The first movie produced by Afghanistan filmmakers after the fall of the Taliban, Osama is a searing portrait of life under the oppressive fundamentalist regime. Because women are not allowed to work, a widow disguises her young daughter (Marina Golbahari) as a boy so they won’t starve to death. Simply walking the streets is frightening enough, but when the disguised girl is rounded up with all the boys in the town for religious training, her peril becomes absolutely harrowing. Golbahari’s face--beautiful but taut with terror--is riveting. The movie captures both her plight and the miseries of daily life in spare, vivid images. At one point, her mother is nearly killed for exposing her feet while riding on the back of a bicycle; for the entire scene, the camera shows only her feet, with the spokes of the wheel radiating out behind as she lowers her burka over them.

~really~ good film, tho really, really sad.  i cannot imagine the lives these women live.  from all accounts, things haven’t improved much in afghanistan either.  my heart goes out to the people there.

If you want the full sledgehammer-to-the-stomach effect of Audition, stop reading this review now. Just watch it and take the consequences. At first glance, Takashi Miike’s jack in the box of a movie works like a romantic comedy: amiable widower Shigeharu Aoyama (Ryo Ishibashi) decides it’s time to find a new wife, and a friend suggests holding a fake audition to find the right girl. It soon becomes clear that there is something wrong with Aoyama’s choice. This is no ordinary Fatal Attraction-style thriller, however; Audition slowly and carefully builds into a wrenching exploration of both deep male fears and the stereotype of the cute, submissive Japanese woman. Audition is by no means an easy movie to watch--even hardcore horror fans may have trouble--but it will stay with you for a long, long time.

brutal horror flick.  not for the squeamish.  i enjoyed it, because i was in the mood for that type of movie and, though it’s not the best i’ve seen, it’s certainly spooky and horrific :|

with all the current fervor over reverend wright, obama’s minister, and the resulting “discussions” on racism… they brought the movie american history X to mind.  coincidentally it came on tv just a few days ago, as well.  listening to ed norton’s speech at the dinner table is so reminiscent of crap being spewed by those who dislike obama and wright, by extension, that i have to wonder if they didn’t have this speech memorized.

how sad that we’ve really not come further than this.

somehow, i missed this back in 2003.  ~excellent~ movie, though i suggest a box or 53 of kleenex to go with it :s

Academy Award winners Ben Kingsley (Gandhi) and Jennifer Connelly (A Beautiful Mind) deliver stunning performances as two strangers whose conflicting pursuits of the American Dream lead to a fight for their hopes at any cost. What begins as a struggle over a rundown bungalow spirals into a clash that propels everyone involved toward a shocking resolution. “The surprise ending will leave you breathless!” (Clay Smith, Access Hollywood)

the beautiful words of martin luther king: “i have a dream.”

excellent speech by christopher hichens on the importance of free speech.  well worth watching.

on the importance of free speech and hearing views in direct opposition to your own: “what he has to say must have taken him some effort to come up with, might contain a grain of historical truth, might in any case give people to think about why do they know what they already think they know.  how do i know that i know this, except that i’ve always been taught this and never heard anything else.  it’s always worth establishing first principle.  it’s always worth saying what would you do if you met a flat earth society member.  come to think of it, how can i prove the earth is round.  am i sure about the theory of evolution?  i know it’s supposed to be true.  here’s someone who says there’s no such thing, it’s all intelligent design.  how sure am i of my own views?  don’t take refuge in the false security of consensus.”