Please Vote For Me (2007)

A third grade class needs a new Class Monitor, so they hold an election. Three young candidates tout their strengths while trying to disparage the opposition, using debates, speeches, and personal talents to distinguish themselves and win votes. But here’s the rub: the class is in Communist China, and prior to the election, none of the kids have any conception of democracy whatsoever.

What follows is a striking illustration of the democratic process completely removed from the American social context. The teacher remains as hands-off as possible, leaving the children (and their parents) to pilot the election almost on their own. They dabble in all sorts of manipulation and negative campaigning, and it all works, seeing as they’re, you know, kids.

Please Vote For Me is a short (57 min), single-minded documentary that does what it sets out to do. It ends shortly after the election results come out, refraining from any heavy-handed commentary; the social insight is completely contained in the election itself. But watching the film, I was also struck by China/US cultural divide. Parenting, the school system, and numerous other mundane details were incredibly different. Watch this film for an interesting tour of democracy and a look at another culture. Though there’s not much else at work, it’s great in that limited regard, and certainly worth an hour.

The Damned United (2009)

The Damned United follows the dramatic career of the effervescent, charming, and downright infuriating English soccer coach Brian Clough through his tenure at Derby F.C. and then powerhouse soccer club Leeds United (or the titular damned). Well, actually, the film fashions the dramatic career of Clough. The film is actually an adaptation of a dramatization, if that gives a hint. Let me first say that I’m all for artistic license. It’s up there with liquor, drivers’, and guns’ as far as licenses go. But if you’re looking for any vestige of truth within the film, stop reading. If not, let’s proceed.

It came as no surprise to me that the same director behind The King’s Speech, Tom Hooper, was responsible for The Damned United. At their core, they’re both films contingent on the powerful performances of their ensemble. And neither, in any way, disappoints. Michael Sheen of 30 Rock and Frost/Nixon fame plays Clough to complete, ideal perfection. He bounces from one scene to another with persistent charm like any ball on a pass-happy club, strategically constructing a subtly exuberant persona that demands one’s attention whether they like it or not. Timothy Spall (Peter Pettigrew from the Harry Potter series and Churchill in The King’s Speech) plays the counterpoint to Clough’s madness as his calculating but lovable assistant. The combination of the two drives the film at a quick pace as it jumps from the present, to the past, back to the present, and back again in its construction of the tempestuous history of not only Clough, but English soccer as a whole. Hooper’s expert direction and attention to character reinforces his proclivity towards personality, an illuminative precursor to the highly recommended King’s Speech. So if you enjoy soccer (or football, as the colonizers call it) or a magnificent character study, The Damned United not only satiates, but fascinates.

Dogtooth (2009)

While some would argue that home-schooled kids don't get the same education as the rest, no one can deny that the home educated teens in Dogtooth receives an unparalleled education. The family, whose names are never said, lives remotely on a property resembling an oasis in a desert. The mother instructs the children, known only as the eldest daughter, younger daughter and the son, while the father is away at his job which appears to be managing a factory. He's the only person allowed to leave their house for reasons explained later in the film.

The father and mother create a structured life for their children. Nearly every second of their day is spent with each other learning strange skills and incorrect definitions for vocabulary words. As they're not allowed to leave the compound, they develop strong family ties (which progress into the uncomfortable). Their fragile worldview is in jeopardy when Christina, the security guard at the father's work who is paid to perform an odd task, tests the barriers between herself and the daughters.



Dogtooth is a messed up film. It has majorly dark overtones but a well-crafted script, and it's shot beautifully. Keep in mind that there is quite a bit of nudity, and the context might add to the uncomfortability. Beautifully dark film. Recommended.

Oscars 2011 Best Foreign Film Nominee

Yojimbo (1961)

Samurai-flick meets spaghetti-western in this exciting comedy from (the brilliant) Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa. Sanjuro Kuwabatake (Toshiro Mifune) is one of the most bad ass and fearless ronins (masterless samurai) in all of old Japan. The only trouble is he's totally broke. So when he discovers a small town completely overrun by murderous outlaws, torn by gang civil war, and tainted by gambling and prostitution, Sanjuro decides he might be able to make an easy buck by trying to bring an end to all the vice. Mostly by way of killing off all the criminals in town, the majority of which are complete idiots.


