“Curfew”, what a great short film. Directed and written by Shawn Christensen, starring Shawn Christensen himself, Fatima Ptacek and Kim Allen. I liked it so much, that I wish it was a normal length film, beautiful, sad and at times funny story. Great directing/writing/acting by Shawn, I loved the atmosphere and the scenery, everything worked!

At the lowest point of his life, Richie gets a call from his estranged sister, asking him to look after his nine-year old niece, Sophia, for a few hours. Sophia wasn’t allowed to see her uncle Richie, because he was a drug addict. Richie desperately wants to bond with her, and also with his sister. You can feel his pain, how hard the battle with addiction must have been, his loneliness over the years with no contact to his family…but then at the end, who knows what one day can change…

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“Rebelle” also known as “War Witch” took my breath away. The incredibly intense and realistic story about child soldiers in Africa. Kids who get abducted from home, are forced to kill their parents, and then fight against the government soldiers. This particular story is about Komona a 14-year-old girl, who tells her unborn child growing inside her the story of her life since she has been at war. Everything starts when she gets abducted by the rebel army at the age of 12. 

Written and directed by Kim Nguyen, who keeps the camera always close on whats going on, sometimes so close you can’t take it. The film is in French, and plays somewhere in Sub-Saharan Africa. “War Witch” impressed me, it brings attention to the problems of child soldiers, and there aren’t that many movies about them, so I absolutely recommend this to everyone who’s interested in that subject. The actress who plays Komona, Rachel Mwanza, also did a great job and completely convinced me. Nominated for an Oscar “Best Foreign Language Film of the Year”, I hope it wins, it’s definitely one of my favorites.

Trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKXEh_kfPCY

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“Peeping Tom” also known as “Face of Fear” (a movie way ahead of its time), directed by Michael Powell and written by Leo Marks, was released in theaters a month before Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho”. Both are about men killing off beautiful women in horrific ways.

While Psycho maintains some suspense over the nature of the killer, Peeping Tom has him front and center, presenting a compelling and conflicting examination of his mind. Starring Karlheinz Böhm as Mark Lewis, a shy, lonely and quiet man with a dark secret, on his off hours, he supplies a local porno shop with cheesecake photos and dabbles in filmmaking, at night he’s killing young women, using a movie camera to film their dying expressions.

Trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAqEn6JS-oM

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“My First Mister” is a funny and original movie starring Leelee Sobieski, who did a great job portraying a girl, that can’t/doesn’t want to fit in, yet her character isn’t the stereotypical rebel either, and Albert Brooks, almost unrecognizable, plays a lovely, odd man, who’s afraid of everything.

Jennifer (Leelee Sobieski) is a total misfit, she’s as wacky as a teenager can be. Goth-ed out with multiple piercings, tattoos, and dyed hair, she listens to strange music, watches vintage TV, eats primarily chocolate, and self injures. But now high school is over and she needs a job. ‘J’ meets middle-aged Randall (played by Albert Brooks) in the haberdashery window. ‘R’ gives her a job, not to mention a real friendship. Neither of them have a life outside of work so they slowly learn to hang out together, and make each other better people. The soundtrack is cool too - it has the great older tunes like Sinatra, along with some Marilyn Manson and then some reggae as well.

Trailer:

http://www.artistdirect.com/video/my-first-mister/69254

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A Billy Wilder film, based on Charles R. Jackson’s novel about the desperate life of a chronic alcoholic, followed through a four day drinking bout. Starring Ray Milland, Jane Wyman and Phillip Terry.

Don Birnam, long-time alcoholic, has been “on the wagon” for ten days and seems to be over the worst; but his craving has just become more insidious. Evading a country weekend planned by his brother Wick and girlfriend Helen, he begins a four-day bender. In flashbacks we see past events, all gone wrong because of the bottle. But this bout looks like being his last…one way or the other.

Full Movie:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITC5R56CAVg&feature

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What an ironic title. If theres one movie that will make you depressed, it’s “Happiness”. A movie by Todd Solondz, who is known for making heartbreaking films, such as “Welcome to the Dollhouse” and “Storytelling”. This one gets so intense at times I could barely look, it literally took my breath away!

