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A film with practically only two actors on screen can only work if the performers are up to it. And in 65 the two protagonists, Adam Driver and Ariana Greenblatt, exceed all expectations: Adam Driver is magnificent in the role of a human-like alien who fell to planet Earth due to an accident with the spaceship he was driving, Ariana Greenblatt is delightful in the role of a little girl responsible for almost all the moments of humor masterfully inserted here and there in the film. The pilot, who has lost a daughter due to an illness, rediscovers his paternal role with little Ariana, and the relationship between the two is the strongest element of the movie: the dinosaurs are just an accident that the two have to face to find the rescue vessel in order to return home. Elements of paleoastronautic scattered here and there enrich the film with interesting contents.

One of the most underrated movies of the last few years, INFINITE deserves to be watched for more than one reason: Mark Wahlberg is strangely convincing in the role of a depressed and grumpy schizophrenic guy who's destined to find out what is really hidden behind his mental condition. Great start, with a captivating scene of a job interview gone south. Mark Wahlberg beats Tom Cruise and any of the Mission Impossible action scenes by showing us how a true hero jumps on a plane: it takes guts to write such a scene, chapeau! The plot is a different take on the reincarnation theme, and I loved it. Memorable? Maybe not, but I guess no one involved in the making of this movie wanted to create a memorable film, just an enjoyable one, and they succeeded in doing that.

The first time I watched TITANE by director Julia Ducournau I didn't like it - I was disturbed by the killing of innocent people, therefore I couldn't empathise with the protagonist. But then the movie grew on me, and I loved it. It's just magnificent, there is so much sweetness despite all the horror Alexia is immersed in. The movie ultimately is about the redemption brought by love. And what a soundtrack! True masterpieces stay with you, no matter how much you disliked them in the beginning.

Justin Chon did a great job at presenting the drama of thousands of children who aren't granted citizenship despite being adopted by American families, and because of that facing deportation. This is an aspect of being an illegal immigrant in Usa that is rarely told. If we want to find a fault, the movie is sometimes too heavy on melodrama, but this doesn't ruin the overall project, which is blessed with dignity. The call for boycott is absolutely ridiculous: this movie should have won an Oscar, not been boycotted! A special praise to the little Sydney Kowalske for her excellent acting, a crescendo of nuances up to the heart-wrecking ending scene.

Heroine could be a pretty bad thing if you are not a rockstar, as to say a person rich enough to pay for your addiction without losing your dignity, and Candy makes the point pretty clear. But not every junkie turned to drug because of a terrible childhood, as Candy seems to suggest - sadly, even the most normal child raised by the most normal family can lose their mind because of love, and become an addict. The way Candy's father is depicted ruins an otherwise excellent movie poisoning it with that old fashioned melodramatic style that afflicts a big part of Australian cinematography. Luckily, Heath Ledger and Abbie Cornish are so brilliant that a few little mistakes are easily forgotten. I give an 8, but it could have been a 9.

Jennifer Lopez is stunning and perfect in every scene, Matthew McConaughey is a very pleasant presence (although not as charming as after the hair miracle that the actor will experience in a few years). The story is what it is, fake as a plastic flower, and yet it would have been watchable if there was not an imbarassing poor depiction of the Italian maybe-to-be fiancee Massimo: the goofy, insignificant, language-cliché speaking ("Mangia, mangia"), and ultimately boring young man cannot even start hoping to share the same room with JLo's character, let aside marring her, therefore this part of the story is far from being believable: it would have worked better if there were some real competition between him and McConaughey's character. 9 for JLo, 5 for the movie.

One of the most remarkable things in "A Good Year" is the music written by Marc Streitenfeld, an ethereal and melancholic instrumental piece that adds a fascinating depth to an otherwise formulaic and predictable movie. Mind you: predictable, but not boring. Just as a scrumptious french cake, layers and layers of exquisite ingredients work their way into building an hymn to the joy de vivre, the pleasure for the little things and what is most important in life, which is life itself. Among those ingredients, a charming and flawless Russell Crowe, an adorable Marion Cotillard and Albert Finney in the role of a cheeky old uncle, whose wisdom resonates from the past in beautifully crafted flashbacks. A sour note is the bit when the vine grower explains to his wife how, later in the night, she's gonna get the meaning of the word "sodomite": just an unnecessary heavy handed piece of dialogue in a picture that wanted to be romantic and immersed in light; that only lowered the mark quite a bit.

