The Lives of Others (Das Leben der Anderen)
This first feature won Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck the Oscar in 2007 for Best Foreign Film and I can see why. What a wonderful film! It takes place in East…
The Green Zone
The Green Zone is a nice taut political thriller set in Baghdad starring Matt Damon and it feels a lot like Jason Bourne went and joined the army (which isn't…
Alice in Wonderland
With his Alice in Wonderland, Tim Burton is back with a film that may look in some ways like one of his others but in a lot of ways is…
And the winners are
It is all over for this year and there were no big surprises. A woman finally won the Best Director Oscar for a film that no one saw in the…
Best Picture Oscar
It is just days until the Oscars and the ballots are being counted and recounted by those nerdy accountants they always drag out. With 10 pictures in the running for…
The Last Station
This is a wonderful film! It should be on the expanded Academy Awards list for Best Picture, but sadly it isn't. At least both Christopher Plummer as Tolstoy and Helen…
The Hurt Locker
The Hurt Locker is one of those films that came and went without much fanfare, and then when all the awards nominations began to come out, it was on just…
Oscar
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences released their 82nd Annual Oscar Nominations this morning. With all the other awards shows and announcements of best lists these days, it…
The Book of Eli
End of the world as we know it/post-apocalyptic cinema is all the rage these days and The Book of Eli is the latest addition to this genre. As post-apocalypse fare,…
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Terry Gilliam does not make mainstream movies. They are always quirky and The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus is no exception. Part of the strangeness this time is that (as anyone…
Chéri
I heard about Chéri when it was around, but being in small town USA, it was only here for an instant and I missed it. Fortunately, it is now on…
The Road
Another post-apocalyptic movie? Seems there can't be too many of them these days. The difference though with The Road is that it has a real story and isn't reliant on…
The Young Victoria
To look at The Young Victoria for historical accuracy would be the wrong way to approach it. Screenwriter Julian Fellowes (Gosford Park) admits to taking dramatic license in many places…
Sherlock Holmes
If you go to Sherlock Holmes expecting anything resembling Basil Rathbone or any other incarnation of the staid Sherlock Holmes of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's books, you'll be happily surprised…
Avatar
I've heard it described as Dances with Aliens and that is a pretty good description, though I think Dances with Wolves had better character development. Avatar tells the story of…