A Separation, Best Foreign Film in 2012

ecology:

The Grey, starring Liam Neeson

The Grey, starring Liam Neeson, is such a travesty, I hardly know where to begin. This movie is so bad, it offends on so many levels, it’s so full of misinformation, I truly want my money back. In one of the first scenes, Neeson kills a wolf…

Relationships:

The Way, starring Martin Sheen

A phone call, a flight to Paris, an unexpected journey: these are the basic elements of The Way, a movie written and directed by Emilio Estevez and starring Martin Sheen. The call is from a police officer in the village of St. Jean de Port, France…

Love:

Tabloid: A Documentary

Kidnapping, rape, guns and handcuffs, The Joy of Sex, blue silk pajamas: the new Errol Morris documentary has it all. Based on the notorious Case of the Manacled Mormon, Tabloid is a delightful film. For fully half the movie you don’t know what to believe…

Famous Criminals:

Badlands

Badlands is a film unlike any I’ve ever seen. Written, produced, and directed by Terrence Malick, the movie stars Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek. Released in 1973, it’s a dramatization of the Starkweather – Fugate crime spree of 1958 in which the couple kills 11 people, beginning with Fugate’s parents…

Autism:

Redbox Movies

Secretariat, starring Diane Lane and John Malkovich, and Temple Grandin, played by Claire Dane, are great movies, and you can get them both at Redbox. If there’s an antidote for some of the heartbreaking stories about horse racing, it’s Secretariat. I’m glad we watched it in the quiet of our living room…

Academics:

Inside Job, Documentary

Inside Job, directed by Charles Ferguson and narrated by Matt Damon, tells the story of how Wall Street Bankers nearly took down the global financial system, cost the economy 20 trillion dollars, and got away with it.  At times during the movie there was laughter – but…

Bank Robbers:

The Town

The Town, directed by and starring Ben Affleck:  go see it.  It’s a great movie.  I give it four stars. Set in a section of Boston that produces more bank robbers and petty criminals than just about anywhere in America, this is a dramatic thriller like nothing…

Love triangle:

Get Low, starring Robert Duvall

Felix Bush is a cantankerous recluse about whom swirls all manner of unsavory stories.  After forty years of self-imposed exile, he decides to stage his own funeral, ostensibly to learn what people are saying about him.  In reality, he wants to reveal the reason he’s chosen to…

Feminism:

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, by Steig Larsson

Roger Ebert gives this movie 4 stars, his highest rating.  I’ll give it five.  It’s over two hours long, it’s Swedish, and it has subtitles, but it’s absolutely wonderful. It takes a while to realize the movie is really about Lisbeth Salander, played by Noomi Repace.  Lisbeth…

A Serious Man, the Coen Brothers

Seeing Ethan and Joel Coen’s latest movie, A Serious Man, is like descending into a deep, dark, swamp.  Larry Gopnik’s wife is in love with another man.  She wants a Jewish divorce so she can marry a totally ridiculous man who insists on hugging Larry every time…

Amelia, Hilary Swank

Someone please tell me Amelia Earhart didn’t do a photo shoot in which she touted the virtues of a waffle maker.  Cigarettes, luggage, clothing, I’m okay with all that, but a waffle iron?  That’s not okay.  It’s a jarring moment in the movie.  Amelia, the feminist who…

Roller Derby Movie

Ellen Page’s new movie, Whip It, is a lot like her previous film, Juno:  young girl trying to find her way in a confusing world, to honor her emerging sexuality, and to hold onto old relationships while forging new ones.  Not to mention the need for some new life…

Capitalism: A Love Story

Capitalism is not like any of Michael Moore’s other movies.  It’s more thoughtful, and more thought-provoking.  It does not rely on anecdotes and heartbreaking stories like Sicko does.  The stories are there, and they are heartbreaking, but the tone is one of near-despair. For the first time,…