This movie is gonna blow your mind. In just the comical use of violence alone, Yojimbo is decades ahead of its time. I kept feeling like I recognized shots from a Tarantino film or jokes from a Coen brothers movie. The soundtrack adds a theatrical and somewhat goofy attitude to the film's style, making even the most disturbing images seem harmlessly humorous. The aesthetic is flawless; a perfectly balanced composition of black and white (just check out the screen shots) with thoughtful and graceful camera movement that keeps you in the action constantly. Without a doubt one of my favorite films of all time, made by my favorite filmmaker. Definitely a must-see.

North Face (2008)

Given that we've reviewed a movie about Nazis in the snow and a movie about mountain climbing, I figured it only right to review a movie about Nazis in the snow climbing a mountain.

The 2008 German film North Face recounts the 1936 attempt to summit the Eiger via its north face, one of the deadliest routes in the world having accounted for 64 deaths since 1935. The narrative arc follows a pair of German climbers disillusioned with the political climate surrounding Nazism and more intent on honing their mountaineering skills as they compete against a pair of Austrians with similar aspirations for conquering the indomitable Swiss peak. All the while, a reporter from Berlin (Ulrich Tukur, notable for his role as Grubitz in the highly recommended The Lives of Others) propagandizes their climb as exemplary of German athletic prowess. A young photographer accompanies the reporter, and acts as a love interest throughout the film for one of the climbers. Once the climbers’ ascent begins they face a series of challenges and setbacks, dooming them to face the harsh weather and unforgiving landscape of the Eiger.

Nazi Bromance.

For a film about a mountain, North Face is unfortunately flat. Nearly every element feels contrived, injected into the plot line as an arbitrary means of heightening the drama and inevitably distracting from the excitement of the historical reality. The direction was thrilling and visceral, enveloping the viewer in the Eiger’s erratic weather and terrifying beauty, while the script faltered along, barely able to conjure any empathy for the characters. The romance between climber Toni and photographer Luise remained unsubstantiated and thoroughly uninteresting from beginning to end. The soundtrack kept making me think I was watching a Michael Bay film. Tukur stands out as the only memorable performance. I would recommend North Face purely for the sake of its adventure, though it never quite achieves what appeared to be a potential for greatness.

A Prophet (Un prophete) - 2009

A French film, A Prophet follows Malik, an Frenchman of Arabic decent. At 19, Malik is sentenced to six years in a prison divided between Arabs and Corsicans. Through a twist of fate, Malik becomes involved with the powerful Corsicans, and through the film rises through their ranks, before eventually taking control of his own fate.

A Prophet is a gritty prison film, but at it's heart it is also a coming of age movie. Malik enters the prison and the film as a nervous, naive boy; as the years pass prison transforms him into a hardened criminal and survivor, loyal only to himself. It is his personal development, rather than his upward advancement through the French underworld, that is the driving force of the movie. Tahar Rahim is convincing as Malik, but Niels Arestrup is outstanding as the frightening, then deteriorating Corsican leader Cesar Luciani. Shaky-cam, so often obnoxious, is used subtlety enough to create a personal, visceral feeling. A Prophet is a long movie, and at times loses momentum in the middle, but it picks up speed again towards the end. The movie, alongside Malik, creeps up on you slowly. It's well worth the watch.

M (1931)

Fritz Lang directs this beautiful and haunting German film set in antebellum Berlin, a city that gradually degenerates as a child serial killer (the always unsettling Peter Lorre) terrorizes the metropolis. Gradually, the citizens turn on one another out of fear and suspicion and the isolated acts of one man triggers universal implications. M is Lang’s first foray into sound and he utilizes it expertly through its inclusion and exclusion. Sparse cinematography combined with a driven and pervasive paranoid chase for the killer Hans Beckert, Lang challenges the absurdly perverse human reactions to absence and fear.

In the hysteric manhunt, the children, the only victims of the killer, were essentially forgotten and treated as mere devices for further attempts to fulfill the loss of every respective actor caught up in the killings. The populace forgot the loss in their attempt to attain the murderer in an tumultuous and fitting conclusion to M’s reflection on the frenzied human response to absence. Lang draws the personal and collective psyche into proximity, and thus alludes to the disturbing reality that they are never far apart. The individual reaction to loss never strays far from the collective need to occupy and fill a permanent inescapable emptiness.

