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Want peace and quiet? Go to
Lake Tahoe. This little Mexican film starts with a crash and that's
all the excitement you'll get. Search for a car part turns into discovery
of several different characters, who all emanate a welcome calmness. These
are nice people, still taking time for breakfast or composing their music
on the porch. Taking a nap sounds like a good thing, for everyday troubles
to slowly disappear in the burning hot sun.
A regular
romantic comedy leaning towards the drama turns into tearjerker deluxe
with waves of feelgood. The relatively unremarkable Dermot Mulroney and
Amanda Peet aren't the first you'd expect in such an extremely touching
love story, only adding to the surprise. Anger, despair and so much caring,
Griffin & Phoenix is truly what happens if a friend and lover
will depart soon. Breathe, just breathe.
An echo of La passion de Jeanne d'Arc (1928)
flashes in the back of the head, only to be outshocked by skinny reality.
Martyrs is a new experience, even for the diehard horror freak.
Carving to the bone with desperate revenge, followed by the purest form of
systematic abuse (un)imaginable, it leads to raw existentialism or relentless nihilism.
You decide.
Unlike many congeners,
including Fred Vogel's notorious trilogy, The Redsin Tower does not
try to disturb
from beginning to end. It might even be set up to bore a little, with
average love, lust and stupidity, before hell breaks loose and everyone
gets what they had coming. Light is blinding, sound is deafening and
possession here is as scary as The Exorcist. Breaking up, the exhausting way.
Some might say this is
commentary on a country in crisis, financially and socially, not to
mention red tape. However, the back to basics of a girl looking for her
dog is just too precious to bombard with higher meaning. Wendy and Lucy
inspires to let life run its course, to be gentle, to be there for others. Michelle Williams
would have looked wonderful on a red carpet in these clothes.
Image versus inexperience,
life has a funny way. This is Zooey's best role, mainly thanks to two
major confessions: scratching trauma and a complex I Love You, leading to
a piece of unadulterated Koyaanisqatsi. Cliniclown sadness,
trampoline happiness and bowling fun paint a countryside background for
this all but fake relationship. When romance gone sour develops, All
the Real Girls is very real indeed.
Immigrant story with a hole
in the middle. Saying goodbye is hard, as proven by an Irish family that
needs to cry. With a little help from downstairs, ill Djimon Hounsou, two
amazing young girls help their parents cope with loss and return to magic.
In America came at the right time, when world and private life
needed tears and softness the most. It's the closest one can get to a
religious experience without God.
Little floating huts give
shelter to men, she visits every now and then. Close to the perfect
representation of depression, The Isle floods the mind with watery
images and mutilation. Nothing more joyless than a monsoon over a lake,
even fish hooks used internally can't compete, they are the hardest to get
rid of though. This Korean masterpiece writes still, scenic poetry about
sinking connections through pain.
Written, directed, produced,
edited by Vincent Gallo, not pretentious, just highly personal. Looking
out a driving car's window for hours and hours, wondering how and why it
all went wrong, now this is sadness. The Browny Bunny offers little
comfort yet turns the world upside down in gentle ways, blurring the
border between love and sex, because of guilt and shame.
Richest romcomdrama of the
decade, stitched together with all of Cameron Crowe's favorite music. I
always imagine him standing in front of his collection, picking out albums
one by one, enjoying every second of it. Free bird learning to fly, last
looks, tapdance, shoes and a red hat, bury or cremate, Elizabethtown
is heaven for substitute people, destined to be friends forever. Big, big
love, but how do you pronounce Louisville? Whimsical: don't forget, 60-B! |
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