Home Is Where the Heart Is
Mud
is a gem of American cinema. An Arkansan canvas on which Jeff Nichols lays a grand story on honesty, love, and home. Mud (Matthew McConaughey) is an outlaw hiding on an island and waiting for his lover (Reese Witherspoon) to run away. When 2 local kids, Ellis and Neckbone (Tye Sheridan & Jacob Lofland), meet him, they decide to secretly help him find his girlfriend and flee. I've always thought McConaughey was just a pretty face of bad romantic comedies. Until I watched Mud. I literally discovered he had talent in this movie. It is unquestionably the best performance of his career and the golden role that builds his cred as a good actor. As the saying goes, better late than never. Tye Sheridan is a revelation. His powerful performance blew my mind. I expect to see more of Sheridan in the next decade. If he goes on to get such pertinent roles, I'm sure he will become the face of a generation. So far so good, for his acting debut. Mud is painted on Arkansan landscapes with Southern colors. I always find those stories rooted in rural Southern or Midwestern USA to be much more authentic than any other American background. This is as close as you can get to real life. The picture is beautifully directed. The plot is enlightened by natural light and depends on wilderness' control. Mud is a beautiful tale on estrangement and its different kinds, maturity, and promises.
is a gem of American cinema. An Arkansan canvas on which Jeff Nichols lays a grand story on honesty, love, and home. Mud (Matthew McConaughey) is an outlaw hiding on an island and waiting for his lover (Reese Witherspoon) to run away. When 2 local kids, Ellis and Neckbone (Tye Sheridan & Jacob Lofland), meet him, they decide to secretly help him find his girlfriend and flee. I've always thought McConaughey was just a pretty face of bad romantic comedies. Until I watched Mud. I literally discovered he had talent in this movie. It is unquestionably the best performance of his career and the golden role that builds his cred as a good actor. As the saying goes, better late than never. Tye Sheridan is a revelation. His powerful performance blew my mind. I expect to see more of Sheridan in the next decade. If he goes on to get such pertinent roles, I'm sure he will become the face of a generation. So far so good, for his acting debut. Mud is painted on Arkansan landscapes with Southern colors. I always find those stories rooted in rural Southern or Midwestern USA to be much more authentic than any other American background. This is as close as you can get to real life. The picture is beautifully directed. The plot is enlightened by natural light and depends on wilderness' control. Mud is a beautiful tale on estrangement and its different kinds, maturity, and promises. 
. Be prepared for serious eye-candy, humor worthy of Daria, and audio orgasms. Smith (Thomas Dekker) and his cynical sidekick Stella (Haley Bennett) are college freshmen ready to take over their sexual fantasies. The whole cast is gorgeous and the lines are as sarcastic as can be. The indie soundtrack adds a dash of eccentricity to the already-twisted plot. From 
It may not be the movie of the century but certainly a nice directorial and writing debut for Josh Radnor and a relaxing movie session. It won the Audience Award at the 26th Sundance Film Festival. And I believe you can always trust Sundance. 
tells the true story of 
. Deeply affected by polio, Mark lives in a permanent horizontal position and spends most of his time in an iron lung that helps him breath. But Mark has not lost his sense of humor. He is a writer and a poet. When he is asked to write an article about sexuality and the disabled, Mark, 38, thinks it might be time to lose his virginity. With the help of 
, a sex surrogate, Mark finally discovers his body. Ben Lewin's The Sessions is definitely one of the best films of 2012. It made me both laugh and cry. It is extremely moving but very funny too. It spreads a hopeful message on a topic that is too rarely approached. I think such a movie on sexuality and the disabled is an eye-opener. I wish we had more films to see because it helps you put things into perspective and understand what it's like to be in someone else's shoes. Being disabled doesn't prevent you from going through the different stages of a romantic life. Mark shows you how he experiences love, heartbreak, or sexuality. I really related to Mark because, in matters of the heart, we're all somewhat disabled. John Hawkes performs at his best. I actually think it's outrageous that he wasn't nominated for an Academy Award. Helen Hunt who plays the sex surrogate, lays herself bare both emotionally and physically. She really bring her A game in one of the most moving and demanding roles of her career.
