#16: Half Nelson (2006)

HALF NELSON (2006):

Half Nelson is a 2006 American drama film directed by Ryan Fleck and written by Fleck and Anna Boden. The film stars Ryan Gosling, Shareeka Epps and Anthony Mackie. It has won many awards, AFI Movie of the Year, FIPRESCI Prize for best film at the San Francisco International Film Festival and was even nominated for an Oscar in 2007. 

Half Nelson is about a middle school history teacher, Dan Dunne at an urban Brooklyn school. He is a teacher students love because of his teaching style, which rejects typical curriculum style. He is a great teacher and seems to have it all together at the beginning of the film. Along with being a teacher he is also the girls basketball team coach. One day after a basketball game, Dan is surprised by the visit of his ex-girlfriend, someone he had been trying to avoid. After talking to her, he is found in a bathroom stall by one of his classmates, Drey, getting high. Drey, daughter of a single mother who is always busy at work and sister of a man who is in jail for selling drugs in the neighborhood, has no father figure in her life. She looks at Frank, the neighborhood drug dealer, as a father figure. Both Drey and Dan are going trough some tough times and are being led to bad baths. They become close friends, trying to help each other stay away from the negative influences of drugs, but it is hard for both of them to stay away. Dan gets harder into drugs, letting it take over his life and teaching, and Drey is being influenced and taught how to sell drugs for Frank around the neighborhood. Dan, initially defends Drey from Frank but towards the end, he ends up buying drugs from Frank. At the end, both of their drug paths connect and they realize they need to make a drastic change in their life to get back on the right path. 

Half Nelson was a great film. I am a huge Ryan Gosling fan, so I really enjoyed it. I believe his acting is super strong, he is always able to get into the role and convey the character at its best. He's just an amazing actor and I love watching him act. Ok, so as a filmmaker, I really enjoyed the use of hand held's and lighting. There were many obvious hand held's in this film, some shaky and some not a shaky. The hand hels conveyed a raw feeling, the perfect feeling for the story and the certain scenes. There was one specific scene where the camera was pretty shaky and I was iffy about it at the beginning but, after watching it at its entirety I though it was a great element for the scene. Lighting in the film felt very natural, something I really enjoy. Lighting in indie films is probably one of my favorite aspects of indie films. I like it when shots look natural, not so hollywood. This film definitely had a natural feel through the way lighting was produced. Oh and there was a sex scene in it, Ryan Gosling sex scene.. LOVE! Didn't show much skin but hey, ill take anything. For all those ladies that love Gosling like I do, check it out.

So, overall I really liked the film. It had a good twist at the end, a little expected but still pretty creative. Ryan Gosling's acting was phenomenal like always, camera work was great, story was unique and creative and the lighting really helped the feel of the story. Great film! For me it was a must see because I love Gosling but, if it might not be a might see for everyone. Its a great film to watch if you are in the mood of a great indie film! 

#15: Moonrise Kingdom (2012)

MOONRISE KINGDOM (2012): 

Moonrise Kingdom is a 2012 romantic comedy-drama film directed by Wes Anderson. It was written by Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola. This film stars an ensemble cast including Bruce Willis, Bill Murray, and Edward Norton. Wes Anderson was nominated for the Palme d'Ore award at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. 

Moonrise Kingdom is about two twelve-year-olds, Sam Shakusky and Suzy Bishop. They met the previous summer at a church event and remained pen pals throughout the year. They came to know each other's life pretty well, a life they were both struggling with. Sam and Suzy both wanted to get away and be together, so they decide to run away together. They go into the forrest in search of an island cove Sam has always wanted to go to. Sam comes prepared with all of his camping material, he is a very well trained scout. Suzy brings her cat, cat food, books and a record player. When the camp and Suzy's parents find out they have escaped, they put together a search team to find them. They end up finding them camped out by a beach wearing only their underwear. Suzy's dad is furious and prohibits Suzy from seing Sam ever again. After seing how much Sam and Suzy love each other, Sam's scout friends help bring them back together to escape to the islands cove. Now, the search for them increases with the help of the main scout camp. 

