Are You The Favorite Person of Anybody?

Release date: 2005 (USA)

This very short 3-minute black and white dialogue has John C. Reilly standing on a street corner asking passerbys, "Are you the favorite person of anybody?" Now, while I grant you the question, penned by Miranda July, is intriguing, and while I'm a big fan of artsy-fartsy ideas like this, I did not enjoy this short film. The question is better posed internally or at least differently then directed on screen by Miguel Arteta. I'm sad to say with this review, I will not be the favorite person of either director Arteta or star Reilly.

For giving us an interesting question to ponder, my rating 3 out of 10.

The Danish Poet

Release date: 2007 (Canada)

A short film by the National Film Board of Canada, The Danish Poet won the 2007 Oscar for best Short Animation. Directed by Torvill Kove, the Danish poet in this film, Kasper Jørgensen, heads out on a quest to find inspiration and a legendary Norwegian author, Sigrid Undset. Along the way, fate intervenes and this is the crucible of what the film is about ... how fate works in our lives. With easy, fun animation and an oddity unbound, you can see how The Danish Poet wowed judges with its simple tale loaded with deep existential meaning.

My rating 8 out of 10.

Love and War

Release date: 2007 (Sweden)

An utterly amazing piece of stop-motion puppetry and digital animation, Love and War is short 14-minute opera starring a bunny and bear. Directed by Fredrik Emilson, with the libretto he wrote and score he orchestrated (performed by the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra), Love and War shows us Bunny (a wartime nurse) and Bear (her fighter pilot lover) as they meet and fall in love. Called to duty against crocodilian foes, Bear is shot down while on mission, and, with a picture of Bunny in hand, meets his tragic fate. It is classic opera, and, as an opera fanatic myself, magically done. Unlike anything you've seen and well worth spending 14-minutes to get lost its gorgeous music and epic tragedy.

Sung in Italian with English subtitles, my rating 10 out of 10.

L.I.E.

Release date: 20 January 2001 (Sundance Film Festival)

L.I.E. was the movie that put actor Paul Dano on the stardom road. After L.I.E. came Fast Food Nation, Little Miss Sunshine, and There Will Be Blood ... which is a pretty impressive list. And back in 2002 you can see his stardom. L.I.E. (short for Long Island Expressway) is a very difficult film to watch. Difficult because it touches on subjects that are inherently taboo - bullying, homosexuality and child abuse. Despite this, or perhaps because of it, there is a touching human story amid the horror. Howie (Dano) is a 15-year-old who's recently lost his mother (in an auto accident) and is all but ignored by a father too caught up in his own work woes. Howie begins to travel with a wrong set of kids who spend their days breaking and entering homes along the L.I.E.. Clearly different then his friends, Howie is trying to come to terms with the death of his mother, his privileged yet emotionally vacant homelife, and his own sexuality. Secretly infatuated with the leader of their small gang, Gary (played by Billy Kay), Howie ends up meeting Big John (played ever so brilliantly and ever so creepily by Brian Cox). Big John is a vietnam vet, a pillar of the community and a gay pedophile. The result of their meeting is both surprising and sad. First time Director Michael Cuesta gives us the characters stripped down without caricatures of victim and abuser and leaves the difficult themes in the movie - of isolation, desperation and resignation -- for us to ponder. Well done.

My rating 8 out of 10.

Stardust

Release date: 10 August 2007 (Canada)

Matthew Vaughn directs this scattered adult fairy tale with too many characters and a complex about whether it is a comedy or adventure or romance, based on the 1997 comic books by Neil Gaiman (and illustrated by Charles Vess). Essentially, the film is Hollywood's shorter, poorer version of the BBC's magnificent series, Gormenghast, based on the trilogy of books written by Mervyn Peake way back in 1946. Stardust is the tale of Tristan (Charlie Cox), an 18-year old born of a witch and a human father, who sets out on a quest to find a star in human form named Yvaine (a miscast Claire Danes), claim his love, and live happily ever after. Along the way - as is typical with such adventures - Tristan runs into a nasty MacBeth-worthy witch (a perfectly cast Michelle Pfeiffer); a cross-dressing dirigible sailer (played by Robert DeNiro); the son of a king who's set his sons on each other and challenged them to find a red ruby (conveniently tied around Yvaine's neck) to claim the throne; and a sextet of the king's sons, now ghosts, which act as a comedic Greek chorus. Got all that?! ... Yes, it does make for too much, and, special effects and Pfeiffer's great performance aside, it is a bit of a falling star. It's main downfall is too many characters and its freudian complex of what it actually wants to be as a film.

