FOREIGN BLU'S

Jean-Pierre Jeunet's movies will always interest me on a visual level alone.  He's an artist, a true visionary when it comes to creating worlds (his resume includes City of Lost Children, A Very Long Engagement, Amelie, the underrated Alien: Ressurection), so it came as a bit of a surprise that I didn't flat-out love his latest bit of French whimsy, Micmacs.  Don't get me wrong -- I enjoyed watching it...but that was the extent of my enjoyment.  It's a wonderful film to behold on Blu Ray on a high-def TV because of the saturated colors and frenetic energy that Jeunet revels in; it's just that the cockamieme story (something about a guy trying to exact revenge on two separate parties after a bullet gets inadvertently lodged in his skull) never fully grabbed me and pulled me in.  In the moment, I enjoyed looking at what was on screen, but I didn't care.  There's always next time.

Mother, from Joon-ho Bong (the awesome monster-movie/family drama The Host and the mesmerizing serial killer thriller Memories of Murder), is as Brian De Palma-esque as a movie can get without actually being directed by the master of the macabre himself.  Hye-ja Kim gives a riveting (if highly theatrical) performance as an mentally and emotionally unhinged mother who will stop at nothing in an effort to free her dimwitted son of a murder charge.  Mixing tones frequently and never once resorting to the predictable, Mother is an exciting and extremely entertaining thriller with numerous flights of narrative and visual fancy.

  

Olivier Assayas (the brilliant terrorist biopic Carlos) bounces from genre to genre (other credits include Irma Vep, Boarding Gate, Demonlover) and could almost be put in the same catagory as Michael Winterbottom or Steven Soderbergh, in that he's a filmmaker interested in a variety of topics and who lets the material inform the style that's employed to tell the story.  Summer Hours, which Assayas both wrote and directed, is a delicate, slow-burn family drama centering on two brothers a sister and how the deal with the impending death of their mother.  When she does pass away and they are left with her house, they all have differing opinions on what should happen to it.  Juggling humor, drama, sadness, and heartfelt romance, Summer Hours is another interesting addition to Assayas's filmography.

Simply put, Jacques Auidard's A Prophet is a masterpiece.  Instead of a hyperbolic review where I tell you that Tahar Rhamin's lead performance is extraordinary and that Auidard's writing and direction are exquisite and that there's one of the most insane close-quarter gun-fights I've ever seen and that there are some scarily amazing supporting performances -- oh wait -- here I go doing what I said I wasn't going to do.  Don't let the fact that A Prophet is also known in some circles as "that brutal, 2.5 hour French prison film" stop you from experiencing it.  It's a remarkable, multi-layered piece of work (similar in epic yet intimate scope to Gommorah) that demands your attention.