I'm Still Here (2024)

I finally saw the last of the 2025 Best Picture nominations, and this was fantastic. It is also based on a real story, and the film recreates the settings and the time. It is 1970 in Rio de Janeiro, where Eunice and Rubens live with their five children by Leblon Beach. With white sand as soft as pillows and blue seas as clear as the sky, the idyllic locale should be a soft landing for the Paiva family. An architect and former congressman, Rubens has only recently returned to the country after a six-year self-exile due to the 1964 coup d’état. For the family, however, the dictatorship is never far from the foreground. Military helicopters fly over the beach, and trucks carrying additional troops occupy the streets. Television news stations cover the release of the German and Swiss ambassadors from anti-government factional custody. Rubens also takes secret phone calls in his office, coordinating pickups and drop-offs of packages. The collapse occurs when Rubens is taken for questioning by plain-clothed army officials, a catastrophe that takes the film to darker places and engenders many unanswerable questions. And while it’s not a spoiler to say Eunice and her children will never see Rubens again, those hopeless queries aren’t necessarily what the movie is about. Rather, this poignant film concerns the response to having neither a definitive answer nor final closure. Eventually, Eunice and Eliana will be taken in for questioning, psychologically tortured, and then released. Eunice will pick up the pieces and dig, becoming politically active in the process. We will follow her struggle through the decades—her career as a professor and supporter of Indigenous rights—leaping to São Paulo in 1996 before settling in 2014. She made a life after that was both all her own and honored the legacy of her husband.

The Room Next Door (2024)

Pedro Almodovar is a genius when it comes to exploring the nature of humans and he does it in vibrant technicolor. His films tend to touch on the untouchable, things that people do not want to talk about. His subject matter is like a laundry list of things that book banners want off the shelves completely but are at the same time part of the human condition. He is Spanish and so have his films been--until now. This one is in English and it deals with not just terminal illness and death but with choosing suicide rather than a painful death when euthanasia is not an end of life option. The movie is based on Sigrid Nunez’s novel What Are You Going Through, and it is an emotional two-hander between acting titans, Juliana Moore palying the friend, Ingrid, and Tilda Swinton plays Martha, the recurrent cancer patient who is out of viable treatmnet options. As Ingrid, Moore is us, the audience--the character we have to judge ourselves against--what would we do? The cancer patient doesn't want to be alone, or to be found dead days later, so she asks a friend to be there--not to administer the fatal pill but to raise the alarm once she is well and truly gone. Ingrid is trying to do her best with an impossible task, perhaps sympathetic to a fault, yet she gracefully attempts to deal with the grief of losing her friend without making Martha uncomfortable. She does an amazing job of portraying a wman in this untenable situation, trying to support her ailing friend all while suffering the loss of a friend. Swinton is graceful in a different manner. Her performance feels restrained, holding on to a stiff upper lip even as if her character looks like she’s physically holding back the pain from appearing on her face. It is magnificent.

Frida (2024)

This documentary of the artist Frida Kahlo is one that you will love or hate, and it might depend on how you feel about the subject herself. Creative, colourful, and predominantly told through the words of its subject as recorded in her illustrated diaries, this engaging documentary about the Mexican artist is a beguiling and rather beautiful tribute to her spirit and originality. Its deft blend of archive footage and what I found to be lovely, organic animation of her works of art marks the directorial debut of Carla Gutiérrez, who served as the editor on several documentaries about groundbreaking women including RBG, about Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Julia, which looked at the legacy of television chef Julia Child. Kahlo’s life was full and eventful, but while the film doesn’t attempt to explore every aspect and every romantic connection, it does delve satisfyingly deeply into her interior life, explored through her artistic output. There is something wildly appealing about how Kahlo approaches art that has endured robustly, more so than her fragile body endured, and for me, it is captured in this imaginative telling of her life and her creative process. I saw an exhibit of her early work, some dating back to her childhood, and the consistency with which she applied magical realism to her art is breathtaking, and reflected throughout this documentary, which is short listed for the 2025 Feature Length Documentary Academy Award.

