Bullhead ***½

Go to The Film Experience and read my review for Bullhead.

How to Win A Foreign Language Film Oscar:

There seems to be a formula! Go to PopMatters and read my review for In a Better World.

If There Was Any Justice...

This movie...

would be getting all the nominations...

this movie...

will get.

Any thing you'd love to see nominated tomorrow morning?

Also, reviews for Dogtooth and The King's Speech coming soon (and by soon I mean when "real life" gives me a break, sigh)

While Watching "Black Orpheus"...

...I was stunned at how Marcel Camus managed to make such an outstanding film with such basic concepts. I also am thinking that Brazilian music might be the music that has inspired the best films ever made (Talk to Her anyone?).


I loved how Camus was able to work his way around the Greek myth of Orpheus and did it in a way that was not only ingenious but practically natural.
See how he gets the actors dressed up in Greek-like costumes and simply uses the excuse of carnival to make them fit in.
The rest of his allegories work perfectly because there's a strange balance between what we can think of as the real world and the mythological world. It's as if on carnival, a portal to another dimension had opened and made it logical for various symbolic creatures and human beings to walk the streets together.


The film has an ongoing theme of windows that's simply remarkable. It might have something to do with the various layers the film contains and how we're seeing it through cultural, musical, racial etc. windows.


The idea of death in this film is terrifying and mystifying. Camus taps on a very primal state and makes us fascinated by death in the way Bergman and Allen have.


If this isn't the most amazing metaphor for Orpheus' descent towards hell then I don't know what is.
If you haven't seen this film, wait until you see who Cerberus is. Truly brilliant.

"I don't want your absolution, I want to know the truth."

Quick Oscar Predix.

I wasn't planning to sit and write mine down (not my fave Oscar year...) but my OCD won and here are my short takes on each category.

Best Picture
Will win: "The Hurt Locker"
Personal preference: "The Hurt Locker" (only because "Up" stands no chance in hell)

Best Director
Will win: Kathryn Bigelow for "The Hurt Locker"
Personal preference: Kathryn Bigelow for "The Hurt Locker"

Best Actor
Will win: Jeff Bridges for "Crazy Heart"
Personal preference: Jeremy Renner for "The Hurt Locker"

Best Actress
Will win: Sandra Bullock for "The Blind Side"
Personal preference: Carey Mulligan for "An Education"

Hey, I figured if we all predict Sandra, maybe we'll jinx her?
Probably not happening though. Meryl winning would thrill me but it's Ms. Mulligan who should have this in the bag. Best nominated performance.

Best Supporting Actor
Will win: Christoph Waltz for "Inglourious Basterds"
Personal preference: Christoph Waltz for "Inglourious Basterds"

Best Supporting Actress
Will win: Mo'Nique for "Precious"
Personal preference: Penélope Cruz for "Nine"

I'm perhaps the only person out there who isn't head over heels about Mo'Nique's performance, she sure was the best thing in the very flawed pic but something about her performance fails to transcend into the human for me.
She's merely a prop for Lee Daniels' disturbed vision of violence and consequent redemption.

Best Original Screenplay
Will win: Mark Boal for "The Hurt Locker"
Personal preference: Quentin Tarantino for "Inglourious Basterds"

Best Adapted Screenplay
Will win: Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner for "Up in the Air"
Personal preference: Nick Hornby for "An Education"

Best Cinematography
Will win: "Avatar"
Personal preference. "The White Ribbon"

Best Editing
Will win: "The Hurt Locker"
Personal preference: "The Hurt Locker"

Best Art Direction
Will win: "Avatar"
Personal preference: "Avatar"

Best Costume Design
Will win: "The Young Victoria"
Personal preference: "Bright Star"

(although who can complain with Sandy Powell having another Oscar?)

Best Original Score
Will win: "Up"
Personal preference: "Up"

Best Original Song
Will win: "The Weary Kind" from "Crazy Heart"
Personal preference: "Take It All" from "Nine"

Apparently country=instant Oscar (unless your competition is a hip hop song about pimps) and it's a shame that AMPAS has completely forgotten about the power of showtunes.

