'Black Swan' (Darren Aronofsky, 2010)

Title: 'Black Swan'

Release Year: 2010

Director: Darren Aronofsky

Cast: Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, Vincent Cassel, Barbara Hershey, Winona Ryder.

Plot: Nina, a troubled, frigid, rave ballet dancer obsessed with being perfect, starts to go mad when she's cast as The Swan Queen in a Swan Lake production. The pressure of the role and her overprotective mother turn her unstable mind and her life into a nightmarish, self-destructive thorny path that increasingly threatens her own physical and mental safety.

Review: And if 'Inception' was an example of how innovative blockbusters can be (done right they can really become masterpieces), 'Black Swan' is the other side of the coin; a recent proof that independent cinema can actually reach mainstream audiences, thanks to Aronofsky's masterful direction and Portman's indescribable performance.

'Black Swan' was for me 2010's best film for many, many reasons. To start with, it feautres as its lead a disturbed, misunderstood character: Nina. While desperately working to be perfect, she's cast as the Swan Queen in the revival of the play and, whereas at the beginning she bursts in tears and emotionally tells her mother what she has achieved, her reality soon starts to collapse around her. Natalie Portman is just perfect. Yes, the film is almost perfect at every level but Portman's performance is something out of this world: fragile, scared, deranged, obsessive, agressive, hallucinatory... She delivers all this while showing how little by little her obsessions become her self-destruction.

Naive and fragile, Nina's innocent beginning, and the beauty of her pure world will quickly be drowned by the shadows of her mind

In Nina's environment, one of the key pieces is her mother. Strict and almost dictatorial she is one of the many thorns that end up cracking the already cracked ballerina. Then there are the shadows, her different faces: Lily (her wild side) and Beth (her dying self-destructive side). Between her "professional enemy" (only in her mind) and her inevitable future, we find Thomas, the director of the play, who insists on her relaxing a bit, even making moves in sexual fields.

Nina's mother scary obsessiveness is one of the causes leading to her mental breakdown

Through the film, Nina's hallucinations only get worse and worse...

Each element destabilizes Nina's mind little by little, who starts seeing the ghosts of her fears while she prepares for the final act of the film. Through the two hours, she discovers her darkest side, strongly endangering her mental security, and leading to the opening night in an uncontrolled situation. Once that part starts, we're thrown to a thrilling vertiginous transformation; from the disastrous first act, where her white swan perfection is smashed by her constant hallucinations, through the murder of Lily, when her dark side emerges, causing her to nail her black swan, ending in the realisation that the self-destruction has reached its maximum stage: in one of her hallucinatory scenes (the one in which she supposedly murders Lily), she stabs herself.

Nina's transformation while performing in the Swan Lake is magnetic, emotional and a thrill for every moviegoer. An authentic work of art.

Knowing what she's done, she tearfully prepares for her final act, after which she is cheered for her impressive performance, before Lily and Thomas realise that she's bleeding. In her last breaths, Thomas asks her "What did you do?", Nina smiles and answers: "perfect, I was perfect". And deep down, she really was, going at last through every stage of her beloved Swan Queen, even dying in the process.

Yes, you were...

And the film goes up and up to the lights that Nina will no longer see, ending with one of the most amazing and chilling final climaxes I've ever seen. By the end, Aronofsky's work turns him into a visionary, the film into a masterpiece and Portman into and Academy Award winner.

'Inception' (Christopher Nolan, 2010)

Title: 'Inception'

Release Year: 2010

Director: Christopher Nolan

Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Tom Hardy, Ellen Page, Marion Cotillard, Ken Watanabe, Cillian Murphy, Michael Caine, Tom Berenger.

Plot: Dom Cobb, a skilled mind extractor, teams up with the most prepared professionals to achieve a mission that could give him his life back: performing an Inception. But while he's preparing for the complicated journey, a mysterious enemy who he fears and misses at the same time starts threatening his plans.

Review: When I talked about a blockbuster with 'brains' while reviewing 'Avatar', I was referring to 'Inception', Nolan's impressive masterpiece after crowning himself as one of the most innovative directors of our time with movies like 'Memento' (2000) or the more mainstream installments of the popular Batman saga.

Seventy years after 'Citizen Kane' marvelled the critics and the audience with a more-than-usually complex, perfectly constructed script, 'Inception' knocks it out of the park. Not only Nolan does an impressive immersion in the world of the dreams (Your mind is the scene of the crime), but the massive number of intertwined layers and the mixture of guilty and regrets through all of them makes of 'Inception' a groundbreaking movie. And yes, it uses some of its large budget in special effects, but unlike Cameron's movie, it doesn't let that part be the most important of the film.

Creating a world easy to get lost in, Inception really tests its audience abilities as one of the few challenging blockbusters done nowadays

Add to that a powerful soundtrack and compelling cast led by the assuring figure of Leonardo DiCaprio, constantly tortured by its self-created worst nightmare, Mal (played by Marion Cotillard, my favorite actress), and Nolan's picture becomes one of the smartest, most dragging and haunting films of the last decade.

Cotillard as a femme fatale: Cobb's guiltiness over the death of his wife is one of the movie's main plots and explains his troubled behaviour


"You keep telling yourself what you know, but what do you believe? What do you feel?" Cobb reveals he planted the idea that would change his life...

It was such the obsession I had over this movie the first time I saw it, that I have seen it again thousands of times, writing down every level Cob's team goes through (and who stays in each of them) and to the date I still ask myself the same question...:

...After wobbling a bit, does the top stop spinning in the end? Has Cobb really escaped limbo and returned to reality? Or it's just another dream created by his mind to be able to see his kids at last?

'Avatar' (James Cameron, 2009)

Title: 'Avatar'

Release Year: 2009

Director: James Cameron

Cast: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang, Michelle Rodriguez, Sigourney Weaver, Joel David Moore.

