Noordzee, Texas

North Sea Texas (2011)

Directed by Bavo Defurne

Screenplay by Bavo Defurne and Yves Verbraeken

Based on the novel, "Nooit gaat dit over" by André Sollie

Stars: Jelle Florizoone, Mathias Vergels, Nina Marie Kortekaas, Eva van der Gucht, Luk Wyns, Thomas Coumans and Katelijne Damen

Personally, I never heard of this movie before last year's Omie Awards when a follower of mine mentioned this movie as a nominee. The movie was most honored last year. It was on my radar to watch it. I reinstated my Netflix account to take advantage of the movies I missed out on. This movie was suggested to me. It was kismet or so I thought.

It seems like the story takes place in the late sixties Belgium, not Texas as I thought, where we follow Pim (Florizoone), a boy that is coming into his sexuality. He is realizing that he has feelings for his friend, Gino (Vergels). Gino gives into his feelings for Pim. Pim feels lost as his mother, Yvette (van der Gucht) is more concerned about playing her accordion and men then her son. Pim seeks solace in Gino's family home. Gino's mother, Marcella (Damen) assumes loving mother role that he wants as Gino's sister develops a hopeless crush on Pim.

Through the grapevine, this movie was touted as the next "Brokeback Mountain". I would not take it that far. Seeing my share of gay movies, this movie would be in the middle of the pack. Don't get me wrong. There were parts of this movie that mimicked my childhood. I had crushes on boys, played dress up, did things that boys did, girls had crushes on me and all that.

It felt like something was missing with the movie. I think it was with the "love story" between Pim and Gino. The brief times that they were together, they had triple amounts of time apart. I didn't feel longing. It died on-screen. It was an afterthought. The only good thing that I took from this movie was the feeling of lost innocence. That's it.

Rating: 6/10

Jodaeiye Nader az Simin

A Separation (2011)

Written and directed by Asghar Farhadi

Currently #100 of the Top 250 Films of All Time on IMDb (as of this posting)

Stars:  Peyman Moaadi, Leila Hatami, Shahab Hosseini, Sareh Bayat, Sarina Farhadi, Ali-Asghar Shahbazi, Shirin Yazdanbakhsh, Kimia Hosseini and Merila Zarei

I heard nothing but great things about this movie. Sometimes when a movie gets overly hyped, I tend to have hesitation about the movie when I watch it. It was on top ten lists across the board. The movie won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film at last year's Oscars. I enjoyed the movie, but I don't think it's a masterpiece.

Nader and Simin (Moaddi, Hatami) are the separating couple. Simin wants to move to another country to more opportunities for their daughter, Termeh (Farhadi), but Nader doesn't want that. Simin leaves the house to stay with her mother for the time being. Nader has to take care of his ailing father (Shahbazi) that has Alzheimer's. Nader needs a caregiver to help out with his father while he goes to work. He enlists the help of Razieh (Bayat) who is pregnant with her second child had to take her daughter, Somayeh (Hosseini) with her. The arrangement falls through as the tensions rise in the household that comes to a head.

Maybe this is my Westernized mind at work, but I was very confused at some moments of the film. I am not familiar with the culture of Iran or anything Muslim. I couldn't understand why the Razieh couldn't clean the father. I didn't understand the reason why Nader and Simin were separating. It seems frivolous to me. Those were my main complaints about the movie.

When the movie got going, I thought it was very poignant look at how a family dissolves when unforeseen circumstances come into their lives. I can't really say anything else about the movie. I don't want to spoil it for those that have not seen it yet.

My Rating

Bikur Ha-Tizmoret

The Band's Visit (2007)

Written and directed by Eran Kolirin

Stars: Sasson Gabai, Ronit Elkabetz, Saleh Bakri, Khalifa Natour, Rubi Moskovitz, Uri Gavriel, Imad Jabarin, Shlomi Avraham

The Band's Visit is one of those movies that have been talked about and universally praised that I had to see what the fuss what about. Seeing the movie on the library shelf, I was hesitant that I might not like it. I did. A lot.