A very convincing Josh Hartnett plays the role of Eric LeMarque, a former hockey player fighting for his life when he got lost on the mountains due to a severe storm. A man alone with a snowboard and his own demons, plus some "fangy friends" here and there: the director, Scott Waugh, didn't need too many ingredients to cook up a suspenseful drama based on the true story of the "Miracle Man". An impeccable Mira Sorvino is Eric's mother.

This movie is absolutely brilliant! The life and personality of one of the most extraordinary men ever born is depicted on the big screen with visionary madness and yet historical accuracy by a Michael Almereyda in state of grace. I just loved the theatre-like feeling, the painted landscapes instead of the natural ones, the breaking of the forth wall by the narrator voice (the lovely Eve Hewson), with her laptop and Google searches. A convincing Rebecca Dayan impersonates the sensual, hypnotic beauty of Sarah Bernhardt (so gorgeous when she's recording her voice with a gramophone!), Ethan Hawke is absolutely perfect in the role of Tesla, a clumsy albatross among people (so well symbolised by the skating scene), exquisite mind when let free to imagine and create. Almereyda surpassed himself after the already excellent Marjorie Prime (and we meet again Lois Smith, here in a small cameo as the Grand Dame).

A perfect achievement by director Frances Lee, who digs out the inner beauty of the movie's protagonist with the same perseverance she digs out precious fossils from apparently dull stones. The best performance from Kate Winslet so far.

Una gemma cinematografica profonda nei contenuti e sontuosa esteticamente, interpretata da una Kirsten Dunst in stato di grazia.

The villain in Zack Snyder's Justice League is the director. I know that size matters, but a 4 hours movie is not better just because longer. We all love a nice slow motion here and there, but there are too many in this film, at the point that you would yell at the characters: "Grab that sword ffs!", "Save that girl, man! And stop playing with the sausage!" It's quite ironic that a story so full of superfast heroes is so tediously long and slow. Disappointed.

Lucy in the Sky alerts the audience that the film is inspired by real events, but there is very little of those events in this movie, thankfully. On the one hand we have an astronaut, Lisa Nowak, whose career is paved by brilliant successes, she is the flagship of NASA and an example of female emancipation to look upon with admiration, until the tragic moment when she loses her mind because of a love affair and shows one side of her personality that is not quite edifying: she cheats on her husband with a colleague who is also married, then when he ditches her for another woman she tries to kidnap - and perhaps kill? - the new flame of her ex lover. A crime story mainly remembered for the embarrassing detail of the diapers used by the woman in order to drive without having to stop, during the 900 miles towards the destination of her criminal project. From hero to zero in the blink of an eye. On the other hand, the movie's protagonist is portrayed as a victim: of an almost exclusively male professional world and of a lover who does not treat her with respect and even jeopardizes her work. The astronaut depicted on the screen, played by a magnificent Natalie Portman, is a figure to look at with compassion, a bright star that inexorably collapses under our eyes piece by piece: initially splendid in her space suit, pathetic rag doll with a ridiculous blonde wig at the end, as she attempts to attack her ex boyfriend. In between, the dream of flying, shared by both the real and the imaginary protagonists, rendered on the screen with delicate and poetic touches by director Noah Hawley. A broken dream, which is powerfully symbolized by the scene of a cocoon from which emerges not a butterfly but a gruesome handful of flies. But there is more than space missions out there, and our heroine will end finding a purpose in the microcosm of a bee farm (and how similar to a spacesuit is the beekeeping suit!)

