My Favorite Movies

The be-all-end-all crime movie, Confidential doesn't set out to solve the crime of the century. In fact, the story itself is quite straight forward. What sets it apart from the rest is the way in which it tells it: it knows exactly what it's doing, goes in, and does it with that old Hollywood charm. It's succinct, but compelling, and terrificly acted. My favourite movie of all time.

In its Oscar year, Shawshank Redemption was nominated for seven Academy Awards, and walked away with zero. Best Picture went to Forrest Gump, while Shawshank and Pulp Fiction were "just happy to be nominated." Of course hindsight is 20/20, but history looks back on Gump as a good film, while Pulp and Redemption are remembered as some of the all-time best.

It currently sits at #2 in the IMDb's Top 250 Films, occasionally swapping spots with The Godfather as the top ranked film of all time. If you haven't seen it yet, what the hell are you waiting for. As Andy says, "It comes down a simple choice, really. Either get busy living, or get busy dying."

Directed by Irvin Kirshner. Written by Lawrence Kasdan. Is it any surprise that the greatest Star Wars movie (and in my opinion, the best science fiction film of all time) went largely untouched by George Lucas?

A score this high should imply Fidelity is some kind of cinematic masterpiece, and I'm the first to admit, it's not. I just can't score one of my all-time favourites any lower than this. Bitterly sardonic like only the recently dumped can be, the script captures Hornby's voice perfectly, and does so by constantly breaking the fourth wall. Transplanted from the UK, Chicago itself becomes a character. Great performances, great music, great everything. Tops Swingers as the ultimate guy rom-com. Love it.

The Stranger: "Sometimes, there's a man. And I'm talkin' about The Dude here - The Dude from Los Angeles. Sometimes, there's a man, well, he's the man for his time and place. He fits right in there. And that's The Dude."

I start with this quote, because to me it sums up the entire experience of The Big Lebowski. Sometimes there's a movie, that just catches you at the right time, and defines that moment, maybe that whole year. And that's The Big Lebowski. Seems funny though, that something that could put a time-stamp on its release date would be so caught up in the past: Released in 1998, the movie is set in '91, its two main characters are stuck in polarized versions of the early 70's, and its story structure is fresh out a 1940s Raymond Chandler novel. Anyways, I'm reading too deep into this, so here's what counts:

This movie is so perfectly bizarre. The characters are all 'out there', but written and played so well that each comes off as deep and fully realized. Bridges in particular is in top form, making something classic out of what could have easily been a stupid caricature in lesser hands. The plot gets convoluted, as does any noir mystery, but it's unimportant. The movie is all about the characters and their interplay, the plot is just an excuse to bring them together. What makes the movie great is how the intricacies of the plot become more and more clear with repeat viewings: true to its Chandler structure, all the clues are there -- the first-time viewer is just too confused/caught up in the characters to spot them.

Incessantly funny. Naturally quotable. A classic comedy. (and what a soundtrack!)

The Stranger: "Take it easy, Dude."
The Dude: "Oh yeah."
The Stranger: "I know that ya will."
The Dude: "Yeah, well... The Dude abides."
The Stranger: "'The Dude abides...' [to the camera] I don't know about you, but I take comfort in that."

I have spent two years searching for this "Out of Print" DVD, and yesterday, I finally found it. Watching it again for the first time in a while, I had almost forgotten what it was I liked so much about the movie in the first place. Didn't take long to remember:

The movie starts with a great scene. Ace bank-robber Jack Foley (Clooney) escapes from Glades Prison with the help of his friend-on-the-outside, Buddy (Ving Rhames). Except there's a hitch: They are nearly foiled by shotgun-toting FBI agent Karen Sisco (Lopez). Long story short, Sisco winds up immobilized in the trunk of her car with a mud-caked Jack lying beside her, hand placed firm on her thigh. Awkwardly attracted to her, Jack rambles about anything he can think of -- mostly, Faye Dunaway movies. It's a great scene, and the rest of the movie follows the repercussions it has on both characters, hopelessly fighting an attraction they both know can not end well.

