Attack the Block
Directed by: Joe Cornish
Year: 2011
One of my favorite surprises of the year. Knowing nothing of the plot besides assumptions of it being about hood negroes in london, I did not expect the Spielbergian and genre homage’s. Cleverly balanced between influences and originality, it’s a fun, even rather refreshing film.
Coffee and Cigarettes
Directed by: Jim Jarmusch
Year: 2003
I’ve always found in experience that the conversations that you might strike up with someone while drinking a cup of joe and smoking a cigarette can be illuminating, or awkward, or straight up bizarre. That, more or less, is the premise of the film. Being one who appreciates such leisures, I rather enjoyed this.
Orson Welles: The One-Man Band
Directed by: Oja Kodar & Vassili Silovic
Year: 1995
Offering a rare, intimate look at the genius behind some of the 20th century’s greatest films, Welles’s widowed wife brings us into the world that surrounded Welles in his last days. Contrary to perceptions, Kodar shows that Welles’s ambition never layed to rest. Made in the vein of Welles’s penultimate masterpiece F For Fake, the doc is brief, but filled with insight. A must-see for all fans of the late master.
Cinema Paradiso
Directed by: Giuseppe Tornatore
Year: 1988
I love a good, original take on a coming of age tale, and for one that is so deeply rooted in growing up around the power of cinema that carries well into the protagonist’s adulthood, the resonance rings even truer.
Hugo
Directed by: Martin Scorsese
Year: 2011
Decadently adorned, filled to the brim with cinema expertise, and richly layered this marks a new pinnacle of Scorsese’s career. The 3D is absolutely luscious, drawing the viewer not just into a fully immersive world, but also uses the technique as a storytelling device only to enhance the film’s narrative and themes. This is a love letter to film, both the art of appreciating and creating it.