There are 10 different characters (and more) connected to each other, some very weird and some very lonely, but all in all, they try to find happiness. All the actors did a great job, from young to old, but Dylan Baker as the therapist/father/psychopath/pedophile, was the most convincing character for me. Loneliness, rage, sexual repression/obsession, disintegrating marriages, sadly sophisticated children, relationships built upon artifice, this film has it all. Got 134 minutes and a desire to see something darkly different? Watch “Happiness”.

Trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkQ_JxoWUP8

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A film directed and written by Clive Barker (based on his novel “The Hellbound Heart”), starring Andrew Robinson, Clare Higgins, Sean Chapman, and Ashley Laurence. Barker has delivered us a real horror story, packed with intensity, both emotionally, as well as physically, also with a great/scary soundtrack. Though the special effects from the 80’s make you smile a little, “Hellraiser” can be pretty revolting, so I don’t recommend this to everyone!

Clive Barker’s feature directing debut graphically depicts the tale of a man and wife who move into an old house and discover a hideous creature - the man’s half-brother, who is also the woman’s former lover - hiding upstairs. Having lost his earthly body to a trio of S&M demons, the Cenobites, he is brought back into existence by a drop of blood on the floor. He soon forces his former mistress to bring him his necessary human sacrifices to complete his body.

Trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddGQiiNzF84

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A Russian film also known as “My Name Is Ivan” or “Ivan’s Childhood”, beautifully directed by Andrey Tarkovskiy. The movie is about Ivan, a 12 year old boy, played by Nikolay Burlyaev, who works as a spy at the eastern front. He can cross the German lines unnoticed to collect information, while three Soviet officers try to take care of him.

Vladimir Bogomolov wrote “Ivan” which is a fictional story but is based on real facts. It caused a sensation in 1962, no one had seen such a powerful motion picture about war and what it does to the youngest and weakest - the children. It’s a bleak, haunting and horrifying portrait of lost innocence and the childhood that was interrupted the very day the boy’s family was murdered.

Full Movie:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-cOMy9

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A film by Otto Preminger, starring Dana Andrews as police detective, who falls in love with the woman whose murder he’s investigating, Laura, played by gorgeous Gene Tierney.

Detective Mark McPherson investigates the killing of Laura, found dead on her apartment floor before the movie starts. McPherson builds a mental picture of the dead girl from the suspects whom he interviews. He is helped by the striking painting of the late lamented Laura hanging on her apartment wall. But who would have wanted to kill a girl with whom every man she met seemed to fall in love? To make matters worse, McPherson finds himself falling under her spell too. Then one night, halfway through his investigations, something seriously bizarre happens to make him re-think the whole case.

Trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJRp5C15PgE

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I personally love to watch movies, that I cant figure out immediately, and “Le passager de la pluie” also known as “Rider on the Rain” is one of them, and it’s so different, that some people probably won’t even like it. 

The film starts with a beautiful young woman in the South of France, played by Marlène Jobert, who is stalked, then raped by, a mysterious masked assailant. She shoots him dead soon afterwards and dumps his corpse in the sea. Later an American investigator, played by Charles Bronson, turns up, and to her horror he seems to know everything about what she has done. No matter how hard she tries, he’s always one step ahead. Only at the end, we learn what he really wanted from her.

Trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUAZP-gx3iE

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Directed by Michelangelo Antonioni, based on Mark Peploe’s story, who also wrote the screenplay. Starring Jack Nicholson, as frustrated war correspondent, Maria Schneider, Jenny Runacre, Ian Hendry, Charles Mulvehill and Steven Berkoff.

A journalist (Jack Nicholson) researching a documentary in the Sahara Desert meets a gunrunner who suddenly dies. When the journalist notices that they have a similar appearance, and has not much to do, he assumes the recently deceased’s man identity and accepts the consequences that it brings. Jack gives a remarkable, subdued performance, keep in mind when seeing this film that it is slow, but the payoffs are well worth it (especially the end).

Trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4oZ9xymXHE

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