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01. Boys Don�t Cry (1999, Kimberly Pierce)
02. Taxi Driver (1976, Martin Scorsese)
03. Memento (2001, Christopher Nolan)
04. Monster (2003, Patty Jenkins)
05. Heavenly Creatures (1994, Peter Jackson)
06. Aliens (1986, James Cameron)
07. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1990, James Cameron)
08. Ghost World (2001, Terry Zwigoff)
09. Pulp Fiction (1994, Quentin Tarantino)
10. Match Point (2005, Woody Allen)
11. Black Hawk Down (2001, Ridley Scott)
12. One Flew Over the Cuckoo�s Nest (1976, Milos Forman)
13. Bandits (1997, Katja von Garnier)
14. Cracks (2009, Jordan Scott)
15. Sister My Sister (1994, Nancy Meckler)
16. Lost and Delirious (2001, Lea Pool)
17. Titanic (1997, James Cameron)
18. Chasing Amy (1997, Kevin Smith)
19. Million Dollar Baby (2004, Clint Eastwood)
20. Lolita (1962, Stanley Kubrick)
Ratings
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Reviews
Cracks (2009)
The Bridge Between Childhood and Adulthood is Perilous
The website, Afterellen.com, fronts 'Cracks' as a "lesbian" film. I'm not exactly sure what constitutes LGBT cinema. But I feel that this one is about bottled up sexual energy, not lesbian love. The girls in the school are institutionally kept ignorant of sex and the perils of the real world. What we witness is nature's victory over man as the sexual audacity of youth overtakes Miss G and Di, with Fiamma as their victim.
Miss G is the villain, but not in the conventional sense. I presume she's never had a boyfriend nor a healthy sexual relationship of any kind. So she naively mistakes her infatuation with Fiamma as love, causing her repressed sexuality to leak through the cracks and end up on the wrong person. Fiamma unwillingly finds herself as a combatant against Di over Miss G's attention. At the end of the second act, Di gains the upper hand by removing Fiamma from the school altogether.
However, this is a three-way antagonism since the two active role players are Miss G and Di. Miss G makes three failed attempts to earn Fiamma's devotion: by charming her, exercising power over her, and fraternizing with her. Meanwhile, Di is keen to impose the school's social strata against Fiamma, who remains ever so resilient due to her advanced maturity.
The third act exercises Fiamma's only remaining option- to befriend Di. But the truce is cut short when Miss G performs her final act of desperation by raping Fiamma. This action was catalyzed by Miss G's last interaction with her; one where she lost some of the team's respect ("Since Fiamma knows what's best, let her take the reigns!").
This narrative is a classic example of an established social order turned upside down with the arrival of a newcomer (think 'Mean Girls'), and the school will never be the same for them. Fiamma's death catapults Di to search for a better life outside of the establishment while Miss G finally faces reality.
To a lesser extent, this is a parable of man-made structure that attempts to sculpt human behavior by building walls around children and repressing their natural curiosity. This indoctrination usually works, but has its casualties. The ending reveals that Miss G is one such casualty.
Sister My Sister (1994)
This is Why Movies are Made
Most viewers could gloss over this film and say that it's about incest, or lesbian incest. But it's not; it's about class warfare. Or rather, a cold war between the upper and lower class. Neither side wants to commit the first strike. But when it finally happens, it unravels savagely as years of bottled-up frustration erupt at the worst possible time.
It's also a parable about the unnatural structure of state society. One that creates predicaments in which people like the Papin sisters could be mentally repressed to the extent that their sexuality is misguided in an unorthodox direction. Christine and Lea's suffering happened because society has become complacent in the way class order is practiced.
I enjoyed this narrative because there's no plot, yet the antagonist is clear from the beginning. The harder the oppressor bears down on Christine and Lea, the more introverted their sexual energy became.
From an artistic stand point, this was an exercise in subtlety. At no point does the script underestimate the viewer's intelligence. Only available lighting was used- creating an atmosphere of seclusion and privacy while underlining the fact that Christine and Lea's conduct were perfectly natural (given their circumstances). Low color saturation emphasizes the inhibiting nature of man-made social structure.
At one point, we cross cut between the madame and Izabelle playing cards with the maids having sex- indicating the distinction between superficial pleasure and organic pleasure. The performances are an example of four actresses who genuinely enjoy acting. It's a shame movies like this are difficult to find and are rarely viewed.
Avatar (2009)
Don't Judge a Book by Its Cover
Few movies deserve to be long. This is one of them. At no point during the picture do we feel it's dragging too slowly, nor do we ever feel like the script has been "dumbed down" for us. There is minimal set up and the plot gets rolling along as soon as the opening title emerges. Sam Worthington's voice-over provides us with just the enough back story while also setting the mood. He plays his character as a young, brave, but ultimately innocent, service member. His persona echos that of many enlisted servicemen who joined up after seeing a "Be all you can be" commercial. He has little, if any, hindsight. Armed only with courage, we witness him make calculated errors. But he has faith in himself and we sympathize with him because he's so vulnerable. Yes, this is a big budget Hollywood movie. Yes, it has many clichéd and unoriginal plot elements. Yet it is unusually well focused, and it embodies the same spirit as any character driven independent feature film. And it does so very well. This is a movie which doesn't rely on A-lister movie stars because Cameron understands that movie stars and money don't constitute a great film. Cameron uses his cast, crew, and every available technology much like the great Leonardos and Donatellos used their paint brushes. Personally, I dislike going to movie theaters. I usually wait for the DVD. But this was too good to pass up as there are no other James Camerons out there. I dread the day he'll retire. He makes action sequences like no other. In most pictures, my mind goes numb once the fireballs and bullets start flying. But not this time. Cameron understands the importance of letting the audience emotionally invest in the protagonists, mean while comprehending the threat which the antagonists pose. I found myself relating to the Worthington character which made the theatrical viewing more of a genuine experience and not just three hours of "entertainment." Avatar is such a cinematic treat much like Terminator 2 and Titanic in that it overwhelms our senses. It would be a shame for anyone who claims to appreciate the motion picture to ignore this one.