Midnight Son (2011)

Directed by: Scott Leberecht
Country: USA

Plot: The story of a young man confined to a life of isolation, due to a very rare skin disorder. His world changes when he meets a local bartender and falls in love.
Quick comment: Believe it or not, there still are interesting vampire movies being made. This low-budget film is one of them. Being more realistic than the usual stuff and containing a very chilling ambiance, it pleased me with its contemplative and underground approach. A breath of fresh air is always welcome in a too much standardized theme. Also a scary love story, this is a completely different bite!
Relevant awards: -

Juan Of The Dead (2011)

Directed by: Alejandro Brugués
Country: Cuba

Plot: 50 years after the Cuban Revolution, a new Revolution is about to begin.
Quick comment: A business opportunity arrives for Juan and his crew, after a strange epidemic starts to invade Cuba. It was funny how the movie played with Cuban politics and zombies. The gags and dialogs worked fine. As for the rest, it doesn’t succeed so much. The imagery is similar to other horror movies, trying to impress through its violence and savagery. Clumsy and gradually tiresome, this is a movie of jokes, pretending to be more than that.
Relevant awards: Audience award (Miami); Silver Raven for its sense of humor and lead actor performance (Brussels).

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2011)

Directed by: John Madden
Country: UK

Plot: British retirees travel to India to take up residence in what they believe is a newly restored hotel. Less luxurious than its advertisements, the Marigold Hotel nevertheless slowly begins to charm in unexpected ways.
Quick comment: Everything is taken lightly in "Hotel Marigold". Since the first minutes, we were told  that no matter what happens, in the end everything is going to be all right. Deliberately optimistic in its ideas, this can be a gentle comedy or a kind of soap opera. Everything happens so fast and all people’s problems were solved so quickly here, that if you have any problem in your life, this hotel is the place to go.
Relevant awards: -

Goodbye First Love (2011)

Directed by: Mia Hansen-Love
Country: France

Plot: A chronicle of the romance between Camille and Sullivan, which begins during their adolescence.
Quick comment: This movie is about the difficulty of a young girl to let go her first boyfriend. It took several years of her life.  In some occasions it brought to my head Eric Rohmer’s tales, without the intense dialogs that distinguished them. A very natural acting was fundamental to induce the typical French realism and honesty. But I also sensed that the story, in its slow pace, could have had some more spirit in considerable moments. It is not exceptional nor fundamental, but deserves a good look.
Relevant awards: Special mention (Locarno).

Suicide Room (2011)

Directed by: Jan Komasa
Country: Poland

Plot: Dominik stops going to school and withdraws, drifting into a virtual world where there are no hateful classmates.
Quick comment: Dominik is a lonesome troubled young adult. A couple of incidents at high school and the lack of attention from his dysfunctional family, lead him to join a site on the Internet entitled “Suicide Room”, in order to get help. Unfortunately, this call for help became just a game for the other members. A dark polish tale that leaves its mark, unveiling how harmful this kind of virtual refuges can be. Be aware of the depressing atmosphere.
Relevant awards: Best film (Geneva, Molodist, Polish and Stockholm Film Fests)

The Source (2011)

Directed by: Radu Mihaileanu
Country: France

Plot: A comedy/drama set in a village and centered on a battle of the sexes, where women threaten to withhold sexual favors if their men refuse to fetch water from a remote well.
Quick comment: The awesome landscapes from a small Arabian village in addition with the valuable message that conveys, doesn’t make this a movie to remember. The courage showed is to praise but it opted for a speech that works as a cheap pedagogy about the women’s rights, which in certain moments become annoying. The images should have been enough to "talk" by themselves. Moreover, some scenes tend to be cheesy. Not so consistent but with respectable intentions.
Relevant awards: -

In Darkness (2011)

