My Favorite Movies

The only reason I'm sorry for, is that I didn't get to see this film when it came out two years ago. It was a powerful hit to the stomach, a film that is infused with subtle intensity, a movie about an unusual human drama. For me, this movie was about antitheses: prejudice vs. acceptance, male vs. female, freedom vs. oppression, love vs. neglect, heart-break vs. fulfillment.

The performances are simply brilliant, and although Argentinian cinema is one I'm the least familiar with, I was just proven that indeed the greatest movies don't require neither Hollywood nor billions worth of budget, nor happy endings.

A most powerful film about humanity, sexuality, acceptance, growth and tragedy. I literally didn't want it to end. Lyricism that flies off the screen straight to the heart. No taboos, no restrains, no limits. Real cinema. At last a movie I can call a masterpiece.

Oh, I wish there were words capable enough to describe this film - to describe how it made me feel. But maybe there aren't. So, we'll make do with those we have.

I saw this movie at the 50th International Film Festival of Thessaloniki - a festival I've been going to for about 8 years, give-or-take. And this is the best movie I've seen in all those years, through all those movies. It's so intense it rips you apart, full of the most sublime poetry, simplicity raging and screaming. The direction is so meticulously studied - nothing left to chance - every single take and scene offering gravity to the characters. Even now, that I see the poster of the film, it's so brilliant is ridiculous how much. It has this sad-looking child on it, when in the film, we only see a child for seconds, and it is a happy-looking child in those seconds.

After the second half I was constantly crying. I can bet that I'm from the few people who have cried in this film - if not the only one. Because there really isn't something in it that can prompt tears. But it is one of the most intense, most human, most real films I've watched in my life. I wanted to explode, to stand up and shout. I kept switching positions in my seat, I shook my head and laughed and wanted it to end because I couldn't take anymore. And when it was over, I wanted to watch it again.

It's so far my favorite movie of this year. No, scratch that. It's my favorite movie of the last few years. If not my favorite movie amongst the few I hold so dear.

I wish Xavier Dolan can be funded to create more, more, more films in the future. Even though, I already think he has created his chef-d'oeuvre.

I wish I could find the words to review this film and talk about it for days. But there are just some movies that no matter what you say about them, it just isn't enough. Brilliantly stunning performances (I'd bow to Emily Watson if I saw her), in what is all together for me Lars Von Trier's best film. A heart-breaking story about the power of love. Explosive and able to bring you to your knees. Simply grand cinema.

Absolutely my favorite movie so far this year. Adam Elliot just delivered something so sublime not even the greatest auteurs can beat - I'm sure Tim Burton will watch this and think, "ah, damn it, why didn't I think of it first?!"

I wish words could explain how truly marvelous it is. A story of an unlikely friendship, of torture, depression, love, loneliness - an appraisal of the different and the most unique. So beautiful and larger-than-life. Wonderful animation, the most gracefully disconsolate ending, one of the truest and most human stories I've ever had the pleasure to seeing. Just...wondrous.

L.I.E. successfully merges hidden desires/homosexual ambiguities with the inner will for a getaway from reality. Paul Dano and Brian Cox are marvelous. A true masterpiece that always manages to sneak up on you when you least expect it.

Edward Norton delivers in the most stunning way the greatest script I ever had to witness in a movie. Challenges the power structure and fights racism through the eyes of a racist. Rages and screams from inside its walled jail cell.

Without a doubt the best film portraying the change in a man's
fascist beliefs. Both Norton and Furlong give breath-taking performances in what is probably one of the darkest, most unfeigned and most astounding movies of the last decades.

This documentary is capable of changing a person's entire point of view on life. Not many movies can succeed in that, so for that reason only it is one of the greatest documentaries I have ever seen. It's an emotional roller-coaster.

Gus Van Sant's absolute masterpiece. It makes you doubt, wonder and hate. The direction is unconventional and the picture so still, making "Elephant" a total must-see.This movie explodes so silently, like a firework in the night time sky.

Day-Lewis gives one of the most electrifying performances of his career and Paul Dano is simply brilliant. I was taken aback at how shocking and captivating this movie actually was. Insane and powerful to its black gold core.

A movie-gem that got lost in the process of making blockbusters.

By far, the greatest, deepest, most powerful musical of all times.

Powerful movie, compelling story and stunning acting. Maybe the greatest movie of its decade.

Brilliant. Kieran Culkin is amazing

The second best musical ever for me. Everything is magical and splendid, from the performances of the entire cast, not just Nicole Kidman's and Ewan McGregor's who are seen at the best roles of their careers, but even the secondary characters are beautifully constructed and none of them is one-dimensional. The direction is above grand and magnificent, the storyline complete and circular among other things and the soundtrack...well, the soundtrack IS the movie. And what makes this movie so exhilarating is the ending itself.

