing is phenomenal and will grip you and won’t let go. This is not your average war movie.
Most of the times, I find myself drawn much more to a british style of humour (I just can’t get enough of the Monty Pythons), but sometimes comes along a French comedy that is fantastic. It’s a simple plot, the actors are terrific, and the story is full of joie-de-vivre and it will put you in a great mood for the evening…
Featuring the scariest haircut in the history of Hollywood and some otherwise less hair-related great performances by Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, Tommy Lee Jones and Woody Harrelson, this is a modern classic. Even if you think the Coen Brothers have already filmed that same movie a few too many times, this is their masterpiece. Scary and funny in turns, well worth watching if you haven’t seen it already.
Has anybody out there not seen this film already? Talk about a dream cast: Al Pacino, Jack Lemmon, Alec Baldwin, Alan Arkin, Ed Harris, Kevin Spacey, Jonathan Pryce… Another screenplay by David Mamet (yes, I know, I’ve mentioned him before) full of whip-sharp memorable dialog, this is a must see. So put that coffee down! And go add this to your Netflix queue…
You don’t need a big budget. You don’t need big names on the poster. You don’t need a complicated story. You don’t need a happy ending. You don’t need any of that, to make one of the best and most powerful movies I have ever seen. Just trust me blindly on this one and watch it. It will stay with you for a very long time.
One of the most iconic concert movies in a landmark performance by one of the greatest bands of all time. What more is there to say? When Pink Floyd got the permission to film a small set right in the middle of the ruins of the abandoned city of Pompeii, it was truly a match made in Heaven. The haunting music (my favourite track: “Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun”) is a perfect fit to the eerily deserted roman ruins. Watch, listen, and take a trip back in time, to 1971, to 79 AD, and beyond.
Remember, remember the 5th of November… I guess I am a tad late for this, but that little nursery rhyme was playing in my head today and reminded me that I should write about this movie. You may not care about comic books but Alan Moore who wrote this one (as well as Watchmen and From Hell, amongst others) is very good. With a fantastic plot set in a parallel fascist United Kingdom, great acting from both Natalie Portman and a masked Hugo Weaving, you will be hooked until the final fireworks.
François Truffaut’s last (and in my opinion best) movie, an hommage to his beloved Alfred Hitchcock. Fanny Ardant is in superb form and Jean-Louis Trintignant is the perfect grumpy unwilling counterpoint. A little gem of a funny film noir or comedy crime mistery, whatever you want to call it, this movie is well worth watching.
I watched that movie again the other day. What a fun ride. A preposterous plot (nazis! treasures! ghosts! serpents!) but who cares? It is good to go back to a day before George Lucas discovered it would be more profitable to sell plastic toys than writing a crazy story with his friend Steven Spielberg, before Harrison Ford decided he would be a serious actor (while at the same time wearing a ridiculous earring… Go figure). As far as I am concerned, this is the perfect holidays movie. And when I grow up, I want to be an archeologist.
I confess, I am not a huge fan of Apocalypse now. To me, The deer hunter is a much better movie about the Vietnam war, even if it only features about 10 minutes of the fighting itself… With masterful performances from Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, John Savage and Meryl Streep, Michael Cimino directs his masterpiece. It is well worth sitting through those sometimes uncomfortable three hours if you haven’t had the courage yet to do so.
A great director, an impressive cast (Julianne Moore, William H. Macy, John C. Reilly, Philip Seymour Hoffman and a surprisingly good Tom Cruise in one of his funniest and most nuanced performances), a beautiful and unusual story, a fantastic musical score from the talented Aimee Mann… How could you go wrong? Don’t worry, you won’t.
As much as I like Martin Scorcese and The Departed, this was yet another case of a perfectly unnecessary remake. Unless you really can’t get past the fact that it has subtitles, you should watch the original. Fast paced and even more intense, with no big names on the screen to distract from the plot, it won’t let you go until the end. And in case you are lucky enough not to know what this is about, don’t read anything about it. It will be even better!
As I (slowly) work my way through the list of all my favourite movies, I realized that between all the 40s classics, I like Casablanca, I really enjoy The Maltese falcon, but Laura is the only one I really truly love. A perfect little gem of a film noir with Gene Tierney and Dana Andrews, don’t miss it if you have never watched it before.
How do you film the horror of the First World War trenches and still somehow make a work of art with such glorious photography? Only if you are Jean-Pierre Jeunet (who also directed Amélie) can you solve those contradictions and make a beautiful movie full of larger then life characters. A highly recommended movie based on a novel by Sébastien Japrisot (PS: my favourite book from him is la dame dans l’auto avec des lunettes et un fusil)
Careful, this is most definitely not a movie for kids, in spite of the very cartoonish look. The medium however enables Satoshi Kon to take this highly effective thriller into places he couldn’t have gone to otherwise. Taut, intense, surreal in parts, it somehow reminds me of Blue Velvet. I also remember watching a few very interesting Japanese animated movies that summer, maybe one day I should also talk about Jin Roh…
From one of my favourite directors David Fincher comes a beautiful and magical old-fashioned story about a man with a very peculiar problem, a woman, and life bringing them together or keeping them apart. If this sounds like the most banal storyline, the movie is anything but. Served by a great ensemble cast of talented actors, superb special effects, a fantastic short story from F. Scott Fitzgerald, this is truly a masterpiece.
It started as a music documentary by Wim Wenders, and it ended up being something much more than that. The perfect antidote to a day when you are feeling a little blue, this movie is an ode to the important things in life: friends, family, freedom, music, and smoking cigars…
We are literally just walking out of this movie. Wow. Maybe it is too early to talk about it, but I don’t care. This is unlike anything I have seen in a while. This is Cinema on a grand scale. This is breathtakingly intense. This is something that I am going to keep thinking about for a while. Superb story, great acting, amazing action sequences. Go and see it on the biggest screen that you can find.
We caught that one randomly because I vaguely remembered hearing/reading something good about it somewhere (yes, a very precise feeling, as you can tell), and what a pleasant surprise! A little French/Lebanese movie about a group of girl friends working in or around a beauty salon, it is a comedy but with serious undertones about modern life in Beirut. Optimistic and charming, it will definitely leave you smiling.
From a fantastic book by Dennis Lehane, Ben Affleck directorial debut is an instant classic. Maybe it was the story set in his native Boston, maybe it is directing his younger brother Casey (doing an amazing job even if, after reading the books, he was really not who I had in mind to play Patrick Kenzie), but whatever the reason, he seems to be much more at ease on this side of the camera. I, for one, look forward to his next movie.