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nine out of ten

A beautiful animated film that is more than just a simple children's movie but a touching story of love and loss and living your dream. I found the film absolutely gorgeous in its colors and creativity and I think its one of my favorite animated movies of late!

Donkey in Lahore

nine out ten

This is a documentary I saw recently and found absolutely fascinating simply because its an unlikely concept: An Australian white goth guy falls in love with a traditional Pakistani girl in Pakistan. He converts. He marries her. Then they spend two years apart trying to get her sponsored. It's a very powerful documentary that is very realistic and shows how difficult a long distance relationship is, and the pressures and regret that the young Pakistani girl now feels to have married this man despite her brother's begging her not to. Overall just very real and very raw. Worth seeing.

Moon

nine out of ten

This movie is the type that leaves you thinking for days. A man is alone on the moon working for a corporation that mines a resource on the moon which provides energy back home on earth. He has a three year contract ending in two weeks and is looking forward to seeing his wife and young daughter. As the days get closer to going home he gets sicker and sicker and that is when the true story really begins. . .

I don't want to give away too much but this movie really was awesome. It's science fiction but the sort that you can foresee happening someday. I thought the movie was well acted and enjoyed it very much.

The Hurt Locker

nine out of ten

This is a movie about the current war in Iraq, set in 2004 about a unit that finds and diffuse bombs. They have less than a month to go before their tour ends. And we literally, follow them as they do their job. In particular there is one soldier, the one who actually diffuses the bombs and we see him take risks to do what he does with a strange pleasure that mystifies his colleagues. The movie almost felt like a documentary to me. Though its not the sort of movie I would normally watch, it gave an interesting perspective and had no real agenda that I could make out except to show a day in the life of a soldier.

Inglorious Bastards

nine out of ten

This movie is Quentin Tarantino's latest and one of his better movies as of late. It takes place in Nazi Germany and focuses on a few characters who are all interesting, compelling, and in Tarantino style, absolutely bizarre. I found myself on the edge of my seat for most of the movie. If you can't handle violence then avoid this movie, but if like me, you're cool with closing your eyes once in a while, this movie is worth checking out.

Gran Torino

nine out of ten

This movie about an aging racist korean war vet widower living in an ever growing shadier neighborhood in detroit would have been perfect but for the acting of a few of the performers in the film. The movie like many Clint Eastwood movies, is a character development film and focuses on Walt's relationship with his Hmong neighbors who are dealing with conflicts from a Hmong gang. The movie is very powerful and I enjoyed the nuanced performance of Clint Eastwood very much.

Pan's Labyrinth

What a fantastic beautiful heart wrenching movie. This movie is beautiful because it is open to so many interpretations and the cinematography is superb.

Revolutionary Road

Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio knocked my socks off with this fantastic film. This is a story about a couple dissatisfied with their lives in suburbia hoping to make a break for it and live in Paris and try to be more than their current surroundings. I was riveted from start to finish, and thought it was one of my favorite movies. It is dark, but the acting and the message of the story spoke to me.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall

nine out of ten

I loved this movie! I know it was a bit vulgar, and perhaps I could only watch it in the company of only my husband without dying of embarrassment, but still, it was a really funny movie. I looove the leading actor in the movie, he's hilarious in "How I met your mother" and here as well. Plus it was set in Hawaii, and if you know me, then you know I'm biased to anything filmed there. I just wish they did away with all the nudity.

Waitress

nine out of ten

Jena loves making pies and is unhappily pregnant from a man she does not love: her husband. This movie is such a gem and its such a shame that the marketing for this movie did not reveal it for the fantastically fabulous film that it is. The movie trails the life of an unhappy married woman (legitimately so) as she learns to deal with this relationship and grudgingly deal with the pregnancy that has befallen her. The dialogue in this film is witty, its hilarious in subtle and not so subtle ways, and its touching and powerful. In some ways I find the story of this midwestern girl very similar to what many desi women probably go through daily in their married lives.... The trailers didn't hint to this at all.... what a gem, go out and rent it today!

3:10 to Yuma

nine out of ten

This movie gave me a newfound respect for Russel Crowe who deserves an Oscar for his acting in this film. The movie is about a farmer who is struggling to make ends meet offering to help escort a convicted much sought after felon to 3:10 train to Yuma for his court date. There are some genres I do not like, and Westerns are one of those genres. Yet, somehow, Crowe made the movie sharp and fresh and funny. He is the reason this movie rocks. I would recommend it 100%.

Departed

Nine out of Ten

I am writing this review as I watch this movie for the second time. We were lucky to even get the movie because everyone who walked into Blockbuster asked for it but it was all checked out. The frustrated clerks had even put up huge signs "WE ARE OUT OF DEPARTED". Luckily as we went up to check out someone dropped it off and we got to watch it.