This film is a diamond in the rough and I still don't get why most people hate it. It's tense and powerful and can't leave you without having an impact. The performances are high-powered, especially the one from Kett Turton. It's one of the greatest movies portraying a school shooting and the one that provides the most insight to the issue. The ending of the movie is silently explosive and at last, for once a movie that is not afraid to show the truth.

This is my favorite documentary -if not favorite movie- of all times. The best elaboration possible someone could ask both on the tragic Columbine massacre and the obsession of contemporary America with guns. Michael Moore harshly criticizes the corporate controlling of today and offers a thrill of emotions.

Probably one of my top favourites of all times. Instant classic. True, non-negotiable, full of magic and surprises with one of the greatest endings ever. Sam Rockwell delivers another astounding performance in this no-budget, undisguised, lost-in-the-process-of-making-blockbusters masterpiece.

This is probably one of the greatest films of the last years. It's so human, from-the-heart, full of tragedy and pain, fearless, emotional, powerful with an amazing ending and a dynamite soundtrack. Russia proves that its cinema beats a lot of other countries' cinema.

What an amazing, soul-captivating film. Throws you in the deepness of human patterns and tragedies from the first moment. Sam Rockwell gives a poignant, powerful performance. With the background of a snowy town, its citizens are destroyed piece by piece every moment, in what is for me, one of the most soul-stirring movies I have watched in my life. A movie that could not have a different ending but the one it had.

What an amazing movie. Makes you travel with it. A movie-container of values like love and friendship that are so generously offered to the viewer. The performances are extraordinary. The greatest journal into a family's long-forgotten lies and remorse. Astonishing. Breath-taking.

What an honest, clear, true film. Right from the heart. Amazing performances, exciting plot twists, not in the tiniest bit predictable, althought does fall in some "americanized" cliches. But alltoghether, an absolute masterpiece with a rewarding ending.

This film is one of the most beautifully made and dramatic films ever

Unbelievable. Pitt proves he's not just a pretty boy, but a great actor as well

Congratulations for giving us such movies

This movie is the definition of great independent american cinema. It's insane, fun, and one of the most well-directed music/band-related films. Great, non-simple performances and, generally, a must-see.

Sincere, simple, angry, wonderful, a fist to the stomach, a taste of polychromy in the mouth, a relentless question to the mind. AMAZING. Filled with everything that is and isn't, with performances that could sweep the Oscars, with excellence that shines all the way to Heaven.

What can anyone say about "Naked?" If you haven't seen it, you have no idea. David Thewlis gives an explosive performance, the script is so brilliant it feels like you don't know anything and Mike Leigh's direction is what makes this movie a masterpiece. I wish people made films like this one more often.

This film stole my heart when I first saw it. It's pure, innocent, authentic, beautifully performed and directed. It's so completely human it makes you feel like you dived into the fullness of the good nature in us.

One of the greatest documentaries I have ever watched. See what happens to a close-minded, poor, uneducated community through the eyes of murder. Free the West Memphis Three!

Filled with great performances both by Keanu Reeves and late River Phoenix, through a world of hustling and futility, we see the lives of two men who have no idea what they want out of their life. This is by far one of the most poetic, greatest gay-related movies and one of Gus Van Sant's best. Absolutely stunning, but it could do with a different ending...

One of the most original, complicated, gripping sci-fi thrillers ever!

Dynamite film. Ian McKellen is unbelievable in his role and so is Brendan Fraser. Truly stunning, a tremendous blow of fearlessness.

It's a shame this film went unnoticed. It's so disturbing and awakening. Kevin Bacon gives his greatest performance.

Great, great, great!!

By far one of the greatest prison/juridical-related films. Grabs your heart and doesn't let it go even after it's over. Stunning it in its every extend.

What can one say about this film? Simply gorgeous.

Bale's performance is haunting. Maybe his best one so far as well.

Without a doubt one of the best sci-fi films ever. The performances are great so is direction, all leading to an unbelievable ending.

Beautiful acting, original storyline, imaginary directing

I loved this movie for the sole reason that it felt very familiar. It's nothing we haven't seen before, but it's highly emotional, rewarding, beautiful and simple that speaks into the heart of every one. The performances are wonderful -especially the ones by Ryan Reynolds and Willem Dafoe.

If I had to pinpoint certain drawbacks, though, I would have to say that this movie isn't a masterpiece because it poses a lot of questions that remain unanswered and the father-son collision remains unresolved until the very end.

However, a great drama movie, easy to watch and easy to love.

