Madame Souza loves her grandson Champion. She raises him like her own and gets him a tricycle to train for the Tour de France. When Champion is finally ready for the Tour, he gets kidnapped by some men in black, the French mafia. And Madame Souza goes on a journey to find her son.
I know there have been a lot of animated and children's movies on the site lately, but I promise this one is not anything like it. It's rather one of those unusual artful movies, but still quite light for its genre.
While it also may be one of the weaknesses, the unique thing about this movie is the dialog. Because well, there isn't any. Depending solely on its great animation music and humor, it is unlike any other animated feature I know.
Somehow these three old woman, with all their funky tunes, kept spinning in my mind for quite some time. Or, actually, that might be because I own the soundtrack. Anyway, this is just one of those movies you have to experience for yourself. Definitely check out the trailer to see if this is your thing.
Two brothers are in desperate need for money, until one of them gets the perfect idea for a victimless crime. The place is insured and nobody will get hurt. But when one of the brothers gets an accomplice to do the job, nothing works out quite like they wanted.
I know the above summary is quite short, but I would hate to take out any suspense by spoiling something. Personally I like to watch a movie without knowing anything about it. I just need to know I'm going to watch something worth my time -- eh, popcorn. Some trailers can basically explain the entire story and that would ruin this whole movie.
If it wasn't for the two great actors, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Ethan Hawke, I feel like we wouldn't be talking about this movie. What could have been an average thriller is taken to the next level by these two 'brothers'. Especially Philip Seymour Hoffman gets so intense, you question if anyone else could have pulled it off like him.
What they create is a psychological family drama. How far can people go when they are desperate, addicted? How do you solve something you caused by going too far? The story is told from different perspectives in different times and manages to give you a new fitting piece of the puzzle every time. All these pieces make for a pretty fresh and flawless suspense thriller. Except for the strange changes in time in the story, you wouldn't say this was directed by a 83 year old (Sidney Lumet). Certainly not when you see the first scene, but I'll leave that as a surprise for now.
Disturbed adolescent Donnie Darko has a new friend, Frank. When he’s sleepwalking, Frank instructs him to do violent acts, like crashing the water piping of his school. Donnie is not sure why Frank makes him do things like this. And why wasn’t he there when a jet engine crashed into his room? Then Frank tells him the world will end in 28 days.
What an amazing first feature for director Richard Kelly! The light went a bit dark after that. Until 'Southland Tales' last year, which wasn't exactly the follow-up of Donnie Darko we might have expected. But in his defense, it's hard to top such a great movie on your second try.
From the minute you start watching Donnie, you become amazingly intrigued by what's happening. But while some movies like this might lose you in a minute, Donnie Darko keeps you in that place until the second it ends. All of it seems like a work of passion. Not only the writing, but also the direction and the musical score.
It is one of those movies you can watch again and again every year. Or every week if you are a multiple serial movie watcher. This is probably why it got such a big following after the movie came out on DVD. You can focus on the philosophical story, the love story, the scientific story, the psychological story. Well, you get where I'm going. It just has a couple of more layers than your average popcorn movie.
There are those movie that make you think. The ones you like to ponder about after the movie. This is definitely one of them. As Gretchen asks Donnie Darko about his name, "It's like some sort of superhero or something." Donnie says, "What makes you think I'm not?"
Ben is left heartbroken after he and his girlfriend Suzy break up. Something happens in his body and now he is unable to sleep. To do something useful with all the additional hours he gets, he takes a night job at the local supermarket. This is where he meets some new friends, who all have their own ways of dealing with the long hours. And Ben, being an artist himself, soon finds his own creative ways to pass the long night shifts.
Writer and director Sean Ellis had the opportunity to make this beautiful movie after his short film Cashback got nominated for an Oscar. You might expect some rushed feature, to cash in on the hype. But Ellis probably already knew what more Ben's world would bring, because the outcome is quite a surreal and special piece.
In summary, you might describe this movie as a simple romance, with the usual jokes to lighten up the spirit. The guy loses the girl and meets another. And while at it, there are some juvenile guys, making some juvenile jokes. But the story is written so originally and unlike anything else, putting it like this would be far from doing it justice.
It's like a beautiful painting with great music and a philosophical story about life and love. To not lose all the teenagers in the first couple of minutes, there is some nudity and funny juvenile jokes -- actually, a lot of non-dirty nudity. But the story keeps its focus on the dreamlike story. It's pretty much just a gem not to miss out on.
Salomon lives a life of wealth making fake bills and billets. But when the Nazis take over Germany, he gets send to a concentration camp and is left with nothing but a striped suit. He understands that his only skill to survive is making counterfeit bills. And when he gets the chance to produce them for the Nazis, he’s taking this opportunity of coming out alive. But not everyone is planning on helping the Nazis to win this war. And Salomon himself is not very big on helping them either.
Didn't we see every possible World War II story yet? Well, I don't think so. There are a million war movies out there. But we have to remember it's just a setting. A setting in which unusual things happen. And that's why we watch movies, right? Not to see a bunch of people do ordinary things like making coffee. When we ourselves, could be making some delicious coffee. Yum!
But I'm drifting. Let's get back to this movie that's worth the coffee. If you prefer coffee over popcorn. I don't, but some might say they go well together. I don't either. The trick for me now, is to create a nice bridge between coffee and this movie. And as you might expect, it's quite difficult. I suggest we just hop to the next paragraph and forget about the last two, ok?
What drives this movie is the moral of helping the Nazis. Salomon isn't planning to give his live and takes every order the Nazis give him. But Adolf Burger does everything to sabotage the creation of the dollar. He lost his wife and children and is ready to give his own life. Slowly you see Salomon understand they have something powerful and they in fact could influence the war.
When watching this movie, you get the feeling this must be some of the best people in German cinema. A well written story, great actors and put on the screen so well, it just has to be the best they have to offer. A fascinating exploration about what one would do if they were put to the test. I'm not sure yet.