The movie is about a group of Egyptian police musicians called Alexandria Ceremonial Orchestra travel to Israel for a last ditch effort to save the band from budget cuts. Upon arriving what they think Beit Hatikva instead of Petah Tiqva, they have to stay with a worldly diner owner, Dina (Ronit Elkabetz) for the night. These people that should be enemies find a common bond around music.

The film won the Audience Prize Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. It was a lock to be nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, but the movie was disqualified because most of the film's language was in English.

Doing a movie with competing nationalities can be tricky. It could go in Crash territory really fast. The movie as a whole is a comedy of errors of sorts. The humor is from the uncomfortable silences as some people are stuck in their ways while others did not.

I enjoyed the natural progression of the relationship between Dina and leader of the group, the uptight Lieutenant-colonel Tawfiq Zacharya (Sasson Gabai). You would never think think these people would form a bond and they managed to do that beautifully. There was one scene that made me choke up when Tawfiq told Dina about his son.

The best focal point of the movie was the music. I don't know that much traditional Arab music, but I was enthralled. This movie really should be experienced once.

My Rating:

M - The Criterion Collection

M - Eine Stadt sucht einen Mörder (1931)


Currently #52 of the Top 250 Films on IMDb
(As of this posting)


Directed by Fritz Lang


Written by: Thea von Harbou and Fritz Lang
Based on the article by Egon Jacobson


Stars: Peter Lorre, Otto Wernicke,  Theodor Loos and Inge Landgut


I always wanted to see M,  even though I knew very little about the movie. It is one of top film voted on by users that have seen it. The movie does not disappoint for the most part.


The story follows a suspected child killer, Hans Beckert (Lorre) as he is pursued by all sides. The police want to arrest him and put him on trail, the public wants to crucify him and a bunch of hoods have to deliver street justice on him.


Not being familiar with German films, I was caught off guard with the way that the people were interacting with each other. The beginning of the movie was a slow deliberate burn to add to the tension of the latest victim of Beckart, Elsie Beckmann (Landgut) rocks a small neighborhood. Then, it became chaotic with the different people shouting at each other. It was hard to keep up with what was going.


When the witch hunt focuses in on Beckert, the movie began to take an interesting turn. It dealt more with this disturbed man that is constantly in a "deer in headlights" mode that we feel what it happening to him.


The movie takes an interesting look at the psyche of the human condition. You almost feel sorry for this monster that killed nine little girls as the angry mob want to give him his comeuppance. I also felt the anger from the crowd towards the man as he could get away with murder unless someone stops him.


It is a relevant piece about what is right and wrong. Is there a gray area? Is justice blind?


The movie certainly got better as it went along and I was glad that I stayed on the ride.

My Rating:

Entre les murs

The Class (2008)

Directed by Laurent Cantet

Written by Laurent Cantet, Robin Campillo and François Bégaudeau
Based on the novel by  François Bégaudeau

Stars: François Bégaudeau, Esmeralda Ouertani, Rachel Regulier and Franck Keïta.

The Class was one of the front runners to win the Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language when it was beaten by Japan's entry, Departures. I heard nothing, but great things about this movie.

A movie podcast that listened to, Cinebanter, did show on this movie where they thought that the movie felt false to them since they were working in the school system as well. I have to agree with their sentiments.

The author of the book, François Bégaudeau plays François Marin, a idealistic French teacher that tries to inspire a group of immigrant students in a trouble school, Dolto High.

Going into this movie I had some high expectations with it that I would be inspired or feel some response to what I was seeing on screen, but I didn't. The movie is shot in a documentary style that some people find refreshing. I find that annoying.

Being that Bégaudeau was the author of the book and was cast as essentially himself, he was play it straight. Playing it straight doesn't make a compelling movie for the audience to see. It felt mundane and formulaic. We have seen those movies where the teacher inspire the students to greatness.

I wish I knew what the point of the movie truly is, because you don't know that much about the teacher or the  melting pot of students that is in Marin's class. You don't connect with them on any level.

The movie was empty, but there was a few moments that I could drawn into the story when the clash between teacher and students become apparent. That was it.

My Rating: