The Hateful Eight by Quentin Tarantino, 2015 (R)

with Samuel L. Jackson, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Kurt Russell, Walton Goggins, Demián Bichir, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Bruce Dern, James Parks, Dana Gourrier, Channing Tatum

While racing toward the town of Red Rock in post-Civil War Wyoming, bounty hunter John "The Hangman" Ruth (Kurt Russell) and his fugitive prisoner (Jennifer Jason Leigh) encounter another bounty hunter (Samuel L. Jackson) and a man who claims to be a sheriff. Hoping to find shelter from a blizzard, the group travels to a stagecoach stopover located on a mountain pass. Greeted there by four strangers, the eight travelers soon learn that they may not make it to their destination after all.

Djanjo Unchained had perhaps a more elaborated purpose. This is revenge, this is vanity, and this is cold blooded madness. I mean, in some way, the Revenant and the Hateful Eight have a lot in common. I don't wish to elaborate too much on that, but outburst of violence, slow rhythm, landscapes, humanity (or the lack of), vengeance... Except I really did enjoy watching the Revenant.
The lines Jackson delivers are priceless, the layers Leigh gets on her face are quite mesmerizing, the rest is fine, not memorable. You also have to sit yourself for 3 hours and 7 minutes which is a little intense, specially if for one hour and a half, nothing actually happen.
I know the only movie that I really love from Tarantino wasn't actually written by Tarantino (Jackie Brown, one of my favorite movie of all time), but come on, there has to be a way his movies don't end up is such a random bloodbath, with no mean to its end. At least, there could be a more elaborated bloodbath where not everything is being mixed, some sort of intelligible way to understand death, or perhaps just understand the meaning of killing.

Sicario by Denis Villeneuve, 2015 (R)

with Benicio Del Toro, Emily Blunt, Victor Garber, Josh Brolin, Daniel Kaluuya

After rising through the ranks of her male-dominated profession, idealistic FBI agent Kate Macer (Emily Blunt) receives a top assignment. Recruited by mysterious government official Matt Graver (Josh Brolin), Kate joins a task force for the escalating war against drugs. Led by the intense and shadowy Alejandro (Benicio Del Toro), the team travels back-and-forth across the U.S.-Mexican border, using one cartel boss (Bernardo Saracino) to flush out a bigger one (Julio Cesar Cedillo).

And this is how you discover the entire thing is a trap. A trap which users all over the world participate in. As long as you will have users, you will have a business, and since the drugs are illegal, you will have traffic, and outlaws, and murder, and none of the justice. And since it is a risky but juicy business, you will have competition, interest and massacres.
What we witness in this movie is how a justice system decide to play its options, so the competition is less and they can have an illusion of control, but eventually, keep the business going. We are Emily Blunt and Daniel Kaluuya, innocent at the beginning, and eventually (SPOILER) in the end, feel dirty, used... It is not a feel-good movie, it is a slice in the life of drug trafficking, with no outcome. It is the prism mirror or Traffic from Soderbergh, except this time, Benicio Del Toro is not your friend.

The Danish Girl by Tom Hooper, 2015 (R)

with Eddie Redmayne, Alicia Vikander, Amber Heard, Matthias Schoenaerts, Ben Whishaw, Sebastian Koch

With support from his loving wife Gerda (Alicia Vikander), artist Einar Wegener/Lili (Eddie Redmayne) prepares to undergo one of the first sex-change operations.

It is sad that the frailty of Lili is performed with too much similarities with Hawking by Redmayne. There was therefor no way to believe that he was Lili and not just another performance of Redmayne. On the other hand, Alicia Vikander (who is everywhere: Ex Machina, U.N.C.L.E., Burnt, The Fifth Estate...) is amazing as a woman who has to evolve ahead of her time in a men's world and has to go through the emotional journey of see her husband transforming into a woman and supporting him through, despite the social convention of the time. 

