"Coquelicot-zaka kara" ~ 8/10

The new Ghibli movie, and second film made by Miyazaki Hayao's son Gorô, is way better than his previous "Gedo senki".

Some things would still deserve attention, such as the drawings themselves (when you work for the prestigious Studio Ghibli, which is famous also for their magnificent watercolour backgrounds, you cannot afford a character design as bad as the Dragon Ball Z or Pokemon series...). Moreover, the animation still lacks... animation! One might expect from Studio Ghibli a few more images per second (even their short movies have better movements). And my last complaint should be about the opening scene, with the "breakfast song", which looks a little bit like one of those stupid japanese TV commercials...

Anyway, the story being set in a rather realistic 1963 Yokohama, Miyazaki Gorô gets closer to Isao Takahata's realism, than to his father's magical imagination. That might be a very good point : there's no need for another Hayao Miyazaki, but using Studio Ghibli's capacity of creation combined with historical realism and social criticism has always resulted in masterpieces ("Hotaru no haka", "Omoide poro poro", "Heisei Tanuki Gassen Ponpoko"), and following this would not be a mistake.

The description of japanese society is very interesting, and still echoes nowadays, even if it would be difficult to imagine, in this 2011 Japan flooded by tsunamis of junk-culture, young boys and girls able to create anything as great as the fairly open-minded "Quartier Latin" depicted in "Coquelicot-zaka kara".

The use of Sakamoto Kyû's song "Ue wo muite arukô" (one, if not the most famous Japanese song ever) anchors the film in reality, along with several views of Tokyo during the sixties. Anyway all this realism does not prevent the movie from remaining idealistic enough to be interesting. This is also due to the fact that real adults are all absent in one way or another, or present only through the prism of past wars, and no obstacle seems to prevent those young dreamers to pursues their ideals...

The soundtrack music is good and subtle enough not to ruin the charm of this pretty little film (too much music was the biggest mistake of Studio Ghibli's last movie...). The theme song melody makes me feel as if Joe Hisaishi was there also in the movies he didn't take part in (and I wouldn't mind this influence to be real ^^).

While some references to his father's cinema (and probably manga too), and to other Ghibli movies ("Karigurashi no Arrietty" for instance) can be noticed here and there, and Hayao Miyazaki helped him with the script, with "Coquelicot-zaka kara" Gorô Miyazaki is starting to show some real talent and personality. I just hope that by keeping up the good work at Studio Ghibli, he will one day be worthy of Miyazaki senior.

"A serious man" ~ 8/10

The Coen brothers' most personal movie is particularly exceptional in their filmography, with a story more intriguing than their first film, a tendency to lean towards bizarre and odd situations darker, more acute, and less humoristic than in all their previous films. Humor is less present but still very powerful as it is put in parallel with very disturbing things (the ending credits said "No Jews were harmed in the making of this film.").
And the ending is a beautiful conclusion to a magnificent and yet somehow minimalistic work.

"Le vilain" ~ 8/10

This new Dupontel flick is a bit less dark than "Bernie" and "Le créateur" but still very fun. Dupontel keeps on his idea of a 'social cartoon', with much talent, and wonderful actors, amongst whom Catherine Frot and Bouli Lanners, both in very original parts.
The best improvement of all, here, was Albert Dupontel himself : he's really become an extremely good actor in his own craziness, with an improved comical talent.

"The Road" [fr="La route"] ~ 8/10

A beautiful adaptation of McCarty's story about a father and his son being among the last "carrying the fire" of humanity, in a world that falls apart.
The actors and the music are great, and everything as perfect as it could be.

"Le concert" ~ 8/10

The best scene of this movie is, obviously, the last one, the one with the concert announced by the title. The one in which Mélanie Laurent actually entered a trance state whilst filming (sic).
The rest is good comedy with great actors (Berléand, Abelanski...).

And Mélanie Laurent gets the most beautiful part, once again well deserved as she's now the best french actress of her generation. Allied with Tchaikovsky's divine music, the whole thing is really worth the watch (and the listening to, thanks to Sarah Nemtanu's violin).

"Rien de personnel" ~ 8/10

This movie is brilliant social-cynsim ! Thanks to a progressively explicit montage, what starts as the simple story of workers crushed by a shameless company, ends up being a great interlinked flick AND a funny social critic.
Daroussin, Podalydès, Greggory, Doutey, Lanners, Breitman - every single actor fits perfectly for his character.