Argentina, 1985 (2022)

There have been several movies over the years about Argentina's Dirty War, with thousands of people kidnapped, tortured, and killed without a trial, a crime, or any record of what happened to them--The Offical Story, The Disappeared, Imagining Argentina to name a few. This is about the reckoning that followed. Julio Strassera is the Argentinian chief prosecutor in charge of the junta trial in 1985--there was no only-following-orders argument: they were ones giving the orders. The event was easily as important as South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation commission 11 years later, although the emphasis was much more toughly on the “truth” part. Nine top military brass were put in the dock for human rights abuses, and this film shows their haughty refusal to recognise the authority of a civilian court and theri efforts to intimidate and threaten those who were witnesses as well as the prosecutors and their families. Leopoldo Galtieri, who had been in charge of the shameful and catastrophic invasion of the Falklands just four years before was in the mix. His presence is not especially remarked upon, but Mitre lets the unspoken anger hover in the air: Argentina’s army was tough enough to torture women and children, but not tough enough to capture las islas Malvinas. The ending is known, but the depiction of how it unfolded it so well done, and a fitting end to this horrible chapter in Argentina's past.

Encanto (2021)

Disney can be counted on for feel good, family friendly animated movies that you do not have to scratch your head too long to figure out what the underlying take home messages might be, and this movie is no exception. Except for one thing, it centers on a Spanish speaking culture and ideas and beliefs that are outside of the mainstream western norms that Disney has been slowly but consistently breaking out of. This story is a Colombian magical realist tale of a family that received special powers after surviving a tragedy. Now, a few generations later, they live together in a magical house and each member develops their own talent, like the ability to control the weather, shapeshift into other people, and talk to animals. Their house responds to the family’s requests and responds to their moods. Each bedroom is magically tailored to the relative and their magical gift. All except for one, Mirabel--she is pointedly without magic, and even her grandmother--especially her abuela--holds against her. Well, you can see where this is going from all angles and a mile away, but it does so against a magnificently rendered animated landscape that is breath taking to behold.

The Mole Agent (2020)

This is a documentary that takes place largely within the confines of a Chilean skilled nursing facility, where residents are not allowed to leave the premises. The mission is to investigate whether or not there is wrong doing afoot there. The question is who to beleive, the resident, who may or may not have her wits about her, and the story told by the facility. The uniqueness comes from the reporter. Sergio, and 83 year old who has just lost his wife of many years, applies for the job of undercover agent to go in and investigate the claims. He is armed with a pen and a pair of glasses that he can film with, but he starts off not knowing how to work his iPhone properly. This is warm and disarming. Not all is perfect in the facility, but it is not bad. Sergio's reporting gives some context to what might explain some of the complaints, but he is also giving the residents an audience to speak to. The film viewer who also gets to learn about various residents, including Perdita’s poetry, Bertita’s love of autonomy, and Marta’s kleptomania. The documentary does not rely on a talking head interview format, and yet it has the same effect when it comes to what the viewer takes away from the film—-here are the thoughts and anxieties of different residents, thanks to Sergio's conversations with them. This is short listed for the Academy Award in both International film as well as documentary film.

Wild Tales (2014)

This is yet again evidence that Pedro Aldomovar is a quirky genius.  If I had seen this when it came out I would have said that these six stories, which are unlinked by anything except that they display the worst of human traits, were things that happened at the edges of life and were not seen in the main of life.  Now that we live in an increasingly openly nationalist, misogynist, and caste oriented world, that opinion no longer holds.

The theme is that people do other people wrong, often quite casually, and that those acts of meanness or pettiness or side stepping ones responsibilities, are not forgotten and they come back to bite one.  In this case with murderous intent.  The stories are grm and the outcomes are deadly, but in classic Aldomovar style, they are all told with beautiful cinematography and a touch of humor, so you find yourself occasionally identifying with the wrong person, and also laughing a bit until you are horrified.  And therein lies the filmmaker's true talent for story telling.
 

