Kitschy but enjoyable girl-power action.
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The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring 2001
I've never changed my mind about this. I love it for its look and the near-perfect casting, and when it's most faithful to the books, particularly the bridge of Khazad-dûm sequence. McKellen changes Tolkien's will to shall but it works and might even be a better choice. Frodo and Sam's relationship is beautifully directed and performed, way beyond what I had ever expected.
I hate it when it's not faithful, which is mostly because of a lot of bombastic and…
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Her 2013
I can't imagine anyone who reads sci-fi more than casually, or even someone who's seen a decent number of Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes, and especially anyone who's read Richard Powers' prescient and emotionally rich Galatea 2.2, or perhaps a reasonably informed average user of modern computers, to do anything but scoff and laugh at Spike Jonez's superficial attempt to speculate about artificially intelligent agents in, what? The near future? An alternate universe? Inside his head? Every time someone…
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La Ciénaga 2001
I can't think of a more accomplished, incisive and illuminating director of actors than Lucrecia Martel, particularly in the naturalistic style she's fond of, and there's no better observer and skewerer of a particular set of social mores. This is my Argentina, every frame of this movie says, and instead of being off-putting or condescending, as the tone of most American directors out of Hollywood would take of their societies, the feel here is intimate and painful — the terror of true self-awareness. That this was her first feature still astonishes me. The Chekhov comparisons are not hyperbole.
