Movies

Direction:
Richard Linklater

Storyline:
This three-part romance captures a relationship as it begins, restarts, deepens, and stretches over the course of nearly two decades.

Opinion:
The Before trilogy is the document of a boundary-breaking and extraordinarily intimate collaboration between director and actors, in which Delpy and Hawke imbue their characters with a sense of lived experience and age with them on screen. The Before films are attuned to both the grandeur of passing time and the transience of individual moments, charting the evolution of a romantic destiny as it moves through the vicissitudes of ordinary life.

Direction:
Ari Folman

Storyline:
Israeli filmmaker Ari Folman writes, directs and stars in this autobiographical animated film. As a 19-year-old infantry soldier in the 1982 Lebanon War, Folman witnessed the Sabra and Shatila massacre, but finds that he no longer remembers the event.

Opinion:
A completely original and lively history lesson with groundbreaking animation that delivers its message about the Middle East in a captivating way, and also knows when it’s time to face reality.

Direction:
Duncan Jones

Storyline:
Astronaut Sam Bell experiences a completely personal encounter toward the end of his three-year stay on the moon.

Opinion:
Moon is an old-fashioned science fiction film in the best sense. Much more psychological drama than space opera, and Sam Rockwell’s intense acting performance also helps immensely here.

Direction:
Takeshi Koike

Storyline:
A story about the most popular race in the galaxy, the Redline, and the various racers who participate in it.

Opinion:
One of the most visually distinct and invigorating works of Japanese animation art of its time. It never lets up, while being too creative and varied to ever feel boring.

Direction:
Denis Villeneuve

Storyline:
The film adaptation of the science fiction novel by Frank Herbert about the son of a noble family who is entrusted with the most valuable asset and element in the galaxy.

Opinion:
Great cinema that has revived the magic of cinema for me, it has small edges but overall I have not been so eager to see the next film as here. You could also say that it is my Lord of the Rings. ^^

Direction:
Jan Kounen

Storyline:
The life of Octave Parango, a flamboyant advertising designer, full of success, satire, misery and love.

Opinion:
An extremely ambitious and darkly comic attack on modern capitalist consumer culture and our advertising-obsessed times. As someone who has been involved with the industry for years, there are many parallels that come to mind, and despite its age, still as relevant as ever.

Direction:
John Carpenter

Storyline:
They influence our decisions without us knowing it. They numb our senses without us noticing. They control our lives without us noticing. They live.

Opinion:
The film was a reaction to Reagan-era consumerism, but its themes of working-class subjugation and pervasive media control make the film all the more relevant today than ever.

Direction:
Andreas Prochaska

Storyline:
Via a hidden path, a lonely horseman reaches a small town high up in the Alps. Nobody knows where the stranger comes from and what he wants there. But everyone knows that they don’t want him to stay.

Opinion:
One might argue it’s an alpine western that also manages to move the film into thriller territory, capturing a rather poetic atmosphere. Riley gives a sensitive performance as the lone stranger and Tobias Moretti gives arguably his best portrayal of an antagonist ever.

Direction:
Scott Sanders

Storyline:
Black Dynamite is the biggest African-American action star of the 1970s. When his only brother is killed by “The Man”, it’s up to him to bring justice.

Opinion:
Black Dynamite is an affectionate and meticulous satire of 1970s blaxploitation films, funny enough for frat boys and clever enough for movie buffs.

Direction:
Charlie Kaufman

Storyline:
A theater director struggles with his work and the women in his life as he sets up a life-size replica of New York City in a warehouse for his new play.

Opinion:
This film is deliberately not easily deciphered and thus comes across as serious, disturbing and significant. It is as funny as it is depressing. It is as brilliant as it is confusing. There are no easy answers to be found, and that’s what makes this film so fascinating.