"The Hangover" [fr="Very bad trip"] ~ 8/10

It's been a while since an american comedy had not been that much popular. Maybe since the golden age of the Farrelly brothers (it was back in the nineties, with "Dumb and Dumber" and "There's something about Mary"). Unlike the Farrelly brothers, though, Todd Phillips' previous movies were not that good, only regular-popcorn-teen-comedies.
Here precisely, we can see how the Farrelly brothers influenced the whole american comedy genre over the past fifteen years, in particular with the apparition of explicit sexual jokes (the Farrelly brothers are famous for making a lot of those, not only in their movies, but also in their everyday life, as Cameron Diaz reported about the strange way they 'tested' her humor when she got cast - see "There's something about Mary" bonuses for more details...). Now it is not rare anymore to show penises in american comedies, noteably in several Judd Apatow productions, and here in "The Hangover".
The best point of this movie might finally be the end credits, which feature what they pretended not to show.

"Låt den rätte komma in" [fr="Morse"] ~ 8/10

John Ajvide Lindqvist's screenplay adaptation of his own novel, through Tomas Alfredson's directing, became not only a wonderfully poetic movie, but also a great renewing of the wide fantastic/vampire genre(s). With not much special effects, the movie goes way beyond what Hollywood could only be dreaming of making with such a strange story.

The great finale might be one of the best I've ever seen in a horror movie. And probably the most inventive in the use of the camera.

"The Boat That Rocked" [fr="Good Morning England"] ~ 8/10

This wonderful film, although being fictitious, is a good way of summing up England's history of illegal radio stations on boats. The characters, all funny and charming in their own style, also represent every genre of music/drugs/political beliefs from back in the 1960's, and are played by huge actors (Hoffman and Nighy above all !). The music is obviously excellent (a whole radio-boat crew bringing to England's young ears the best of musical artists the sixties had to offer), and there is, of course, a *fuckload* (as Simple Simon would say) of memorable dialogs (my favorite might be the scene where someone first says the 'F word' on the radio waves...).
Richard Curtis' first non-romantic movie (after the simple yet cool "Love Actually") contains what this great man could produce of better, after working on such 'musts' as "Spitting Image" (some kind of english equivalent of "Les Guignols de l'Info"), or Rowan Atkinson's "Blackadder" series and "Mister Bean" movies.

"Ne me libérez pas, je m'en charge" ~ 8/10

Whilst Michel Vaujour's numerous escapes from jail were always stunning, this documentary is all but spectacular. It only focuses on Vaujour's life (27 years of which were spent in prison), and how such escapes could happen, and why he did them.
Only the title remains funny, the film itself being quite a tough 'human being story'.

"J'ai tué ma mère" ~ 8/10

Probably the most amazing thing about this film would be the fact that the writer and director is a twenty-year-old boy, with a beautiful sense of direction, editing, and cinematography.
The use of slow motion in some scenes, in particular, was a very poetic idea (maybe borrowed to Wong Kar Wai, as it features a similar style of music ?). The black and white scenes, in the bathroom, where Dolan is facing his camera, are great, too.
The actors are beautiful and excellent in their respective roles, Xavier Dolan gave them very beautiful (yet natural) dialogs.
As a debut film, very few young directors would have done better (Dolan is 5 years younger than Orson Welles when he made "Citizen Kane" ^^).

"Amreeka" [fr = "Amerrika"] ~ 8/10

More than a movie about discrimination of Muslims, or war between Israel and Palestine, this beautiful work Talks about motherhood.
A very good point, amongst others, is the use of written "slogans" at several moments, in Palestine and in the USA : "Ich bin ein Berliner" on the great wall around palestinian territories, "God bless America hamgurgers served 24 hours were open minded" in front of an american fast foood restaurant...
The actors are really great, the use of music is intelligent, and we can really feel this presence of two very different Americas : the open minded one, and the one who goes to war.

"Pranzo di ferragosto" [fr = "Le déjeuner du 15 août"] ~ 8/10

Gianni Di Gregorio's really sincere (and biographical) movie about a 50 year old man who's still living with his mother. All four non-professionnal elder actresses are pretty good indeed. Plus, an almost involuntary reference to Nanni Moretti's "Caro Diario" (my favourite italian movie along with "La strada").

"Milk" [fr = "Harvey Milk"] ~ 8/10

Sean Penn's great impersonation of the gay leader (which brought him his second Oscar).

"Lascars : pas de vacances pour les vrais gars" ~ 8/10

As I'd been expecting for months now, this movie truely was a good surprise. The graphical universe, the music, the characters, the choice of the voicing actors (especially Omar Sy and Gilles Lellouche), everything is great and perfectly used. And above all, the humor of the TV series is still there.
Though, as any creation from a french "té-ci" (slang word for suburbian high-rise block of council flats), this film displays references to Brian De Palma's "Scarface", but somehow lacks paying hommage to any other culture.
Anyway it was a good little masterpiece of animation.