This is a documentary about steroids in America. There is a very personal story about the filmmaker Christopher Bell, not only his own story but that of his brothers and his parents. They all talk to the camera very candidly, often saying things that they wouldn’t want anybody to know (yeah, it’s contradictory).

However Bell also made his research and talk to many experts about the use of steroids from a medical point of view. Some say it’s not harmful, others say it is.

But what’s the most interesting to me is the way the American government and media demonize steroids to an extreme, as if it were the worst drug in the world. On the other hand the use of steroids was really accepted by everyone before the media made a big deal out of it.

At one point Bell even interviews a father who blames steroids for his son’s suicide, which I thought was a bit too simplistic.

Bell does try to interview people from different point of views, and I think there is enough information here to at least interest everyone. But it is clear what’s his opinion, he doesn’t hide it at all.

This is definitely a subject I was ignorant about, so I am glad that I got to learn more about it from this documentary. The personal story was interesting in the context of this subject, but I wasn’t too touched by it.

Rating: 3 Stars

This film was shot like a documentary, so it looks very authentic and not like a fictional story at all. We follow Alejandro, a penniless young boy working/living in a chop shop. He might be poor, but he has more enthusiasm than many rich kids.

His sister Isamar is also struggling to make ends meet, but being older she’s not as naive as Ale. I liked their relationship, it just felt very natural and real. They obviously love each other, but she’s not over protective of Ale just because they’re alone. She has her own life, and sometimes she just doesn’t treat him that well.

Ale on the other hand is so enthusiastic about life, he has plans and dreams for his future, and he seems to be a good worker. He’s very likable and a bit naive. Which is why when he’s taken advantage of (which we see a mile away) we really feel bad for him.

As this is a very realistic film, this is literally a slice of life story, we just get to hang out with Ale for some time, and then we just go away. There is no resolution to any problem, the hero doesn’t triumph over evil or anything like that. Life just goes on as usual.

This is a very unusual story that I think is worth watching. It just gives us a different view of the world, from the eyes of a poor young boy.

Rating: 3 Stars

This is a little family drama/comedy that interested me for Ellen Page’s role (from Juno fame) while my wife enjoyed the Sarah Jessica Parker role.

This is a family that’s trying to cope with life after the mother’s death. The husband is a very sad and not very kind professor, who’s also a little snobbish. That might be my biggest problem with this movie, I just didn’t feel much for this character played by Dennis Quaid.

Worst of all I just didn’t feel any chemistry between him and Parker. I didn’t know why she would keep going back to him, even after their failed pathetic dates. At least the husband was not portrayed as a miserable suicidal widow.

The uncle played by Thomas Haden Church was at least funny, he was the only one trying to help this family. But his relationship with his niece felt a bit weird. I didn’t think it went anywhere, it didn’t develop any of the characters.

I did like Ellen Page as a similar character to Juno, but a little more vulnerable. Again, I think her character was a little wasted in her relationship with her uncle.

Overall I felt this movie was created with good intentions, but ultimately it failed. I didn’t hate it, there were some interesting characters, but in the end I wouldn’t recommend it.

Rating: 2 Stars

This is a very special movie. Director Heneke wants to make a point about the movie industry and the role violence plays in the audience’s mind. The way he makes his point is by giving us what we want in terms of violence, but subverting conventions and showing us that maybe we have been brainwashed by all those violent movies.

In order to discuss this film I will SPOIL it, that’s inevitable because I really want to get into it in detail.

The plot is simple: two gentle young men dressed in white invade a summer house and proceed to torture the owners, a couple with a boy. All the violence is off camera, but the screams and sounds are more than enough to scare us.

The villains are very unconventional, because they are very well spoken and good looking men who are playing games to pass their time. When Ann goes out and sees a car I thought it must be them, so go hide!! Which exactly what she does, except it wasn’t them and she lost an opportunity to find help. Then the second car comes, and the same dilemma presents. We only see them getting back home with Ann, but we know what happened.

The biggest surprise is when Ann shoots one of them we get a big relief, it’s the moment we’ve been waiting all along. However the other villain finds the remote control and rewinds themselves!! So now we are negated that relief!

Throughout the movie the bad guys look at the camera and directly address the audience talking about being entertained, as if they were there to entertain us. Which is the truth. However they also talk about reversal of expectations, thus not giving us what we want. They kill all members of the family one by one, negating us any type of satisfaction.

It’s an interesting commentary, making us think why we like certain movies. However this movie can also be enjoyed as one of those movies, I was totally tense throughout the film, and Heneke had my complete attention. But I also enjoyed this exactly for reversing all my expectations and making this a very different movie.

This is an excruciating movie to watch, even though there is absolutely no violence on camera. I enjoyed it for the tension, for the surprises, and for the commentary. But I do not recommend it to everyone.

Rating: 3.5 Stars

This is probably what you’d call an arthouse film. There isn’t much of a plot, though there is a little mystery that’s revealed half-way through. But apart from that nothing really happens in this movie.

But the point of the movie is all in the style it is presented and the state of mind of the main character. It is meant for the audience to feel what this teenager is experiencing, through the help of filmmaking.

That’s a cryptic way of saying that this is not your typical movie. The star of the story is Alex, a teenager skateboarder who is involved in a murder. The story is not told linearly, instead we jump back and forth, often repeating certain scenes with different sound. The first time we don’t hear the dialog, instead Alex might be narrating or a song is playing. The second time we know more about the context of the scene, and we hear the dialog, and learn what the scene was about.

There are also many scenes of skateboarders with a soundtrack playing, and they have nothing to do with the plot at all, but they’re meant to be what Alex is thinking about or is seeing. I must admit I thought there were too many of those scenes, I really wanted to get back to Alex.

Another stylistic choice made by director Gus Van Sant is that almost all adults are blurred or far from the camera, or their face is not in the frame. That’s a specific choice to make us feel like we are viewing this from Alex’s point of view. So in his world adults don’t play such a big role. The only exception was the cop, Alex obviously paid much attention to him.

I think this film completely achieves its goal of immersing ourselves into Alex’s mind. I did enjoy this movie a lot, but I admit I prefer a story with a bit more plot to it. At the end I just felt there was something missing. This is not a movie for everybody, but it’s definitely a different experience.

Rating: 3.5 Stars

This may be my favorite movie of the year so far. This is a great British film about a couple of assassins that takes place in Bruges, Belgium.

The strong point of this movie is the writing. The dialogs between Ray (Colin Farrel) and Ken (Brendan Gleeson) are great, they are vulgar but always funny. Ray in particular is a very cynical man who likes to make offensive jokes. The dialog reminded me of the early Guy Ritchie movies.

The plot itself is simple, but there is a lot of emotions surrounding Ray’s character. Ken is almost like a father figure to Ray, so he tries to help him as much as he can. They have a few great serious conversations about their line of profession and the ethics surrounding it.

Ray also has some misadventures with a girl he meets, which bring to some very funny scenes. But everything comes crashing down when Harry calls. That was a great scene, a long funny telephone call between Harry and Ken, that ends with the real reason for the call, and everything gets serious.

When Harry shows up it gives this movie another boost, his presence is just great. He’s not only funny but scary at the same time. The conversation he has with Ken, leading up to the tower is just great. It might seem silly, but it totally made sense to me. These people are like criminals with principles.

I did have a problem with the many coincidences at the end, all the characters of the movie basically bump into each other in the span of 1 hour. It just didn’t make sense, even considering that Bruges is small. However the emotions around that ending were so powerful that it felt like a minor problem to me.

This is really a great film, highly recommended.

Rating: 4.5 Stars

If you’ve read my reviews for a while, you know that Ang Lee is a personal favorite of mine. Not only are his movies great and diverse, he’s also from Taiwan.

That being said, I was a little less enthusiastic about watching this movie after reading so many critics not liking this. The running time was also a bit of a problem. But I finally caught up with it and I couldn’t be happier.

This is a spy story charged with a lot of emotions. It’s not the James Bond type of spy story. All the background needed for this story is that it takes place in Shanghai and Hong Kong during the Japanese occupation.

A group of theater actors try to incite nationalism with their play, but they decide to do even more when they locate a traitor for working for the Japanese, Mr Yee (Tony Leung). I thought the scene depicting their play really worked to incite nationalism.

When Wong Chia Chi (Tang Wei) infiltrates the Yee’s I really liked the tension of trying to kill the traitor vs the fear of being discovered. That tension certainly reaches a high when the first murder occurs. It was a gruesome scene and it worked perfectly.

I was also surprised at the length Wong Chia Chi was willing to go for her “mission”. Her motivation is very complex. She didn’t seem that patriotic at the beginning, I felt she was just following the group. But once she started to get involved with the spying and Mr Yee, she felt compelled to continue. At least that’s how I interpret it.