Plot: 2154. After he loses both of his legs, Jake Sully is commanded the mission of infiltrating between the Na'vis, the native inhabitants of planet Pandora, which contains the solution to the Earth's energy crisis. To do that, he uses an Avatar with which he can finally move his legs again. But after he's saved by one of the Na'vis and accepted among them, the vision he has on whether he belongs to a side or another blurs.

Review: I first saw 'Avatar' a couple of years ago and had no intention to include it in the project, but after thinking about it, I convinced myself that its technological achievements were worth mentioning (we're talking about America's cinema history, which -although I focused on them- it's not necessarily the same as America's best films).

So before we go the obvious negative side, let's point that out; 'Avatar''s technology is groundbreaking. The results of Cameron's efforts through more than a decade. The special effects are remarkable and the new methods he used to capture actors' gestures justify the movie's atrocious budget. But is that enough to praise a film?

Let's not fool ourselves. If 'Avatar' became such a hit three years ago it's because it had the name of Titanic's director behind and people turned blind with it's marketing campaign: "Hey! The production cost 300 milion dollars, those effects must be really good!" Gimmicks. That's one of the reasons I love independent cinema; there, a movie must earn the audience, not buy it. And both mainstream public and film industry keep making the same mistake; we eat what they sell us, no matter how fresh or rotten it is, we don't stop a second to be critical.

Avatar special effects are impressive, but the only other field in which it outstands is in reminding us that we mustn't be fooled by mainstream tendencies, a trend that's becoming dangerously common in modern day society (and nowadays' film industry)

And I accept that Avatar was not horrible. I'm not going to say that it's the typical terrible blockbuster that audiences devour in summer. However, smashing the box-office is one thing (not very much can be expected from those responsible for making 'Transformers'' last film another economic success) and receiving critical praise is another. I mean; Oscars? Really? Of course the movie had a ticket for the Kodak Theatre since Cameron made public how much the special effects cost, but Best Film? We can't let the general craze think for us. 'Avatar' was far from bad, but it was even further from outstanding; the plot was corny, predictable and less original than a yogurt's advertisement (Anybody remembered 'Pocahontas' when they decided the nominees?) and I'm sorry, (not really) but Cameron's budget can't hide that with so many effects the avatar's expressions (intended to look exactly like the actor's ones) were less natural than Belen Esteban selling precooked chicken. 'Avatar' was, most of the time, entertaining. Nothing more. The only thing that James Cameron did (which he didn't need to when actually good material was behind 'Titanic') was hiding his film's flaws behind gimmicks. And groundbreaking cinema is about finding new acting techniques, or delivering fresh stories. In this case we only see an overrated blockbuster that through a good campaign and Cameron's tricks became one of the most mediocre Academy Award nominated films for the Best Picture category in the last decade. And it almost won...

'The Departed' (Martin Scorsese, 2006)

Title: 'The Departed'

Release Year: 2006

Director: Martin Scorsese

Cast: Matt Damon, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jack Nicholson, Mark Wahlberg, Vera Farmiga.

Plot: Determined to destroy Massachusset's biggest mafia gang, the city's police department infiltrates Billy Costigan. What they don't know is that they themselves have a mole in their lines.

Review: Martin Scorsese is one of the most reputed directors alive and a master of his field. For this reason it was a big question mark back in 2006 how he had never won an Oscar in his long career. That 'curse' ended with 'The Departed'.

Part of the movie's success is undeniably tied to its impressive and twisted plot. At the beginning of the film it's easy to get lost trying to figure out who's by whose side, but later on you discover that its the plot itself the one that helps to give the tension that permeates the characters, especially DiCaprio's Billy Costigan.

'The Departed' owes half of its praise to its complex script, which leads the film to such a difficult situation that a happy ending seems hopelessly complicated. The fact that the audience only expects the worst contributes the film's growing tension

The other major achievement of the film was its performances. The cast is top notch. In a film where you need a strong leading figure not to get lost in the transition between two very different worlds that are very connected, Matt Damon offers a solid performance but it's DiCaprio who knocks us out. And he does it powerfully and deeply, as deep as his character's growing anxiety, who rises the film's tense sensation until the very end. In the supporting roles, Nicholson proves once more the great actor he is and Wahlberg is as politically incorrect as amusing.

It's hard to remember DiCaprio in a better performance, and that's a lot said by a huge 'Titanic' fan. His character drags a hidden yet intense emotional charge; not only we observe how his undercover job shatters his mental peace, but we also see how he's unfairly used in a game where the odds were not in his favor since the beginning

With a brilliant soundtrack, smart, intelligent, violent, dramatic, tense, complex, gorgeously performed and superbly directed, 'The Departed' was a major win for Scorsese, and his ticket to the golden statuette (which he had deserverd for a long time).

'Chicago' (Rob Marshall, 2002)

Title: 'Chicago'

Release Year: 2002

Director: Rob Marshall

Cast: Renée Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Richard Gere, Queen Latifah, John C. Reilly, Christine Baranski, Taye Diggs, Lucy Liu.

Plot: After murdering their respective couples, Velma and Roxie found themselves in prison waiting for their trials. The first one a star and the second one a diva-wanna-be, only the help of Billy Flynn, a sucessful lawyer, can return them what they want the most: fame.

Review: At the beginning of the 2000s, the musical was revitalized. The reason? 'Moulin Rouge' (Baz Luhrmann, 2001) and 'Chicago' (Rob Marshall, 2002). The second one was a huge hit, becoming a surprising box-office success and one of the most critically acclaimed films of the year.

That was mainly thanks to an impressive cast, led by the amusing and talented Renée Zellweger and Catherine Zeta-Jones, both delivering terrific performances. But not only they were outstanding; Gere embodied a cynical attorney, ready to transform any lie into the most credible truth, knowing that the audience would believe what he told them to believe. Latifah and Reilly completed the marvellous ensemble of 'Chicago'.

