Mandel Maven's Nest Reel Life: Flick Pix





Nora Lee Mandel is a member of New York Film Critics Online; recent reviews are now counted in the Rotten Tomatoes TomatoMeter. I am also a member of Alliance of Women Film Journalists.



My Best Films of 2012
My Best Films of 2011
My Best Films of 2010
My Best Films of 2009
My Best Films of 2008
My Best Films of 2007
My Best Films of 2006
My Best Films of 2005
My Best Films of 2004
My Best Films of 2003
My Best Films of 2002
My Best Films of 2001

LILITH WATCH: CRITICAL GUIDE TO JEWISH WOMEN IN THE MOVIES (& TV and Pop Music)
CHICK FLICKS
MASTERPIECE THEATER: MOVIES AS MEDICINE
For the MIDDLE-AGED AT HEART: HURRAH FOR GROWN-UPS!
For the MUSIC (and/or the dancing)
NEW YORK NEW YORK: IT'S A HELLUVA TOWN
NOIR NIGHT OUT
OGLING TEENS AND '20SOMETHINGS
POPCORN EATERS
ROMEO AND JULIET ACROSS THE ETHNIC DIVIDE
And then there's RUSSELL CROWE (with commentary on the actor)
SCI-FI and FANTASY from A DISTAFF POV
Impact of 9/11 on NYC through Movies

Friends don't let friends watch bad movies! -- John Ridley

It is not enough to like a film. You must like it for the right reasons. -- Pierre Rissient

A movie is shown in a movie theater, and I like to sit there and see it. That’s how it’s supposed to be. -- Roger Ebert, Newsweek, 5/15/2011


Here's the index to my cinema-therapeutic recommendations without spoilers from a real Jewish movie-going mother.
For complete credits go to Internet Movie Database.
Shorter versions of my reviews are at IMDb's comments, where non-English-language films are listed by their native tiles. Since August 2006, edited versions of most of my reviews of documentaries/indie/foreign films are at film-forward.
indicates movies currently in theaters or first-run VOD that I don't think are yet out on video/DVD or uncut on cable or streaming.

MY BEST FILMS of 2012 (In the order I saw them, many reviews yet to be written, particularly of festivals-viewed, non-theatrically distributed films):
Once Upon A Time In Anatolia (Bir Zamanlar Anadolu'da) (kudos to cinematographer Gökhan Tiryaki)
Footnote (Hearat Shulayim) (previewed at 2011 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center) (And it explains why my second cousin in the Talmud Department at the Hebrew University Jerusalem doesn’t deign to participate in our Mandel-Brody Family History Project) (kudos to score by Amit Poznansky)

Runners-Up: Movies that Stick with me Despite My Gripes
Toll Booth (Gise Memuru) (seen in 2012 Global Lens series at MoMA)
Restoration (Boker tov adon Fidelman) (kudos to Sasson Gabai) (briefly reviewed at 2012 New York Jewish Film Festival of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum)
Amnesty (Amnistia) (seen in 2012 Global Lens series at MoMA)

Runners-Up: ACTIONERS/THRILLERS I enjoyed despite uncredible plots
Man on a Ledge
Haywire

BEST VIOLENT NEO-NOIRS
Qarantina (Quarantine) (seen in 2012 Global Lens series at MoMA)
Bullhead (Rundskop) (kudos to (Matthias Schoenaerts)

BEST COMING OF AGERS
The Prize (El Premio) (seen in 2012 Global Lens series at MoMA)

BEST REELABILITIES: Presentation of Disabilities in Film (giving credit for appropriating the term without attending/seeing these at the NY Disabilities Film Festival)
The Flood (Mabul) (kudos to Ronit Elkabetz and Michael Moshonov) (briefly reviewed at 2012 New York Jewish Film Festival of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum)
Mourning (Soog) (seen in 2012 Global Lens series at MoMA)

BEST MOVIE MUSICALS (and music bio-pics and documentaries):
It’s About You
Mary Lou (Tamid oto chalom) ( (briefly reviewed at 2012 New York Jewish Film Festival of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
Lea and Darija (briefly reviewed at 2012 New York Jewish Film Festival of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
Iraq ‘n’ Roll (briefly reviewed at 2012 New York Jewish Film Festival of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)

Runners-Up: MOVIE MUSICALS (and music bio-pics and documentaries) that Stick with me Despite My Gripes:
Crazy Horse (only for the performances, as there’s no insight into why the French men who produce and choreograph the erotic dances prefer buttocks)

BEST ANIMATION
Fat, Bald, Short Man (Gordo, Calvo y Bajito) (seen in 2012 Global Lens series at MoMA)

BEST DOCUMENTARIES:
The Miners' Hymn (briefly reviewed at 2011 Tribeca Film Festival)
Incessant Visions: Letters From An Architect (briefly reviewed at 2012 New York Jewish Film Festival of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman.)
The Island President (previewed at 2011 Doc NYC Festival)

DOCS that are Close Runners-Up
The Pruitt Igoe Myth: An Urban History (My additional notes.)
Dressing America: Tales From The Garment Center (briefly reviewed at 2012 New York Jewish Film Festival of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)

Best of the Young-Folks-in-Competition DOCS :
Splinters (briefly reviewed in Final Roundup of the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival)
Undefeated (previewed at 2011 Doc NYC Festival)

Best COMIC RELIEF from Depressing DOCS Despite Nonsense:
The Finger (El Dedo) (heartwarming chuckles division) (seen in 2012 Global Lens series at MoMA)

BEST REVIVALS IN NEW PRINTS
L’Argent and A Man Escaped (Un condamné à mort s'est échappé ou Le vent souffle où il veut) in Film Forum's Bresson
Come Back, Africa (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman.)

And thanks for theatrical showings for my first-time viewings on big screens of: My Song Goes Round The World, which I briefly reviewed at 2012 New York Jewish Film Festival of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum);

MY BEST FILMS of 2011 (In the order I saw them, many reviews yet to be written, particularly of festivals-viewed, non-theatrically distributed films):
Rage (Rabia) (kudos to Gustavo Sánchez Parra)
Poetry (Shi) (kudos to Jeong-hie Yun) (previewed at 2010 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Even The Rain (También La Lluvia) (previewed at 2010 Spanish Cinema Now of Film Society of Lincoln Center) (kudos to Luis Tosar)
Hands Up (Les Mains En L'air) (previewed at 2011 Rendez-Vous with French Film at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Top Floor, Left Wing (Dernier Étage, Gauche, Gauche) (previewed at 2011 Rendez-Vous with French Film at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Of Gods and Men (Des hommes et des dieux)
The Human Resources Manager (Shlichuto Shel Hamemune Al Mashabei Enosh) (also briefly reviewed at 2011 New York Jewish Film Festival of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum) (My additional note.) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
Vital Signs (Les Signes vitaux) (kudos to writer/director Sophie Deraspe and the chemistry between Marie-Hélène Bellavance and Francis Ducharme) (seen at MoMA's 2011 Canadian Front)
Win Win
Limbo (previewed at The Far Side of Paradise: New Films From Norway atFilm Society of Lincoln Center)
The Day I Was Not Born (Das Lied in mir) (seen at MoMA's Kino! 2011: New Films from Germany)
Extraordinary Stories (Historias extraordinarias) (seen at MoMA's In Focus: Cinema Tropical)
A Separation (Jodaeiye Nader az Simin) (previewed at 2011 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
The Artist (briefly reviewed in best of year- scroll down) (previewed at 2011 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center) (kudos to writer/director Michel Hazanavicius, actors Jean Dujardin and Bérénice Bejo, cinematographer Guillaume Schiffman, score by Ludovic Bource)

