Café Lumière

Hsiao-hsien Hou, Japan, 2003 (8.6*)

I can't explain why, but for some reason I found this movie to be poignantly moving, more so than other films of Taiwan master Hsiao-hsien Hou. Made for the centernary of Japanese master Yasujiro Ozu (the 100th anniversary of his birth), Hou has made a film of similar pace, but one which is decidely Hou's.

Personally, I grew up loving trains, especially trips on them that lasted overnight. In one regard, this film is an homage to Tokyo's trains, as one character, a used bookstore manager (charismatic Tadanobu Asano), does artwork about them, and even records the sounds of each when he has time. Lead character Yoko (played by Yo Hitoto) spends much time in aimless train rides without a real destination, which becomes a metaphor of her own personal relationships.

There's a certain honesty in the human relationships portrayed here, especially how people are cordial but rarely connect on a deep interpersonal level, something the main character seems to avoid. Most of these scenes appear improvised, but with pleasant results; in one scene a dog keeps peeking in from the background and literally steals the scene away from the human actors by not doing much but acting like a natural dog.

For me, the final shot of multiple trains crisscrossing each other in a silent ballet of city life in action is one of the more poetic and lyrical closing shots in all of cinema. [See photo below]. The film won a Golden Tulip award in Istanbul, while actress Hitoto won a Japanese Academy Award for Newcomer of the Year.

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Off the Map

Campbell Scott, 2003 (8.5*)
This small indie film is a most unusual tale, directed by actor Campbell Scott, son of Oscar®-winner George C. Scott. A small family farm is truly off the proverbial beaten path, so isolated that nearly no one can find it without a hand-drawn map. In fact, early in the story an IRS agent, Will Gibbs (Jim True-Frost), gets lost trying to find the family, who haven't been filing tax forms due to little or no income.

When he finds the farm after searching a week and walking 10 miles after sleeping in his car, he finds Joan Allen naked in her garden, staring at a healthy coyote who stalks and preys on rabbits that hang out in the garden. He immediately falls in love, even though she's married. Her husband, Sam Elliott, is mired in a months-long depression of unknown cause.

Daughter Valentina de Angelis [photo below], who narrates this story from her adulthood (Amy Brenneman, who somehow gets top billing with only a couple of minutes onscreen), is outgoing and self-confident, and along with her mother, they nurse Gibbs through days of a fever caused by a bee sting. After regaining his health, Gibbs is no longer interested in his prior life, and returns to his artwork, capturing the beauty of the New Mexican landscape surrounding the farm, and also Joan. Elliott's character is actually closer to catatonic than depressed, so the addition of Gibbs to the household is actually welcomed by the women.

Valentina de Angelis, then and now,

was 13 when she filmed Off the Map

The artwork used is very colorful, and mostly abstract, watercolors painted by local artist Stan Berning (whose art can be seen at http://www.stanberning.com/, along with all the paintings done for the film project at Scott's request). The centerpiece painting is a 41-foot watercolor done by Gibbs to show the young girl the ocean meeting the horizon, since she's never seen an ocean.

This story progresses naturally, and never feels strained or forced. This is a beautiful, small film about being self-sufficient in a harsh environment. Campbell Scott (The Spanish Prisoner, Singles) [photo below] turned out to be a better director than actor - let's hope he makes more films this artistic. Perhaps it's the acting of Joan Allen that makes this film what it is, she's one of the best around, long overdue for an Oscar®. Those who like her should also check out The Contender, which is perhaps her strongest performance.

Director Campbell Scott, son of actor George C.

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Oldboy

aka Oldeboi
Chan-wook Park, South Korea, 2003 (8.7*)
I normally prefer films that are visually creative and not such a clear plotline that you know the result half an hour in (ie, Rocky and Star Wars). This very innovative and extremely watchable crime film is actually a sequel to Park's Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (and followed by Lady Vengeance, to complete a trilogy), but it stands alone so you needn't see the first film, which isn't nearly the classic of this one.

One might say this is an Asian updating of The Count of Monte Cristo, about a man, Oh Dai-Su, played by Min-sik Choi (winner of a few acting awards), unfairly imprisoned, in this case for 15 years. When he finds his freedom, then sets out to find those responsible and if possible, wreak a little personal vengeance. However, this story has enough surprises and twists to remain unpredictable and entertaining throughout.

