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The re-release of Let's Get Lost is simply a gift. Bruce Weber spent six months on the road with Chet Baker in 1987 to catch a glimpse of the enigmatic and ultimately elusive musician. The film noir feel to the documentary is evoked from the beginning with a sublimely beautiful shot of Baker's old and wizened face while sitting in the back of a convertible, his hair dancing in the wind. Even though he is sitting between two beautiful women, one being his partner at the time; Baker's melancholy is evident. With every breath Baker exudes the pain and tribulations of his fifty seven years. It is no mistake he found his home in Jazz, the perfect catharsis and sanctuary for someone of his sensibility.

His physical beauty as a young man is perfectly juxtaposed with the changed man we meet in the documentary. Yet even with his gaunt appearance and ambling speech, Baker still possesses a charm and charisma that is uniquely his own. It becomes clear as the documentary progresses that Baker left a lot of pain and heartbreak in his wake. Ex-wives and past girlfriends talk unkindly about him in one breath and praise him in the next. His magnetism was a godsend and a curse in the end.

Whatever is said about Baker what is undeniable is his musical prowess. His flair for the trumpet coupled with his beautifully sad voice are an irresistible combination. An appearance at Cannes with Bruce Weber during the opening of one of Weber's documentaries showcases a heartbreaking rendition of 'Almost Blue' at the after party. He silences the baying party goers before beginning and proceeds to close his eyes and expose his soul in front of the audience. It is moments like these that captivate the viewer. Let's Get Lost remains one of the finest musical documentaries ever made, up there with D.A. Pennebaker's 'Don't Look Back'.

Garage arrives at a great time for Irish cinema. The output and standard of Irish film is at an all time low with an exception like Adam and Paul, a film from the same people that made Garage. Writer Mark O Halloran is a sure hand at capturing the subtle nuances of everyday Irish life. In his previous outing Adam and Paul he delved in to the world of two strung out Dublin heroin addicts. In Garage we join Josie in his hum drum existence as a petrol station attendant in a nameless provincial Irish village. Josie is not the sharpest tool in the box but his cheery demeanor aids the viewer in being won over by him.

Pat Short in his first dramatic role subverts his usual comic representation of the country redneck by infusing his portrayal of Josie with great pathos and genuine humor. Short has altered his stride in more ways than one here, totally changing his gait and physicality to become the character of Josie. It is an excellent performance from Short and as an Irish man who has been exposed to his previous life as simply a comic performer, a revelation.

Leonard Abrahamson who also directed Adam and Paul has made a film that is visually beautiful. The local shop, the quiet village street and the starkly beautiful Irish countryside punctuate the film creating a strong sense of place for the audience. These also serve to bring us in to the numbing routine of Josie's daily existence. He lives in terrible conditions but he blames no one and trudges on until closing time each day. Abrahamson revels in the everyday and the ordinary in Garage. Two men smoking outside a pub, a shop worker chatting to Josie outside her shop; these everyday scenes are woven in to the tapestry of Garage and in turn made in to something extraordinary.

Garage is a wonderful movie. Abrahamson as director and O Halloran as writer have made the best two Irish films of the last ten years in 'Adam and Paul' and 'Garage'. Finally I would just like to mention the great Tom Murphy who co starred in Adam and Paul as he just recently passed away. He will be sorely missed.

Anton Corbin has created a film that perfectly showcases both the music of Joy Division and the short but fruitful life of Ian Curtis. The choice to film in black and white was the right one. It sets the tone perfectly for Ian Curtis' gray and lifeless hometown of Macclesfield in 1973.

Corbin as a first time director excels utilizing his visual and technical skills from his previous life as a music video director. Thankfully Control is not just a beautiful looking movie but a perfectly pitched study of the rise and tragic fall of the tortured Ian Curtis. The intensity of the live music performances in the film are as visceral as those of the real band. It is a credit to the actors that they played everything live on screen, it serves to create memorable performances.

Sam Riley delivers a towering performance as Curtis. The first time actor is a name to watch. He is surrounded by a great cast but the film is carried on Riley's shoulders.His inner turmoil is conveyed with great humanity and realism. The audience was still and quiet for quite some time after the credits rolled at the screening I attended.

There are some very clever and touching uses of the music in the film. Corbin uses the intensity of Curtis' lyrics to help paint a biographical picture of the man. The use of 'Love will tear us apart' in the movie was particularly inspired giving the context of the scene it was played in. I hope you will go see this powerful and moving film to see what I am talking about.

Having read many other reviews of Blood Diamond on this site, I feel compelled to post my own. It seems everyone who viewed this film was blinded by Leonardo's highlights. Hollywood rarely deals with Africa well when depicting it on celluloid. Blood Diamond is a showcase for a strained and showy performance from Dicaprio. The illegal diamond trade became merely a backdrop for several Rambo like action sequences. Anyone viewing this film with little knowledge of African people would come away thinking they are mostly bloodthirsty diamond grabbing savages. The simplistic portrayal of Djimon Honsous' character does little in humanizing the African for the viewer. Yes, he is an honest fisherman and loves his family, yet he is still merely a prop with minimal depth. Honsou is an accomplished actor who comes through the best with the worst material.

In a scene where Jennifer Conollys' journalist character questions why she is bothering to illuminate the atrocities carried out in Guinea and Sierra Leone, she states that her story could just turn in to an infomercial like the ones depicting starving African children with bloated bellies. The irony was all too much. While highlighting such stereotyped representations of Africans by the media, the film itself did not escape such pitfalls. It was guilty of the very same tired African representations it claimed to be distant from.There were also numerous aspects of the plot that defied logic and common sense that i will not get in to here. The movie was also far too long capped by a preposterously melodramatic finale. It seems the exploitation of the Africans to sell products to the west continues, this new product is called Blood Diamond.