No (2012)

This is a very interesting story that is well told. 
A simple vote: "Yes" or "No." It's 1988 and Chilean military dictator Augusto Pinochet agrees to a referendum under pressure from the international community: if the nation votes "Yes," (rather, "Si") he remains in power, "No" then he leaves and there are new elections. Ad-man René Saavedra (played by the ever popular Gael Garcia Bernal) leads the team campaigning for "No," using the marketing strategies of the American Cola Wars. To complicate matters, his boss Lucho Guzmán (Alfredo Castro) heads the "Yes" team.
Here are the rules: Each night, each side receives 15 minutes of airtime on national television to present its case. The "Yes" gang depicts Pinochet's leadership as an economic success, modernizing the country, introducing microwave ovens in the home -- all now at risk of socialist takeover if the communists of the "No" campaign succeed. Instead of focusing on the Pinochet regime atrocities, Saavedra creates an atmosphere of hope for the future of Chile and against all odds, and much intimidation, they win.

Roma (2018)

This is an atmospheric movie.  The director shot the film himself, so he clearly wanted it this way.  The film rarely uses close-ups, keeping us at a distance from Cleo (masterfully acted by Yalitza Aparicio), the maid in an upper class Mexican household in 1970,  and his other characters, and allowing the details of the world around them to come to life. He uses the long shot most frequently,  often placing Cleo in a tableau that could be called chaotic, whether it’s a market teeming with people behind her or even just the home in which she spends so much of her time, full of noisy children, relatives, and servants. Cleo’s existence is a crowded one, and it almost feels like it gets more so as the film goes along, mirroring her increasing concern as her life becomes more complicated.
The story is one of class differences, cultural differences, differences between the city and the countryside, all wrapped up into one very neatly told story that doesn't raise anyone's defensiveness as to their place in the world.  It is quietly brilliant.

A Fantastic Woman (2017)

This is a Chilean movie that centers on a transgendered woman.  In many ways, that sums it up, but it is so much richer than the sum of its parts.  The movie starts off with scenes of Marina, a beautiful and talented woman enjoying life with her much older boyfriend, Orlando, who then unexpectedly dies.
His death marks a rapid and unsettling unraveling of her life.  Orlando, not expecting to have what appears to be a cerebral aneurysm, has not made plans for Marina in the event of his death.  Nor, I suspect, does Orlando understand the depth of his friends and family's loathing and fear of Marina and what she represents.  She is one moment living the dream, and the next waking up in a nightmare, where she is accused of having something to do with Orlando's death, kicked out of his apartment by a brother who can't wait to collect his inheritance, banned from the funeral, kidnapped and tortured by the brother's compatriots, and basically being vilified for living as a woman.  While this is not my pick to win in this category, there is an awful lot to be said for it, and I would cheer loud and long if it took home the prize.

Coco (2017)

Oh my goodness, this is maybe the best movie I have seen during this wild and wonderful season of watching all the Oscar nominated films.  I just loved it, and even though I have only seen one of the other nominees in the category of Best Animated film, it will be hard for something else to knock it off my choice it the category.  The story is that Miguel is growing up with his extended family in Santa Cecilia, Mexico.  His family us pathologically anti-music because Miguel's great great grandfather was a musician who went of to pursue his dreams with a band and never returned.  Miguel has inherited his passion for guitar, and he has been secretly practicing and plans to compete in a local contest on the eve of the Day of the Dead.  One thing leads to another, a little magic sweeps him up, and he finds himself on the other side, in the land of the dead, and has to work to get himself back to the land of the living.  There is a plot twist or two, nothing too outrageous, and the whole package is charming, uplifting, and will make you want to plan your next trip to Mexico as soon as possible in order to immerse yourself in it's rich culture.

Tasting Menu (2013)

Having eaten at Pakta, Albert Adria's restaurant in Barcelona a year or so ago, I was prepared for the type of food that was served at the restaurant depicted in this movie.  Mar is a chef who makes food that is typical of the ultra high end restaurant market--small portions, lots of them, lots to look at, little to eat, with the emphasis on the intensity of the flavor more than anything else.  It is not the way I would eat every day, but it is definitely an immersion in food and flavor experience that is very pleasurable.