What this film is famous for are the explicit sex scenes. The first one was basically a rape scene, though the woman was basically consenting. So she wasn’t trying to get out of it, but the man was very forceful. The following scenes were less violent, but still explicit. However, all these scenes were not gratuitous, they totally served a purpose, which was to explore the relationship between them. Their expressions in those scenes told so much about their relationship, there were a lot of emotions and not just of sexual nature. Those scenes really showed the acting talent of the leads.

I think the ending is based on that relationship, Wong Chia Chi makes a very big decision that affects everyone. I must say at first I was totally surprised by it, I just couldn’t understand why she did it. However my wife said she totally got that decision as a woman, and thinking about that relationship I can sort of see her point. I don’t totally understand it, but I trust my wife.

There is plenty to like in this film, I am so glad I watched it. Ang Lee can do no wrong in my book.

Rating: 4 Stars

This is the type of horror movie that I like. A moody horror with great characters, an interesting plot and no gore at all.

The plot is nothing original, it’s the typical ghost story. But what makes this great is the great performance of Belen Rueda as Laura, a desperate mother who lost her son Simon. She really grounds this story with her performance, I really felt for her loss.

The scene with the group of ghost experts was a bit of a cliche’ for me, nothing we haven’t seen before. That being said, the performance was good enough to make it work. The husband’s reaction as a skeptical is also cliche’, on the other hand if I were him I would probably be skeptical too. Though I would try to support my wife as much as possible.

The red-herring was provided by the old lady, who became the main suspect for Simon’s disappearance. When she turns up again I was shocked by what happened. That was a quick way to crush (no pun intended) our suspicions of her.

And then we get the finale. The final act was not only very well shot, it provided great tension (especially when she’s playing that game with the children) and it gave us great hope for Simon. I knew something was not right, but the  reveal was totally unexpected. And then we get the final scene between Laura and Simon, which was both endearing and heartbreaking. In that sense this ending reminded me of Pan’s Labyrinth.

This is really a great movie with some scares but great characterization and a good plot twist. But most of all a great ending. Check it out.

Rating: 4 Stars

Everyone will compare this DVD to Animatrix. The concept is similar, a series of short stories animated by famous Anime production companies, direct to DVD to bridge the gap between two successful movies.

The difference here is that Batman is a very well known character, and there have been many stories about him. So there isn’t anything new in this DVD. The novelty is watching Batman portrayed as an anime character.

Overall the visual look of Batman was satisfying. At times he looked more like an eagle, other times he had a clear armor. But I liked all those interpretations. In particular I loved the first story, which presented 4 different interpretations of Batman. Those were really fun to watch.

There is a small thread that carries over throughout the movie, but it’s so small that it’s almost inconsequential. But I did like seeing some of the same charaters pop up in more than one story. Those were Gordon and his two detectives Allen and Ramirez. We also see the Russian and the Italian mob.

There are obvious ties to the movies, Scarecrow being the obvious one. Killer Croc also makes an appearance, as well as Deadshot. There are plenty of fun action scenes, and a lot of atmosphere. Not a lot of characterization going on, the only exception is the story where Bruce flashes back to his time in India, where he learned to deal with pain. Very good story.

Even though the writers are American, everything else is done by Japanese, so all stories have a definite Anime feel, both in looks and atmosphere. One thing that links all these stories are the voices. Kevin Conroy comes back as Batman/Bruce, and he does an excellent job as always. He’ll always be Batman’s voice for me. All other voice talents are good as well, but the only one I recognized is Gary Dourden.

Each story is only about 10 minutes long, so these are at most teases and don’t go in depth. I wish they would have chosen fewer stories and given them more time. As it is, this feels more like a teaser. But the visuals are definitely worth a look.

Rating: 2.5 Stars

This is not an easy film to watch, the subject matter is something everybody tries to avoid talking about. That’s caring for old people.

Jon and Wendy are very close with their father, but now that he’s sick they have to take care of him. They go through the long process of first flying to see him, then findig a place for him and finally taking him there.

I really liked the way the father is portrayed. He’s not the typical senile who cannot keep a conversation. He is lucid enough to berate his children for asking him what to do with him after he’s dead (”What are you, a bunch of idiots!? You bury me!”).

But the focus of this story is the siblings. Their relationship felt very real to me. They are not very close, so they don’t talk to each other about their personal life, but they do care about each other as siblings. Their relationship comes out stronger at the end of this story, but it’s not like they’re suddenly best friends either.

The plot felt a little bit too neat, in one season everything seems to be resolved and they come out changed for the better. This is not a happy movie, it might even be drepressing at times. But I think it’s worth watching.

Rating: 3 Stars