I've been watching a lot of movies lately. I spent a long time out sick last month and had a week of vacation, so I watched every movie playing at BAM Cinematek. Here's some of the highlights of the last few weeks. Title links go to Netflix.

IN CINEMAS (to add to your queue for the future)

Sideways
I wanted to see this movie most because I really loved Paul Giamatti in American Splendor. The story takes place when Miles (Giamatti), a writer and middle school English teacher, takes his middle-aged and mostly unsuccessful actor friend Jack (Thomas Haden Church) for a week long bachelor vacation in California wine country before Jack's wedding. Before long Jack is trying to get them both hooked up with women for his last hurrah. This turned out to be one of the most brilliant and funny movies I've seen this year. Giamatti and Virginia Madsen's story is touching and feels genuine. One of the most satisfying movies (and endings) I've seen.

Bad Education
Almodovar's Bad Education is incredible. In it you'll find his typical fringe characters, plenty of sex and soap opera melodrama, and an engaging, sinuous plot line that unravels brilliantly. Roger Ebert compared the story telling to Citizen Kane. It's much easier to digest than Kane, though, in my opinion. I don't want to say too much except that if you like Film Noir, you have to see it. Gael Garcia Bernal has quickly become one of my favorite actors.

Kinsey
This was a surprisingly much better movie than I expected it to be. Before seeing the movie, I didn't know much about the history of the Kinsey books, including the methods used for doing real research and the kind of reception the books received in those conservative times. I liked that the story, in the end, shows that the clinical treatment of sex necessarily needs to give way to the heart of the matter, that for humans, sex is more than the physical act.

House of Flying Daggers
The action in Flying Daggers makes Kill Bill look cartoon like (although, that's the point with KB I guess). The characters and story in Flying Daggers are really not that deep or exciting, but this is one of the most visually stunning films I've seen recently. It's beautiful. I think this is what Bernardo Bertalucci would shoot if he were making Hong Kong martial arts film.

ON DVD

Maria Full of Grace
A very real story about a Columbian girl who becomes a mule, a courier to transport drugs to the States. The movie tells this very unglamorous drug story in real terms, with a plot that seems to unfold in real time and with none of the typical Hollywood fascination with guns and violence that usually accompanies stories of this type. No, this is about people living in poverty and the scary reality of getting involvment in the drug industry. Must see.

Wimbledon
A romantic comedy about an underdog British professional tennis player (Paul Bettany) playing his last match at Wimbledon on a wild card who meets and falls in love with a young and upcoming star player (Kirsten Dunst). Cute movie. Not long on the story, but the chemistry between Bettany and Dunst was god. A light date movie.