Silent Light I was unimpressed. I don't mind slowness (I love Ozu), but something needs to be happening. There needs to be some kind of reason it takes you five minutes of slowly dollying forward towards a man we don't yet know in a movie to get to whatever it was your point is. The "beauty" of the cinematography is exploitative, and just staring at immigrant faces doesn't make your movie interesting. People like Scorsese and a lot of critics I admire love the movie, but I don't see it.

Adventureland Good coming of age story, strong cast, great music, funny in intelligent ways, very different than Greg Mottola's previous film, Superbad.

Sugar Fantastic, if it's playing near you then go see it. It doesn't matter if you like or know baseball, it's a great character study.

Tokyo Sonata Surprising, impressive, and moving. I know the director is known for horror (the Ringu films), but I haven't seen of those, and based on this I'd like to see more straight dramas from him.

The Soloist Not on par with Joe Wright's other two films. I wrote a review here.

Knowing Definitely a step up from I, Robot, and shares a lot of positive characteristics that make Dark City so good. Nicolas Cage is comparatively restrained as well, and I was impressed with what Rose Byrne brought to a rather small role. Surprisingly good.

Sin Nombre The first film from an NYU graduate, direct from the Sundance Institute. Unlike a lot of first films, it's focused, and assured both storywise and aesthetically, but like a lot of Sundance Institute films, it's so very screenplay dependant, and it leaves little room for improvisation or spontaneity, especially with the camera, and so it lacked that, and for me given the nature of the story, it called for it. Good acting, good script, but it felt a bit too planned. If any of that makes sense.

Hunger Loved it, very unconventional, brilliantly shot, unrelenting in an artful way.

In Beetween Days Boring and tedius, I enjoy small character studies, but it didn't work for me.

Treeless Mountain Same director, several years later, with film instead of DV this time, similar results. Better, but not great.

The Limits of Control One of my favorite directors, Jim Jarmusch, great cast, great dp (Christopher Doyle), shot in Spain, end result is a confounding "existential hitman movie" that I'd hesitate to even call a movie. Bill Murray sweeps at one point and livens up the procedings, but I think it might have worked better as a book of photographs.

Star Trek Lens flares galore, the prologue is great in a very Lost-y way, but I found it a bit dull after that.

Rudo y Cursi Entertaining buddy comedy directed by Carlos Cuaron (brother of Alfonso), enjoyable, but forgettable.

The Girlfriend Experience One of the best things I've seen this year, funny, cool, insightful, and most importantly, observant.

The Brothers Bloom I wish I'd liked it more, I think it would work better if it was simplified a bit, but it is very funny, particularly Rinko Kikuchi's silent explosives expert, and the claims of Anderson theft don't really stick, it's culled from a myriad of sources, and frankly it's not quite all it could have been.

On the artier side

Julia Worth seeing for Tilda Swinton alone, she plays the title character in a wonderfully unexpected, completely non-glamorous way, that's funny and weird and ultimately very touching. I'd love to see her in an Anderson film.

La Promesse The first film of the Dardenne Brothers they consider a success, brilliantly realized realist tale, featuring a young Jeremie Renier and great performances from the non-actor cast all around. Great film.

Rosetta The next Dardenne Brothers film, more focused in its aesthetic, just as affecting and the acting, again by non-actors, is astoundingly real. Great as well.

Up I think it's the first Pixar movie that will be nominated for Best Picture. Not because it's my favorite, but because it's so broadly appealing, while being so very, very good. The opening of the film is as mature in it's emotion and exploration of ideas as Bergman, and just as brilliantly told. From there it's a fun (and funny) action adventure tale, and it maintains its greatness throughout.

On the less arty side

Drag Me to Hell I loved it. It's very self-consciously a horror movie, but it's so funny, and somehow the humour allows it to actually create some terrifying images. Alison Lohman is great, as is an over the top Adriana Barazza (Babel). So strikingly better than "Spiderman 3," you'd assume Raimi made it before those films.

The Hangover Surprisingly well made. It's not hard to guess that it's hilarious, given the cast (Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis), but the director Todd Phillips (Old School, Starsky and Hutch) seems to have either developed some kind of aesthetic with the camera, or hired people who suite his type of films well. Galifianakis steals the movie, but it's a very large ensemble, each of whom provides something unexpected and funny.

Some new stuff from the past month and a half
(500) Days of Summer Saw it twice at preview screenings (one of which next to Roger Ebert!) and I definitely enjoyed it. It's very funny in places and both Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel are both very appealing actors. There's moments I love, and one cut I absolutely adore, but it's not much more than an entertaining, at times oddly cliche, and then moments later more unconventional love story.