La vera storia di un David contro Golia, un piccolo (immenso) avvocato di provincia che ha messo in ginocchio il gigante della chimica DuPont. Un film necessario che racconta una tragedia dai mille volti: quella del Capitale che non si fa scrupolo di rovinare persone innocenti pur di veder crescere il proprio contro in banca. Mark Ruffalo dà corpo al protagonista di questa vicenda con tono volutamente dimesso, umile, e così facendo ne sottolinea l'intrinseca grandezza: è un guerriero che non si agita scompostamente sul campo di battaglia ma siede su un pavimento, da solo, a capo chino, tra montagne di documenti da catalogare. È questa forse più di tutte l'immagine simbolo di una ricerca di giustizia che lo vedrà impegnato con una cocciuta, splendida **** per vent'anni.

Extremely well krafted science-fiction movie about the forth dimension, with a clever plot that reminds of "Frequency". Brilliant performances from David Oyelowo and Storm Reid.

Four kinds of love are represented in this movie: the love of a man for a woman, the love for God (the jihad-thing), the love for the planet (symbolized by Danny's job) and the love for truth (James's spy job). Unfortunately, one more kind of love, probably the most important for a movie, is missing here: the love for filmmaking. Despite the title and the indisputable good performance from James McAvoy (not really sure about Alicia Vikander), the movie often lingers on a superficial dimension, never dragging the audience into the depth of the characters' feelings. The ending result is an annoying emotional detachment.

The touching true story of an amazing friendship, the metamorphosis of a soul from prejudice (in a early scene the white protagonist throws in the garbage bin the glasses used by a couple of black people working in his house) to complicity. An outstanding Viggo Mortesen delivers the best performance of his career so far, Mahershala Alí confirms and overcomes the skills shown in Moonlight. With or without an Oscar statuette, this movie will be remembered for a long time.

Most notable thing in Beirut is Dean Norris: as a huge fan of Breaking Bad,I knew this solid american actor as "Hank", one of the most important characters of the show. Seeing him performing in Beirut with a wig was quite a shock, but an hilarious one, haha! I will only remember the movie for this bit.

I really don't get the bad reviews this movie has gotten, I reckon Wonder Wheel is a shockingly underestimated gem, and usually I'm not a huge fan of Allen. But in this movie everything seems perfect to me,starting from the saturated palette created by Vittorio Storaro, which evokes a sense of celebrating nostalgia for the amazing '50s and stresses the dreaming nature of the protagonist (a Kate Winslet in state of grace), a palette that describes the protagonist's feelings, showed through a blue or a golden shade on her persona, Picasso's style. I loved the metatheatrical bits, the numerous references to the Greek tragedy (the movie itself feels like it's a stage play). And this is the best I can do with my second language.

The Zookeeper's Wife avrebbe potuto essere un nuovo, interessante approccio al dramma della Shoa, narrata stavolta dall'ottica di una coppia polacca che riuscì a salvare 300 ebrei nascondendoli in uno zoo da essa gestito nella cittá di Varsavia. Purtroppo, quello che mi sembra mancare nel film diretto da Niki Caro è un certo grado di intensitá nel descrivere i **** e le dinamiche che li legano: mi sarebbe piaciuto che la passione, l'attrazione, la repulsione, l'amore, la paura, lo sdegno fossero realmente trasmessi, e non solo indicati. Jessica Chastain è una presenza elegantissima sullo schermo, eppure non riesce a restituire fino in fondo l'animo della signora Żabiński: la sappiamo divisa tra l'amore per il marito e le attenzioni dell'ufficiale **** che la corteggia (almeno questa è la teoria del film), ma non lo sentiamo davvero. Curiosamente, sono le scene dell'olocausto degli animali a colpire e a rimanere impresse con più forza: l'aquila che cade abbattuta dalle pistole **** trasmette tutto l'orrore di una morte assurda e atroce, specchio del simile destino abbattutosi sugli esseri umani vittime delle SS. Così come colpiscono le scene in cui la Chastain interagisce con dei cuccioli: quando salva dal soffocamento un piccolo di elefante appena nato, dal quale si precipita lasciando le ipocrisie di una festa borghese e catapultandosi in questo modo nel suo elemento più vero, o quando nutre un baby bisonte porgendogli del cibo con le proprie labbra. Eppure, anche in tutta questa dolcezza c'è una nota stonata: la donna accarezza gli animali più di quanto non accarezzi i bambini che ha salvato, nonostante abbia rischiato la vita per nasconderli; e anche quando scopre che il figlio non è stato ucciso dall'ufficiale tedesco, il suo sollievo appena accennato non è minimamente all'altezza del sentimento reale che una madre proverebbe. Forse questo immane sforzo a trattenersi è stato richiesto dalla regista e non è quindi colpa dell'attrice; ma non ne vediamo davvero la ragione e, invece che dare forza al film, lo indebolisce. Come non rende un buon servizio alla pellicola l'affettatissimo accento polacco richiesto alla Chastain, che si risolve in un estenuante esercizio di stile che distrae ed annoia, invece che coinvolgere: è giusto il caso di ricordare che le persone, quando parlano la propria lingua madre, non parlano con un accento straniero. L'inglese con un accento esotico dovrebbe essere usato soltanto per sottolineare la non appartenenza di una persona ad un certo luogo; avrebbe senso l'accento polacco se a parlare fosse un americano che si trovasse in Polonia, mentre la Zabinski e il marito erano polacchi nella loro patria. A volte, per essere troppo fedeli ad una storia e raccontarla con il maggior numero possibile di dettagli, si rischia di perdere la visione d'insieme e di fallire il senso ultimo del linguaggio, che è la comunicazione, la quale beneficerebbe più della semplicitá che non delle spericolatezze della recitazione sovrastrutturata.

