Mystery Train

A night in Memphis is replayed in three perspectives, all having the commonality of the characters staying in the same hotel with the ghost of Elvis haunting them. Kicked off with a segment featuring our friend Masatoshi Nagase and his girl friend (Youki Kudoh) seeking Graceland. Nagase's deadpan outlook which is in stark contrast to Kudoh's ebullience just adds to screenplay's punch. As the film culminates in a piece Steve Buscemi, you realize how much the film influenced Pulp Fiction.

Rating: * * +

Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Vicky (Rebecca Hall) and Cristina (Scarlett Johansson) go to Barcelona, meet Juan (Javier Bardem) who is obsessed with his ex-wife Maria Elena (Penélope Cruz) and end up in a mighty existential tangle. Woody Allen continues remain in my book as a noisy and overrated director!

Rating: * +

The Sea Is Watching

Couple of short stories written by Akira Kurosawa that blend into each other in Kei Kumai's take on the late master's last screenplay. The setting is a brothel in Edo and the characters are the geisha and their lovers who occupy it and the sea that obsereves them. The film doesn't even come close to being called a Kurosawa masterpiece but it does prove to me that Masatoshi Nagase's  role in the The Hidden Blade was not just an one off.

Rating: * *

Eight Mile High

A slickly made pointless film about the tumultuous life of super model Uschi Obermaier (Natalia Avelon) whose life was made interesting by the men (Keith Richards, Mic Jagger) she slept with.

Rating: * +

Days and Clouds

Elsa's (Margherita Buy) joy of graduating with her PhD is cut short when she discovers that her husband, Michele (Antonio Albanese), has been kicked out of his business. As he struggles to find a job, what splashes across the screen are the scenes of a family crumbling in the face of being taken out of its comfort zone. A film thick with desperation but I think that's exactly how the director meant it to be.

Rating: * * +

Awaara

"Does a gentleman's son turn out to be a gentleman and does the son of a thief turn out to be thief?". This three hour film is dedicated to solving this puzzle. Throw in ten songs and this 1951 serves as the blue print for Bollywood melodramas for decades to come.

Rating: * +

The Wackness

A wacky movie about a teenage drug dealer, Luke (Josh Peck),who sells weed to his psychiatrist (Ben Kingsley) in exchange for therapy. But when he falls for the good doctors step daughter (Olivia Thirlby), things get even more wacky in this flat "romady".

Rating: * *

The Samurai I Loved

Bunshiro's (Somegoro Ichikawa) family is abolished when his father (Ken Ogata) is forced to commit seppuku under mysterious circumstances. Evicted from his mansion, he and his mother are forced to live in a dilapidated hut. But like deja-vu, Bunshiro finds himself placed in a similar predicament his father was in. The fact that it also involves his childhood sweetheart Fuku (Yoshino Kimura), only complicates it futher.

Yearning for more jidaigeki like the Yoji Yamada trilogy pushed me towards this one. Fact that it is based on a Shûhei Fujisawa novel only made it more promising. But all it did was reiterate what a master Yamada san is.

Rating: * * +

Sway

Did the rope bridge sway causing Cheiko (Yoko Maki) to slip or was she pushed by Minoru (Teruyuki Kagawa)? The film revolves around this incident with the main protagonist, Takeru (Jô Odagiri), Minoru's brother playing the observer. A slow deliberate drama that throws death into familial tensions spiced with love life of the brothers. Watching the film is like walking slowly across the rope bridge that features so prominently in the film. If you are not careful, you will find yourself swaying.

Rating: * * *

Malèna

The boys stand on the boardwalk overlooking sea, that like many things took me back to the Malecon, waiting with bated breath. The receipt of their pants is the sultry Malèna (Monica Bellucci), walking from home into town. Of the boys, Renato's (Giuseppe Sulfaro) heart beats faster, and in his mind with more purity for her. When the World War claims her husband, she finds herself at the mercy of the town for the sin of being born beautiful. As the malicious rumors fly about her, only Reanto recogonizes the pain and pathos in her eyes. Ms. Bellucci is silent for most parts but there is a searing undertone of suffering reflected in her eyes that speaks volumes. To put it simply, it is a film about innocence and its end.

Rating: * * +

Shinobi no mono

A film that supposedly portrays Ninjas in a realistic light. But it is a complete rubbish flick centered around two Ninjutsu schools competing to assassinate Oda Nobunaga.

