REVIEW: Plastic Bag [2009]

“My cold, her warmth” It is impossible to watch Ramin Bahrani’s film Plastic Bag without thinking about the scene in American Beauty of Wes Bentley videotaping a lone bag as it flew through the air and swirled with the wind. That moment of beauty could be seen as every human being’s goal—to be absolutely free of burden and earthly concerns; to just move and journey unencumbered. What Bahrani does in his short film, however, is to add a narrative to the life of that bag, giving him his birth into…

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REVIEW: Empire of the Sun [1987]

“Like God taking a photograph” Empire of the Sun is definitely a Steven Spielberg film. It has the epic scenery and action, the sentimental underlying tale of survival, and tragedy made the best of. Sure, like all Spielberg films, this one has the eventual happy ending, however, it really can be taken many ways. Most of his recent films have gone too far into the area of sap and/or ending happier than one would expect the context of the film to have gone to—see AI, Minority Report, and Catch Me…

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Top 25 Films of 2001

(short and sweet and to the point; culled from watching 90 releases. constantly updated as i catch up to those i missed. click poster for review if applicable) #25: Monsters, Inc. directed by Pete Docter #24: Tape directed by Richard Linklater #23: Bandits directed by Barry Levinson #22: Session 9 directed by Brad Anderson. #21: Super Troopers directed byJay Chandrasekhar #20: Spy Game directed by Tony Scott. #19: Le Pacte des loups[Brotherhood of the Wolf] directed by Christophe Gans #18: AI: Artificial Intelligence directed by Steven Spielberg. #17: A Beautiful…

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