Two dangerous ladies: in the best roles of their careers, Renée Zellweger and Catherine Zeta-Jones became murderous divas and enemies for the film

In my opinion, apart from them, the movie succeeded for two reasons. The first one was its message: Good things happening to bad people? Oh, yes! Film industry is full of well-intentioned heroes, but here we find the worst people you can imagine, prepared to kill for what they want (fame, money, fans, etc.)... and anyway you like them.

In a society that forgot things easily, was it really surprising that two criminals became stars?

The second reason was the music itself. Contrary to 'Cabaret', I loved every musical number; on the one hand they were perfectly executed, funny and featured amazing songs, on the other hand they were very helpful and definitely necessary to make the story move on. My favorites? All of them. Here there are some of them:

'All That Jazz': 'Chicago''s opening number performed by Zeta-Jones as Velma Kelly after murdering both her sister and her husband

'Funny Honey': Roxie dedicates a song to her beloved (and dumb) husband

'Cell Block Tango': wonderfully edited and masterfully performed, the women in prison explain to Roxie how they ended there

'Roxie (The Name on Everybody's Lips)'; Roxie's biggest number

'I can't do it alone': desperate to get out of prison and forgotten by everyone, Velma tries to join forces with Roxie, who's now a rising star

'We both reached for the gun' or how to manipulate press to make them think what you want while waiting for the final trial. Zellweger and Gere's compenetration is incredible

Mr. Cellophane: meanwhile, in the shadows, Roxie's husband starts to see how invisible he is...

After winning the trial but losing the fame she wanted so desperately, Roxie becomes a nobody again...

...Until Velma convinces her to team up. Because, as she says, 'there's only one business where that [hating each other] is not a problem at all...'

All in all, 'Chicago' is a wonderful film. A must-see work of art for the musical lovers, the performance of a lifetime for Zeta-Jones and Zellweger (which will surely not be repeted) and one of my all-time favorite movies, one that reminds us of the fact that we must get what we want... at any price? Well, meanwhile we can always wait and just try to move on:

'I move on' (starting at 1:15): featured in the credits, 'Chicago''s final number closes the movie while showing us how, no matter what, Velma and Roxie will continue to struggle to get their beloved fame... even if they have to commit murder in the meantime.

'The Hours' (Stephen Daldry, 2002)

Title: 'The Hours'

Release Year: 2002

Director: Stephen Daldry

Cast: Nicole Kidman, Julianne Moore, Meryl Streep, Stephen Dillane, Miranda Richardson, John C. Reilly, Toni Collette, Ed Harris.

Plot: 'The Hours' connects the story of three different women living in three different ages with the novel 'Mrs. Dalloway'. In the early 1920s, we find its troubled writer Virginia Woolf. In the 1950s, Laura Brown reads it as she questions herself what she is going to do with her life. While preparing a party in honor of her friend Richard's career (of whom she takes care because he's ill with AIDS), Clarissa Vaughan embodies the perfect Mrs. Dalloway as her entire world crumbles around her.

Review: 'The Hours' is one of my favorite movies. It features a cast at its best, a wonderful script and the perfect score to achieve a work of art, a proof that the late 1990s and early 2000s were golden years for now respectable actors.

On the one hand, Nicole Kidman delivers a raw, powerful performance with a wide range of emotions, from rage to the most absolute desolation. Kidman embodies a mortified and caged Virginia Woolf who tries to escape the daily excrutiating routine that both her husband and the doctors that treat her force her to follow. As she says in the following scene (executed to perfection and one of the finest interpretative showcases that Kidman has had to the date), trapped in a quietness that she can bear, she's slowly dying, desperate to return to London even if that threatens her unstable mind:

In a time when, having the whole package (a mentally ill woman), she had no freedom, Nicole Kidman's Virginia Woolf claimed for the 'rights of every human being' when she said to her husband that she would rather be dead than be left in a town where she was already dying

On the other hand, we find Julianne More, a depressive housewive that has realized that having everything a woman would ask for at that time, she's terribly unhappy. Through the movie she tries to commit suicide, but stops in the last moment, being unable to kill her unborn child with her. Instead, she waits until he's born and then, she abandons her family.

Choosing Life: An old Laura Brown (Moore) tells Meryl Streep how she left her family

Which leads us to the last part. In the present, Clarissa Vaughan prepares a party for her friend Richard... Laura Brown's son, who lives his days remembering the past as AIDS consumes him. Ed Harris nails his inspiring yet depressive role, but it's Streep who gets most of the screentime. And somehow she tries to make a powerful performance too hard, slightly overacting and breaking the beautiful quietness of the film. She's very committed to her role and you can't help feeling sorry for her character when although she tries to put every piece of her life together, everything falls apart,  but she would have been better as a mere spectator, because when others take the lead, 'The Hours' creates wonderful scenes:

After a whole day preparing the party for her friend, Clarissa arrives at Richard's house to discover that the memories of his past have dragged him to his lowest yet most lucid state... ultimately killing himself

And this way, 'The Hours' reaches the end of its life. Literally. As the film concludes, we witness Woolf's suicide, as she says goodbye to her husband in a heartfelt letter. Closing a film that describes the inner devils of people's life and how inexplicable sadness can cage people into depressive states of mind, both the opening and the ending recreate the same scene (cut in two); Virginia's farewell.

'Dear Leonard...': Virginia Woolf says goodbye to her daily torture of voices and nightmares, as she also says goodbye to her beloved husband

'The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring' (Peter Jackson, 2001)

Title: 'The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring'

Release Year: 2001

Director: Peter Jackson

Cast: Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Viggo Mortensen, Sean Astin, Orlando Bloom, Liv Tyler, John Rhys-Davies, Sean Bean, Billy Boyd, Dominic Monaghan, Cate Blanchett, Christopher Lee, Hugo Weaving, Ian Holm

Plot: In the Second Age, Dark Lord Sauron created a powerful ring to enslave the whole Middle-earth. After the ring falls in the hands of young hobbit Frodo Baggins, he initiates a journey with his  brave allies to destroy it. 

