Snowpiercer by Bong Joon-ho, 2014 (R)

The Earth's remaining inhabitants are confined to a single train circling the globe as revolution brews among the class-divided cars. Based on a French graphic novel and set in a new ice age, this futuristic thriller stars a top-notch ensemble cast.

This is one of the strangest film I have seen in a while, and not only because Tilda Swinton looks like a freak. This was the first time I was thinking to myself I would rather die than be in that train, even if this means the end of human race, I am not that attached... So you follow these guys, some born on the train, some born before the ice age, and the longer it lasts, the more painful it gets, it an absurd and gore style. This movie made me so uncomfortable I would say it has a point. But don't look for the light or the happy ending, it will only make you feel miserable.

with Chris Evans (Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: First Avenger, Avengers, Puncture), Tilda Swinton (We Need To Talk About Kevin, Michael Clayton, I am Love, Constantine), Jamie Bell (Billy Elliot, Man on a Ledge), Octavia Spencer (The Help), John Hurt (Melancholia, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy), Alison Pill (Milk, To Rome With Love, Dan in Real Life), Ed Harris (Gravity, Man on a Ledge, Game Change), Kang-ho Song, Ewen Bremner (Perfect Sense - The Last Word), Ah-sung Ko

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Blood Ties by Guillaume Canet, 2013 (R)

From the director of Little White Lies - Les Petits Mouchoirs and Tell No One - Ne le dis à personne

When 50-year-old Chris is released from prison, his younger brother Frank, an up-and-coming member of the police force, welcomes him with open arms. But when Chris has trouble staying straight, Frank is trapped between duty and family.

Canet just went by the book for his first American movie. He chose carefully his cast with an interesting combination of great actors from Europe, and the up-and-coming actors from here, as well as one mainstream actors, to wrap up an amazing list. Then, the script is intelligent, and we follow it in a very conventional way, there are no mistake in the directing, the cinematography... Finally, the editing makes the story interesting, no crazy pursuit, no wild special effect, but you can feel there is a budget behind. I believe he made a very new yorker movie, in a very French way of doing it. It's really good, but unfortunately, American channels classified it immediately as indie... Was American Gangster indie? No, and the two movies have a lot in common. So why? Perhaps I should write an article on how European cinema is systematically classified as Indie when coming to the USA, in a way that it kills it in the box-office automatically. It is sad, because somehow, mainstreams most of the time are lacking of what the indie movie have, depth.

with Clive Owen (Shadow Dancer, Duplicity, Killer Elite), Billy Crudup (Eat Pray Love), Marion Cotillard (The Immigrant, Little White Lies, Inception, The Dark Knight Rises, Contagion, Midnight in Paris), Mila Kunis (Black Swan, Date Night), Zoe Saldana (Out of the Furnace, Star Trek Into Darkness, The Words, Avatar), Matthias Schoenaerts (Rust and Bones, Bullhead), James Caan, Noah Emmerich (Warrior), Lili Taylor 

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The Double by Richard Ayoade, 2013 (R)

Simon is a timid man, scratching out an isolated existence in an indifferent world. He is overlooked at work, scorned by his mother, and ignored by the woman of his dreams. He feels powerless to change any of these things. The arrival of a new co-worker, James, serves to upset the balance. James is both Simon's exact physical double and his opposite - confident, charismatic and good with women. To Simon's horror, James slowly starts taking over his life. Jesse Eisenberg plays the dual roles of the timid office worker and his charismatic doppelganger in this cinematic adaptation of a Dostoevsky tale.

