Reviews

I recently rent the DVD and I think it's one of the best films I've ever seen. It's about a young druggie in Lower Manhattan and her friendship with a photographer, who happens to be a former junkie as well. The film is really well written and the lead actress, Ana Reeder is a revelation (well maybe not for me, I had the chance to see her last year in a Broadway play with Laura Linney). What I liked about the film is that while it's almost documentary-like it doesn't exploit the actors (something that has happened in other movies with similar topics), the use of music is very good and there is a monologue at the end of the film that made me cry.

It's really impossible to describe how beautiful this film is.

I've been a fan of Michael Winterbotom since I saw Jude. I still remember how much some of his movies like Jude or I want you had affected me, but this time the great film-maker from England has exceeded my expectations. At times where racism is everywhere, Winterbottom dares to go to "other side" and make a film about the poor people from Afghanistan who suffered the most when Bush and his allies bombed their already very poor country. How these refugees go to Pakistan live in tents and everything they have to go through when they decide to search for a better life in one of the world's biggest cities like London. The things the 2 young people have to go through are presented in such a way that it makes you understand that these things REALLY happen. This film makes you aware of some of the most important problems in the world, such as inequality, poverty and even crime. It's not that we don't know about these things already, it's just that we tend to forget them.

Last year it was "Lilja 4ever" that made me more of aware of the problem of child prostitution and this year it was "In this World" who made me wonder if there is a way that I could help all these unfortunate people. Stories like "In this World" and Lilja 4ever" (which I recommend to anyone who believes this film is important and a must-see for everyone who wants to be called a human being) can really change the world and make us better people. And therefore they are very important.

1989 was definitely one of the most important years in recent history. Does anyone remember the Berlin Wall falling, how everyone was talking about the world that was changing, the end of history and all that? Anyone remembers two years later when the Soviet Union collapsed, the Cold War ended and we all knew something very important was happening to the world and we were all hoping things would get better. Well most of our hopes didn't come true, but that's not what this film discusses.

A family lives in East Berlin in 1989, a mother and her 2 children (the father had gone to West Berlin 9 years ago and never came back). One day the mother will see her son protesting against the government and she will fall into a coma. A coma she will wake up from after 8 months. In the meantime Germany has changed. The wall has fallen. Coca Cola has intruded East Berlin, people are losing their jobs everywhere, the eastern german monetary unit isn't valid anymore and astronauts who were once national heroes drive a taxi to make a living. And all that in one night.

When the mother wakes up from the coma the doctors warn her children that she should not go under stressful situations otherwise her situation will get worse. But can there be a bigger shock than the fall of the Wall and everything else that followed? Her kids with the help of some friends and neighbours try to make everything like it was for their mother. They never tell her about the Berlin Wall and they try to convince her that nothing has changed and the only reason they do that is because they love her.

Goodbye Lenin is a beautiful film about love and about a world that changes so quick around us that sometimes we don't even have time to cope with the changes. Yann Tiersen's (who was also responsible for the Amelie soundtrack) soundtrack is excellent and it makes the film even more beautiful. The best film of the year so far.

I really can't understand what all the fuzz about Chicago is about. I thought the movie was pointless and I really can't understand why it won an Oscar.

There is nothing in this movie that can change one's life, that can teach us something. It doesn't even tell us a story that needed to be told (like the Gangs of New York did even if the movie was over-rated and the incredible Pianist who should have won the Oscar last year). The best film that came out last year IMO was "Roger Dodger" and while I know that a movie like that would never win an Oscar I still can't understand why Chicago would win over the Pianist.

I wasn't very impressed by the performances either. I don't know maybe I missed something but I really don't understand what the purpose of making a movie such as this one is (other than making money of course and winning Miramax a few more undeserved Oscars).

Roger Dodger is the proof that independent cinema still has a lot to offer and to say about our lives. I'd take a movie like Roger Dodger anyday over over-rated 3-hour long movies like Chicago, Gangs of New York or the Lord of the Rings.

The story takes place in New York and our hero is a businessman, Roger, a ladysman who unfortunately doesn't get to score too often.

One day his 16 year old nephew visits him. The 2 men have no news of each other for the last years after Roger's mother died and an argument he had with this dead. Roger finds out out from his nephew that his sister has broken up with her husband and that she's an alcoholic. The boy on the other hand who has heard his mother saying that uncle Roger is a womanizer hopes to find out some of the secrets of his art and if it's possible, get laid.