This to me is the movie where George Clooney really earns his stripes as a movie star. Now, don't get me wrong, not just anyone can be Batman, and he was good in Dusk Till Dawn, but those are pulpy movies that aren't exactly built on strong performances. Here he absolutely owns the screen, like a modern Greg Peck or Carey Grant. Are there many differences between his Jack Foley and his Danny Ocean? Not especially. Does it matter? They're similar characters within the same genre, from the same actor working with the same director, and unlike, say, Colin Farrell, Clooney is an effortless leading man. He has the charisma to lead the movie blind-folded with his hands cuffed behind his back. And what a cast he leads, with Rhames, Don Cheadle, Albert Brooks, Dennis Farina, Catherine Keener, Steve Zahn, and Luis Guzman in great supporting roles, and some uncreditted cameos from Michael Keaton (reprising his Jacky Brown character) and Samuel L. Jackson.

Soderbergh directs with an understated style and grace. He never pushes things too far, or over-plays his hand (as was the case at times in Ocean's 11), and the movie unravels its plot with a marvelous chronology and gorgeous visual flare. The fights are hyper-realistic, the shoot-outs even more so, and Clooney and Lopez share what is, in my opinion, one of the greatest love scenes ever put to film.

There are just so many reasons I love this movie, and to list them all would make this already-verbose review even longer. But I do love it, absolutely. It's near-perfect, and one of my all-time favourites.

Meticulously crafted and perfectly executed, this isn't the type of comedy to beat you into submission with joke after joke after joke. It's slow-build humour based entirely on atmosphere, where the laughs come sporadically in off-kilter dialogue and behavioral quirks. And it works. It works unbelievably well. It builds and builds and builds itself up with escalating levels of pure absurdity until the the climatic scene -- Olive's "talent routine" -- which is such a cathartic laugh-fest that afterwards I was physically exhausted from laughing so hard.

There isn't a weak link to be found amongst the cast. Arkin is ferociously funny, Breslin is perfectly adorable, Collette is quietly convincing, Kinnear is on a complete roll right now, and is there a more versatile comedic actor in Hollywood now than Steve Carell? I'd like to meet him. Carell plays the straightman for much of the movie, but it's not as though the film demands a straight-laced performance to ground the fun -- this is a very heartfelt work, with some surprising moments of potent human drama.

I really don't know how many more superlatives I can throw at it before the point sticks: flat out, this is one of the best of 2006, or any year. Walking out of the movie, my cheeks rosie from fits of hysterics, I had a post-coital glow; that's how satisfying a film this is. For a movie about losers, it's an absolute triumph. Don't miss it.

Held top honours for superhero films in my book. Before The Dark Knight came out, anyway. Aunt May's preachy speeches are a bit much, but otherwise this movie hits all the right notes. We have a visually and emotionally interesting villain, several terrific action sequences (especially the train fight), and a great script by Alvin Sargent that knows the film's protagonist isn't the costume, but the boy underneath it. Molina is excellent as Ock, and the movie itself stands as one of the best blockbusters ever made.

Finally, the Dark Knight done right. Bale is pitch-perfect in a three-part role (the real Bruce Wayne, the "smile-for-the-cameras" Bruce Wayne, and the intimidation game that is Batman) in the first Batman film to ever give the character something to bite into. Burton and Schumacher's films were always all about the villains; Bruce Wayne was just an after-thought. Not so here. Sure there are more villains here than even Batman & Robin, but the movie's not about them. We learn enough for them to be a credible threat to Bruce and move on. The cast is all excellent, though Holmes sticks out like a sore thumb. The best origin story ever told, and one of the better comic book flicks of all time.

This could be the start of a beautiful franchise.

06/03/09 Update: I can't objectively rate it any higher than this, because lets be real here, this is not a good movie. But I'd be remiss to go any lower, as I'd be lying if I said I wasn't completely entertained by this flick. A lot of the time I was laughing at the movie, not with it (the guy who plays Eddie Kim is either a comic genius or the worst actor of all time), but there are a lot of memorable moments. The theatrical experience of seeing this movie with an audience was unforgettable. Ridiculous fun.

Below are my euphoric ramblings having just come out of seeing the movie in theatres with a packed crowd on opening night. I overrated it through the roof, but that's just a testament to what an experience it was to see this film in theatres:

The single greatest piece of pure popcorn entertainment I have ever laid eyes on. Would I have loved it as much watching it alone on DVD? Probably not. The theatre experience is what made the movie so great: hooting and hollering as SLJ kills snakes left, right and center; hissing at the screen in anticipation of snakes to come... It was just a blast.

