The Class

— Laurent Cantet's "The Class" is a look at a year in the life of a junior high teacher in a "rough" Paris school. Kind of a "Dangerous Minds" done right. Nothing very black and white with lots of subtle ethical issues. I liked it much more than I thought I would.

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[2008. 128 min. Directed Laurent Cantet. Starring Francois Begaudeau and Agame Malembe-Emene.]

Lars and the Real Girl

— Netflix "suggested" “Lars and the Real Girl” based on my likes. It was quirky, well written and acted, sort of funny and quite a bit preposterous. Ryan Gosling is always good, and the amazing acceptance of his character’s delusion by everyone in the town made me yearn to be in a place where everyone really does try to do the right thing.

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[2007. 106 min. Directed Craig Gillespie. Starring Ryan Gosling, Emily Mortimer, and Paul Schneider.]

Julie & Julia

— I can’t help but laugh at Nora Ephron’s sense of humor which was evident throughout “Julie & Julia”. Meryl Streep’s wonderful, and Amy Adams does a decent job too. Too bad the parallels are a little forced and Julie’s story just doesn’t have the depth of Julia’s. I’m not likely to turn to French cooking anytime soon, but I sure am hungry for Beef Bourguignon.

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[2009. 123 min. Directed Nora Ephron. Starring Amy Adams, Meryl Streep, Stanley Tucci, and Chris Messina.]

Moon

— "Moon" is much more linear than I expected and appears to have no MTV generation effort to confuse time and space (and focus), no deafening soundtrack, and no overuse of computer animation. Sam Rockwell is wonderful and Duncan Jones' direction must have been pretty good because it didn't bother me. (Trivia: Jones was born Zowie Bowie—David Bowie's son—so it's easy to understand why he changed his name.)

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[2009. 97 min. Directed Duncan Jones. Starring Sam Rockwell, Kevin Spacey, and Dominique McElligott.]

Away We Go

— "Away We Go” has some very funny parts as a couples journeys across the US to find a place to start their family. I'm a sucker for Mendes' films and this seems like a much lower budget entry than his others, plus more people would see it as a comedy than, say, "Revolutionary Road" or "American Beauty.” It was fine, but not even close to “Revolutionary Road” or “American Beauty”.

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[2009. 98 min. Directed Sam Mendes. Starring John Krasinski, Maya Rudolph, and Allison Janney.]

Cassandra's Dream

— Watched "Cassandra's Dream" last night and it was just okay. I didn't like it as much as "Match Point" or "Vicky Christina Barcelona". Even so, Woody's always better than many movie options.

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[2007. 108 min. Directed Woody Allen. Starring Colin Farrell, Ewan McGregor, Tom Wilkinson, Hayley Atwell, and Sally Hawkins.]

Changeling

— Watched "Changeling" for Mother's Day.

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[2008. 141 min. Directed Clint Eastwood. Starring Angelina Jolie, Colm Feore, and Amy Ryan.]

Frozen River

— Have seen all 3 films with previews on the DVD for "Frozen River" ("Waltz with Bashir," "I've Loved You So Long," and "Rachel Getting Married"). That must mean I'm the right demographic for "Frozen River"...which I'm about to watch.

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[2008. 97 min. Directed Courtney Hunt. Starring Melissa Leo, Misty Upham, and Charlie McDermott.]