Everybody's fine

How many times some one has asked you,"How are things" and you had replied everything's fine..Innumerable times may be.. even though you are feeling miserable...And just like that even though movie is titled "Everybody's fine",but in real every body's not that fine...
Everybody's Fine is the story a widower who wants to get his four adult children together for a dinner, but when he fails miserably in doing so, decides to make a surprise trip to all their residences in New York, Chicago, Denver, and Las Vegas. What the trip brings him however, is a heavy realization that despite what his late-wife told him, maybe everybody's not fine.One can feel the depression of the poor father and can be overwhelming at times,still we know it is happening to many fathers all around us.Robert De Niro shows his true class as the widower and over all it is a good enough film to have a watch with your family.
7/10

Whatever works

Whatever works is the story of Boris Yellnikof,who may be well the ultimate pessimist in the world. So bleak is his outlook that he becomes convinced that suicide is the only option.He spends time teaching chess to kids, publicly humiliating them at every possible opportunity. He is nonetheless a highly knowledgeable man.He is leading a purposefully lonely life after his divorce.
One night he meets a runaway young girl named Melodie St. Anne Celestine.She starts living with him for a while.There starts an impossible romance between the two and they eventually get married. But once the appeal of his intellect has worn off, she starts to realize that she'd rather be happy and dumb than smart and miserable. The film ends with all the characters seizing their one bit of happiness, whatever works for them in this world.
As Boris said "Love despite what they tell u,doesn't conquer all nor does it usually lasts..In the end the romantic aspirations of our youth are reduced to "whatever works"
7/10

The White Ribbon

The film starts with the local doctor and his horse trip over a piece of string tied across the road. A series of strange events continue to happen in the rural village of pre world war 1 Germany were the film is set.The wife of a farmer is killed when she falls out of the barn door,a young boy is beaten up and tied upside down,a barn is set on fire,a mentally retarded boy is blinded in a fierce assault..The narrator in the film who happens to be the school teacher falls for a young nanny who works for the village Baron. It is a patriarchal society in which repressive and puritanical rules are rigidly enforced, everyone knows their place and, if they forget, the club of religion is used to make sure that they remember. In the meantime, acts of cruelty toward women and children are kept secret.The Pastor physically punishes his children for the slightest of mistakes,even he tied the hands of his son so that he could not masturbate.The highly "respected" doctor sexually abuses even his own daughter.Is the strange things happening, the fight back of those young children against all the abuses..May be the film doesn't give the proper answer,but can always find an answer for yourself...
Hard to watch but is very good..8.5/10

Julie & Julia

"Julie & Julia" is based on the book by the same name, which is based on the true story by Julie Powell about "The Julie & Julia Project".And first of all let me say,
Meryl Streep as Julia Child is one of the most endearing performances ever.
Young married Julie Powell is a normal pen pusher whose husband encourages her to write a blog about preparing every recipe in volume one of Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" in the space of a year.What follows is the parallel stories of Julia and Julie. They had similar experiences, yet there were drastic differences. Amy Adams, who portrays Powell, is a fine actor and perfect for the part. We can sympathize with her horror at having to boil live lobsters, and we can understand the tensions that arise in her marriage because of her single-minded pursuit of her goal.But on the other end Meryl Streep is just awesome and had almost sidelined Amy Adams.
Bon appetit!..7.5/10

Up in the Air

Up in the Air can be described as a wonderful, emotional and eye-opening film that hits you with humour as well as emotion and can profoundly be remarked as one of the best film of the year. George Clooney stars as Ryan Bingham a man, no one with a career, wants to ever meet. He works for a company that hires him out to other companies to fire their employees. He quickly becomes intimate with the sexy Alex (Vera Farmiga) and has to take a new employee Natalie (Anna Kendrick) under his wing to show what his job is really like. Two themes discussed in the film are isolation vs. commitment, and also the psychological effects of losing a career. These are discussed with humor, real-life interviews, with each given serious thought.
All the actors Clooney,Vera Farniga and Anna Kendrick may recieve Oscar nominations for their flawless acting also the director Jason Reitman ...Can give it a 8/10

Nueve reinas [Nine Queens]

One can easily say it is one of the best and authentic Con films ever made in the history.It is the story of two con men, Marcos and Juan meet, apparently by chance.
All of a sudden once-in-a-lifetime scheme seems to fall in their laps -- an old time con-man enlists Juan and Marcos to sell a forged set of extremely valuable rare stamps, The Nine Queens.As the deceptions and duplicity mount, it becomes more and more difficult to figure out who is conning whom, and we begin to ask ourselves, "Who isn't a thief?" And the bottom line-only in the end we,the viewers realise that actually the con is on us.
8.5/10 for this wonderfully crafted film

Un prophète [A Prophet]

Undoubtedly one of the better movies of the year...May be even an Oscar is not beyond the reach of this French film.Set mainly within a French prison,the film depicts the story of a young and naive man of Arab origin who was sentenced to 6 years in prison.At the arrival in the prison the man is forced to kill another prisoner by a Corsican Mafia Don.What follows is the journey of the young man on and off the prison,from a naive uneducated 19 year old to a Mafia king pin.It is a difficult film to watch,but a must watch for serious film lovers...
would give it easily a 9/10 for its wonderful well-knit script and direction as well as some classy acting