Sin Nombre

Sayra (Paulina Gaitan) and El Casper (Édgar Flores) are fleeing their homeland for different reasons. Casper is running away from death and Sayra is running towards life. Their paths meet and director Cary Fukunaga uses this intersection to show you two of South Americas biggest problems. Illegal immigration and the organised gangs like the the Mara Salvatrucha 13. The director apparently spent time riding the trains, talking to its riders and hanging out with MS-13 gang members and it shows in the film. It has no finesse or polish. Just brutal realism.

Rating: * * * +

Nights and Weekends

Couldn't take more than 20 minutes of this film where a whiny couple constantly bickers about their long distance relationship.

Rating: +

Adventureland

James Brennan's (Jesse Eisenberg) dream of a summer in Europe evaporates when his father's job is downsized. Faced with negative skills and a need for money, he is forced to work at the local amusement park. Soon he is treated to life lessons at the park that mainly focus on falling in love and discovering that women always fall for the wrong men.

Rating: * +

Goodbye Solo

William (Red West) wants to commit suicide and all he wants taxi driver Solo (Souleymane Sy Savane) to do is drop him off at the top of a hill. But what Solo wants is to do is become his best friend forever! With respect to the character Solo, director Ramin Bahrani has stolen a page from Abbas Kiarostami. Even if someone wanted to desperately live, hanging out with Solo will surely drive him to suicide.

Rating: * +

Gigantic

Brian Weathersby (Paul Dano) has wanted to adopt a Chinese baby ever since he was 8 years old. As he struggles to convince authorities that he is a capable father in spite of working a dead end job as a mattress salesman, Harriet (Zooey Deschanel) and her crazy father (John Goodman) walks in to his life. Soon romance is in the air and it was never this dead pan.

Rating: * * *

Men Who Stare at Goats

Journalist Bob Wilton (Ewan McGregor) heads to Iraq, seeking adventure just so that he can show off to his ex-wife. He finds more than he can handle when he runs in to Lyn Cassady (George Clooney) who claims to have been part of a super psych unit in the US army. Soon you are introduced to Lyn's mentor Bill Django (Jeff Bridges), arch nemesis Larry Hooper (Kevin Spacey) and other crazies super soldiers. The film has more than a few hilarious bits but I should warn you that for many parts that had me and Mohanlal in splits, the rest of the theater was dead silent and vice versa. On the whole the film does not hang together in spite of the stellar cast and quirky script.

Rating: * *

The Cake Eaters

Guy (Jayce Bartok) returns to his family on the death of mother. His father and  welcome him back with reluctant happiness. His brother, Beagle (Aaron Stanford) meets him with restrained hostility. Soon skeletons in the closets start to rattle as the three men get tangled up in love. Kristen Stewart  plays Beagle's terminally ill love interest with a desperation that is startling. The melancholy of her situation deeply reflected in the endless depth of her eyes. A film that gently wanders around the various inter personal relationships just as an observer  while never passing judgment.

Rating: * * +

Turtles Can Fly

Satellite (Soran Ebrahim) commands a roving band of children who roam around the villages and refugee camps at the Iraqi-Turkish border. They perform invaluable jobs like installing antennas and clearing minefields. In to this world comes the armless prescient boy (Hiresh Feysal Rahman) and his beautiful sister (Avaz Latif) with a baby brother in tow. Satellite is threatened by the boy and attracted to the sister. Until this point you are almost lulled in to believing this is going to turn out be a coming of age tale set among the backdrop of the coming US invasion of Iraq. But slowly the layers are peeled away and the ugly underbelly of war is revealed.

Rating: * * +

The Blue Mansion

After many months of waiting, finally watched Nek's first piece of contribution to the world of big budget films. Set in the beautiful Cheong Fatt Tze mansion, the film unravels as a family comes to terms with the death of the patriarch. Having been a heavy handed enforcer all his life, the death of the Old man understandably brings much relief all around. However, the visit of Inspector Suresh to the Wee household infuses an element of mystery to the death and the plot kicks foward with tension amongst the various family members boiling over. There is much humour/wit at every step of the way, and the presence of the ghost of the Old man proves to be an important cog in the plot.

