After Hours

Director - Martin Scorsese

Genre - Comedy/Thriller

A hapless average Joe has to endure the longest night of his life in an area of town with the most unusual of characters. The onslaught of misfortunes heaped upon him endlessly are the highlights in this pitch-dark comedy. If you're having a bad day, this is just the remedy for you. What could be better than watching some poor soul have a far worse off time? It's like the new voyeuristic sport of monitoring Britney's life. Try as you will, you just can't bring yourself to look away.

4 STARS!

All about After Hours

Incident At Loch Ness

Director - Zak Penn

Genre - Adventure/Comedy

There is very little we can divulge about this film, without giving away its intended purpose. What we will mention however is that this is one hell of an intelligently realized endeavor. And that it will surprise you with its hilarity which comes on like Jack-in-the-Boxes placed all over the movie. Werner Herzog, the infamous director decides to make his next project about the Loch Ness creature and Zak Penn is roped in to produce. Watch as this film within a film within a film unravel.

3 STARS!

All about Incident At Loch Ness

Breaking The Waves

Director - Lars von Trier

Genre - Drama/Romance

Difficult, at times excruciatingly mean-spirited film directed by Lars von Trier. When a man becomes disabled because of an accident at work, he takes out all his frustrations and anger on his sweet, overtly naive wife (Emily Watson). Her ordeal begins to get insufferably more tragic when her husband suggests that if she sleeps around, he would be miraculously cured. Watson played the fragile but eternally optimistic girl with such lovable appeal you'd be made of stone not to fall head over heels for her character.

5 STARS!

All about Breaking The Waves

Woman In The Dunes (Suna no Onna)

Director - Hiroshi Teshigahara

Genre - Drama

Hiroshi Teshigahara's most internationally well-known film. A school teacher whilst looking for insects in the dunes to add to his collection gets trapped by a woman living at the bottom of a sandpit. Chilling and sexually electrifying at the same time, this masterpiece will hold you hostage just like the sand in the movie. Using the texture and composition of sand, Teshigahara had masterfully created a world where every turn, every word hangs in the balance for survival.

5 STARS!

All about Woman In The Dunes (Suna no Onna)

Time (Shi Gan)

Director - Kim Ki-Duk

Genre - Drama/Romance

An insanely jealous girlfriend fears her man will eventually abandon her for another. Confronted with an uncertain future, she makes a drastic move, one that she will never be able to undo. Directed by Korean arthouse extraordinaire Kim Ki-Duk, this film is inundated with feelings of paranoia and suspicion, perpetrated incessantly by the delusional leading lady. Slightly abstract and surreal, it nevertheless probed incisively into the dangers of excessive plastic surgery.

3.5 STARS!

All about Time (Shi Gan)

Tape

Director - Richard Linklater

Genre - Drama

Based on a stage play, this Richard Linklater film was criminally ignored by the viewing public. The fact that it was shot cheaply with a digital video camera and everything literally just took place in a hotel room may have contributed to it being overlooked. Give this a chance though and what awaits you is an incredibly well-scripted movie with acting so good it'll blow you out of your seat. Brutally sharp and biting, this dialogue-driven indie stunner will leave you emotionally disheveled.

4 STARS!

All about Tape

Reality Bites

Director - Ben Stiller

Genre - Comedy/Drama/Romance

If this film was viewed by aliens, it would have presented to them perfectly the essence of 90's in America. From the aptly placed soundtrack, the yuppie represented by Ben Stiller to Ethan Hawke's well-read slacker, this is Generation-X preserved in a cinematic, time frozen capsule. Like Hawke's and Stiller's characters who find Winona Ryder's considerable charm inescapable, we are likewise, exceedingly enamored with the movie. Stiller's 1st time in the director's chair deserves considerable honor.

4.5 STARS!

All about Reality Bites

The Dark Knight

Director - Christopher Nolan

Genre - Action/Crime/Drama/Mystery/Thriller

The caped crusader takes a deathly flight into unknown territory in this installment. The terrifyingly unpredictable element known as the Joker has brought Gotham down to its knees, making Batman go all out with new and improved artilleries of criminal destruction. More than just a superhero movie, 'The Dark Knight' as envisioned by Nolan is almost operatic in dimensions, with Bruce Wayne appearing humanly vulnerable yet craftily invincible. The late Heath Ledger gave a final, high-voltage performance which is something akin to if Lucifer was on LSD.

4 STARS!

All about The Dark Knight

An Indelible Imprint In Our Hearts For Eternity: Heath Ledger

To commemorate Heath Ledger's final (completed) and electrifying role in cinema, we would like to invite everyone to say a few words here in tribute of an actor who was truly gifted and stayed real to the art of performance. On our part, we believe that he left too soon. We had only just begun to appreciate his extraordinary but to us, brief presence in films. May peace be bestowed upon him in a better place hereon after. Farewell and adieu.

