Volver

Full Frontal

McCabe & Mrs. Miller

John Doe live @ The Nightlight

Ten

Abbas Kiarostami. Iran. Follows an Iranian woman as she drives her car with various people, including her son and sister. Ten short vignettes offer a glimpse of her life. The whole movie is shot from within the interior of the car, either looking at the driver or the passenger, with occasional glances of street life and buildings as they drive around.

It was interesting, but didn't really engage me, though I remain a fan of Kiarostami's work.

Inside Man

Spike Lee, Denzel Washington, Clive Owen. Pretty good bank heist film, interesting plot, excellent (as always) direction. Enjoyable, if not edge-of-the-seat stuff.

Reno 911: Miami

I love the series, and the movie was just as good. It had me laughing pretty hard, which is all I ask of it.

Curse of the Golden Flower

Chinese court drama/martial arts epic. Heavy on the drama, with some pretty good fight scenes. Very beautiful tragedy.

Calvaire (Ordeal)

Belgium. Horror.

Very disturbing, well done, sparse, taught flick. Especially appreciated the lack of mood heightening music, the only tunes being those that were happening within the scene itself.

Clerks 2

Kevin Smith & Co. Charming, rude, funny, and surprisingly sentimental. Or maybe not. Smith's films in general often hinge on sentimentality, but there's always a sincere heart beating beneath the surface.

And any film with Jay & Silent Bob is good!

Battlestar Galactica Season 2.0 & 2.5

Duck Season

Lower City

The Transporter

Anatomy

The Death of Sweet Mister

Samurai Executioner

The Walking Dead

Carnivale, Season 1 & 2

Capote

Demonlover

The Devil’s Rejects

Libertine

When The Last Sword Is Drawn

District B13

Morvern Callar

Beowulf and Grendel

Based on the epic poem, this movie brings English accents and modern language, with lots of cursing, to the tale. I enjoyed the use of modern idioms mixed in with Norse and archaic sentence structures, as well as the somewhat sympathetic look at Grendel's situation - though that of course did not stop any of the tragedy from occuring.

Well acted, with some good creepy moments and battle scenes.

Little Children

This is a beautiful, well acted film, with intriguing characters - but it never came together for me, especially at the end. This is one of those "well, that's what life is like films", without an ending that really ties up or resolves anything...which is fine, but not what I wanted out of it.

The two main characters are so compelling that I really wanted them to find happiness together at the end.

Of note: there's a third-person omniscient narrator during the film, which is strange and sometimes comforting.

16 Blocks

Feh. Just never really did anything for me - though I did like seeing Willis all paunchy and old. Mos Def's whiney voice got a little old too.

Could have been a better flick - interesting premise, just not engaging enough.

The Notorious Bettie Page

La Moustache

Strange, tense movie about a man who shaves his moustache off, only to have his world subsequently fall apart as all those around him insist he never had a moustache to begin with. Very existential and well acted.

Where the Red Fern Grows

Hard Candy

Talladega Nights

Lost, Season 2

The Proposition

Australian western - guns, blood, horses, revenge. Great cast and acting, screenplay and music by Nick Cave.