Moonrise Kingdom was an amazing film! The story was very original, funny and cute but, what I loved the most about this film was the way it was made. The camera work was spectacular! I was amazed just with the opening scene of the film. The film opens with Suzy's house. The camera begins in one room, pans through the house to the next room then turns to see another room and another long pan. It is all a long continuous shot inside the house with pans and turns. The camera pans then stop in a room with a fixed shot then pans again onto another room. All are fixed shots when the camera stops. I don't know if I'm explaining it correctly so go watch it so you can see how amazing the opening shot is. This is how the whole film is mostly. Long continuous shots that contain of fixed shots, pans and tilts. We rarely see close ups or any sort of variety of shots in a scene. There are a lot of long zoom outs as well throughout the film. The way they utilized the camera in this film was phenomenal. Shots had to be rehearsed very well for all of the scenes since there were so many long continuous shots. Sound design for this was amazing as well! A lot of scenes that use L cuts with music from a previous scene or a object from a previous scene. I loved the camera work in this film, espectacular! 

Definitely a MUST see!! I am a lover of films that have amazing camera work and this is definitely one of them! Contains a lot of long continuous shots, which I love! It also has a great story line that is cute and funny. Great film!! Wes Anderson is definitely an amazing director.

#14: V/H/S (2012)

V/H/S (2012):

V/H/S is a 2012 American horror film which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival this year. It features a series of found-footage shorts written and directed by Adam Wingard, David Bruckner, Ti West, Glenn McQuaid, Joe Swanberg and the directing quartet called Radio Silence.

V/H/S is a film about a group of guys that are hired by an unknown to break into a house and steal a V/H/S. The group of guys break into the house and while searching for the VHS they find an old man who seems to be dead. He is laying on a couch in front of a bunch of TVs. By those TVs lies tons of VHS'. The guys split in search of more VHS' and only one stays by the TVs. The guy that stays begins to put in VHS' to watch them. We are shown what each of the VHS' contain. All of these videos are scary/ crazy murder videos. They all contain footage that is scary in an unexpected way. Everything in the film is paranormal. After we watch a couple of the VHS' and the guys decide to leave the place, they are encountered by the man that seemed to be dead.

V/H/S was pretty good and pretty scary. It's the type of scary that you end up saying, "What the fuck just happened". It an unexpected fear. Personally, I found all the stories extremely creative. They were unexpected and really well scripted. It's not the type of scary film where I can't sleep at night, but it did make me jump and trip out. I also really enjoyed all the special effect. The special effects and costume design were really well thought of and really well made. The movie wouldn't have been as scary without all those special effects. The one thing I didn't like were the excessive handhelds. The movie is pure handhelds, Blair Witch style. It can get a little dizzy and sometimes its hard to follow whats going on, but I guess it dad add a lot of that suspense and shock for certain scenes.

Overall I thought it was a really well made horor and definitely freaked me out. I was expecting it to be a little bit more scary though. I liked it. Watch it if you are down for a good paranormal horror.

#13: Lars and the Real Girl (2007)

LARS AND THE REAL GIRL (2007):

Lars and the Real Girl is a 2007 American-Canadian comedy-drama film written by Nancy Oliver and directed by Craig Gillespie. It is definitely a dark comedy film, in my opinion. It stars Ryan Gosling, Emily Mortimer, Paul Schneider, Kelli Garner and Patricia Clarkson. It won a couple of film festival awards and was nominated for an Oscar in 2008. 