Review: Do you remember when I said that Star Wars lacked the depth to be something more than a mere entertaining blockbuster? I had 'The Lord of the Rings' in mind.

Visually dazzling (impressive digital edition), with immense locations and a powerful score, 'The Lord of the Rings' is the ultimate epic, not only for its large budget, but also for its overwhelming inner world (created by villages, civilization, languages...) and the personal fights that every character battles in relation with the attractive yet evil ring (being Gollum the clearest example of self-destruction over the little jewel).

All together, it results in a dreamy universe where you don't mind being drowned. Contrary to Star Wars, which awakes a tenuous desire of following with the saga for its iconic paper in cinema history more than anything, 'The Fellowship of the Ring' catches audiences thanks to its quality and its characters construction, creating a much stronger connection and dragging the viewer to a real cinematographic experience.

Gandalf represents a paternal figure for Frodo and leads him through the Middle-Earth dangers that await him

Moreover, the cast is much more talented than the media in blockbusters world; Ian MacKellen's Gandalf has made a name in film history, while the rest of the cast contributes to creating recognizable  personages. From the innocent youth embodied by Frodo to the cold beauty of Cate Blanchett, going through the loyal nobility of Aragorn. Each of them participates in a massive blockbuster which will bring fame to Orlando Bloom and Viggo Mortensen, apart from an Academy Award nomination for MacKellen.

All together, 'The Lord of the Rings' embodies what all blockbusters should be; a work of art that uses its huge budget to contribute to the creation of a dazzling universe, where light and darkness join to deliver a modern masterpiece with a quality out of this world, the beginning of an epic story.

The first installment of The Lord of the Rings delivers an impressive epic story

'The Sixthe Sense' (M. Night Shyamalan, 1999)

Title: 'The Sixth Sense'

Release Year: 1999

Director: M. Night Shyamalan

Cast: Bruce Willis, Haley Joel Osment, Toni Collette.

Plot: After being shot by a former patient whom he couldn't help as a child, child psychologist Malcolm Crowe tries to amend his mistakes with his new terrified and confused patient, Cole Sear, who in whispers confesses him that he sees dead people.

Review: There's something you must know before I review 'The Sixth Sense'. A couple of years ago, after I said to my sister I wanted to watch 'The Others' (which I had read had a similar ending to 'The Sixth Sense'), she "accidentaly" spoiled me the ending. So making a simple connection, I knew from the very beginning that Willis was dead. I had forgotten it over time, but when Willis is shot at the beginning of the film, the memory just appaeared in my mind.

This way, I saw the movie quite differently. It's like I had watched it for the first time and then, knowing that Malcolm was dead, rewatching it to see how they managed to never show his bloody back, to make the audience forget that he always eats the same, or that he never changes his clothes. And somehow, I also enjoyed that way of watching the film. Anyway, there are several hints that are too big not to see them, even if you don't know the ending, how do you explain that Malcolm never exchanges a word with anyone except Cole? And, most important, when the kid confesses his gift, he adds 'They don't know they're dead'. Isn't it clear enough!?

Malcolm and Cole have a troubled yet endearing relationship

Leaving that behind, you start to understand why Cole says that Malcolm can't help him if precisely it's from appearances like his from what he's escaping. Then you ask yourself why he didn't tell him. I believe that Cole had such a kind heart that he didn't want to break the man's illusion, waiting for him to discover it by himself and accept it (as he does when Cole suggests that he 'talks to his wife while she's sleeping'). The relationship between these two characters is really based on mutual understanding and support. Cole helps Malcolm discover his death and Malcolm contributes to Cole's acceptance of his gift, not as a scary curse but as a possibility to help people who left unfinished businesses in earth (like the girl who was poisoned by her mother).

Cole is constantly visited by dead people ghosts who are looking for help

Finally, the performances are top-notch. Willis does a remarkable leading performance, but it's the young Haley Joel Osment who shines the most. Thanks to him the movie is not only a consequence of screams but a real tale of despair of a poor boy who thinks that he's turning insane, constantly visited by dead people that torture him. The final scene with his mother (an outstanding Toni Collette) is the heartbreaking ultimate reunion of the detached little family. She finally understands that her son's claims to see and listen to dead people are true when he says to her that the answer to her question to her dead mother is 'every day'. Lynn (the mother's name) confesses tearfully that the question is 'Do I make you proud?' This way the film ends, leaving an atypical feeling; a horror movie with a heart and a sensitive ending.

'I see dead people' Haley Joel Osment did an incredible performance in this movie. Two thumbs up; he knocks it out of the park in the film

'Titanic' (James Cameron, 1997)

Title: 'Titanic'

Release Year: 1997

Director: James Cameron

Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Billy Zane, Frances Fisher, Gloria Stuard, Bill Paxton, Suzy Amis, Kathy Bates.

Plot: In the short-lived Titanic, a love story blossoms between the members of two social classes, fighting against the odds and the terrible disaster that awaits them.

Review: I have a problem with Titanic: once I start talking about it, I can't stop. I've seen the film like 10 times (complete) and once in a while I review some of my favourite scenes. The last time I saw the whole length was when I went to the cinema to watch the 3-D version (an absolute waste of money
-Moreover, I think that I'm unable to watch 3-D imagery...-) and I spent 2 weeks crying in my house, asking why Jack had to die. Yes, as it might be obvious, Titanic is my favourite movie.