I usually like these kind of movies, but the threshold is that is has to have the humor of the absurd, or at least not make me suffer for too long with the evidence of the situation. This movie is so serious and so obvious that it becomes boring and painful to watch. The ambient is quite similar to the one of Jean Pierre Jeunet movies, perhaps with a feel of 1984, which is great at the beginning. The storyline is interesting (if the movie were shorter), the absurdity and darkness of the movie has a point, but you have to have to courage to see for an hour and a half inactive Jesse Eisenberg and asshole Jesse Eisenberg having a trip of their own.

with Jesse Eisenberg (Now You See Me, The Social Network, To Rome With Love, Solitary Man), Mia Wasikowska (Lawless, Albert Nobbs, Alice in Wonderland, The Kids Are All Right, Amelia), Wallace Shawn, Noah Taylor, Yasmin Paige, James Fox, Cathy Moriarty, Phyllis Somerville, Sally Hawkins (Blue Valentine, An Education, Never Let Me Go), Chris O'Dowd (Bridesmaids), Craig Roberts

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Out of the Furnace by Scott Cooper, 2013 (R)

with Christian Bale (The Fighter, The Dark Knight Rises), Woody Harrelson (The Messenger, Now You See Me, Game Change, The Hunger Games, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire), Casey Affleck (Ocean's Thirteen, Tower Heist), Forest Whitaker (Flight), Willem Dafoe (Paris Je T'aime, Fireflies in the Garden, The English Patient, Farewell, Daybreakers), Zoe Saldana (Star Trek Into Darkness, The Words, Avatar), Sam Shepard (Mud, Fair Game)

From Scott Cooper, the critically-acclaimed writer and director of Crazy Heart, comes a gripping and gritty drama about family, fate, circumstance, and justice. Russell Baze (Christian Bale) has a rough life: he works a dead-end blue collar job at the local steel mill by day, and cares for his terminally ill father by night. When Russell's brother Rodney (Casey Affleck) returns home from serving time in Iraq, he gets lured into one of the most ruthless crime rings in the Northeast and mysteriously disappears. The police fail to crack the case, so - with nothing left to lose - Russell takes matters into his own hands, putting his life on the line to seek justice for his brother.

I remember Winter's Bone being happier... This movie gave me a huge ethical conflict. What was the meaning of it? What did it wanted to say, besides life is unfair and seeking your own justice isn't gonna make you happier. And trying to do good around you isn't gonna change who the other is. Yes, quite depressing. And never the less, quite impressive performances.

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Scarface by Brian De Palma, 1993 (R)

with Al Pacino (Simone, You Don't Know Jack), Steven Bauer (Traffic), Michelle Pfeiffer (People Like Us, Dark Shadows), Robert Loggia, F. Murray Abraham (Homeland), Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Richard Belzer (Fame)

Al Pacino chews scenery as lowly Cuban refugee Tony Montana, who becomes a Florida drug kingpin but makes the fatal mistake of "getting high on his own supply." Michelle Pfeiffer has a small role as "the blonde" Tony lusts after. A remake of the 1932 film starring Paul Muni, Scarface gets a face-lift by transferring its venue to Miami, reflecting the drug rackets of the early 1980s.

Ok, that movie was a trip... I get it that at the time, it was a story that had some appeal, and the performance of Al Pacino was something to remember, and unlimited quotes for each appropriate setting, but oh my... This is loud, long, way to violent to be realistic. I mean maybe it was that bad at the time, but surely, there are more subtle ways of showing it... The characters are also caricatures, which really bothered me, the plot is therefor quite predictable. Or is it that it has been followed by so many movies which tried to tell that story, over and over? I don't know, maybe it is that, or maybe it is just not my type of movies... Looking forward for your feedback on it...

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Bastards (Les Salauds) by Claire Denis, 2013 (NR)

with Vincent Lindon, Chiara Mastroianni, Julie Bataille, Michel Subor, Lola Créton, Alex Descas, Grégoire Colin, Florence Loiret Caille, Christophe Miossec, Hélène Fillières, Eric Dupond-Moretti
From the director of White Material and Trouble Every Day

Marco returns to Paris after his brother-in-law's suicide, where he targets the man his sister believes caused the tragedy - though he is ill-prepared for her secrets as they quickly muddy the waters.

