Chicago (2002)

Murdering Floozies, Booze & Jazz

This Broadway musical adaptation looks like a typical party thrown by the Weinstein brothers. There is booze, music, dance, and of course heaps of Oscars (6 to be exact). Chicago 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). Renée Zellweger is a good Roxie Hart but I personally root for Catherine Zeta-Jones who is the one to stand out among her fellow cast members. She is magnificent in the role of Velma Kelly: raw, sarcastic, sexy... She has it all and shatters the big screen with talent. She gets the Academy Award to prove it. I'm carried away in the girl power whirlwind every time I watch it or listen to the soundtrack. Chicago is bold because it dares underscoring societal issues behind its glitter and idealism. Death penalty, crooked justice system, the run to fame (its rivalry and irrelevance)... I find magical how Chicago can switch from a furtive shooting to a megalomaniac staging every other frame. This musical is all you've ever dreamed of. Where else can you see Richard Gere tapdancing and Queen Latifah as a jail guard?

1 reason to watch: I'll give you 6! Best Picture, Best Supporting Actress, Best Art Direction,  Best Costume Design, Best Film Editing, & Best Sound Mixing.

Starbuck (2011)

What Would You Do if You Found Out You Had 533 Children?

Starbuck is a Canadian movie by Ken Scott. A fortysomething slacker (Patrick Huard) finds out he is the bio dad of 533 kids as a result of sperm donations he made between 1988 and 1990 under the alias Starbuck. Some 142 kids of his want to know his identity and intend to sue him if he refuses to reveal himself. It will definitely complicate his relationship with his ex-girlfriend (Julie LeBreton) who just announced him that she's pregnant. Starbuck cracks me up. Yes, we can all agree that the plot is not at all possible but I am entertained from one end to the other. The director handles the screenplay well enough so you don't get bored. I feel like this story has never been told before even though it is not at all twisted and relatively simple. Plus, I find Quebec-French hilarious. I'm not the only one, am I? The expressions, the accent: this language makes everything even funnier than it is. And I really mean no offense to the Quebec Canadians because I just really like their language.

1 reason to watch: you think your life is complicated? Starbuck helps you put things into perspective 

Heima (2007)

A Tribute to Iceland, its People and Culture

Heima is one of these movies that makes you feel. Just feel. With each pore of your skin. And makes you  reflect on your life fundamentals. All my senses and emotions are surfacing at the sound of live music of the incredible indie band that is Sigur Rós. Heima (meaning 'at home' in Icelandic) is a cultural journey through the Land of Volcanos & Geysers following the unannounced home tour of the band. This music tour documentary is more about Iceland, its people and culture than the band itself. In my opinion there is no better impression of Iceland : the calm and slow way of life, the shyness of its people, their clever and down-to-earth state of mind. I find Heima's cinematography and sound mind-blowing through their simplicity. I believe there is no such thing as a good movie without a good soundtrack: in Heima, the music simply is the story. I was able to hear the ‘sound’ of Iceland while watching the movie; not only through the band's live performances but also through the sounds and silences of nature itself. I find this movie truly soothing and revealing of the power and greatness of Icelandic nature. I believe there is no better tribute to the Icelandic people and land than this very poetic and artistic piece. And no better gift to the world to get a real feel of Iceland. The live performances are incredible and diverse: you will notice them play in big venues or in little houses or even outside an abandoned barn somewhere in the middle of nowhere. You will witness the band in intimate environments like solo interviews where the members share their feel of fame and happiness to go back to their home and roots. The magical part of the movie is to see how Sigur Rós gives back to their community: they invite locals to perform with them from the marching band of a village to a peculiar instruments maker. Since Sigur Rós is generally the only thing foreigners know about Iceland, Heima is a great preview of what else the country has to offer to its visitors. 

1 reason to watch: get a real feel of Iceland!

In the Land of Blood and Honey / U zemlji krvi i meda (2011)

A Mixture of War and Love

As I am no expert on the Bosnian war, I cannot judge this movie from historical facts but I can tell you that In the Land of Blood and Honey is a very promising directorial debut for Angelina Jolie. She wrote, directed, and partly produced it. It is by definition an American Foreign-language movie as she made the logical but clever move to film it in Bosnian and Serbian with a totally local cast. In the Land of Blood and Honey is a story set in the heart of the Bosnian war that took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the 90s. It is a love story on a war background... Or is it the other way around? Both stories are intelligently tangled up together. The plot is simple: Danijel, a Bosnian Serb soldier, finds his former Bosniak love, Ajla who becomes his prisoner. I am definitely not a sucker for war movies but I have to admit that it is a poignant tale even if it's a bit slow at times. Jolie has the balls to show the atrocities of war and the treatments of prisoners during this specific battle (human shields and rapes among others). I thought that In the Land of Blood and Honey raised good questions. Mainly this one: what would I do in their position? You soon realize that both positions are complicated: being the persecutor of your former friends or lover among your hateful fellow soldiers AND being the prisoner of someone you used to hang out with. What would you rather be? I found out, I'd rather not have to choose. This movie shows brutal scenes: to watch with caution. I am blown away by Zana Marjanović's interpretation of Ajla. It might come from the fact that she has actually experienced this war. As I said before, actors who speak the language of the country where the story is supposed to happen is always the best option.