Rose and Jack famous kissing scene

There is an important gap, though, between the first times I saw the film and the later ones. In the beginning I remember loving the film due to its tragic ending (I think I've missed the beginning of Titanic like 5 times when they showed it on TV), but I didn't especially pay much attention to the rest of the movie (or I don't remember it, I was quite young). The first time I saw it as a teenager, the situation changed; I loved EVERY SINGLE PART of the film. Not only did I cry like Mary Magdalane did when Jesus died, but I worshipped the relationship of Jack and Rose up to unimaginable points.

The dancing scene in a third class party is one of my favorite ones

The dancing scene is one of my favourites from their little adventure together (excluding the final, that's the favorite one above all), but I have tons and tons of videos, images and gifs collected and even deleted scenes (did you know that there's a second version to the ending? You can watch it here). My addiction to Titanic goes far beyond what's normal. But if I have the chance to excuse myself, the film is to blame for it; groundbreaking visual effect (early digital edition executed to perfection, which brought the budget of the movie to the then unthinkable $250 million), a marvelous score, led by the beautiful voice of Celine Dion singing 'My Heart Will Go On', the dramatic collision of the iceberg agains Titanic and the unfair death of Jack.

As Rose whispers 'Come Josephine', Jack dies in a heartbreaking scene. I still can remember her saying 'There's a boat Jack!' and not receiving any answer. One of the most remembered scenes together with the drowning and the 'You jump I jump' ones. Excuse the poor quality but every higher quality version has been deleted from YouTube due to copyright infringements

That final scene with Rose at the top of a floating door and Jack frozen in the water (both fit on top, but the weight would have drowned the fragile structure) is heartbreaking and it's followed by the 'A woman's heart is an ocean full of secrets' scene. After that moment, I was an ocean full of tears and Titanic became the best movie I had ever seen.

Tearful 'Titanic' ending

'The Shawshank Redemption' (Frank Darabont, 1994)

Title: 'The Shawshank Redemption'

Release Year: 1994

Director: Frank Darabont

Cast: Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman.

Plot: Andrew Dufresne is sent to prison to fulfill a penal servitude for life after he's condemned for the murder of his wife and her lover. After years of imprisonment he gains the trust of the prison headmaster and the respect and admiration of his prison mates, especially Red, the 'one who gets what you want in prison'.

Review: If you're a moviegoer, you'll know that the condemned-man-breaks-free plot is quite common in American cinema, maybe because it's powerful and reaches one of the most beloved topics in film industry: freedom. Anyhow, 'The Shawshank Redemption' is not only a smartly planned leak from prison, it's a real personal journey for its leading characters.

Marvelously cast, Andrew and Red become friends after some time in prison. Freeman's Red, the narrator, quickly feels a secret admiration for him and his quiet behaviour. Many critics said that the fact that Dudresne seems all the time detached from everything didn't contribute to the audience's connection with the film, but I personaly found his performance impressive and raw. Moreover, his character is smart and clever, and responsible for the major plot twist in the film; his escape unfolds so incredibly that the audience is left baffled observing the poster of Raquel Welch. When after crawling for hundreds and hundred of meters of crap he finally reaches the water and liberates himself, any detached member of the audience must feel connected with the character, in a powerfully emotional scene, a symbol of his success over the tyranny imposed by the prison's headmaster, a corrupt character whose moment to pay arrives later in the movie thanks to the visionary mind of Dufresne.

As the marvelous score sounds, Dufrasne escapes from prison in this beautiful and wonderful scene

The other main topic in the film is the belonging to the prison, the fact of being 'institutionalized'. When Brooks is set free almost fifty years after he was condemned, he must return to an unknown and changed society (he entered at the beginning of the 20th century and goes out in 1954) where he feels he has no place or recognition (unlike in prison, where he was considered an educated man) and ultimately kills himself, but hanging from a beam, after writing 'Brooks was here'. The same situation happens when after years of questionnaires they let Red go. He starts to understand Brooks as he feels too old for a society where he no longer belongs and, the same way that he suffered for the possibility of Andrew killing himself for so many years of unfair imprisonment, the audience starts fearing the worst. But his time, Drufrasne is there to help him; he visits the location that he indicated him once to go if he ever was freed and there he finds (as Andrew had planned) money and a letter to join his friend in Zihuatanejo, a Mexican Pacific coastal town, which he ultimately does, writing 'So was Red' next to the message left by Brooks and violating his parole. At the end, both friends reunite as they hug each other in an emotional ending.

The friendships of Andrew, connected in prison through the years, is what leads the movie from its beginning to the very end

'Pulp Fiction' (Quentin Tarantino, 1994)

Title: 'Pulp Fiction'

Release Year: 1994

Director: Quentin Tarantino

Cast: John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis, Uma Thurman.

Plot: Jules and Vincent are two hitmen under the orders of Marcellus Wallace. The story, narrated in a non-lineal way, tells how they accomplish two missions; recovering a valued briefcase and the dangerous task that Vincent has of taking care of Marcellus' wife, Mia.

Review: In many ways, Quentin Tarantino is a visionary. After creating 'Pulp Fiction' he doubtlessly proved it. With a top-notch cast and a smart and intertwined script, 'Pulp Fiction' has become a cult movie over the years.

The film has three parts. The first one is my favourite. The odd chemistry between Vincent and Mia (my favourite character) is delicious and their story is as intelligent and funny as it can be. Focusing especially on their characters, Vincent is a disaster. Later in the film he will kill a man just because he wasn't careful enough. It's not a strange thing that he leaves his heroin with Amy when he goes to the bathroom and doesn't realise that she has mistaken it with her cocaine and she's almost dead because he's convincing himself that he must leave the house before he tries to overstep the mark with the boss' wife. Hers is a brilliant composition. Different, with an electric style (am I the only one who laughed at her joke?) and some amazing dancing moves, I would've loved the movie with those two as the leads all the time; their chemistry is palpable at the end of their 'date'.