Dead Snow (2009)

This Norwegian Zombie Comedy easily outshines its English and American counterparts, Shaun of the Dead (2004) and Zombieland (2009). From the moment a rugged stranger recounts the Nazi occupation of the sleepy mountain town in Norway to a group of young medical school students on Easter vacation, the ludicrous storyline only grows more outrageous as the feet of intestine stretch and gallons of blood fly. As the Nazis pursue their vengeful blood-lust, the surviving group member genuinely grow in character and weapon wielding ability. You will laugh uncontrollably as chainsaws, axes, and snowmobile turrets mow down lines of zombies as the awesome soundtrack crescendos at a rapid staccato. By the final golden moments of the film you will be completely satisfied with the chaos that ensued.

Big Man Japan (2007)

Big Man Japan is easily the strangest mocumentary you're likely to find. The movie follows Masaru, a rather lonely and pathetic man who has a thing for umbrellas, played by Hitoshi Matsumoto who made his directoral debut with this film. As boring as that may sound, and despite a very slow start, this movie will have you on the floor laughing for reasons you can't explain and probably wouldn't want to if you could. The main character is a refreshing change from the typical leading man of action flicks and the monsters are so bizarre that after watching it you may seriously reconsider any positive attitude regarding stem cell research because these distorted forms of gigantic humanoids are disturbing and uproariously funny. Like any good action romp the fight scenes are violent and humorous although dry and a somewhat sparse. The last scene of the movie made me laugh so hard I had a difficult time containing my bodily fluids. I loved watching it and haven't been able to get it out of my head for a few days now. If you're looking for a an East Asian comedy, a super hero movie, or just strange twist on your day look no further, Big Man Japan is everything you need and so much more than you thought you would want.

La Femme Nikita (1990)

One of my favorite films of all time, Nikita is a sexy French action-thriller about an intolerable and violent junkie turned deadly secret government assassin. After Nikita survives a gun fight in a pharmacy she and her friends were robbing, she is put on death row for killing a police officer. No one is sympathetic towards her, especially because while in prison she goes completely psycho, biting people's ears off and so on. But the French government, and one handsome secret agent in particular, thinks Nikita can be trained to be their very own Black Ops beauty.

There's a lot of things about this movie that make it stand out. The most obvious I think are its feminist themes: what happens when men try to reinvent the women they love, can a young and beautiful woman realistically be able to handle a life of secrecy and murder, does Anne Parillaud look so fine holding that gun (absolutely). The soundtrack really dates the movie, lots 80's synth, but it works, and in fact after seeing this movie a few times, I really love the music. Some cleverly suspenseful battle scenes, and probably one of the best endings to an action movie ever.

The Good, The Bad, and The Weird (2008)

Exciting, campy, South Korean western/comedy. The plot is...meh. It's basically the same plot as It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World, except with murderous Korean thugs instead of American suburbanites, and the million dollars is map leading to buried treasure (boooooring). Storyline aside though, this movie is a wild ride with explosively original action scenes and a killer soundtrack. I was also really glad to see Kang-ho Song starring in this picture as "The Weird", by far my favorite South Korean actor, who you can also watch in Thirst and The Host on Watch Instantly. Song is always a delight to watch, and after watching Thirst just the other day he was almost unrecognizable in this film, his character is so radically different. Anyways, this movie is pretty absurd, but if you're just looking for a kick ass, bloody, Asian western with a hint of crass humor, don't even think twice about firing this film up. It's everything you need.

Let The Right One In (2008)

This Swedish made vampire flick was awesome. A little boy living in a snowy Stockholm suburb befriends a young girl who helps him confront his bullies at school. Oh, and she's a vampire, who happens to be responsible for a string of violent murders in town. Though its without a doubt a horror film, this movie isn't really very scary so much as it is creepy: it's bloody but not too bloody, it moves slowly without jump scenes, and, well come on, the vampire is just a lonely little girl. Aesthetically the movie is breathtaking; a certain swimming pool scene at the very end in particular. Touching and terrifying, I highly recommend it if you want a movie that will tug at your heart strings and still leave you saying "What the fuck...?"