Though not for the squeamish (it has some torture and sexuality), it's one of those rare finds that you'll be thinking about long after viewing, and one that will make you want to tell your friends 'hey, check this one out', if you don't mind subtitles.

One of the best Korean films ever, Oldboy is ranked #99 on the IMDB top 250, with an 8.4 rating (but a lesser 74 from Metacritics). Winner of 17 awards out of 27 nominations, most for director Chan-wook Park.

Quote: What I am isn't important; WHY is important.

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The Best of Youth

Marco Tullio Giordana, Italy, 2003 (9.0*)
This epic Italian miniseries of four hours, now packaged as a solo feature film, follows two brothers from the time they leave home after high school and go their separate ways up until they are middle-aged. One brother takes a more free-wheeling, soul searching route that takes him to the near wilderness of Norway then back to Italy. The other brother opts for the more fascist tradition, first in the military, later in an urban police force. You might say one is left-wing politically, the other right, or at least they come to represent those two sides of Italian politics at the time the story begins in the 60's.

We see the different characters develop over time, their romances, their career changes, and also how their stories occasionally intersect. This is a well done, complete, and satisfying story that gives justice to the epic story of adult lifetimes.

Winner of 19 awards overall, including Un Certain Regard at Cannes, and numerous Italian film awards (the entire male cast won best actor, and the female cast best actress). It's also now showing up on many all-time top 1000 film lists. It's ranked #700 on our compendium of internet polls.

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Capturing the Friedmans

Andrew Jarecki, 2003 (8.2*)
This is an eerie documentary about suspected child molesters, named the Friedmans, a family that ran a daycare center in their home. Director Jarecki looks at the case from all sides and interviews the suspects, but never really makes a judgment himself, he leaves that up to the film audience as if we are members of the jury ourselves. This is a very creepy film about a very sensitive subject, so it definitely won't be for all audiences, but it is a riveting documentary and one well worth seeing.

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Thirteen

Catherine Hardwicke, 2003 (8.4*)
Tough, edgy, and gritty, this realistic look at a young teenage girl in L.A. is very disturbing. The film is carried by terrific performances by Holly Hunter as the mother of 13-yr old Tracy, brilliantly portrayed by Evan Rachel Wood. Hunter is actually more like a big sister or a friend to Tracy, as she's struggling to make ends meet with little support from her ex-husband.

When Tracy begins the 7th grade, she sees a popular teen who looks and acts far beyond her age, Evie, played by the screenplay's co-author Nikki Reed, who was just 15 when she wrote this in just six days, and who also received one acting award as best newcomer. Until that day, Tracy had been a good mommy's girl, but goes through changes nearly overnight in her desire to be as popular as Evie. The two start hanging out together and in order to keep up, Tracy begins stealing money, going on mindless shopping sprees, and partaking in drugs with Evie. The two become inseparable, and Tracy begins to disobey her mother, avoid school altogether, and seems to be only interested in shallow and temporary pleasures.

The transformation is frightening to watch, as both girls are beyond control or self-discipline, and have no real goals in life other than instant gratification. This is an almost entirely female-produced film, from Hunter as star and producer, to the screenplay by Reed and director Hardwicke, to the cast, whose only males are Tracy's brother, dad, and a few male high school friends. It makes an important statement about parenthood, and though R-rated, seems to be a film that should be watched by parents with their teenaged kids, as a warning of how not to act if you want to reach adulthood with any semblance of maturity. This is a film that makes me glad I never had kids, as they often seem to rebel out of boredom or an impatience to become adult.

Hunter was nominated for a supporting actress Oscar®, and the film won 13 awards out of 35 nominations

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Pirates of the Caribbean Trilogy

Gore Verbinski, 2003-2007
The first pirate films in history to actually make money are based on the tame kid's ride at Disneyland, another first. The three films grossed over 2 billion dollars, and actually cost over 600 million to make. They succeeded by being unabashed mindless adventure films with plenty of violence, special effects, and no sex, the perfect PG combination allowing them to provide daycare for parents hoping to raise kids typically immune to violence to prepare them for the adult world, where, as Tarentino said, "if you kiss a breast, it's a R rating, but if you slice it off, it's only PG."

(1) The Curse of the Black Pearl, 2003 (7.7*)
[#233 in the IMDB top 250, rated 8.0 by 244k viewers]
The first film is named for the ship that is skippered by Johnny Depp in a drunken performance as Capt. Jack Sparrow, an engaging ne'er do well pirate with more makeup than an aging Keith Richards, who looks more like Cher than Depp. Ironically, he received a baffling Oscar® nomination for best actor. How cutthroat pirates are willing to follow a fairly effeminate buffoon of a pirate is never explained.