The night the 2 men spend together teaches them both a lot and probably makes them better people (and more honest, to theirselves first).

I really loved this movie, the music is superb and uncle Roger is one of the most charming anti-heroes I've seen in a movie lately along with Barry Pepper's Frank Slaughtery from the "25th hour"). I own the dvd and I think the actors and the director/writer of this movie deserve praise for telling us a great story.

... lists like the IMDB users' top 250 mean nothing to me and why I don't rate movies. Maya Deren was one of the pioneers of the experimental cinema movement and this documentary sheds light on her life, her relationship with the people she worked with, her 2 last husbands, her trip to Haiti and the sacrifices she has to go through in order to continue making movies. In the mirror of Maya Deren is a fine introduction to Maya Deren's work but I would recommend her own films to anyone who wants to see something really different.

The Very Eye of Night is according to some critics Maya Deren's weakest work something that enraged Maya. I do understand why someone would not like this film as much as her first films but I still think it's quite good. The use of a balet that dances with a starry sky in the background (a very surreal picture) wouldn't interest me that much if it wasn't for Teiji Ito's music which is what really makes this film for me.

Maya Deren always loved dancing and always wanted to make a film about that art. A study in choreography for camera is a result of her collaboration with dancer Talley Beatty and while it's too short to make someone understand what Maya Deren's films were about it will surely interest her fans.

There's something really beautiful about every chinese movie I have seen and "The King of Masks" couldn't possibly be the exception to that rule.

The story starts with an old man, a street actor whose art is to change masks really quick making it look like magic. According to a family tradition the father passes the secrets of his art to a male member of his family but never to a stranger or to a woman. The old man though does not have any children and is afraid that he will be the one who will break the family tradition and take the secrets of his art with him to the grave. He therefore decides to adopt a young boy. The little boy he buys turns out to be a girl. The old man doesn't want to keep her anymore since he can't teach her his art but after she begs him to keep him, he decides to let her stay at his boat and perform with him.

The King of Masks, is so beautiful it's almost like a fairy tale. I don't think it's wrong to say that the movie has a feminist message because it centers on how the little girl tries to convince the old man that the fact that she is a woman doesn't make her any less worthy than a boy to learn the secrets of his art.

The performances by both the little girl and the old man are brilliant but it's the little monkey called "The General" who steals the show.

A great movie that will bring tears to your eyes.

Meditation on Violence is IMO Maya Deren's best film. The idea for this film belonged to Chao Li Chi who met Maya Deren just after she returned to NY from Haiti where she had become a voodoo believer. Chao Li Chi who was a martial arts expert and had also just finished his studies disagreed with Maya who believed in the possesion of human beings by supernatural forces (gods or spirits) something she was taught in Haiti at the voodoo rituals something she was infatuated with until her death at a rather young age. Chao Li Chi believed the wise man should be in position to possess natural forces and not the other way round.

Chao Li Chi in an excellent performance attempts to display the ideals of the Wu Tang philosophy which is a philosophy of constant motion according to which the perfect form is that of no form (which is achieved when you're in a state of constant motion). At least that's what I understood after listening to an interview by Chao Li Chi himself where he spoke about this film.

Maya's lack of money (a problem Maya always had with her projects) made them film in Maya's small apartment and since there wasn't enough room for Chao Li Chi to perform they had to move all the furniture to the kitchen. Despite all the difficulties this film is excellent and much better than other films where millions of dollars were spent.

Ritual in Transfigured Time is like a dream, meaning that the various sequences don't seem to have any connection to each other unless you try to approach this film in a different way and not as a conventional hollywood movie.

The main character in the film is Rita Christiani who after a strange scene with Maya Deren herself who disappears startling Rita, appears in this ball with ladies and gentlemen dancing. This film has one of the most beautiful scenes in a Maya Deren's film when Rita Christiani while she's dancing she appears to float in the air.

Unlike most films that were made 50 or more years ago Ritual in Transfigured Time appears to be timeless and a lot of directors who try to do something innovative should get a lesson or 2 from Maya Deren.

I was very surprised to find out that the famous writer Anais Nin is in this movie as well (I was also very pleasantly surprised when I found out that avant garde composer John Cage was in another film by Maya Deren, "At Dark").

Watching some of Maya Deren's works made me think that directors like David Lynch owe a lot to this brilliant woman.

