Director: Panos Cosmatos

Country: Canada

Year: 2010

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Beyond the Black Rainbow is an independent scifi film that opens up with what can be called a “prologue” of commercial video promo about an institute called Arboria where people can achieve happiness and inner peace. This prologue sets the mood for the whole film. It is mysterious and strange, and you can feel that something is wrong. The movies focuses mainly on two characters, Barin Nyle who runs the place, and Elana who is a patient(?) at the place. The story is vague in most of the scenes and weird but things sort of adds up at the end except for a few things that were left out to add to the mystique of the film.

The movie is not mainly about its story or plot line but it works more as a tribute and throwback to the 80′s scifi era. The music and sound effects felt like they were taken directly from an 80′s or a 70′s scifi movie. The set design is magnificent, very simple yet serves its purpose perfectly by setting a mysterious mood for the viewer. The dialogue is very minimal and slow, with many psychedelic scenes taking a lot of time even though they don’t serve the plot but that added to movie in my opinion rather than take from it. The cinematography is the crown jewel of this film, the lighting, angles, close-ups…etc all were brilliant in this film. At the end this film is not for everyone. If you are a fan of the weird scifi movies from the 80′s then this movie is definitely for you, other than that skip it.

25. The Intouchables

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24. The Raid: Redemption

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23. Sleepwalk with Me

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22. Chicken with Plums

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21. To Rome with Love

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20. Compliance

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19. Django Unchained

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18. The Hobbit

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17. The Master

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16. Beasts of the Southern Wild

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15. Cosmopolis

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14. Amour

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13. Safety Not Guaranteed

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12. The PaperBoy

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11. War Witch

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10. Life of Pi

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9. Seven Psychopaths

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8. Argo

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7. Killer Joe

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6. Looper

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5. Prometheus

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4. Cloud Atlas

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3. Holy Motors

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2. A Royal Affair

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1. Sound of My Voice

Director: Kim Nguyen

Country: Canada

Year: 2012

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War Witch is Canada’s official submission and one of the nominees for the 2013 Oscars in the best foreign language film category. The movie is about Komona, a 14 years old girl living somewhere in one of the politically unstable poor African countries. The movie starts with Komona telling her unborn child her story and involvement in the war between the rebels and the government after she was kidnapped by the rebels and forced to fight with them when she was 12.

The film is touching drama with few touches of fantasy and love with a political backdrop. It raises many great questions about morality and how wars could change the personality of a child and pushes them into maturity. War Witch has a great story to tell with superb acting by the main characters. In my opinion it deserves the nomination. One of the best films of 2012.

Director: Kirby Dick

Country: USA

Year: 2012

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THE INVISIBLE WAR is a documentary that investigates the problem of male/female soldiers getting raped within the US military. The movie talks about the problem in general but follows several cases in particular which adds a human dimension to the film. The problem these cases is that US military tends to cover these rape cases up and the offender gets away in most of the cases. Even though this topic relates with people on the human level, the film has a political side to it. The only problem with it is that it is one sided and offers only one side of the story. Still worth watching if you like documentaries.

Director: Jacques Audiard

Country: France

Year: 2012

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Rust and Bone is one of those films that has all the elements of success given the names of the people working on it. Critically acclaimed director Jacques Audiard who had great success in his last film A PROPHET brings this great raw romantic drama that will make the viewer work a little to get the experience out of this film. With great performances by Matthias Schoenaerts who had many great roles in European cinema (Bullhead, Pulsar) and Marion Cotillard who is known in both Hollywood and in the European film industry.

The good thing about movies like Rust and Bone is that it makes the audience work with the movie to extract as much of the experience as they can. None of the emotions behind the characters is given straight up except for some scenes. There is no particular story in this film, it’s like taking a few pages from the lives of the characters. It’s a slice-of-life kind of a film where you don’t have to worry about the characters’ past, just flow with their new lives and live it with them. A great film, not as good as A PROPHET, but still an amazing film nonetheless.