The famous dancing scene that Mia and Vincent share is one of the best moments of the film

The problem is that the movie continues without them and in every part, I lose interest a little bit more. This way, willis' part was still entertaining (very funny and weird). The status of the situation changes constantly between "you're a dead man" and "you're the boss". And although the sodomizing scene was kind of strong for me, the change of roles between lethal enemies and occasional companions that Willis character and Marcellus experience is a refreshing plot twist. At the end, not even I (a happy ending lover) can understand how the lucky man has escaped from such a situation alive. Even at the last moment, when his girlfriend spends too much time to jump on the motorbike, you're all nerves thinking something bad is going to happen again. Another great mark for that part two.

The attempts of Willis character to escape with his girlfriend are the main plot of the second part

Then we reach the flashback with a third part. I strongly believe that this one was not necessary. Yes, it connects the beginning of the film with its first part and it features the 'enigmatic briefcase' once more (the golden light coming from inside but no revealing its content adds more intrigue to the situation), but the scenes featuring Tarantino (a good actor, by the way) and the cleaning of the bloody car and Jules' revelation are not that appealing to me as the first parts. Moreover, as the film ends with the beginning, it leaves you with a strange feeling and with the spectator wanting to see more about Travolta and Thurman unquestionable chemistry (an unrealistic possibility; he's murdered by Willis character).

Although I didn't find it especially appealing, the third and last part left us this famous shot with Travolta and Jackson pointing their guns at the screen

'Schindler's List' (Steven Spielberg, 1993)

Title: 'Schindler's List'

Release Year: 1993

Director: Steven Spielberg

Cast: Liam Neeson, Ben Kingsley, Ralph Fiennes, Caroline Goodall, Jonathan Sagall, Embeth Davidtz.

Plot: Thanks to his social skills and his inteligence, Oskar Schindler rises as a businessman in World War II. When he's given the property of a factory in Krakow, he realizes that he has the perfect chance to save the life of innocent people.

Review: The quintessential Nazi drama, Spielberg left his blockbuster era with this film and directed a comprehensive story about the Holocaust. Raw, powerful and morally challenging, 'Schindler's List' is Steven Spielberg at his best.

A part from the talented director, we find a high quality cast with a set of unforgettable performances. First, we find Schindler, beautifully portrayed by Neeson. He's the main protagonist, usually opposed to the idea's of Amon Goeth. Obese and a real tyrant, the complex character that Fiennes delivers is one of the film main achievements, a real basilisk that imposes the horror among the jews he commands. He has secretly fallen in love with Helen Hirsch, up to the point of loving her even if he 'doesn't consider her a human'.

Fiennes' Amon Goeth is a marvelously complex character, a psychotic tyrant out of his mind, that gives both redemption and death in the rollercoaster that his feelings towards Helen creates in his mind

Another of the high points of the film is its visual and sound quality. From the black and white colorization, created to stand out the red of the little Jewish girl who Schindler wanted to save and ultimately is cremated, to the incredibly powerful score developed by John Williams. They both contribute to making of 'Schindler's List' a sober yet emotional tale in which even the most atrotious of the deaths is shown with not even an inch of morbidity. Scenes like the one in which the Jews are brought to the showers and suddenly they are relieved to see that water comes out of them make of this movie a modern time masterpiece that every moviegoer should see.

The little girl with the red coat is murdered at some point in the movie and Schindler contemplates her cremated body, a fact that strongly impacts him and leads him to question what is happening in society. It's the turning point of the film

Finally, we have the moral dilemma of deciding whether Schindler was good or just was taking advantage of the situation. I strongly believe that the answer is a mix between both situations. Let's face it; if he hadn't had the chance of earning money I doubt he would have started with his strange enterprise. But in spite of that, he was a brave man. Maybe not a hero but yes, a fair one, capable of seeing that what was being done with the Jews was an unfair massacre, a genocide of massive proportions. In the last scenes, he finally understands that having given the money he spent in his luxurious life, he could have saved many lives, and it is for that redemption that he is honoured at the end of the film, when the actors (not the characters, people with ordinary clothes!) leave each of them a stone on his grave. The perfect ending? Schlinder standing in front of his own death body.

Real life Schindler's grave. His persona is one of the most difficult to understand, with many moral debates over the nature of his action and the side he supported in the Nazi-against-the-Jews war

'The Silence of the Lambs' (Jonathan Demme, 1991)

Title: 'The Silence of the Lambs'

Release Year: 1991

Director: Jonathan Demme

Cast: Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, Scott Glenn, Ted Levine.

Plot: Aspiring to be part of the FBI, Clarice Starling is offered the mission of catching 'Buffalo Bill' a serial killer who skins his victims. To achieve it, Starling will have the dangerous help of Hannibal Lecter, a brilliant psychoanalyst and also a lethal murder.

Review: 'The Silence of the Lambs' is terrific. From the performance of its cast to the quiet, dangerous aura that surrounds the film. It's intelligent, terrifying and a must-see movie for every moviegoer.

To start with, we have Foster's Clarice. In a world dominated by me (she has only one female friend in training) and mentally insane serial killers, she delivers a terrific performance capable of leading the film, being intelligent, cautious and emotionally round in every scene. With such a set it's difficult not to support her, much more when we know that danger surrounds her.

Jodie Foster's character has to deal with a world led by men and psychologically demanding encounters with Lecter. Their compenetration is a key factor for the movie

In the 'evil side' we find Hannibal Lecter. Hopkins' most remembered performance and one of the most acclaimed villains of all time, he delivers every sentence with the confidence of a higher mind who knows that he can control other people's minds. Leaving the fact that he eats people behind, he generales more acceptance by the audience than the majority of flat good characters that we see nowadays.

