My Blueberry Nights (USA, 2007)☆☆☆☆

Director Wong Kar Wai (In the Mood for Love, 2046) brings a story about love and loneliness. Borrowing several themes from his previous films, the movie tells the story of a woman, who after having broken up with his boyfriend, decides to start all over again. Along the way she meets interesting and lonely people, and at the end she finds a person who had always been waiting for her. This is Kar Wai's first venture into the USA, working with English-speaking actors. The result is an entertaining and touching film, and by the way the soundtrack is amazing.

Awake (USA, 2005) ☆☆☆

Jessica Alba and Canadian actor Hayden Christensen star in this thriller, where Jessica plays the role of an evil young wife who plots against her husband to get all his money. In need of an urgent heart transplant, Jessica sets the scene to have an unsuccessful operation, whereby she will inherit after her husband's death. Little does she nor the doctors know that the husband (Christensen) has not been completely anesthesized, he can hear and feel everything! Apparently these are rare cases in medicine, but it has actually happened in real life. Of couse he takes care of business once the operation is over.

The Living and the Dead (UK, 2007)☆☆☆☆☆

Independent director Simon Rumley brings to the screen the story of a small noble family with financial difficulties. The Longleigh House where they reside must be sold since they are out of money. With a young schizophrenic son and a bedridden mother, his father decides to leave them for a couple of days. This is where the descent into hell begins. The son starts to skip on his daily medication and in an attempt to take care of his mother, starts doing everything wrong. The nurse who was supposed to show up is not allowed inside the mansion, since the son locks every possible entrance. When police and ambulance finally show up, the destructive impulses of the son have done their work. Following the style of Requiem for a Dream, the audience is subjected to the horrific schizophrenic visions of the son, and the tragic ending is disturbing enough to keep you awake for awhile. An excellent shocker from the UK.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Le Scaphandre et le Papillon) France, 2007 ☆☆☆☆

The true story of Jean-Dominique Beauby, former Elle editor in Paris, who suffers from a stroke which leaves him completely paralyzed, except for his left eye. He is however able to write a book about his experience from which the movie is based. A really sad movie but superbly executed.

Interview (The Netherlands, 2003) ☆☆☆

Dutch Director Theo Van Gogh (who was murdered in 2004) was very controversial throughout his career. With the Interview, we find ourselves in Katja Schuurman's appartment, a real-life famous Dutch TV star who is being interviewed by a political journalist. They both begin an intimate conversation that ends up in confessions, mixed with drugs and alcohol of course. The most interesting part is perhaps the ending, where Katja has a unique chance to get back at all the journalists who have written lies about her.

Gone With the Woman (Tatt av Kvinnen, Norway, 2007)

The story of a man, named He, he does not even have a name in the story. His daily life is interrupted by the acquaintance of a woman. She enters his life and transforms it completely, for the good. This movie represented Norway in the last Academy Awards ceremony in the Best Foreign Film category. More info from the Norwegian Film Institute

Gone Baby Gone (USA, 2007) ☆☆☆
Directed by Ben Affleck, the story of a kidnapped girl in Boston that deals with the difficult subject of raising a child in a dysfunctional environment.