It took me three times watching it again by pieces, to actually understand some of the nuances. The movie is the portrayal of a dramatic event and its consequences, in the lives of many people, drastic consequences. Of course, Claire Denis doesn't avoid us the pain and violence the characters go through, with the growing awareness of how horrendous the event was, and how irreversible. The cast is pretty amazing. Very dark, but in a way, fascinating.

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Dead Man Down by Niels Arden Oplev, 2013 (R)

with Colin Farrell (In Bruges, Total Recall), Noomi Rapace (Prometheus, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows), Terrence Howard (The Princess and the Frog), Dominic Cooper, Isabelle Huppert (Ma Mere, White Material, The Piano Teacher, Amour), Luis Da Silva Jr., Stu Bennett, Franky G. (The Italian Job), Declan Mulvey, John Cenatiempo, Roy James Wilson
From the director of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (Män som hatar kvinnor)
Colin Farrell and Noomi Rapace star as two strangers, irresistibly drawn to each other, whose mutual desire for revenge unravels in an escalating trail of violence.

Besides the romantic aspect which is not really convincing, the story is quite interesting, dark, dynamic, with unexpected twists and turns, twist and turns (again reminded me of Payback)... I have more and more problems believing Noomi Rapace as a feminine person, her sex-appeal is below zero... An interesting note is the character of the mother, Isabelle Huppert, as her ordinary characters, a "little" off and so french, how not to love her!

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Mud by Jeff Nichols, 2012 (PG-13)

with Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club, Magic Mike, The Paperboy) Tye Sheridan (The Tree of Life), Jacob Loflan, Reese Witherspoon (This Means War), Sarah Paulson (Game Change), Ray McKinnon (Take Shelter), Sam Shepard (Fair Game), Michael Shannon (Take Shelter), Paul Sparks, Joe Don Baker, Johnny Cheek, Bonnie Sturdivant, Stuart Greer, Clayton Carson Pryor
from the director of Take Shelter

Mud is an adventure about two boys, Ellis and his friend Neckbone, who find a man named Mud hiding out on an island in the Mississippi. Mud describes fantastic scenarios-he killed a man in Texas and vengeful bounty hunters are coming to get him. He says he is planning to meet and escape with the love of his life, Juniper, who is waiting for him in town. Skeptical but intrigued, Ellis and Neckbone agree to help him. It isn't long until Mud's visions come true and their small town is besieged by a beautiful girl with a line of bounty hunters in tow.

McConaughey is playing on the edge, again, after Magic Mike and even closer to the mood of The Paperboy. Somehow tho, he doesn't get to have the main role, Mud is someone just because those two kids decide to give him credits and help him. Ellis (Tye Sheridan) is a fascinating boy entering adolescence with bright ideas about justice, love and innocence. Tye Sheridan plays him to the perfection. That kid will go far, I hope. Anyway, the movie is slow, dark, somehow fascinating because it belongs to a world that is our own, but for most of us, completely foreign, with a profound realism.

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Payback by Brian Helgeland, 1999 (R)

with Mel Gibson (The Beaver), Gregg Henry, Maria Bello (Thank You For Smoking, The Cooler, Beautiful Boy), David Paymer (The Five-Year Engagement), Bill Duke, Deborah Kara Unger (The Game), John Glover (Alice in Wonderland), William Devane, Lucy Liu, Jack Conley, Kris Kristofferson (Deadfall)

A career criminal's wife and former partner steal the money he lifted from the Chinese triads, shoot him and leave him for dead -- or so they think. But five months later, he's back and ready to exact his revenge.

I loved this film noir, back in time, when I first saw it. The cast is perfect, the characters reckless, ethics are gone, the main objective of the not-so-bad guy is revenge, and money, but revenge seems to suit him well if any trouble along the way. The women around are whores, SM or not, or heavy junky. You either die killed or overdosed. There is no light, the whole movie is shot with a bluish tone, and shades of black. Mel Gibson looks like himself, apparently some modern version of Mad Max (I haven't seen it yet...). He is perfect, and somehow funny, in a dark kind of way. Awesome.