Anthony Hopkins in a terrific performance, one of the most remembered and acclaimed of film history

Their combination is used to identify the criminal and in a delicious final twist we discover that what we thought was a predictable ending (Hopkins and Starling have helped the FBI find 'Buffalo Bill') is indeed a mortiferous danger for Starling. After some minutes of pure tension, she arrests and kills the serial killer and is able to finally graduate.

"Well, Clarice; have the lambs stopped screaming?" In a terrific ending, delicious for any moviegoer, Lecter says goodbye to Clarice and the audience observes how he is planning one more crime. Whispering "Doctor Lecter... Doctor Lecter!" Clarice is left baffled, holding the phone (we suppose that the lambs have actually stopped screaming as they've caught the serial killer)

'Sophie's Choice' (Alan J. Pakula, 1982)

Title: 'Sophie's Choice'

Release Year: 1982

Director: Alan J. Pakula

Cast: Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, Peter MacNicol.

Plot: The aspiring writer Stingo arrives at a family guesthouse to write his first novel but he's disturbed by the presence of a young couple conformed by Nathan Landau, a troubled unstable man and Sophie Zawistowski, a polish woman who can't scape her past.

Review: After she was overacted in 'The Hours' (one of my favourite movies) and somehow spoiled its quiet pace, I've had never trusted Streep's skills anymore. After 'The Iron Lady' I regained some of the trust but it's with 'Sophie's Choice' that I have seen what Meryl Sreep is capable of.

Mostly led by her, Pakula's film focuses on the three friends. One is the observer who falls in love with Sophie. The other is Sohpie's mentally ill boyfriend, who lies about his job and his faculties everyday. The final one is a complex, tortured woman who lives terrifyed for the decision that she had to make years before.

Meryl Streep gives a mesmerizing performance as Sophie Zawistowski

Streep's performance is out of this world; from the concentration camp when she's skinny and bald, to the days she suffers from high fevers and anemia and the present day. Imitating the accent of a real Polish to perfection, Streep transforms Sophie into a vehicle to show everything she has to give. And the level she achieves is so remarkable that it leads the movie by herself.

Tortured by her past, Streep's character can't forget the decision she had to make in order to save one of the children; condemning the other

Together with the complicated trio that she has with her psychotic boyfriend and the sweet yet nervous Stingo, she tries to live a normal life, but she can't forget the day that, in the camp, she had to decide (to choose) which of his children was going to live and which one was going to be cremated (the first day they arrive). The fact that then the other is also killed while staying in the camp may take away some importance to this decision for the spectator, but as a mother she had to be responsible for ending with the life of one of her kids. How she escapes is left unsaid (she had a deal to save his son that fails but nothing is said of a deal for her), maybe because her soul is still kept in there, never forgetting the final screams of her daughter.

Sophie's choice. Meryl Streep shot the scene only once and didn't want to do it again. Already a mother at that time, she later said that the scene had been exhausting and psychologically demanding to make

'E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial' (Steven Spielberg, 1982)

Title: 'E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial'

Release Year: 1982

Director: Steven Spielberg

Cast: Dee Wallace, Peter Coyote, Henry Thomas, Drew Barrymore, Robert MacNaughton.

Plot: After being abandoned in Planet Earth, a little outer space creature, 10-year-old Elliott finds him and together with his brothers tries to find a way to find it a way to return before police and scientists can find them.

Review: Another Spielberg movie, this time it's an unquestionable success. There's nothing about the endearing extra-terrestrial story that I would like to change. Add to this that the film is a remarkable technological achievement and that it is based on the imaginary friend that Spielberg created after his parents' divorce and it's difficult not to praise him

The friendly E.T. quickly establishes a beautiful relationship with the children of the family, especially connecting with Elliott, who considers him a friend instead of just a weird creature and wants to protect him from the greedy hands of scientists or press. As many times, only children understand the real meaning of a friendship, far beyond the economic and scientific interests that the particular situation may involve.

The iconic image of Elliott and E.T. flying with a bycicle

But drama reaches the story when the extra-terrestrial gets sick, and nearly dies. It's quite tough to see Elliott shouting at the doctors and claiming that they are killing E.T. So when it eventually recovers and they escape to the forest, you wish nothing but their mission will triumph.

In the end, E.T. says goodbye to his human friends, while in tears the children let their curious companion go. At this point I was already crying; the story is so beautifully made... It's evident that Spielberg made it carefully as it was also part of his childhood, a world that adults don't understand, as they don't understand the friendship between an outer-space creature and a 10-year-old human being (usually understood as a tale of tolerance and mutual understanding in which even the most different creatures can help each other).

"E.T. Phone Home" The remembered sentence met with the extra-terrestial's farewell for an emotional and moving ending

'Raiders of the Lost Ark' (Steven Spielberg, 1981)

Title: 'Raiders of the Lost Ark'

Release Year: 1981

Director: Steven Spielberg

Cast: Harrison Ford, Karen Allen, Paul Freeman, Ronal Lacey, John Rhys-Davies, Denholm Elliott.

Plot: Archeologist Indiana Jones is entrusted with a dangerous mission: finding the Lost Ark that contains the fragments of the Ten Commandments before the Nazis do it, as it's thought that they grant an enormous power those who possesses them.

Review: As it was the first installment of a very successful franschise and had Spielberg directing it, I was waiting for an entertaining action movie with a complex, well-structured story. No, no and no.

'Raiders of the Lost Ark' (which I chose over 'Blade Runner' in what it was a clear bad decision) is a weak blockbuster that lacks the strength of other franchises. It's usually not as funny as it should and contains many plot forgetable topics. First of all, it is a film really based on the idea that Nazis would risk their lives to find the Ten Commandments believing that they would achieve an incredible power? Really? It has little credibility. Moreover, although Ford's Indiana is well acted and has enough human weaknesses (like his fear of snakes) to connect with the audience, his love story with Marion is quite predictable, not offering much new challenges (which doesn't exactly mean that I dislike it).