Runners-Up: Movies that Stick with me Despite My Gripes
If I Want To Whistle, I Whistle (Eu Cand Vreau Sa Fluier, Fluier) (kudos to George Pistereanu)
The Way Back (My additional notes.)
Belvedere (seen in 2011 Global Lens series at MoMA)
The Light Thief (Svet-Ake) (seen at 2011 Global Lens series at MoMA)
Street Days (Quchis Dgeebi) (seen at 2011 Global Lens series at MoMA)
The Invisible Eye (La Mirada Invisible) (seen at 2011 Global Lens series at MoMA)
The Gift To Stalin (Podarok Stalinu) (My additional note.) (Also briefly reviewed at 2009 New York Jewish Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum)
Outbound (Periferic) (previewed at 2011 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Incendies (previewed at 2011 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
In A Better World (Hævnen)
Korkoro (Liberté) (My additional notes.)
Screaming Man (Un homme qui crie)
The Bang Bang Club (kudos to Taylor Kitsch and cinematographer Miroslaw Baszak) (previewed at 2011 Tribeca Film Festival)
My Piece of the Pie (Ma part du gateau) (previewed at 2011 Tribeca Film Festival)
Journals of Musan (Musan Il-gi) (previewed at 2011 Tribeca Film Festival)
Blackthorne (previewed at 2011 Tribeca Film Festival)
United Red Army (Jitsuroku rengô sekigun: Asama sansô e no michi) (kudos to score by Jim O’Rourke)
Protector (briefly reviewed at 2010 New York Jewish Film Festival, of Film Society of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum, in The NH Jewish Film Buzz, at page 21) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman)
The Optimists (Optimisti)
Littlerock
50/50 (So, nu: my commentary on the missing Jewish women)
Carnage (previewed at 2011 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
A Dangerous Method (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman.) (previewed at 2011 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
My Week with Marilyn (Celeste Holm was in front of me at the advance screening!)
Mad Bastards (kudos to Dean DaleyJones, songs written and performed by The Pigram Brothers and Alex Lloyd, and cinematographer Allan Collins’ view of the beautiful Kimberley scenery)
Hugo
Margaret (kudos to Anna Paquin)
In the Land of Blood and Honey (U zemlji krvi i meda)

BEST ROMANCES
Mahler on the Couch (Mahler auf der Couch) (briefly reviewed at 2011 New York Jewish Film Festival of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.) (kudos to Barbara Romaner)
Certified Copy (Copie conforme) (kudos to Juliette Binoche) (or anti-romance?) (previewed at 2010 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Sidewalls (Medianeras) (previewed at 2011 Latin Beat of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
A Bird Of The Air
Extraterrestrial (Extraterrestre) (previewed at Spanish Cinema Now at Film Society of Lincoln Center)

Runners-Up: ROMANCES that Stick with me Despite My Gripes
Mumbai Diaries (Dhobi Ghat) (kudos to Prateik) (My additional note.)
Happy, Happy (Sykt Lykkelig) (previewed at 2011 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA) (a documentary short companion piece would be Quadrangle)
Jane Eyre (kudos to the editing, Mia Wasikowska, cinematographer Adriano Goldman, Dario Marianelli's score)
Last Night (previewed at 2011 Tribeca Film Festival)
Beginners (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
Beautiful Boy
Bride Flight (Bruidsvlucht) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman) (My additional note.)
The Future
Mysteries of Lisbon (Mistérios de Lisboa) (briefly reviewed at 2010 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Weekend

Runners-Up: BEST ANTI-ROMANCES
Shame (previewed at 2011 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)

BEST VIOLENT NEO-NOIRS
Carancho
Dreileben: Beats Being Dead (Etwas Besseres als den Tod), Don’t Follow Me Around (Komm mir nicht nach), One Minute of Darkness (Eine Minute Dunkel) (briefly reviewed at 2011 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)

Runners-Up: VIOLENT NEO-NOIRS that stick with me despite my gripes
The Big Picture (L’homme Qui Voulait Vivre Sa Vie) (previewed at 2011 Rendez-Vous with French Film at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Texas Killing Fields (kudos to the bluesy score by Dickon Hinchliffe)

BEST ACTIONERS/THRILLERS
How I Ended This Summer (Kak ya provyol etim letom) (previewed at 2010 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA) (kudos to Grigory Dobrygin for Break Out Hunk of the Year)
Point Blank (À bout portent) (previewed at 2011 Tribeca Film Festival)
VIPs (kudos to Wagner Moura) (seen at 2011 Premiere Brazil! series at MoMA)
Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark
The Heir Apparent: Largo Winch (kudos to Tomer Sisley as the titular hunk so I’ll want to see him in more in the series)
Hanna (kudos to The Chemical Brothers’ score)
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (kudos to Rooney Mara, score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, Steven Zaillian’s script adaptation, and editing by Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall)

Runners-Up: ACTIONERS/THRILLERS that stick with me despite my gripes
The Eagle (kudos to Anthony Dod Mantle’s cinematography and music by Atli Örvarsson)
Rabies (Kalevet) (briefly reviewed at 2011 Tribeca Film Festival) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
Limitless
13 Assassins (Jûsan-nin no shikaku (kudos to cinematographer Nobuyasu Kita)
Attack the Block
Drive
Shaolin (kudos to the martial arts choreography)
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
The Double (kudos to Alex Lifeson’s guitar on the score)
Warrior (kudos to Tom Hardy but not to the melodramatic music)
Miss Bala (previewed at 2011 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)

BEST MOVIE MUSICALS (and music bio-pics and documentaries):
Pina (previewed in 3D at 2011 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)

Runners-Up: BEST MOVIE MUSICALS (and music bio-pics and documentaries):
Score: A Hockey Musical (seen at MoMA's 2011 Canadian Front)
Kinshasa Symphony (previewed at 2011 New York African Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Mama Africa (briefly reviewed in Final Roundup of the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival)
Rejoice And Shout) (My additional notes.)
Passione) (My additional notes.)
Golden Scars (seen at 2011 New York International Latino Film Festival)
The Music According To Antonio Carlos Jobim (A Música Segundo Tom Jobim) (previewed at 2011 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
The Weird World Of Blowfly
Dzi Croquettes

BEST USE OF MUSIC:
Microphone (previewed at 2011 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Small Town Murder Songs (previewed at MoMA's 2011 Canadian Front) (kudos to the rootsy songs of Bruce Peninsula) (My additional notes.)
The Piano In A Factory (Gang De Qin)

BEST COMING OF AGERS
Turn Me On, Goddamit (Få meg på, for faen!) (kudos to director/novel adapter Jannicke Systad Jacobsen) (previewed at 2011 Tribeca Film Festival)
The Colors Of The Mountain (Los Colores De La Montaña)
Submarine (kudos to songs by Alex Turner of the Arctic Monkeys)
Terri (kudos to Jacob Wysocki, Olivia Crocicchia & Bridger Zadina and cinematographer Tobias Datum)
The Kid With A Bike (Le gamin au vélo) (previewed at 2011 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Tomboy (My additional note.)

Runners-Up: COMING OF AGERS that Stick with me Despite My Gripes
Bal (Honey)
Winter In Wartime (Oorlogswinter)
Belle Épine (briefly reviewed at 2011 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
NEDS (previewed at 2011 Tribeca Film Festival)
She Monkeys (Apflickorna) (previewed at 2011 Tribeca Film Festival)
The Tree (with Marton Csokas as quite the Antipodean hunk)
Martha Marcy May Marlene (kudos to Elizabeth Olsen) (previewed at 2011 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)

BEST PARENTS AND CHILDREN – even with the schmaltz
A Better Life
The Way
Little Sparrows
Angels Crest (kudos to Thomas Dekker and Lynn Collins)

BEST APOCALYPSE
Vanishing On 7th Street (kudos to Detroit, production design and blues songs)
Take Shelter (kudos to Michael Shannon and cineamatographer Adam Stone)

Runners-Up: APOCALYPSES that stick with me despite my gripes
Kaboom
Bellflower (kudos to cinematographer Joel Hodge)
Another Earth

BEST USE OF THE WAY BACK MACHINE
City Of Life And Death (Nanjing! Nanjing!)
The Conspirator (kudos to hair, make-up, sets, and cinematographer Newton Thomas Sigel)
Tales from the Golden Age (Amintiri din epoca de aur)

Runners-Up: BEST USE OF THE WAY BACK MACHINE that stick with me despite my gripes
The Conquest (La conquête)
Albert Nobbs (kudos to Janet McTeer)
War Horse (only because my favorite childhood book was Black Beauty)

BEST VILLAIN
The Devil’s Double (more that it’s 2-for-1 actor Dominic Cooper)

MOST MORALLY DUBIOUS HERO based on a real person
For the violence: Machine Gun Preacher (let alone the rimrod tall Christian missionaries sitting in front at an advance screening who did not have the courtesy to slouch)
For the misogyny: Toast (unlike the original memoir)

BEST ALLEGORY
Deporting Prometeo (Prometeo Deportado) (seen at 2011 New York International Latino Film Festival)

Runners-Up: BEST ALLEGORY
Melancholia (kudos to cinematographer Manuel Alberto Claro) (previewed at 2011 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
The Turin Horse (A torinói ló) (previewed at 2011 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)

