Daniel & Ana (2009)

The high after Searching for Sugar Man didn’t last long because of Daniel & Ana, a disturbing movie that left a part of me dead.

Ana (Marimar Vega) and Daniel (Dario Yazbek Bernal) are siblings in a tight-knit family. They share an ease that shows the viewer they are good friends outside sharing DNA. Ana is in her early 20s planning her upcoming nuptials. The only snag she’s facing is that her husband-to-be Rafa (José María Torre) would love to relocate to Madrid for a job. Ana won’t leave Mexico nor her family.

Daniel is 16 and exploring his budding sexuality with girlfriend Mariana (Jéssica Castelán). They haven’t gone far but “doing it” is on the horizon. He takes every chance to drive the family car and is angling for his parents to get him his own automobile.

One day, Ana asks Daniel to accompany her on an errand. As they drive there, Daniel misses the turn. In circling the block to return to the street, two armed men jump into the back seat and instruct them to remain calm and follow directions.

(Spoiler Alert: Read at Your Own Risk!)

Daniel and Ana are addressed by name by the men and are forced into the trunk. They are taken to a house where they are made to strip and presented with a choice: either engage in sex with one another or be shot and killed. No explanation is given for how they were known to these men or why they were chosen. After great reluctance and mental anguish, the two are filmed as they have sex. Afterwards, they are dropped off. The two return home. They don’t tell their parents. They don’t discuss what happened. They isolate themselves in the emotional fallout of post-traumatic stress disorder.

Ana tells her fiancé she has doubts and ceases further wedding planning. She avoids Daniel. Daniel skips school, stops talking to his girlfriend and spends a lot of time in bed. As Ana tries to re-gain her life, Daniel spirals. His concerned parents keep removing privileges to get through to him but nothing impact him. He’s catatonic, cares about nothing and gets through his days like a zombie, until the day he loses it with an act of savage consequences.

Daniel & Ana brutalizes you. At the start, the viewer is told that this is a true story, that only the names have been changed. The movie doesn’t explain what the kidnappers/video makers had to gain by making the video, outside of black-market porn profits. Neither victim nor their parents are threatened with exposure. The movie takes a horrific what-if situation, exploits it, shocks the viewer but doesn’t provide any resolution. Reminiscent of a less-artful Michael Haneke film taking similar risks, Daniel & Ana proves less satisfying.

Writer/Director: Michel Franco

Country: Mexico

Genre: Drama

Run time: 88 minutes

Scale: 3

Dallas Buyers Club (2013)

It’s the 1980s. Bull-riding Southern boy Ron (Matthew McConaughey) drinks hard, snorts a lot of coke and engages in heaps o’ sex.

After being electrocuted, he lands in the hospital where he’s diagnosed with AIDS. He’s told that his T-cell count is 9 (a healthy range is 150-200) and will be dead in 30 days. Ron doesn’t like gays and the news is too much to bear. He leaves the hospital against doctor’s orders despite his persistent cough, his emaciated frame and dizzy spells.

He delves into research to learn all he can about AIDS, its causes and what drugs have success combating the virus. He learns about AZT but trials won’t start for another year. He treks to Mexico to get drugs. He shares the diagnosis with his best friend and soon, Ron’s friends turn on him, he gets evicted and he loses his job.

Ron’s resourceful and intelligent. He battles the FDA, bamboozles at border crossings, travels to other countries to get supplements and proteins. He starts a drug buyers club where he sells the meds that are helping people with the virus. Early on, Ron’s finesse needs work. With the help of Rayon (Jared Leto), a transvestite he meets in the hospital, they build a very successful business that helps scores of sick people despite the incessant obstacles.

This is a remarkable movie that delves into interesting history about a dark era. The facts are alarming and moving. The resilience of Ron and Rayon is inspiring as are their personal struggles. The movie tells its story without beating us with how we are supposed to feel or respond. We are given insight into information in ways that don’t distract from the main events, such as how Ron contracted AIDS.

