Category: MUST-SEES
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Manhattan [1979]
In many ways, “Manhattan” is one of Woody Allen’s best and most personal movies. His relationship with New York is a never ending love story. “He adored it. He idolized it all out of proportion”. The film offers a funny version of Allen’s real life world in which existentialism plays a major role. His character…
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The Hunger Games: Catching Fire [2013] ★★★½
Here is the jaw-dropping, heart-stopping movie we’ve been waiting for all year. Francis Lawrence follows up last year’s “The Hunger Games” with a stupendously entertaining sequel. If you didn’t see the first chapter in this three part film version of Suzanne Collins’ bestselling trilogy, get the DVD. Lawrence leaps into Part II with no patience for…
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Rush [2013] ★★★½
Nothing heats up the fall season like a Formula One movie directed by non other than Ron Howard (“Frost/Nixon”, “A Beautiful Mind”, “Apollo 13”) . “Rush”, starring Chris Hemsworth (aka Thor) and Daniel Bruhl (in a performance of a lifetime) is a knockout. At first, you’d think a car racing movie about two rivals wouldn’t…
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Gravity [2013] ★★★½
Question: How do you transform a simple story about survival into one of the most dazzling movies you’ll see this year? You call Alfonso Cuaron, the director of “Children of Men”, who turns it into a magnificent and moving experience. Cuaron’s use of 3D to tell the story is absolutely thrilling. Like “Life of Pi”, from…
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Prisoners [2013] ★★★½
Other films this year will have to try hard to match the explosive power and masterful direction of Denis Villeneuve’s “Prisoners”. His film sneaks up, messes with you head and leaves you breathless. Allow it. Yet on the surface, the plot sounds like an ordinary police procedural: Keller Dover’s (Hugh Jackman) six-year-old daughter, Anna, is missing,…
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The Hunt [2013] ★★★½
A powerful and thought provoking drama is rare during summer season. That’s what makes “The Hunt” so special, and I hope moviegoers will find their way to see it. It’s one of the year’s best films. Danish writer-director Thomas Vinterberg aims to shock his audience by telling the story of a divorced schoolteacher (Mads Mikkelsen, Le…
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Before Midnight [2013] ★★★½
We first met Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy) in Vienna in “Before Sunrise”. To some, the movie was talky. To others (me included), it was unique and as far away as possible from the Hollywood formula. “Before Sunset” picked up 9 years later in Paris, where the two met again briefly before Jesse had…
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Star Trek: Into Darkness [2013] ★★★½
Summer season is officially on with “Star Trek: Into Darkness”, a spectacular follow up to the 2009 movie starring Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto and directed by J.J Abrams. I couldn’t be more surprised. After six TV series and 10 movies, the franchise has been milked so hard, it’s a wonder the idea hasn’t dried out and disintegrated. The…
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The Place Beyond The Pines [2013] ★★★½
Director Derek Cianfrance pours everything he knows about directing in “The Place beyond the Pines”. His movie messes with your head and then floors you. It’s that honest, that powerful. Describing the plot without giving too much away would be impossible. But you should know straight away that it’s a long, emotional ride. The movie is…
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Searching For Sugar Man [2012] ★★★½
This year’s Oscar winner for Best Documentary is the incredible story of a Mexican- American songwriter called Rodriguez, who failed miserably in America in the early 70’s but became a pop culture icon in South Africa where he found a huge audience. The sad thing is that Rodriguez had no idea he was a legend…
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Wadjda [2012] ★★★½
Can I tell you how thrilled I am that I got to see this movie? Part of the response comes from the excitement of discovery: a writer-director from Saudi Arabia,Haifaa Al Mansour, making her feature debut, and creating a movie that is both entertaining and thought provoking. The hype-meisters of moviedom have made it difficult to use words…
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The Master [2012] ★★★½
“The Master” makes it six-for-six for writer and director Paul Thomas Anderson, who follows “Hard Eight”, “Boogie Nights”, “Magnolia”, “Punch Drunk Love” and “There Will Be Blood” with his most ardent and ambitious movie yet. Anderson keeps a tight lid on his work so that audiences can approach his character-based dramas with a sense of discovery. Fair…
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The Best Movies of the Year [2012]
I know I’m probably late, but let’s take a moment to reflect on the movies that made me jump for joy during 2012. God knows I’ve wasted so much money on crappy movies, but the following movies were worth every penny. Enough babbling, enjoy the list! 12- The Perks of Being a Wallflower For a movie…
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Amour [2012] ★★★½
What can you say about a film that is so vividly real, and so intense, that it holds you spellbound for two hours, without letup? “Amour” would be superior filmmaking under any circumstances. With rare subtlety and transforming art, the remarkable writer-director Michael Haneke takes us into the emotional heart of an old french couple. Both are…
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Django Unchained [2012] ★★★½
Like a crazy motherfucker, Quentin Tarantino lets all his obsessions hang out in “Django Unchained”. Some people may want to kill him for it, but if you’re down with that, head off to the “historically inaccurate” “Django” which should have been called “The Good, the Bad and the Slave” by Quentin Tarantino. In fact, “Django” is an act…
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Lincoln [2012]
I sometimes recoil when people start spreading Oscar buzz about a movie I haven’t seen. Yet I’m willing to forgive this year’s campaign for “Lincoln” because it’s such a terrific movie. At first glance, it sounds like another history lesson about the last four months in the life of America’s 16th president, Abraham Lincoln. Instead, “Lincoln” is a crowning…
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Life Of Pi [2012] ★★★½
This visually stunning film deserves all the praise it’s been receiving. And we owe it all to director Ang Lee and his wonderful imagination. Everything about it is outstanding, especially when you consider that it is based on a book many considered unfilmable. So what’s it about? Actually, it’s about many things, but first and…
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It’s A Wonderful Life
What is it you want, Mary? What do you want? You-you want the moon? Just say the word and I’ll throw a lasso around it and pull it down. Hey, that’s a pretty good idea. I’ll give you the moon…Well, then you could swallow it. And it’ll all dissolve, see. And the moon beams that…
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