Some of the acting is so bad that it's great (the asian guy playing the crime lord had the theatre in hysterics), but there are some pitch-perfect performances to be found here: Jackson (obviously) does his thing and will likely be remembered forever for this role; David Koechner has some great lines, just having fun with the smarmy pilot persona. Best of all is Todd Louiso as a "snake expert" on the ground, doing his best to guide Sam up in the air. Like the movie itself, he takes himself seriously to a point, but lets loose on lines like "Time is tissue!" and "There's only one man who could amass a collection of snakes like this. He lives...in the desert."

The effects are mostly pretty obvious, but it doesn't effect the movie at all -- some of the attacks really are shocking and scary; many of the death scenes are unforgettable, either because they're incredibly hilarious, or nauseatingly horrific. When the movie earns its R-rating it's at its best: the inevitable sequel will likely be even better, as they'll be shooting for R all along.

Even if you think it will be stupid, I urge you to see this movie. I expected it to be either a wretched turd or an all-time classic, and was blown away. Flat-out, the movie delivers. It's miles better than it has any business being, and is one of the greatest thrill-rides of all time.

In theatres, it was among the best movies I'd ever seen. On the small screen, it doesn't pack quite the same punch, but that doesn't make it anything less than extraordinary. His follow-up to the 'Lord of the Rings' trilogy, Peter Jackson's labour of love isn't trying to re-invent a classic, it merely looks to improve it. It succeeds admirably. A sweeping epic with something for everyone, the movie touches, thrills, terrifies. Terrific.

What a beauty, eh? Bob and Doug Mackenzie are the Cheech and Chong of beer, a pair o' hosers whose goals in life are to drink, eat donuts, and talk about it on their SCTV public access show, Great White North. Now they got a movie, eh, that begins with one of their more popular segments from the show (and subsequent album) -- about putting a baby mouse in an empty beer while he's small enough to fit, and then feeding him inside it eh, so he can grow? Then ya take the beer back to complain, 'cause it's got a mouse in it? Then they give ya a bunch o' free beer, eh? There's like, legal precedents in Canada, where that's what they gotta do?

So, having given away their dad's beer-money to a disgruntled parent demanding a refund from the movie that, uhh, we're still watching, Bob and Doug set out to do just that. Their quest takes them to the Elsinore brewery, where old Mr. Elsinore recently died a mysterious death, only to have his brother not only take control of the brewery, but marry the widowed Mrs. Elsinore the day after the funeral. Sound familiar? It's like, literature eh? The rest of the plot revolves around Max von Sydow's wicked Brewmeister Smith, who doubles as the warden at the Royal Canadian Institute for the Mentally Insane, and is putting drugs in the beer that will breed him an army of hockey players, made violent by the seemingly innocent sounds of organ music.

Thomas and Moranis are both turn in career performances, terrifically lampooning the Canadian stereotype clichés, and throwing in as much obscure Canadian content as they can (one of the movie's heroes is a fictitious hockey player named Jean "Rosie" LaRose, a retired skater who won Rookie of the Year honours for the Montreal Canadiens only two years earlier before suffering a nervous breakdown and leaving the game. Watching the movie, you would never guess this guy isn't a real person). Perhaps it helps to actually be a beer-drinking Canadian for the humour to be that much more self-evident, but this is an all-time great comedy, and the film also works brilliantly as a satire of "the movies" themselves. A truly hilarious flick, and probably the best adaptation of Hamlet ever, eh? And if you don't like it, well, shove off hoser.

Shrugged off by many a Canadian hockey fan as "more American propaganda," but many a Canadian hockey fan needs to get over themselves. This really is a great story, a true David vs Goliath with pertinant political undertones. Kurt Russell has never been better, and director Gavin O'Connor gives the coolest game on ice its just desserts. (This slogan never made much sense to me, however. As far as I can tell, isn't hockey the only game on ice? Curling is a pass-time at best. ... Anyways: O'Connor.) His on-ice camera systems show the game like you've never seen it before, and hot-damn it's exciting. Yet, by putting as much attention to detail into the political implications of "the big game", and the culture of the time it was played in, he creates a movie that is more than inspiring; it's iconic. Hockey may be my favourite sport by a country mile, but this isn't bias talking: this is one of the best damn sports movies ever made.

Lt. Frank Drebin (Nielsen) is a real man's man. He fakes his orgasms, loves a nice stuffed beaver, and laughs through comedies like 'Platoon'. Fresh off of kicking terrorist butt in Beirut, Drebin returns home to an empty apartment and a broken heart. Everywhere he looks, there's something to remind him of his old flame: in the smiling faces of happy couples, or a pair of twin breast-shaped nuclear reactors in San Onofre.