This film was REALLY good, which was unexpected at some degree. Flawless performances (the two strongest by Derek Magyar and Patrick Bauchau), intriguing storyline and multi-leveled characters are the elements that compile this wonderful movie. It definitely isn't your typical gay film, because it walks down different paths than most films of the genre. It is true and honest, it doesn't bargain, it doesn't follow the status quo, it's smart and funny. A great movie and one of the greatest gay films I have seen the last few years.

This flim was a completely unexpected measterpiece, which I recommend without second thoughts. With a flawless storyline and the truly explosive and unbelievable performances of Henry Thomas and Robin Tunney, it's a film that teaches so many different things. It follows the story of two seemingly different people, two god-and-people-forsaken shady characters that found happiness in their misery. Bob Grosse's "Niagara, Niagara" is, without a doubt, a true masterpiece.

I love this movie and have it in my heart. It's a very tragic drama film about a family that is torn apart by the lack of a father and the difficulties they have to overcome in the process. It is also based on true events- the life of Dawn Anna- a mother of four and a high school teacher whose life changed after her 18-year-old daughter, Lauren Townsend, became one of the 12 random murder victims of the Columbine massacre in 1999.

It's a tremendous blow of honesty and pain, filled with the tragedy that only a few films successfully capture and deliver. Wonderful and stunning, a true heart-breaker.

For some reason I cried so much in this film. America would have been so different if Robert Kennedy hadn't been assassinated...

This is one of those movies you watch distracted at some random channel after midnight...But this one was tremendously amazing! Original, brave and human, leaves you with a sweet flavour on the lips and in the heart. Wonderful and simple.

Coming out of nowhere it's amazing. Real and balanced between sadness and happiness, with more than satisfying performances, especially from Colin Farrell and Cillian Murphy. Irish cinema at its best.

What a refreshing film. Tragic but funny, liberating but captivating with 5-star performances from Tea Leoni and Robin Williams, while David Duchovny's direction makes it shine.

The reason I'm rating this film with a 5 isn't just because the entire cast -from the extraordinary Sean Penn to the refreshingly wonderful Emile Hirsh to the surprisingly good James Franco and Diego Luna to the realistic Josh Brolin- did a marvelous job. Neither just because Gus Van Sant is one of my most favorite directors or because I'm a hand-to-heart fanatic gay rights supporter. This movie receives my 5 stars for all these reasons, but mainly because of its content, its humanity, its pulse. A film that makes you want to explode, to shout and cry. A film that shows you how one man with enough drive and will may not be able to change the world but he can change many other things. Maybe seemingly the lives of gay people have improved since the 1970's. Maybe someone responsible for a double homicide would receive something more than 5 years today. All I know is that maybe today we're all so comfortable in the puffy chair of inertia that if there was a Harvey Milk in 2009, nobody would really pay attention to him.

The most magical, the most pure, the most wonderful fairytale of all times. A lot more than just a desperate love story of two people of different worlds. Beneath its versi-colored surface lie thoughts and words that extend beyond the movie. This faitytale has stolen my heart and will always have it.

What an eye-opener this movie is. So illimitable, concussive and shaking. And Al Pacino is simply magical.
In a few words, what I received from this movie was the conceptualism that no matter how many people you know, no matter who your friends are, no matter how many people look up to you, no matter how many people wave at you on the street, no matter how many phone numbers there are in your agenda, you still die alone and lonely. And for that reason only, this movie is a tremendous blow to the human nature and the life standards we set too low.

There's not much really to be said about this film. Just that it's a masterpiece and probably the best comedy I have watched in my life. Educative, spiritedly astute, magnificent in its sarcasm. Exceptional performances, unexampled direction and a truly brave script. Denmark might have a slowly-developing cinema, but it's a cinema worth waiting for. I wish everybody could make movies like this: you laugh when you want to cry, you wonder and you are amazed. What more does one need?

I knew I was going to be shocked and get emotionally involved in this film, but I did not expect that to happen at the degree that it did. A wonderful movie. Maybe it's low-budget, maybe it's not for everyone -especially those suffering of homophobia or have the faintest of hearts- but it's a film that reaps everything apart like a whirlwind. It's real, unaffected by all the Hollywood cliches, loving and warm, promoting tolerance and aiming to make you furious about the death of a man who didn't deserve what he got. And his killers receiving 12 and 15 years? Talk about freedom and justice for all....

Love this film -still hillarious after tens of times having watched it. Thornton steals the thunder in this black comedy. A masterpiece of directing skills.

This Oscar-winning documentary is beautifully extraordinary. It's tragic and simply wonderful. Accurately symbolizes the generation that was changed by the political service of the first openly gay elected official. Harvey Milk was, is and always will be one of the most tragic figures in the political history of the United States. His murderer, Dan White, also responsible for the murder of Mayor George Moscone, served only 5 years in jail for double homicide, simply because he was rich and white.

