While it maybe hard to beat the likes of There Will Be Blood, Atonement, No Country for Old Men, Zodiac and Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, there are a number of upcoming films that offer some unique perspectives, amazing stories, great performances and over-all cool movie moments. Here are some of them:

From Romania and the recent big winner at Cannes, 4 Months 3 Weeks and 2 Days:

What's the Movie About: Screen realism rarely achieves such a vivid texture of a country and a time as in this excruciatingly tense drama, the Palme d'Or winner at Cannes this year, about two young women living in an all-female dorm in 1980s Romania. The story takes place over one long night. Vague Gabita is pregnant and wants an illegal termination, but she has been dilatory about arrangements with the criminal abortionist. When her staunch friend and room mate Otilia tries to straighten things out, she is made to pay her own price to make sure it happens.

An extraordinary odyssey of desperation and terror ensues, against a grim environment of quasi-Soviet officiousness. Nearly every scene is a harrowing standout, but the one in which Otilia is obliged to attend her boyfriend's parents' dinner party while Gabita is in a hotel waiting for the treatment to take effect, is particularly brilliant. Director Cristian Mungiu's superb arthouse nail-biter is convincing in every way, especially in the piercing performance of Anamaria Marinca as Otilia. [ review by Nick James ]

[ Official Movie Site ]

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In Funny Games, Haneke once again brings in the terror! (Actually, this is a remake of the director's 1997 film of the same name).

What's the Movie About: Georg and Anna, and their son Georgie, are traveling to their lakeside summer home. Upon arrival, Georg and Georgie head off to the lake for sailing while Anna prepares dinner in the kitchen. The serenity is shattered by a young man named Peter, who knocks at the door asking to borrow some eggs. The unwanted visitor is joined by Paul, a brash, arrogant young man. It soon becomes clear the pair have no intention of leaving. When Georg returns and tries to throw them out, physical violence erupts, and the family is held captive. What ensues are highly disturbing and violent games that are initiated by Paul and Peter with Georg, Anna, and Georgie as the unwilling participants.

[ Official Movie Site ]

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The new Brian de Palma movie that's generating a lot of negative buzz lately.

"The film has attracted political controversy, with claims that it portrays US soldiers in a negative light, and may contribute to anti-American sentiment in Iraq and elsewhere. Sites like "boycottredacted.com" have accused Brian De Palma and Mark Cuban of treason, and called for the general public to avoid watching the film."

What's the Movie About: A fictional story inspired by true events, REDACTED is a unique cinematic experience that will force viewers to radically reconsider the filters through which we see and accept events in our world, the power of the mediated image and how presentation and composition influence our ideas and beliefs. A profound meditation on the way information is packaged, distributed and received in an era with infinite channels of communication, REDACTED utilizes a variety of created source material - video diaries, produced documentary, surveillance footage, online testimonials, news pieces - to comment on the extreme disconnect between the surface of an image and the reality of ideas and the truth, especially in times of strife.

[ Official Movie Site ]

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Critics from all over the country seems to like Frank Langella in this film.

What's the Movie About: All that remains for Leonard Schiller (Frank Langella) is to finish the novel he has been laboring on for almost ten years. With his four earlier books out of print, he has learned to starve himself of the desire for the success he was once so close to, though beneath this practice lives a pull for his work to be rediscovered. His solitary writer’s life is shaken by the arrival of Heather (Lauren Ambrose), an ambitious graduate student who persuades him that she can use her thesis to spur a rediscovery of his work. But as her inquiry proceeds, Heather displays a profound personal interest in Leonard, which unsettles him and stirs up his long-dormant need for intimacy. Meanwhile, Leonard’s daughter Ariel (Lili Taylor) reconnects with her ex-boyfriend Casey (Adrian Lester), a man Leonard firmly disapproves of. Leonard’s encounters with Heather lead him down an unfamiliar path that threatens his writing, his health, and his relationship with his daughter. But living out in the open, in the evening of his life Schiller puts into practice the core theme of his novels — life is not designed for our comfort but for our struggle, for in struggle there is growth.

[ Official Movie Site ]

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Comments (2)

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I'd really like to see Redacted. That sounds completely fascinating and a real eye-opener.

Elle , December 13, 2007

War movies and the disconnect with audiences...

It's a pity that many of the war movies made this year never really hit the mark with the audiences. This one is also not getting positive publicities and the buzz is that there is even a website dedicated to boycott the film, that's quite sad.

jedmed , December 14, 2007

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