Away We Go Love it. I love Eggers and Vida's script, love the cast, love Ellen Kuras' cinematography. Far and away Sam Mendes' best film.

Departures Well made Japanese film chronicling a musician's transformation into the funeral service business. Very well observed scenes involving the process during the funeral.

Visioneers Great lead performance from Zach Galifianakis, as well as Judy Greer and James LeGross. The film is good, and I look forward to seeing what the two brothers who made it for a very, very small amount do next.

Tetro Among Francis Ford Coppola's best films. It's gorgeous and demands to be seen on a big screen.

Moon I enjoy Sam Rockwell, and this movie is nearly all Sam Rockwell, but I think I was turned off by the fact that David Bowie's son directed it and it's his first film and he was basically given carte blanche to make this thing at Shepperton Studios during the writer's strike. Having said that, even if it were by a director I'd never heard of, I would still have problems with it.

Whatever Works Some friends of mine informed me it was the worst thing they'd ever seen in a theater, and while I wouldn't go that far, it is a bit of a let down after what I see as Allen's hot streak the past four or five years. Especially taking into consideration Larry David being in the lead and Harris Savides shooting it. I like it alright, but it's definitely in the lower half of Allen's films.

Year One Funny people, funny writers, funny director, and nary a funny moment in it's entire 90 minutes. Unfortunate.

The Hurt Locker Damn near perfect. Whenever it opens in your town it'll be the best thing playing. Kathryn Bigelow is a great director.

Bruno Not as good a film as Borat, but still hilarious.

...and because last time I did it there wasn't enough interest to warrant it's own thread, some of the best films so far this year. (I like lists.)

In some order.

1. Tetro
2. The Hurt Locker
3. Away We Go
4. The Girlfriend Experience
5. Up
6. Observe and Report
7. Sugar
8. Tokyo Sonata
9. Goodbye Solo
10. Medicine For Melancholy

Additonal favorites: Frontier of Dawn, Duplicity, Hunger, La Belle Personne, Rumba, Two Lovers, The Class, Sin Nombre, Somers Town, Drag Me To Hell, The Hangover, Watchmen, and Gomorrah.

Strangers on a train.
I've been watching plenty Hitchcock lately.

Saw Armando Ianucci's In The Loop, very, very funny political satire that doesn't seem to stray from reality. So fast paced, though entirely dialogue driven, and extraordinarily funnny.

I was lucky enough to attend the European premiere of in the loop (here in Glasgow). Great night, got to briefly meet Armando, Peter Capaldi and strangely enough Peter Capaldi's Mother (who said she wasn't phased by the amount of swearing her son produced throughout the film).

That sounds awesome. I imagine I'd be a bit scared of Capaldi in person, even though he seems like a calm guy in real life. The amount of swearing is notable, but I love the inventiveness of the swearring. So good...

The guy who played the Rumsfeldian guy at the State Department, David Rasche was at the screening I went to too.

I finally got round to watching Jules et Jim. I thought it was great although I couldn't fathom Catherine's actions. A cold hearted nymph.

Last movie i saw was CQ by Roman Coppola. it's got a really cool atmosphere about it. An Anderson fan could apreciate it. It also features a cameo by Sofia.

Love Schwartzman in that. Also it was shot by Wes' cinematographer, Robert Yeoman.

I've been meaning to check out R. Yeoman's other films. Any of them really. I think Dogma is the only non-Wes movie on which Yeoman worked.

Any other suggestions? (Sorry, I'm sure I could check the Frequent Collaborators page.)

Besides Dogma and CQ, The Squid and the Whale is the only other one I've seen. Seeing Yeoman's more mainstream work really affirms how much of an auteur Wes is, because Yeoman's other movies have nothing at all in common visually with Wes', save for the fact that they're well lit, very compotently shot, etc.

I love the camera work in Squid and the Whale though, which is so expressive and looks incredible, great use of 16mm. Especially comparing it to Harris Savides' work in Margot at the Wedding, which is a continuation of Baumbach's new style but without a lot of the expressiveness and comedy of Yeoman's. [/nerd rant]

Saw Inglourious Basterds tonight and I loved it. It's very Tarantino-y (as it should be) but in ways as yet unexplored in his films. I think this may be a minority opinion, but I think he's getting better with each film. I loved Death Proof and I love this even more. If you at all like Tarantino or good movies, go see it.