Enter Jane (Presley), the lovely assistant of real estate tycoon Vincent Ludwig (Montalban), and the woman of Frank's dreams. "How 'bout dinner?" he asks her. She can't make it, but offers a rain-check. "Well, lets just stick to dinner," he replies. They hit it off immediately, but Frank's got bigger fish to fry: Queen Elizabeth II is coming to Los Angeles, and it's up to Drebin and Police Squad, an elite unit of the LAPD, to keep her safe. Ludwig is the villain, and the movie makes it no secret -- by the 10min mark, he's already pumped Frank's partner Nordberg (OJ Simpson. Yes, that OJ Simpson) full of bullets. Luckily, Nordberg survives, albeit hospitalized and in critical condition. It's up to Frank and Capt. Ed Hocken (George Kennedy) to counsel his crying wife: "I think what Frank's trying to say is, as soon as Nordberg's better, he's welcome back on Police Squad," Ed explains. Drebin interrupts, "Unless he's a drooling vegetable -- but that's just common sense."

If it seems like I'm pumping this review full of quotes, I am. This is one of the funniest movies ever made. I can't count how many times I've seen it, and I die laughing each time. Directed by David Zucker, from a script he co-wrote with his brother Jerry and Jim Abrahams, The Naked Gun is based on a failed TV show the three of them produced for NBC, called 'Police Squad!' That the show was canned after only four episodes seems criminal. The ZAZ Boys, who also masterminded such comedy classics as 'Airplane!' and 'Top Secret!', are gifted comedians with a penchant for exclamation marks. Their gift is in casting accomplished dramatic actors to play everything straight. Kennedy was (and still is) an Academy Award winner; Montalban was one of cinema's great villains, playing opposite William Shatner's James T. Kirk in 'The Wrath of Khan'; Presley had been a prime-time soap star for years. Dead-panned, the words and sight gags speak for themselves -- and they speak volumes. Think I've ruined the best bits? Not even close, and you notice something new every time.

The movie lives and dies by Nielsen, and Jacques Clouseau's got nothing on this hard-boiled doofus. Kicked off the force, Drebin bites his lower lip and says, "Just think...the next time I shoot a man, I could be arrested." This is classic comedy through and through.

Harold Crick (Ferrell) rises one morning, brushes his teeth exactly 72 times, and heads out the door for the morning bus. He's off to work as an IRS agent, and as he wades through his pedestrian life, he hears the soft voice of a middle-aged British woman narrating his innermost thoughts. As I write this review, I keep trying to work a sentence along the lines of "his life has become a story," but no matter how I turn the phrase it comes off sounding stupid. This is because all lives are stories, and indeed, that's the point.

You see, little does he know, events have been put in motion that will soon bring about his imminent death. Except he does know, because as we are given this information through third person omniscient narration, so is Harold. Faced with the fact that his life may soon end, he loosens his tie and starts living it the way he's always wanted to. Ferrell is excellent in the role, imbuing his lowly everyman with a plain sweetness that makes him endearing. You really come to care for this man, making the emotional weight of the plot direction that much heavier.

It's a great performance, one of many. Top honours to Maggie Gyllenhaal however, whose Ana really made the film work for me. The film's strength is in how understated it is, as both a comedy and a tragedy. The movie never plays for laughs, or wrings out the melodrama. The performances are subtle and rounded, and the script plays things soft and natural. The comedy is effortless, the drama devastating -- such is life. And at the heart of it all: a girl. A love story that belongs to Ferrell and Gyllenhaal, whose honesty make it one of the best in recent movie memory.

Now I know what you're thinking: two new five-star films in one week? It's like I'm dishing out candy, especially given the fact that for many, neither this nor The Prestige will warrant a perfect score. In the case The Prestige, I admired the perfection of its storytelling: the way it covered even the smallest of details in its dense plot, and the richness of its themes and symbolism. With Stranger Than Fiction, it is the full spectrum of emotion the movie plays to, the way it is plays them, and the feelings it inspires. Intellectually, the film offers the full package. Emotionally, it's an experience. Isn't that what we go to the movies for?

An Americanization of Lone Wolf and Cub, this superbly acted story of fathers and sons seems to get better and better every time I see it. The score is magnificent, and the cinematography stunning. Law is unrecognizable as a slimy hitman, Newman is simply brilliant and Hanks proves surprisingly good in a role that is very much outside his 'comfort zone'. Mendes set a high standard by winning a Best Director trophy with his first film, and this sophomore effort does not disappoint.

