Grave of the Fireflies (aka Hotaru no haka)

Release date: 16 April 1988 (Japan)

This 1988 anime film, written and directed by Isao Takahata is based on the semi-autobiographical novel by Akiyuki Nosaka, and is one of the most moving and profound examples on film of the sickeningly vileness that is war. Set in Kobe at the end of World War II Seita and his four year old sister, Setsuko, survive the America firebombing of the city that kills their mother. With their father in battle on the high seas, the brother and sister initially take refuge with an aunt until she makes it clear her interests come above her niece and nephew's. Seita and Setsuko opt to leave the house and move to an abandoned shelter on the edge of the city. There Seita does his best to be mother, brother and friend to Setsuko - allowing her to continue to live the life a four year old ought to. Sadly, as the war continues and despite Seita's best efforts, their access to food dwindles and Setsuko succumbs to malnutrition. Grave of the Fireflies is hauntingly beautiful to watch with not a frame or moment out of place. It is stunning both in its sadness and its message. In the film's first few frames, and again in its last few moments, it captures the anguish of war like few films ever have. A resolutely important film - even today - and one you ought to run out to rent. It will wilt your heart.

My rating 9 out of 10.

The Other Boleyn Girl

Release date: 15 February 2008 (Berlin International Film Festival)
Overwrought scenes in the hands of director Justin Chadwick don't help us understand the star of this set-piece on a topic that's been done, pardon the pun, to death: the life and love, trials and tribulations of King Edward VIII's second wife, Anne Boleyn (a dreadful Natalie Portman). The twist in this telling is Anne's sister, Mary (played with typical style by Scarlett Johannson). It's all very Tudor and - yawn - predicable. There was a nugget of a story here in the rivalry between Anne and Mary for the affections of his-royal-pain-in-the-butt, Henry (Eric Bana), but the edge is lost by cumbersome dialogue and a plodding foreshadowing. Despite the dullness throughout, kudos to Kristen Scott Thomas for her fine work as Anne and Mary's mother, Lady Elizabeth, and Ana Torrent as Katherine of Aragon (her minute before Henry as the schism arrives is worth the rent alone).

Pretty costumes and some nifty visuals of life in the 15th century England land it my rating of 6 out of 10.

Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Release date: 17 May 2008 (Cannes Film Festival)

This gorgeous tome on the vagrancies of love, directed by the one and only Woody Allen, stars Javier Bardem (as Juan Antonio, the anything goes Spanish artist), Scarlett Johannson (as Cristina, the anything goes wannabe photographer who feels she's less artist than artist voyeur), Rebecca Hall (as Vicky, the straightlaced I-know-how-my-life-is-going-to-turn-out wife with a secret in her closet) and Penelope Cruz (as Maria Elena, as the over-the-top-artist with issues). Set - surprise, surprise - in Barcelona one summer it has our foursome sorting out their feelings and notions of love amid art, Gaudi and plenty of drama. And while a tad self-indulgent in true Allen form, I loved every moment of the adventure. It is perfectly filmed and while I can't agree that Penelope gives us an Oscar-worthy performance, there is enough fodder here in the witty dialogue alone to have you questioning your own relationship(s).

For that alone, my rating 8 out 10.

Strictly Ballroom

Release date: May 1992 (Cannes Film Festival)

Long before there was So You Think You Can Dance or Dancing With the Stars there was Baz Luhrmann's first movie, the 1992 Strictly Ballroom. Paul Mercurio stars as Scott Hastings, the ballroom dancing son of a ballroom couple who has to face up to his parents pressure to win the Australian Pan Pacific Championship dancing title, even though all he wants to do is introduce new steps to the stodgy contest. When his partner deserts him tired of his shenanigans, Scott takes up with the dance studio wannabie Fran (played by Tara Morice) and two begin a timid romance amid the practicing. Its interesting to see this movie all these years on as even back then, you can see Luhrmann's unique style and his wonderful joive de vivre for life and love. Strictly Ballroom is a feel good movie, more fun and fabulous then its predecessor Dirty Dancing, with dancing from start to finish and quirky, adorable characters.

For the sheer frivolity of it all, and seeing character Tina Sparkle do her stuff, my rating 8 out of 10.

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress (aka Xiao cai feng)

Release date: 16 May 2002 (Cannes Film Festival)

This semi-autobiographical love story, written and directed by Sijii Dai, recounts the story of two bourgeoise teenaged boys - Luo (Kun Chen) and Ma (the oh-so-handsome Ye Lui) - sent to the country for reeducation during the Chinese Cultural Revolution. There, amid mountains and peasants, they eke out a tough living, constantly having to justify their upbringing, finding new ways to amuse themselves, and spending long days doing heavy labour. When they spy on girls from a neighbouring village bathing in a waterfall, Luo is instantly in love with the granddaughter of the village tailor, dubbed 'the little chinese seamstress' (Xun Zhou). Stealing a stash of foreign books, he and Ma begin reading to her each day in hopes of both educating her and wooing her. It works and soon, our Chinese seamstress is pregnant just as Luo is granted a two month leave of absence to care for his ailing father in the city. Set among the mountains later flooded to make way for the Three Gorges Dam, Xiao cai feng is a beautiful, romantic, comic treatise on the power of music and literature to change people, and the reality that we are creatures of our upbringing, reeducation or not. With a sad yet moving coda, and despite its blatant political bent, Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress is one not to miss.

