L'Auberge Espagnole (2002)

This movie is a boatload of fun!. A tightly wound French kid goes to Spain for a year to learn the language and ready himself for a post-college job in economics. He has a hard time finding a place to stay in Barcelona, and eventually ends up with six other students, each from a different country, in a cramped apartment. He has a wonderful time. The group fights, makes up, eats together, drinks together, parties together, and has many adventures. Boyfriends and girlfriends and family members wander in and out, and all kind of hi-jinx ensue. There are a couple of absolutely hilarious scenes. Plus, there is one of the dopiest, funniest characters I have ever seen in this movie. Actors truly have no pride. I would watch it again just for him. And there's a bonus! Audrey Tatou plays a whiny, repressed girlfriend with bad hair. And it works. She's totally unlikeable.

There are some stupid dream-ish sequences that are unnecessary, and the ending is lame. But this is still one to pick up.

The Rum Diary (2011)

I liked this movie. It is not perfect, but it is original and interesting and funny and bizarre. I didn't find it settled into one genre or one style, but instead was a combination travelogue, frat-house party film, and coming of age story for Hunter Thompson. Johnny Depp's character, Kemp, is loosely based on Thompson, and he stumbles through the film in an alcoholic haze, hung over, but still stylish. There are drugs, beaches, cockerel fighting, a crazy boss with a bad toupee (I love Richard Jenkins), an insane roommate with sores on his penis (Giovanni Ribisi - and my God, he gives an interesting performance), and a really gorgeous girl.

Kemp discovers during his time in Puerto Rico that he likes drugs as well as booze, hates corporate bastards and politicians, and does indeed have a voice. There are parts of the film that seem totally unnecessary (Giovanni's penis, the tongue scene), but by the end I had the distinct impression that pointlessness and random events were the point of the film. I'm ok with that. The ending was weak, but I can live with that.

Johnny is great. (A.O. Scott thought Depp was basically showing us his own charisma rather than acting, but I disagree. At a minimum, there is a physicality to Depp's performance I found impressive, plus he used a plummy eastern shore voice that put him in the correct era.) Michael Rispoli is awesome. And then there is Amber Heard. This girl is gorgeous, like Halle Berry or Selma Hayek gorgeous. And she held up her end without much of a role to work with.

I recommend this one.

Ma Vie en Rose (1997)

This is a fantastic movie. I really didn't know much about it when I started it; I had the impression it was maybe a gay coming of age story. Nope. Not so much. This film is about Ludovic, a seven year old boy who believes he is a girl. He understands he might be a boy now, but he believes he will grow up to be a girl. He wants his hair long, to wear his sis's clothes, to put on lipstick and earrings.

His parents are perplexed, but tell themselves that when kids are little they innocently play and Ludo's obsession is temporary. Then they move to a new town and a cloistered suburb where Ludo falls for his dad's new boss's son. He believes they will get married some day. All of a sudden Ludo is front and center of a neighborhood crisis. Very few people, adult or child, want him around. His parents freak out - dad first, with mom defending Ludo. Then dad gets fired (because of Ludo), and mom loses it. He gets beat up after soccer practice, and one of his brothers holds the other brother back, so both stand and watch him take a beating. The family eventually moves, and all the while Ludo is confused. How come he's not a girl? What's the big problem?

The actor playing Ludo, Georges Du Fresne, is amazing. This movie rests on him, and I have no idea how a child could be so self-possessed and talented at his age. The movie is interesting from a stylistic standpoint as well. It uses fairy-tale type imaginings to put us in Ludo's head (did you see Precious? a little like that). The movie is funny and sweet and heartbreaking. And it did not go for a big-hug ending. There is a little of that, but it's not excessive. This movie family has a rough road after the camera stops rolling. It's a really interesting look on being born in the wrong body.

Pick this one up. (It's French - so il y a les soutitres.)