In 1981 Timothy Hutton won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for ORDINARY PEOPLE, the first movie directed by Robert Redford. The problem is... Hutton's character, Conrad Jarrett, was the protagonist of the story, so he should have won the Oscar for Best Actor! It looks like the Academy Awards' jury didn't want to act rudely towards Donald Sutherland, playing the role of Hutton's father, thus an actor much older than the 20 year old Timothy. Let's say that this was a severe case of excessive politeness. I hope Timothy Hutton again finds a movie as powerful as Ordinary People, and to finally win the Oscar he deserves.

I watched THX 1138 in the 70s, when I was a teenager, and I deeply loved it. It has been one of my favorite Sci-Fi movies ever, a love at first sight that had a big part in molding me into the huge fan of dystopian scenarios I am today. A love that lasted for 40 years, until I happened to watch the Director's Cut version: what a disappointment! I frankly don't understand why George Lucas wanted to change something so perfect. Especially the ending scene, when THX faces the shell dwellers: have the monkeys escaped from Planet of the Apes? Some leftover of Aliens that couldn't be employed anywhere else? Ridiculous. A restoration shouldn't make a movie look worse. My rate only refers to the 1971 version.

Mesmerizing. The deep, challenging relation between a master and his pupil, played at the pace of a jazz jam session, and the movie never misses a beat. J.F. Simmons in the best role of his career delivers a stunning performance, while it's a true epiphany for Miles Teller: who would ever have expected that the shy kid of Rabbit Hole could have turned into such a powerful tiger?

This amazing little movie with a big heart proves once again that you don't need either expensive productions or famous actors to find Beauty. A delicate, tiptoed journey around human solitude, with an unexpected, heart-warming ending. Outstanding performance by Eddie Marsan.

A man, a car, a journey in the night, and the art of being a decent person. A pure gem. And Tom Hardy is so brilliant! Would you believe that he didn't learn by heart all the lines of the script? Unmissable.

The anti-God harangue would have been pretty boring if there was not the unexpected twist of the ending. Most of the time, the science-vs-religion statements just get the opposite effect to what was intended: viewers end up thinking that atheism is not that good for mankind, and having a genuine faith in God would be much better for people because at least it helps in coping with a devasting drama like the loss of a child killed by a cancer. The tribute to Bluegrass music is so brilliant that it alone makes the movie worth watching.

Overrated, boring, appealing only to those who are not familiar with other dystopic and better films - even too easy to quote Soylent Green. The idea of a train as a generation vehicle finds a more interesting predecessor in the short story "Universe" by Robert Heinlein, where "home" was a starship. I just liked the idea of carriages as a metaphor of social classes (first class, second class...) and played as the next level of a videogame.