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Jack Reacher by Christopher McQuarrie, 2012 (PG-13)

with Tom Cruise (Eyes Wide Shut, Knight and Day, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, Oblivion, Cocktail), Rosamund Pike (Pride and Prejudice, Surrogates, An Education, Barney's Version), Richard Jenkins (The Visitor, Eat Pray Love, The Visitor, Liberal Arts), Werner Herzog (My Best Fiend, Mein liebster Feind - Klaus Kinski), David Oyelowo (Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Lincoln,  The Paperboy), Jai Courtney, Vladimir Sizov, Robert Duvall (Thank you for smoking), Josh Helman, Michael Raymond-James

When ex-military cop Jack Reacher investigates an elite sniper charged with killing five people, he teams up with a beautiful defense lawyer -- and they soon find themselves drawn into a dangerous cat-and-mouse game in this exciting thriller.

Well done action movie. Interesting, well-rhythmed, interesting cast, somehow funny and cynical, dark. I liked it. Ok, the story is still about some American hero and a foreigners mafia, which makes it unoriginal, but the characters are originals. Now that I think about it, it reminds me of "Payback" that I just saw again.

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The Paperboy by Lee Daniels, 2012 (R)

with Matthew McConaughey, Zac Efron (17 again, Charlie St. Cloud), David Oyelowo (Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Lincoln), Macy Gray, John Cusack, Nicole Kidman (Eyes Wide Shut, Margot At The Wedding, Rabbit Hole)
From the director of Precious
duration: 107 minutes

Convinced by a death row inmate's female pen pal that the convict is innocent, a reporter and his brother investigate and discover a case marred by deceit, seduction and betrayal. Meanwhile, one brother falls for the convict's mysterious confidant.

This movie is full of sweat, discomfort, anger, racism, nasty and lost people, on a journey for themselves, digging to the dept of darkness. It is quite stylized, so you would feel as much as possible the layer of nature going against humans. There is also a lot of sexuality refrained, testosterone putting all the men on the edge. If those layers were taken out, it would probably become an ordinary movie about crime. The performances are really intense, John Cusack makes the perfect mad and repulsive convict, Nicole Kidman is of a vulgarity I would never had imagined she was capable of, still with a sensitivity that is fascinating. I guess the movie is not for the taste of everybody, and is absolutely unpleasant to watch (except perhaps the parts where Zac Efron showcases his amazing body), but it definitely makes points. Not an ordinary American movie.

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Sunset Boulevard by Billy Wilder, 1950 (NR)

with William Holden, Gloria Swanson, Erich von Stroheim, Nancy Olson, Fred Clark, Lloyd Gough, Jack Webb

Running from debt collectors, screenwriter Joe Gillis stumbles upon the crumbling mansion of former silent-film star Norma Desmond. As he begins penning a comeback screenplay for her, their professional relationship evolves into something more.
Duration: 110 minutes

"I am big, It's the pictures that got small!" What a quote, and many other brilliant ones punctuate a movie that really marked the end of an era. Hollywood studios, the decaying mansion of a fallen star, these are the two main set of the movie, between fake and isolation. It is a dark dark movie... but it wouldn't be as dark if it weren't for Gloria Swanson's mad character, and Erich von Stroheim's stoicism, dryness and impeccable attitude. I felt more and more awkward, uncomfortable, filled with the perspective of the young screenwriter, in a brilliant manipulation that the movie creates. Yes, because the movie starts with the end with quite some sense of humor, from the death of Joe Gillis, we already know the outcome. But the final act is not the disturbing one, this is actually the one moment we are the most used to in love drama. It is the whole situation in between, the confinement in luxurious heaviness, the longing and solitude, the slow but steady trap closing around the characters. Very disturbing.
I was also told, and I mention it because my ignorance did not allow me to notice it, that it was one of the first movies depicting a man who was attracted by the money of an older woman, living by her means and used as an object of desire.
Anyway, a classic.

