Movies I've Seen That Are Totally Awesome

Let's talk movies. If you stop by here very often, you know that I love movies and I love sharing them with folks! Below is a list of films I've seen recently that I found interesting.

Smash His Camera
This 2010 documentary follows Ron Galella, a man that many claim was the first true "paparazzi" photographer. The movie is centered around Galella's fascination with Jackie Onassis, but ends up being more about a man's whole career.

More than the celebrities or the controversy or any of the other sub-plots, the movie is driven by Galella's innocence (and maybe ignorance) about his job and its effects. It's interesting seeing numerous industry professionals passionately loving (or hating) Galella's guts.



The Tillman Story
I remember hearing about the scandal regarding the cover-up of the friendly-fire shooting of former NFL star-turned-soldier, Pat Tillman, but I have to say I was pretty unaware of what occurred. This is a polarizing film that asks the viewer to pick a side (as most films do). I was interested to see that the movie actually tried to dispel the Tillman mythology and portray him in the most honest, human perspective possible.

It's a sad tale about patriotism and the dangers of swallowing the lies that pride will feed you.



Fantastic Mr. Fox
I've been hearing about this one for a year and kept moving down the list on Netflix. Stop-motion? Foxes? Wes Anderson? Wasn't interested.

That was dumb of me. This movie is fantastic and quirky and somehow manages to pull more emotion from it's barely animated characters than a lot of live action stuff I've seen this year.




Fair Game
As much as I hate to say it, my politics-is-so-cool phase is dead. Now, I'm pretty tired of the whole stupid thing. That's why I completely missed this real-life spy drama. Fair Game digs deep into the scandal that shook the White House over the alleged misconduct of CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson and her husband, Joseph Wilson. Make no mistake, this movie is just about as "leftist" as it can be, but films like this do force us to ask that age old question: does power corrupt? And does it corrupt everyone?

Beyond being an amazing examination of an actual event, it's also a nicely organized film. I wouldn't call myself a Sean Penn "fan", but his work in this is pretty amazing.

What have you seen that's good? Recommend some stuff! My queue is running low!