Olivier Bloom is only slightly more hetero as Will Turner, in love with Elizabeth Swann, played with vigorous anger by Keira Knightly, who somehow manages to keep from being mauled by shiploads of men as all battle the evil Dutch East India Trading Co, the first stock-based corporation in the world, which later went bankrupt in 1800. Here it replaces the British Empire, though seemingly run by British sailors, as the resident evil that has people cheering for the pirates. Geoffrey Rush shines as the former Black Pearl captain, intent on getting his ship back from Sparrow; to me, he actually steals the acting kudos for all three films.

26 awards, 73 nominations

(2) Dead Man's Chest, 2006 (8.2*)
[rated 7.3 by 155k viewers at IMDB]
Since these are really nothing but CGI based adventures for kids, I prefer the 2nd film due to two eye-popping sequences. Best in all the films is a swordfight with Depp and a company rep that begins on a water wheel, which rolls down the island hills and to the sea, while the two battle the entire time. Another involves the pirates being caught and bound in a giant net cage handing off a mountain cliff. The pirates rock it back and forth in order to grab land and pull themselves up. This also introduces us to Bill Nighy as Davy Jones, complete with a live beard of moving octopus tentacles, and a barnacle-encrusted crew.

30 awards (66 noms), 13 for special effects, including a special effects Oscar®. Two awards were for best film from MTV and People's Choice


(3) At Worlds End, 2007 (6.7*)
[rated 7.0 by 138k viewers]
The last film is the most disappointing, in spite of an eye-popping sequence at world's end where the ocean spills over into space, and two ships swirl downward into a giant vortex. This was a disappointing 'conclusion' to a story that had a promising beginning, a dreary slow-moving voyage to nowhere.
16 awards, 29 nominations

The three films totaled 72 awards out of 168 nominations, the lion's share for special effects and popular fan awards. In a hilarious dig at the series, on Family Guy, Peter Griffin wakes up and tells his family "I had the weirdest dream that I was on a pirate ship and the only one who wasn't gay was Oliver Bloom."

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Mystic River

Clint Eastwood, 2003 (8.6*)
This is another riveting movie from director Clint Eastwood, one of his best. Sean Penn plays a distraught father whose daughter is murdered, and his emotionally powerful performance won him his first Oscar® for best actor. Tim Robbins is also excellent in a supporting role, and also won an Oscar®. The fact that each one turned in the performance of their careers is likely due to the directing of Eastwood.

It's hard to describe this film very much without giving away too much. Suffice to say that it's a homicide mystery with a terrific cast overall, and due to the emotionally charged performances, it's one of the better films of this genre in recent years. Eastwood really hit his stride after 2000, directing arguably his best works, beginning with this film.

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Runaway Jury

Gary Fleder, 2003 (8.2*)
Perhaps author John Grisham's best, this spellbinding trial story shows how juries are now manipulated by expensive trial consultants in order to pre-determine the outcome simply by jury selection and tampering. The impeccable Gene Hackman is the veteran pro at this, coming at a price of millions. Dustin Hoffman is the lawyer for the plaintiff, an honorable attorney who refuses to break the law like Hackman to gain advantage. Jeremy Piven is his jury consultant, a brash youngster compared to Hackman.

In this case, a shooting rampage at a stock brokerage firm leaves a widow suing the gunmaker, in a case that could provide not only millions but set a legal precedent that could see the weapons makers in court nationwide for years. John Cusack is an unwilling juror with a hidden agenda. We see him colluding with his girlfriend Rachel Weisz, who attempts to extort money from each side, promising to deliver a jury favorable to whoever pays the most money.

This film moves briskly for a trial film, as we see many crimes being committed in the name of 'justice'. For me, this is the best film of any Grisham novel, thanks to the cast, which includes three Oscar® winners (Hackman, Hoffman, and Weisz). With enough twists and turns, this one will keep you guessing until the unexpected outcome.

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The Story of the Weeping Camel

Byambasuren Davaa, Luigi Falorni, Germany, 2003 (8.9*)

This German documentary follows a family of Mongolian shepherds' daily lives. After the camel birthing season, the last newborn colt, a pretty white boy, is rejected by his mother. The shepherd sends his two sons on a trip to a nearby town to find a healing musician to help the mother accept her offspring.

