Top Films by Year
Top Films of 2020
Top Films of 2017
Top Films of 2015
Duchesse of Langeais 7
Very stylish, very cinematic, very Balzac-ian – not that I know what that means. The characters were absurd, but serious and wore such beautiful clothes. The story was all about love. The languor was overwhelming. It was all so French. Gerard Depardieu’s son looked just as you would expect. I rather enjoyed it on its […]
The Kite Runner 8.5
A beautiful film made from a beautiful book. The characters were fully developed as real people, and the conflicts that arose, and drove the story, came from conflicting personalities running into each other. Amir was who he was, not a bad person, but because of his weakness he hurt another. The figure who held the […]
Amal 8.5
This is what a film festival film should be: a tender, but by no means whitewashed, look at a foreign culture and a heartwarming story with a satisfying twist at the end. The director said he hoped it would make me want to visit India, but that was furthest from my mind after watching 90 […]
Mongol 6
Supposedly this tells the “back story” of Genghis Khan – his slave years before he ruled half the known world. It shows him moving from one attempted assassination to the next, with followers falling by the wayside each time. Nowhere do we see what would seem to be more important: how we found warriors to […]
The Band’s Visit 8
People meeting people from different cultures, totally by chance; who adapts how; who learns what – these are the themes of this totally pleasant, low-budget charmer. You wouldn’t be surprised if many of these people had never seen a film, let alone been in one. The Israeli restaurant owner Dina is unable to seduce the […]