MOST VISUAL HEAD TRIPS
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (previewed at 2010 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
The Tree of Life (kudos to cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki)
The Mill and The Cross

Runners-Up: MOST VISUAL HEAD TRIPS
Tetsuo The Bullet Man (previewed at 2010 Tribeca Film Festival)
The Skin I Live In (La piel que habito) (previewed at 2011 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center) (kudos to cinematographer José Luis Alcaine)

BEST SCENERY:
The Kite (Patang) (kudos to celebrating the Uttarayan in Ahmedabad, India) (briefly reviewed at 2011 Tribeca Film Festival)
Water for Elephants (kudos to cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto)
The Loneliest Planet (previewed at 2011 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center) (Based on “Expensive Trips Nowhere” by Tom Bissell: Steppe makes strong what is strong. Makes weak what is weak.)
Two Years At Sea-- even in 16 mm black & white (previewed at 2011 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)

BEST ANIMATION
The Adventures of Tintin in 3D

Runners-Up: BEST ANIMATION that Stick with me Despite My Gripes:
Rango
Rio in 3D (kudos to Rodrigo Santoro for the only Brazilian sounds)
Kung Fu Panda in 3D (for visuals only)

BEST BROADS
Applause (Applaus) (kudos to Paprika Steen)
The Long Falling (Où Va La Nuit) (kudos to Yolande Moreau) (previewed at 2011 Rendez-Vous with French Film at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Potiche (kudos to Catherine Deneuve) (previewed at 2011 Rendez-Vous with French Film at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Copacabana (kudos to Isabelle Huppert) (previewed at 2011 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Meek's Cutoff (previewed at 2010 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Illégal (kudos to Anne Coesens)
Black Butterflies (kudos to Carice van Houten) (previewed at 2011 Tribeca Film Festival)
Puzzle (Rompecabezas) (kudos to Maria Onetto)
The Hedgehog (Le Hérisson) (previewed at 2010 Rendez-Vous with French Film at Film Society of Lincoln Center) (kudos to Josiane Balasko)
Special Treatment (Sans queue ni tête) (kudos to Isabelle Huppert)
The Debt (kudos to Helen Mirren and Jessica Chastain)
Higher Ground (kudos to Vera Farmiga)
Coriolanus (kudos to Vanessa Redgrave)
Tyrannosaur (kudos to Olivia Colman) (previewed at 2011 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Naomi (Hitpartzut X) (previewed at 2011 Other Israel Film Festival) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women) (kudos to Orna Porat)
We Need to Talk About Kevin (kudos to Tilda Swinton)
Meryl Streep as The Iron Lady (no kudos to the movie)
London River (My additional note.) (kudos to Brenda Blethyn)

Runners-Up: Best Feminist Fables
Mozart's Sister (Nannerl, La Soeur De Mozart) (previewed at 2011 Rendez-Vous with French Film at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
The Princess Of Montpensier (La Princesse De Montpensier) (previewed at 2011 Rendez-Vous with French Film at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
The Sleeping Beauty (La Belle Endormie) (previewed at 2011 Rendez-Vous with French Film at Film Society of Lincoln Center) (My additional note.)
Romeo and Juliet in Yiddish (also briefly reviewed at 2011 New York Jewish Film Festival of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
Sleeping Beauty
Young Adult

BEST DOCUMENTARIES:
The Sky Turns (El cielo gira) (2005 film in its NY theatrical premiere)/ pairs with Le Quattro Volte (previewed at 2010 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Fortune Teller (seen at MoMA’s Documentary Fortnight – 2011 International Festival of Nonfiction Films and Media)
Karamay (all 356 minutes seen plus Q & A with director at MoMA’s Documentary Fortnight – 2011 International Festival of Nonfiction Films and Media)
Shut Up Little Man! An Audio Misadventure (previewed at 2011 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Circo (kudos to score by Calexico)
The Arbor (also briefly reviewed in Recommended Documentaries at 2010 Tribeca Film Festival) (My additional note.)
Give Up Tomorrow (briefly reviewed at 2011 Tribeca Film Festival)
Our School (Scoala Noastra) (briefly reviewed in Final Roundup of the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival)
The Price of Sex (briefly reviewed at 2011 Human Rights Watch Film Festival, dedicated in memory to my activist dad) (My additional note.)
Hell and Back Again (previewed at 2011 DocuWeeks)
This Is Not A Film (In film nist) (previewed at 2011 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
There Was Once…
Patience (After Sebald) (briefly reviewed at 2011 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Into the Abyss (previewed at 2011 Doc NYC Festival)
Dolphin Boy (previewed at 2011 Other Israel Film Festival) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women)

DOCS that are Close Runners-Up
Un Dia Menos (One Day Less) (seen at MoMA’s Documentary Fortnight – 2011 International Festival of Nonfiction Films and Media)
El Ambulante (The Peddler) (seen at MoMA’s Documentary Fortnight – 2011 International Festival of Nonfiction Films and Media)
Peace (seen at MoMA’s Documentary Fortnight – 2011 International Festival of Nonfiction Films and Media)
El Velador (previewed at 2011 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
The Bully Project (previewed at 2011 Tribeca Film Festival)
Love During Wartime (briefly reviewed at 2011 Tribeca Film Festival) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
Impunity (briefly reviewed at 2011 Human Rights Watch Film Festival, dedicated in memory to my activist dad) (My additional notes.)
Familia (briefly reviewed at 2011 Human Rights Watch Film Festival, dedicated in memory to my activist dad)
Crime After Crime (first briefly reviewed at 2011 New York Jewish Film Festival of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman.)
Tabloid
The Interrupters (My additional notes.) (See The Wire for the references.)
Unfinished Spaces (seen at 2011 DocuWeeks)
Mothers of Bedford (previewed at 2011 Doc NYC Festival)

Best of the Young-Folks-in-Competition DOCS :
Louder Than A Bomb (previewed at 2010 DocuWeeks) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
To Be Heard (previewed at 2010 Doc NYC Festival) (My additional notes.)

Educational Runners-Up (DOCS you can learn from despite gaps and/or flaws):
Into Eternity (briefly reviewed in Recommended Documentaries at 2010 Tribeca Film Festival)
Orgasm Inc.
My Perestroika (briefly reviewed at 2010 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
I Wish I Knew (Hai shang chuan qi) (previewed at 2011 Film Comments Selects of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Cave of Forgotten Dreams (briefly reviewed in best of year- scroll down)
Nostalgia For The Light (Nostalgia de la luz)
The Black Power Mix Tape 1967-1975 (previewed at 2011 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Donor Unknown (briefly reviewed at 2011 Tribeca Film Festival)
Cinema Komunisto (previewed at 2011 Tribeca Film Festival)
Jiro Dreams of Sushi (previewed at 2011 Tribeca Film Festival)
The Carrier (briefly reviewed in Final Roundup of the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival) (My additional note.)
Semper Fi: Always Faithful (briefly reviewed in Final Roundup of the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival)
This Is My Land… Hebron (briefly reviewed at 2011 Human Rights Watch Film Festival, dedicated in memory to my activist dad) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
You Don’t Like The Truth—4 Days Inside Guantánamo (briefly reviewed at 2011 Human Rights Watch Film Festival, dedicated in memory to my activist dad)
Love Crimes Of Kabul (briefly reviewed at 2011 Human Rights Watch Film Festival, dedicated in memory to my activist dad) (My additional note.)
12 Angry Lebanese (briefly reviewed at 2011 Human Rights Watch Film Festival, dedicated in memory to my activist dad)
Project Nim (downgraded because I’m against undocumented reconstructed scenes)
The Death Of Pinochet (La Muerte De Pinochet) (previewed at 2011 LatinBeat of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Magic Trip: Ken Kesey’s Search for A Kool Place (downgraded because I’m against undocumented reconstructed scenes)
Iron Crows
The Mexican Suitcase (seen at 2011 DocuWeeks)
The Tiniest Place (El Lugar Mas Pequeño) (seen at 2011 DocuWeeks)
Tahrir: Liberation Square (briefly reviewed at 2011 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Scenes Of A Crime (previewed at 2011 Doc NYC Festival)
Flat Daddy (previewed at 2011 Doc NYC Festival)
Perdida (Lost in Time) (previewed at 2011 Doc NYC Festival)
Ingrid Betancourt - Six Years In The Jungle (previewed at 2011 Doc NYC Festival)
Standing Silent (previewed at 2011 Doc NYC Festival)
Blazing The Trail: The O'Kalems In Ireland (previewed at 2011 Doc NYC Festival)
In Heaven, Underground The Weissensee Jewish Cemetery (Im Himmel, unter der Erde - Der jüdische Friedhof Weißensee)
Under Fire: Journalists In Combat

