Since I generally try to watch movies that are actually good, I must admit that this is an odd pick. After watching through the entirety of Deep Space Nine a couple of years back, a series I’d never watched when it first aired, we slogged through The Next Generation last year though instead of watching everything, I tried to pick and choose the best episodes. Both my wife and myself agreed that TNG is substantially better. I told my wife that she should probably watch one of the TNG movies but we’d never done that, until now.
I’m pretty sure that I got this from the exact same list as Jauja and both films were winners at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival. That’s where the similarities end though since both my wife and myself found this to be fantastic. This one is a Turkish film directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan and is the first Turkish-language movie that I’ve ever written about in this blog.
After reading the book a month earlier, I wanted to wait a bit for the reviews to come in before deciding if I’m going to watch the movie. As it turned out, most of the Broken Forums members who watched it loved it but I’m not so sure that the response in Malaysia is as good, given how quickly the cinemas over here have switched it out in favor of newer releases. In any case, that kind of recommendation is good enough for me.
As previously mentioned, I often pay attention to lists of the best films of every year when deciding what to watch, plus I put special priority to non-English films. This is because I’ve found that non-English language films tend to surprise me more and it’s boring to watch an endless succession of movies that all conform to the Hollywood mold. Of course, this does mean that I occasionally get a film that is so exotic, so experimental and so niche that I really don’t know what to make of it. Jauja, by Argentine director Lisandro Alonso, is a case in point.
Selma is another one of the most prominent releases of the last year though it kind of got snubbed at the Oscars, winning only for its song Glory and otherwise nominated only for the Best Picture category. I suspect that after 12 Years a Slave won big the year before, the Academy didn’t feel up to showcasing another film about black history in the US. It’s a sign of how far behind we are that though we’re now nearing the end of 2015, we’re still slowly working through the lists of the best movies of last year.
This one is a mostly Spanish language animated film that is credited to a trio of directors who are probably little known outside of Spain. As usual for animated films, my wife picked this one and she must be glad for it since music figures heavily in it, especially the music of Cuba and the way it came to influence the world of jazz. It’s also an animated film that is definitely not kid-friendly since it is unashamedly erotic. Together, these elements make this a rather unique and interesting film.
As a film that pops up often near the top of lists of the best movies ever made, Apocalypse Now surely needs no introduction. Together with the Godfather trilogy, this established Francis Ford Coppola’s reputation as one of greatest American directors of all time. The version we watched is the much longer Redux edition that was released in 2001. It’s actually getting rather difficult now to find the original theatrical version.