Cronos (1993)

There are a couple of Guillermo Del Toro movies I really like, but this is not one of them. This is a weird, fairy-tale-ish vampire flick that is atmospheric and moody without ever finding the right tone or pace. Or even the right music. There are interesting characters, in particular the protagonist, an adoring grandfather, and his granddaughter. I would guess the actress who plays her is about 7 in the film, and she needed a much stronger or more defined role. As it is, it's just disturbing to have this child in scenes that get more and more gruesome as the movie goes on. With her teddy bear.

Grandpa has turned into a vampire, but he's still a nice guy. Ron Perlman is the nephew in an uncle / nephew villain team trying to get the device that made grandpa a vampire. Perlman in particular is a mess. His character alternates between whimsical and jocular and incredibly violent and threatening. It doesn't work.

I think two of Del Toro's later films are great: The Devil's Backbone and Pan's Labyrinth. Watch those and pass on this one. It was no fun.

Crimson Gold (2003)

This is one of those movies that stressed me out from the get-go. It starts out with the camera inside a jewelry store as a man robs it. The man's heart is not in it. He appears desolate, and shoots himself before finishing the robbery.

And then we go back in time to the previous week and learn what drove him to the jewelry store. I had the same stomachache during this film that I get when I watch Italian neorealism films, like The Bicycle Thief. I find it hard to watch someone disintegrate, but it can make for a good movie. And this movie is very good. The protagonist is Hussein, a pizza delivery guy. He is not young, and there is some trauma in his background that has made him ill, and he's heavy because he takes cortisone. He is very depressed and very aware that his monetary, career, personal situation is not good. He wants to marry his fiance, but is prevented by money worries. He hates the way others look down on him, and is frequently questioning if others are making fun of him. They're not; he's far more aware of his inadequacies than the people around him are.

And then one day he breaks. It's very sad.

This film is from Iran, which has a great film industry. One of the reasons I love foreign film so much is that I learn about other cultures - and it's painless. For example, there is a scene in this film where Hussein is detained outside a house (he was trying to deliver a pizza) because there are cops stationed there waiting for people to leave a party so they can arrest them. I believe the problem with the party is twofold: there were men and women there, plus there was dancing. I love film. What a great way to visit another country.

Platoon (1986)

OK - I had never seen this one, and it won best picture and director (Oliver Stone) in 1987. It stars Charlie Sheen! The time felt right and I popped it in.

I was not that impressed. Oliver Stone wrote it, and he's pretty fond of heavy handed drama. This one has trite dialog and a Vietnam-plot that I believe I first saw on Magnum P.I. I recently saw it on a Law & Order episode. It's the story about how war attracts people who like to kill and messes with the other guys so much that they end up liking to kill as well. Then that group ends up in a village and starts killing locals. These soldiers are animals, and Platoon makes the point with just a bit too much force for me. Like I was hit over the head with a club. Most characters are easily identified as pure evil or pure good, with the rest too scared to make a noise about it. The script even tells you who the good guys are by calling them water-walkers. They must be killed. Which brings me to another problem. This was an incredibly predictable movie.

The best part is watching all the actors. There are non-stop famous faces here, and it's fun to watch. Johnny Depp is in it, but I missed him. Willem Dafoe is fantastic; probably my favorite performance of his. Charlie is mediocre. I would pass on this one. What's a good war movie? Bridge Over the River Kwai. Das Boot. Try those.

Red Riding: In the Year of Our Lord 1980 and 1983 (2009)

I watched parts 2 and 3 of this, and they're also good, but not great. Part 2 was the weakest. It's based on the Yorkshire Ripper, but the story revolves around the Yorkshire police trying to hide one of their owns murders in with the Ripper's. When we finally meet the Ripper, he's a shadow of the evil cast by the police.

The third episode ties it all together, but you'll still have questions. I'm totally in the dark about one body found - there was significance there in some way, but it went over my head. And the ending is not quite as believable as the rest of the show. It's a little happy, which is ridiculous here. The whole series leads you to suspect that a trip to Yorkshire might be almost as fun as a trip to the gynecologist. And then there's a little happiness in the ending? Bad form.

