fantastic films for my friends
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.
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.
Is this Alfred Hitchcock’s best movie? Quite possibly. The perfect confluence of a great story, great cast (James Stewart is superb, but Kim Novak is simply mesmerizing), and a masterpiece of film-making. Witness the first use of the Dolly zoom to great effect, long before it was famously picked up by Steven Spielberg for Jaws.
I tried to watch the latest Coen brothers movie, A serious man, but it was so boring that I ended up walking out, a very rare occurrence for me. Well, Fargo is the opposite of that. Funny, quirky and creepy, with star turns from Frances McDormand, William H. Macy and Steve Buscemi, those two Oscars were more than deserved.
Although I like George Clooney’s more stylish Good night, and good luck, I have a thing for his directorial debut. A story at the same time strange, touching and funny, filmed in a very personal style, it is definitely an oddity, but a good one!
This may be David Cronenberg’s most “normal” movie, but I guess that would be relative… Viggo Mortensen is absolutely fantastic in the title role, and could be the next Robert De Niro. I mean that in a nice, pre- Meet the parents kind of way.
A touching and extraordinarily engaging story about the French lunatic who decided it would be fun to try and walk on a wire between the two towers of the World Trade Center. Told like a bank heist, with the preparation phase, the infiltration, the sneaking past security guards in the night while waiting for the perfect time, it feels much more than your usual documentary, and leaves you smiling like a kid at the audacity and passion of those people.
Sometimes, a great book from a great author (Dennis Lehane), a legendary director (Clint Eastwood), and three actors at the top of their game (Sean Penn, Tim Robbins and Kevin Bacon) are not enough to make a fantastic film. But not this time. Regardless of whether you know the story or not, this movie will grip you until the last scene.
This is the oldest con in the world. And because it is a David Mamet movie, you can expect whip-sharp dialog, and terrific writing. This one will keep you guessing until the very end!
A great little Argentinian movie about con artists. Of course they made a remake, but watch the original. Great actors, great story, and great twists and turns. Speaking of con, it reminds me that I need to tell you about the Spanish prisoner…
My favourite David Lynch movie. Not as weird as some of his other films, but plenty weird enough… In a good way, though! I have a theory about what it all means, but I can’t tell you. Silencio, silencio. No hay banda.
From a very young French film director (he has a small part in the movie as well) who was given the rights to his favourite Harlan Coben novel on a visit to Hollywood, comes a gripping film policier and one of the best movies of 2006. I watched it again very recently, and it hadn’t lost any of its power. By the way, did you know that Kristin Scott Thomas spoke perfect french?
Not for the faint of heart, but a masterpiece from Korean director Chan Wook Park. Trust me, you will keep thinking about this movie for weeks after watching it.