We follow the daily life of the shepherds, which is primitive and weather-beaten in the harsh, beautiful Gobi desert, yet they also have total freedom. They can simply move their animals to another location if they want and be elsewhere in a day. In the towns, satellite tv is available and many ride motorcycles rather than camels, so the modern world is there if they want it - they chose to continue to live simply.

This is a beautiful and unusual story in a beautiful setting, even more amazing since it's a documentary - we follow the story of the young rejected camel, played by Botok with Ingen Tenne as the mother camel, as it plays out for the shepherds. This story that seems a much legend as truth won several film festivals, usually the audience award for foreign film, and was an Oscar nominee for documentary. Awards page at IMDB

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Whale Rider

Niki Caro, 2003, New Zealand (10*)
Sundance Audience Award, World Cinema
One of those amazing films that comes along all too rarely in life, one that blends myth into reality, and one that exposes a unique culture, the Maoris of New Zealand, being swallowed up by modern society. Lovingly directed by Niki Caro, from a novel by Maori author Witi Ihimaera, with beautiful music from Dead Can Dance singer Lisa Gerrard, who also scored Gladiator and The Insider.

This film is the story of Paikea, a young girl searching for self-identity in a tribal culture dominated by males for centuries, and whose grandad is intent on finding the next male tribal chief to lead his people back to their ancestral heritage and maintain time-honored ritual as a connection to their identity.

The cast is amazing, the adult Maori actors are excellent, especially Rawiri Paratene as the grandad, Koro, but the entire film is stolen by newcomer Keisha Castle-Hughes, a schoolgirl with no prior experience who was discovered in a classroom by the same casting director that found young Anna Pacquin for Jane Campion's The Piano.

Keisha Castle-Huges, a Maori who relocated from Australia to New Zealand at age 5, was nominated for 13 international awards for this role, including an Oscar for Best Actress, and was a winner of five awards: Broadcast Film Critics: Best Young Actor/Actress, Chicago Film Critics: Most Promising Performer, New Zealand Film and Tv Awards: Best Actress, Online Film Critics: Best Breakthrough Performance, Young Artist Awards: Best Actress in an International Film. In my opinion, this is one of the best performances I've ever seen by either a woman or a child, she definitely deserved some type of Oscar®.

Awards Page for Keisha at IMDB

Awards Page for Whale Rider, with 28 wins and 29 other nominations, including 9 New Zealand Film and TV awards, winning picture, director, screenplay, music, and four for acting

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American Splendor

Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini, 2003 (8.6*)
This is such an intimate portrait of a nobody going nowhere that it's hard not to like it's honest openness. It's a near documentary about comic author Harvey Pekar, wonderfully played by Paul Giamatti, whose story of a boring life of obscurity was illustrated by legendary underground comic artist Robert Crumb and titled "American Splendor".

The narrative follows Pekar as he begins to break out of his terminal dullness by writing an intended comic strip about it. Former Cleveland resident Crumb revisits and likes Pekar's writing and decides to illustrate the story. The film covers Pekar's rise from obscurity with the same matter-of-fact tone that Pekar's comic covered his routine life.

The film cleverly mixes some animation with live action, so flawlessly that it's an enhancement and not a distraction, as it reveals more about the title series. This received a "Un Certain Regard" award at Cannes for "mixed media use". The directors also wisely chose to include the real Harvey and his girlfriend Joyce Brabner (brilliantly under-played by Hope Davis in a Golden Globe nominated performance) in some scenes, which gives this a "reality within docudrama" moments, like the actors watching the real people react to a play in L.A. based on Pekar's comics about his life! You just don't find layers of reality piled up this deeply very often..

Very humorous and unusual, justifiably a film festival favorite.. a must-see for small indie film fans.

National Society of Film Critics Award, Best Feature; several awards for screenplay. Paul Giamatti received National Board of Review Award for "Breakthrough Performance by an Actor".
Awards page at IMDB

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The Triplets of Belleville

aka Les Triplettes de Belleville
Sylvain Chomet, 2003,
France-Belgium-Canada-UK (9.2*)

This is a brilliantly original animated feature done the old school way, by hand drawing each cell, which requires 1440 images per minutes, 86,400 per hour - just like the Walt Disney animated classics, before computers could do the "tweening", or the steps in-between the beginning and ending drawings. For those of us who grew up on classic cartoons, this comes as a welcome return to a nostalgic past.

