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January 7, 2008
50 Movies You Might Have Missed (36-40)
36. Kontroll

Nimród Antal's debut is a fantastic piece of film. Taking place in the Budapest subways, this film follows a group of ticket inspectors headed by the mopey Bulcsú (Sándor Csányi). The group patrol the dank subway fighting with patrons and grumbling about their awful stations in life. Bulcsú has given up on life and literally lives in the tunnels below ground. His quiet misery is disturbed by two people, Szofi (Eszter Balla), the meek daughter of a drunken train conductor who meanders into the subway always dressed up like a pink bear and a mysterious hooded figure who is pushing patrons in front of the trains. A gang of fighting misfits, a girl in a pink bear suit and a hooded murderer? It may sound like yet another quirky independent flick with goofy characters and clever camera work...well, okay it is just that but its a very inventive quirky independent flick with goofy characters and clever camera work.


37. Bella

I was pleasantly surprised by this film. To be completely honest, I thought I was in for yet another low-budget, low talent, Christian film with too much agenda and not enough good writing. This film thankfully manages to avoid the heavy handed sermonizing it could have displayed and relies on its characters to deliver the message - just like a movie should.

Eduardo Verástegui and Tammy Blanchard (Stealing Harvard) star in this story about a former soccer player Jose (Verástegui) who comes to the aid of Nina (Blanchard) who is newly unemployed and pregnant. The script by writer director Alejandro Gomez Monteverde and Patrick Million and Leo Severino does a very good job of developing the relationship between these two characters and giving them a reason to fall in love. The relationship at the center of the film drives much of the film's success and makes this something I highly recommend.


38. Paths of Glory

Colonel Dax, a French officer trying to survive in the trenches of WWI, is confronted by a horrible situation. After a failed suicide mission, he is forced by his superiors to select three men from the ranks to be tried and then executed for cowardice. The men are not really cowards but they are to be used as symbols for the rest of the men. In actuality, this is done for the superior officers to save face. The key to the piece is the initial reason for the suicide mission. General Mireau (played by George MacReady) hoping for another feather in his career cap and proposes a stupid frontal attack as a means of establishing glory. The lives (and deaths) of the men in the trenches are meaningless to him outside of how they can be leveraged for his personal gain. The resulting court martial of the selected men is nothing more than a kangaroo court. Through the story we witness a brutality honest look at the wages of war and the abuse of power.


39. The Killing Fields

This is a gripping film about what went down in Cambodia after the United States pulled out of Vietnam. Sam Waterston portrays Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Sydney Schanberg who reports on Pol Pot’s "Year Zero" ethnic cleansing campaign that lead to the slaughter of over two-million people. Helping Schanberg, local Dith Pran risks his life so the story of Pol Pot's holocaust will get out to the rest of the world.




40. Paris, Texas

German director Wim Wenders sparse but deeply moving piece about a man who slowly recovers his lost memory and repair his damaged family is a remarkable work of art. Penned by the coolest man in the world, Sam Shepard, this piece is a gold mine of rich dialog and complicated characters. Supported by outstanding performances by Harry Dean Stanton, Nastassja Kinski and Dean Stockwell, this film gives us a strange but believable tale of redemption and forgiveness.





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