A Harrison Ford at the top of his career was chosen to star as Indianda Jones in Spielberg's film. It was critically and economically successful, although for me it has been a major disappointment

This way, the first Indiana Jones' film unfolds as a quite dull and unrealistic adventure with a limited success as it sometimes even fails to entertain younger audiences.

'Raging Bull' (Martin Scorsese, 1980)

Title: 'Raging Bull'

Release Year: 1980

Director: Martin Scorsese

Cast: Robert De Niro, Cathy Moriarty, Joe Pesci.

Plot: The film tells the rise and fall of Jake la Motta, a successful boxer whose insecurities endanger both his personal and professional life.

Review: Martin Scorsese is one of my favourite directors and usually I adore his movies. 'Raging Bull' has been the underwhelming exception to the general rule.

That doesn't mean it was a bad movie. Generally it is listed as one of the best films of all time and Robert De Niro's performance is nothing but spectacular.

The problems is that the typical atmosphere of violence in which Scorsese usually floods his characters (that almost always delivers wonderful  and raw results) seems strangely out of place. I can understand that la Motta was a very complex person; he was strong and powerful in the ring, but once he was outside, his insecurities made him a weak man. But somehow, you always expect some kind of redemption, an evolution that justifies the whole run that the character has made. On the contrary, as time goes by, De Niro's character only becomes worse, maybe influenced by the also questionable conduct of his brother.

Jake la Motta: a story of violence and insecurities sunk by its own weight

All this contributes to a certain detachment of the audience with the film and ultimately leads to an incomplete cinematographic experience. In the end, when an overweight la Motta recites one of Marlon Brando's most memorable speeches in 'On the Waterfront', you feel that they've left something behind, that something is missing; la Motta starts as a fragile-minded persona and this characteristic drives his entire life until his disppointing ending, with no evolution in the meantime. When he finally decides to take the stage one more time, you ask yourself if the journey had any sense to begin with, other than showing the extreme transformation De Niro had to go through to embody his troubled character.

'The Shining' (Stanley Kubrick, 1980)

Title: 'The Shining' 

Release Year: 1980

Director: Stanley Kubrick

Cast: Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd, Scatman Crothers.

Plot: Jack Torrance moves in the Overlook hotel with his family to take care of it while it remains closed in the winter season. But although his initial intention is finding peace to write his novel, as different paranormal events occur, he starts to lose his mind and eventually tries to kill his wife and son.

Review: 'The Shining' didn't have easy beginnings. When it was released in 1980, it wasn't met with critical acclaim and Stanley Kubrick received a Razzie nomination for Worst Director. Through the years it gained a cult following as the film was reassessed as a horror classic.

I truly can understand why it didn't meet expectations when it was released; it was long, complex and some of the supernatural events did not have an explanation and people didn't understand the film well. I did also struggle with the difficult plot twists and time impossibilities and ended asking myself: does the story even have sense? And it's at that moment when I think that the film suceeds; while making the audience suffer to understand the hows and the why the film catches it, in the same way that the Overlook hotel trapped a Jack Torrance that 'had always lived there'.

  
Hello, Danny. Come play with us. Come play with us, Danny; Forever, and ever... and ever. The unforgettable scene featuring 'The Shining twins'

Anyway, even if they had problems with the plot, I don't understand why they couldn't praise Jack Nicholson's performance. It's the best work that I've seen of him and obviously deserved more than a Saturn Award nomination. His wonderfully acted and marvelously portrayed Jack Torrance leads a film that creates a universe where you can lose yourself, in the same way as Jack lost himself in the haunted hotel maze... and never escaped. Was he there from the very beginning? Why was there a photo of him at the principal hallway dated 1921? Are he and Grady the same person? Is the dead woman in the bathroom Grady's dead wife? And the twins... are they his daughters? Why does the elevator open to reveal a blood cascade? Why is Danny able to perceive the hotel's 'Shining' and why does he start whispering 'REDRUM' (Murder written backwards)? Those are enigmas yet to be solved.

'Here's... Johnny!', the line that is now a part of film history

'Apocalypse Now' (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979)

Title: 'Apocalypse Now' 

Release Year: 1979

Director: Francis Ford Coppola

Cast: Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, Martin Sheen, Frederic Forrest, Albert Hall, Sam Bottoms, Lawrence Fishburne, Dennis Hopper.

Plot: Captain Willard has been given the mission of entering Vietnam wild jungles to find General Kurtz, who after an exemplary career has become insane and lives as the head of a tribe that worships him.

Review: After watching its huge length and the time it took to be shot I truly expected a soporific war-themed movie in which Francis Ford Coppola had wasted too much money. Nothing could further from reality: 'Apocalypse Now' is a great masterpiece and the biggest surprise as an unexpected revelation of this research project.

A rave story about the disastrous consequences of war, this is cinema at its most visionary and audacious level, a hallucinatory tale of self-destruction and a result of the psychological scarfs that the Vietnam war left in soldiers.

The technical perfection of the film accentuates the sensation of delirium and madness

This way we advance through a visually dazzling story and a country where fire and water are fused and each of them seems more lethal than the previous one. In a world region were madness has seized power and there's little sanity left, Sheen's character tries to find the lost General, while trying to understand the reason why he lost his way.

That last task is very difficult to accomplish, since when he locates him (in the heart of the jungle in an indigenous camp), all that is left is an insane despotic creature, who lives adored as a god and surrounded by a delirious infinity of massacred bodies and severed heads distributed all over the village. Kurtz has definitely lost his mind after so many years of irrational hate and murders and as he awaits for Willard to kill him he concludes this massive work of art with his final meaningful words: 'The Horror... The horror...'

A mentally insane Marlon Brando appears only in the last part of the film, but transformates it into a must-seen masterpiece about the rave consequences that war has in men