Runners-Up: BIO DOCS you can learn from despite gaps and/or glosses:
Bill Cunningham New York (briefly reviewed at 2010 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA) (Context/Part 2 is Lost Bohemia previewed at 2010 Doc NYC Festival)
Tape (Jiao Dai) (seen at MoMA’s Documentary Fortnight – 2011 International Festival of Nonfiction Films and Media)
Hit So Hard: The Life and Near-Death Story of Drummer Patty Schemel (briefly reviewed at 2011 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman.)
Gnarr (briefly reviewed at 2011 Tribeca Film Festival) (My additional notes.)
Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey (seen at 2011 DocuWeeks)
A Bitter Taste of Freedom (seen at 2011 DocuWeeks)
Dying to do Letterman (seen at 2011 DocuWeeks)
Buck
Roger Corman’s Worldpreviewed at 2011 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Vito (previewed at 2011 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Lemon (previewed at 2011 Doc NYC Festival)
Calvet (previewed at 2011 Doc NYC Festival)
Charlotte Rampling: The Look (previewed at 2011 Doc NYC Festival)
I’m Carolyn Parker: The Good, The Mad And The Beautiful (previewed at 2011 Doc NYC Festival)
With Great Power: The Stan Lee Story (previewed at 2011 Doc NYC Festival)
Garbo The Spy
Khodorkovsky

Most Depressing Documentary:
Katka (seen at MoMA’s Documentary Fortnight – 2011 International Festival of Nonfiction Films and Media)

Best COMIC RELIEF from Depressing DOCS Despite Nonsense:
Cedar Rapids
Super
The Trip (kudos to Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon)
Hospitalité (Kantai) (previewed at 2011 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Midnight in Paris (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman.)
Bridesmaids (kudos to writer/actress Kristen Wiig and Melissa McCarthy)
The Trollhunter (Trolljegeren)

BEST REVIVALS IN NEW PRINTS
Went the Day Well?
Summer a.k.a. The Green Ray (Le Rayon Vert) (though I really only caught the green in the 6 preview minutes of Marie Rivière’s A Few Moments With Eric Rohmer (En Compagnie d'Eric Rohmer) at BAMcinématek‘s 25th anniversary celebration) (My comparative notes.)
Four Adventures of Reinette and Mirabelle (4 aventures de Reinette et Mirabelle) (My comparative notes.)
A Brighter Summer Day (Gu ling jie shao nian sha ren shi jian in Film Society of Lincoln Center’s A Rational Mind: The Films Of Edward Yang
Danube Waves (Valurile Dunării) in 2011 Annual Romanian Film Festival in New York of Film Society of Lincoln Center/Romanian Cultural Institute of NY

And thanks for theatrical showings for my first-time viewings on big screens of:
J'Accuse in MoMA's An Auteurist History of Film; The Constant Factor (Constans) in MoMA's Krzysztof Zanussi Revisited; The Life Of Oharu (Saikaku ichidai onna) and Flowing (Nagareru) in Film Forum's 5 Japanese Divas; Mud and Soldiers (Tsuchi to heitai)), Intimidation (Aru kyohaku) and (according to my colleague Kyoko Hirano, not my first “pink film” but my first “romano porno”) The Woman with Red Hair (Akai kami no onna) in Film Society of Lincoln Center NY Film Festival’s Velvet Bullets and Steel Kisses: Celebrating the Nikkatsu Centennial; The Children Were Watching and In The Chair (really TV documentaries) in Doc NYC Festival’s Tribute To Richard Leacock.

MY BEST FILMS of 2010 (In the order I saw them, many reviews yet to be written, particularly of festivals-viewed, non-theatrically distributed films):
Gruber's Journey (Calatoria lui Gruber) (briefly reviewed at 2010 New York Jewish Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum) (and the comparably-themed short With a Little Patience (Türelem))
Fish Tank
In the Beginning (A l’origine) (previewed at 2010 Rendez-Vous with French Film at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
A Prophet (Un prophète) (kudos to Tahar Rahim and Niels Arestrup)
La Pivellina (previewed at 2010 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Road, Movie (previewed at 2010 Tribeca Film Festival)
Micmacs (Micmacs à tire-larigot) (previewed at 2010 Tribeca Film Festival)
Lola (previewed at 2010 Tribeca Film Festival)
The White Meadows (Keshtzar haye sepid) (previewed at 2010 Tribeca Film Festival)
The White Space (Lo spazio bianco) (kudos to Margherita Buy and writer/director Francesca Comencini) (previewed at 2010 Open Roads: New Italian Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
The Man Who Will Come (L'Uomo che verrà) (kudos to young Greta Zuccheri Montanari) (seen at 2010 Open Roads: New Italian Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Cow (Dou niu) (previewed at 2010 New York Asian Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center) (kudos to Huang Bo)
Confessions (Kokuhaku) (previewed at 2010 Japan Cuts: Festival of New Japanese Film of Japan Society)
The Social Network (even though Jesse Eisenberg doesn't spin his pen right) (previewed at 2010 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Black Venus (Vénus noire) (previewed at 2010 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Another Year (kudos to Lesley Manville) (previewed at 2010 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
127 Hours (kudos to James Franco, Danny Boyle’s direction, Anthony Dod Mantle’s cinematography and music by A.R. Rahman)
The Fighter (kudos to Christian Bale and Melissa Leo)
Medal of Honor (Medalia de onoare) (seen at 2010 Annual Romanian Film Festival of the Romanian Cultural Institute of NY) (kudos to Victor Rebengiuc)
First of All, Felicia (Felicia, înainte de toate) (seen at 2010 Annual Romanian Film Festival of the Romanian Cultural Institute of NY) (kudos to Ozana Oancea)

Runners-Up: Movies that Stick with me Despite My Gripes
Ajami (also briefly reviewed at 2010 New York Jewish Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
Valentina’s Mother (briefly reviewed at 2010 New York Jewish Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman.)
Saviors In The Night (Unter Bauern) (briefly reviewed at 2010 New York Jewish Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
Eyes Wide Open (Einaym Pkuhot) (also briefly reviewed at 2010 New York Jewish Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman.)
Ocean of an Old Man (seen in 2010 Global Lens series at MoMA)
Becloud (Vaho) (seen in Global Lens series at MoMA)
Night Catches Us (Nice to see The Wire alumni reunion of Jamie Hector and Wendell Pierce) (previewed at 2010 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Every Day Is a Holiday (Chaque jour est une fête) (previewed at 2010 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
My Brothers (previewed at 2010 Tribeca Film Festival)
Anton Chekhov's The Duel
Mother and Child (kudos to Annette Bening, Naomi Watts, Kerry Washington and Cherry Jones)
Cyrus
The Kids Are All Right
The Balibo Conspiracy (briefly reviewed at 2010 Human Rights Watch International Film Festival)
Honeymoons (Medeni mesec) (briefly reviewed at 2010 Human Rights Watch International Film Festival)
The Sicilian Girl (La Siciliana Ribelle) (kudos to Veronica D'Agostino)
Morenita (seen at 2010 New York International Latino Film Festival)
Silent Souls (Ovsyanki) (kudos to the music and landscape) (previewed at 2010 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Aurora (previewed at 2010 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Post Mortem (previewed at 2010 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Outside the Law (Hors-la-loi)
The Last Circus (Balade Triste) (previewed at 2010 Spanish Cinema Now of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
The King's Speech (kudos to Colin Firth)
Biutiful (kudos to Javier Bardem)
Rabbit Hole (kudos to Nicole Kidman)

BEST ACTIONERS/THRILLERS
North Face (Nordwand)
Rapt (previewed at 2010 Rendez-Vous with French Film at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Green Zone (kudos to director Paul Greengrass, director of photography Barry Ackroyd and score by John Powell)
Clash (Bay Rong) (kudos to the tangling and tangoing of long-legged, Best Combustible Couple Johnny Tri Nguyen and Ngo Thanh Van) (previewed at 2010 Tribeca Film Festival)
Little Big Soldier (Da bing xiao jiang) (kudos to actor/producer/writer/action director Jackie Chan and Wang Lee-hom) (previewed at 2010 New York Asian Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Mesrine: Part 1 (Mesrine, L’instinct de mort Mesrine) (nice to see Roy Dupuis!) and Part 2 (Mesrine, L’ennemi public no. 1) (previewed at 2009 Rendez-Vous with French Film at Film Society of Lincoln Center) (kudos to Vincent Cassel) (briefly reviewed in best of year- scroll down)
Lebanon (My additional notes.)
The Robber (Der Räuber) (kudos to Andreas Lust and the percussion) (previewed at 2010 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Carlos (actually the 330 minute TV mini-series) (kudos to Édgar Ramírez and director Olivier Assayas)
True Grit (kudos to Roger Deakins' cinematography)

