Ronin

Dir: John Frankenheimer, 1998 (9.1*)
A woman, perhaps an IRA terrorist, Natascha McElhone (the blonde ex-wife on cable tv's Californication), hires Robert de Niro and a team of professionals, which includes the terrific French actor Jean Reno, to retrieve a briefcase, without telling them what's in it. This vague information and other secrecy bothers the team, but that's just the beginning of their troubles. This is a heady, intellectual film that also packs some terrific chases and superb editing, a rare combination, a one of the few that begs for a sequel. Excellent all-around, one of the best of the genre.

This is Frankenheimer's high water mark for action films, perhaps his best film, which includes Manchurian Candidate, Seven Days in May, Reindeer Games, and another of my favorites, The Train.

Natascha McElhone is one of the most beautiful women ever captured on film. She deserved much better than Californication, a lame comedy

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Kind Hearts and Coronets

Dir: Robert Hamer, 1949, bw (8.7*)

Perhaps the best of the Alec Guiness comedies done for Ealing Studios, classic British black and white comedies (Man in the White Suit, Ladykillers, Lavender Hill Mob), all of which are worth seeing. This gives Alec a field day as he plays all the members of one family in a tontein, where the last survivor inherits all the familie's estates that participate. In this comedy, it's a race to survive all the plots and murders that are involved. Fluff, but as good as British comedic fluff gets.

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Chocolat

Lasse Hallstrom, 2000, France (8.2*)
Unique and eccentric fantasy romance, about an outsider, Juliet Binoche, who comes to a small town in France and opens a chocolate shop. She is generally shunned by the locals, being an outsider and a beautiful woman, but manages to cook a special chocolate for each person that has magical qualities for that person alone. Johnny Depp, Lena Olin, and Judi Dench are all part of the terrific cast.

Hallstrom (My Life as a Dog) always makes interesting and quirky films, each one is worth seeing. This reminded me a little of Woody's Alice, another in which magic comes to those in need through ingestion of the right concoctions. All three actresses above (Binoche, Olin, Dench) were BAFTA nominees for this film. Five Oscar® nominations, including Best Picture.

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Sin City

Dir: Frank Miller, Robert Rodriguez, 2005 (8.1*)

This is how graphic novels should look! Incredible gothic, dark look to this film, using special effects, that overall makes it look almost an animated graphic novel. This is how the original Batman and Dick Tracy films should have looked. Rodriguez brought in the artist of the original, Frank Miller, to oversee the art direction, the result is stunning. The film is a trio of bizarre tales, the main one involving Bruce Willis, who once saved a child, now Jessica Alba all grown up into yummy eye candy. Elijah Wood goes WAY out of character as a speedy, silent killer. Benicio del Toro is a cop, who spends most of his screen time literally as a talking head (a scene directed by Quentin Tarentino for $1). A bevy of beauties led by Roxanne Dawson play hookers who control the inner city without police interference. Film noir with a graphic/comic look (up a * for the look alone), very updated and very violent, not for the squeamish. This is not like any other film in its look, something truly unique.

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Outland

Dir: Peter Hyams, 1981, (7.7*)

This "space western" was based on the classis western High Noon, and may even be more appealing to some, due to the SciFi theme and terrific special effects. Sean Connery is the marshall of a despicable mining colony somewhere near Saturn, and it turns out that the company who owns it is selling a dangerous speed type drug to miners so they can work more. Peter Boyle is perfect as the company's bad guy on the scene. It becomes a "showdown at high noon" as the company sends assassins to take out Connery. Well-made and tense throughout, not a bad updating of a classic, but down a star for the same reason (unoriginality).

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Smoke Signals

Chris Eyre, 1998 (8.4*)

Sundance Audience Award

Terrific all Native American comedy that takes place on a Montana or Idaho reservation, supposedly the first all Native American production. The story becomes a road trip when Victor (Adam Beach) must get to Arizona to collect the cremated remains of his estranged father.

This is a funny and heartwarming tale about friendship, that is also offbeat and unique enough to remain interesting. Look for Elaine Miles, the Eskimo receptionist on tv's Northern Exposure, as a woman whose car only goes in reverse, so she's always driving backwards, which has to be a perfect metaphor for something, like perhaps only being able to get somewhere in the present by going into your past. Adapted from Sherman Alexie's short stories.

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My Brilliant Career

Gillian Armstrong, 1979, Australia (8.9*)

Judy Davis (who has won a trainload of Australian awards and one U.S. Emmy) has a star-making part, and deservedly won a BAA for Best Actress, as 19th century author Sybylla Melvin, a non-conventional woman who would rather pursue "my brilliant career" than simply seek out a husband, even though society keeps telling her that's the proper place for a woman.

She eventually falls in love with another free spirit, a landowner played by Sam Neill, also in a star-making role for him. This is both a terrific romance with lots of passion, and an incisive look at the creative mind; it also avoids sentimentality and compromise. Nice music score featuring Schumann's piano music. One of the best Australian films.

Update: for the perfect complement to this film, see We of the Never Never (1982), the true story of Jennifer Gunn, the first white woman to venture into Australia's Northern Territory, when she married a cattle station manager; based on her memoirs.

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El Mariachi

Dir: Robert Rodriguez, 1992, Mexico (8.8*)

Audience Award, Sundance

Indy Spirit Award for Best Picture

This terrific action film put Rodriguez on the map, and he made the entire film using credit cards for an amazingly low price, something like $50,000 (his friends acted for free!); it went on to gross millions. The movie concerns an out-of-work mariachi guitarist on the road looking for work. At the same time, a drug gang war erupts, and they hire an assassin who carries his weapons in a guitar case. Gee, guess what? The guitarist becomes mistaken for the assassin and has to defend himself, and the ensuing massacre makes him a frightening legend to everyone in his path, as he must flee both gangs and the police! Rodgiguez' camerawork is very inventive and fresh, and even though this is lightweight, it's still far better than his big budget sequels, Desperado and Once Upon a Time in Mexico (which had Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayak!) On the dvd, be sure to check out "Robert Rodriguez' Ten-Minute Film School". Brilliant stuff and on a "shoestring".

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The Train

John Frankenheimer, 1964, bw (8.6*)
For some reason, this is a WW2 action film that you don't hear much about, but one of Frankenheimer's (Seven Days in May, Manchurian Candidate, Ronin) best films. The story involves Frenchman Burt Lancaster trying stop a Nazi officer from moving a trainload of stolen French art (the national culture!) back to Germany before the war can end. The moral dilemna comes from having to decide if this is worthy enough cause to give up your life, for either side.

Lancaster does all his own stunts, mostly involving moving trains, and can often be seen limping from a shooting injury. Terrific cinematography and editing, with a screenplay that garnered an Oscar nomination, the film got a British academy (BAFTA) nomination for best picture, and deserves to be in the conversation of best war films.

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The Counterfeiters

Stefan Ruzowitzsky, 2007, Austria (7.8*)
Best Foreign Film (AA)
Engrossing story of a true Nazi plot to counterfeit so many British pounds and U.S. dollars as to affect those economies by flooding the market with bogus money, inflating the currencies. This was possible due to master forger Salomon Sorowitsch, brilliantly played by Karl Marcovichs, being caught by a Nazi officer who knew his skills, and when promoted to head of the secret counterfeiting operation, he brings Salomon onto the team of the best printers, engravers, and forgers the Nazis could round up.

This film is immaculate in its details, and becomes a film about honor vs. survival as do many WW2 stories. Won the Oscar in 2008 for Foreign Language Film.

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