"Melancholic Beauty"

THE GARDEN OF THE FINZI-CONTINIS

Original title: Il giardino dei Finzi-Contini
Year: 1970
Country: Italy/West Germany
Language: Italian
Number: 522
Director: Vittorio De Sica
Starring: Lino Capolicchio, Dominique Sanda, Helmut Berger, Fabio Testi

Oscar wins: Best Foreign Language Film
Oscar nominations: Best Adapted Screenplay
Berlin: Golden Bear, Interfilm Award

Vittorio De Sica's The Garden of the Finzi-Continis is based on the historical novel by Giorgio Bassani that are partially based on his own experiences of being a Jew in the town of Ferrara in the thirties and forties, during Mussolini's fascist dictatorship, where the Jews was counted as third class citizen and was later deported to the concentration camps. This film follows a group of teenage friends, both Jewish and Non-Jewish, and how the political situation is effecting their lives.

The Garden of the Finzi-Continis is a good and melancholic history drama, pretty similar to Bertolucci's The Conformist. It's also as beautifully photographed, with all it's naturalistic colors and the leafs on the trees blowing in the wind, which symbolizes death. I also love all the different personalities and how they act under pressure, and some even don't see the point of living a joyful life, because of the political situation. A great war drama. Thumbs up.

Grade: A-

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"Constructed Realities"

REAL LIFE

Year: 1979
Country: United States
Language: English
Number: 643
Director: Albert Brooks
Starring: Albert Brooks, Charles Grodin, Frances Lee McCain, J.A. Preston

In 1971 PBS decided to make a television documentary called 'An American Family'. a documentary about a real ordinary american family. They followed them around every day for many months, but what they got was the real turbulence and scandals that unfortunately happens in every families. Albert Brooks' comedy 'Real Life' is spoofing 'An American Family' where Brooks is playing a fictional version of himself trying to direct a similar TV show, where the chosen Family, the Yeagers would have been better off without cameras following them around every single day.

Real Life is a good comedy that some what displays what would actually have happened in a satirical way. Because most of their worries are what everyone else will think about them, and how Brooks is trying his best to make the things better for the Yeagers, while the psychiatrists urge him not to interfere in any way. Brooks might be a bit too crazy sometimes, but he's the unfunny clown that we feel sorry for. But it's Charles Grodin and Frances Lee McCain as Mr. and Mrs. Yeager who are able to pull it off with two realistic performances. Overall, It's an alright good dark comedy with some over-the-top moments and with a good story. Thumbs up.

Grade: B-

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"A Family of Surfers"

SURFWISE

Year: 2007
Country: United States
Language: English
Number: 1059
Director: Doug Pray
Starring: Dorian Paskowitz, Juliette Paskowitz, David Paskowitz, Navah Paskowitz

Surfwise is a documentary about a former physician named Dorian "Doc" Paskowitz, who in the late fifties gave up every material goods to dedicate his entire life to surfing, travelling from different places in his caravan along with his wife and his nine children, eight boys and one girl, who all knows how to surf. They later start a surfing school. This documentary follows all the Paskowitz' and each tells their stories about how their upbringing was, the advantages and the disadvantages of not living the conventional life. None of the children went to school, which made it impossible for some of them to follow their actual dreams.

Surfwise is a good documentary that gives you most of the important aspects of a non-material life and how difficult it is, and what price you have to pay. The film doesn't argue about which way of life is the best, but it's a clear lecture of what a free life is. There's also the psychological aspects, like Doc being hot tempered and violent, and the lack of school which makes it impossible for most of his children to follow their dreams. But what brings the whole family together is their religious passion for surfing, and some of the kids have followed in their father's footstep and even became world champions. But all of them agree's that they wouldn't have had it any other way, and that's probably the case for the rest of us, no matter how dark our life is. A wonderful documentary about life itself. Thumbs up.

Grade: A-

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"Everything is Lost"

BUFFALO '66

Year: 1998
Country: United States
Language: English
Number: 934
Director: Vincent Gallo
Starring: Vincent Gallo, Christina Ricci, Ben Gazzara, Anjelica Huston

The multi-talented artist Vincent Gallo is known for his flexibility between different art forms such as music and films, both when it comes to composing, writing and performing. But he will always be best remembered for his indie classic Buffalo 66' which he directed, wrote and starred in. And it's also set in his own home town, Buffalo, New York.

Buffalo '66 is the story about Billy Brown (Gallo) who returns to his home town, Buffalo, after five years in prison for a crime he didn't commit. All that time he has lied to his parents (Anjelica Huston and Ben Gazzara) that he worked for the government and was married. But Billy kidnaps the first and best girl, a dancer named Layla (Christina Ricci) who must pretend to be his wife. But when we finally meet his parents it's certainly a shock to see how little they care about anything but football. They hardly remember anything about their son.

Buffalo '66 is a good melancholic indie film, with its small town post Reagan America. Gallo give us a great performance and a great character, a realistic haunted irritated individual. Christina Ricci's character, Layla is more interesting because while we know so much about Billy, we don't know anything about Layla. And it's also the fact that Billy often treats her like dirt, but no matter how cruel he is, Layla sticks with him, she probably got a tough life of her own.

The most surreal thing about this film is Billy's parents and how apathetic they are towards anything but football, specially his mother, who gave birth to Billy the day the local football team Buffalo Bill lost the Super Bowl of 1966. And she often says that it was Billy's fault for being born that day. He once decided to bet ten grand on the Buffalos winning the Super Bowl, but looses and he thinks he's forever doomed. Overall, Buffalo '66 is a good little film about the apathetic small town american with a surreal world view. Thumbs up.

Grade: B+

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"Cross-Dressing Cross Country"

THE ADVENTURES OF PRISCILLA, QUEEN OF THE DESERT

Year: 1994
Country: Australia
Language: English, Filipino
Number: 1003
Director: Stephan Elliot
Starring: Hugo Weaving, Guy Pearce, Terence Stamp, Bill Hunter
Oscar wins: Best Costume Design

Stephan Elliott's The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert is along with Muriel's Wedding the two Australian films from '94 that both have gained a big cult status, not only in Australia alone, but all over the world, with their use of ABBA music, unknown Aussie actors that later became world famous and two amazing performances by Australian character actor Bill Hunter.

Priscilla is the story about two drag queens, Mitzi (Hugo Weaving), Felicia (Guy Pearce) and a transsexual woman named Bernadette (Terence Stamp) who bought a buss that they named Priscilla in order to travel cross country to perform their drag queen dance numbers. But the trip is also a way for Bernadette to forget about her dead husband, while Mitzi just discovered that he has a son from a previous heterosexual marriage.

Priscilla is an enjoyable and entertaining road trip movie that have gained a big cult status in the gay and drag community. Where similar trips have occurred in real life, which includes standing on top of the Ayers Rock in drag. There's some pretty good dancing numbers as well that every one can enjoy. There's also some unforgettable supporting characters like Bill Hunter's Bob, an outback mechanic and his crazy Filipino mail order bride Marion, who is known for shooting ping pong balls out of... eh... somewhere. It's a road trip movie that teaches us very much about how tough the life is for most gay and drag people, and how they cope with it by breaking loose. Thumbs up.

Rating: B+

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"The Result of Too Many Horror Movies"

SCREAM

Year: 1996
Country: United States
Language: English
Number: 915
Director: Wes Craven
Starring: Neve Campbell, Skeet Ulrich, Courteney Cox, David Arquette

Horror veteran Wes Craven who gave us the iconic horror figure Freddy Krueger from "A Nightmare on Elm Street" also saw the connection between every horror film ever made, all the cliches that everyone knows too well and is able to predict right away while we yell at the screen "Don't go inn there!". Craven's Scream is a parody of exactly that. And we as an audience can just sit back and laugh.

Scream is set in a small town where a serial killer is on the loose, killing people wearing a normal Halloween ghost mask. There's no connections between the murders, but our female protagonist, Sidney Prescot (Neve Campbell) who's mother was killed the year before, was also attacked by the killer, but escaped. There's also the news reporter Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) who's trying to find the connection between Sidney's mother's death and all the other murders, because Sidney testified against the wrong man, Cotton Weary (Liev Schreiber) who is about to be executed.

Scream is a great tribute to the highly predictable horror genre, by making it even more unpredictable, and giving us a serial killer who wants to follow all the rules of the horror genre, and we realize that more sequels are inevitable. It's also funny to watch all the victims don't take the killer seriously because they in fact have also watched too many horror movies. It's unconventional by being conventional. A big thumbs up.

Grade: A-

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