This unique vision came from the mind of French animator Sylvain Chomet, listed as creator, producer, director - and it's unlike the typical family fare. In fact, most kids won't even get the humor, as it pokes fun at old b&w cartoons, the Andrews Sisters, Django Reinhardt, Fred Astaire, Josephine Baker (all in the first five minutes in a parody of early cartoons), the French penchant for eating frogs, square-shouldered Mafioso, the US tendency toward huge gluttonous rear ends, and bicycling enthusiasts obsession with the grueling Tour de France. Everything in this film is exaggerated, it's really a comedy of caricatures and hyperbole.

The nearly wordless (no subtitles needed!) story is about a tiny grandmother's love for her grandson, training for the Tour de France, kidnapped by underworld figures, and who eventually crosses paths with the jazz singing act The Triplets of Belleville, past their prime but not past their humor. This inspired insanity also rewards viewers with perhaps the most humorous dog in film history, a round, spindley-legged parody named Bruno, who constantly thinks of his food bowl, even dreaming about it, and whose favorite activity is barking at trains that regularly pass by the house. The most fully realized character in the film, we see his motivations by viewing his dreams, shown in black-and-white.

Winner of 18 awards out of 40 nominations; it beat out Oscar®-winner Finding Nemo for best animated feature at many festivals and critics awards, and even won best film in several. In any other year, it surely would have been the Oscar® winner for animated feature. The American Choreography awards gave it "best choreography in a feature film" (!), and the Motion Picture Sound Editors gave it "best sound editing in an animated feature film". The jazzy song "Belleville Rendezvous" was nominated for an Oscar®, and won awards, as did the score. Chomet is a genius of an artist, and he dedicated this film "to my parents". There's even another visual joke after the closing credits, and be sure to watch the crazy music video and special features on the dvd.
Awards page at IMDB

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Secondhand Lions

Tim McCandlies, 2003 (7.8*)
Ok, so it's a bit sentimental and perhaps a little unrealistic, but this is still a thoroughly enjoyable little film. Haley Joel Osment ("I see dead people..") does a credible job as a kid who fed up with mom Kyra Sedgwick's flighty lifestyle (always seeking a new husband in all the wrong men), and being left with "uncles", but this time the uncles in Texas are brilliantly played by Robert Duvall and Michael Caine (ok, so Caine struggles a bit with his Texas accent, one hardly cares, Duvall is perfect as always). These two characters sit on their porch with loaded shotguns ready to chase off salesmen and any other pesky visitors. They welcome Haley into their secluded lifestyle, which includes anything that strikes their whim, including ordering an airplane in pieces, and a used up "secondhand lion".

They fill Osment with stories of world travel and war, especially some tall tales of Arabia and a princess and a sheik's treasure. This is all wonderful and entertaining stuff, and reminded me of good 40's fantasies with lots of chidlish adventures. A beautiful and small film with many joys if you aren't looking too deeply for real meaning.

Quote: There are some things you need to believe in whether they're true or not: the good guys always win, and true love conquers all (Robert Duvall, talking to Osment)

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Good Bye, Lenin!

Wolfgang Becker, 2003, Germany (9.2*)
This is a terrific and heartwarming comedy about the fall of the wall and the GDR, German reunification, and in time becomes a poignant tale of a son's love for his socialist mom. The mother, touchingly portrayed by Katrine Sass, turns her interest to the socialist government after her husband leaves her with two kids, defecting to the west.

One day she has a heart attack while witnessing a demonstration of students at the wall, and goes into a coma just when history is about to be made; she misses the collapse of the wall and the East German government. When she awakens (now in just Germany), her kids go to great extremes to hide the world-changing events from her, with hilarious results. A filmmaking buddy of the son, lovingly played by Daniel Bruhl, helps them in a way I won't spoil. You'll never see a son, go through this much out of love for his mother. A totally original story, reminds one of the old classic comedies, and like those, its a film you can watch again and again. One of the best German films.