The production quality of The Blue Mansion stands out considering that my previous experiences of Singapore cinema were such. Adrian Pang as the younger, angry Wee brother puts in a credible performance and pretty much carries the film. However it is Huzir Sulaiman as the inspector that steals the show for me. The rest of the acting does come across as rather theatrical - but from subsequent interviews of the director and the script writer, I understand that it was a conscious ploy. Maybe, but its not something that I could relate to in a film.

Rating: * * +

12

Take  12 Angry Men and distill it with some fine vodka and you have the Russian version of the film. Need I say more...

Rating: * * +

Two Lovers

Leonard (Joaquin Phoenix) is nice Jewish boy who is messed up from his broken engagement and little disengaged with life. To engage him, his parents try to hook him up with a business partner's daughter. Sandra (Vinessa Shaw) falls for him and loves him to pieces. But Leonard decides to run behind his psychotic blond neighbor (Gwyneth Paltrow) and pointlessly confuse his life!

Rating: * +

Cherry Blossoms

On discovering that her husband Rudi (Elmar Wepper) is terminally ill, Trudi (Hannelore Elsner) hides the fact from him. Instead she suggests a visit to Berlin to visit their children. But one can never plan around death in spite of its inevitability. The film floats to Tokyo and shows you the suffering of spouse grieving the absence of a loved one. Like the user comments at IMDB says, the movie is one part Lost in Translation, one part Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles and all parts brilliant.

Rating: * * * +

Khuda Kay Liye

A friend suggested this film saying this is the movie that Shoot on Sight could have been. Like the former this film too tries to extrapolate the perilous situation Pakistanis / Muslims are in all over the world, with the Islamic fundamentalists encroaching up on progressive minds. The storyline is two pronged with the happenings in the lives of two brothers across continents are juxtaposed to highlight this. But in spite of the strong hard hitting content the film appears distant and doesn't engage the viewer. The script could have been easily blamed for this but Naseeruddin Shah's cameo showed the issue lay with the dialog delivery of the other so called actors!

Rating: * *

Just Another Love Story

Jonas (Anders W. Berthelsen) grew up wanting to be a photographer framing sceneries and landscapes. Adulthood finds him leading a humdrum life as a police photographer with a wife and two kids. The only thing that his lenses frame are dead bodies. Everything turns topsy turvy when runs in to Julia (Rebecka Hemse) in a car crash. An awkward circumstances finds himself slipping in to the skin of her boyfriend. And so the film ventures in to existential angst territory only to disappointingly drift away in to the thriller area. Maybe it was the initial expectation that did me in with this finely crafted movie. Expectation is indeed the mother of all disappointments.

Rating: * *

Waltz with Bashir

A pack of feral dogs tear across an anonymous street striking terror in the hearts of the pedestrians. If at all your mind was wandering this scene will snap it  back in place. From there on you venture in to the mind of Ari Folman in his quest to bring back his buried memories of the Lebanon War. A unique use of animation in an almost documentary like fashion to portray the scars a war leaves behind on the human psyche.

Rating: * * +

Revolutionary Road

A couple struggles with the emptiness and hopelessness of their suburban existence. They find a solution for it but life gets in their way. A film that reminded me of The Shawshank Redemption in that both features deal with people trying to be free. Except in Shawshank the prison walls are well defined and freedom lies yonder.

Rating: * * * +

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

The story of a man who is born old and dies young. He grows younger as every body around him ages. If only the story focused more on the dichotomy of the situation rather than treating it with a banal focus. But yet when a long film keeps you in your seat, one has to give it; its due.

Rating: * * +

Timecrimes

Héctor (Karra Elejalde) stumbles in to the past and meets himself, setting off events that slowly spin out of control. A film that expose the complexities involved with time travel through a simple plot.

Rating: * * +

What Doesn't Kill You

Brian (Mark Ruffalo) and Paulie (Ethan Hawke) have lived a life of crime since their teens. Now a struggling father and husband, Brian wants to go straight to show that what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger. But somehow the film fails to create a connection with the viewer and ends up tasting like commercial American beer.

Rating: * *

Maborosi

Yumiko's lasting childhood memory is that of her grandmother's disappearance. Adulthood finds her drifting in to an arranged marriage after her husband's suicide. Slowly she grows to love the fisherman she marries. But the ghost of her first husband's suicide returns to haunt her. She like many of us keeps postponing her goodbyes... another meditative film from Hirokazu Koreeda.

Rating: * * +