Co-writer/director Ramin Bahrani gets the plot out of the way in the first minute of Goodbye Solo. An elderly man, William (Red West), sits in the backseat of a taxicab in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He offers the young Senegalese driver, Solo (Souleymane Sy Savane), a thousand dollars to take him to Blowing Rock on October [...]

The film opens with a message worth quoting in full: “Sita Sings the Blues is an audience-funded project released under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike license, except for certain songs under restrictive licenses required by the respective copyright holders.” Next begin the production credits: “Your Name Here presents … in association with Your Money … [...]

I’ve had a complex relationship with David Lynch ever since I first encountered his 2001 masterpiece Mulholland Drive. I’ve seen it about half a dozen times now, and I’ve sought out other of his films that I’ve loved (The Elephant Man), hated (Eraserhead), or couldn’t decipher one way or another (Blue Velvet, Inland Empire). The [...]

Woody Allen is up-front about the themes of his 1989 comedy-drama Crimes and Misdemeanors, but so clear and insightful about them that we don’t mind the direct approach. It is an argument about God. Where is He? Does the world adhere to moral certitude according to His laws? Or is it chaos, a nihilist mash-up of mankind’s basest, most cynical impulses? I last reviewed Ingmar Bergman’s The Virgin Spring, which poses the same question but seems more optimistic about the answer. Where Bergman saw at least the potential for redemption..

Robert Altman’s 1975 ensemble drama Nashville begins with the presidential campaign of fictional Hal Philip Walker, who is never seen but frequently heard through the loudspeakers of a campaign truck that blares his radical ideas: get the lawyers out of Congress! Change the national anthem! He represents the Replacement Party, and he means to replace. With the juxtaposition of old patriotism and new cynicism the film immediately announces that it intends to be about America. But what about America?

The Wrestler, a classic tale of an underdog’s life, is an intimate and bittersweet portrayal of the simple joys and tribulations of human existence and the desperate attempts at survival by a man of flesh and blood. The movie is a glowing elucidation of Darren Aronofsky’s storytelling skills. However it is perhaps more a Mickey Rourke vehicle than an Aronofsky one – he’s that good in his portrayal of a once-famous but now has-been professional wrestler. The movie also boasts of a terrific Oscar-worthy original score by Bruce “The Boss” Springsteen.

If there’s something to be loved or admired about Woody Allen, his ability to make a tale sensible, inspiring, sexy, passionate – all at the same time – would arguably rank as the first, followed closely by his flair for infusing intellect, intelligence and conviction in a seemingly inane (or even sexual) subject matter. Of course, most of this review will be focused on elaborating on the aforementioned, but let me take the liberty to tell you one thing before you go any further. If you’re a conformist when it comes to relationships, love or passion …

At a time when the country was deemed unfit for old men and there was too much blood flowing around, one man sought to break away from it all, literally – Sean Penn, or rather Christopher McCandless. Adapted from Jon Krakauer’s book on McCandless’ journey of the same name, Into the Wild is the definite heir to the throne of Easy Rider (1969) and my candidate of the best movie of 2007.

Based on a book by American author Cormac McCarthy, No country for old men follows the lives of three key characters in the Wild Wild West during the early 1980s. Anton Chigurh (Javier Barden in an Academy award winning performance) is introduced to us in the very first scene as a cold-blooded killer who strangles a cop and escapes before he is even put behind bars. Armed with a stun bolt gun, the eccentric but taciturn killer is on a mission, the details of which are uncovered later.

Pulp Fiction is the epitome of wild, wacky and quirky filmmaking. It is outrageously violent – it made a complete mockery of blood and killing; uncontrollably profane – the movie perhaps has more F-words than any other movie in the entire history of cinema; profusely wicked – the movie made fun of nearly every sensitive and so-called sanctimonious issues ranging from religion to race to even homosexuality, and unabashedly bizarre. And despite all its twisted sense of humour and idiosyncrasies that can best be described…