At land is one of the most beautiful and innovative movies I have ever seen. At Land is like a dream that is brought to the screen something I don't think any other director has succeeding in doing so well. The images of the sea, of the 2 women playing chess (and every other scene) don't seem to be connected in any way, but just like a dream that you have just waken up from it leaves you with the feeling you had an experience you couldn't even think of. Very beautiful and one of Maya Deren's best films.

No matter how surreal Maya Deren's films seem to be she always succeeds in passing a message. Meshes of the afternoon is pretty much about the female gaze on things and just like every other of her works it's entirely different than anything you might have seen before. It's not my favorite short film by Maya Deren but it's still very interesting and highly recommendable.

1974. Bryan Slade aka Maxwell Demon the biggest rock star of his generation is killed during on eof his concerts. A few days later the public finds out he never was murdered and it was all done for publicity. Bryan Slade in the meantime has disappeared.

1984. Ten years later a journalist is asked to write an article about Bryan Slade. Being a big fan of Bryan Slade himself remembering his past, a past he was trying hard to forget the last 10 years isn't very easy. He finds his former manager and his ex-wife and interviews them. They both seem to be living in the past, a past that has left them with a lot of wounds especially his ex-wife, a past they would rather forget. He tries to find Bryan Slade's best friend and lover for a while, fellow rocker Kurt Wylde. Wylde has been living in the past as well though, without a direction and with nothing to live for but the memories. Velvet Goldmine is a nostalgic film about an era which apparently means a lot to Todd Haynes the director of this movie. And while the movie does have a lot of flaws I enjoyed watching it and listening to the great music (with some great songs written by Thom Yorke and Jon Greenwood of Radiohead, Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth and Brian Molko of Placebo). I own the DVD and I watch it sometimes. This is a film that I would recommend despite the numerous flaws.

"Interview with the Vampire", a film based on Anne Rice's first novel of the Vampire Chronicles series is a haunting story of damnation, eternal regret and eternal love. The story begins when Louis (Brad Pitt), a vampire finds an interviewer (Christian sLater) and leads him to his room to tell him his story. The story starts in the 18th century in New Orleans when Louis after a terrible loss in his family (in the film it is implied that he lost his wife and his newborn child but in the book it's his brother that commits suicide) starts to be obsessed with death himself. He then meets a vampire, LeStat (Tom Cruise) who gives him the opportunity to become a vampire, experience what he longed for, which was death, yet still live forever. Louis who was so eager to die finds the lifestyle of the vampires unbearable and in the first time in his life starts to value human life. He starts to hate LeStat for being so senseless and killing everyone and everything he can get his hands on and retreats to eating mouse and other small animals to survive because he can't find the strength to kill a human being. His disgust for LeStat becomes so strong that he is about to leave him when LeStat turns a 5 year old orphan, Claudia (Kirsten Dunst) that Louis had fed on but didn't have the courage to kill her, into a vampire. Louis will then stay with LeStat and will become a father to Claudia. As Claudia grows up her relationship with Louis becomes much stronger as they still sleep in the same coffin and she demands to know the truth of how she became a vampire and why she will never have the body of a full-grown woman. Louis tells her the truth which angers her so much that she is willing to take revenge from LeStat. I won't say anything else because I don't want to spoil it for anyone, but I'll just say that the relationship between Louis and Claudia becomes much stronger after being together for almost a century until an ancient vampire, Armand (Antonio Banderas) and his attraction to Louis, which by the way is mutual, is putting the couple's love in danger. Some might think that the relationship between Louis and Claudia, a 24 year old man and a 5 year old girl is gross but it isn't because vampires are not sexual beings and besides, Claudia despite her diminutive stature is technically 100 years old when they kiss in Paris. Others might be bothered by the attraction between Louis and Armand or even between LeStat and Louis but I want to believe that our society is able to accept homosexuality even if the attraction between the vampires is by no means sexual, since vampires as I have already said are not sexual beings. There are a lot more I'd like to say about this film but there's really no reason to do such a thing in a review. Interview with the Vampire is a fascinating and heart-breaking story and one of the best stories about the vampire's eternal pain and their internal struggles between their morals and their needs.

I've seen a lot of Mike Leigh's films and while I know that Career Girls isn't considered by most critics his best film, I think it's his most touching (at least from the ones I have seen). Annie and Hannah were roomates in college for 4 years, after they graduated Annie returned to her hometown and now 6 years later she's visiting her old friend in London for the first time in those 6 years. Re-uniting with old friends is something that has happened to all of us and always brings back the most bittersweet memories. This is a beautiful film and I recommend it to everyone.