Best Sound and Best Sound Editing
Will win: "Avatar"
Personal preference: "The Hurt Locker"

Best Documentary Feature
Will win: "The Cove"
Personal preference: "The Cove"


Best Foreign Language Film
Will win: "The Secret in Their Eyes"
Personal preference: "The White Ribbon"

Ah what a category!
Two new masterpieces of world cinema (including my favorite movie of the year), a superb genre flick, an avant garde take on Latin American history and even the usual "important" entry is better than you'd expect.
If there was any justice (read if this were the 1960s) Michael Haneke's "The White Ribbon" would have this one in the bag!
It's such a remarkable film that works as political essay, complex sociological study and even whodunit. Of course it's too heavy and intellectual for the way this category has gone in the last decades so expect Juan José Campanella's excellent "The Secret in Their Eyes" to win.
The movie isn't only fun and romantic it also includes mild political subtext that make it seem important without being harrowing. Also Campanella lost in this category and they might wanna make him justice.
I wouldn't be upset about this win, although I'd be ecstatic if "The White Ribbon" took it.

Best Documentary Short
Will win. "China's Unnatural Disaster"
Personal Preference: N/A

Best Animated Feature
Will win and Personal preference: "Up"

Best Animated Short
Will win: Logorama
Personal preference: N/A

Best Live Action Short
Will win: Kavi
Personal preference: N/A

While Watching "The Class"...

I thought it would be a good idea to review the film in the selfportrait style Mr. Marin (François Bégaudeau) requests of his students. Only this would't be self because I'm not involved, or am I? The film's no-plot really gets your mind working on how much involvement you have in things you think you have no influence in...but this is getting complicated.
So without further ado:
I liked,
- Bégaudeau's committed performance. I could've sworn he was a professional actor and was very surprised to find this was his debut film! (Same goes for the whole ensemble).
- The plot-less approach. It was about nothing, but said so much.
- How it stayed so true to its title ("Entre les murs").
- How it didn't bother with silly backstories but still said so much about each character.
- The un-pretentiousness of its ideas.
- It never tries to be "inspirational".
-Its celebratory feeling; everything and everyone feels so damn alive!
- The fact that it feels so director-less, but actually leaves you craving for more of Laurent Cantet's work.
- The kids' names.
- Its ability to be so multicultural without stressing this out and squeezing the Benetton factor to the ultimate level.
- The feeling of utter frustration it leaves you with.
I didn't like,
- The feeling of utter frustration it leaves you with.

Revanche ****

Director: Götz Spielmann
Cast: Johannes Krisch, Andreas Lust
Irina Potapenko, Ursula Strauss, Johannes Thanheiser