The cast bursts with talent. Jennifer Garner as the doctor who supports Ron and Rayon’s mission. Bradford Cox (lead singer of Deerhunter) as Rayon’s boyfriend. A white-haired Griffin Dunne as a doctor exiled from practicing in the US. Steve Zahn has a bit role.

You’ve heard about McConaughey’s physical transformation for this one. He’s difficult to behold, he’s that thin. His acting is his best yet, but it’s Jared Leto that is the pulse of Dallas Buyers Club. He’s unrecognizable: his voice, his walk, his shaved eyebrows. He seizes the role of Rayon.

Dallas Buyers Club details the strength of a person who transforms from homophobe to tireless supporter of individuals whose dire needs were largely ignored by the slow-to-act medical establishment. The movie stays with you afterwards.

Director: Jean-Marc Vallée

Country: US

Genre: Drama

Run time: 117 minutes

Scale: 5

Die Welle (The Wave) (2012)

Die Welle opens inside a car careening around corners while the driver belts along to a cover of The Ramones’ Rock and Roll High School. Mr. Wenger (Jürgen Vogel) is at the wheel. He’s on his way to school where he’s teaching a segment on autocracy. Wenger is a dynamic teacher but he’s disappointed because he preferred to teach anarchy. Wenger begins a discussion on dictatorships. When Nazi Germany comes up, the students make a collective eye-roll. Being Germans, they are exhausted on discussing the topic because it would “never happen again.” Couldn’t it though? Wenger counters and thus it begins.

The class discusses the attributes required for a dictatorship: uniforms, a code of conduct, discipline. The students begin wearing white shirts, they exclude those who dissent. The usual traits that help students excel, such as smarts and the ability to verbalize a point are ignored. Following the code is most important. And, what starts happening? A logo and a hand gesture are created. New members can join at the invitation of current members. They name their movement, The Wave. They graffiti. They use body guards. They tattle on dissenters. Students are dropping other classes to attend this one. In one week, the students have gone from being ambivalent to cult-like reverence for Wenger, who is drinking his own Kool-Aid. Sounds familiar? This is Hitler and Third Reich fodder. The sense of belonging and conformity appeal to most, except a few who are squashed. All in less than one week in Wenger’s class.

Within this week, the majority of the class is aggressively crossing lines with an anything-for-the cause attitude. One student takes things to the extreme with a gun and, while seeming plausible, it comes off as forced.

The movie was inspired by true events that happened in the Palo Alto classroom of history teacher Ron Jones in the late 1960s. He said the experiment results scared him deeply because of how fast and easily the students fell into the conformity when just days earlier they guffawed as they argued that history couldn’t repeat itself.

Director: Dennis Gansel

Country: Germany

Genre: Drama that plays like a thriller

Run time: 107 minutes

Scale: 4

Compliance (2012)

Imagine you are the manager at a fast-food joint on a busy Friday night. You are short staffed. You are out of bacon and pickles. You are a happy-go-lucky type and your fiancé is about to propose. You tell yourself, you can weather this night. You huddle with your employees. You stress the importance of teamwork.

This is Sandra’s (Ann Dowd) scenario as the phone rings at ChickWich. A detective on the other end of the line tells Sandra he is on different line with her regional manager. Detective informs Sandra that her employee, Becky (Dreama Walker), has stolen money from a customer and that Sandra needs to question her. The questioning leads to searching Becky’s purse. The interrogation escalates and by night’s end, several people will push the boundaries of logic, rational thinking and harassment.

The beauty of Compliance is that you will criticize how far several characters go to following direction from a supposed authority figure over the phone. A few question but don’t push; they extricate themselves so as not to make waves. It will take the unexpected to say what you, the audience, will be declaring from the start: Stop.