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Keeper of the Flame by George Cukor, 1942 (NR)

with Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Richard Whorf, Margaret Wycherly, Forrest Tucker, Frank Craven, Stephen McNally, Percy Kilbride, Audrey Christie

While investigating the accidental death of revered war hero Robert Forrest, intrepid reporter Stevie O'Malley (Spencer Tracy) meets the man's wife (Katharine Hepburn) and learns a surprising truth about his subject's supposedly "patriotic" past. George Cukor directs this politically charged wartime thriller that marks Tracy and Hepburn's second onscreen partnership, just a year after their first pairing in the romantic comedy Woman of the Year.

"Keeper of the Flame" is not a romantic comedy, and is not portraying a relationship between Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn, to start with. Which is a change. Probably the only movie of the duet... It is a crime movie, a drama, a movie that is very intelligent at that time, when sometimes the line between patriotism, cherishing of heroes and totalitarianism is very blurry. It reminded me in a way to what happened in California in the 70's, portrayed again in the German movie "Die Welle" (The Wave) a phenomenon that with ripple effect becomes a dangerous movement, if the leader's intentions are dark. It is well played, a little bit over-theatrical but I am guessing it is also the cinema of the time. Interesting nevertheless.

From the same director as Adam's Rib
There are no trailer available for this movie, to my great surprise...

The Grey by Joe Carnahan, 2012 (R)

with Liam Neeson (Love Actually, The Other Man, The Next Three Days, Chloe), Frank Grillo (Warrior), Dermot Mulroney (August: Osage County, J. Edgar), Dallas Roberts (Dallas Buyers Club), Joe Anderson (Amelia), Nonso Anozie, James Badge Dale (Shame), Ben Bray, Anne Openshaw

After narrowly surviving a deadly plane crash in the Alaskan wilderness, a band of oil riggers lead by Ottway (Liam Neeson) must fend for their lives in the ice and snow. But thanks to wolves that view their presence as a threat, they aren't alone.

There is about this movie a strong idea of what is life and death. The poem the father of Ottway wrote describes their journey in a few words: "Once more into the fray. Into the last good fight I'll ever know. Live and die on this day. Live and die on this day." Survival is not the only option, when faced with the reality of death. The movie puts us in circumstances where there is no more worthiness than living in the moment, appreciative of what you have. The acting is excellent, the realism of the scenes is terrifying, suffocating or painless, beautiful. Intelligent.

Sleeping Beauty by Julia Leigh, 2011 (NR)

with Emily Browning, Rachael Blake, Ewen Leslie, Peter Carroll, Chris Haywood, Hugh Keays-Byrne, Eden Falk, Mirrah Foulkes

In this dark tale, a young college student takes a decidedly offbeat job: As a "sleeping beauty," she's paid to be fondled or otherwise handled by strangers while in a sedated slumber. Soon, however, she begins to wonder what she's submitting to.

Interesting, reminded me somehow of "Eyes Wide Shut" by Kubrick.Very soft and delicate, even during the most intense scenes. Very French in a way, or I might say European. I guess there is a focus to make on Australian cinema. But at the same time, there was something about the rhythm of the movie that can sometimes detach you too much from the story. Interesting esthetic, contradiction between the image of purity and the real girl that is inside that body. Emotional and at the same time distant, controlled. Emily Browning is highly convincing. I recommend, adults only :)

Mildred Pierce by Todd Haynes (mini-series, 2011)

with Kate Winslet (Contagion, The Reader, Titanic), Guy Pearce (The King's Speech, The Hurt Locker, Iron Man 3, Prometheus), Evan Rachel Wood (The Wrestler, The Conspirator), Brian F. O'Byrne, Melissa Leo (Flight, Frozen River, The Fighter), Murphy Guyer, James LeGros (Enemy of the State), Marin Ireland, Mare Winningham (Mirror Mirror), Diane Kagan, Miriam Shor, Morgan Turner, Halley Feiffer (Margot At the Wedding), Hope Davis

Based on the 1941 novel by James M. Cain, this HBO miniseries follows the turbulent life of Mildred Pierce, a fiercely independent single mom who works hard to win her daughter's love while struggling to make ends meet in Depression-era Los Angeles.

