Mientras duermes (Sleep Tight) by Jaume Balagueró, 2011 (NR)

with Luis Tosar (Even the rain - También la lluvia, Celda 211, Te doy mis ojos), Marta Etura, Alberto San Juan, Petra Martinez, Iris Almeida, Carlos Lasarte, Margarita Roset
From the director of [Rec].

Toiling silently amongst the residents of an everyday Barcelona apartment building, doorman Cesar (Luis Tosar) harbors a dark secret: his sole desire in life is to make others unhappy. When he sets his sights on Clara (Marta Etura), one of his building's cheeriest residents, his sick need blossoms into a full-fledged obsession.

This movie reminded me of With a Friend Like Harry... (Harry, un ami qui vous veut du bien), the main character has a similar obsession, and the way he involves himself is also insidious, damaging... The movie evolves in the same direction, making you more and more uncomfortable, claustrophobic... In this sense, Luis Tosar is amazing. He can literally play anything, and convince us. Celda 211 (Cell 211) and Even the rain - También la lluvia were radically different and you believed him anyhow. I hate suspense movies, but this one got me hooked.

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The Scarlet Letter by Roland Joffé, 1995 (R)

with Demi Moore (G.I. Jane), Gary Oldman (Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, The Dark Knight Rises, Lawless), Robert Duvall (Thank you for smoking, Jack Reacher), Lisa Joliffe-Andoh, Edward Hardwicke, Robert Prosky, Roy Dotrice, Joan Plowright, Malcolm Storry, James Bearden

In this adaptation of Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel, Puritan settler Hester Prynne (Demi Moore) is accused of adultery in a Massachusetts settlement in the 1660s. Although she's attracted to the town's pastor (Gary Oldman), the two resist temptation. But only a whiff of scandal is enough for the town's morality police to sentence Prynne to live as an outcast and wear a shameful scarlet A for adultery.

That was a flashback. I stumbled upon the movie changing randomly the channels. As very few French people but many Americans, I read that book when I was young. It was one of the first that ended well, since French literature is not about happy ending. I remember a decade later watching the movie for the first time, and hum, not finding Gary Oldman sufficiently handsome to be convincing, and remembering how cheesy sounded the end. Not much has changed, it is overacted, over dramatic, and the narration that over-explain the story is breaking the little charm the movie has, the ending is quite unsettling, the only good point of the movie is basically to highlight how miserable the condition of the women was.

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Los años desnudos (Clasificada S) by Dunia Ayaso, Félix Sabroso, 2008 (NR)

with Candela Peña, Goya Toledo, Mar Flores, Luis Zahera, Antonio de la Torre, Tomás Álvarez, Jose Luis Ayuso, Jorge Calvo, Julio Velez, Ana Wagener, Susana Estrada

The new liberalism of the post-Franco years provides the backdrop for this dark comedy centered on the experiences of three actresses (Candela Peña, Goya Toledo and Mar Flores) working in Spain's soft-core porn industry as the country emerges from years of repressive rule. Although each of the women comes from a different background, they all share the common experience of exploitation at the hands of an opportunist hiding behind the veil of art.

This is a strange movie, based on the stories of actresses of the post-Franquism. It gets to be funny, sexy, really light and shallow, and at the same time, heavy and sad. Because the movie starts with a point and finishes with the opposite, you get to feel uncomfortable from letting yourself be bluffed by the appearances. It has an unusual format, the three women are not particularly making you love them, but somehow, because they are a representation of an era, "cine del destape", their symbol is stronger than themselves and the movie remains in your mind. As a woman, I guess it traumatized me quite a bit, not so much because of the women, but because of what it tells about men... Fortunately, the "cine del destape" only lasted as long as the Spanish transition, from 1975 to 1982.

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The Horse Whisperer by Robert Redford, 1998 (PG-13)

with Robert Redford (The Company You Keep, Out of Africa, The great Gatsby), Kristin Scott Thomas (Bel Ami, Salmon Fishing In The Yemen, Partir, The English Patient, Sarah's Key - Elle s'Appelait Sarah, Nowhere Boy), Sam Neill (The Vow), Dianne Wiest (Dan in Real Life), Scarlett Johansson (We Brought a Zoo, The Avengers, Scoop), Chris Cooper (The Company You Keep, The Company Men, American Beauty), Cherry Jones (Amelia, The Beaver), Ty Hillman, Kate Bosworth (Superman Returns), Jessalyn Gilsig, Jeanette Nolan
from the director of The Company You Keep, The Legend of Bagger Vance, The Conspirator...

After a riding accident, New Yorker Annie MacLean (Kristin Scott Thomas) takes her injured daughter, Grace (Scarlett Johansson), and a frightened, wounded horse to Montana. They're looking for Tom Booker (Robert Redford), a man with the unique ability to "talk" to horses. As Tom heals the horse, Annie's growing feelings for him make her reluctant to return to city life -- and her husband. Redford directs this Oscar-nominated drama.

A movie to fall for Kristin Scott Thomas, all over again. Anyway, I saw it so long ago that it happened many times again. Robert Redford is his usual not very demonstrative man, that time tho, you could feel what was underneath his skin and fall for him. The little Scarlett Johansson back then looked like my cousin, and I was convinced she would be someone important in the cinema history. I don't like her as much now, but in this one, she was brilliant. Then, the landscapes, the contemplation of nature and the horse, Pilgrim, were right on, beautiful.