Yagshemash! My name a Borat.

Does the movie live up to the hype? Not really. There are those who will try to tell you that this is the funniest movie of all time, that it's an 11 out of 10. In parts, it is, but the movie struggles with consistency, and half of what makes it so interesting isn't funny at all.

Cohen makes Borat into a very sympathetic character. He has his cultural prejudices, of course, and odd customs, but at heart, he has the naive innocence of a small boy. To see him interact with people in New York, who run screaming from a handshake or reply to "My name a Borat, what's your name?" with "How 'bout you shut the fuck up and mind your own business before I break your face," isn't funny. It's a sad comment on the state of American culture. At the same time, however, part of Cohen's humour (in all his characters) is in getting people to reveal their prejudices by agreeing with the awful things he says. For that, Borat is a solid gold achievement. We see an old man in Texas talk about America's effort to "hang the gays." Directed by Larry Charles, the man behind many an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm, it smacks of the same awkward humour. That is, when it's working with real people. There are some moments that are obviously staged, whose energy serve only to weight the film down.

I wanted to love Borat, and in the end I only liked it a lot. A fight scene between Borat and Azamat has to be the funniest thing I've ever seen put to film, but the movie doesn't hit like that consistently enough. If it did, this would be one of the greatest movies of all time. As it stands, it's just one of 2006's better efforts. Nothing wrong with that.

Hilarious. The only real satire here isn't on politics, but Bruckheimer/Bay-style action films. It's a really interesting study in the role of film soundtrack, if anything. But no political agenda -- it's actually quite critical of Hollywood pushing politics, but shows us that actors can save the world...in movies. Loses some of its charm in repeat viewings, but there's a lot of very funny stuff here and the third act kills every time. "We're guards." Some great little winks to film buffs, too.

Payne's filmography paves the road to this road trip nicely. The fantastic Election was an absurd comedy inflected with human drama. About Schmidt was a deeply dramatic movie with lightening touches of absurdity. With Sideways, he seems to have struck the perfect balance between the two. The film rides the emotions of its characters, with sinking lows and hilarious highs. If it defies categorization, it's because it's real -- its performances are honest portraits of real people, not contrived characters designed to enact a tried plot. Million Dollar Baby was good, but for my money, this was the Best Picture of 2004.

Brilliantly acted and perfectly executed. 'Crash' wishes it was this movie.

A masterpiece of storytelling from one of that last original thinkers in Hollywood. Everything, absolutely every plot detail in this film is perfectly rearview mirrored (ie. seemingly insignificant details dropped carelessly about only to be de plus importance later on). Cusack, Diaz and Keener are all playing against type: the cool guy's a schlep, the pretty one's homely, and the girl next door oozes with pure sexuality. And what can be said about Malkovich himself if not "Malkovich. Malkovich-Malkovich?"

But seriously, he's great. This is a once-in-a-lifetime role, and he knocks it out the park. Like the movie itself, the real joy is in the details. For the movie, it's little quirks like the Elijah flashback (the "family trauma"). For JM himself, it's the transitions between "himself" and Craig's control. Just watch his reaction when Maxine says "Lets fuck on his table and make him eat an omelette off it." Good stuff from a great script and an absolutely brilliant film.

There are just so many things to compliment this movie on, so many things that work perfectly on so many levels, that I don't even know where to begin singing it's praises in an organized manner. Having recently re-watched Being John Malkovich, it's become fairly easy to spot the patterns and recurring themes between Kaufman's scripts. The Diaz/Keener chase sequence through Malkovich's life and times, for example, lays the ground-work for a much more elaborate sequence in Eternal Sunshine, where Joel tries to hide Clem deep in his subconscious. The transitions and camera tricks in both films also creep their way into Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, itself another adaptation of a "true life" book. Clearly the mind's inner-workings fascinate Kaufman, and never so much as here, as he delves into the mind he knows best: his own. Here he writes himself into his messy script - the titular adaptation of Susan Orlean's The Orchid Thief, a book which, much like Tristram Shandy, is completely unfilmable (come to think of it, Shandy toys with many of the same themes at play here). "It's lazy, it's selfish," he says (well, Nic Cage says, though Kaufman himself shows up in the film several times), but it is no doubt cathartic and undoubtedly entertaining.