Runners-Up: ACTIONERS/THRILLERS that stick with me despite my gripes
The Warlords (Tau ming chong)
Centurion
Inception (kudos to the integral score, the movie allegory, and real and imagined scenery; boo to the guy next to me at the Regal Atlas's 4:20 pm show on 7/24/2010, in the center toward the rear, who talked on the phone and to his friend through the extended expositions)
71 Into The Fire (Pohwasogeuro ) (previewed with The Korea Society)
The Town
Unstoppable (just for the fun of it)
The American (kudos to George Clooney and cinematographer Martin Ruhe)
Vengeance (Fuk sa) (kudos to director Johnny To)

BEST INTELLECTUAL SWORDS AND SANDALS EPIC
Agora

Runners-Up: BEST INTELLECTUAL SWORDS AND SANDALS EPICS
The Blood Of Rebirth (Yomigaeri no chi) (cool visuals too) (previewed at 2010 Japan Cuts: Festival of New Japanese Film of Japan Society)
Valhalla Rising (and for the scenery and manscape with a mute, one-eyed, tattooed Mads Mikkelsen)

BEST VIOLENT NEO-NOIRS
Mother (Maedo) (previewed at 2009 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center) (kudos to Hye-ja Kim)
The Chaser (Chugyeogja)
Red Riding Trilogy – 1974; 1980; 1983; (kudos to the cinematography of Rob Hardy in 1974) (previewed at 2009 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center) (My additional notes.)
Terribly Happy (Frygtelig lykkelig)
The Secret in Their Eyes (El secreto de sus ojos)
The Killer Inside Me (previewed at 2010 Tribeca Film Festival) (kudos to Casey Affleck, cinematographer Marcel Zyskind, and the production design)
Blood and Rain (La sangre y la lluvia) (previewed at 2010 Tribeca Film Festival)
The Disappearance of Alice Creed (previewed at 2010 Tribeca Film Festival)
The Winter's Bone
Thursday Widows (Las viudas de los jueves) (previewed at Film Society of Lincoln Center’s 2010 Latin Beat)
Black Swan

Runners-Up: VIOLENT NEO-NOIRS that stick with me despite my gripes
7 Days (Les 7 jours du talion) (previewed through Sundance Selects)
Snap (previewed at 2010 Tribeca Film Festival)
The Double Hour (La doppia ora) (kudos to Ksenia Rappoport and to Filippo Timi as a hunk) (previewed at 2010 Open Roads: New Italian Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Backyard (El Traspatio) (briefly reviewed at 2010 Human Rights Watch International Film Festival)
A Woman, A Gun and A Noodle Shop (San qiang pai an jing qi) (kudos to the scenery and the cinematography of Zhao Xiaoding)

BEST VILLAIN
Jacki Weaver as "Grandma Smurf Cody" in Animal Kingdom (and Ben Mendelsohn is suitably creepy) (My additional notes.)

BEST FEMINIST FABLES
Lourdes (kudos to Sylvie Testud)
Be Good (Sois Sage) (briefly reviewed at 2010 Film Comment Selects of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Bluebeard (La Barbe Bleue) (previewed at 2009 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
The Tempest (kudos to Helen Mirren as the sorceress "Prospera", Ben Whishaw as "Ariel", Djimon Hounsou as "Caliban", scenery, score and song tune setting of Shakespeare lyrics by Elliot Goldenthal – but boo to the insipid young couple) (previewed at 2010 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Meek's Cutoff (previewed at 2010 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Secret Sunshine (Milyang)

Runners-Up: BEST FEMINIST FABLES:
Habana Eva (seen at 2010 New York International Latino Film Festival)
Vision (Vision - Aus dem Leben der Hildegard von Bingen)
Tiny Furniture
Made in Dagenham
Hadewijch (previewed at 2009 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)

BEST DARK COMEDIES:
A Film with Me In It
The Man Next Door (El hombre de al lado) (briefly reviewed at 2010 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
The Happiest Girl in the World (Cea mai fericita fata din lume) (briefly reviewed at 2010 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Down Terrace (kudos to the use of traditional murder ballads) (previewed at 2010 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)

BEST ROMANCES
Mademoiselle Chambon (previewed at 2010 Rendez-Vous with French Film at Film Society of Lincoln Center) (kudos to Vincent Lindon and Sandrine Kiberlain)
Samson and Delilah (previewed at at 2010 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Barking Water (briefly reviewed at 2009 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky (of course I'm Mad for Smoldering Mads Mikkelsen, but also kudos to the costumes, production design, scenery and re-enactment of the première mise en scène of The Rites of Spring)
Castaway on the Moon (Kimssi pyoryugi) (previewed at 2010 New York Asian Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center) (kudos to Jung Jae-Yeong and Jung Rye-Won)
Carmo, Hit The Road
Blue Valentine (also best anti-romance) (kudos to Michelle Willliams and Ryan Gosling, director Derek Cianfrance, DP Andrij Pareekh and the editing)
Undertow (Contracorriente) (kudos to Cristian Mercado)

Runners-Up: ROMANCES that Stick with me Despite My Gripes
The Yellow Handkerchief (kudos to William Hurt and Eef Barzelay's score, but it should have been filled with regional music)
Everyone Else (Alle Anderen) (briefly reviewed at 2009 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Ondine (previewed at 2010 Tribeca Film Festival)
Lucky Life (previewed at 2010 Tribeca Film Festival)
some boys don't leave (short screened at 2010 Tribeca Film Festival)
Here and There (Tamo i ovde) (briefly reviewed in Part 3 Family Ties Around The World at 2009 Tribeca Film Festival)
Salt Of This Sea (Milh Hadha Al-Bahr) (also briefly reviewed in Part 3 Family Ties Around The World at 2009 Tribeca Film Festival) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman.) (My additional note.)
Jack Goes Boating

Runners-Up: BEST SIBLING RIVALRY With a Side Order of Romance
The Vicious Kind
Easier With Practice

Runners-Up: BEST ANTI-ROMANCES
Hunting & Sons (Hunting & Zn.) (briefly reviewed at 2010 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)

BEST COMING OF AGERS
I Killed My Mother (J'ai tué ma mère) (previewed at at 2010 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
The Evening Dress (La robe du soir) (briefly reviewed at 2010 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
The Girl (Flickan) (previewed at Northern Exposures: Social Change and Sexuality in Swedish Cinema of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
My Queen Karo (previewed at 2010 Tribeca Film Festival)
Kisses (thanks for the subtitles!)
Udaan (meaning "flight", as in the song lyric about letting the bird fly)
Let Me In

Runners-Up: COMING OF AGERS that Stick with me Despite My Gripes
Burrowing (Man tänker sitt) (previewed at Northern Exposures: Social Change and Sexuality in Swedish Cinema of Film Society of Lincoln Center
The Trotsky (previewed at 2010 Tribeca Film Festival) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman.) (My colleague James Van Maanen followed up on my recommendation to enjoy it On Demand.)
My Brothers (previewed at 2010 Tribeca Film Festival)
The Famous and the Dead (Os famosos e os duendes da morte) (seen at 2010 Premiere Brazil! series at MoMA)
Easy A

BEST MOVIE MUSICALS (and music bio-pics):
Gainsbourg, Je t'Aime... Moi Non Plus (Gainsbourg - Vie héroïque) (kudos to Eric Elmosnino as well as the puppets and animation) (previewed at 2010 Tribeca Film Festival) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman.)
sex & drugs & rock & roll (briefly reviewed in There's No Business Like the Celebrity Business at 2010 Tribeca Film Festival) (My additional notes.)
Raavan
Bran Nue Dae (My additional notes.)
Nowhere Boy (kudos to Aaron Johnson, Kristin Scott Thomas and Anne-Marie Duff

Runners-Up: BEST MOVIE MUSICAL NUMBERS:
Guy And Madeline On A Park Bench (previewed at 2009 Tribeca Film Festival)

