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• Director: Matías Bize
• Genre: Drama
• Year: 2005

It is difficult to top Linklater in this genre, the content heavy, dialogue driven, simply set type drama that submerge you into a situation and leave you engaged for the duration of the film. He did it twice with Before Sunrise and with Before Sunset and he did it also in Tape, all of which are movies that I greatly enjoyed.

Matías Bize makes an attempt to do the same and while he is largely successful at it, it seems that he falls short of the achievements Richard Linklater got to. Of course, this is unfair, in that one would be putting Bize against a pretty high bar to begin with. This film is pretty good, considering that the entire cast is two people, practically strangers and the set is essentially a bed (there is only one short scene in which they are in the tub, the rest of the movie literally takes place while they are in bed).

Daniela and Bruno clearly do not know each other, this much is uncovered immediately after their first sexual bout with opens up the film, where Bruno is having to dig and prod to remember the girls name. Interesting then, how much room is covered in this one night, which is credible up to a point, but that is where certain strings in the material begin to show and snap. There is some content that is forced in the film, too easily brushed off to be completely realistic and on the part of the director, a certain number of predictable shots threaten to dismember the artistic tower of cards he is building.

I am probably being far too picky with this, it is still a very enjoyable movie, with an interesting situation and character development and as one would expect from a film that takes place in bed, some steamy sex as well. I only want to warn the viewer that they should not expect Linklater material. Go in with lower standards and likely you will enjoy this movie just fine.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5
Notes: Explicit sexuality. Spanish with English subtitles

• Director: Juan Antonio Bayona
• Genre: Horror/Thriller/Mystery/Drama/Foreign
• Year: 2007

Good horror films are hard to come by though, good horror, foreign films are much easier to find, which is a shame, because with the budget Hollywood has, the visual effects they can create would be the perfect instrument to deliver nice, scary, spine tingling films, but all they seem to churn out is the same old formulaic crap. Let’s be honest, when was the last horror film you saw that scared the crap out of you that was actually from the US? For me? I want to say that there is something I saw after Event Horizon that scared me, but all the examples I can come up with are European or Asian.

In any case, a foreign horror film is something I typically will jump right into simply because I know they are going to deliver something that I normally will not catch from the mainstream stuff. El Orfanato was no exception and the fact that it was presented by Guillermo del Toro only seemed to reinforce my faith in it. I had seen a couple of trailers, enough to make me shiver.

The idea here is that a woman and her family return to an now abandoned orphanage, with every intention of adopting a handful more kids, aside from their current adopted son, and look after them in that old mansion. it seems to Laura (Belén Rueda; Mar Adentro) that this is the perfect place to raise a few children, the way she once was as a child, near the sea and with plenty of ground to play in. However, when her child begins to insist on his new invisible friends, Laura begins to worry and yet, it takes the child’s disappearance to spur her into action, in a race to find him and uncover the veil of enigma that surrounds the entire grounds.

It is a solid horror flick with enough suspense to keep you watching with interest and good solid acting, even in the part of the children. All in all a solid plot, good cinematography, good usage of sound. The only thing that seemed up in the air was the ending, not a bad one, I do not think but it certainly sparked some discussion among the people that watched it with me. Definitely a watch!

Rating: 4 out of 5
Notes: Scary moments, frightening imagery, adult situations. Spanish with English subtitles

• Director: Sidney Lumet
• Genre: Drama/Crime/Thriller
• Year: 2007

Jeebus, this movie is messed up in various accounts, but I have to say that as time progresses I am more and more impressed with Phillip Seymour Hoffman (why did I just get the feeling to call him Dustin?) and his choice of films. Here is a guy that is clearly not picking his roles because of the money that comes attached to it but by the solidity of the script. So far he has not disappointed me, even in MI3 he was one hell of a bad guy. In any case, both him and Ethan Hawke do a fantastic job playing Andy and Hank Hanson, two brothers both down on their luck, struggling with life and, sleeping with the same woman. Right off the bat, things are not exactly prime and shiny and they only seem to deteriorate further when Andy suggests the bright idea of getting rid of their economic woes by robbing their parent’s jewelry store. The plan if flawless and perfect, he claims, and of course, that only means that as the movie unfolds, the plan will be anything but that.

As a thriller and drama, this movie shines, with great directing and acting on pretty much everybody in the cast. The story is told alternatively through Andy’s eyes and Hanks eyes and occasionally through Charles Hanson’s eyes (their father). The plot does not unfold linearly either, through a series of flashbacks you are given bits of information that all come together towards the unforgiving end. Not exactly a feel good movie, this is the sort of film with enough grit to make it memorable.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Notes: Language, criminal activity, explicit sexuality and nudity (Marisa Tomei is half naked in half of her scenes) and drug usage.
Quotes: Andy: The thing about real estate accounting is that you can, you can, add down the page or across the page and everything works out. Everyday, everything adds up. The, the total is always the sum of its parts. It’s, uh, clean. It’s clear. Neat, absolute. But my life, it, uh, it doesn’t add up. It, uh… Nothing connects to anything else. It’s, uh… I’m not, I’m not the sum of my parts. All my parts don’t add up to one… to one me, I guess.
Justin: Get a shrink or a wife.
Andy: Uh, I got a wife.
Justin: Get a shrink.

• Director: Adam Green, Joel Moore
• Genre: Drama/Thriller
• Year: 2007

Somebody made the mistake of calling this a horror when they introduced it to me. Unfair because when you go in with a certain mindset for a specific genre and you do not get it, you tend to get somewhat irked. Thankfully, this movie is a good enough thriller to make up for the lack of horror that it never even had to begin with.

Limited with its set and cast, this movie is relatively simplistic and certainly runs along the independent film vein, and at some points, particularly in the writing and directing the relative inexperience seems to poke its curious little head out. In the grand scheme of things, however, that is not so much of a problem.

At the heart of this story we have a complete social reject named Mason, which is surprisingly much more likable than his ‘normal’ counterparts who work at an insurance company. One gets the sense that the only reason Mason has a job is the fact that his best and really only friend is the boss and has taken him under his protective wing. At the same time, there is a new hire that seems to have an eye for the unique and takes a liking to Mason. Amber, as she is called, becomes another staple in Mason’s often incoherent and oddly obsessed life, which heavily revolves around a series of paitings which he seems to cycle over and over and over. Soon enough, however, Amber begins to realize that dealing with Mason is something she walked into blindly and entirely unprepared for.

A good thriller, even if the acting does not always deliver. In the end it is still an enjoyable and intriguing film with a good effort in cinematography. All in all a solid movie worth the watch.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5
Notes: Brief nudity, language and some adult situations.
Quote: Amber: So anyway. Now that I have conquered my current job, what should I do next? I am thinking feminist or astronaut. Probably go with feminist, I’m afraid of heights.
Mason: Ah, what does a feminist do?
Amber: Mostly just bitches about stuff.