Directed by: Agnieszka Holland
Country: Poland

Plot: A dramatization of one man's rescue of Jewish refugees in the Nazi-occupied Polish city of Lvov.
Quick comment: Based upon a true story, polish director Agnieszka Holland returns to the World War II disclosures, after “Europa Europa” has achieved wide notoriety when it was released in 1990. Perhaps the movie could have been shortened out of its 145 min., but that fact didn't remove its inspiration. Besides the sharp cinematography, I was touched with one of the most joyful finales seen in a war movie.
Relevant awards: Audience award (St. Louis)

Sleepless Night (2011)

Directed by: Frédéric Jardin
Country: France

Plot: A cop with a connection to the criminal underworld finds his son's life in jeopardy.
Quick comment: In resume, what we have here is: cops against cops, cops against bandits and bandits against bandits. “Sleepless Night” has convincing physical fight scenes but suffers from the same debilities as the majority of this type of action movies – The back-and-forth of the storyline just delays what we already know it will happen. Without big surprises, it still entertains and guarantees a satisfactory dose of adrenaline.
Relevant awards: -

This Is Not A Film (2011)

Directed by: Jafar Panahi
Country: Iran

Plot: This clandestine documentary, smuggled into France in a cake, depicts the day-to-day life of acclaimed director Jafar Panahi during his house arrest.
Quick comment: Panahi is a terrific Iranian director who is being victim of an enormous injustice perpetrated by the government of his country. His scripts were censored and he was condemned to 6 years of prison. Also, for the next 20 years he is not allowed to film or even leave the country. This is a pacific protest, a scream of anger and frustration against this humiliating repression. In the limited space of his home, Panahi just did one more time what he knows best - good and interesting cinema!
Relevant awards: -

Keyhole (2011)

Director: Guy Maddin
Country: Canada

Plot: Gangster and deadbeat dad, Ulysses Pick, embarks on an unusual journey through his home.
Quick comment: A surrealistic journey through the lost memories of a gangster (turned into a ghost), who is desperately looking for his wife in their forsaken mansion. As usual, Maddin adopts an atmospheric dream-like ambiance, blurry and bizarre imagery in black-and-white and adds some supernatural content to it. No need to tell that I was constantly struggling to grasp what was going on. The searching is endless and the conclusions are few, but the movie sticks into your head for some time. A challenge!
Relevant awards: -

Snow On Tha Bluff (2011)

Directed by: Damon Russell
Country: USA

Plot: The story of Curtis Snow, a thug who made a documentary about his life.
Quick comment: It was a challenge for me to understand the slang throughout this pretty original documentary about Curtis Snow – a gangster and drug dealer from “The Bluff”, Atlanta – who stole a camera from some college kids as well as the idea of filming everything, and began frantically recording his criminal life in the ghetto. We may doubt about its authenticity but all seemed very real and shocking. I wonder what will become of the children dwelling in that neighborhood... the answer to this question is provided by Curtis Snow during the movie.
Relevant awards: -

Twixt (2011)

Directed by: Francis Ford Copolla
Country: USA

Plot: A writer with a declining career arrives in a small town as part of his book tour and gets caught up in a murder mystery involving a young girl.
Quick comment: Nothing went right in the latest film from master Copolla. The script was too weak and the performances were not brilliant. What was supposed to be a thriller, turned out to be a boring and clouded story, leading me to the tiredness of trying to find anything that made sense. Even the apparition of Edgar Allen Poe was ridiculous and meaningless. This is a thorn in the career of an iconic director.
Relevant awards: -

Jeff, Who Lives At Home (2011)

Directed by: Jay and Mark Duplass
Country: USA

Plot: Dispatched from his basement room on an errand for his mother, slacker Jeff might discover his destiny (finally) when he spends the day with his brother as he tracks his possibly adulterous wife.
Quick comments: This comedy about “signs” didn’t convince me at all. It is sustained on the theory that nothing happens by chance and everything/everybody are connected somehow through the “signs” that are constantly appearing throughout life. I found it very predictable and the infinite coincidences that lead to the final have some kind of absurdity. I may believe in signs…but not in these ones.
Relevant awards: -

The Avengers (2012)

