Winter's Bone (Debra Granik, 2010)

8.5/10
Surprisingly great, unheard of little movie I saw on a whim in the theatres. A 17-year old girl has to take care of her invalid mother and two siblings, living in this destitute loghouse in a barren, sparsely populated village. Her methhead father puts the house up as bond, so the girl has to either find her father or proof of his demise in order to keep supporting her family. Jennifer Lawrence as the girl is the movie and gives a fantastic performance, and the movie is consistently tense as she undertakes a brutal, undesirable journey with an inevitable ending. I thought the emotion was lacking a bit but otherwise, really good.

Red White & Blue (Simon Rumley, 2010)

6/10
"Revenge" horror movie in the mode of Eli Roth et al, definitely not without its flaws - the first half of the movie is very flat, some of the acting is pretty subpar (Noah Taylor is great in his role as the stereotypical hick psycho though), and you can tell they're working on a tight budget as most of the gore occurs offscreen or out of the camera's view. But it picks up towards the end and all in all is a decently competent horror. Other movies have done less with more, at least.

The Secret in Their Eyes (Juan Jose Campanella, 2009)

7.5/10
An enjoyable, very well-acted, very well directed crime/love story that just didn't really grip me enough to give it more than a 7.5. The dual stories are handled well and fluently and the dialogue was extraordinarily sharp, but I just didn't love it. I'd definitely recommend it though.

The Devils (Ken Russell, 1971)

7/10
Pretty cool to see this buried 1971 cult classic with director Ken Russell in-house (getting a lifetime achievement award from Fantasia). It was quite an interesting movie, not at all what I was expecting, but I was really too tired to truly get into it. It reminded me a lot of The Wicker Man, a movie I like a lot, so I wouldn't mind watching it again...but it's never been released on DVD. Oh well, maybe one day.

Mr. Nobody (Jaco van Dormael, 2009)

4/10
Saw this movie to kill some time before the one below. I didn't know much about it beforehand. Basically Jared Leto plays the unfortunately named Nemo Nobody, the last living mortal man in 2092, and on his deathbed he recounts 3 possible paths of his life (altered slightly by the butterfly effect). Kind of like a Benjamin Button/The Fountain/Run Lola Run mashup, 3 movies I didn't care much for. The movie has some severe problems, not least of which an opening 20 minutes that has the movie deep in Razzie-worthy territory, some of the hokiest pseudo-philosophy ever put to script, and an unbelievably obnoxious soundtrack, but it somehow settles down near the middle and gets interesting as we center around 15-year old Nemo and his incestuous relationship with his step-sister Anna. It's a good thing this plot thread takes up the majority of the movie because whenever we get away from it, the movies numerous weaknesses are brought to the fore. It's a messy, messy, movie, much like The Fountain was, that people will surely explain away to "artistry" or "unconventional storytelling". The movie has some good ideas but it desperately needs to be reeled in a bit more. I also have no earthly idea how they're planning on recouping the $46 million (!) they spent on this thing.

Fish Story (Yoshihiro Nakamura, 2009)

7/10
2009 Japanese flick that ties together stories from five different years to tell a tale about a song saving the world, and also to do a little musing on Chaos Theory along the way. It's a fun movie that provides some good laughs but it has some severe pacing issues and while its storyline should be unpredictable and off the wall, it comes together somewhat flatly at the end. In comparing Japanese films that tie together five different storylines, Survive Style 5+ is still the undisputed heavyweight champion.

A Serbian Film (Srdjan Spasojevic, 2009)

8/10
Switching gears entirely, A Serbian Film is a new film from Serbian director Srdjan Spasojevic, and it is easily one of the most harrowing, disturbing movies I've ever seen, and I've seen a few. The plot is a retired porn star is coaxed back into action by a director with a vision for a new kind of "real" porn (and a boatload of cash), but quickly finds he's bitten off more than he can handle as he's put into increasingly fucked up (there can be no other term) situations. Thematically the movie reminded me a lot of Irreversible - not only in terms of disturbing content but in the way the whole movie makes you feel wrong and dirty. But like Irreversible I thought ASF worked on a higher level than just a shock piece. The acting was really great too, and that helped a lot. I have to say, I've never seen a movie filled with as much hatred and loathing for the country that birthed it than this one. It's metaphor is blatantly unsubtle but hammered home with such ferocity, it's hard not to be impressed. Well, impressive to me, but really, really, really not for everyone.