Lars and the Real Girl is about a socially awkward guy named Lars. He lives in the garage behind his brother's and sister-in-law's house. Both brothers inherited this house from their father when he passed away. Lars struggles to interact with his family and people in general, so he liked to live alone in the garage rather than in the house with his family. His family and friends are concerned that something might be wrong with Lars, since he is always alone. One day, Lars announces to his brother and sister-in-law that he has a visitor over, Bianca. Bianca is a girl that he met through the internet. She is a foreigner so doesn't speak much english and she is in a wheelchair. His brother and sister-in-law are so excited to hear Lars has finally found someone, but this soon changes when they meet Bianca. Bianca is a lifelike doll. Lars acts like she is real, talking to her and having a real life relationship. As you can image, his family was terribly concerned for Lars mental health.  They all go to the doctor, saying Bianca needs a checkup, but it is to talk to their doctor, which is also a psychologist, about Lars. The doctor says that Lars is making this girl up in order to get over something, something that has affected his mental health. In order to help Lars, everyone must go with this story and pretend Bianca is real. The word gets around to the whole community and they all decide to help Lars by following along. Time passes and the whole community loves Bianca and it is as if she is a real person in the community. Lars continues to go to the doctor for "Bianca's bad health condition," meeting and talking to the psychologist every time, which at the end helps him and ends up curing him. Don't want to ruin the movie for you so thats all I can tell you about it. 

I LOVED THIS FILM! The story was phenomenal! So creative and original, something I would have never thought about. Im a huge fan of Ryan Gosling as well, not just because he's gorgeous, but because he's an amazing actor. He was outstanding in this film!! The camera work in this film was very simple. No long shots or special effects or all that stuff. The story is what made the film so strong. The only things I didn't like were the constant dips to black. They were kinda long and it just made it seem like a TV show. They weren't too bad but I just didn't really like them. Also, I am a continuity freak and there was one scene that broke continuity. It is when Lar's sister-in-law is out at lunch with her friends and the scene cuts between a medium head on shot to a over the shoulder shot. In this scene she is eating a sandwich but the sandwich is up in one frame and down on the other and it cuts back in forth between them, so you can definitely see the break of continuity. Other than that, the film was amazing! I LOVED IT! Its really funny but it is sad as well, a dark-comedy. 

In my opinion, I would say its a MUST SEE! Not so much because of the way it was made but because of the story. The story definitely was made the film great. And I just love Ryan Gosling haha :)

#12: Beginners (2010)

BEGINNERS (2010):

Beginners is a 2010 American romantic comedy-drama film written and directed by Mike Mills. It stars Ewan McGregor, Christopher Plummer and Mélanie Laurent. Beginners was premiered at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival. Christopher Plummer has received many awards for his role, one being an Academy Award. 

Beginners is a film telling the story of Oliver, a man who is dealing with his fathers death while trying to make a relationship work. Oliver's father was married to his mother for 40+ years, but once his mother dies, Oliver's father confesses that he is gay. Oliver finally understand why his parents never seemed in love. Oliver's father embraces is gayness and soon gets a boyfriend. Oliver finally sees his father happy and in love, which makes him happy. Oliver's father gets diagnosed with cancer and throughout the film we see the process of him slowly dying. The film is non-linear and goes back and forth between Oliver remembering his father, his childhood and meeting a girl which he starts to fall in love with. His fathers death and childhood seem to be causing him to struggle with his relationship, feeling insecure and scared to start a life with her. 

This was a delightful film to watch. It's those simply made films that are easy and enjoyable to watch. I was in need of some romanticism and comedy and this film definitely gave it to me. I love well done non-linear films that are easy to follow and this was one of them. The camera work was very simple, no long shots or fancy special effects. Simple yet clean. The story definitely made it a good film. There were many facts about the history of gay pride, learned a lot. The dog was definitely a big role in the film, wish my dog was that educated. It was a perfect film to watch after a long busy day. An easy to watch film that is romantic and funny :)

Maybe not a must see, but if you want an easy to watch film check this one out. 

#11: Lady Vengeance (2005)

LADY VENGEANCE (2005):

Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (Chinjeolhan Geumjassi) is a 2005 South Korean film directed by Park Chan-wook. In North America and parts of Europe, it is known as Lady Vengeance. It has won many awards, one being Best Film at the Venice Film Festival in 2005. 