when writing a review about Only God Forgives. There are apparent similarities to the movies. For one thing, Only God Forgives marks the return of the grand trio Refn-Gosling-Martinez 2 years after the universally-acclaimed Drive. Ryan Gosling is Julian, a narco-trafficker covering up as a boxing-club owner and hiding in Thailand. When his older brother gets killed after raping and slaughtering a 15-year-old girl, their mom flies from the USA to claim the corpse of her first-born son and get revenge. Kristin Scott Thomas, the mother, is a sensational addition to the cast. I am thrilled to see her in the role of a merciless mafia godmother. It is unusual and surprising in her career. She is definitely persuasive. You will find similar aerial city shots at night in both movies. And similar character features: Nicolas Winding Refn sure likes his muse to be quiet and plots about revenge. On a different note, he also explores an odd fascination for hands and thighs in this feature film. There is one major thing I find drastically different from Drive. While you root for the driver and his quest to make things right, you can't really support Julian since his nemesis (Vithaya Pansringarm) is kind of the actual hero and good guy of the story. I am extremely satisfied with 
composed by Cliff Martinez who already created 
. His input is like a rumble of thunder seasoned with bits of peaceful melody. It replaces some of the dialogue and most of the screams. The score is a fully-fledged cast member. This extremely violent movie keeps its cool thanks to the music and Refn's use of slow motion, and silence. The director makes a clear theme choice with the pervasive color red. This oppressing red color is smoothed by the slow and silent journey of the main character and his nemesis. In addition, most of the cast and the entire crew are locals from Thailand. I think it's a precious and respectful directorial commitment. From the poisonous relationship between Julian and his mother to the rare way Thailand is shown, I perceive Only God Forgives to be a future classic reference.
is no exception. Fink is a New-York playwright in the 40s. His play being such a success, he is asked to move to Hollywood to write a screenplay for a wrestling picture. He soon faces writer's block with a hint of solitude. But he meets Charlie who is not really who he pretends to be. The acting part is good: John Turturro loses it as the perfectionist and lonely writer and John Goodman, the so-called insurance salesman, is deliciously scary. I like the imaginative angles and the use of silence and background noises that make you feel claustrophobic and uneasy. There is no problem whatsoever about the cinematography and the artistic side. It is just the storytelling that is confusing. The end raises more questions than it answers. Despite my mixed feelings about this Joel Coen movie, I really liked his message on the necessity of pain to create and the expat loneliness. Everyone is familiar with the terrible writer's block and the pressure to create. You can easily relate to Barton when your inspiration fades away. Barton Fink is another tale about manipulation and disrespect made in Hollywood. A topic I'm never sick of talking about. 
is based on the 1980 joint CIA-Canadian mission to extract 6 American diplomatic fugitives out of revolutionary Iran. The 
to do the deed. I'd like to emphasize the fact that it is 'based on' this historical fact. Despite Argo's success and spectacular production/direction, the movie has been criticized for inaccuracies. People tend to forget that a movie is still a work of fiction even if based on History. As a director, it is obviously hard to stick to the factual truth without taking sides. Even if you tell a pretty objective story, you can never perfectly underscore each detail of what really happened. Otherwise, historical feature-films would be 10-hour long. Considering all of the above, I would put Ben Affleck on my personal long list of majestic directors. He really did surprise me in a good way. I am no History teacher so I have no idea how wrong or right he was about the facts. I'm just a movie-lover. In my life-long experience of enjoying big-screen entertainment, I believe that if what you watch is moving, funny and suspenseful, then the movie crew's job is done. You obviously don't choose such a topic randomly. Affleck has a message to state. I think he succeeded in staying away from the usual US-Greatness too often displayed in Hollywood. Proof is that nobody in CIA supports Tony Mendez' pitch at first. The archive footage used in the film is well-inset. It's an undoubted ancknowledgment and appreciation of Canada's role in the mission. And what a cast! Clea DuVall, Bryan Cranston, Alan Arkin, John Goodman, Rory Cochrane... It's really worth every penny. Despite the war context, Argo is still impressively funny. It's more of a spy movie than a war movie. Which, in my opinion, is much better. The depiction of the movie industry and the US-government is accurate and sincere. Ben Affleck does not soft-soap anyone in his feature-film.
. I enjoy this kind of horrid tales about the monstrosities inflicted to people in the name of social customs. The hypocrisy of religion embraces the whole community. The so-called respectable 'upper class' is obviously the worst. Explore sordid sexuality. Meet molesters. Get offended by child abuse. Haneke's analysis on the obsolete views of normal child development is rather good. Link a kid's arms to his bed at night so he stops masturbating? Really?! I like the director's approach of the century-old clarification of central topics like death. I find Das Weisse Band visually delightful and the thriller-themed pre-war plot is well-operated. But (because there is always a 'but') I am a bit disappointed by the end. I expected a clear-cut grand finale and I left the room with this feeling of unfinished business. From my perspective, Das Weisse Band could have been a masterpiece but as it turns out, it has been a little bit overrated. Every piece by a master doesn't necessarily turn out to be a masterpiece. Das Weisse Band is simply a piece by the master Haneke.
