Wayne's Talk

In Bruges

A dark comedy/crime thriller/character study that is so much more than a genre picture, and amazingly avoids cliche. It's also the best film of the year (along with The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Slumdog Millionaire).

The War Game

A faux documentary on the aftermath of a nuclear attack on a city in Britain. Watkins's use of montage editing with his multi-perspective narrative is extremely effective and powerful. The film is very well researched and enacted, and become even more horrifying because everything depicted in the film has happened in Hiroshima and Nagasaki and is within the realm of possibility, even for today. The film is very powerful even today, and it seems no surprise that it was banned from TV for 20 years during the Cold War. (so much for BBC's independence from the government)

California Split

Altman's most underrated film!

Lucifer Rising

This is Kenneth Anger's masterpiece. Some of his best use of montage is in here. Anger's grasp of avant garde techniques and editing is more restrained and refined than in his earlier films like Inauguration of Pleasure Dome and Invocation of My Demon Brother. The soundtrack is one of the best to grace any film, and like Anger's other films it suits the images amazingly well.

Rambo (Rambo IV)

The most explicit, blood-soaked, and outrageously graphic action picture I have (possibly) ever seen, RAMBO is a film that will have you questioning the MPAA, and the way in which it use the infamous NC-17 rating.

Despite some scenes of brutality I felt were in relatively bad taste (and I NEVER feel that way), RAMBO kept me in awe thoughout it's 93 minute running time; I just couldn't wait to see how far Stallone was going to push the boundaries next- and in that sense, RAMBO never let me down. This is the sort of "who gives a damn" action yarn that hasn't been seen since the eighties, and I find that quality very refreshing in a world filled with watered-down PG-13s and politically correctness.

I really don't know what more I can say about RAMBO. The plot, by the film's title is very self explainatory (RE: SILVESTER STALLONE FUCKS PEOPLE UP). You should know what to expect- and high art isn't it. It's not FIRST BLOOD calibur- that movie was a whole lot smarter. What RAMBO is, is a no apologies, no holds-barred slaughter fest, and it's undeniable well made.

How this film got away with an R rating is beyond me- but I really couldn't care less. Seeing a 61 year-old Sylvester Stallone tearing a Burmese rebel's throat out assured me I was seeing something special; Special because Stallone has successfully managed to end another popular series of his on a high note.

RAMBO delivers hardcore asskicking in it's purest form...and in this case that's exactly what I was hoping for.

Cloverfield

Despite a rather forgettable creature(when it is in focus and in full view), CLOVERFIELD delivers the goods by utilizing perfect usage of shacky-cam and digital effects, and showcasing characters to actually care about. It's also (suprisingly) quite thrilling, chilling, and eerie through it's portrayal of the chaos, which obviously holds 9/11 undertones. Remarkably well-made, CLOVERFIELD is one of the few films to actually live up to it's hype, and deliver what was promised: One hell of a thrill ride!

Possession (The Night the Screaming Stops)

Bande à part (Band of Outsiders)

Los Olvidados (The Young and the Damned)

Brutal and cynical, Buñuel's film proves that he's equally adept at neorealism as surrealism. The surrealist parts of the film doesn't undermine but complements the main neorealism approach. Not many film made even today has as much balls to portray such a subject without such detachment and relentless honesty, not to mention the insight and maturity with which it is imbued. A very powerful film with a dose of black humor.

Juno

I love this film; absolutely LOVE it! I thought I'd just get that out of the way. Though it may not be the best film of the year (SEE: No Country For Old Men/ There Will Be Blood), it's the one I feel the most for.

Through it's 92 minute running time, I don't think I stopped smiling... or spotted one scene that wasn't pitch- perfect for that matter. Juno is a perfect film, and one that I find really hard to describe; it's oh so simple, yet so emotionally complex and involving that it's something that truely needs to be seen for one's self.

Few films are as alive, as joyous, as funny, and as heartfelt as JUNO; it's cinematic comfort food- that's really the only way this particular reviewer can describe it. As for Ellen Page, I'll be rooting for her at the 2008 oscars- she ultimately IS this movie.

Also Kudos to Jason Reitman; I loved his THANK YOU FOR SMOKING, but he has reached a new plateau with this one.

Prince of the City