My rating 6 out of 10.

Knocked Up

Release date: 26 May 2007 (Seattle International Film Festival)

Alison and Ben are having a baby. The thing is Alison and Ben don't really know each other and don't really even like each other. But that in itself is a perfect match for any movie. And in the hands of director Judd Apatow it works marvellously together. After a random (and typically drunken) one-night stand Ben (Seth Rogan) and Alison (Katherine Heigl) end up pregnant and begin the process of getting to know one another in the clear, cold light of day. Knocked Up works exceptionally well thanks to the chemistry between the two stars and the perfect pacing Apatow employs in his direction. There are several laugh-out-loud, uncontrollable funny lines in the film. More importantly though, the film allows the characters time to know each other so that in the end we believe that what we see on screen could be 'real'. The supporting cast are all standouts as well, in particular Jay Baruchel (as one of Ben's buddies) and Paul Rudd (as Ben's sort-of brother-in-law). If you're looking for a laugh, do yourself a favour and get knocked out with giggles watching Knocked Up.

My rating 9 out of 10.

Ratatouille

Release date: 22 June 2007 (Hollywood, USA)

Directed by Brad Bird, Ratatouille won the 2007 Best Animated Oscar and deservedly so. As a dedicated foodie myself - and the rats aside - you cannot go wrong with a film that stars food, a restaurant and Paris. Remy is a rat long on culinary aspirations but short on opportunity, not surprisingly. When he gets separated from his brood and finds himself in Paris, in the celebrated restaurant of the recently departed Auguste Gusteau no less, the rat gets his chance. Forging an alliance with Linguini, a kitchen mop boy (later discovered to be the son of Gusteau), the two begin to wow Paris while simultaneously pissing off the restaurant's current frozen food fan chef. Light hearted, endearing and fun, and with a great role for Peter O'Toole as the voice of food critic Anton Ego, Ratatouille is sure to be a great addition to any movie menu.

My rating 8 out of 10.

S&M: Short and Male

Release date: 2008 (Canada)

Directed by short male Howard Goldberg, this documentary relates the ups and downs (mostly downs) of short statured men and the lengths (pardon the pun) they’ll go to be taller. Perhaps I’m biased but as a six foot two inch male, I found S&M: Short and Male beneath me (figuratively and literally). Essentially a series of poor jokes on the trials and tribulations of short men, the documentary only hits a chord when it shows the dire lengths a family will go to grow their teenaged son. The scenes of the young teenager having leg lengthening surgery and then talking about it with his father are both unbelievable and tragic. The lengths some families will go to for height are sad. On the other end of the scale, the scenes of a group of short men in New York trying to rally folks at Times Square to an association of short men to advocate for (presumably taller) ‘rights’ are like a wonky sketch from Saturday Night Live. And like a bad night at a bad comedy club, I was left wondering if this documentary would ever end.

My rating, fairly noting I’m a closet ‘heightist’, 4 out of 10.

Sliding Doors

Release date: 24 January 1998 (Sundance Film Festival)

She, who can’t act, the paltry Gwyneth Paltrow, stars in this time-shifting romantic-drama directed by Peter Howitt. Howitt’s premise in this film is interesting: what would happen if we just missed the sliding doors of that subway train? Enter Helen (Paltrow) a PR guru who is unceremoniously fired from her London ad agency. Returning home we see her catch (and not catch) an Underground tube train and thereby start two parallel stories. In one, where she catches the train, she arrives home to find her boyfriend, Gerry (played by John Lynch) cheating on her with his ex-girlfriend, Lydia (Jeanne Tripplehorn). In the other, where she misses the train, she ends up mugged and in hospital and arrives home to find Gerry alone in the shower. In both realities she meets James (John Hannah) who becomes both a lover and friend, respectively. The film then bounces back and forth and forth and back playing out these two realities to much drama and woe, and a fair bit of sad overarching music. It’s all a little too much I thought and surely must prove I’m no romantic. Many of my friends who watched this film loved it (caveat: all were female). So, Sliding Doors must be a chick-flick and I only really watched with idle interest waiting to see how Howitt ends the adventure.

My rating for the premise, and the sturdy English acting of both Hannah and Tripplehorn, is 5 out of 10.