Inside Out by Pete Docter, Ronnie del Carmen, 2015 (PG)

with Amy Poehler, Diane Lane, Kyle MacLachlan, Bill Hader, Mindy Kaling, Phyllis Smith, Lewis Black, Kaitlyn Dias

Riley (Kaitlyn Dias) is a happy, hockey-loving 11-year-old Midwestern girl, but her world turns upside-down when she and her parents move to San Francisco. Riley's emotions -- led by Joy (Amy Poehler) -- try to guide her through this difficult, life-changing event. However, the stress of the move brings Sadness (Phyllis Smith) to the forefront. When Joy and Sadness are inadvertently swept into the far reaches of Riley's mind, the only emotions left in Headquarters are Anger, Fear and Disgust.

This is quite a way of picturing the brain: very inventive, funny, imaginative. You really get transported into those visions of subconscious, emotions, memory. It is at the same time perfect, and on the other hand completely non-scientific. The outcome becomes almost a dream session, where not everything is logical, but everything makes sense, and it is fun, sad, intelligent, witty, all in one.

Carol by Todd Haynes, 2015 (R)

with Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara, Sarah Paulson, Jake Lacy, Kyle Chandler

Therese Belivet (Rooney Mara) spots the beautiful, elegant Carol (Cate Blanchett) perusing the doll displays in a 1950s Manhattan department store. The two women develop a fast bond that becomes a love with complicated consequences. Adapted from The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith.

This is a beautiful romantic comedy, where two women fall in love. The simplicity of it, and the almost awkwardness they showcase, their natural bound make us forget for a moment this is the 50s and homosexuality is prohibited, specially if you are a mother fighting for the custody of your child. But the movie is also a road movie, a portrait of winter, and of the two worlds Therese and Carol come from. The cinematography is perfect, (the lack of) dialogues exquisite, the performance so subtle it feels like everything might shatter at any second. Of course, there is the question of why it wasn't nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars, perhaps it is too much to see a beautiful couple that is not following the convention of heterosexuality. Pity, I do wish they receive the awards for Best Actress in Leading and Supporting role, and best adapted Screenplay...

Room by Lenny Abrahamson, 2015 (R)

with Sean Bridgers, Joan Allen, Brie Larson, William H. Macy, Jacob Tremblay

Held captive for years in an enclosed space, a woman (Brie Larson) and her 5-year-old son (Jacob Tremblay) finally gain their freedom, allowing the boy to experience the outside world for the first time.

It had been a long time I didn't feel so terrible after a movie, so moved, so frustrated by the darkness of our specie. The movie explore the beautiful and unusual relationship between a mother and her child, through captivity and in the outside world, with such a realism and without the compensation of feeling good they are out, or that the bad guy is being caught and tried, nor the settling feeling that everything is going to be fine, that the media are going to be respectful... This is a cruel story of victims that try nevertheless to share a beautiful life despite the most horrible things they are victims of. Jacob Tremblay is giving an amazing performance, as well as the rest of the cast, and the director Abrahamson managed via impeccable direction to allow us to see through the naive eyes of the boy, at time to the point that we cannot stand because we are from the outside world, and we understand far more than this boy does. Definitely Oscar material.

Ex Machina by Alex Garland, 2015 (R)

with Oscar Isaac, Alicia Vikander, Domhnall Gleeson

Caleb Smith (Domhnall Gleeson) a programmer at a huge Internet company, wins a contest that enables him to spend a week at the private estate of Nathan Bateman (Oscar Isaac), his firm's brilliant CEO. When he arrives, Caleb learns that he has been chosen to be the human component in a Turing test to determine the capabilities and consciousness of Ava (Alicia Vikander), a beautiful robot. However, it soon becomes evident that Ava is far more self-aware and deceptive than either man imagined.

Ex Machina is a disturbing experiment that puts you in the most high tech setting, in the middle of the purest of nature, with a feeling of claustrophobia combined with a manipulating and brilliant script that bounce you from one vision to its opposite the moment you start believing in it, keeping you alert until the very end. It is disturbing as the robots are more humane than the humans, and the performance of Alicia Vikander is quite extraordinary in making us shift from our perception of her as a human to little by little seeing her as a humanoid. I do hope they get the Oscar for Best Script.

