In a Better World (R) 7.0

In a Better World (2010) "Hævnen" (The Revenge): The lives of two Danish families cross each other, and an extraordinary but risky friendship comes into bud. But loneliness, frailty and sorrow lie in wait. (7.6)

Director: Susanne Bier
Writers: Anders Thomas Jensen, Susanne Bier
Stars: Mikael Persbrandt, Trine Dyrholm, Ulrich Thomsen
Language: Danish (w/ English subtitles)

The English title is a misnomer; better if they had kept the literal translation from Danish: "The Revenge." The movie contains multiple stories, inter-twined with each other, that have varying degrees of one person doing bad things to another and their consequences. How the person who suffers, mostly mental trauma and hurt, reacts is the key to the unraveling of the events. I must admit that after learning its original title, I'm looking at it with a different perspective. To me, "In a Better World" is preachy and carries a different connotation. The story is complex and has many lines, but the sequential presentation makes it easy to follow. The acting is very good, specially by the young actors. Liked the wide-angle shots of various scenes. Good drama, for a thinking person. My Rating: 7.0

Under the Salt (R) 7.5

Under the Salt (2008) "Bajo la sal" (original title): When he arrives at a village near a remote salt mine to solve a string of grim murders, Detective Comandante Trujillo turns his investigation toward a troubled youth who works in a funeral parlor. (6.7)

Director: Mario Muñoz
Writers: Angel Pulido, Mario Muñoz
Stars: Humberto Zurita, Plutarco Haza, Emilio Guerrero
Language: Spanish (w/ English subtitles)

A murder mystery with more than a few twists. Yes, movies from Mexico seem to show move blood and gore than your average Hollywood equivalents, but it is quite appropriate here. The selection of the location, the sets, the use of lighting and the good camera angels all add up to a fabulous cinematography work. The story within is the stop-motion animation that the young man is doing, and that is also done with great care and skill. Even the effort put into the credits show that this indeed is not just a movie, but a labor of love. The acting is quite good; some of them look a bit stiff, but they are supposed to be like that for the part. And, the story itself is quite interesting and keeps you guessing all the way through. I'd say worth a look. My Rating: 7.5

Beasts of the Southern Wild (PG-13) 8.0

Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012): Faced with both her hot-tempered father's fading health and melting ice-caps that flood her ramshackle bayou community and unleash ancient aurochs, six-year-old Hushpuppy must learn the ways of courage and love. (7.3)

Director: Benh Zeitlin
Writers: Lucy Alibar / Benh Zeitlin (screenplay), Lucy Alibar (stage play "Juicy and Delicious")
Stars: Quvenzhané Wallis, Dwight Henry, Levy Easterly

The movie is a mix a small part fantasy about prehistoric beasts and a documentary style story about the Louisiana bayou living. The poor folks who live somewhat off-grid life in the flood prone area are the people of the earth and their story comes out with all the joy and all the faults in-tact in this wonderful story-telling. The standout actor, obviously, is Wallis with the portrayal of Hushpuppy. She is so good in that role, you'd think this is a documentary. We watch movies for the great stories and to be wowed by them. And, this is one of those movies that you'd not only enjoy while watching it, but also remember sometime later and take pleasure in the memory of it. My Rating: 8.0

Wallander (TV) 7.5

Wallander (2008): In a picturesque and once-peaceful province of southern Sweden, disillusioned police inspector Kurt Wallander probes a shocking spate of baffling murders. (7.5)

Director: Philip Martin, Niall MacCormick
Writers: Henning Mankell (Novels), Richard Cottan (Screenplays)
Stars: Kenneth Branagh, Sarah Smart, Richard McCabe

I watched the first season (three movie-length disjointed episodes) of the British series. It is set in Sweden, apparently as the novels intended, and the names, signs, newspapers, are are in Swedish, but the dialog is in English. Each of the three stories probably requires a separate post, but I'm too lazy. Maybe I'll do separate posts for each season as I watch them. The three that I watched are all well written screenplays (Sidetracked, Firewall, One Step Behind). Good storylines and well developed characters. Yes, the main characters are portrayed as having lives outside of detective work (some people may find that extraneous and not part of the plot) that adds to the richness of the story-telling. My Rating: 7.5

Welcome to the Rileys (R) 6.5

Welcome to the Rileys: On a business trip to New Orleans, a damaged man seeks salvation by caring for a wayward young woman. (6.9)

Director: Jake Scott
Writer: Ken Hixon
Stars: James Gandolfini, Kristen Stewart, Melissa Leo

I guess, "nobody's perfect" is the take home message from the story, but it takes forever to deliver that. An original thought by the writer in juxtaposing a mid-western family with a New Orleans stripper. But in my opinion, it needed a bit more meat in the story. With New Orleans as the backdrop I feel that they should have had a few more outside shots giving justice to the city. Acting by the big names is quite good, considering that the audience is required to fill in the gaps, specially those that are left open inside the actors heads. Sure, it is a thinking person's movie, but a tiny bit was missing, IMHO. My Rating: 6.5

Waltz with Bashir (R) 8.0

Waltz with Bashir (2008) "Vals Im Bashir" (original title): An Israeli film director interviews fellow veterans of the 1982 invasion of Lebanon to reconstruct his own memories of his term of service in that conflict. (7.9)