This movie does not focus quite enough on the cuisine to be a truly food oriented movie, but that backdrop does make it fun.  Mar is closing her restaurant in the Girona area and she is not sure what she is going to do next.  Her lover and co-partner is clearly angling for a deal with two competing Japanese businessmen, but Mar is not enthusiastic.  There is restlessness afoot with her.  The various restaurant guests have various dramas going on, but all in all the focus of the movie is a superficial one, being happy with light entertainment and the occasional thing to think about.  Very entertaining, with enough restaurant based action for a foodie, and streaming on Netflix.

Reaching for the Moon (2013)

This movie is about the life of the poet Elizabeth Bishop.  She was a shy and unconfident poet who had great promise, but she was not one who enjoyed the spotlight at all.  Perhaps part of her hesitation in life was that she was gay and it was the 1950's.  She decided at one point that she would take a trip to Brazil to visit an old friend, Mary, from college, someone who was also gay.  She very quickly and deftly charms Mary's lover, the architect Lota de Maceda Suares, a woman who has enough confidence for all three of them--leaving Mary the odd woman out.

Elizabeth had two big problems.  the first was alcohol, which at least as far as the movie goes she was on occasion able to control, but the tension of living under the same roof with her lover and her lover's former lover--a woman obviously still in love with Lota--was a lot to bear.  The second problem was that her father died when she was an infant and her mother died when she was a child--she never leThe problem with movies about real people is that sometimes they are not all that likable, and the movie does suffer a bit from that, but overall quite enjoyable as a movie, and it streams on Netflix.

Gloria (2013)

Let's start off with the things that make this movie well worth watching.  Gloria a formerly wed, 50-ish office worker in Santiago who laughs easily, wails along to the sappy love songs on her car radio and craves new adventures whether bungee-jumping, smoking pot, or simpulsive getaways.
The trouble is, most people—including her adult son and daughter—are either too busy or don't bother to notice that there is a vibrant human being standing before them who aches for intimate contact and a chance to shower someone with affection.  Poor Gloria.

One night she is out dancing and Rodolfo, a middle aged recently divorced man, notices the bon vivant that lives inside of her, and he falls quickly in love with her--but he really loves her spirit and doesn't dig much deeper.  That is the down side of this movie, that as with all relationships that are based on initial attraction and good sex, that candle flickers after a while, and the relationship cannot be sustained on those things alone.

The upside is that middle aged sex, with all the flab and wrinkles, is depicted unsparingly (ok, that may be the bad news, depending on what you are going for in movies, but my point is that true to the Spanish film tradition, sex is gritty).  The downside is that while Rodolfo claims to have cast off the chains of his former life, he is ruled by his two adult daughters and by proxy, his ex-wife, and that is the very sad ending.

The Headless Woman (2008)

I watched this movie because it was required viewing for a Film Analysis class--the theme of the week was how sound and image can be synergistic in a movie, becoming bigger or more dramatic than the sum of their parts--and that definitely fits with this movie.  The opening scene is hard to follow because people are talking the way they normally do--all at once--so it was hard to follow just one thread of the conversation because there were several occurring all at the same time. 

This is no action movie.  In fact, there is remarkably little dialogue to go off.  Rain is a consistent theme throughout the movie, and that you can hear loud an clear.  People are a little trickier.  The movie takes place in a somewhat desolate Argentinian town.  The central character, Verónica (María Onetto), a middle-age woman who runs a dental clinic with her brother, is a big fish in a small pond.  Her house is small, but it is filled with servants.  The people around her afford her a bit of shelter from the real world.

The story revolves around Verónica’s brief meltdown after her involvement in a possible hit-and-run accident. In the movie’s opening shot, four boys with a dog cavort in a roadside canal along a nearly deserted rural highway as an approaching car is heard.  After that, Verónica barely speaks.  She is in an almost fugue state for quite some time, with people around her answering questions posed to her, seeming not to notice that she hasn't said a word herself and looks persistently bewildered.  When she does come around a bit, she finds that there is very little evidence of the accident--no dead bodies, no medical reports from her ER visit, no x-rays--we saw it happen, but did it really?

