Full Metal Jacket *****

Director: Stanley Kubrick

Year: 1987

Novel "The Short Timers" by: Gustav Hasford

Adapted by: Stanley Kubrick, Michael Herr, Gustav Hasford

Cinematographer: Douglas Milsome

The Door in the Floor ****

Director: Tod Williams

Year: 2004

Book by: John Irving

Adapted by: Tod Williams

Cinematographer: Terry Stacey

Inception ****

Writer/Director: Christopher Nolan

Year: 2010

Cinematographer: Wally Pfister

This is a really fun crime-thriller/sci-fi/dream flick with some really great action sequences, and I really can't wait to see it a second time to watch for how it was shot and pay more attention to the technique. But I really did enjoy the story, I was sucked in for most of it, but caught myself being pulled out by trying to predict where it was going.

I really liked Tom Hardy and Cillian Murphy, I think they acted circles around the rest of the cast with much fewer lines of dialogue. Joseph Gordon-Levitt kinda annoyed me with his super serious voice.

The effects were great, and I liked the general concept of this action thriller that moves through different levels of dreams. I liked getting a little behind at a couple of points, but felt that I should have been left to be a little more lost. I would have liked to feel that Kubrick sensation of awe, of being out to sea by the end, totally lost. But ultimately, while the last shot is a really nice cliff-hanger moment, I felt disappointed because the film actually ends a little too cleanly, tying up the loose ends and then offering this doubtful moment at the end but without building in enough explanation to really make you doubt the reality of the final moment enough to mess with your mind on the level of that "starchild" kind of moment we get at the end of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

The reason this doesn't get a five star review from me is for the following reasons:

1. I don't really like DiCaprio that much in this film, or any other film for that matter. Also, his performance was basically a rehash of what he did in Shutter Island, and I never felt like I was that drawn into him... but then, that's always my complaint with DiCaprio, I never relate to him emotionally because I am always distracted by his ACTING. He acts like he's acting, he always has, and that's always been a frustration for me, because I never buy the emotions he's selling me.

2. I don't perceive my own dreams to be so organized. Random stuff happens, and the plot of my dreams seems to be in constant flux, as if my attention can't remain on one through story. So that's a problem I have with Nolan's conception of dreams here, he has architects building levels of dreams that basically follow one logic during the course of the dream, although he does switch things up by moving to another dream that has another logic. But I never really felt that the logic of the dreams were all that screwy, my dreams are way more crazy than just a city folding back on itself, thats one stunt. Then each other dream seems to have one stunt, like no gravity, or the gravity rotating from one wall to the next. In my dreams, the logic is ever-changing, or at times doesn't seem to have a logic. That's why I think Michel Gondry is cinema's greatest ever at directing dreams: my evidence, Eternal Sunshine, and The Science of Sleep. I would like to see Michel Gondry direct a Charlie Kaufman rewrite of this Christopher Nolan concept, because that would be a 5 star film.

3. Too much dialogue explaining what is going on, why they are going to die for real, why DiCaprio is screwing up the plan, etc. I hate it when Ellen Page asks these "Gee guys, why are you doing that? Could you spell it out for me and the audience please?" questions. That's a major flaw in the script I think.

4. Also, I think the choice between the dream world where DiCaprio can stay with his wife and real world where he must face the world without her was better covered in Tarkovsky's Solaris. Here, I just didn't feel the emotional weight of the decision DiCaprio makes, no matter how much eye-brow furling, squinting and lip tensing he does.

But don't get me wrong, this is a very good movie, I'm not picking it apart so much because I don't like it, I'm picking it apart because I am aware of a few things that could have made it better for me. I do like the movie, it just comes up short of that all time "WOW" list of movies occupied by some of the films I referred to in this critique.

Amores Perros *****

Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu

Year: 2000

Writer: Guillermo Arriaga

Cinematographer: Rodrigo Prieto

Absolute masterwork, still my favorite of Iñarritu's work. Excellent in all categories, this time around, I really reveled in the creativity of the handheld camerawork and editing.

Little Children *****

Director: Todd Field

Year: 2006

Book by: Tom Perrotta

Adapted by: Tom Perrotta, Todd Field

Cinematographer: Antonio Calvache

A masterpiece look into American suburbia, where every adult is really just a little child that needs to learn to grow up. Thats a corny pitch line, but at the moment I'm not feeling like an adequate writer to describe the greatness of this film which feels like reading a story by John Updike, which is a huge compliment and by the way, I don't think I've ever seen a film adapted from an Updike work of literature, but after this I would certainly nominate Todd Field to direct any adaptation of his work.

