For the month of January...

Best Film of the Month: The Lady Eve
Worst Film of the Month: The Good Shepard

For the month of January...

Best Film of the Month: The Lady Eve (1941)

Worst Film of the Month: The Good Shepherd (2006)

January 28, 2007

Modern Times (1936)
Director: Charles Chaplin
Writer: Charles Chaplin
Starring: Charles Chaplin and Paulette Goddard
Co-Starring: Henry Bergman and Peter Sandford
Description: Chaplins last 'silent' film, filled with sound effects, was made when everyone else was making talkies. Charlie turns against modern society, the machine age, (The use of sound in films ?) and progress. Firstly we see him frantically trying to keep up with a production line, tightening bolts. He is selected for an experiment with an automatic feeding machine, but various mishaps leads his boss to believe he has gone mad, and Charlie is sent to a mental hospital... When he gets out, he is mistaken for a communist while waving a red flag, sent to jail, foils a jailbreak, and is let out again. We follow Charlie through many more escapades before the film is out.
Rating: A-
In a word... brilliant.

January 27, 2007

Letters from Iwo Jima (2006)
Director: Clint Eastwood
Writer: Iris Yamashita, Paul Haggis, Tadamichi Kuribayashi, and Tsuyoko Yoshido
Starring: Ken Wantanbe
Co-Starring: Kazunari Ninomiya and Tsuyoshi Ihara
Description: The island of Iwo Jima stands between the American military force and the home islands of Japan. Therefore the Imperial Japanese Army is desperate to prevent it from falling into American hands and providing a launching point for an invasion of Japan. General Tadamichi Kuribayashi is given command of the forces on the island and sets out to prepare for the imminent attack. General Kuribayashi, however, does not favor the rigid traditional approach recommended by his subordinates, and resentment and resistance fester among his staff. In the lower echelons, a young soldier, Saigo, a poor baker in civilian life, strives with his friends to survive the harsh regime of the Japanese army itself, all the while knowing that a fierce battle looms. When the American invasion begins, both Kuribayashi and Saigo find strength, honor, courage, and horrors beyond imagination.
Rating: A
In a word... moving.

January 27, 2007

Children of Men (2006)
Director: Alfonso Cuarón
Writers: Alfonso Cuarón, Timothy J. Sexton, David Arata, Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby, and P.D. James
Starring: Clive Owen, Julianne Moore, and Michael Caine
Co-Starring: Joy Richardson, Caroline Lena Olsson, and Somi Guha
Description: In 2027, after eighteen years of infertility in a chaotic world and the death of the youngest man on Earth, the hopeless mankind is near the extinction. In London, the civil servant Theo Faron is contacted by his ex-wife and leader of the terrorist group The Fishes, Julian, to get permission for the travel of the young woman Kee to a seaside town of refugees. Along their journey, Theo discloses that Kee is pregnant and tries to protect and deliver her to a peaceful group of a life project in a vessel called "Tomorrow" and give hope to the mankind.
Rating: A-
In a word... frightening.

January 26, 2007

Garden State (2004)
Director: Zack Braff
Writer: Zack Braff
Starring: Zack Braff and Natalie Portman
Co-Starring: Peter Sarsgaard and Armando Riesco
Description: Andrew Largeman is a semi-successful television actor who plays a retarded quarterback. His somewhat controlling and psychiatrist father has led Andrew ("Large") to believe that his mother's wheelchair bound life was his fault. Andrew decides to lay off the drugs that his father and his doctor made him believe that he needed, and began to see life for what it is. He began to feel the pain he had longed for, and began to have a genuine relationship with a girl who had some problems of her own.
Rating: B+
In a word... grin-inducing.

January 23, 2007

Yojimbo (1961)
Director: Akira Kurowsawa
Writer: Akira Kurowsawa and Ryuzo Kikushima
Starring: Toshirô Mifune and Tatsuya Nakadai
Co-Starring: Yôko Tsukasa and Isuzu Yamada
Description: Sanjuro, a wandering samurai enters a rural town in nineteenth century Japan. After learning from the innkeeper that the town is divided between two gangsters, he plays one side off against the other. His efforts are complicated by the arrival of the wily Unosuke, the son of one of the gangsters, who owns a revolver. Unosuke has Sanjuro beaten after he reunites an abducted woman with her husband and son, then massacres his father's opponents. During the slaughter, the samurai escapes with the help of the innkeeper; but while recuperating at a nearby temple, he learns of innkeeper's abduction by Unosuke, and returns to the town to confront him.
Rating: B+
In a word... eek.