Director: Ken Burns, Sarah Burns, David McMahon

Country: USA

Year: 2012

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The Central Park Five is a compelling documentary that tells the complete story of one of the most famous crimes/court-cases in the last few decades in the United States. The case was about a white woman who was jogging at night in Central Park and was assaulted and raped. The NY police department took 5 black and Latino kids to court as the main suspects of this crime. This documentaries tells the story from the perceptive of the media, suspects and detectives as well as shedding the light into untouched topics of this case.

The great thing about this documentary is that it puts things into prospective. The case wasn’t one of a kind in terms of the crime itself but what made it famous was the backdrop of America’s racial tension at the time between white and colored people. This documentary might make you mad or angry and that’s a testament to the makers of it. Movies like this are why documentaries should be made. One of the best documentaries this year.

Director: Nikolaj Arcel

Country: Denmark

Year: 2012

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Directed and co-written by Nikolaj Arcel who wrote the screenplay for THE GIRL WITH DRAGON TATTOO, A ROYAL AFFAIR is a historical drama about one of the most significant periods in Denmark’s history. The story revolves around king Christian VII of Denmark, his English wife Caroline Mathilde and his German physician Johann Struensee. Christian was known to be childish and crazy with no real grip or control on Denmark. But things change with the influence of his Physician and the relation between them and his wife.

A Royal Affair is a history lesson. With topics such as moral ethics, loyalty and freedom all intertwined together in this real story. The three lead actors give superb performances. The direction is brilliant and the sets looks very authentic with a very high quality to it. One of this year’s best movies in my opinion and no wonder it is Denmark’s official submission for the foreign film category in the coming Academy Awards given how perfect it is in all aspects.

Director: Joe Wright

Country: UK

Year: 2012

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Director Joe Wright who made great successful movies like Pride & Prejudice, Atonement and Hanna brings a stunning adaptation of the famous Russian novel in ANA KARENINA. It’s the third collaboration between him and Keira Knightley and it has a great British cast including Jude Law, Matthew Macfadyen, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and others. The movie is different that your usual movies from the period drama genre. It’s artistic and has a theatrical feeling to it.

Some of the key scenes are shot like they are part of a play which gave the movie a feeling of being separated into chapters. This gave the movie something different and new which makes this movie the closest to reading a book by watching a movie. The sets were compact and limited instead of big halls and open spaces like we usually see in such movies which made this movie more intimate and realistic. Might not be to everyone’s taste, but if you are a fan of the book or of period drama films in general then make sure not to miss this.

Director: Katie Dellamaggiore

Country: USA

Year: 2012

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Brooklyn Castle is an intimate documentary that follows the junior high chess champions in a Brooklyn public school. The documentary highlights the effect that chess has on the lives of those bright children who live difficult lives. Their school is known for winning the most national chess tournaments through the years but they face some difficulties when they have to make budget cuts due to the economic collapse.

It is very inspiring to see how those children can shape their lives and try to make it better for them and for their poor families by being great chess players. Not only that, but seeing how some teachers go beyond their duty to try and help those kids in reaching their goals. It is a very inspiring and uplifting documentary. Definitely a must watch.

]]> http://everythingiseventual.com/?feed=rss2&p=1275 0 http://everythingiseventual.com/?movie=this-must-be-the-place http://everythingiseventual.com/?movie=this-must-be-the-place#comments Fri, 16 Nov 2012 21:50:14 +0000 Khaled_ca http://everythingiseventual.com/?post_type=movie&p=1273  

Director: Paolo Sorrentino

Country: Italy/France/Ireland

Year: 2011

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From the director of the critically acclaimed movie IL DIVO, director Paolo Sorrentino brings this funny and weird character study of a retired famous rock star who lives in Dublin. Sean Penn plays the role of Cheyenne who is your typical 70s rock star with makeup and dark clothes. Cheyenne is retired in his big house in Ireland, after making a lot of money from the music business, with his loving wife. But as it becomes clear to us, he feels bored and depressed for no apparent reason.

Cheyenne gets news that his father who lives in NY is dying so he decides to go visit him and that is when his self re-discovery journey begins as he encounters several people he meets on his travel. Sean Penn delivers a solid performance in this unique role. From the gestures to his voice you feel the emotions (or lack of) in all his scenes. The movie is not really about the story is appears to follow, but it is about the change that happens to this complicated character. A great film that should be watched at least for Sean Penn’s performance.