I saw three excellent movies in the past week:
The Science of Sleep,
Shortbus, and
The Departed. All three films were completely different from each other; however, one thing that they all had in common was that they all showcased high quality directions. Starting with
The Science of Sleep, directed by Michel Gondry; it is full of fantasies and romanticism... it is a surreal cinematic journey. I can’t even explain what the film is about because words cannot describe the magical elements in the screenplay. All I have to say is that Gael Garcia Bernal is beyond adorable and he delivers one of the best and most memorable lines in the history of moving pictures (for those of you who has seen the film, I am taking about the
"...what is the occasion of this gift? ...for the occasion of you’re pretty..." part).
The second film was
Shortbus directed by John Cameron Mitchell and starring Sook-Yin Lee (yes, that VJ from Much Music many years ago). The movie is full of sex... lots and lots of sex... real sex... and it was hilarious!!!!! Seriously, it has more sex than
The Dreamers! The film is based around the fact that the Sook-Yin Lee character (Sofia) is a sex therapist who has never had an orgasm... with that, the film explores through sub-plots and many different characters, but they all link back to the theme of relationships and sex. Oh, and it is very educational as it solved the mystery of what caused that huge black-out a few years ago.
Lastly, the third film, which I just watched about five hours ago, was Martin Scorsese’s new masterpiece,
The Departed. It is an adaptation of the Chinese film
Infernal Affairs, which I have not seen yet; and it is also the third film that Scorsese has done with Leonardo DiCaprio. I was very disappointed with the last two Scorsese/DiCaprio projects (with DiCaprio being the main reason); however, to my surprise, Leonardo Dicaprio was really great in
The Departed. In fact, all the main actors were outstanding: in my opinion, Jack Nicholson need to be nominated for his role; Mark Wahlberg was sooooooooo funny; and yet another great supporting role from Alec Baldwin. To sum up,
The Departed features a brilliant screenplay, brilliant acting, and of course, brilliant direction!!
All three films above will most likely be in my year-end top movies list, and I am more than happy that such great quality films are in theaters right now… this is one of the reasons why I love the fall/winter! Speaking of, I am totally loving the weather in Toronto right now!!
So what is next???
American Hardcore: The History of American Punk Rock 1980-1986!!!!!!!!!!!!! ...which I may see tomorrow ...I mean later on today.
Channel4.com