This film still has a popular web site:
Good Bye Lenin Website

Other great German films: Nowhere in Africa, The Lives of Others (both Oscar® winners for foreign film), and Werner Herzog's Fitzcarraldo

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Rivers and Tides

Thomas Riedelsheimer, 2003 (9.0*)
This is an amazing documentary that is not like any other because the artist Andy Goldsworthy is so unique. It's slow to get started but once you see how and why he does what he does it all makes intuitive sense. Its all about time and the ephemeral nature of living things. He uses natural media he finds in nature, rarely planning anything in advance. Only his rock sculptures last longer than the day he makes them. Most are temporary: ice sculptures that glow then melt in the sunlight, leaf 'snakes' held with thorns that he sends down a stream, or autumn leaves arranged from dark to light creating an artificial hole. He sometimes build 'rock piles like people use to mark trails worldwide', but they're big egg-shaped and carefully done with no mortar, yet they hold together as if made to stand in this shape like silent sentinels. He has designed a permanent wall in a sculpture garden, but let professional “wallers” build that. You don't have to be an artist to appreciate this movie. It also has several short films as a bonus. Goldsworthy has done so much of this that a film of all his outdoor artwork could actually last weeks! Inspiring...

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Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter.. and Spring

Kim Ki-Duk, Korea, 2003 (8.6*)
The title refers to the stages in a person’s life, as well as those in nature, and the cycles of both. The mandala or “wheel of life” is a common motif in Asian theosophy. Filmed in a national park, this Buddhist-Taoist allegory or parable is a stunningly beautiful and simple tale of an ascetic life as a monk aboard a floating monastery in a lake in the mountains. One couldn’t imagine a more beautiful yet hauntingly lonely setting for a parable on the nature of life, material attachment, and redemption.

The story is about a young boy being raised by the Old Master, lessons he learns in life, particularly when they are visited by a woman’s who brings her sick daughter for healing. There are some very simple truths and what’s often called “perrenial wisdom” here, told in a quiet almost non-action manner that mirrors the spiritual discipline of the monk. The movie was directed, written and edited by Kim Ki-Duk, who also plays the young boy as an adult monk! This is the type of film that could never get made in the west, but one which shows a simple, spiritual life lived without materialism, and without attachment to the sensory world.

[NC-17 for sexual content; as the old Master said “just nature taking its course, do you feel better?”]

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The Barbarian Invasions

Denys Arcand, 2003 (8.4*)
Best Foreign Film (AA)
This touching and poignant film is about the last days of a middle-aged Canadian man with cancer. Remy gathers his family and close friends around, and after abusing the healthcare system by occupying an entire unused hospital floor, the whole group moves to a peaceful country cottage on a lake for his final days. Instead of being morose and gloomy, Arcand manages to make us feel joy along with Remy to be so surrounded by loving companions and family for his final days. This is a tough subject to pull of, and the film bears similarities to both The Big Chill and Bergman's Cries and Whispers, but manages to make us feel better than either of those. This was made for Canadian TV as a sequel to Arcand's Decline and Fall of the American Empire, but won a well-deserved Oscar for Foreign Language film.

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Down With Love

Peyton Reed, 2003 (7.6*)
Warning: for swinging lovers only! If you use language like “dames” and “broads”, you’ll get this, if you’re a hatless guy, you won’t. If you’ve never seen a 50’s film, don’t bother, this will be like watching Mongolian without subtitles. Otherwise, it’s a hilarious sendup of Doris Day-Rock Hudson romantic fluff comedies. All the girls want hot bachelor journalist Ewan McGregor (whose name is Catcher Block!), who sings his way through this quite well. Meanwhile, columnist Renee Zellweger writes an anti-romance best seller called “Down With Love”, and early women’s lib tome, so these two simply have to be attracted to each other, it’s a Hollywood screenplay rule! A lot of fun if that’s all you want; definitely lighter than a marshmallow, and the music just adds to the campiness.

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Lost in Translation

Sofia Coppola, 2003 (8.5*)

This is one of those small, simple films that seems greater than the sum of its parts. The terrific screenplay by director Sophia Coppola deservedly won her an Oscar, but you have to bemoan the fact that star Bill Murray didn’t win, he was so understated and both funny and touching, you had to be pulling for him. Even though Scarlett Johansson had been a small star for awhile, this was her breakthrough in a big part. Murray is a U.S. star in Japan to make a whisky commercial, while Scarlett is at the same hotel with her husband, who is in Japan for but usually off working on a professional photography assignment, so she and Murray have time to kill alone in the hotel bar and start up a platonic friendship. Not an action film, but the cast and Coppola make this refreshingly small love story an addicting experience. One Oscar (Screenplay)

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