It's a great film and what makes it great is the superb acting and directing. I'm not a huge fan of Leonardo DiCaprio but he just blew it out of the water in this film. Do you want an idea how good this is? I adore Matt Damon but the film would make me slightly nervous if I ever were to cross him on the street. The sweet smile with a terrible secret. Yikes.

Its a mobster flick and about undercover cops. It holds no surprises but the age old story is told so well you can't help but be swept away.

Little Miss Sunshine

Nine out of Ten

This is a movie that illustrates best why I love indie flicks. And this is the little indie flick that could as its up for so many Oscar nods that it makes my head swivel. Follow a very unlikely beauty pageant contestant as her family teeters along in a very symbolic yellow bus all the way to California to help her win. I love this film because it shows a family that is dysfunctional yet loves one another and I love the pointedly obvious yet still endearing metaphors and symbols of the film! The ending will turn even the most annoyed watcher into a fan because it is truly priceless!

Pursuit of Happyness

nine out of ten

This was a splendid film. It could have been sappy. It could have been cheesy. It is none of those things because of the fine actors who acted in this film (Minus Thandie who I felt was overacted quite a bit). Inspired by a true story, the movie follows a man who goes from struggling to stay afloat to becoming a man gasping for water as he sinks further and further toward the ocean floor all the while protecting his child as best as he can.

Will Smith did an amazing job. I was just watching Fresh Prince of Belair on Nick at Nite and could not help but reflect on what a long way he has come. His acting was on point and perfect. He conveyed emotion without speaking. I believe that it is he who made this movie as enjoyable as it was.

Those who say that the poor bring their struggles upon themselves should see this film to perhaps gain some empathy for intelligent people who are burdened not by foolish decisions but by the consequences of their surroundings...

A must see.

V for Vendetta

nine point five out of ten

I REALLY like this movie. Though the concept of the film was developed in the 80's, far before the times we live in today, the correlations in the film and the world today is positively chilling.

I urge anyone with an open mind to watch this movie. It follows a girl living in a "1982/Big Brother World" many years into the future. As she is walking along minding her own business her life is changed forever by a chance encounter with some villians, and then saved by another... villain?

That is the question the movie explores. Who exactly is villainous?

Watch the movie and decide for yourself.

The Devil Wears Prada

nine out of ten

Now I told you many a month ago that devils do indeed come in all shapes, colors, and sizes, and that many a one does indeed sport Prada. At long last a movie to prove my point! Please note the Prada littered throughout.

Follow Andi, a sweet midwestern girl who is a very "fat" size six as she tries to make it as a writer in New York City. She winds up working for Miranda Priestly as a junior assistant in a job that a million girls would kill for (she is reminded this at every turn). Essentially this magazine is like Vogue and a year stint here guaruntees all the doors you want will be open upon year's end. The movie follows Andi as she struggles to please this boss and in the process we watch as she gains and loses many things.

I loved this movie because Meryl Streep knows how to act. This is her movie and she shines like the star she is. Actors can make or break a movie and it is thanks to her this movie was excellent. She is funny, she is mean, she can just make a look and freeze you in your tracks. She truly is a boss from hell but she is more than that thanks to Meryl Streep. Huda read the book and said that in the book the mean boss is a very one sided character. In this movie there is depth and layers to the mean boss and into the choices that Andi makes in the city. I like that because no one is just one or the other. Most of us are very complex. What I particularly liked was a line in the movie where someone said the obvious: If Miranda was a man she'd be seen as someone who gets things done. Because she's a woman she's seen as the dragon woman. If you watch the movie you sort of get that.

My only critique of the movie is that in some ways it glamorizes the fashion industry because its message is very subtle. Apparently from reviews, the books is a little more "let me bang the point over your head that this is a shallow industry" while the movie is not as obvious. Perhaps a young girl watching may miss the entire point? I hope not.

City of God

nine out of ten

I watched City of God twice. Once many years ago when visiting Brasil was not even remotely on the radar, and then last week after actually having seen the favela (shanty town) that the movie was filmed it and better understanding the darker side of Rio.

The movie is set in one of the worst favelas in Rio where the poor were carted off to around the 1970's to "pretty up" Rio and make it a better tourist destination. What happens when you decide to raze down the homes of hundreds of thousands of extremely impoverished and uneducated people and cart them off to nowhere and leave them to be? You get ignorance, depression, drugs and violence. This is what City of God explores in this fabulous film.

The City of God (based on a true story) follows a young boy "Rocket" who doesnt want the life he has but as the movie shows so effectively, finds nearly impossible to escape. How can you live in a city where the only way to earn money, the only way to not get killed is to be violent yourself? Rocket fights it and fights it. His parents were hardworking yet their oldest son was lured away to crime. He himself didn't want such a life for himself but found himself many times flirting with entering the life of a criminal.