All about Heath Ledger

A Clockwork Orange

Director - Stanley Kubrick

Genre - Crime/Drama/Thriller

Anthony Burgess wrote this tale set in the future and Stanley Kubrick made it into an iconic tour de force. At the core of this is a sly take on the nature of violence. Can evil behavior be curbed indefinitely through rehabilitation? The strange language in this movie was invented by Burgess, is addictive and catchy, like Shakespeare on acid. As always in a Kubrick picture, the sets are unparalleled and Malcolm McDowell, maniacally frightening. Devilishly cool even to this very day.

5 STARS!

All about A Clockwork Orange

Paris, Texas

Director - Wim Wenders

Genre - Drama

An unhurried, sentimental dissection of a love gone wrong. Harry Dean Stanton plays the unlikely lead with an understated but sturdy performance, alongside the always sensual Nastassja Kinski. The cinematography is to die for at times, gently encompassing the film with its romanticized version of America. Take heed though that this indie cult favorite by Wim Wenders is not geared towards those spoilt on entertainment-based cinema.

3.5 STARS!

All about Paris, Texas

Ichi The Killer

Director -Takashi Miike

Genre - Action/Comedy/Crime/Thriller

Based on a Japanese manga, this Takashi Miike film is a curious concoction indeed. As a manga, it probably worked better on the basis that anything goes in the world of manga. When you put this up on the screen, it all seems infuriatingly irreverent and utterly silly. The dark comedy didn't exactly work and Ichi is too much of a freak for him to have any semblance of likability as a leading character. In the aftermath of this ridiculous Miike film, we are left wanting and repulsed. Hannibal Lecter was cool as an anti-hero. Ichi should never have left the drawn pages he came from.

2 STARS!

All about Ichi The Killer

Chungking Express

Director - Wong Kar Wai

Genre - Comedy/Drama/Mystery/Romance

This is probably one of director Wong Kar Wai's most upbeat films. His tendency of exploring heartbreak and rejection is still very much alive here, but there are more lighter moments in this than in his other movies. Faye Wong's cutesy portrayal of an eccentric girl is a pleasure to watch and so is Tony Leung's down to earth role of a police officer. Perfectly seamless use of music, ingenious use of editing and camera work all come together to form a terrific film.

4 STARS!

All about Chunking Express

Talk Radio

Director - Oliver Stone

Genre - Drama

In our modest opinion, this Oliver Stone picture is one of his best. Adapted from a play by Eric Bogosian who also stars as the lead, it is about a vicious-mouthed talk show host who couldn't care less for his audience. Tired of his repulsive attitude, someone out there decides to teach him a lesson. Marvelously acted and scripted, with some of the wittiest, razor-sharp dialogues in movies, it's a crying shame this is largely ignored. Don't let this grave oversight put YOU off.

4.5 STARS!

All about Talk Radio

Glengarry Glen Ross

Director - James Foley

Genre - Drama

There never existed a more magnificent ensemble cast than this one, before or after. With a script written by David Mamet to boot, those looking for top notch performances may well find themselves stepping into 'Actors' Heaven'. The material about a company of desperate property salesmen going all out in what might be their final sales manoeuvres resonate with emotional impact. Al Pacino. Jack Lemmon. Ed Harris. Alec Baldwin. Kevin Spacey. Need we elaborate further?

5 STARS!

All about Glengarry Glen Ross

Juno

Director - Jason Reitman

Genre - Comedy/Drama/Romance

We wanted to hate this. How good can a film about teenage pregnancy be? Very good, in fact, to our delight. The greatest element which undeniably put this on top is new hit on the block, Ellen Page. Armed with an arsenal of talents including an adorable screen presence, she is the soul of 'Juno'. The mark of a true performer is when the audience goes along with whatever one feels or projects on screen. In tears, laughter or sarcastic deadpan mode, we believe in miss Page.

4 STARS!

All about Juno

Thank You For Smoking

Director - Jason Reitman

Genre - Comedy/Drama

Aaron Eckhart stars as a spin doctor whose main job scope is doing damage control for Big Tobacco. Are cigarette companies really heartless merchants of death? Should cigarette boxes be labeled as poison? All these questions and more are put forward in this cutting, sarcastic look at smokers, their fix, and the people who go the whole nine yards to make sure they stay nicotine dependent. The magnetic charisma of Eckhart's character draws us into this Jason Reitman film like sinful intoxication.

4 STARS!

All about Thank You For Smoking

Yi Yi

Director - Edward Yang

Genre - Drama

The late Edward Yang's masterpiece. The beauty of it isn't in the way it's shot or how the acting was so great. What really stood out in this film is the masterful direction of Yang. It is paced like a slow uneventful day but underneath this serene existence, you always get the feeling that there's more going on. A celebration of life and the things that we often take for granted, it speaks to us like a message from God.

5 STARS!

All about Yi Yi