My Favorite Movies

Between this and "Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter...and Spring", I've become a fan of director Kim Ki-duk...while the latter is a 4-part Buddhist themed story of life cycles, "3-Iron" very loosely touches on an Eastern spiritual theme/proverb, what in my mind is a "twisted, uber-quirky chick-flick". Worried about subtitles? There isn't much dialog, since both protagonists have no lines what so ever! The film is a unique, superbly crafted tale of clandestine love of two lost (or phantom) souls...who accidentally cross paths and fall in love despite Tae-suk's transient nature and Sun-hwa's married life. And while it looks as if the film will end in tragedy while the couple are on the run for a new life together...the boundaries between reality and fantasy become blurred...

A jem of a movie, that probably hardly anyone has seen. I caught it on IFC a few years back....wonderful performances all around, from the annoyingly acultural Raj, living the better life in the US as a doctor, being as assimilated as can be while beginning a family with his cold and bitchy American wife, Laura. She immediately takes a dislike to Raj's father, Kishan, who was recently widowed and comes to the US to live with his son. The dynamics of culture shock and indifference work on unusual levels in this movie, perhaps VERY realistic manner...because I watched the movie and was so frustrated with how mean Raj and Laura were to Kishan, who is one of those amazingly well read and wise retired school teacher types, extremely open-minded, but of course has his Indian customs and shares them with his granddaughter, that puts tension between him and his son and daughter-in-law....as well as a sort of tension already present in the marriage.

Just a wonderful character study of a whole family really, very real, sometimes annnoying, sometimes inspiring...great independent picture that again, has gone unnoticed...

Amazing movie from Chile, that takes us back to the 1970's when Pinochet was coming to power...recreates the era wonderfully and authentically (from what I've heard from people that lived there during that time), focusing on the son of an upper class family, who befriends a classmate from a poor background.

The acting is phenomenal, it plays out as a story of friendship that accentuates the political, economic and social divides that exist so markedly in Latin America, as we see through the eyes of Gonzalo and his place on the higher tiers of society. The divisions become even more fractured as the coup occurs in Chile towards the end of the movie, with the military and right wing upper class crushing any socialist/communist organizing...there's quite a bit of symbolism but not so much that it overtakes the general atmosphere recreated here of the 70's and the wonderful relationships developed between our protagonist, Machuca (the poor classmate) and his family/friends that are involved with some of the labor unions/marches.

This might be one of the best movies out of Chile, if not all Latin America in many recent decades.

I didn't think Reygadas was capable of this, but Luz Silenciosa/Stellet Licht (or Silent Light) is a veritable masterpiece, even if some will cry it's the epitome of pretension, or the tr00 pretentious snobs will claim the film was ruined by the turn of events during the last 10 minutes. This film is a work of art, a (fictional) portrait of life, the first film to almost entirely use Plautdietsch. And note: if you can't sit through the beginning 7 minutes of the movie, depicting the gradual sunrise over the Northern Mexican plains, you can walk out of the theater and know THIS is not for you, this sets the pace of the film.

Stellet Licht is shot in a pseudo-documentary style, like Reygadas other films Japón and Batalla en el Cielo, though with a greater about of refinement here. Scenes focusing on the individuals and the landscape flaunted some WONDERFUL camera work, using it almost like a paintbrush. It captures a unique atmosphere of simple, slow, and quiet country life in Northern Mexico, the vast and delicate lushness of the countryside, the orderly and simple homes of the Mennonites that almost seems alien, like a David Lynch work. The film depicts a part of Mexico that no one ever sees, other than the occasional sunburned blonde haired, blue-eyed Mennonite families selling cheese and cream in some of the larger cities.

There are no trained actors (not a huge market for Mennonite thespians :P), and well perhaps you can fault the film a tad for a lack of emotional depth and realism at the very beginning, but I was actually shocked that once the film gets going, there was an authenticity in the performances that rarely gets captured, down to where you really don't take much notice that there is a fictional story driving the characters, even with the twist at the very end.

I really do hope the foreign language Oscar goes to Mexico this year, for perhaps one of the most unique films ever submitted by the country, if not maybe the only film ever to take place in a Mennonite community, spoken entirely in their native language. Probably nothing new was really introduced to the cinema world with Stellet Licht, but the craft itself was honed in such a degree that is a rare treat for lovers of art, life, and cinema.

BIZARRE! One of the most surreal movies I've seen, with a GREAT soundtrack, also done by the creators of this f-ed up animated feature.

Surreal, complex, and brilliant! The animation rendering was also some of the best you'll ever see, and I think there are many different layers to the story and message in this movie, and I don't mean the dream within dream moments! A masterful work of art, social commentary, and entertaining at the same time. Too bad the movie has gotten completely overlooked by major award festivals.

A total mindf*ck if you don't get too frustrated with the intentional misleading of the audience with narration juxtaposed with the opening of the movie. It's an art film: surrealism, social commentary, literary references, interpersonal relationship issues....it's a near masterpiece for Saura, on the heels of his other "obra maestra", Cria Cuervos.

Out of all Saura's films, this film should appeal to the David Lynch fanbase the most. I only hope Criterion will release this with a more refined quality than the transfer I saw.