Mark Addy is the unexpected star of part 3, and he's great.

Valhalla Rising (2009)

Nicolas Winding Refn directed Drive, which I really liked, so I picked up one of his earlier movies - Valhalla Rising. Holy shit. What a mistake. This piece of crap teetered between boring stillness and unwatchable gore, all set to annoying and ponderous music, until I no longer cared about trying to finish the film. But I did. It did not improve. I have heard this movie has a cult following, which makes me worry about society in general. Who is the target here? Testosterone-loaded teenage boys? I really hope not.

Mads Mikkelsen (the bad guy from Casino Royale who cried blood) plays a caged prisoner somewhere in a Nordic country in about 1000 AD. He is uncaged only to fight to the death. He is reportedly from Hell. He escapes, picking up his signature hatchet, meets up with some Christians on their way to the Holy Land. He is mute, so we have no idea what he is thinking or why he goes along. The ship hits doldrums, One Eye (that's what they call him) kills some people, then they hit land. He kills more people. He builds a rock altar. He pictures himself in Hell. Everyone around him dies. It's really shit.

Refn wrote this, but not Drive. I will make every effort to never watch another movie written by this man.

Source Code (2011)

This is a ton of fun. Jake Gyllenhaal is Colter, a military helicopter pilot who suddenly finds himself on a commuter train - in a strange body - heading into Chicago. Michelle Monaghan, playing a fellow commuter named Christina, is seated across from him. He quickly discovers there is a bomb on the train, as it blows up while he and Christina are speaking. However, he has to keep reliving the same 8 minutes prior to the explosion, "source code" memories harvested from a victim's brain, until he finds the bomber. Along the way, he discovers truths about himself and reality.

This is an interesting mix of Groundhog Day (but not funny) and Inception. Reality is very much questioned. I liked it much, much more than Inception, which had a great cast that was given nothing to work with, and special effects were a bit like eating movie popcorn. It tasted good going down, but leaves you bloated and still hungry for real food.

This movie has half as many cast members, and they all do a great job. Jeffrey Wright and Vera Farmiga are outstanding as the military personal and scientist responsible for the Source Code experiment. The effects are awesome, but the real credit should go to the director. Duncan Jones directed only one movie prior to this, Moon, which was fantastic. Pick it up. Based on Moon, he had enough credibility to get a huge budget for Source Code, and he came up with a blockbuster. Watch the editing. We relive one scene a few times, then he figures out ways to spice up the sequences. This movie is very good.

Duncan Jones is David Bowie's son. He comes by his artistic talent honestly. Pretty cool.

Red Riding: In the Year of Our Lord 1974 (2009)

This is a crime / corruption series set in North England. I have only watched the first episode, set in Yorkshire in 1974. The second and third take place in 1980 and 1983, respectively. This was one of the most brutal shows I have ever watched, and not because of the crime. The crime is bad: several young girls are missing. One is found, having been tortured, raped and murdered. What could be more disturbing than that?

This episode uses the murders to show us the rampant police corruption in Yorkshire. The murderer (as I believe he was identified at this time) is protected by police payoffs and bribes. Andrew Garfield plays a cocky young reporter (dressed in bell bottoms and sporting sideburns) who is determined to find the killer. The police beatings he starts to accumulate do not deter him, but they should. The police here are not concerned with community service, and they are so much scarier than the child killer. The child killer exists because the police do not care about the children. They care about money and power. The corruption portrayed is freakishly scary.

The acting is great. You will see a lot of familiar and great British actors and actresses. There is a decent amount of romantic sex, which was distracting and not helpful to the story. It was also often in soft focus, leading to those moments when the viewer is asking herself, What is that? Is that an elbow?

If you liked Prime Suspect or The Wire, try this one. It's not perfect, but very good.