The major point of ire that seems to split people about this movie, however, is the ending. If you haven't yet seen it, and don't want it spoiled, stop reading now and know that this is a great movie well worth your time. If you have seen it and wish to read some in-depth analysis, carry on. Kaufman's intent, which he re-iterates several times in the film's beginning, is not to write a "Hollywood" script. Hollywood movies have sex, drugs, car chases, people overcoming obstacles, having epiphanies, learning important life lessons, and ultimately: succeeding. The beauty of the film having such an ending is that since the entire goal of the movie is to be off-beat, and to be different, though the characters may themselves be learning, growing, changing, Kaufman himself set out to do none of the above and failed miserably. He set a goal for himself, and did not overcome his challenge. Ironically, he aimed to flop, and success is the biggest failure he could have ever happened upon.

This is just one angle of the movie's brilliance, however. How about the fact the listed "Hollywood" cop-outs don't come into play until Charlie invites Donald on-board to help write the ending? Or Robert McKee (Brian Cox) preaching that "for the love of God, don't let [the script] have a Deus Ex Machina," when he himself is one! Or Donald's script, "The 3", in which all the leads wind up being facets same person, just as Charlie himself accepts finally accepts Donald before his death. And that's the beauty of the script right there: Donald doesn't really die, because he never existed in the first place. He was a polarized version of Kaufman's own mind, the guy he wishes he could be instead of the man he is. He doesn't die, so much as Charlie makes peace between them, and their characters amalgamate. He finally makes a move on a girl he wants. He finally lives. He's finally happy.

I could write an essay on this film.
Look at that, I did.

It's true what they, you know. "To know Lloyd Dobler is to love him." Lets just say I fucking know Lloyd Dobler. Cusack has carved himself a nice little niche role, and it's rare he's given material that actually lets him play it. This is it's birth, and it continues on through films like Grosse Point Blank and High Fidelity. While I don't consider this one to be on quite the same level as the masterpiece that is Fidelity, it certainly comes close. Crowe, in his directorial debut, crafts real and complex characters all across the board, and finds his comedy in their personal nuances and the beats between speaking and silence. At its core, however, is a strong dramatic message buoyed by pitch-perfect performances and some lightening flicks of laughter -- lots of laughter. It's impossible to watch this and not feel optimistically romantic, and I don't think I could pay it any higher compliment.

Incredibly clever and fully self-aware of the fact that, yes, it is a movie, 'Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang' delivered one of the best times I've had watching a movie in years. Part pop-culture commentary, part detective film noir, and all Shane "Lethal Weapon" Black-brand buddy-humour, I flat out LOVED this movie.

It's wildly inventive and wickedly clever. In an era where every actioner is a comic book, remake or old TV show...what more could you ask for?

The longer I go having seen this film without reviewing it, the more likely I am to forget exactly I wanted to about it. For a movie I enjoyed so immensely... well, that would be a shame indeed.

This is not the film you might think it is, for a handful of reasons: it has been commonly labelled (by Roger Ebert, most notably) as "a fairy-tale for grown-ups," and literally-speaking, this is only half true. As an Arts student at the University of British Columbia, I spent a fair chunk of last semester studying Hans Christian Andersen -- his life and work, and how the former shaped the latter. Pan is not a fairy tale in this sense: it is a fantasy film (in parts), but there's no discernible moral here. Make no mistake however: it is for grown-ups. This is a deep, dark and disturbing picture. Much like Children of Men, there are many moments in the film so shockingly violent and unexpected, it boggles the mind that that. just. happened. This movie will shake you up, no two ways about it.

The film is in Spanish, and going in I was a little distressed that I would have to read subtitles all through such a visually-rich movie. No matter. By the end I honestly didn't even notice I was reading, which in large part is thanks to a handful of great performances that really draw you in as a viewer. Sergi Lopez is brilliant as The Captain, so fiercely intimidating that he easily and immediately joins the ranks of cinema's all-time great villains. I enjoyed watching the influence his character has Ofelia's imagination, as you can spot aspects of The Captain in both of Doug Jones' characters, the Pale Man and the Faun, both of whom are extraordinary visual accomplishments. And speaking of imagination, here is my sole complaint with the film: it doesn't seem to be able to make up its mind as to whether Ofelia's fantasies are real or not. The conclusion seems to say they aren't, but retrospectively there are more than a few moments that don't make sense without magic.

This is just a small qualm however with an otherwise perfect film. An outstanding cinematic accomplishment. I'm stunned it didn't win the Oscar. Lives of Others must be something special.