Going way too far with the rating, I know...but truth is I loved this film. I was just postponing watching it because I highly doubted its greatness, but finally seeing it made me think otherwise.

Kate Winslet is wonderful - she deserved the Globe truly and absolutely so - maybe she could grab an Oscar on her way out. Ralph Fiennes for his relatively short part was also fantastic; the scene where he records his voice incessantly was simply brilliant. And David Kross doesn't/didn't receive enough credit, I actually thought he was co-equal to Winslet's performance.

This film is an ode to love, truth, trust and betrayal. It was a bit emotionally over-the-top at times, but the theme required so. It's inspiring, powerful and heartbreaking. It surpasses lots of this year's films.

Who needs Hollywood when you have films like this?

There are so many layers to this movie: the moral and ethical issues of life, the decisions you don't want to make but are forced to, the nature of forgiveness and if you could offer it, abandonment and violence, the many forms of loneliness and love and how the mistakes of your past always will come back to haunt you even if you change your name and become someone else.

A truly bold, powerful, fist-to-the-stomach film. I was stunned by its greatness. Everything is brilliant about it: from the performances to the direction, from the script to the tragedy of its ending. I blindly, hands down, with my hand to my heart wish people made movies like this more often. We truly could use more of them...

This 1966 movie is officially the oldest movie I have ever watched. And the only reason I did is because the Bradbury novel is a sheer masterpiece of literature. And the movie follows it quite precisely despite some major changes and omissions (like the lack of the symbolic Mechanical Hound and why the hell is Clarisse still alive at the end??) But, as always, the movie never lives up to the book - for instance, Oskar Werner's character (Guy Montag) is FAR more interesting and human in the book than he is in the film.

But generally, it's a wonderful movie. If you manage to see beyond the performances and the few flaws and try to separate it from the novel, then yes, it is a masterpiece. Chilling scenes and spine-tingling humanity, an amazing, unmatched respectful tribute to universal letters, literature and books. Through this movie, the continuing deterioration of quality in literature seems to be lesser than it really is.

I hope the 2010 Fahrenheit 451 remake doesn't dismantle its quality by casting actors like Tom Cruise or Uma Thurman.

Some movies even if they're not masterpieces, I just award them close to the 5 stars because of their wonder-making, powerful content.

I don't have many things to say about this movie really. Sigourney Weaver was as great as always and it's very refreshing watching Ryan Kelley escaping his Dust Factory days. All other technical things are...tolerable.

This film made me insane with anger and brimmed my eyes with tears and repeated a lesson nobody hears. A masterpiece in my books. And like this movie teaches, you only appreciate what you have after you've lost it. If only wisdom came earlier for some people.

Performances as the ones of Peter O'Toole and Katharine Hepburn in this film never come around twice in a lifetime. Anthony Hopkins and Timothy Dalton equally excellent, but not as devastatingly powerful as O'Toole and Hepburn. The poetry and lyricism of the script is the product of a insane mastermind and the direction offers smooth pace and inner retrospection. It's really hard to notice many other things when an entire film is based on its two protagonists who happen to be breathtakingly stunning. A major film of a major era in cinema. I didn't expect to like it, but I loved it. And would see it again any time.

I'm ashamed to admit that only recently discovered who Sion Sono is, and I made sure to watch his most renowned film - that of Suicide Club.

The movie is absolutely great, and even though stretched far and away, it manages to portray perfectly the generation of today; the Facebook, Twitter, YouTube generation, whose oxygen is the internet. It speaks perfectly of the loss of self-identity in the masses and the gullibility and brain-washing that comes out of being a technology addict.

Everything about is prodigious and sublimely disturbing. For me the first scene is already a cult classic.

This movie begins as any given British movie about the derelict rural suburbs would begin. We follow a bad-mannered, vile-spoken 15-year-old girl named Mia. She's friendless and seemingly disliked. She dreams of becoming a dancer even though she's not particularly good, and in her free time she roams the streets with no particular destination. And yet when her mom's new boyfriend comes into their lives, she finds an escape. What we see in the first half of the film is nothing but a mask to drop in the second half of it. Mia realizes she can be loved and that she doesn't have to force herself into isolation.

This film blew me out of the water. I didn't expect it to be this good. Katie Jarvis is brilliant - she was born for this role. And Michael Fassbender, here in a role I never thought he could pull off, is just as wonderful. The both of them keep you at the edge of your seat. Marvelous work with exceeding simplicity. Low-budget British drama cinema at one of its finest moments in the last few years. Watch it, and you won't regret a minute of it.