Director: Ari Folman
Writer: Ari Folman
Stars: Ari Folman, Ori Sivan, Ronny Dayag

I started watching the movie not knowing much about it, other than seeing "animation for grown-ups" in one of the descriptions. I didn't know that it was a documentary of an actual event until quite a bit into the movie. Not having followed the endless conflict in middle east that closely, I didn't realize they were talking about the Sabra and Shatila massacre that had actually happened in real life. That blissful ignorance for the first half of the movie actually made me realize that a lot of wars are like that, and that war is hell even when it is depicted in animation. The movie itself is a documentary about the self discovery of repressed memories. The animation is quite unique and very well done. I think, the technique of using animation to tell the story very well suites the purpose of this documentary. The music also plays a major role in the message. Yes, this is an anti-war documentary in the form of animation from a former soldier who is (believed to be) partially responsible for the brutality. And, in my view, it takes guts to do a project like this. My Rating: 8.0

Shuffle (PG-13) 7.0

Shuffle (2011): Lovell Milo suddenly begins to experience his life out of chronological sequence. (6.2)

Director: Kurt Kuenne
Writer: Kurt Kuenne
Stars: T.J. Thyne, Paula Rhodes, Chris Stone

While the original description reminded me of the Time Traveler's Wife, the movie itself is not like that movie (or the book). Instead, this one had an original take on the whole out-of-sequence experiences. Yes, I'm a sucker for movies like this (time travel; time displacement; etc.) so I know that I will be giving this one more credit than most people. Still, it used the camera tricks, still photos, the repeating sequences/words, etc to tell a compelling story. This is not a science fiction, so the viewer shouldn't think too much about the "time displacement" aspect of the story; instead the events will keep you glued to the screen. The take-away for me was not what the director intended, that you can have a second chance at life; but that's just me. Yet, I liked the heartbreaking and uplifting story. My Rating: 7.0

Name of the Rose (R) 7.5

The Name of the Rose (1986): An intellectually nonconformist monk investigates a series of mysterious deaths in an isolated abbey. (7.7)

Director: Jean-Jacques Annaud
Writers: Umberto Eco (novel), Andrew Birkin (screenplay)
Stars: Sean Connery, Christian Slater, Helmut Qualtinger

A murder mystery set in a monastery in the middle ages gives a very intriguing storyline. As a back-story there is the debate between factions of the church itself. We can see quite clearly how the movie conveys the relationship between the church and the general populace without saying it in words. Looking from outside, it is interesting to see that even the man with a rudimentary deductive skills can make a mockery of the church's inquisition. Connery is the perfect actor to play the lead role of William of Baskerville. Young Christian Slater performs the role of the apprentice quite well. The sets and the costumes are very well done. An all around nice movie that perhaps hasn't gained much popular acclaim. My Rating: 7.5

Time Traveller (PG-13) 6.5

Time Traveller: The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (2010) Toki o Kakeru Shōjo (時をかける少女): When her scientist mother is injured in a car accident, exuberant teenager Akira hopes to wake her from her coma by time-traveling from 2010 to 1972 to seek help from a mysterious man, but her inadvertent landing in 1974 complicates her quest. (6.0)

Director: Masaaki Taniguchi
Writers: Yasutaka Tsutsui (based on the novel by), Tomoe Kanno (screenplay)
Stars: Riisa Naka, Akiyoshi Nakao, Munetaka Aoki

I watched the anime version of "The Girl Who Leapt Through Time" earlier, but this movie takes a different direction. In this story, the girl who travels through time is actually the daughter and the heart wrenching romance is kind of skipped along the way (okay, replaced by a different one, but it isn't the same). While watching this movie, I didn't think that it had much to do with the anime version. I did like this one's attempt at looking at the story from the different angle. Regardless of the title, this really isn't a hard science fiction. When the viewer sets the expectations of it as a non-scifi, the story becomes interesting. My Rating: 6.5

Surviving Progress (NR) 8.0

Surviving Progress (2011): Humanity's ascent is often measured by the speed of progress. But what if progress is actually spiraling us downwards, towards collapse? Ronald Wright, whose best-seller, A Short History Of Progress inspired SURVIVING PROGRESS, shows how past civilizations were destroyed by "progress traps" - alluring technologies and belief systems that serve immediate needs, but ransom the future. (7.1)

Directors: Harold Crooks, Mathieu Roy
Writers: Harold Crooks, Mathieu Roy
Stars: Ronald Wright, Mark Levine, Robert Wright


Yes, yes, yes ... this documentary shows how I often feel about a lot of things in our highly complex society. So many people like industrialists, energy executives, investment bankers, stock brokers, etc have the mentality that "there's a lot more of this stuff where it came from; and, we need to make use of it to make big profits before the other guys do." The libertarian idea of letting the marketplace alone take care of everything doesn't work since we--individually and collectively as families, groups, corporations, and nations--only think about how to make something "work" for us at the expense of others. The idea of making a buck in however ways and whatever means will have very detrimental consequences for the collective civilization. If we are a self sustaining small group of people floating in a tiny spaceship, we would think about the "right thing" to do before ruining the entire colony for everyone. Well, the earth is kind of a spaceship with 7 billion fellow travelers. The need for preserving that spaceship for the future generations to come is what this documentary tries to tell us. But I think, we are too late already. My Rating 8.0