There are sexual liaisons that seemingly add little to the plot--Verónica has a fling with Juan Manuel (Daniel Genoud), a cousin of her husband, Marcos (César Bordón). A lesbian niece, recovering from hepatitis, is unrequitedly besotted with her.   What it comes down to is that while Verónica is not acting like herself at all, her family and servants continue her life around her without her.  By movie's end, she is starting to work again, even as she reamins functionally mute.  The end.
                           

The Skin I Live In (2011)

In my mind, Pedro Almodovar is a film maker who focuses on what is odd in people.  He tells stories about people who live on the fringes of society, people we might not otherwise know or meet.  This movie moves well beyond the usual perversions and vibrating sexuality that Almodovar is known for into the realm of medical science fiction and psychopathy.

Dr. Robert Legard is the main attraction.  He is aptly played by Antonio Banderas, with just the right mixture of coldness and hardness that makes you feel like if he were to make it out of here alive he would be able to stand trial).  He is a gifted plastic surgeon who has been involved in developing artificial human skin in his home laboratory (the parallels to a 21st century Dr. Frankenstein are purposeful, I think), and he has operated a private clinic on the grounds of his isolated estate.

Early on in the film, which is cinematically exactly what you would expect from Almodovar--lush, bright colors, and nothing out of place, not one false note in the scenes and how they are filmed--we meet Vera (Elena Anaya).  She is angry, making angry art, dressed in a weird head to toe body suit, and pretty soon we figure out why--she is a prisoner.  Exactly why she is a prisoner we do not find out until much later in the film, but we know right from the beginning that all is not well with Dr. Legard.  It turns out his wife and his daughter have killed themselves, for very different reasons, and if we were being generous we might say it has unhinged him, but I don't think that was the first blow to his sanity.  In any case, the story is very told, and no matter how creepy everyone in it is, we do want to know what happens to them all in the end.  The film maker once again does an amazing job.

Chico and Rita (2010)

This movie was nominated for best animated feature length film last year, and while it did not win, I would put it in the top two movies--really a spectacular story, well told and the animation is very seductive, as is the music and the story that is told.

Drawn with a moody artistry, shaded by its Cuban musical roots, "Chico & Rita" is a buttery rich animated tale of love, jazz, showbiz, fame and politics in the late '40s and early '50s that is as catchy as its tunes. This is definitely animation for grown-ups — its look is voluptuous, sexy and sultry; its Latin-inflected Dizzy Gillespie sound is seductive; and its tragic story of young lovers whose passions are tested is timeless.  It all begins in Havana in the pre-Castro years when rich Americans jetted down for entertainment. Rita, a promising young singer with a smoky voice, and Chico, a piano man extraordinaire, are part of that scene, and it is where they meet.

Chico has a bit of a temper, is a bit jealous, and he is also a bit weak--run around by the women he sleeps with and not really making choices that are good ones.  He really cares about Rita, but he makes a lot of mistakes, some of them rookie, some of them out of pride.  The movie shifts between the time when they met and the present--in the past we are angry at Chico, in the present we feel sorry for him, and at the end we hope he finds happiness.  This movie--and it's soundtrack--is not to be missed.

The Colors of the Mountains (2010)

This is a Film Movement film from Columbia, and it upholds the high standards that the series has for stunning cinematography combined with compelling stories.  These movies are not for the faint of heart.

This film is about the FARC in Columbia--it is told through the eyes of children.  Manuel (Ocampo) and his buddies Julian (Nolberto Sanchez) and Poca Luz (Genaro Aristizabal) live in a small farming community high in the Colombian mountains of Antioquia. Manuel's proud, stubborn father, Ernesto (Hernan Mendez), is under threat from the local rebels for having failed to show up to their meetings. The rebels control the area, and remaining neutral is not an option.  Ernesto does not respond quickly or appropriately to the danger, and I spent the whole movie waiting for the consequences of that indecision to occur.
Shortly after a jaw-dropping scene in which a pig is blown up by a landmine, Manuel loses his new soccer ball in the minefield. He spends the rest of the film using the hapless Poca Luz to try and recover it in scenes both mildly comic and suspenseful--it is almost a surrogate for the situation that the adults are living under.  The innocent become the victims. Ernesto's increasing tension about their safety is shown to be justified when the FARC kidnaps Julian's father (Antonio Galeano). Simply unlucky to live where he does, Manuel understands none of the reasons behind the violence around him: He is at times irritating in his niavete.  Which is the beauty of telling this story from his point of view.  His father isn't responding either, and yet we tolerate it better in Mauel's case.  Stunning natural scenery conjures a sense of space and freedom that contrasts powerfully with the increasingly narrow options of its inhabitants.  The action takes place in Columbia but the message could have come from a number of Central and South American countries. 