Directed by: Joss Whedon
Country: USA

Plot: Nick Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D. brings together a team of super humans to form The Avengers to help save the Earth from Loki and his army.
Quick comment: It was with satisfaction that I watched some of the comic heroes of my childhood in action. Normally, I am not an enthusiastic of this genre, but we have to recognize when a movie is well done. Despite the lack of originality, the special effects, frantic action and the humor of Phillip Stark (Iron Man) are there to marvel the fans. Powerful enough to save the Earth from enemy hands. My favorite still is “Iron Man”(2008) directed by Jon Favreau.
Relevant awards: -

Pariah (2011)

Directed by: Dee Rees
Country: USA

Plot: A Brooklyn teenager juggles conflicting identities and risks friendship, heartbreak, and family in a desperate search for sexual expression.
Quick comment: “Pariah” begins discreetly, but soon evolves to a heartfelt sensitivity that might touch you deep down inside. A story about a coming-of-age lesbian girl who is trying to make the right decisions in life, as she attempts to gain acceptance and support from her parents. This is a very promising debut of Dee Rees in feature-film, after having released a 27-minute short in 2007 about the same subject and with the same title.
Relevant awards: Best cinematography (Sundance).

Bellamy (2009)

Directed by: Claude Chabrol
Country: France

Plot: A well known Parisian inspector becomes involved in an investigation while on holiday.
Quick comment: Claude Chabrol was known for his closely-observed characters. That’s what we get in “Bellamy” - his last feature-film before his death in 2010 at the age of 80. The personal life of the famous inspector Paul Bellamy is analyzed, as he investigates a strange murder case. It’s true that there is not much vitality or grandeur in this movie, but it is tidy and the dialogues and acting are solid enough to make it worth a look.
Relevant awards: -

Toomelah (2011)

Directed by: Ivan Sen
Country: Australia

Plot: In a remote Aboriginal community, 10 year old Daniel yearns to be a gangster, like the male role models in his life.
Quick comment: "Toomelah" could have been a success. The story is intense, the filming location is perfect and it succeeds in denouncing how the aboriginals were forgotten and are currently living. But this can’t be all in a movie…and all the good intentions and expectations were hampered by terrible performances from the non-professional actors and by a wobbly direction as well. At some point I really felt that what was happening on the screen was fake. 
Relevant awards: -

Cirkus Columbia (2010)

Directed by: Danis Tanovic
Country: Bosnia and Herzegovina

Plot: A story set in the former Yugoslavia and centered on a guy who returns to Herzegovina from Germany with plenty of cash and hopes for a good new life.
Quick comment: Danis Tanovic (“No Man’s Land”) returns to the Balkan War stories with this hilarious comedy where family issues were combined with political struggles in old Yugoslavia. A crazy story with a few funny situations, shows solid characters and also works as a strong criticism of a divided country. Actually, there was nothing that we hadn’t seen yet and the story needed a push in some instances, but it flows all right, and I was amused for almost 2 hours.
Relevant awards: Best foreign film (Antalya).

Marley (2012)

Directed by: Kevin Macdonald
Country: USA

Plot: A documentary on the life, music, and legacy of Bob Marley.
Quick comment: Besides the great music left, Marley had a remarkable life. He amazes me for what he once represented and still represents in the political fight against racism and war.  The only issue with this movie lies in its overlong duration -  due to one or another not so relevant testimony. From the Scottish director Kevin Macdonald (“The Last King of Scotland”, “Touching the Void”, “State of Play”).
Relevant awards: -

Oslo, August 31st (2011)

Directed by: Joachim Trier
Country: Norway

Plot: One day in the life of Anders, a young recovering drug addict, who takes a brief leave from his treatment center to interview for a job and catch up with old friends in Oslo.
Quick comment: Joachim Trier has been revealing himself as one of the most interesting norwegian directors. If “Reprise” (2006) had left a good impression, “Oslo August 31st” does even better. This is a believable story which made me feel a bit uncomfortable. A lonely man is trying to face the world the best way he can after being in a drug rehabilitation center. But it becomes very hard to believe in himself when everyone else has given up. Not to miss!
Relevant awards: -