BEST ANIMATION
Mary and Max (seen at 2010 New York Jewish Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum)
The Secret of Kells (here's some background)
Wallace & Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death (seen with 2010 Academy Award-Nominated Animated Short Films)
How to Train Your Dragon (3D) (Who knew Vikings had Scottish brogues?)
Toy Story 3
Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole (kudos to the Brit and Aussie voice actors, especially Helen Mirren)

Runners-Up: BEST ANIMATION that Stick with me Despite My Gripes:
Metropia (previewed at 2010 Tribeca Film Festival)
My Dog Tulip (I'm a cat person)
The Illusionist
Tangled in 3D (kudos to Donna Murphy's "Mother Knows Best")
Summer Wars (Sama Wozu) (saw the English-language version)

BEST DOCUMENTARIES:
Old Partner (Wonangsori)
Sweetgrass (also brief preview review from 2009 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Einsatzgruppen: The Death Brigades (briefly reviewed at 2010 New York Jewish Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
The Art of the Steal (briefly reviewed at 2009 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center, with Herb and Dorothy)
Last Train Home (previewed at at 2010 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA) (pair it with Ghost Town (Fei cheng))
Forgotten Transports to Belarus (Zapomenuté transporty: Do Belarus): Men Who Fought) and Forgotten Transports: To Latvia (Zapomenuté transporty: Do Latvia): Family Strength (viewed at The Legacy of Shoah Film Festival)
Thieves By Law (previewed at 2010 Tribeca Film Festival) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
Babies (Bébés) (My additional notes.)
Earth Made of Glass (briefly reviewed in Recommended Documentaries of 2010 Tribeca Film Festival)
Sons Of Perdition (briefly reviewed in Recommended Documentaries at 2010 Tribeca Film Festival)
Budrus (also briefly reviewed in Recommended Documentaries at 2010 Tribeca Film Festival) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman.)
The Western Front (briefly reviewed in Recommended Documentaries at 2010 Tribeca Film Festival) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman.)
Exit Through the Gift Shop
Enemies Of The People (also briefly reviewed at 2010 Human Rights Watch International Film Festival)
Restrepo (My commentary on the film's poster re: 9/11.)
Mugabe and the White African (previewed at 2009 DocuWeeks)
Marwencol
Armadillo (previewed at 2010 Doc NYC Festival)
Rabbit à la Berlin (Królik po berlinsku) (previewed at MoMA’s 2010 Academy-Nominated Documentary Shorts)

DOCS that are Close Runners-Up
Human Failure (Menschliches Versagen) (briefly reviewed at 2010 New York Jewish Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum)
Gevald! (briefly reviewed at 2010 New York Jewish Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
Off and Running (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.) (also briefly reviewed at Part 1 Recommendations of 2009 Tribeca Film Festival)
October Country
The Red Chapel (previewed at at 2010 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
12th & Delaware (briefly reviewed at 2010 Human Rights Watch International Film Festival)
Camp Victory, Afghanistan (briefly reviewed at 2010 Human Rights Watch International Film Festival)
Supermen of Malegaon (seen at 2009 The New India series at MoMA)
Waste Land (Lixo extgraordinário) (previewed at 2010 Premiere Brazil! series at MoMA) (My additional notes.)
Holy Wars (seen at DocuWeeks)
Family Affair (seen at DocuWeeks) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman.)
The Rati Horror Show (El Rati Horror Show) (previewed at Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Latin Beat)
The Autobiography of Nikolae Ceaucescu (Autobiogrfia lui Nikolae Ceaucescu) (bit confusing for Americans not knowledgeable about Romanian history) (previewed at 2010 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Catfish

Best of the Cute-Kids-in-Competition DOCS :
Boys Of Summer (seen at 2010 New York International Latino Film Festival)

Runners-Up: Best of the Cute-Kids-in-Competition DOCS :
Racing Dreams (also briefly reviewed at Part 2: The Kids Are Alright of 2009 Tribeca Film Festival) (My additional notes.)
Whiz Kids (My additional notes.)

Educational Runners-Up (DOCS you can learn from despite gaps and/or flaws):
The Matilda Candidate (seen at MoMA’s Documentary Fortnight – 2010 International Festival of Nonfiction Films)
Agrarian Utopia (seen at MoMA’s Documentary Fortnight – 9th International Festival of Nonfiction Films) (for background insight on the political crisis in Thailand)
Harlan: In The Shadow Of Jew Süss (Harlan - Im Schatten Von Jud Süss) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
Forgotten Transports: To Poland (Zapomenuté transporty: Do Poland): The Human Spirit (viewed at 2010 New York Jewish Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum) (My additional notes.)
Have You Heard From Johannesburg (My additional notes.)
Between the Cup and the Election (Entre la coupe et l'élection) (briefly reviewed at 2010 New York African Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center and African Film Festival)
Gerrymandering (briefly reviewed in Recommended Documentaries: There's No Business Like the Celebrity Business at 2010 Tribeca Film Festival)
The Other City (briefly reviewed in Recommended Documentaries at 2010 Tribeca Film Festival)
Casino Jack And The United States Of Money
War Don Don (The War Is Over) (briefly reviewed at 2010 Human Rights Watch International Film Festival)
Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Inferno (L'enfer d'Henri-Georges Clouzot) (for film buffs)
Neshoba: The Price Of Freedom (My additional notes.)
Colony (seen at DocuWeeks)
A Film Unfinished (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women)
Inside Job (previewed at 2010 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center) (My additional notes.)

Runners-Up: BIO DOCS you can learn from despite gaps and/or glosses:
Ahead of Time (briefly reviewed at 2010 New York Jewish Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum) (So, nu: my commentary on Ruth Gruber.)
Ingelore (seen at MoMA’s Documentary Fortnight – 9th International Festival of Nonfiction Films)
Nora (briefly reviewed at 2010 New York African Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center and African Film Festival) (seen at MoMA’s Documentary Fortnight – 9th International Festival of Nonfiction Films)
Beautiful Darling: The Life and Times of Candy Darling, Andy Warhol Superstar (previewed at at 2010 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Joan Rivers- A Piece of Work
Pushing The Elephant (briefly reviewed at 2010 Human Rights Watch International Film Festival)
Genius Within: The Inner Life of Glenn Gould
Cameraman: The Life and Work of Jack Cardiff (previewed at 2010 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)

MOST DEPRESSING FILM OF THE YEAR:
Addicted in Afghanistan (seen at MoMA’s Documentary Fortnight – 2010 International Festival of Nonfiction Films)

Best COMIC RELIEF from Depressing DOCS Despite Nonsense:
Soul Kitchen (previewed at 2010 Tribeca Film Festival)
Looking for Eric
Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale

Runners-Up: Best COMIC RELIEF from Depressing DOCS Despite Nonsense:
Heartbreaker (L'arnacoeur) (previewed at 2010 Tribeca Film Festival) (for Dirty Dancing deeds)
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

BEST SCENERY:
Cairo Time (previewed at 2010 Tribeca Film Festival)
Moloch Tropical (briefly reviewed at 2010 Human Rights Watch International Film Festival) Film Society of Lincoln Center) (My additional notes.)
Robinson in Ruins (too fictional to be considered a documentary) (previewed at 2010 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)

Runners-Up: BEST SCENERY
Altiplano
Red Hill
Hemingway’s Garden Of Eden

Runners-Up: MOST VISUAL HEAD TRIPS
Creation (kudos to actor Paul Bettany, production design, costumes, make-up, DP Jess Hall, and Christopher Young's score)
I Am Love (kudos to score by John Adams) (previewed at 2010 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Enter the Void (but I saw the U.S. release that wasn't the director's cut)

BEST COOKING
Today’s Special (My additional notes.)

BEST REVIVALS IN NEW PRINTS
Stray Dog (Nora inu)
Interrogation (Przesluchanie); The Beads of One Rosary (Paciorki jednego rózanca); A Woman Alone (Kobieta samotna); and Top Dog (Wodzirej) at Film Society of Lincoln Center's "Storm Warnings: Resistance and Reflection in Polish Cinema" series in the Performing Revolution in Central and Eastern Europe Festival
The Law (La Loi) (seen at 2010 Rendez-Vous with French Film at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
The Prowler
Close-Up (Nema-ye Nazdik)
World on a Wire (Welt am Draht) (seen at MoMA)
Metropolis
Nightfall
I Was Born, But. . . (Otona no miru ehon - Umarete wa mita keredo)
On The Bowery/The Perfect Team: The Making Of On The Bowery
Pale Flower (Kawaita hana) (briefly reviewed with Silence (Chinmoku) as part of Elegant Elegies: The Films of Masahiro Shinoda along with Fernando de Fuentes’ Mexican Revolution Trilogy: Prisoner 13 (El prisionero trece), My Buddy Mendoza (El Compadre Mendoza) and Let’s Go with Pancho Villa (Vamanos con Pancho Villa) at 2010 New York Film Festival Masterworks of the Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Nuremberg (previewed at 2010 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center) (My additional notes.)