Rating: +

Real Fiction

An artist stoically paints portraits at a park. His customers abuse him and the local thugs bully him. Suddenly he snaps and goes off on a revenge rampage against all the souls that ever hurt him. A woman follows him around recording every second of the carnage. Kim Ki-duk's revenge "thriller" shot in real time lacks his trademark calmness and surrealism and turns out be one of his weakest offerings.

Rating: *

Children of Heaven

Ali (Amir Farrokh Hashemian) loses his sister, Zahra's (Bahare Seddiqi) shoes right after he gets them repaired. Not wanting to pressure their poor and hardworking father, they decide to share Ali's sneakers in a kind of relay. Zahra will wear them to school in the morning and rush back in time with them for Ali to go to school. A poignant children's tale that is shorn of the expected melodrama but is left with right amount of "cuteness" and emotion.

Rating: * * *

Ten

Carrying on from here, Abbas Kiarostami returns with a close look at the life (and resulting complications) of a modern day Iranian woman. The entire movie is a compilation of (10) conversations held in a moving car by the leading lady (who delivers an outstanding performance) - which provides an insight into the issues swirling in her head. Her partners in these conversations are a variety of people - son / sister / fellow worshiper at a mosque / a prostitute / an old stranger lady / a friend who has been dumped by her lover; discussing a range of topics from religion, motherhood, to the role of a woman in a man's life etc. Its not so much about the moral / existential discussions, but all about the emotions / thoughts of this specific person i.e. the leading lady character.

Apart from the very life-like nature of the dialogues and performances by the various non-actors as one would expect from an Abbas K film, the background visuals also provides the viewer with a good feel of what the city of Tehran looks like. Just as 'Taste of Cherry', 'Ten' is yet another fantastic exhibition of film-making that focuses squarely on realism, that I appreciate big time.

Rating: * * *

Days of Heaven

Stunning photography is what one experiences with this Terrence Malick film. Made way before this or this - brings alive the brown wheat fields of Texas Panhandle (apparently its the Canadian prairies in reality) and the life of 3 migrant labourers. Richard Gere plays a young, hot-blooded worker who conspires with his girlfriend to entrap the owner of the field. Despite the "innocence" behind their intentions, it is apparent that tragedy is the most likely outcome. A classically plain plot that is ore underwhelming. But it cant take away the fact that it is indeed one hell of a beautifully shot film.

Rating: * *

Farewell My Concubine

Cheng Deiyi (Leslie Cheung) and Duan Xialou (Fengyi Zhang) are inseparable since they are thrown together as apprentices at the Beijing Opera in the 1920s. As they grow older and closer, fame follows them as they rise to the top of the opera world. It is when courtesan Juxian (Li Gong) enters Xialou's life that the first fissures in the friendship appear. The political climate changes over the decades does little to help the intertwined relationships, as the film takes you through fifty years of modern Chinese history. But as always it is the Cultural Revolution that leaves the viewer shaking...

Rating: * * +

Tell No One

Dr. Alexandre Beck (François Cluzet) lost the love of his life to a gruesome murder. 8 years later, still greiving for her, he receives an anonymous email showing a video of her during recent times. The email is akin to a personal Pandora's Box for the doctor as he finds himself assailed on all sides and soon is on the run for murder. On his trail is a George Smiley like detective, who really should have been given more screen time. A slightly improbable but immensely watchable thriller.

Rating: * * *

The Reader

Have often heard that this is a very deep movie. Either its the irritating German accented English spoken by the German characters or an overdose of Holocaust films from many years ago, I found it painful. Yes, there is that bit about a shameful love story and a tragic end to their saga - but has nothing really new to say at all.

Rating: * *

Youth Without Youth

Sometimes a movie can come close to telling a story the way a book would. And that's how Coppola's film comes across which is, in his words, all about consciousness. Tim Roth plays a linguistic professor who gets a second lease of life one day in WW II Romania - and through a surreal (reverse aging process), highly spiritual journey gets closer to his life objective in linguistic research - to understand the "inarticulate moment of the beginning", which apparently will help in the future of post-historic man. Along the way, one comes across many interesting characters and many interesting places. Without focusing on the reverse aging gimmick too much, 'Youth Without Youth' is heavily laden with philosophical concepts which can circumvent ones brain - however, the film's got a good rhythm and Tim Roth's temperament to tell a highly interesting story.

Rating: * * *

Quid Pro Quo

Isaac (Nick Stahl) has never walked since being in an accident that took his parents away from him. Now a NYC radio reporter he receives an anonymous tip about a subculture of people who want to be paralyzed. As he follows up on the lead he meets Fiona (Vera Farmiga), one of the wannabes. Soon nothing is as it seems and everything is quid pro quo.

Rating: * * +