Writer/director Craig Zobel was inspired by experiments conducted by sociologist Stanley Milgram in the 1960s at Yale University. Milgram documented the lengths people will go to follow directions from authority figures, even if they diverge from the individual’s person code of conduct. Milgram’s conclusions have inspired many movies. In Compliance, Zobel applies Milgram’s findings to a frenzied Friday night in the back room of a fast-food establishment and shows you how it can happen. You will say over and over, I wouldn’t do it but many people have done just that.

Writer/Director: Craig Zobel

Country: US

Genre: Drama

Run time: 90 minutes

Scale: 3

A Dangerous Method (2011)

A Dangerous Method analyses the friendship between Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender) and Sigmund Freud (Viggo Mortensen), the start of psychoanalysis and the disagreement that ended their friendship.

I didn’t like it. I nearly didn’t make it past the first scene. Jung is conducting his initial intake with extremely agitated Sabina Spielrein (Keira Knightley). She’s emotionally unstable but Knightley’s extreme facial contortions and sputtering are distracting and exaggerated. Her accent goes from Eastern European to American to Latina at random. Her cray cray is ferocious but not believable.

How would they introduce the “talking cure?” How did these two men engage upon their first meeting? How would they detail their collaboration? What caused their schism? I was excited to see it all.

Initially, we are teased into believing that there exists an intellectual connection binding Jung and his wife, Emma (Sarah Gadon). He’s not passionate about becoming a father. Soon, with Sabina’s help, he’s performing psychological tests on Emma that reveal she is ambivalent about their relationship and having a child. After that, she is just his child bearer, obsessed with giving him a son.

Jung starts connecting with the psychologically improving Sabina, who reveals she wants to be a doctor. We learn that as a result of the violence inflicted upon her by her father, she is a masochist.

There’s a lot very wrong here. The acting is lacking. The characters are unlikeable. The relationship between Freud and Jung is tepid. The usually fiery Mortensen is half a step above catatonic. His accent is English and not Austrian. We get few insights into Freud. His scenes with Fassbender aren’t dynamic. Fassbender turns around the best acting but still cannot help this movie. The writing is terrible. Take for instance, this whopper delivered by Sabina:

“I felt it against my back. Something…slimy like a, like a…like some kind of a mollusk moving against my back.”

There’s too much going on here. Jung’s attraction to Sabina, Sabina’s attraction to him, Jung trying to keep their affair from Freud and Emma, Freud interpreting dreams, Jung’s wife trying to keep him, yet the missing link is audience interest.

Director: David Cronenberg

Country: UK

Genre: Drama

Run time: 99 very long minutes

Scale: 2

Allt flyter (The Swimsuit Issue) (2008)

Allt flyter tackled the dramatic rendition of the documentary Men Who Swim about Sweden’s all-men synchronized swimming team. They start the team of nine on a lark and soon possess the goal of representing Sweden in the Olympics.

Crank Fredrik (Jonas Inde) gets the idea to start the team. He’s a sporty guy but not one whom you want to spend much time. His teenage daughter, Sara (Amanda Davin) has a difficult time with him. Their relationship is transformed when he asks her for help training the team; she becomes their coach.

Watching them on their journey builds suspense and empathy. They are passionate about succeeding; even ribbing doesn’t deter them. Fredrik and Sara bond and you get a curve-ball at the end. Allt flyter takes it’s time telling its tale. You don’t get  get to know much about the teammates outside of the swimming and their shared goal.

Co-writer/Director: Måns Herngren

Country: Sweden

Genre: Dramedy

Run time: 99 minutes

Scale: 3

I Love You Phillip Morris (2009)

Jim Carrey opposite Ewan McGregor, as love interests? Indeed and it works very very well.

Steven Russell (Jim Carrey) is a good man. He sings at church. He’s around for his family. He’s a cop and his wife Debbie (Leslie Mann) couldn’t be happier with her luck in landing him. After a near-fatal car accident, Steven decides to stop wasting time and embraces his true lifestyle. It’s working for him until his extravagance catches up with him and he ends up in prison, but this doesn’t stop him. He’s is an intelligent con man able to escape from prison (four times), talk his way out of and into anything BUT he’s also a hopeless romantic who risks it all for love: first for Jimmy (Rodrigo Santoro) and then for Phillip Morris (Ewan McGregor).