The Revenant by Alejandro González Iñárritu, 2015 (R)

with Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy, Will Poulter, Domhnall Gleeson, Lukas Haas

While exploring the uncharted wilderness in 1823, legendary frontiersman Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio) sustains injuries from a brutal bear attack. When his hunting team leaves him for dead, Glass must utilize his survival skills to find a way back home to his beloved family. Grief-stricken and fueled by vengeance, Glass treks through the wintry terrain to track down John Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy), the former confidant who betrayed and abandoned him.

Beautiful movie, with beautiful music by Ryuichi Sakamoto, and at the same time, tough movie with a character that has only left his revenge, and therefor doesn't offer much in terms of emotions, to allow to relate to the characters. The journey is interesting as you are learning along the way the politics of the time, the survival knowledge of the original owners of the land, how nature can be beautiful or destructive. I get that DiCaprio and Iñárritu might win the Oscar, but I hope they give the Award for best movie to someone else. 

Brooklyn by John Crowley, 2015 (PG-13)

with Saoirse Ronan, Emory Cohen, Domhnall Gleeson, Julie Walters, Jim Broadbent

An Irish immigrant (Saoirse Ronan) in 1950s New York falls for a tough Italian plumber (Emory Cohen), but faces temptation from another man (Domhnall Gleeson) when she returns to her homeland for a visit.

This most likely is the worse selected movie from the Oscars. It is not bad, but everything is so perfect in the life of this immigrant, from the beautifully clean street of Brooklyn, to the perfect and impeccable success she has with everything she touches, and most boringly the lack of emotion she display throughout the movie, the detachment to all things that makes her journey forgettable. The movie is so perfectly designed, with no risk, no texture, perfect dresses, perfect landscapes, perfect light, perfect make-up, it is very disturbing.

Cake by Daniel Barnz, 2014 (R)

with Daniel Barnz, Jennifer Aniston, Adriana Barraza, Felicity Huffman, William H. Macy, Anna Kendrick, Sam Worthington, Chris Messina, Mamie Gummer, Lucy Punch, Britt Robertson, Paula Cale, Ashley Crow, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Camille Guaty, Allen Maldonado, Camille Mana, Julio Oscar Mechoso

Saddled with chronic pain, Claire Simmons has kept a sense of humor, even if it's of the acidic, angry variety. Upset but gripped by curiosity when a member of her support group kills herself, Claire decides to excavate the truths behind the suicide.

I don't know how this director went from Beastly to Cake, but definitely he jumped to a much different level. This movie is beautiful, funny, extremely sad, and made with a finesse and sensitivity that really showcase American cinema at its best. And Jennifer Aniston is outstanding in it, as well as Adriana Barraza. As much as I love Jennifer Aniston in her more funny roles, she managed here to get us to our guts, with the nuance of a person having experienced physical and mental pain beyond possible, and going through a journey of anger, chaos, depression, and growing out of it with a complex mix of wider understanding of human miseries and beauty. The experience of watching the movie is painful, happy, sad but most of all transformative.

A Secret (Un Secret) by Claude Miller, 2007

Claude Miller directs this engrossing drama about a Jewish boy in post-World War II Paris who stumbles upon a mysterious toy in the attic, exposing his family's secret dark past and how it survived Nazi atrocities. Can the child grasp the devastating truth, or will it drive him deeper into his personal fantasy world?

Again a movie on World War 2, with a closer look at the collaborationism, which made some French under the Vichy government commit cruelty against Jews the same way the Nazis did in Germany. It is not a topic that is widely spread, despite the fact that we study it in history class in France, mainly because of the shame, and the fact that it is easier to see France as one of the winners of World War 2 and highlight the resistance — which was also a powerful movement. The reality is that by 1940, France had surrendered and became another territory of Nazi Germany. The collaborationism is something that I was surprised to see in "Elle s'appelait Sarah - Sarah's Key" as still widely unknown. The movie is interesting in the way it is presented, from the very particular view point of a Jewish family with a father very liberal with religion, and yet very aware of how things could turn. He uses the example of the Dreyfus affair to show his surrounding there is something about France that might be a threat through the Nazi occupation. The movie also shows the post-war France and the will to have it all forgotten, as if everything was perfect again, which is a phenomenon we know more from the recovering Germany. The movie is very beautiful, with perfect scenery and people, but looking into details, it is full of little clues that makes you anticipate the collapse, such as a street plate that honors Marshal Pétain... The storyline is based on three periods, the present in black and white, the colorful post-war, and the less and less colored short time before the war and during war, going back and forth as the story unravels. The performances are great, Cecile De France so beautiful, and the cast is amazing.

