aguirre: the wrath of god (werner herzog)

whenever someone decides to write a list with 'the best movies of all time', or something of the like, 'aguirre' always makes at least the top 100, if not the top 10. well, no wonder. from the beginning you have the feeling of watching something 'big', a grand story, something deep and transcendental. the obvious highlight of the whole experience is kinski's performance, not many actors manage to achieve such a strong screen presence. you can't escape his insanity, his crazed look, his thirst. the rythm is slow and poetic, leaving the viewer in a sort of hypnotic trance... a trance enhanced by popol vuh's beautiful minimalistic krautrock music (for me the best part of the film). plus, a film that features a baby sloth creature and a raft full of monkeys can't be bad, can it?

Rating: 9/10

mc5 - a true testimonial (david c. thomas)

my opinion is 100% biased, so stop reading if you have problems with that. i love the mc5 and i really enjoy watching music documentaries, so this is the perfect combination for me. obviously, i couldn't care less about seeing wayne kramer or rob tyner as old men, but i loved hearing them tell the stories of their good old days with the band and john sinclair and the white panther party. if to this you add amazing footage of them onstage (including fred sonic smith's spaceman suit), the joy is complete. a must for any music lover.

Rating: 9/10

the holy girl (lucrecia martel)

lucrecia martel is fast becoming my favourite filmmaker of the 21st century. i love all her three feature films. i'm going to try and find her shorts now. even though i still prefer 'the headless woman' and definitely 'the swamp', i felt absolutely mesmerised by the pace, the tranquility, the filmography, the sense of dramatisation that this film oozes. on top of that, all the actors are top notch, especially carlos belloso, his character is so believable. and the end! the end is probably my favourite part. you spend the whole film very slowly  building up this tension, this feeling of unease, sensing something bad is going to happen... and when it does, the film finishes right before the grand finale. it takes a lot of guts to do that, and a genius to do it so elegantly and make it work. just brilliant.

Rating: 9/10

nanny mcphee and the big bang (susanna white)

i never thought i'd say this, but... i loved it!! it has the right feeling, the right atmosphere, the right humour... basically, if you liked films like mary poppins, you'll like this. it's so much fun. i'm dying to see the first one now! and not even that annoying maggie gyllenhaal managed to spoil it. i want a scratch-o-matic. and a black crow called mr edelweiss who likes eating putty from windows. my only criticism (apart from that gyllenhaal woman) is that they go a bit over the top with the cgi, especially in the final scene with the harvest, but, hey, i guess they couldn't help it, it's probably there for the kids. i'll watch this again, i have no doubts about that.

Ratiing: 9/10

lilya 4-ever (lukas moodyson)

i absolutely loved this film, especially the relationship between her and the adorable wee volodya. for me this is a story that is as much about their friendship as it is about the grittiness of their surroundings and the lives they are forced to live. that's why the dreamy sequences in the second half of the film make perfect sense. critics who reject them because they move away from the realism of the rest of the story just can't see the forest for the trees. this is not only about slavery or prostitution or desolate children. this is mainly about friendship. and it's relating to that friendship that these scenes work. lilya needed them. just because they are dreamy it doesn't mean they are dreams. for her they are real.

Rating: 9/10