back when no 
or 
were released. I was going on a Lawrence marathon (yeah, that's a thing. A biathlon to be exact. It consists of eating bacon and watching Jennifer Lawrence act for 26 hours). When I saw the genius adaptation of 
, my jaw dropped. It dropped because of Debra Granik's direction and vision in portraying rural America. And because of John Hawkes in a tough supporting role. It dropped because of Lawrence's talent as a young untrained actor. Winter's Bone is the story of 17-year-old Ree Dolly who raises her 2 younger siblings and supports her mentally-ill mother in the middle of the Ozarks. The father is a well-known local meth cooker that no one has seen recently. So basically, she has a crappy life but wait! It gets worse. The sheriff shows up and tells her that her dad put up their house as part of his bond. They'll lose it if he doesn't show up for court. She has a week to find her missing dad. I find Winter's Bone mesmerizing with truth. Maybe it's because the set of this independent movie is made of what the crew found there. The houses, the wild, none of this was created by a Hollywood studio. Maybe the locals acting in the movie made it authentic. Maybe the lower-class misery to a background of drug addiction and the family relationships going to hell speaks to me. Yes, you can find it slow sometimes. But guess what! This is real life. I personally enjoy a director who gives time to... Well, time. Time for the plot to flow and make sense. Granik succeeds here in taking time for the story to happen without ever being boring. Lawrence's performance blows my mind. What I see on screen is a person with hardness anchored to her guts. Imagine being Academy-Award nominated for Best Actress before your twenties hand in hand with Natalie Portman or Annette Bening? The local music sets up the atmosphere for you. It could have been too much to have a 
on a movie taking place in the Ozarks but it really is just what it needed. You can even see the 
because the plot seemed fascinating. Let me sum it up for you: Rémy (Olivier Barthelemy) is a teenage ginger constantly bullied at school or at home because of his hair color. Patrick (Vincent Cassel) is a redheaded psychiatrist but he is crazier than all of his patients put together. The two of them join forces to fight against discrimination and hatred. They go on a violent quest to Ireland, supposedly Redhead Heaven. Let's imagine Tarantino would direct this film. It would be a bloody and funny roadtrip to Ireland or when 
meets 
. But Gavras is no Tarantino. His style is drastically different. When Tarantino makes you laugh with a shocking story, Gavras makes you uncomfortable with a basic one. Vincent Cassel's character is a manipulative mood-swinging psycho. Someone you definitely don't want to meet. Ever. Barthelemy's character has good intentions at first but quickly follows the steps of his mentor. It's a movie to watch but only once. I won't watch this movie once a year on a rainy Sunday like other classics. In line with 
and 
but not as unbearable, Notre Jour Viendra makes you feel gross and affected. I personally felt like taking a shower and watching a re-run of How I Met Your Mother after I watched Notre Jour Viendra. The deranged sexuality scenes sprinkled with infantile weirdness is too much for me to handle. Try it with caution, it's not for everybody.
is one of my favorite movies of all times (alright, I have hundreds of these but still). This movie is fueled with classic lines and indie acoustic music. Diablo Cody (the screenwriter) and I share a certain sense of sarcasm. I find Juno to be one of the most clever and hilarious comedies ever written. Forget about those dumb teen movies that make you want to choke yourself to death. It takes a minimum smartness level to appreciate Juno. Far be it from me to seem condescending (I swear!) but you won't find tigers in hotel rooms or crude behaviors in this movie. So if this is what makes you laugh, move along! This film is a mature comedy dealing with the dynamics of marriage, teen pregnancy and abortion. In other words, this movie offers a different view on real life topics. The cast is terrific. Ellen Page makes an absolutely perfect Juno and is the reason why 
. In addition to the young Canadian, you'll watch a plethora of talented actors in action. Allison Janney and J.K. Simmons are Juno's parents and my personal favorites apart from the pregnant teen. Michael Cera is the father of the baby-to-be and Jason Bateman is the wannabe-rockstar and future adoptive dad who is married to Jennifer Garner's control-freak character. You laugh from one end to the other. The best part might be that the plot is totally credible and could happen to anyone. The writer turns the sensitive and depressive issue of teen pregnancy into the funniest movie I've seen. And it all happens in middle-class Minnesota on a genius music background and the coolest credits artwork.
takes you back to the roaring 20s in the jazzy capital of crime. I rank this movie among the best musicals ever made and it will be hard to top it. Watching it is like taking this flamboyant ride to a colorful and corrupted past. Call me a kiss ass but I can shout loud and proud that Chicago is practically perfect in each and every feature. Blazing humor? Check. Splendid cinematography? Check. Mind-blowing choreography? You got it too (my personal favorite bit being the Cell Block Tango).