with Cécile De France (Hereafter, L'auberge Espagnole), Patrick Bruel, Ludivine Sagnier (Swimming Pool), Julie Depardieu (Paris Je t'aime), Mathieu Amalric (Cosmopolis, Le Scaphandre et Le Papillon, Un Conte De Noel), Nathalie Boutefeu, Yves Verhoeven, Yves Jacques (Les garçons et Guillaume, à table), Sam Garbarski, Orlando Nicoletti, Valentin Vigourt

watch Un Secret trailer:

The Fault in Our Stars by Josh Boone, 2014 (PG-13)

Teenager Hazel, who has pushed people away since her cancer diagnosis, reluctantly joins a support group, where she bonds with a boy named Gus. Together, they face the challenge of building a relationship under the shadow of terminal illness.

Haven't cried like this since most likely "Billy Elliot"... Damned... The story makes you wonder if the characters are real, and because then you get to know that this is actually a book, you wonder if (just like in the story), the writer couldn't write something more about Hazel, getting to know the rest of her life. It is definitely a down to earth sort of movie, on the edge of emotion, with frantic dream come true becoming nightmare. It is honest, and never the less completely romantic. Quite a strange combination. Fascinating.

Shailene Woodley (The Descendants, Divergent), Ansel Elgort (Divergent), Nat Wolff (Peace, Love & Missunderstanding), Willem Dafoe (Out of the Furnace, Paris Je T'aime, Fireflies in the Garden, The English Patient, Farewell, Daybreakers, Nymphomaniac Vol. 1 & 2), Laura Dern (The Master, Dr. T. and The Women), Lotte Verbeek, Sam Trammell (True Blood), Emily Peachey, Mike Birbiglia (Your Sister's Sister)

watch The Fault in Our Stars trailer:

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty by Ben Stiller, 2013 (PG)

Walter Mitty (Ben Stiller), an employee at Life magazine, spends day after monotonous day developing photos for the publication. To escape the tedium, Walter inhabits a world of exciting daydreams in which he is the undeniable hero. Walter fancies a fellow employee named Cheryl (Kristen Wiig) and would love to date her, but he feels unworthy. However, he gets a chance to have a real adventure when Life's new owners send him on a mission to obtain the perfect photo for the final print issue.

It was with reluctance that I saw this movie, the trailer was terrible and I was afraid Walter Mitty would be this laugh out loud movie trying to go indie. Turns out the story evolves in a human way, with some scenes that are off but made of his crazy imagination. His journey goes beyond the physical journey, and although the outcome is quite predictable, it is still enjoyable to go through it. Ben Stiller as the main actor and director is proving himself to be more than Zoolander and Dodgeball, and shows some maturity, which suits him well.

with Ben Stiller (Tower Heist), Kristen Wiig (Despicable Me 2, All Good Things, Bridesmaids, Date Night, How to train your dragon, Friends with Kids), Shirley MacLaine, Adam Scott (Friends with Kids, Kathryn Hahn (Our Idiot Brother, We're the Millers), Sean Penn (The Game, Milk, Fair Game, The Tree of Life), Patton Oswalt (Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, Young Adult), Adrian Martinez (American Hustle), Ólafur Darri Ólafsson

watch The Secret Life of Walter Mitty trailer:

Interstellar by Christopher Nolan, 2014 (PG-13)

