Movie Round Up

Volver: I totally love this movie. Super good with a sort of surreal, magical realism Gabriel Garcia Marquez vibe to it that apparently all Almodovar films have. Clearly, I need to get with it here. Penelope Cruz was actually very good (perhaps the permanent joy of getting off the Tom Cruise Express before the stop at Insanity Blvd. where Katie Homes came aboard, has turned her into a good actress). Though appearance wise she looked nothing like the rest of her family members, but she's gorgeous so I'll excuse it. Loved the dialogue, and the absolutely fantastic one liners- I actually laughed out loud several times, watching a movie by myself, which never happens. Also, the subtitles didn't get on my nerves (rare), but then again, my Spanish came back to me enough during the movie, that by the end, I didn't really need the subtitles. Sometime this week, I'm totally going to rent Hable Con Ella, La Mala Educacion, or Todo Sobre Mi Mama. At least one of them.

To Catch a Thief: The least regarded of Hitchcock's films plays out sort of blandly. I mean, don't get me wrong, Grace Kelly and Cary Grant are fantastic and charming, but that's always going to happen. When they're on screen together, the movie improves drastically- they have great chemistry, look fantastic together, and his charming liar character clashes well with her outwardly prim, secretly wild character. But still, it leaves a bit to be desired. I've heard that this is almost like the precursor to Charade, which seems totally incorrect to me, but I've only seen part of Charade. I'm always up for a good Audrey Hepburn movie, though, so it's going on my list.

Letters From Iwo Jima: Fantastic and extremely sad; the kind of sad that makes you spend the whole movie expecting horrible things to happen to the characters you like the best. Ultimately, the movie's conclusion is that war is futile, but its best scenes revolve around the moments of humanity between the soldiers, and the horrifying moments when the humanity that was just there, isn't anymore. My favorite two scenes involve the former and the latter; the first is when the soon to be blinded, former Olympian Baron Nishi reads the wounded American's soldier's letter from his mother to the slowly rising troops within the cave. I actually cried when Saigo slowly approaches his dead friend in the American trench, that's how good this movie is. Hands down, the most horrifying scene contains a radio cast with Japanese children serenading, at the behest of the Emperor, to Watanabe's character. The general, Watanabe, is the one spot of the movie that falls somewhat flat to me; I understand that he's conflicted, but his introspectives are somewhat disjointed and his sacrifice doesn't quite stand up to Nishi's suicide in terms of powerful scenes. Overall, though, a lot of moments that involve this thought process: DAMN IT, DON'T DO THAT....wait a minute...why am I upset that the Japanese are losing?