1 reason to watch: Angelina Jolie's directorial debut

English-speaking version of the trailer but I recommend you watch the movie in its original language

A Scanner Darkly (2006)

A 2-in-1 Film: a Visual Marvel Like You've Never Seen Before... Or After

The story of A Scanner Darkly has never seemed more relevant than today. Director/Screenwriter Richard Linklater adapts here the work of Philip K. Dick and his original reflexion on government with this non-typical sci-fi piece. It deals with social issues, surveillance and drug-caused paranoia while abandoning the usual features of sci-fi spectacular like spaceships and other aliens. I am truly impressed by the vision of Linklater who literally made 2 movies. The first one was shot like a normal feature-film and the second movie was made by animators and drawers who painted over each and every frame of the first movie. The animation crew worked for 18 months: that's more than 350 man-hour per minute of film you will watch. You should watch A Scanner Darkly even only out of respect for the creation process and the originality of the project. Linklater turns the psychotic fate of an undercover cop into a dark comedy. Behind the drug addiction, the governmental surveillance, and the paranoia of its characters, A Scanner Darkly is definitely funny.  Keanu Reeves who plays (once again) the misfit hero is actually not the best character of the story. Woody Harrelson, on the other hand, is a total blast. But in my opinion, Robert Downey Jr. totally steals the screen with his interpretation of the eloquent and sciency junkie. Winona Ryder is mysterious and Rory Cochrane is the psychotic druggie of the crew that loses it the most (he is exceptional too). I admire the artwork of the movie that makes me think of a complex underground graphic novel minus the geeky superheros. I feel that the characters are as normal as they can be considering they've been brain-damaged by the highly addictive 'substance D': yes, they are paranoid and have no future but they are also relatable which is the key to a good sci-fi movie. I believe good sci-fi is credible sci-fi. A Scanner Darkly is incredibly credible and can be adapted to any era: it worked back in the 70s and it works now more than ever.

1 reason to watch: The 'Scramble-suit'!

City Island (2009)

Truth Is Stranger than Family

City Island is a pretty neutral movie that deals with secrets and lies within families. By neutral I mean that I wasn’t bored watching it and found it quite entertaining but the plot didn’t pin me to my seat either. There is a fistful of good actors : namely Andy Garcia, Julianna Margulies and Ezra Miller. The latter being the most interesting one and the reason why I watched City Island in the first place... OK, Andy Garcia in the role of the wannabe-actor is not so bad either. The characters are very relatable as they have common jobs or activities and their fair share of problems. The Rizzo family has secrets like any other and thinks that keeping them hidden from their relatives will prevent a major crisis. Obviously, they’ll discover that their secrets are the root of their  family issues. I liked that City Island treated several topics like past mistakes, aspirations, and uncommon desires. I enjoyed discovering another part of New York City that isn’t usually shown. It’s a nice part of the Northern suburbs that is revealed : definitely another perspective of the Bronx.

1 reason to watch it : a light story good enough to relax after work. 

Millennium (the original trilogy - 2009)

Swedes Playing Swedes in Sweden 

A Swedish Thriller-Series based on Swedish Books

You got it? I am talking about the Swedish (and first) adaptation of the Stieg Larsson books , not the poor Hollywood remake. The first movie/book title is especially awfully translated which changes the whole meaning of the story. Originally called  Män som hatar kvinnor (literally, Men who Hated Women), what English-speakers may know as The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is not about a girl that has a dragon tattoo (seriously, who is the intern who translated this?). The plot focuses on the investigation of a series of old murders carried out by the main character Mikael Blomkvist with the help of a genius hacker Lisbeth Salander (yes, the girl with the ink). Lisbeth Salander gains importance over the story but the core plot remains the  investigations. If you are a sucker for suspense and twisted plots like I am, you ought to watch this. This adaptation was originally made for TV (6 episodes of 90 minutes) and was shortened for the big screen audience. I'd recommend you watch the mini-series instead of the feature films because you'll have more details to enjoy. I am not going to surprise you either when I try to convince you to watch those in their original languages. Obviously, Swedish actors playing Swedes in a movie that was shot in Sweden is better than Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara pretending to be Swedish and copying the performance of Noomi Rapace and Michael Nyqvist (am I the only one who thinks it doesn't make sense to have so-called Swedes that don't even speak Swedish on screen?). The movies grabbed my guts and I could feel the cold and dark atmosphere of Swedish winter. The morbid plot made me sweat and the characters' personalities were very authentic. Even though Stieg Larsson was already deceased when the movies were made, I'm sure without any doubt that the universe is faithful to what he had in mind and that this trilogy is a great homage to his original  text. Noomi Rapace makes a perfect Lisbeth Salander. Sure enough the casting director could not have picked a better actress to play the part. 

1 reason to watch: a gateway to Sweden with panting suspense

The English trailer of the first movie (it is that hard to find the original with subtitles)

Since you don't hear them talk, that's good enough.