Seriously, how many films have been made about nekrophilia? The film is really interesting and Molly's Parker performance as Sandra, a nekrophiliac who gets a job at a funeral house and tries through having sex with the dead bodies to find a passage to a better world, or perhaps to pleasure. The director handles the story with subtlety and makes us understand Sandra's motives, what she's really looking for and what pushes her to behave this way. An excellent film

The film starts when Christian Bale, a psychiatrist and his girlfriend Kate Beckinsale move to California where Bale got a job at a hospital. He decides they should move into his mother's house, in Laurel Canyon, believing that his mother, played by Francis McDormand is staying in her beach house. Unfortunately his mother who is also a record producer is staying at the Laurel Canyon house leaving the beach house for her ex. He also finds her producing the record of a band led by Alessandro Nivola and having an affair with the lead singer who is 16 years younger than her. Bale tries his best to keep Beckinsale away from his mother knowing the effect she has on people and how she learns them to screw up their lives, something he apparently doesn't want to happen to his girlfriend. Of course it's inevitable not to happen. Beckinsale who is also a doctor, working on her dissertation on the ... sexual life of flies (!!!), never in her life having the chance to experience a lifestyle like the one McDormand and the other rockers are having starts to feel the effect of that lifestyle on her, an effect she could never imagine. While Beckinsale is experimenting with drugs and rock'n'roll, her boyfriend is falling in love with an Israeli doctor he works with at the hospital. Things get even more complicated when Nivola and McDormand seduce Beckinsale while Bale and McElron (the israeli doctor) become more intimate.

What drives this film is Bale's disgust for his mother and how that led him to become the exact opposite of what she is, a reaction most kids have to their parents, the same reaction, Wyatt, Bale's 16 year old patient (the kid with the afro) has and drives his mom crazy. The end of the film is very smart, leaves all the characters thinking about the mistakes they made the night before, mistakes that they'll have to live with, since it's impossible to change things that have already happened. The best you can do is learn from them. The ending left me with a smile on my face and I think it will do the same to whoever has thought about guilt, the consequences of our actions and crossing boundaries. The music is also excellent, I really don't know if Nivola sang all those songs, but I was delighted to hear one of my favorite songs, 'Someday I will treat you good' by Sparklehorse. I'm thinking I'll check out the soundtrack too, the music is really good in this film. The performances are all really good in this film. There's a lot of sexuality in this film, but most of the scenes are funny and not forced into the film to draw a bigger audience. A great film that in my humble opinion deserves a 10.

First of all I need to say that Hartley is my favorite director and therefore I love everything he has done. No Such Thing is the story of a young journalist who travels to Iceland to find out what happened to her fiance. Her plane crashes, she's in a hospital for 6 months and the doctors say it's a miracle she survived. 6 months after the crash she decides to search for her fiance again, but instead of him she finds a monster that can not die. The funny thing is that Iceland where more than half of the story takes place is the country with the most internet users in the world per population. Sarah Polley is perfect for the role of Beatrice considering how beautiful and innocent she is. Even when she dressed sexy she looked funny rather than sexy. The Monster in this film could very well be God, or the Devil himself or any other creature we have created with our own little minds throughout the centuries. Creatures that we feared. I thought it was funny when the monster came to the sad conclusion that nobody is afraid of him anymore, because I thought it was an allegory of how we as humans are not afraid of the monsters, are not afraid of what will happen to us if we don't do what's ethical. Watching this film and another Hartley film 'The book of life' I think it's funny how Hartley ridicules God and tries to say that we were the ones who created him to justify our actions. Hartley is a person who values virtues such as kindness and that's pretty obvious in his films. Sometimes I try to think how much better the world would be if filmmakers like Hal Harley were more popular but on the other hand you can't really make people stop watching stupid movies, it's just the way the world works I guess. Hartley has a great sense of humor, Beatrice, Arto, the villagers, the Monster himself are all very funny characters, they might look like caricatures to some, but they really are not. The music is also once again superb. Well if anyone is still reading (because I doubt anyone would care about how much I love Hartley's films) I guess I should say that "No such thing" is a media satire, a satire of religion and of humanity's ethics. In other words it's beautiful.