This is a peculiar movie with switchbacks you don’t see approaching. It’s complex, heartfelt, humorous and savvy—like a gay Catch Me If You Can. An incredible story with an ironic twist. Carrey is stellar. McG is among my favorites but Carrey carries ILYPM. Before viewing the trailer, I thought ILYPM was related to the cigarette maker. It’s actually based on a book about Steven Russell called “I Love You Phillip Morris: A True Story of Life, Love, and Prison Breaks,” by Steve McVicker.

Co-writers/Co-directors: Glenn Ficarra, John Requa

Country: USA

Genre: Dramedy

Run time: 102 minutes

Scale: 4

Das weiße Band (The White Ribbon) (2009)

The black-and-white aesthetic of The White Ribbon adds an air of mystery and distance in this recounting of sinister events in a German village in the years before World War I.

The disturbing tale kicks off when a metal wire is rigged between two poles. The village doctor takes a life-threatening fall when his horse runs into said wire. The investigation grows cold—no witnesses, motives nor evidence. The next several incidents lead to the conclusion that someone is performing ritual punishments. Are the village children the perpetrators? The narrator has his own side story that allows for a bit of humor—a rare trait in a Michael Haneke film. It works juxtaposed against the intense main storyline. 

The White Ribbon has Haneke’s trademark theme—that we are all sadists. In fact, the events depicted are based on alleged incidents recorded in Germany and Austria in the 1920s and 1940s. The foreshadowing is clear—the German Reich lies ahead and many of these kids will end up in the Nazi movement. Is it coincidence that the white ribbon the Pastor makes his children wear when they are in need of moral cleansing is reminiscent of the bands the Jews were forced to wear during the Hitler regime?

The White Ribbon is engaging. Yet another Haneke ending without clarity is frustrating, especially after more than two hours.

Open letter to Michael Haneke:

Dear Mr. Haneke,

You are a master storyteller. I watch your movies with rapt interest. Despite their length, I don’t find myself clock watching which is different from how I behave at baseball games; they go too long and should end after the 7th inning. But, I digress.

My point is that unresolved endings mimic real life, but art offers us a break from that reality. Occasionally, I’d be delighted to see a decisive conclusion. That said, The Piano Teacher is a favorite with a reasonable ending. I refer instead to Caché, Funny Games and The White Ribbon. Your open-ended formula needs an overhaul. I don’t know if these children were culpable nor do I know if The School Teacher married Klara.

Despite my nitpicks, this movie was nominated for and won several prestigious awards. Check it out and see what you opine.

Writer/Director: Michael Haneke

Country: Austria

Genre: Drama

Run time: 144 minutes

Scale: 4

Entre nos (Between Us) (2009)

Entre nos is a character development film about immigration gone wrong. Based on a true story about a mother and her two children newly landed (presumably illegally) in New York from Colombia. They have reunited with husband and father Antonio (Andres Munar).

Mariana (Paola Mendoza) is devastated when Antonio abandons her and their children—10-year-old Gabriel (Sebastian Villada) and six-year-old Andrea (Laura Montana). Their lives downward spiral. They lose their apartment and must scavenge for food and money.

This uncomplicated story is poignant and positive. Despite not speaking English and despite the loss of stability, Mariana and her children navigate their impossible situation. They survive each crossroad with the help of several strangers. The movie postscript provides details on what happened to the real-live characters. (You don’t, however, learn what happened to Antonio and whether or not any of them ever saw him again.)

I loved the Colombian angle: the familiar accent, the Spanish lexicon and the food. In the bonus materials on the DVD, the directors detail the step-by-step instructions for on making empanadas. Yum-yum.