Thanks for theatrical showings for my first-time viewings on big screens of:
One Wonderful Sunday (Subarashiki nichiyobi); Ikiru; I Live In Fear (Ikimono no kiroku), Dodes’Ka-Den, and Dersu Ozala at Kurasawa Centennial at Film Forum; The Girl with Hyacinths (Flicka och hyacinter) and One Summer of Happiness (Hon dansade en sommar) at Northern Exposures: Social Change and Sexuality in Swedish Cinema of Film Society of Lincoln Center; Sound and Fury (De bruit et de fureur) and Victor (Victor... pendant qu'il est trop tard) in ND/NF Classics: In the French Style of 2010 New Directors/New Films at Film Society of Lincoln Center; The Sign of Leo (Le Signe du lion) at The Sign of Rohmer retrospective at Film Society of Lincoln Center

MY BEST FILMS of 2009 (In the order I saw them, many reviews yet to be written, particularly of festivals-viewed, non-theatrically distributed films):
California Dreamin (endless) (Nesfarsit)
A Woman in Berlin (Anonyma – Eine Frau in Berlin) (briefly reviewed at 2009 Film Comments Selects of Film Society of Lincoln Center (kudos to director/adapter Max Färberböck and actors Nina Hoss and Yevgeni Sidikhin)
Séraphine (also briefly reviewed at 2009 Rendez-Vous With French Cinema of Film Society of Lincoln Center) (kudos to Yolande Moreau)
The Girl on the Train (La Fille du RER)(previewed at 2009 Rendez-Vous with French Film at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Hunger (kudos to co-writer/director Steve McQueen)
The Maid (La Nana) (briefly reviewed at 2009 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
In The Loop (briefly reviewed in Part 1 Recommendations at 2009 Tribeca Film Festival)
Departures (Okuribito) (briefly reviewed in Part 1 Recommendations at 2009 Tribeca Film Festival)
Still Walking (Aruitemo Aruitemo) (also briefly reviewed in Part 1 Recommendations at 2009 Tribeca Film Festival and in best of year - scroll down)
About Elly (Darbareye Elly) (briefly reviewed in Part 1 Recommendations at 2009 Tribeca Film Festival)
Pandora’s Box (Pandoranin Kutusu) (briefly reviewed in Part 3 Family Ties Around The World at 2009Tribeca Film Festival)
Il Divo (kudos to Toni Servillo, the editing and the score by Teho Teardo)
The Hurt Locker (kudos to Jeremy Renner and director Kathryn Bigelow)
Inglourious Basterds (kudos to writer/director QT, cinematographer Robert Richardson, production designer David Wasco, editor Sally Menke, costumes and art design, and actor Christoph Waltz) (for historical background on Nazi films see Harlan: In The Shadow Of Jew Süss (Harlan - Im Schatten Von Jud Süss))
The Messenger (kudos to co-writer (with Alessandro Camon)/director Oren Moverman, cinematographer Bobby Bukowski and actors Ben Foster and Samantha Morton)
A Serious Man (kudos to actor Michael Stuhlbarg, cinematographer Roger Deakins and score by Carter Burwell) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women)
Sun (Solntse)
Big Fan (kudos to writer/director Robert Siegel and Patton Oswalt)
Up in the Air (kudos to Jason Reitman's adaptation of a mediocre book)

Runners-Up: Movies that Stick with me Despite My Gripes
Silent Light (Stellet licht)
Empty Nest (El nido vacío) (previewed and briefly reviewed at 2009 New York Jewish Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women)
Incendiary (kudos to Michelle Williams and the score by Barrington Pheloung and Shigeru Umebayashi) (see Impact of 9/11 on Literature for discussion of the book it is based on)
Katyn
Gomorra (see with the documentary Biùtiful Cauntri, previewed at 2009 Open Roads: New Italian Cinema of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Two Lovers
Everlasting Moments (Maria Larssons Eviga Ögonblick)
12
Tokyo Sonata
Amreeka (briefly reviewed at 2009 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Autumn (Sonbahar) (briefly reviewed at 2009 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center>/MoMA)
Parque via (briefly reviewed at 38th New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Mid-August Lunch (Pranzo di ferragosto) (previewed at 2009 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA
Shaking Tokyo (Joon-ho Bong's concluding segment of Tokyo!, despite similarities to the TV series October Road)
Good Bye Solo
The Song of Sparrows (Avaze gonjeshk-ha)
Sugar
North (Nord) (briefly reviewed at Part 1 Recommendations of 2009 Tribeca Film Festival)
The Swimsuit Issue (Allt flyter) (briefly reviewed at Part 1 Recommendations of 2009 Tribeca Film Festival) (see with the real-life version Men Who Swim)
A Matter of Size (Sipur Gadol) (briefly reviewed at Part 1 Recommendations of 2009 Tribeca Film Festival) (pair it with Gordos, previewed at 2009 Spanish Cinema Now at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Vegas: Based on a True Story (briefly reviewed at Part 3 Family Ties Around The World of 2009 Tribeca Film Festival)
Queen To Play (Joueuse) (briefly reviewed in Part 3 Family Ties Around The World at 2009 Tribeca Film Festival)
My Dear Enemy (Meotjin haru) (briefly reviewed in Part 3 Family Ties Around The World at 2009 Tribeca Film Festival)
Original (briefly reviewed in Part 3 Family Ties Around The World at 2009 Tribeca Film Festival)
The Eclipse (previewed at 2009 Tribeca Film Festival)
Summer Hours (L'heure d'été)
Kabei: Our Mother
Firaaq (seen in The New India at MoMA)
24 City (Er shi si cheng ji) (The opening section of The Germans’ Factory (La fabbrica dei tedeschi) is strikingly similar, as briefly reviewed at 2009 Open Roads: New Italian Cinema of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Vanished Empire (Ischeznuvshaya imperiya)
Lion's Den (Leonera) (kudos to Martina Gusman) (FYI that's the Paraguay flag at the end)
The Baader Meinhof Complex (Der Baader Meinhof Komplex)
The Necessities Of Life (Ce Qu'il Faut Pour Vivre/Inuujjutiksaq)
Police, Adjective (Poliţist. Adj.)
Getting Home (Luo ye gui gen) (seen in 2009 Global Lens series at MoMA)
The Photograph (Luo ye gui gen) (seen in 2009 Global Lens series at MoMA)

BEST ROMANCES
Medicine for Melancholy
Unmade Beds (briefly reviewed at 2009 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA) (kudos to the songs and soundtrack)
The Exploding Girl (seen at 2009 Tribeca Film Festival)
I'm Gonna Explode (Voy a explotar)

Runners-Up: Romances that Stick with me Despite My Gripes
My Last Five Girlfriends (seen at 2009 Tribeca Film Festival))
Seven Minutes in Heaven (Sheva Dakot Be’gan Eden) (briefly reviewed at Part 3: Family Ties Around the World, of 2009 Tribeca Film Festival, and briefly reviewed in The NH Jewish Film Buzz, at page 21)
Adventureland
(500) Days Of Summer (kudos to the song selections)
Paper Heart
Bright Star
Jaffa (briefly reviewed at 2009 Other Israel Film Festival in New York) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women)

Runners-Up: Best Romance in the Parallel Universe/Alternative Reality Division
Uncertainty

BEST SIBLING RIVALRY With a Side Order of Romance
Beeswax

BEST BROMANCE
Humpday

BEST VIOLENT NEO-NOIRS
Just Another Love Story (Kærlighed på film)
Revanche
Flame & Citron (Flammen & Citronen)

Runners-Up: VIOLENT NEO-NOIRS that stick with me despite my gripes
House Of The Devil -- until the last 10 minutes (seen at 2009 Tribeca Film Festival)
Fear Me Not (Deb Du Frygter) (seen at 8th Tribeca Film Festival)
Brave Men (Galantuomini) briefly reviewed at 2009 Open Roads: New Italian Cinema of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Hierro (previewed at 2009 Spanish Cinema Now at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Armored (but no femme fatale)

