Thanks to different technologies and entertainment-related companies, the concept of “new releases” has lately been changing. Rather, we are just coming to expect movies to be released much faster. Once upon a time, it took roughly half of a calendar year for a movie to make its way from the cinema to store shelves; now, thanks to companies such as Netflix and Direct TV, a movie can go from the big screen to your home LED flat screen in a matter of just a couple of months. With this in mind, here is a brief look at some of this year’s most exciting movies, some of which are already available for home viewing and others of which will be coming to you shortly.
• Drive - Playing with a William Friedkin level of patient intensity and atmospheric style, Dutch director Nicolas Winding Refn creates his own 21st century dialectic of cinema. Part love story, part black comedy, and part crime thriller "Drive" is a film-lover's dream.
Hossein Amini's script of James Sallis's pulp novel provides Ryan Gosling with the kind of cool-blooded character actors would kill to portray. Known only as Driver, Gosling wears a trademark sliver racing jacket with a big gold scorpion embroidered on the back. Driver is a "five-minute" man. For the right price he will navigate L.A.'s "100,000 streets" as a getaway driver. Whatever happens before or after his five minute work schedule begins or ends is up to the client. One thing is certain; his escape will be clean. During the day Driver works as a mechanic when he isn't performing driving stunts in Hollywood movies. Driver's apartment building neighbor Irene (Carey Mulligan) snaps him out of his laconic loner routine. Irene has a boy named Benicio whose dad's release from prison is coming up. Such unnecessary exposition is kept out of the way of the mostly silent chemistry that passes between the would-be lovers.
To give anymore of the plot away would be a sin. Suffice it to say Driver is a man of secrets. He lives by a strict code that only becomes apparent through his actions. Driver isn't telegraphing anything. Still, he does have a serious temper. "Drive" is an impossibly glamorous and gritty film filled with nooks and crannies bursting with action goodness. The moody techno soundtrack Cliff Martinez is the hippest thing around. Sexy, violent, and stylized like you can’t believe, “Drive” is a big-screen movie that oozes charisma and pops with brutality. Yum.
• Amigo – Ken Loach's spiritual American cousin John Sayles performs an act of cinematic due diligence in illustrating how little has changed since 1900 in the Western world's imperialist tactics toward smaller countries.
Building the film on his historically-based novel "A Moment in the Sun," Sayles digs into the realities of the turn-of-the-century Philippine-American war set on the politically significant island of Luzon. The peaceful existence of a rural village community (a.k.a "baryo") is upended in the blink of an eye when American soldiers overtake the agricultural area to create a garrison. The village's Catholic friar Padre Hidalgo (Yul Vazquez) is the first to side with the occupiers. The hypocritical priest identifies the benevolent Rafael (Joel Torre) as the "head" of the village. Rafael in turn introduces himself to the arrogant militia as "Amigo"–a term they liberally interchange with epithets such as goo-goo or monkey. Rafael's brother and son escape into the jungle to join a group of Filipino guerilla fighters strategizing about how best to liberate their country.
Sayles emphasizes the dilemma of ordinary people caught in an untenable situation. Except for Chris Cooper's contribution as an American general, there are no name actors to distract from the naturalistic realism of the narrative. Joel Torre personalizes Rafael as a unique everyman through whose eyes the audience witnesses the turmoil.
As with John Sayles's unforgettable film "Matewan," about West Virginia coal miners, "Amigo" is a cold glass of socio-political allegory exempt from pretension or exaggeration. It is also the most relevant war picture to come out of the post-9/11 era. Do yourself a favor, ignore Hollywood for a couple of hours and experience John Sayles's best film in recent years.
• Mozart's Sister – France's best-kept secret, writer/director René Féret, embellishes the journey of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's older sister Nannerl during their family's early efforts to impress the royal courts of Europe during the 18th century. The filmmaker's own daughter Marie Féret imbues her musically gifted character with an unmistakable erotic grace. With intricate attention to detail Féret lays out the milieu of the noble class in which the Mozart family intrudes like a band of remarkably disciplined gypsies. There is nothing glamorous about the family's touring through the bitter cold of snow-covered landscapes. Patriarch Leopold (Marc Barbe) has trained his 15-year-old daughter Nannerl to be a virtuoso violinist, harpsichordist, and singer. Scenes of effortless musical performances by Nannerl and Wolfgang (David Moreau) are utterly convincing. Aware of the culturally imposed limitations for women, the ambitious father turns his attention to train his prodigious ten-year-old son to compose music. He furthermore forbids Nannerl to play the violin for fear of her upstaging Wolfgang.
A daring feat by any measure, Féret's imagined account of Nannerl Mozart's early struggles sharply pivots on an invented romantic liaison she develops with the Dauphin (Clovis Fouin) to Louis XV. The opportune introduction comes at the behest of the Dauphin's forthright young sister Louise de France (wonderfully played by the director's other daughter Lisa Féret). The couple's attraction is complicated by the necessity for Nannerl to dress as a boy in order to approach the Dauphin, who is nonetheless won over by her phenomenal singing voice. "Mozart's Sister" fits easily into a category of meaningful bio-pictures about long-suffering French heroines of art that includes films like "Seraphine" and "Adele H." Marie Féret's magical eyes allow for a haunting performance that transcends time. Prepare to be swept away.
