"Birds of the Same Feather Flock with Each Other"
I
had great expectations for this Alan Parker movie that I have been meaning to
watch for years. In my opinion, it is a classic that everybody should watch
once but I also have mixed feelings about it. The plot is fairly simple. When 2
childhood friends come back from Vietnam among the casualties, one has lost it,
the other is disfigured and will try to connect to his friend and bring him
back from the crazies. In terms of harsh topics, Birdy
is no testing ground for Parker. With this movie, the director deals with post-war mental and physical
trauma as well as the struggle to fit in as a high schooler. On one hand, the
combination of the Peter Gabriel-made soundtrack and the flying camera
shots really convinced me. On the other, I thought it beats around the bush for quite a while. Nicolas Cage's monologues are a bit sketchy even though his overall performance is good. Matthew Modine makes a convincing quiet and deranged bird-lover. As I'm no war-movie enthusiast, I appreciate the fact that Birdy only shows a few war scenes. The plot
is largely based on childhood flashbacks. Birdy
is a good movie and I get satisfaction and personal pride to have watched it.
is no testing ground for Parker. With this movie, the director deals with post-war mental and physical
trauma as well as the struggle to fit in as a high schooler. On one hand, the
combination of the Peter Gabriel-made soundtrack and the flying camera
shots really convinced me. On the other, I thought it beats around the bush for quite a while. Nicolas Cage's monologues are a bit sketchy even though his overall performance is good. Matthew Modine makes a convincing quiet and deranged bird-lover. As I'm no war-movie enthusiast, I appreciate the fact that Birdy only shows a few war scenes. The plot
is largely based on childhood flashbacks. Birdy
is a good movie and I get satisfaction and personal pride to have watched it. 
and 
among others) and starring Meryl Streep, Goldie Hawn, and Bruce Willis in a sick threesome is terrific! I approve the whole package from the old special effects to the amusing sarcasm. The plot deals with the merciless quest to eternal youth, the end of an actress' reign, plastic surgery tyranny and standradized beauty. In other words, current topics that never grow old. Despite its timeless theme, the storyline is very original. Long-time rivals (Streep and Hawn) have always tried to outdo each other until Madeline (Streep) finds out about an immortality treatment... I like how self-mockery steers the screenplay and how the two main actresses take great delight in underscoring the ridicule of their characters' obsession. No need to tell you that the cast is flawless. Hawn plays her obsessive part so well she scares the crap out of me. Streep rocks it all, as always. And even though she is my grandma's doppelganger (which makes it both awkward and fascinating to watch her movies), she makes me laugh until I choke. 
is one frantic comedy that can always cheer you up!
is a useless teen flick displaying cliché after cliché on California girls, Great Britain, and high school. The only reason you would watch it is if you have a thing for young girls in uniform. Otherwise, move along! I had no idea what it was about when I hit the play button. I knew Juno Temple was in the cast so I thought it was a token of quality. When I read 'Juno Temple', I automatically think 'indie, witty, instant classic'... Wild Child is one of the first movies she acted in, hence the bad role. But we all gotta start somewhere, right? I guess I should have found the poster first, I wouldn't have watched this. This movie is a typical teenage story where the shallow hero becomes selfless and her nemesis loses a blank battle. It's obviously aimed at pleasing the majority of teenagers but even as far as I can remember I've always hated those movies. If you want a good teen movie, you might as well try the classic 
(OK, both posters are similar but believe me, Mean Girls is a blast! And you can enjoy one of the last movies where Lindsay Lohan still looked like Lindsay Lohan). I find Wild Child boring. I expected everything on screen to happen. There is no surprise or twist in the plot. It's not terrible per se, it's just meaningless.
is a committed French Rom Com
by Michel Leclerc. Baya 
. The nerve-racking tune that follows Michael Douglas' character all along the movie is but equal to the harrowing dark atmosphere in which the plot evolves. The two brothers on screen are brilliant and the suspense keeps you on the edges of your seat until the end. 
is a mind-twister that is remarkably orchestrated by Fincher. I watched this more than a decade ago for the first time and it tensed me up back then. A few days ago, I watched it again to write this review and even as I thought I remembered the end, it kept me hanging on until the last twist. Now it's your turn to join the game (
is a road movie by Sam Mendes. A pregnant couple tries to figure out where to build their home and raise their baby. The screenplay is cleverly written by Dave Eggers and Vandela Vida and displays a subtle and intelligent sense of humor that cracks me up. The story flows on 
. The atmosphere is calm and relaxed despite the crazy friends and family members Burt and Verona (John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph) meet on their trip. Away We Go is a big patchwork postcard taking you to Phoenix, Montreal, or Miami. Burt and Verona symbolize the morally-perfect couple on a quest for a decent place to root their family values. I watch Away We Go like I eat a several-course meal. I pace myself and enjoy each course featuring different outstanding actors. Be prepared to start the appetizers with Catherine O'hara and Jeff Daniels and move on to Maggie Gyllenhaal or Allison Janney among others. This movie has the merit to follow a green filmmaking set of rules. It's always a plus for me. Away We Go is another Mendes-made stroke of genius.
. The movie by Margarethe Von Trotta offers a different perspective on World War II. One that is rarely approached: the post-Holocaust trials. Hannah Arendt was a Jewish great thinker who covered the trial of the SS Eichmann for The New Yorker. After she published her report, she was accused of defending Eichmann when she stated that the Jewish leaders certainly played a role in the deportation of so many Jews and that the SS officer was simply a piece of a much more complex puzzle. I think you'd be better off checking background information on Arendt and her work and this specific trial to perfectly understand the film. The movie also lacks some clarification about the characters and their relationships. For those reasons, I find it a bit elitist and not easy to reach. But I definitely like how the plot focuses on Arendt's personal struggle to respect her philosophical impartiality and freedom of speech. She's stuck into the battle between her thoughts and people's judgment. I believe the screenplay could have dug a bit deeper into Arendt's self-struggle and loneliness as this topic of the banality of evil will remain her life-long philosophical and inexhaustible well. I especially appreciated how the archive footage and audio files are perfectly inserted on screen. The director used several languages switching from Hebrew to English or German with touches of French. It surely makes the story true to the immigrant universe. This movie has an undeniable quality to it but I expected much more from such a topic that could have been examined to its fullest. I was hoping for more insight on being a public figure and having to justify your every opinion as well as being treated as a renegade by your own people, friends, and family.