There are many lines like the one above in this film. Ethan Hawke in his first work as a director has tried to capture the feeling of these modern beatniks who reside in the Chelsea Hotel in NYC and have chosen for themselves a way of life that is different than the kind of life our society would consider successful. These people aren't even artists, they're just artist wannabes. A little boy says it very clearly "It's hard to say who really is a poet these days". What makes them interesting and what they have in common is that they can't stand the modern world, their perspective on life and the belief that happiness is in simple things. There are several moments in this film that make that so clear. One of them is when Val tells Audrey (played brilliantly by Rosario Dawson) "We only have 43 dollars" and her answer is "We're just living Val. Lots of people do that.". While I was watching this film I was thinking of something I had heard in Charlie Kauffman's 'Adaptation'. "In real life nothing really happens" and I think that's exactly what Ethan Hawke's purpose is, to show us the life of some not so ordinary people who however have feelings and ordinary problems. Ethan Hawke has a wonderful script in his hands, but he fails to deliver and that's the most diappointing thing about this film. But other than that this film has so many beautiful poetic moments that it's worth watching. I understand though that if you never dreamed of this kind of life, if everything that you think matters is to make money in order to afford the comforts of modern life then this film will never appeal to you.

That's the question Runt (Elaine Cassidy) asks at the beginning of the film and her eyes throughout the film give you the impression that like an other Einstein the quest for an answer is distracting her from her life. I admit that when I first saw this film I thought it was stupid and some of the scenes really were unnecessary, like the one where Pig describes his fantasies about Runt to the camera. That might have worked well in a play but it doesn't work well in the movie. But after a second viewing and when I started to understand what the actors were saying because of their thick irish accents, I fell in love with this beautiful film. This is an incredibly beautiful love story of two teenagers whose life has been connected from the day they were born. A connection that has almost ruined their short life and the life of everyone around them. As Runt says at some point while she's staring at the sea "I wish the sea would take me out of me and turn me into something else" (or something to that extent). Elaine Cassidy who was so young and innocent in Atom Egoyan's 'Felicia's journey' turns from a sexy bird when she dances in the club and seduces Pig's random victims, to a dreamer when she's staring at the sea or the sun (the most beautiful moment of the film is the one where Elaine says "and the sun really is a big beautiful shining thing"), to a scared little girl when she watches Pig hit someone at the end of the film (I won't say more to avoid giving away the end of the film) or when she's talking with her new friend at the new school. A brilliant performance by this beautiful young actress. Cillian Murphy who I had the chance to see in '28 days later' gives us an excellent performance as the psycho who has given his heart to Runt. The music of the film is also very good. Overall, a film that rewards you if you give it a chance.

I have been following this director for a while and I always liked his films but this time he has exceeded my expectations.

'The Claim' is like an ancient greek tragedy and Dillon is its' hero. Dillon is a man who goes West with his wife and new born daughter in order to find gold. In the process he sells his wife and his daughter in exchange for that gold. Years later his wife will come back to haunt him and Dillon comes to realize how empty his life has been, how irrelevant wealth can be to happiness. The story is so beautifully told and the last scene where the people of the new city of Lisboa prey on Dillon's gold is a metaphor or at least I would like it to be. I think Winterbottom wanted to show how the world will never change, how people will continue to go after that gold. Dillon came and went, but he didn't leave anything behind him. He achieved all those things, he was a pioneer he went out West, he was one of the people who built America but he didn't win his daughter's heart. And it makes one wonder, what was the point of his life. 'The Claim' is the story of America itself, an America that was built on greed, on the quest for new lands, new conquers and prosperity. Peter Mullan gives us an excellent performance, as well as Sarah Polley as the elegant young daughter and Milla Jovovich. Nastasia Kinsky has a rather insignificant role and Wes Bentley is disappointing. Overall, a very good film, a piece of art by Winterbottom and a story that you won't forget for a while.

How can you tell the difference between ghosts and living people if you've never seen any of them before?

This film (which is based on a real story) is about a 19 year old blind girl, Mun (played by the beautiful Lee Sin-Je), who after an eye surgery is able to see again.

It is quite interesting how the directors try to show us the world through Mun's new eyes and how she tries to tell the differences between objects and people. We soon learn that Mun possesses a power which combined with her ability to see has turned her life into a nightmare. We follow Mun while she tries to find an answer to her problems and the end while a sad one is rewarding because it makes us understand that everyting happens for a reason (especially when Mun says that she will never wonder again why she has to be blind).

The Eye is a beautiful story and a rather refreshing view on ghost stories.