My rating 8 out of 10.

The Visitor

Release date: 7 September 2007 (Toronto International Film Festival)

Thomas Martin wrote and directed this engaging film about college professor Walter Vale (Oscar-nominated Richard Jenkins) marooned by the death of his wife who rediscovers life after discovering an illegal immigrant couple living in his New York City apartment. He finds a kinship with the couple, a Sengalese woman, Zaniab (Danai Jekesai Gurira) and her Syrian boyfriend, Tarek (Haaz Sleiman). In particular, he he is drawn to Tarek and his drumming and soon is joining a drumming circle that meets in Central Park. But when Tarek's status as an illegal alien is uncovered after he jumps a subway turnstile, Walter comes face-to-face with the post-911 reality in America. He hires a lawyer to help navigate the immigration and detention process and intervenes with Tarek's mother, Mouna (the beautiful Hiam Abbass), when she arrives from Michigan. With a common bond, a fast friendship and romance soon develops between Walter and Mouna that plays out in the last half of the film. The Visitor walks a delicate tightrope between these two stories and succeeds in giving us true-to-life characters facing true-to-life situations. Never moralistic or judgmental, The Visitor shows us a fact of life: people come to the United States illegally and are deported back. This is a great drama if only to watch the superb performances of Abbass and Jenkins.

My rating 9 out of 10.

Office Space

Release date: 19 February 1999 (United States)

There are characters in Office Space you've met and worked alongside in the horror that is cubicle hell at any Acme company anywhere in the world. Injected with a hefty dose of Dilbert, director Mike Judge, sicks them on their boss and each other to - for the first 30 minutes at least - hilarious effect. Ron Livingston, Gary Cole and Jennifer Aniston star and Stephen Root steals the movie as Milton Waddams in search of his red stapler. There are many truths in Office Space about how we work and the value we put on the 40 hours a week we spend living in cubicles, the greatest being that in the end, work is really nothing more than the silly, inconsequential thing we do between living. Beneath its crass stereotypes lies a modern day classic of work life in all its monotony.

My rating 7 out of 10.

Great Expectations (1946)

Release date: 26 December 1946 (United Kingdom)

Charles Dicken's classic tale of a po'boy, who through one act of kindness, ends up a privileged lad has never been done better than David Lean's 1946 version (yes, he of Lawrence of Arabia; A Passage to India; Dr. Zhivago; Oliver Twist and the Bridge on the River Kwai). Pip's story remains at its best when read granted, but Anthony Havelock-Allan's dumbed down (with kindness) version in Lean's capable hands gives us a fair flavour of Dicken's spirit. Yes, that is a very young Alec Guinness as Herbet Pocket and yes, that is an even younger Jean Simmons playing young Estella, the lass Pip's life is forever tied it. Acted superbly with nary a missed beat and shot with aplomb at Denham Studios, it puts all other versions - be they film or television - to shame; including Alfonso Cuaron's embarrassing 1998 effort better titled Middling Expectations. After the book, this is the definitive version of Great Expectations.

My rating 10 out of 10.

Frozen River

Release date: 18 January 2008 (Sundance Film Festival)

Written and directed by Courtney Hunt, Frozen River stars (Oscar-nominated) Melissa Leo as Ray Eddy, a mother trying to keep her two sons together after their gambling addicted father up and leaves with the rent money and the downpayment for their new mobile home. Set in a wee town on the New York State-Ontario border with a sizeable Mohawk reserve, the film explores Native ideas of citizenship, the bonds of love and friendship and the lengths some mothers do go to in order to keep a family together. Out of money and luck, Ray meets Lila Littlewolf (played by Misty Upham), another single mother who is assisting illegal aliens in crossing the St. Lawrence from Canada to the United States, and agrees to join Lila in driving refugees across the dangerous, frozen river. Frozen River is a quiet film with excellent acting on Leo's part that takes the time to really delve into both women's characters. The plot, while simple, is suspenseful and will have you on the edge of your seat to the end and makes venturing onto the thin ice worth every cent.

My rating 7 out of 10.

Shall We Dansu?

Release date: 27 January 1996 (Tokyo, Japan)

Written and directed by Masayuki Suo, this original version of the later J-Lo and Richard Gere version, makes sense and that, in itself, should be praise enough for this fine film. Trapped within the social and cultural pressures present within Japanese society, married Mr. Sugiyama (Koji Sugiyama) struggles with his desire to enter a dance school after seeing one of its teachers, the beautiful Mai Kishikawa (Tamiyo Kusakari) in the dance studio's windows as he passes by each evening on the train. Initially embarrassed and ashamed of such a desire, Mr. Sugiyama hides his classes from his wife and work colleagues until the day of a dance competition when the consequences of hiding our feelings and actions comes back to bite him. Populated with four great side characters with unique stories of their own, Shall We Dansu beautifully shows us a the power of shame with Japan and its societal norms, and how, in the end, we're truly all the same.

My rating 8 out of 10.