From the outset my alarm bells started ringing. This film smacked of utter pretentiousness from beginning to end. The main protagonist , the shoe salesman, and Miranda Julys character, come across as irritating rather than endearing, especially Julys character. I believe The medium of film should make the viewer think both during and after the viewing experience. Me and You.. did not provoke or question me in any way. I felt deflated and bemused after viewing it, wondering how these films get made. The fact is that this film is extremely badly made. There is no visual flair here at all. Miranda July would be better served sticking to her museum installations and leaving the medium of film to those that have something to say and also have the means to say it. I felt the story should have concentrated more on the two brothers as they provided the most human and palpable performances of the cast. However, the film lacked cohesiveness and direction. The quirky whimsical happy go-lucky tone of the movie makes me ill. This film lacks back-bone. Miranda July believes she is exploring the human condition here with what appears to be a group of vignettes that are blatantly there to provoke and cause a reaction. They do indeed provoke and indeed there is a reaction. What you have just read is an example of the former.

Upon reading some of the reviews on the comment board, i noticed something that i see a lot more prevalently on this site. Typecasting the type of person who does or does not like a certain movie. Now, i read on more than one occasion in a few reviews that anyone who did not like this movie was someone who who had not been in a meaningful relationship or could not see past the film and find the true beauty in it. All this is very lazy and very qualitative. Ones perception of a piece of art is subjective to their own perception of it and is totally unique and no less relevant than anyone else's. To brandish someone less worthy of assimilating a film just because you think they are, is total rubbish. So i begin my review of Nine Songs by saying it is one of the worst films i have ever seen.

I have enjoyed Winterbottom's other films including 24 hour party people and Wonderland. He has been brave in choosing such explicit content however straight sex on screen does not impact unless it is buffered with engaging characters whom you can identify with to some degree. He has used very broad strokes here in showing the arc of the relationship. The main social interaction between the two comes in the form of the music concerts. They come across more as promo's for the bands latest album. They don't add any nuance or momentum to the relationship which is the heart of the film. Yes we can all identify with aspects of the film. Most of us have been in a relationship and most of us have been to music concerts. So what?There is nothing here to bolster the plot. The sex seemed loveless and cold just like the film. I was left feeling empty. Not empty because the relationship had run its course however, i never felt anything for the relationship in the first place. Intimacy is a film that contains real sex but has much more of a punch to it as the director weaves a narrative around them that engages the viewer. Next time Mr. Winterbottom.

By recommending this film by Spike Lee to anyone, it is indeed the finest of champagne you will be sharing with them. Where does one start on such a near flawless piece of art? The film begins with Norton occupying the screen and ends the same way. He embodies this character so totally, one forgets he is performing. The emotional honesty and integrity of all the performances leads me to term this an ensemble piece to many degrees. The interplay between Hoffman and Pepper in the Chinese restaurant scene sparkles with honesty and truth. Our introduction to Monty, Morton's character sees him visiting Hoffman's character in the high school where he teaches and where both went to school. The pathos of nostalgia simply oozes out of Norton effortlessly and without any hint of contrivance. The viewer is at once drawn in and captivated.

Bienoff's screenplay is one of naturalistic integrity and beauty. He must be commended for it as should the actors for their delivery of, in my opinion, the best screenplay in recent years. Brian Cox proves his legendary status through his performance of Monty's torn and ex- alcoholic father. Norton is the lynch pin however. Even when he is off screen we anticipate his return and revel in his presence when he arrives. His portrayal warms us to Monty, he is essentially a nice guy who has dabbled in the dark side of life and is going to pay for it in a rather substantial way. We don't want him to leave in as much as his friends don't either. The film possesses one of the finest and original endings to grace a screen and does not fall prey to sentimentalism. This is an utterly compelling film. A master stroke by a master craftsman, Spike Lee. Well Done.

By far Cronenbergs' most accessible feature to date, A History of Violence could still manage to deter viewers with its extremely visceral violence and sex. This is Cronenbergs most focused and composed film to date. Yet coupled in the film are bursts of violent anger with displays of composure, both distilled in Mortissens character. It is a towering performance from the Lord of the Rings star. The transformation throughout the film is one which the viewer shares with his family. We are taken on a journey, one which can be very unsettling and thrilling at the same time. Mortissen has the ability to convey a sense of restricted passion and potential violence and can then unleash it on the audience with ferocious intensity. The film examines the roles and significance of both sex and in particular violence in our daily lives and the fashion in which they are dealt with in the media. It plays on our own in built reactions to scenes containing Mortissen getting the upper hand with violent crooks. We are presented with harsh violence in these scenes however the 'good guy' wins therefore it is justified in many eyes. It is this aspect of the film which is masterly woven by the director. We move from simply passive viewers to viewers that ultimately have to think about what we are looking at and more significantly the way we are assimilating it. Maria Bello plays the part of the wife with a humanity she has shown in her previous film The Cooler with William H. Macy. The second sex scene is very important thematically. Mortissen has become a local hero due to his courageous and clinically violent actions during a stick-up in the coffee shop he owns. A subsequent act of violence in the film leads her to question her husbands past. The sex scene is the result of two conflicting emotions, the first being fear of what her husband is capable of, the second being fascination with her husbands violent capabilties and strength. The final scene of the film is very poignant without being melodramatic. The beauty of this ending is in the way we, the audience, have to make the final choice with the family. Should we accept Mortissen back knowing all about his violent past or discard him as damaged goods? A History of Violence is a film that needs to be seen. It does what all good film should do for audiences, that is to make them think, react and to think some more. Cronenberg manages to thrill on an intellectual level and on a more base violent level. Amidst all the dross being released at the moment, A History of violence stands out as a beacon of hope for all us movie goers.