In the late 1960s/ early 1970s, a San Francisco cartoonist becomes an amateur detective obsessed with tracking down the Zodiac killer, an unidentified individual who terrorized Northern California with a killing spree. With this special film about a serial killer, director David Fincher proves his class. In a semi-documentary style, he has made a haunting and exciting film about three men obsessively chasing a serial killer.
It is Pixar’s eight feature-length animated film and it is about a young rat Rémy who dreams of becoming a chef in a top restaurant in Paris. The extremely cuddly Rémy gets a little help and ends up in the former 5-star restaurant of his idol, the late chef Gusteau. He makes an unusual alliance with young kitchen worker Linguini, who is talentless but very ambitious. “Ratatouille” is one of my favorite Pixar movies of all-time. Not only the technical mastery impresses, the film superbly combines serious matter and comical moments. The story is layered and offers top entertainment for all ages.
Juno is a sixteen year old girl who unexpectedly gets pregnant by a boy from the running team. She has to decide what to do with the yet unborn child. “Juno” writes witty and clever dialogue for this comic drama, that gets stronger and stronger towards the end.
Chris McCandles is highly educated, the son of wealthy parents, but absolutely uninterested in social success. He decides to give his money away to survive in the wilderness and ends up in Alaska after a long journey. Is he brave, naïve or both? Director Sean Penn turns the true story into a somewhat bombastic epic about the search of a misguided soul for himself. Beautiful images, great performances, clever editing and an unforgettable soundtrack by Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder.
The young worker Robbie is falsely accused of rape by the thirteen year old sister of his girlfriend Cecilia, in a film adaptation of Ian McEwan’s book. Excellent performances by James McAvoy, Keira Knightley and Saoirse Ronan and fabulous camerawork. Just look at that take on the battlefield around Dunkirk.
In Sanford, ominous things happen. The gardens are too neat, the façades too clean. Not village can become ‘Village of the Year’ three times in a row without a bad practice behind it. Policeman Danny Butterman and his over-ambitious colleague Nichols Angel are investigating. After their success with the zombie film parody “Shaun of the Dead”, director Edgar Wright teamed up with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost again. And they gave us the best comedy ever made. It’s a comedy with masterly jokes and uncomfortable melancholy, that will make my day any time.
This sweet, witty drama about a particularly shy young man who experiences great love with a sex doll was widely praised. His brother and sister-in-law are very worried about his unconventional romance, but gradually the village community decides to accept the inflatable Bianca. It’s a totally crazy story with a big, warm beating heart and it remains perfectly balanced. Largely thanks to the restrained, touching performance by Ryan Gosling in one of his best roles.
Early twentieth century miner Daniel Plainview finds oil. By plodding day and night he manages to build on his initially modest success the only one who doesn’t fall for his smooth talks about the wealth he can bring to farmers is the charismatic preacher Eli Sunday. It’s a surprising epic about the rise of a misanthropic oil baron with excellent performances, especially by Daniel Day-Lewis, who once again immersed himself completely in his role.
With “A History of Violence” director David Cronenberg made a compelling portrait of the beast in an everyday man. Two years later he teams up with Viggo Mortensen again. This time Mortensen plays the omniscient Russian driver for a highly criminal Russian family in London. A very overlooked crime drama, with excellent performances by Viggo Mortenson, Naomi Watts, Armin Mueller-Stahl and Vincent Cassel.
Vietnam veteran Llewelyn Moss stumbles upon dead Mexicans in the Texas desert, a car full of drugs and a suitcase with money. He takes the money with him and is soon chased by Anton Chigurh, an assassin who prefers to kill with a slaughter pistol. the disillusioned sheriff Bell can only watch from a distance. In this brilliant modern western, the action takes place out of the frame in the crucial scenes. That doesn’t mean the Coen Brothers are sparing with blood, bullets and corpses. An excellent script and especially well-performed by Javier Bardem who won an Oscar for his role as Chigurh.
