Missed quite a few of these, which might explain why the year feels quite so thin. I'm not sure when Brokeback Mountain comes out here, but the trailer was promising.

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Brokeback Mountain got five stars in Empire, and a very excited review. I can't wait to see it.

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Not sure why Harry Potter isn't somewhere in here

Oh now you're just trolling.

;-p

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My icon out-glowers yours

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My icon isn't glowering, it's nauseous.

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Just a few more good movies from the past year. Jean-Pierre Jeunet's A Very Long Engagement, Mike Mills Thumbsucker, Ramón Salazar's 20 centímetros, Gregg Araki's Mysterious Skin and Tsai Ming Liang's The Wayward Cloud.

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I'm not sure that those have been released over here yet. I am looking forward to Thumbsucker on account of Vincent D'Onofrio is in it. I think I heard he got an acting award in Sweden for that role? Did you hear that?

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Oh. Meant to also say - thanks for those recommendations, but I got destracted by thought of Vincent D'O. Can you say more about any of those?

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Ramón Salazars 20 centímetros is a musical about a narcoleptic transsexual who is saving up to have surgery. Every time she falls asleep she dreams up elaborate musical numbers in which she's the star. It is one of the best musicals I've seen in a very long time. Energetic, touching and playful. Monica Cervera who plays the lead is absolutely wonderful. You can watch the trailer here

Gregg Araki's Mysterious Skin deals with the lives of two boys who where both molested by their baseball coach. It’s one of the most interesting, complex and sensitive takes I’ve ever seen on the subject matter on film. The movie is deeply ambivalent and there is an almost lyrical quality to it.

I don’t usually like Liang’s movies because he seems to someone who writes good shorts but who decided that in order to get founding he has to make a two hour long movie out of the same material. That said I really liked The Wayward Cloud. The story is about a porn actor and a young woman who live in the same apartment building and who start to flirt with each other. The dialogue is kept to a bare minimum which stands in wild contrast to the crazy musical numbers. It’s a movie that manages to be very funny while treating the drought and alienation of human relationships. The sex scene involving a watermelon at the beginning of the movie is absolutely hilarious.


A Very Long Engagement is Jean-Pierre Jeunts latest movie. He did Delicatessen, Amelie and City of Lost Children. The tone is similar to his other movies. It takes place during WWI and is the story of a girl trying to find her fiancé who ha gone missing. It’s much grittier than Amelie and more in tune with Jeunet black comedies like Delicatessen. It’s a kind of middle ground. Despite the war scenes, it is not unremittingly bleak, and at times it’s darkly funny. As with all his movies it’s beautiful, fanciful and energetic. Delicatessen is still my favourite among his movies. Oh, and Jodi Foster shows up as well!


Keune Reeves fantastically funny self-parody is reason enough to watch Thumbsucker. Yup,Vincent got the Stockholm Film Festivals best actor award.

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Thank you sex_and_tea. I remember a couple of those now you mention them, and Thumbsucker is now well up on my list of must-see. I read some discussion somewhere about whether Keanu understood it was a parody, but heck the man isn't a complete fool

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There are small subtle differences in his acting that makes it clear that it is a parody. It difficult to describe, but you'll know it when you see it.

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Second the recommendation for A Very Long Engagement, but wasn't it released in 2004?

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I think it was released in January, but I might be wrong.

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6 - Downfall (should have seen)

I bought it a few weeks ago but only got to watch it over the weekend. Pretty good, but it's helpful to have some of the criticisms thrown at it to hand. Not a film for people likely to be distressed at the sight of children being murdered in their sleep, though, even if they are all Goebbells' progeny.

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I think all people are likely to be distressed by that

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Downfall is premiering on More Four on the 5th, if you can get that channel.

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Yes, I do, thanks for telling me. I find the thought of it more 'should watch' than 'want to watch', but films like that are often the ones I appreciate most.

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Only just got this via email. Did you see it? We recorded it to watch at a later date, and then got so engrossed in it we sat and watched it to the end.

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Yes. Like you I didn't intend to sit and watch it, and then I got engrossed. I watched it with my son. But I fell asleep before the end - I'm a bit knackered at the moment. I couldn't keep awake. I'm sort of relieved I missed the killing of the Goebbels children.

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We dealt with watching the death of the children by pulling back and asking questions like, "What's the source for this? What evidence do they have for this?"

Sorry you're knackered at the moment; I hope it's a year winding down thing rather than something more serious.

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Some friends at my theatre(?) course lent me the DVD of Sideways, and pretty much demanded that I watch it. I'm not sure I can be arsed, especially in the light of your remark. (Incidentally, are there any examples in film of older women copping off with attractive young men or women with the same sort of gusto? Let me know if not -- could be an interesting variation on the zeitgeist.)

Have you got any vaguely convincing platitudes I can fob them off with? I have to confess, I'm tempted to hand it back with the excuse that I couldn't be arsed to watch it.

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I recently watched a movie in which Mary Steenbergen was getting it on with Ian Somerhalder.

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That was me...

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No - do watch it. I haven't seen it, and it's just my prejudices talking. Absolutely everyone I know who has seen it liked it. The premise sounds annoying, but I am sure it's good. Let me know what you think of it.

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Crash: Very well-executed. Is the message very complex? No. Is it important? Yes. And me likey Thandie Newton (not to mention Terrence Howard, who plays her husband).

Friday Night Lights: Haven't seen it but I plan to for but one reason. The score is written and performed by Explosions in the Sky, one of my favorite current bands. I think I've recommended them to you: unabashedly huge, sweeping instrumental rock orchestrations that build from tiny murmurs.

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I've never head of Explosions in the Sky except from you. I will set my kids to discovering them.

The message of Crash being tolerance? I wish I had seen it

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