In the Bedroom ****

Director: Todd Field

Year: 2001

Short story by: Andre Dubus - "Killings"

Adapted by: Todd Field, Robert Festinger

Cinematographer: Antonio Calvache

The only reason this is not a 5 star film is that the story isn't ambitious enough, not unforgettable enough to pull rank along with the all time greatest films... however, for me, this is a perfectly made film. Script, direction, acting... emotion... its a solid, solid movie.

Coffee and Cigarettes ****

Writer/Director: Jim Jarmusch

Year: 2003

Cinematographer: Tom DiCillo, Frederick Elmes, Ellen Kuras, Robby Müller

The New World ****

Writer/Director: Terrence Malick

Year: 2005

Cinematographer: Emmanuel Lubezki

Malick's dream of John Smith's awesome experience discovering "the new world" and Pocahontas' awesome experience discovering what to her was a new world, though we call it the old world. Time, plot, explanation for events all get lost in Malick's dream. It builds upon his work in The Thin Red Line, which was nearly as confusing for those trying to follow a series of events, and focused more on a kind of journal reading of different characters meditations on war, but here, while keeping John Smith, Pocahontas and John Rolfe's emotional journals, the plot is even more lost. It feels other worldly, like the dreams they must have felt they were living.

If you want to see a historic recreation of events, don't look to a Malick film... if you want to feel what they felt emotionally, if you want to see what the new world must have looked like to their eyes, then this is a beautiful film, that almost seems like the dreams of the memories of the central characters perhaps being recalled at the end of their lives.

Toy Story 3 ****

Director: Lee Unkrich

Year: 2010

Writers: Michael Arndt, Andrew Stanton, Lee Unkrich, John Lasseter

Hero *****

Director: Yimou Zhang

Year: 2002

Writers: Yimou Zhang, Bin Wang, Feng Li

Cinematographer: Christopher Doyle

The Graduate *****

Director: Mike Nichols
Year: 1967
Book by: Charles Webb
Adapted by: Buck Henry, Calder Willingham
Cinematographer: Robert Surtees

High Fidelity ****

Director: Stephen Frears

Year: 2000

Book by: Nick Hornby

Adapted by: Steve Pink, D.V. DeVincentis

Cinematographer: Seamus McGarvey

Stranger Than Fiction ****

Director: Marc Forster

Year: 2006

Writer: Zach Helm

Cinematographer: Roberto Schaefer

An Education ****

Director: Lone Scherfig
Year: 2009
Memoir by: Lynn Barber
Adapted by: Nick Hornby
Cinematographer: John de Borman

Excellent script, very well made film. Squirming in my seat the whole time, getting angry, wanting to reach through the screen to slap her father into having some sense, and to yank the young girl from the arms of that slimy weasel. Good when a movie can get a visceral reaction out of its audience.

Lost In Translation *****

Writer/Director: Sofia Coppola
Year: 2003

Cinematographer: Lance Acord

Soul Power *****

Director: Jeffrey Levy-Hinte
Year: 2008
Cinematographers/Camera Operators: Paul Goldsmith, Kevin Keating, Albert Maysles, Roderick Young

A great music festival documentary, beautifully photographed, with great personalities coming through on their own. I was totally fascinated and ready to sit through the full set lists of all the artists, disappointingly only a few extra performances were included as extras on the DVD, but hopefully in the future there will be more.

As far as concert films go, I think this is actually better-made than Woodstock, although arguably less important historically. So maybe I would put this as my second favorite concert film of all time. Seriously, excellent.

Love Stinks ***

Writer/Director: Jeff Franklin
Year: 1999
Cinematographer: Uta Briesewitz

Caught this on TV recently in the first 5 minutes and got sucked in. I really enjoyed French Stewart's performance, and Bridgette Wilson was actually really good too, usually I hate her when she pops up in a film, I've even had some nightmares involving her character from that really bad Parent Trap remake. Anyway, funny movie. Maybe it was because I was up really late, but this was a surprisingly funny movie. Rent it!

Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi ****

Director: Richard Marquand
Executive Producer: George Lucas
Year: 1983
Writers: Lawrence Kasdan, George Lucas
Cinematographers: Alan Hume

Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back ****

Director: Irvin Kershner
Executive Producer: George Lucas
Year: 1980
Writers: Leigh Brackett, Lawrence Kasdan
Cinematographer: Peter Suschitzky

East of Eden ***

Director: Elia Kazan
Year: 1955
Book by: John Steinbeck
Adapted by: Paul Osborn
Cinematographer: Ted D. McCord