The City of Lost Children (1995)

“The City of Lost Children” is a dark tale with a weird (at first sight) plot. In a depressing city, as if seeing in someone’s gothic nightmare, small children are trying to survive under the dominion of three different poles of power.

• The two twin witches which use the children as toys to steal money,jewelry and whatever valuable may be found from the city’s inhabitants
• A crazy scientist surrounded by a number of clones, a midget female laboratory assistant  and a brain (!) in a nutrient solution, helping him to achieve his ultimate goal: to find a child with a joyful dream
• A mob of humans with the right eye blind and a transplant of a mechanical eye in the place of left eye who steal children in order to provide them to the scientist

Freaked so far? Well, this is just the beginning of the tale but there are also good news. A grown-up with the heart of a child and the size of a giant, in the pursuit of the humans-with-the-transplants, who took away the thing he loved the most: a child he found in the trash can and managed to raise it to a five-year old.

Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet created one of the most subversive and optimistic (yes, this is not a typo) films in the movie history visualizing with a pallet of gray and black the past and present of OUR children. It would be nice if you would see the movie first and then read the analysis that follows in this post, so that the references to the film’s scenes make sense.

Rango (2011)

Rango: I am rubbing my eyes too many times recently, because I do not believe what I am seeing! Gore Verbinski made a cartoon that really has it all:

• artistically amazing animated figures, full of expression
• Real world characters
• A wonderful story that makes you wonder what the next step will be
• A superb, non tiring, parallelism to the happenings of our world
• Irony about the way things are woven and why most of us fail (for different reasons) to see what is going on

An American director made such a film!

A film you should not miss.

My rating: 09/10

Unknown (2011)

The best quality of this thriller is the fact that one cannot come up with a reasonable explanation about the things happening in the film. Uknown also  keeps revealing things, in a rational way, till the very end, keeping the spectator’s interest undiminished. Probably one of the best in its genre.

My rating: 08/10

The Adjustment Bureau (2011)

In Science Fiction movies, most of the people are thrilled by the special effects. We live in the era of impression, presentation, occupation with the surface of things.

Science Fiction however has to do mostly with the essence and a philosophical view of the state of things. The Adjustment Bureau, based on a story by Philip Dick (The Adjustment Team) is one of these stories / films that deals with the emptiness of the individual, the ways it uses to fill it, the quest for a true companion and the notion of free will!

There are discussions in the film that may ignite a discussion for hours. Do not expect special-effects-wise anything: you will be disappointed 🙂

My rating: 07/10

The Green Hornet (2011)

One seeks to see an adventure-action movie from time to time. There are some good ones out there. This is not one of them. Avoid it.

My rating: 01/10

PS. How would one believe that Michel Gondry, the director of the Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind, one of the most beautiful films ever created, would create The Green Hornet?

The Company Men (2010)

There is hope in this world after all: when American directors like John Wells manage to write and produce a film like  “The Company Men“, it means that even in the world of the American dream, things become more and more clear for more and more people.

There are people who own companies and really devoted their entire lives in building and expanding them. So, it is natural to struggle for the survival of their creation in a highly competitive world.

But creating a company is not the feast of only one person. It usually involves a lot more who struggle with them for the same common goal. People who do make sacrifices in order to make things happen. Yes, they are paid of course for what they are doing (much better in the States than in any other place worldwide). But in many cases personal life is put second to achieve a company goal. Is it worth it? This is a question to be answered by each and every person working in a company, now, more than ever.

Is profit the only goal in this world? Does it worth having a couple of thousands of people loosing their jobs to boost the price of a market share? Is it ethical to fire people who devoted their entire life in a company because of a downsizing?

Some say yes. Others may say no.

Why did I like this film: because it presents all the above in a logical, step-by-step manner to understand how things happening in a bigger scale than us, affect our lives, our families, our relationships and our values. How different people react under the same circumstances. How they are supported or not by their companions.

In my opinion, it is a film that one should not miss.

My rating: 09/10