The central themes in "Revanche" can be compared to a folded piece of blank paper; no matter which half you're looking at they appear to be made out of the same, but the potential differences of what you could do with each halve are their real essence.
Alex (Krisch) is an ex-convict working as errand boy for a brothel owner (a creepy Hanno Poeschl) in Vienna. He's also having a secret affair with one of the prostitutes who work there, the Ukranian Tamara (Potapenko).
Trying to escape the sordid life he's leading, Alex figures out the safest choice would be a bankrobbery in the small rural town where his grandfather Hausner (Thanheiser) lives.
Convinced that nothing can go wrong he brings Tamara along for the ride and then things of course go wrong.
An unexpected death links the vengeful Alex to Robert (Lust) a local policeman with whom he shares more than he'd ever know.
Even if the setup of "Revanche" is the stuff noirish revenge thrillers are made of, Spielmann puts a sudden halt to pulpy expectations and creates an elegant, taut psychological piece that chooses to elongate the tension by extracting it from within the characters and not the situations.
At first we are led to think it might turn into an exploration of what settings do to people, "in the city you end up arrogant or a scoundrel" states Hausner as he proceeds to attach one of the labels to his grandson.
And in a way, this point of view works, if only in a superficial way. Vienna brings nothing but stress and economic troubles to Alex and Tamara, but the quietness of the country life isn't helpful to Robert either.
His wife Susanne (Strauss) can't conceive a baby and he'd rather work late at night than spend time with her in their empty home.
Perhaps the setting does help in determining what their priorities will be, family and money in this case, and while the plot would have us become convinced Alex and Robert stand at completely opposite extremes, it slowly reveals that they might be sides of the very same coin.
Carefully and brilliantly lensed by Martin Gschlacht, "Revanche" might perfectly spoil itself by the apt way in which it expresses itself through its images.
Most of the time the camera remains fixed, letting the characters walk in and out of the frame; which leads to some surprising moments of emotional outburst (aided grandly by a superb sound mixing) where the characters seem to be hiding from the audience.
When the camera does move, mostly in slow, precise pans and dolly movements as it follows people walking or vehicles along the road it's with a determined purpose.
One particular moment has the camera stop at what looks like a normal curve on a highway, if we look closer some of the trees give the impression of crosses, which depending of your intellectual or spiritual take will suggest either a religious checkpoint or simply evoke the word "crossroad".
When you see this spot again it will make sense depending under what light you examined it. Throughout most of the film Gschlacht seems to be dividing the screen in half; there is always a predominant element in one of the halves that pulls our attention to it, but after a while (cuts aren't that common in this film) we also start to notice the "lack" of something in the other half. Is it suggesting perhaps that Robert and Alex's stories are compliments of each another? Or that in fact all of the characters are seeking to fill an emptiness?
It's of great help that the performances from all the actors are splendid. Krisch who can be brutal and animalistic (recurring scenes where we see him chopping wood for his grandpa are scary) is also able to convey a disarming sweetness. His scenes with Potapenko are perfect examples as he proceeds from lustful lovemaking to protectiveness.
Lust is sensitive and enigmatic, his character is described by others as "athletic" and unbelievably it's in scenes where we see him running that his compromise to the character becomes more obvious, it's as if only when he's alone and in motion he can be himself.
Strauss embodies a maternality that forces the audience to reexamine what they believe about her and her character along with Thanheiser's moving grandfather give the film another layer related to faith and redemption.
After a morally condmenable act one character asks Susanne "what does your God say about this?" without hesitating she replies "He understands".
In another moment Hausner proclaims Alex was "born and bred a heathen" as he goes to church with Susanne. By grouping these two characters together it's as if Spielmann is declaring his plot will eventually steer towards a conversion of sorts as the lead men are forced to reach out to a force beyond them.
But this never happens, because Spielmann also makes sure that Alex and Robert have a different kind of force to lean on: fate.
"Why do I always get plagued with bad luck?" asks Alex, while Robert wonders why his life puts him in the situations he stands in, can it be some sort of cosmic comeuppance? Little do these characters ever know how alike they think.
What is in God's hands and what rests on ours' is perhaps the strongest idea in the film, which also studies the roles of men in this equation.
Robert can't give life while his job forces him to take it away. Alex can't reccur to "traditional" means of justice because he owes some penitences of his own.
They're both emasculated, one biologically, the other socially. Therefore wood chopping becomes more than an action, it's almost a symbol of castration.
"Revanche" never provides clear answers about anything, instead fascinated with parallels and unexplored possibilities, even the title has a double meaning as it can signify "revenge" or "a second chance".
It's ironic that a film that dives into ambiguity so much never takes a false step.