Lady Vengeance is about a Korean woman, Geum-ja Lee, who has just come out of prison, where she spend 13 1/2 years after being accused of murdering a little boy. Geum-ja Lee did not actually kill the little boy, but she did help the murdered. She was forced to take the blame, if she didn't the man would have killed her daughter. Now that she is out, she in in search of her daughter and in search of vengeance for the man who killed the little boy. During her life in prison, she helped many nice women, but also killed evil women. She always did it in a sly way, being known in prison for a woman of prayer and kindness. She used that to her advantage to gain allies for her vengeance plan after prison. Once she is out of prison, she reconnects with her fellow prison allies and begins with he vengeance. She also finds her daughter and brings her to Korea, she had been in Australia where a couple adopted her. Once she finally finds the man who killed the little boy, she is ready to kill him, but things change when she founds out he has killed multiple children. She finds videos of all the murders and she reunites the victims families to see these videos. She uses the families anger to help with the murder of this man. Each family gets a chance of vengeance, resulting in a brutal death for the man. 

This movie was absolutely amazing!!! Thank you Mo for the recommendation! Wow, where to start. So, here are some things I really liked about the film. The film was non-linear, going back and forth with her life after prison and during prison. The film begins with Geum-ja Lee coming out of prison, but we get to see her whole life in prison and the reason to why she is in prison throughout the whole film through flashbacks. Really well made non-linear narrative. Next, there were some sick effect in the film. For example, during one flashback, the scene changes with a door opening to a flashback with the previous frame staying on the door. The frame becomes attached to the door and once the door opens, the frame stays on the door of the next scene. Hard to explain but it was pretty cool. There were tons of awesome effects in this film. Going on, I love long shots and in this film there is a lot! One that I particularly like is when Geum-ja Lee goes to the orphanage to find her daughter. The camera is positioned outside of the window looking down at the street, moves back into the building, through the window, passing a secretary on her desk and then turning and facing Geum-ja Lee. Really awesome scene! There were a lot of long shots going around rooms and at the end a sick one where the camera follows a wire from one room all across a building to another room. Definitely some special effects in that scene, not all camera work probably, but still super sick! Oh god, I can keep going about so many awesome things in this film. Last, there were some awesome slow motion scenes that added tension and suspense to the film. 

GO WATCH THIS FILM!! I absolutely loved this film! Such amazing camera work, special effects and sick story. Definitely becoming one of my favorite films. So go watch it because it is definitely a MUST SEE film!

#10: Submarine (2010)

SUBMARINE (2010):

Submarine is a 2010 British coming-of-age comedy-drama film. It was adapted from Joe Dunthorne's 2008 novel of the same name. It won the Best Independent Film Award for best screenplay at the British Independent Film Festival in 2011. 

Submarine is first-person narrative about a young boy named Oliver. Oliver is a quite unique 15-year-old kid. Throughout the film we are following along with him through his point of view. The two main goals he is trying to accomplish through the film is losing his virginity before his next birthday and trying to restore their parents marriage. We are in his head following him throughout his relationship with his girlfriend, trying to be the best boyfriend, while trying to follow his mother around to see if she's cheating on his father. He tries to perfect his parents relationship and ends up being a bad boyfriend and ruining that relationship. There was a lot of comedy but there were also some sad parts as well. 

As a filmmaker, I did not enjoy this film. I am not a big fan of the first-person narrative style in films. Books are ok and I can enjoy them, but not when it comes to film. It has to be done really well for me to like it. I wasn't a big fan of the storyline and how it was presented. It was too novel style, with separated parts. Each part was separated with a title page in the film, I wasn't a big fan of that. Also, there were way too many fast cuts in one scene. The fast shots help with suspense but there were just too many in this film. There were way too many pans, zooms and tilts. I just felt like it was overdone. The film had a lot of dips to color, blue and red. I don't know how I feel about them, they were alright. Something creative and different from the usual dip to black. 

This film is definitely not a must see. I honestly didn't enjoy this film. Too much was going on in the film. Props on the editing for sure! The editing in this must have been crazy! Not a fan but, thats just my opinion.