Co-writers/Co-directors: Gloria La Morte and Paola Mendoza

Country: USA

Genre: Drama

Run time: 80 minutes

Scale: 3.5

Savage Grace (2007)

Savage Grace is an uneven and slow slog. I’d go as far as calling it boring. It shocks you over and over but in between, the unsympathetic characters provoke anything but distaste, revulsion and confirmation that people with too much money are miserable wagons.

This disturbing mess tells the alleged true story of Barbara Daly Baekeland (Julianne Moore) and Brooks Baekeland (Stephen Dillane); the latter the heir to the Bakelite plastics fortune. They have a son, Antony (Eddie Redmayne), who is doted on by his mother and ignored by his father. The family travel the world mingling with persons of high social caliber. Brooks is irritated while Barbara is in her element pushing Tony’s accomplishments onto the annoyed guests.

(Spoiler Alert: Read at Your Own Risk!)

Tony’s interest is mildly peaked when he meets hot Spaniard Blanca (Elena Anaya) but that doesn’t stop him from sexing it up with his male buddy (see picture). Barbara pushes Tony and Blanca to sleep together, but soon Brooks runs away with Blanca leaving wife and son behind never to look back. Tony is crushed by his dad’s abandonment and his “inheriting” his mother, her depression and her suicidal tendencies.

Many lurid events follow: Barbara takes up with a gay man. They  engage in a ménage à trois with Tony. Tony is numb as his mother’s keeper, confidante and sometimes lover. I wasn’t expecting the final scene where Barbara mounts her son, has sex with him and asks him if he came. When he says no, she gives him a hand job. Once done, they get up and contemplate what to order for dinner. Tony stabs and kills her. After nearly eight years in a psychiatric hospital, Tony is released and moves in with his maternal grandmother. Within a week, he stabs her. She survives but Tony goes to Rikers Island where within the year he’s dead by suffocation with a plastic bag (it was uncertain if it was a suicide or murder).

A fucking mess.

Director: Tom Kalin

Country: USA

Genre: Drama

Run time: 97 minutes

Scale: 2

To verdener (Worlds Apart) (2008)

Worlds Apart is a based on a true story about a devout 17-year-old Jehovah’s Witness and the choice that will define her future.

Sara (Rosalind Spanning) and her family are zealous in their faith. When her parents separate, they ask Sara and her young siblings, Elisabeth (Sarah Juel Werner) and August (Jacob Ottensten), to decide which parent will leave the family home. Around the same time, Sara meets older Teis (Pilou Asbæk). While they clash over her religious beliefs, they spar intelligently. His counterpoints ring some truth within her. They start dating. When her father and the church elders get wind of it, they urge Sara to get rid of him; Teis asks her to rethink it. Her older brother Jonas (Thomas Knuth-Winterfeldt) has already been shunned and it has destroyed him; Sara wants to avoid that fate. She hatches a plan to appease everyone, but it won’t be easy.

Worlds Apart is about painful decisions. Because it takes its time unfolding, you behold Sara’s sorrow and suffering. Her agony is palpable. In the end, everyone loses here. Worlds Apart injects you into this fractured family, torn apart by the very thing around which they’ve centered themselves. The Danish make beautifully deep movies and this is no exception.

Co-writer/Director: Niels Arden Oplev

Country: Denmark

Genre: Drama

Run time: 115 minutes

Scale: 4.5

Who the (Bleep!) Did I Marry?

A robbery in pursuit. Fast, loud and frenzied. A masked man fleeing sirens, lights, the sound of running. Cut to a full body image. He’s outrun them. He slows down. He pulls off his mask, composing himself. Acclimating to his new environs. He carries the duffle as if on his way to abscond with something. The music. The mood. The song. It plays like a 30-second short.

Who the (Bleep Did I Marry)?

If you like the song, check out the extremely watchable video by Swedish rockers PB&J. If you like it, explore the band’s site.