Waltz With Bashir ***1/2

Director: Ari Folman

"Waltz With Bashir" is a strange creature in every aspect; it belongs to the odd genre of "animated documentaries" an already contradictory and troubling statement even if the subject wasn't a former soldier's search of redemption.
Based on the memories, or lack of them, of director Folman who served as an Israeli soldier in the 1982 Lebanon War, the plot has him tracking down people who were with him in the army in order to help him put together the pieces of what happened exactly during the Sabra and Shatila massacre.
Visually engaging from the minute it starts the animation, which evokes comic book style, was developed by Folman's team using traditional 2D technique, Flash pieces and some 3D.
The fact that it's not nearly as realistic as CGI gives the entire film a surrealistic touch that might not be the most traditional choice to represent such a harsh subject matter but makes perfect sense in an artistic point of view.
It's not about animation as a gimmick, but as the fullest way Folman found to convey all he needed to say; art after all doesn't have to be a representation of life as we see it.
Perhaps the typical documentary approach of using interviews, archival footage and some reenactments might've gotten Folman's vision lost in the process, the fact that here we can't identify so easily what's supposed to be "real" and "reenactment" only serve to affirm one of the film's most challenging ideas; that there is no right and wrong during a war, just destruction.
"Can't films be therapeutic?" asks one of Folman's interviewees and it's only appropriate given that the director reccurs to advice from psychologists and therapists who try to explain to him the reasons of his amnesia and attempt at interpretations of the dreams he has.
During these interviews we come to know of curious cases about the way in which soldiers cope with their duty using all kinds of mental resources; a photographer who found himself in the middle of a war imagined he was viewing everything through a lense which gave him a sense of protection, another one finding himself alone in enemy territory swims deep into the ocean where he felt he could escape and yet another soldier being showered by bullets erupts into a sudden dance which surprisingly helps him evade the shots being fired at him.
All of these sequences come to life and obtain a haunting kind of beauty which resonates ironically in a man's suggestion to Folman that "it's fine as long as you draw, don't film".
Given the state of the world and how little the situation in the Middle East has changed since the events depicted in the film, "Waltz With Bashir" often dallies on a very thin dangerous line as its implications might result offensive, condemning or just plain biased to either side.
And for a while, when a character gives an all too facile psychological interpretation related to Jewish guilt and the Holocaust, it almost falls for choosing sides.
But Folman picks up on this and turns his film towards the less traveled path pushing his search forward even when the results might dehumanize him; while some of his countrymen find a certain justification in the role their spiritual beliefs have given them, the director goes above this and declares that no God is excuse enough to commit murder.
When the movie is about to reach its most troublesome sequence Folman has what can only be likened to a psychoanalytical breakthrough, he realizes that like the people in one of the anecdotes he listens about, he was also looking at his subject "as if it was a film", perhaps the whole experience of making the project was merely a mechanism he was using to remain outside the events.
Then as if the movie was creating itself in front of our eyes we let go of our preconceived images of war, soldiers, the Middle East and religion, giving path to an utmostly human elegy.
During the last, brilliant, tensely constructed, scene when the actual emotional truth behind them finally materializes the pain is impossible to contain.

Beaufort **1/2

Director: Joseph Cedar

Cast: Oshri Cohen, Itay Tiran,

Eli Altonio, Ohad Knoller, Itay Turgeman

Set in the midst of the Israeli army retreat from Lebanon in the year 2000, the film, tells the story of the last group of soldiers who had to guard the title fortress; which has been a battle site since the Crusades.

Based on real life experiences of the people who lived through it, the plot mostly concentrates on Liraz Librati (Cohen) the bunker commander, who has to make the hardest decisions and is mediator between his soldiers and his superiors.

Considering that the soldiers desperately want to leave and the high rank officers, who dispatch their orders from Israel, infuse their decision making with lethargy, the soldiers must wait there trying to avoid being hit by enemy missiles and surviving until they can go home.

Other soldiers featured include Ziv (Knoller) a bomb specialist who at first we think will be the film's lead, Koris ( Tiran) a sensitive medic who becomes especially affected by casualties, aspiring musician Zitlaui (Turgeman) and Oshri (Eltonio) who seems to be the only guy who likes Liraz.

All of the actor's performances are superb and must've been quite demanding considering that most of them served in the army, but you don't really get to know them enough to single out anyone; perhaps for the film's need to feel universal.

While sometimes the pace drags, along with the soldier's patience, the moments between the men feel real and express perfectly the anguish of people trying to serve their country, even when it asks of them things they would rather avoid doing.

But sometimes the film falls into genre clichés: everyone knows what will happen to a soldier who tells everyone he is getting his leave soon, especially when the film has him reminding us of it all the time.

And sometimes Liraz's character is handled more as a spoiled brat, than a bruised soldier trying to be tough.

Everyone by now, is aware of the horrors that come with any sort of war and director Cedar provides this with some interesting stylistic choices that include not showing any physical enemies.

But in trying to be extremely proactive, he has forgotten that wars aren't started by the people who fight them, but by powers above, who in this film are removed of every ulterior political interest and become some sort of cinematic villains whose weapon is indecision.

While the film ends on a high, if too sappy, note, it has made no use of its strongest asset: the fortress of Beaufort itself, which with its centuries standing is a powerful, albeit sad, reminder that war has existed for as long as mankind has inhabited the planet.

That the soldiers (and filmmakers) wander through it, without ever considering its rich history and that of its rightful owners, with the very same authority as every country that has ever invaded another does, is perhaps the best example of how a wronged sense of justice always leads to pain on both sides.