The movie follows not only Rocket who flirts with crime but never truly converts over, but it also follows a man who does cross over. Knockout Ned. The movie shows him start off as a good family man who is trying to make ends meet and do things the right way. The movie ends with him a changed man. A violent criminal. The movie is great because you completely understand why became that way, infact you can't imagine how he could have become anything else. Watch the movie and I wonder if you can say for sure you would not have ended up doing exactly what Ned would have done.

The movie left me weak as it truly exposed how hard it is to escape the slums of Rio. Yes perhaps a few here or there, but for the most part, for 99.5 percent of the population of Rio's slums this is all they have to look forward to. And this is what the movie reveals so poignantly for me.

A History of Violence

nine out of ten

A movie about violence and all the different ways we experience it...

If I were to judge the greatness of a movie by how it leaves me thinking of the story or its characters this movie is one of the best movies of the year.

warning: spoilers throughout

I had no idea what this movie was about going into it and I think that is the best way to watch it so you can keep guessing to what is going on. The way the movie is directed if you watch it without knowing that Tom is Joey you see and feel the confusion of Edie his wife along with her. If you know that Tom truly is Joey there is a different perspective to the movie. My opinion is watching it first from her eyes is special because the confusion can only happen once, the second time around knowing what you know you see the Joey perspective.

This is a mob movie but not like the typical mob movie. This is a character driven rather than plot driven movie about a man who was born into the mob and did some nasty things in his day but chose to escape, change his identity and build a quiet life filled with simple pleasures and a family. "Tom" who once was "Joey" has lived his second life as long as he lived his first and life was going fine until he had the misfortune of having two evil men come into his store who, despite Tom urging them to take his money, and all efforts at peace, refused to listen. In that moment Tom does some instinctual maneuvering thanks to the "Joey" he once was and kills both would be murderers. His hero status catapults his picture onto the front page of newspapers bringing attention to his former mobsters in Philly, his former haunt who decide to come resolve unfinished business. That's when the movie gets interesting and the characters blossom.

You see the pull between Tom and his son Jack. With Jack you see his son who was raised by peaceful Tom but who still has his father's "Joey" inside of him. His son I feel represented what Joey/Tom would have been had he been born into a different family. I found the father-son connection fascinating as you saw what a peace loving child Jack was but how he had a violent side inside of him.... his father was the opposite a man who grew up in violence but was a peaceful man in his heart of hearts.

The scene between the two brothers is also powerful. If you watch it, on the dvd the director does some commentary there that sheds a great deal of depth to the scene when they sit across from one another and talk.

Things I didnt like:

The ending I felt could have been better I felt it just ENDED with no resolution.
The little girl Sarah could not act to save her life! She killed any scene she was in.

That's about it! The movie was great and I recommend it.

Hustle & Flow- art within art

nine out of ten

Wow. I just finished this movie. Very powerful. The story revolves around a pimp who is looking at his life and wondering where its going. Happenstance leads him to an old middle school friend who could help him record music. In their ghetto they build a makeshift studio and begin recording on a hope that "Skinny Black" a now famous rapper from their hood who returns every year to a particular bar on the fourth of july might listen to his demo tape. Every single hope of this man and his "family" (so to speak) rides upon this hope. This one shot in the dark.

I love movies with depth and character development. Where not everything is all black and white. The movie was about art, and how art can transport you out of your circumstances and give you hope and joy. And on another level I saw some amazing actors showing how beautiful an art acting itself can be.

What was different about this movie that I havent seen in a long time is that it spoke to me. A movie about a hopeful criminal rapper in the hood spoke directly to me and my life which is so different from his. I have dreams too. For me they are as shot in the dark like him. It's hard to realize dreams. Today I was talking to my brother and it hit me, so many people go into law or medicine or X, Y, Z because they can't think of something else they'd rather be doing. I have a few dreams that I have cradled in my heart like DJay but I'm scared like him to make it work, because the odds seem so against you. This movie is inspiring because though a shot at success is not guarunteed for you, on the flip side, a guaruntee of staying on the bottom is not guarunteed either.

I heard a lot of discussion about the fact that the theme song for this movie "Hard out here for a pimp" won an Oscar and how ironic it was that upon the acceptance of the song they said "Thank you Jesus." Thank you Jesus for accepting a song about how difficult life is for a pimp everyone said shaking their heads.... Then I saw the movie and I understood.

"Some people just talk the talk. Others, they walk the walk. Every now and then you'll find someone who walks the walk, and can talk the talk too." - Hustle & Flow