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Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight by Stephen Frears, 2013 (PG-13)

with Pablo Schreiber (Orange is the New Black), Christopher Plummer (The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo), Danny Glover, Benjamin Walker, Frank Langella (All Good Things, Superman Returns), Barry Levinson (Bandits, You Don't Know Jack), Ed Begley Jr., Bob Balaban (Deconstructing Harry), Muhammad Ali, Dana Ivey (Two Weeks Notice, Did You Hear About The Morgans?), Harris Yulin, Peter Gerety (The Legend of Bagger Vance), Fritz Weaver (The Thomas Crown Affair)
From the director of Dirty Pretty Things

Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight looks at Muhammad Ali’s historic Supreme Court battle from behind closed doors. When Ali was drafted into the Vietnam War at the height of his boxing career, his claim to conscientious objector status led to a controversial legal battle that rattled the U.S. judicial system right up to the highest court in the land.

If you forget that the main character of the movie is Muhammad Ali, the court room and the behind the scene is actually fascinating. The power held in the hands of few, as politics of that time is so intricate, it is fascinating. It gets technical, and it is from a high sphere that you never really see. It is interesting, the actors are all quite impressive... you just need to expect a legal and political game, more than an entertaining documentary about a celebrity.

Chely Wright: Wish Me Away by Beverly Kopf and Bobbie Birleffi, 2011 (NR)

with Chely Wright, Rosie O'Donnell, Meredith Vieira, Natalie Morales

This poignant documentary, filmed over three years, profiles country music star Chely Wright, a devout Christian whose struggle to succeed in the music biz while hiding her homosexuality from her conservative family and fans caused her much anguish.

That was an interesting one, because I guess I was one of those who has strongly believed her decision to launch a book and a record and her coming out was a little too set to not be thought in a marketing way. Although I didn't think of it for the right reasons. I got it that this was a way to avoid the new album to be launched in a specific targeted way, and tell a truth that needed to be told, and make as much noise about it as possible to be able to make a point in a society that has still backward ideas of what it to be gay. Anyway, she is not my favorite person but I get it, and I found her quite courageous. And in the end, reading about it, she gained some credibility as an equality activist, but definitely got pushed away from the Country music world. So, not some commercial, right?

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Orange is the New Black by Jenji Kohan, Netflix, 2013- (TVMA)

with Taylor Schilling (Argo), Laura Prepon, Michael Harney, Michelle Hurst, Kate Mulgrew, Jason Biggs, Natasha Lyonne, Pablo Schreiber, Nick Sandow, Dascha Polanco, Joel Garland, Lea DeLaria, Samira Wiley, Matt McGorry, Yael Stone, Danielle Brooks, Uzo Aduba, Catherine Curtin, Selenis Leyva, Constance Shulman, Annie Golden (I Love You Phillip Morris), Vicky Jeudy, Emma Myles, Laverne Cox, Taryn Manning, Elizabeth Rodriguez, Maria Dizzia (The Other Woman, Keep the Lights On), Lolita Foster, Beth Fowler, Abigail Savage, Madeline Brewer, Jackie Cruz, Diane Guerrero, Jessica Pimentel, Adrienne C. Moore, Lauren Lapkus, Lin Tucci, Matt Peters, Michael Chernus (Jack and Diane), Lori Tan Chinn, Laura Gomez, James McDaniel...

From the creator of “Weeds” comes a heartbreaking and hilarious new series set in a women’s prison. Piper Chapman’s wild past comes back to haunt her, resulting in her arrest and detention in a federal penitentiary. To pay her debt to society, Piper trades her comfortable New York life for an orange prison jumpsuit and finds unexpected conflict and camaraderie amidst an eccentric group of inmates. The series is based on Orange Is the New Black by Piper Kerman, a memoir about her experiences in prison, and aired on Netflix (House of Cards).

OITNB by Brazilian graphic design student Renis

I am in withdrawal. Watched it too fast, finished it too fast, loved too much the characters, and now they are gone for one year. And reading the sneaks that have been spilling around didn't make me feel better. Why is Alex only in one episode? Is she? Not to offense anyone, but that is a very bad idea. I think I can speak on behalf of a lot of people, we need her in the show. If the creators are reading, this is a message, put her back in, in third season if too late for the second season. And I didn't even like her, initially. But the series is so much about humanity, any character is having a perspective to offer on their own situation, own behavior, not that everything is justifiable, but definitely, it broaden your judgement, made so easily in perhaps the first episode and broken every step of the season. Brilliant. You learn to love every one of them, perhaps the hardest to like is the main one that is leading us to get to know all the other, Piper. But in a way, the conflict you have with her are the ones you have of someone who isn't really real, someone who still have some shallowness to drop down. But the reflective effect of the prison is definitely already changing her. And it doesn't goes only for the better. I in the end have no idea how realistic the prison is, I don't wish to have an experience of it, but I really love the portrait of the women Jenji Kohan traced. It is beautiful, human, not pretty, but full of humanity. And Laura Prepon makes it have that edge that seduces you. How about making Alex a bigger character in the next season? Right, I already pleaded...

PS: I put quite a lot of the cast, which I am usually lazy about, but hey, I am a new yorker, the cast is mostly from here, they cast some people I know in it, and I think all these actresses need all to be recognized for they gave an amazing performance.

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