I went to the AMC Loews Lincoln Square 13 to see Interstellar, in one of the largest theater screen in the US and the world (not to be advertizing it). Seeing it in IMAX 70mm Film was definitely something unique. Of course, in all the close-ups of characters, it felt a little too big, but when it was in space, there was a show. Then they gave us a poster for free :) well... the ticket price could afford it, Anyway...
About the movie. It was a great story, combining excellently technology, the human aspect, and the futuristic science fiction plot. In a way, it could have happened nowadays, and the characters are no heroes. Some are bright, but Mcconaughey is such an ordinary parent who yes, used to be an astronaut... People are described with their flaws, no one is perfect, there is a moment for each of them where you could see what would have happened if they didn't have their humanity bringing out the best but most of the time the worse of them. The story takes its time to unravel, but never leaves you a second bored. There are moments that are so tensed that it is almost torture, and then more contemplative shots which are outstanding of beauty. The movie is sometimes going for the tear-jerk, but most of all is challenging our mind to expand the possibility of science and theories on time and space, singularity, black holes, without sounding pedagogical nor arrogant. The grandiose of the special effects are actually closed to the visualizations of space Nasa is providing nowadays in their website, giving a realistic feel to the adventure. It seems that Nolan didn't fall into the same trap Scott did with his Prometheus. He relied on science to a realistic level, and didn't go away from the essential, which is the story of his characters.
The only detail I found a little ridiculous is the trademark Nolan implemented first in Inception and back again in Interstellar of the curved spaces. Wondering why...
Also, it was somehow a little hard when meeting each characters not to think "oh, Michael Caine, oh Wes Bentley, oh Anne Hathaway, Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain..." Everyone is soo famous it is very strange to see them altogether, and not think of them as actors first before getting into their characters. And don't get me wrong, the last thing I forgot to mention is how perfectly the movie is directed and acted.

I am putting three other posters today, which I believe are in a very radical way opposing and part of one and the same story, and so reflective of the movie. One is about life on earth, one is the journey to the universe, and one is the search of a viable environment to move to.



Watch Interstellar Trailers (I definitely needed to watch more than one trailer, and then ran to the theater):






with Ellen Burstyn (Requiem for a Dream), Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club, Mud, Magic Mike, The Paperboy), Mackenzie Foy, John Lithgow (Rise of the Planet), Timothée Chalamet, Anne Hathaway (Brokeback Mountain, Alice In Wonderland, Rachel Getting Married, Valentine's Day, Love and Other Drugs, The Dark Knight Rises, One Day, Get Smart), Wes Bentley (American Beauty, The Hunger Games), Michael Caine (Inception, The Dark Knight Rises, Sleuth, Now You See Me, Miss Congeniality), David Gyasi (Cloud Atlas), Casey Affleck (Ocean's Twelve, Out of the Furnace, Ocean's Thirteen), Jessica Chastain (Lawless, Zero Dark Thirty, The Debt, The Help, The Tree of Life, Take Shelter), Matt Damon (Ocean's Twelve, The Monuments Men, Ocean's Thirteen, Behind the Candelabra, Invictus, Margaret, True Grit, We Brought a Zoo, The Informant!, Herafter, Inside Job, The Adjustment Bureau, Promised Land, The Legend of Bagger Vance, Contagion), Topher Grace (Valentine's Day)

Lore by Cate Shortland, 2014

As the Allies sweep across Germany, Lore leads her siblings on a journey that exposes them to the truth of their parents' beliefs. An encounter with a mysterious refugee forces Lore to rely on a person she has always been taught to hate.

As in Cate Shortland's previous film Somersault, there is a lot of silence and contemplation, both main characters are at an age of discovering what is is to become a woman, and suffer from the lacking of teachings from their parents. The comparison stops there, with a far more dramatic destiny for Lore, becoming a leader in her family, carrying the responsibility that her mother left her with no promise of reversal. Humanity at its worse is trying to rebuild itself with the resemblance of value that is left, from one extreme to the other, and most of all, not really understanding what exactly is the right position to have. The only frail constancy is the relationship between Lore and her brothers and sister, and this man we know nothing about. Their journey is a fascinating one, somehow overexposing their emotion by not displaying any, with few words and powerful imagery.


with Saskia Rosendahl, Kai-Peter Malina, Nele Trebs, Ursina Lardi, Hans-Jochen Wagner, Mika Seidel, André Frid, Eva-Maria Hagen, Nick Holaschke, Sven Pippig, Philip Wiegratz

watch Lore trailer:

American Horror Story: Coven by Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk - FX, 2013 (TVMA)

Exploring humankind's unsettling capacity for evil, this darkly twisted drama plays upon the power of supernatural fears and everyday horrors. Each season brings back familiar faces, but they're playing different characters in an all-new setting.
Coven tells the secret history of witches and witchcraft in America. Over 300 years have passed since the turbulent days of the Salem witch trials and those who managed to escape are now facing extinction. Mysterious attacks have been escalating against their kind and young girls are being sent away to a special school in New Orleans to learn how to protect themselves. Wrapped up in the turmoil is new arrival, Zoe, who is harboring a terrifying secret of her own. Alarmed by the recent aggression, Fiona, the long-absent Supreme, sweeps back into town determined to protect the Coven and hell bent on decimating anyone who gets in her way.



This third season has a lot of interesting elements, but in the end, it feels a little too light, there is nothing about the characters that helps us empathize, feel that the story is coherent. It feels like some sort of Harry Potter with all the voodoo culture of the South packed together. We forget about the neighbors, the Beowulf, and even most of the witches are not as relevant. Somehow, also, the empathy for Evan Peters is limited to his performance of an irrelevant character. Jamie Brewer is great but same happens to her, because the meaninglessness of her existence in the script. The freshness come from the new cast made of Angela Bassett, Kathy Bates and most of all Gabourey Sidibe, although somehow, they are simplistic and exaggerated. The only characters that are somehow intriguing are the ones performed by Denis O'Hare and Sarah Paulson, still with an expected outcome. Jessica Lange's characters are now a continuous performance of the same, but simplified more and more. Anyway, the third season is always a more challenging one, and they pulled it off ok.

Currently watching Season 4: Freak Show. Will keep you posted.

with Frances Conroy, Jessica Lange (Tootsie, The Vow), Sarah Paulson (Game Change, Mud), Emma Roberts (We're the Millers), Evan Peters, Lily Rabe (All Good Things), Taissa Farmiga, Jamie Brewer, Denis O'Hare (The Normal Heart, Dallas Buyers Club, True Blood, Milk, Duplicity, Michael Clayton), Angela Bassett (This Means War), Kathy Bates (Valentine's Day), Gabourey Sidibe (Tower Heist, Precious), Patti LuPone, Danny Huston (The Congress, Hitchcock, You Don't Know Jack, Robin Hood, The Conspirator), Stevie Nicks

Read more about
Season 1: Murder House
Season 2: Asylum

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American Horror Story: Asylum by Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk - FX, 2012 (TVMA)

Exploring humankind's unsettling capacity for evil, this darkly twisted drama plays upon the power of supernatural fears and everyday horrors. Each season brings back familiar faces, but they're playing different characters in an all-new setting. Season 2 of this horror anthology brings new characters and a new location as Jessica Lange returns to portray the administrator of an East Coast mental institution for the criminally insane in the 1960s.

I love the concept of recreating a total different scenario with the same cast as season 1. It works almost like a theater company performing different plays, and somehow you feel the actors are getting to know more about how to work with one another. This season was in a way far scarier than the first one, in the way people were far more twisted, mentally dark, and it used the fascination of the darkest sins to make us feel uncomfortable about humanity. Nevertheless, the characters are explored in various ways, and play with the humanity in each of them, or even play us into believing one thing and twisting it into another. The set for the second season is also far more interesting that in the first one, and the performances pushed to more extremes, to our very pleasure. It is a great second season, even better than the first one.