“Young Folks” by PB&J

I watched three episodes; none as compelling as the first one featuring Judith Mawson, Gary Ridgeway’s third wife. The show uses a tongue-in-cheek-peppered-with-schadenfreude storytelling style. Watch the first three minutes and tell me you don’t want to watch the rest:

Judith meets Gary…How It Began

Beginners (2010)

As of late, I am winning too, Charlie Sheen. On a winning spree of movies, that is.

Beginners is a love story—part rom-com, part dram-com. Introspective Oliver (Ewan McGregor) falls in love with Anna (Mélanie Laurent) in the months following his father Hal’s (Christopher Plummer) death. Oliver absorbs himself in the memories of his father coming out after 45 years of marriage to Oliver’s wacky mother, Georgia (Mary Page Keller).

Shortly thereafter, Hal reveals another doozy as Oliver continues examining his own life and why all of his previous relationships have failed.

The movie has a winning personality—uncommonly witty yet humble. Extremely well cast. One reviewer stated that McGregor gets better with age; I couldn’t agree more. I’ve admired him since Shallow Grave and Trainspotting but haven’t felt bowled over by him again until now. He plays Oliver with genuine compassion and warmth as he supports Hal, even getting a kick out of his discoveries in his new lifestyle, such as house music and falling in love. There are no recriminations or angry declarations—this isn’t that kind of movie. Rounding out the stellar cast is Arthur (Cosmo), Hal’s charming long-haired Jack Russell terrier. Arthur holds his own opposite the speaking characters. He even gets subtitles. It’s brilliant.

Beginners is a semi-autobiographical, based on writer/director Mike Mills' experience with his own father coming out. Mills uses old photographs and random images to help visualize parts of the story. He also presents LA scenes. Instead of the usual frenzied and sprawling, you get a peek at the tranquil spots in its neighborhood landscapes.

This one is a gem that shouldn’t be missed.

Director: Mike Mills

Country: USA

Genre: Drama

Run time: 105 minutes

Scale: 4.5

The King’s Speech (2010)

The King’s Speech blasted into theaters amid so much praise that it begged the question—is it deserved?

The King’s Speech tells the story of King George VI (Colin Firth) of Britain’s sudden rise to the throne and his relationship with a speech therapist who helps him with his stammering. George has consulted every renowned specialist and their cornucopia of treatments to no avail. One day, Queen Elizabeth (Helena Bonham Carter) makes her way to the consultation office of Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush). Despite the shabby and sparsely decorated office, the confident Logue makes an impression and soon the Queen is there with the King.

The acting is impressive and the character development is rich and nuanced. Firth is believable as a stammerer. Rush is delightful as his speech therapist; I relished each moment of his screen time. So much so that when Christian Bale won the Golden Globe and Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, I was offended. (Then, I saw The Fighter and understood why it had to go to Bale—not that Rush wasn’t still da bomb, but if you saw The Fighter and Bale’s performance, you know).

Beyond the talent, the story is magnetic and has comedic moments. You have a man who’s stammered since he was a boy. His powerful father who tries to bully him out of stammering. His brother, the ascendant to the throne who wants no part of it. The hesitant man taking over the throne when a war is brewing. The wife who supports her husband through his suffering and believes the stammer can be cured. While supportive, she also challenges him. It’s refreshing to see a strong female royal, wherein you they’re typically depicted as ceding to their more powerful husband or boyfriend.

It must be stated that the the trust that develops between King George and Logue is bromantic napalm. When it ended, I wanted to see it again. The plot moves toward its climatic ending and, when you get there, you know there’s no other way it can end.

Director: Tom Hooper

Country: USA/UK

Genre: Drama

Run time: 118 minutes

Scale: 4.5

127 Hours (2010)

What makes 127 Hours a grand experience? Danny Boyle, James Franco, an incredible true story, tremendous music. You voyage through survival in the remote Blue John Canyon, Utah.