Biutiful (2010)

I did not love this movie, but it is well worth a watch, especially if you are one who likes to dance dangerously close to overdosing on the trajedy of the human condition. The story of Uxbal (Javier Bardem), a single father with terminal prostate cancer and the burden of a life without stability, is soulful, tragic and made with loving care. Bardem injects an appropriate amount of pathos into his performance, and is amazing. The movie is gritty and gloomy, and it is hard to know exactly how to recommend it, but it is well worth the 150 or so minutes it takes to watch it.
Uxbal lives on the margins of criminality in Barcelona. He manages a group of African immigrants who sells fake designer purses made by Chinese immigrants in a shoddy little factory. The movie captures the sense of the cyclical trap these characters are in. They depend on each other, even though no one is exactly dependable. A young Chinese mother watches Uxbal's daughter and young son while he's out hustling on the street—-they're all just barely staying on the treadmill....And getting off isn't a choice. Uxbal, given just a couple of months to live in the film's first few minutes, is desperate to provide for his children without coming up with any reasonable solutions. The mother is not an option--she is the personification of narcissistic unreliability. There are no relatives--no grandparents and his brother is snorting cocaine and partying with hookers. Uxbal is so obviously in need of help that I felt the overwhelming urge to leave a meal for him, despite the separation provded by the screen.
There is a magical realism that is typical of Latin movies--this was the least moving part of the movie was my least favorite part--though it may have great appeal for those who believe in the afterlife. The part I found most compelling was that Uxbal has someone who tells him he is dying that he needs to get his life in order, and despite that, because of the state of his life, he hasn't even told his children by film's end. Tragedy is well represented here.

The Secret in their Eyes (2009)

Some of the very best movies I see each year are the ones that are entered by their country to the Oscars for Best Foreign Language Film--and every time I see a movie of this caliber, I vow to see more of them.
The movie takes place in Buenos Aires at two points in time--1974 and 2000. The story begins (although not the film) with a criminal-court investigator, Benjamin Espósito (Ricardo Darín) arriving at a crime scene bantering and cursing with a colleague, and sees the murdered corpse of a beautiful young woman. Not only does he relentlessly pursue the killer; he draws close to the woman’s husband, a bank employee named Morales (Pablo Rago), who remains obsessed with his dead wife for the rest of his life. the movie is a story first and foremost about love, but the front story is one of a crime and what happens to those who live to tell the tale.
The movie opens in 2000, and Espósito, gray-bearded, is at his desk, writing. It is twenty-five years after the murder, and the investigator, retired yet still fascinated by the case, is assembling his recollections of it.
Back in 1974, Espósito chases the killer with the aid of his antic partner, Pablo Sandoval (Guillermo Francella), and their cautious superior, Irene Menéndez Hastings (Soledad Villamil), a judge’s assistant and the woman Benjamin loves. The movie has a haunted air, filled with missed opportunities and obsessions.
From scene to scene, the movie has an enormously vital swing to it. Espósito is a knight-errant of the law who seeks justice, and Sandoval is his Sancho Panza, while the judges (apart from Irene) are profane and corrupt political hacks; the back-and-forth among the court workers is juicy and explicit, sometimes hilarious, sometimes sinister, while the atmosphere outside the courts is savage. The dictator Juan Perón dies in 1974, and is succeeded by his wife, Isabel; it’s the time of the death squads, the disappearances, and legal anarchy. All the messages--the importance of living life fully, the glory and and the trechery of intense love, and where government fails us--are beautifully told in this wonderful film.