Read More about Season 1: Murder House and Season 3: Coven



with Jessica Lange (Tootsie, The Vow), Sarah Paulson (Game Change, Mud), Evan Peters, Zachary Quinto (Heroes, Star Trek Into Darkness, Margin Call), Lily Rabe (All Good Things), James Cromwell (The Artist), Frances Conroy, Chloë Sevigny (Boys Don't Cry), Ian McShane (Snow White and the Huntsman, Scoop), Joseph Fiennes (Shakespeare in Love, The Red Baron - Der rote Baron), Lizzie Brocheré, Naomi Grossman, Clea DuVall (Argo), Dylan McDermott (The Perks of Being a Wallflower), Adam Levine

Watch trailer:

American Horror Story: Murder House by Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk - FX, 2011 (TVMA)

A Boston family makes a new start by moving cross-country to Los Angeles ... only to find that their new home might already be "occupied." As the house's dark secrets come to light, creepy characters come out of the woodwork. Exploring humankind's unsettling capacity for evil, this darkly twisted drama plays upon the power of supernatural fears and everyday horrors. Each season brings back familiar faces, but they're playing different characters in an all-new setting.

This is a very particular way of looking at haunted house. The beginning of the season was giving you great scare, but it would seem that the producers were more interested in getting to know the monsters, and somehow unveil the real monsters, who don't correspond to the cliches of monsters. The story twists in itself making you less and less fearful, and more interested about what really happened in that house. The performances are great, the characters completely and sometimes absurdly realistic. You might even think of the series as a comedy. Anyway, hard not to spoil the suspense. I got into watching the next one right after!

Read more about Season 2: Asylum and Season 3: Coven



with Dylan McDermott (The Perks of Being a Wallflower), Connie Britton, Taissa Farmiga, Jessica Lange (Tootsie, The Vow), Evan Peters, Denis O'Hare (The Normal Heart, Dallas Buyers Club, True Blood, Milk, Duplicity, Michael Clayton), Frances Conroy, Kate Mara (127 hours, House of Cards), Lily Rabe (All Good Things), Alexandra Breckenridge, Zachary Quinto (Heroes, Star Trek Into Darkness, Margin Call), Sarah Paulson (Game Change, Mud)

watch trailer:

Fruitvale Station by Ryan Coogler, 2013 (R)

This dramatic rendering of a real-life tragedy recounts the final hours of Oscar Grant, shot by San Francisco transit police on New Year's Day, 2009. In portraying the energy Oscar brought to life, the film mourns the tragic loss of a unique soul.

This is not a movie I was going to watch, and when I did, It reminded me of the recent excesses of the police in Ferguson, and how justice is often slipping away from its true definition. Racism is still overly present, and with a minority of African American in the police, the police isn't doing a great job proving itself impartial. Anyway, another sad story it is important to hear, to see... The tragic end of Oscar Grant isn't a pattern that we can't change.

with Michael B. Jordan, Melonie Diaz, Octavia Spencer (Snowpiercer, The Help), Kevin Durand (Cosmopolis, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones), Chad Michael Murray, Ahna O'Reilly (The Help), Ariana Neal

watch trailer:

Homeland Season 4 Premiere, by Howard Gordon and Alex Gansa - Showtime, 2014 (TVMA)

with Claire Danes, Rupert Friend, Nazanin Boniadi, Laila Robins (Concussion), Tracy Letts, Mandy Patinkin, Amy Hargreaves, Suraj Sharma (Life of Pi), F. Murray Abraham, Sarita Choudhury, Corey Stoll (House of Cards, Non-Stop, The Normal Heart), Nimrat Kaurm

Carrie Mathison is calling the shots as the newly appointed Station Chief in Afghanistan, deploying every weapon in the Agency's arsenal to fulfill her mission. But every drone strike and tactical raid comes at a cost and she soon learns the true price of power. 

Fuliginous start for Homeland with a two-episode premiere. Honestly, aside from missing Nicholas Brody (Damian Lewis) through Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes), his death doesn't feel like a gap in the story. We already moved on to a far more intriguing storyline. The story reflect on the reality of today's wars in the American way and the controversy of it, through drones and blind operations, as well as the question of guilt and detachment when everything is only visible through screens. On a different level, the series explores the ethical conflict of being a mother but not being able to confront the responsibility. And more... because everything is on a spinning table and we don't know anything, so much is open to possibilities. Looking forward to see where the characters of Aayan Ibrahim (Suraj Sharma - Life of Pi) and Peter Quinn (Rupert Friend) are going, and how they will put back once more Saul Berenson (Mandy Patinkin) into the action.
More on Homeland past seasons

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