Aron Ralston (Franco)—arrogant outdoorsman and happy-go-lucky hiker—heads out for a solo weekend hike in the expansive Utah canyons. He has informed no one about his plans. He camps, hikes, frolics with other hikers.

As he’s making his way through a narrow canyon, a boulder tumbles and lands on his hand, trapping Ralston. He’s now trapped, alone with a limited supply of water, no cell reception and not a soul in the vicinity. You, the viewer, is with him during the next 127 Hours he spends flipping through memories—recent, older and regrettable—and figuring out how to stay alive and extricate himself. The beauty is in the details: the raven flying overhead daily at same time. The regular 15 minutes of sunshine on his foot. The dream sequences. The ants that regularly crawl over him. The video within the movie.

For a movie with one character carrying it, it’s remarkable and compelling. Nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role (2011 Academy Awards), Franco doesn’t disappoint.

Director: Danny Boyle

Country: USA/UK

Genre: Drama

Run time: 94 minutes

Scale: 4

The Baader Meinhof Complex (2008)

I expected more from this Academy- and Golden-Globe-Awards-nominated movie. Not even Moritz Bleibtreu (Run Lola Run, Das Experiment) could save it.

The Baader Meinhof Complex tells the story of the Red Army Faction (RAF), a terrorist group who in the 1960s and ‘70s wreaked havoc in Germany in response to the country’s anti-Palestinian stance and pro-Israeli backing and the support of America in the Vietnam War. Post-WWII-German youth were determined to end what they saw as the new evolution of Fascism. They used force and violence and, ultimately, became that which they opposed. The RAF was able to gain support and strength across continents.

The problems I had began with Ulrike Meinhof (Martina Gedeck), left-wing journalist, mother and spouse. As an anti-establishment writer, she meets politically radical couple Andreas Baader (Bleibtreu) and Gundrun Ensslin (Johanna Wokalek) and soon, the three form the RAF.

I never felt Meinhof’s passion. One day she declares she could “never leave her children,” then, she’s on the run with the group. Her transition isn’t visible; instead you are fed what you are to believe. Next, you have the frequent additions/changes in faction members. Many resemble one another and it’s confusing keeping square who’s who. And, few of them reflect on the situation and what they want to see idealogically. They rob banks and bomb buildings. Explosions escalate into shootings, kidnappings and assassinations. Once they are incarcerated, they hunger strike, crumble in solitary confinement and, as their demands are met, you begin seeing what they are like as individuals, while the group on the outside start losing the fight. The trial is a circus (and drags out the plot). In the end, the RAF crumbles under in-fighting and a weakening core. The topic is thought-provoking, but the movie is a drawn out disappointment.

Director: Uli Edel

Country: Germany

Genre: Drama

Run time: 150 minutes

Scale: 2

The Girl Who Played with Fire (Flickan som lekte med elden) (2009)

After seeing the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and then, reading the book, I felt like I’d seen two versions of the same movie. The book  filled in many details and rounded out the first movie. Details from the first book spill into the second movie and these details filled in many gaps. I don’t think the book is written particularly well (though it’s hard to tell whether it’s a subpar translation or poor writing) but the story grabs you with it’s fast pace and suspense. I’m certain I will read all three books.

This installation is Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace) story (as compared to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which was clearly Mikael Blomkvist’s (Michael Nyqvist) story. We got background information about her childhood, her mother and father and what led to her guardianship. She has a temper and you wouldn’t want to see her when she’s angry.

Her hair is still fantastic, just longer now. She’s distanced herself from Blomkvist. He has continued trying to reach her but she’s ignored him, until she’s accused of MURDER and needs his help this time. This is where we get started. The movie moves at a quick clip and she is still an ass-kicker, but she meets a match that might bring her down. I won’t even do a spoiler alert here because I don’t want you to know what happens (except that it has a cliffhanger ending). To say that I cannot wait for the 3rd and final installation of this one is an understatement.

Director: Daniel Alfredson

Country: Sweden

Genre: Thriller

Run time: 129 minutes

Scale: 4