I thought it was a social movie about American history and how a woman made it. Not really. It is more of a dark story, in the context of the depression, of manipulation, drama, human disgrace. Little by little, you come to understand it and wonder how far this will go. It could have been darker I guess. And the character played by Kate Winslet not convincing enough. Either the game of the daughter should have been less obvious, or the mother less naive. It felt like Winslet was stuck in a role that was too limiting, not enough imaginative, constrained. So the variations of her character were repetitive and in a way uninteresting, irritating "Oh, Veda!".

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Constantine by Francis Lawrence, 2005 (R)

With Keanu Reeves (The Matrix, The Matrix Revolutions), Rachel Weisz (The Deep Blue Sea, The Whisleblower, The Bourne Legacy, 360, Dream House, Agora), Shia LaBeouf (Nymphomaniac, Lawless, The Company You Keep), Djimon Hounsou, Max Baker, Pruitt Taylor Vince (Simone, Beautiful Creatures), Gavin Rossdale, Tilda Swinton (Snowpiercer, We Need To Talk About Kevin, Michael Clayton, I am Love), Peter Stormare (Chocolat)

John Constantine (Keanu Reeves) is a private investigator who believes in things that go bump in the night -- an unconventional quirk that makes him somewhat of an eccentric personality in a world ruled largely by logic. When a female cop (Rachel Weisz) seeks his counsel after her twin sister dies in what first appears to be a suicide, she wants definitive proof of the cause of death. But the answers might only come with blind faith.

Another theory about how good and evil function and play with us on earth. Funnily the two movies, "Constantine" and the one reviewed previously "Sin Noticias De Dios", are very close in some aspect, such as the connection on earth through messengers on the paradise and hell, and the invasion of earth by any of the party. I like the inventiveness that the movie has on how they manifest. Also, I believe I watched this movie because I was curious on Keanu Reeves new role after the Matrix, and discovered (fell in love with) Rachel Weisz. The relationship between the two is funny and at the same time really works. I believe that after that, Rachel Weisz always had this roles of women charmful and a little nuts somehow, powerful and with beautiful souls. Ok, my mistake, I probably saw this movie after About a boy and was already madly in love with her... Anyway, its a good movie, and the intervention of Tilda Swinton at the end is making it an apotheosis.

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The cooler by Wayne Kramer, 2003 (R)

with William H. Macy (Thank You For Smoking, The sessions), Maria Bello (Thank You For Smoking, Payback, Beautiful Boy), Alec Baldwin (It's complicated, To Rome With Love), Shawn Hatosy, Ron Livingston (Game Change), Paul Sorvino, Estella Warren, Arthur J. Nascarella (Solitary Man), M.C. Gainey (Tangled), Ellen Greene, Joey Fatone, Don Scribner, Tony Longo

The unluckiest man in Las Vegas, Bernie Lootz (William H. Macy), is employed by a casino as a "cooler" to defuse winning streaks. But when Lootz falls in love with a cocktail waitress (Maria Bello), she becomes his "lady luck" -- to the chagrin of the casino's crooked director (Alec Baldwin). Baldwin was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his turn as Shelly Kaplow, the old-school casino boss who will do anything to keep Lootz down.

Another movie about chance. I loved it. Besides the intriguing story of luck, the actors are amazing, human, funny, the rhythm is perfect, the plot full of surprises. Refreshing dark comedy.

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