Hello Claris...

I am such a sucker for serial killer movies and these crime thrillers... I don't know if it necessarily means I have an alter psycho personality, but just the image of Jodie Foster's black and white face with the orange butterfly covering her mouth gives me the bumps :)


In the movie, young FBI agent Clarice Starling is assigned to help find a missing woman to save her from a psychopathic serial killer who skins his victims. Clarice attempts to gain a better insight into the twisted mind of the killer by talking to another psychopath Hannibal Lecter, who used to be a respected psychiatrist. 


The amazing talent of Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster is what makes this movie.


The movie won Oscars for Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director, Best Picture and Best Screenplay in 1992.

Pulp Fiction

Oh where to start with this one...Pulp Fiction, is probably my second-favorite movie of all times after Forrest Gump, and with good reason... I don't even wanna get into what a mastermind Quentin Tarantino is because that's a rant that will go on for days... But this movie specifically is a great piece of work, because it has such a unprecedented plot and the distorted chronology of the narrative. The dialogue is true to the vernacular  culture.

Each of the characters are so different than each other and cause a great comparison of the different types of people we might be faced to deal with in life, even if our life is not so wild. 

For years though, I wondered what "pulp fiction" is and I have recently found the perfect explanation. According to vintagelibrary.com, the term refers to the huge amount of creative writing available to the American public in the early nineteen-hundreds. Termed "pulp magazines" because of the low quality paper used between the covers, these publications proliferated in the nineteen-thirties and nineteen-forties to the point where they blanketed newsstands in just about every popular fiction genre of the time.

So there you go, another reason to appreciate the awesomeness of this movie, as if the music the realness, the characters and the dialogue isn't enough.

The movie was nominated for eight Oscars in 1995 and won the award for Best Screenplay.

The Kiss that Got Us Talking

One of the most memorable moments at the Oscar's was when Adrian Brody french-kissed the gorgeous Hale Berry in front of millions, before his acceptance speech of Best Actor in the year 2003 for the movie The Pianist. The kiss was so natural and made us all "awwww..." with awe because his passion came directly from his excitement, and well-deserved I must add.


The Pianist told the story of Polish composer, Wladyslaw Szpilman and his struggle to stay alive during the events of the Holocaust and World War II, while being cast away from his loved ones. The movie was an absolute must-see for anyone who cares about history and what the cinema can do to document it. Brody's performance, along with Roman Polanski's directing joined together to create a work of art.


With out a doubt in my mind, I think it was one of the best Holocaust movies ever made, because of the focus on the specific character.


The picture won Oscars for Best Director, Best Actor and Best Screenplay in 2002.

Jack?!?

If you ask any girl who grew-up in the nineties, they will tell you the role Titanic played in their psycho-social development in forming an idea of what love truly is...

This 1920s classic portrays a deep romance between a naive unhappy bachelorette of the day's high-class society who is about to be wed to an ideal bachelor in order to fulfill expectations when she meets a spontaneous, low-class artist on one the first cruise ship built to last any natural or mechanical endeavor. The relationship they form turns out to be everything they both need but naturally looked down upon by the rest of the characters therefore, they are to be punished. While the ship is built to last, the irony comes in when we see that it can not outlast the overwhelming burden of this dyad's love. The sinking of the ship was one of the most moving scenes of all times with the great visual effects included.

But to me, the most effective scene was that when Jack and Rose are in the freezing water, waiting to be rescued and when Rose finally realizes that the rescue teams are arriving and tries to wake Jack up, only to discover he has frozen. She calls out "Jack?! Jack?!" as we see him sink deeper and deeper into the dark water and eventually disappear. I have personally seen grown men cry to this scene, which must mean it's that good :)

The film was awarded with eleven Oscars in 1998 including; Best Picture, Best Director and Best Cinematography. It was calculated to have the greatest cost in production of any movie ever made, until James Cameron's other movie Avatar last year.

In-TER-ception

One film I watched this year, that just made me want to scream "What the F*******?!?" as I walked out the theater, was Inception, starring Leo DiCaprio and Ellen Page. It was one of those movies that made you think about it in the shower, while walking to you car, as you are about to fall asleep (definitely with this one) for at least a couple of days after you've seen it. I have to admit I was kind of pissed off by this effect it had on me, but not enough to cloud my judgement and eventually appreciate this movie for the multiple levels of understanding it provided for us.

One of the big dogs of directing Christopher Nolan, once again managed to daze audiences around the world with the portrayal of this "a-dream-within-a-dream-within-a-dream" plot and the stupendous special effects that made the movie so entertaining.

I was not particularly over-the-top about any specific actor's work as much as I was astonished with the story and the effects. Big ups to Nolan on this one. The movie won Best Visual Effects, Best Sound Mixing and Best Cinematography Oscars this year.

Survival of the Fittest

Darwin was soo right-on with this idea of survival of the fittest. The funny thing is although he observed this theory with evolution and animals, it is so much better applicable for the social context of the human race.

I happened to record a genius film on my DVR this weekend and enjoyed it dearly  viewing for the first time. I even felt somewhat inadequate of a movie-lover because I had never seen it before. 

Starring Morgan Freeman, Tim Robbins and Bob Gunton, Shawshank Redemption was the story of two incarcerated members of the Shawshank Prison, uncovering comfort and eventual redemption through acts of common decency. 

I was particularly impressed with how every single subplot was given a great deal of respect and attention from the director. The acting was world-class. And last but not least, the twists were unexpected even though the film had a warm and tingly feeling; the events unraveled without the slightest feeling of  pretentiousness or cliches.

The picture was awarded the Oscars for Best Actor, Best Film Editing, Best Cinematography, Best Music in an Original Score, Best Picture, Best Sound and Best Screenplay based on another medium in 1995.

The Prettiest "Ugly-Duckling"

Director and writer Darren Aronofsky without a doubt caught the attention of movie critics around the world this year, with his incredible piece of art: a little film we came to know as Black Swan. The unorthodox filming and camera techniques, the deeply psychological plot-twists as well as Natalie Portman's incredible depiction of the main character Nina-the ballerina were among the many features of this film that made it worth-seeing.

Although, us hollywood-suckers are used to seeing Portman as a space-bound princess or the girl-next-door in other movies, I came to find that she was the perfect casting call for this character. 

The movie itself was a satirical and darker version of Chaykovsky's "Swan Lake" which was situated at the heart of the plot. I thought it was a clever undertaking of twisting the "ugly-duckling" themes on Aronofsky's part.

Make-up, special effects a, costumes and the soundtrack were all among the things that made this film extra-ordinary in my opinion. Although without a doubt, Portman's acting as well as the incredible training was the talk of town as proved by her winning an Oscar for Best Actress at the age of 29.