BEST COMING OF AGERS
Max Minsky and Me (Max Minsky und ich) (briefly reviewed at 2009 New York Jewish Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum)
The Apprentice (L’apprenti) (previewed at 2009 Rendez-Vous with French Film at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Stella (briefly reviewed at 2009 Rendez-Vous With French Cinema of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Treeless Mountain (briefly reviewed at 2009 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)

Runners-Up: COMING OF AGERS that Stick with me Despite My Gripes
Entre Nos (briefly reviewed in Part 2: The Kids Are Alright at 2009Tribeca Film Festival)
Dare

BEST MOVIE MUSICALS:
Paris 36 (Faubourg 36) (briefly reviewed at 14th Rendez-Vous With French Cinema of Film Society of Lincoln Center) (kudos to Tom Stern's cinematography and Clovis Cornillac as a contemporary Jean Gabin)
Copy of Coralie (La Copie de Coralie) (previewed at 2009 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA (Nicolas Engel's wonderfully romantic 22 minute short with Philippe Poirier's musique concrete score that uses office machines as accompaniment for workers' unexpected song spiels)
Every Little Step (so it’s a documentary)
Soul Power (previewed at Tribeca Film Festival)) (so it’s a concert film)
Smile 'Til It Hurts: The Up With People Story (so it’s a documentary - seen at DocuWeeks)
Passing Strange (so it’s filmed performance)
Ne Change Rien (so it’s a documentary - briefly reviewed at 2009 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)

Runners-Up: MOVIE MUSICALS that Stick with me Despite My Gripes:
Fados
Soundtrack for a Revolution (previewed at 2009 Tribeca Film Festival)
Luck by Chance (seen in The New India at MoMA)
Rock Prophecies (so it’s a documentary - seen at DocuWeeks)
Nine (because I can't stop humming "Cinema Italiano")

Best Use of Songs on Soundtrack:
Easy Virtue for new-- "When The Going Gets Tough, The Tough Get Going"-- and period-recreated songs by Marius De Vries
Away We Go for old and new Alexi Murdoch songs
Crazy Heart for T.Bone Burnett and Stephen Bruton songs

BEST SCORE
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (by Mark Isham, and his selection of the few songs, including Sonny Terry, but BOO that no N'Orlins musicians involved)
(Untitled) (for David Lang and his cleverness in satirizing his own Bang on the Can)
Skin (for Hélène Muddiman’s incorporation of African instruments and vocals) (My additional notes.)

BEST ANIMATION
Coraline
Up (except for the dog pilots)
Ponyo
Fantastic Mr. Fox

Runners-Up: BEST ANIMATION that Stick with me Despite My Gripes:
$9.99 (also briefly reviewed at 2009 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA) (So, nu: my commentary on the missing Jewish women.)
9 (visuals yeah, story eh)
A Town Called Panic (a bit silly)
Avatar (for the 3D visuals only)
The Princess and the Frog (Randy Newman's music is weak and not bluesy, N'Orlins-style enuf.)

BEST ACTIONERS
Star Trek (kudos to Zachary Quinto, Eric Bana, Simon Pegg, Michael Giacchino's score, Leonard Nimoy, and the funny use of classic lines)
District 9

Runners-Up: ACTIONERS that stick with me despite my gripes
The Mugger (El Asaltante) (briefly reviewed at 10th Film Comments Selects of Film Society of Lincoln Center (kudos to Arturo Goetz and cinematographer Cobi Migliora)
Newsmakers (Goryachie novosti) (briefly reviewed at Part 1 Recommendations of 2009 Tribeca Film Festival)) (Russian remake of Breaking News (Dai si gein))
Sin Nombre (I upped my impression after seeing the documentaries Oblivion and the even more abject Garapa, to understand the push, and the reality in Which Way Home, the latter two briefly reviewed in Part 2: The Kids Are Alright at 2009 Tribeca Film Festival)

Better ACTION STARS than their movies:
Sam Worthington in Terminator Salvation (hey, I'm one of the few who dug his Macbeth).

BEST SCI-FI (NON-ACTION DIVISION)
Home (also briefly reviewed at 2009 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Moon (previewed at 8th Tribeca Film Festival)

BEST FEMINIST FABLES
The White Ribbon (Das weisse band) (previewed at 2009 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Bluebeard (La Barbe Bleue) (previewed at 2009 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Whip It

BEST WOMEN AS GROWN-UPS:
Hiam Abbass in Lemon Tree (Etz Limon) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman)
Tilda Swinton in Julia
Meryl Streep in Julie & Julia

Runners-Up: BEST WOMEN AS GROWN-UPS
Helen Mirren in Last Station (but more than a bit over-the-top)
Imelda Staunton in Taking Woodstock

BEST INGÉNUES
Paweł Szajda in Sweet Rush (Tatarak) (American actor making his Polish film debut) (briefly reviewed at 2009 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Carey Mulligan in An Education

BEST VILLAINS
Mo'Nique in Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire

BEST OLD FOLKS
Hal Holbrook in That Evening Sun

BEST COSTUMES
Chéri
Coco Before Chanel (Coco Avant Chanel)
Young Victoria
The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond

BEST FILMS INFLUENCED BY AMBROSE BIERCE's An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge:
The Escapist (kudos to Benjamin Wallfisch's score and Theo Green's sound design)
Katalin Varga (seen at 2009 Annual Romanian Film Festival of the Romanian Cultural Institute of NY))

Runner-Up
Deadline (17 minute short seen at Tribeca Film Festival))

BEST DOCUMENTARIES:
Mr. Rakowski (briefly reviewed at 2009 New York Jewish Film Festival of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum)
Forgotten Transports: To Estonia (Zapomenuté transporty: Do Estonska): Women's Friendship(briefly reviewed at 2009 New York Jewish Film Festival of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum)
Our Disappeared (Nuestros desaparecidos) (briefly reviewed at 2009 New York Jewish Film Festival of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum) (See more background from its PBS broadcast)
Must Read After My Death
The Beaches of Agnès (Les Plages d’Agnès) (also briefly reviewed at 14th Rendez-Vous With French Cinema of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
The Cove (also briefly reviewed at 2009 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
P-Star Rising (briefly reviewed at Part 2: The Kids Are Alright of 2009 Tribeca Film Festival)
My Neighbor, My Killer (reviewed at 2009 Human Rights Watch International Film Festival)
Afghan Star (previewed at Human Rights Watch International Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center) (plus the sad follow-up Silencing the Song: An Afghan Fallen Star)
Sweet Crude (seen at DocuWeeks)
Loot

DOCS that are Close Runners-Up
Camp Girls (briefly reviewed at 18th New York Jewish Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum)
Young Freud in Gaza (Unge Freud i Gaza) (briefly reviewed at 18th New York Jewish Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum)
Paradise (briefly reviewed at 10th Film Comments Selects of Film Society of Lincoln Center (more essay than doc)
Anvil! The Story Of Anvil (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman)
Fixer: The Taking of Ajmal Naqshbandi (briefly reviewed at Part 1 Recommendations of 8th Tribeca Film Festival)
Only When I Dance (briefly reviewed at Part 1 Recommendations of 8th Tribeca Film Festival)
Team Qatar (briefly reviewed at Part 2: The Kids Are Alright of 8th Tribeca Film Festival) (But I'm pro-biased because it's about a debate team.)
Yasukuni (seen on VJ Day. For a neutral view of traditional Japanese military craft see Secrets of the Samurai Sword from PBS's Nova, and a bemused view of soul storage in Cold Souls - briefly reviewed at 2009 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Good Hair
Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country (Reporter i et lukket land)

Educational Runners-Up (DOCS you can learn from despite gaps and/or flaws):
Being Jewish in France (Comme un Juif en France) (briefly reviewed at 18th New York Jewish Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum)
Every Mother Should Know (Teda Kol Em Ivriya) (briefly reviewed at 18th New York Jewish Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum)
The Unmistaken Child
Food, Inc. (it forgets that some additives are health-promoting and could use a bit more cynicism about buying "organic" in the supermarket)
Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story Of Ozploitation!
Garbage Dreams (seen at DocuWeeks)
The Sari Soldiers (seen at DocuWeeks)
Kimjongilia (minus the dancers) (seen at DocuWeeks)
2009 Other Israel Film Festival in New York- Arab Labor, Badal, ID Blues (Part 3 - Between Two Cities and Part 4 - Integration and Confrontation), The Invisible, Sayed Kashua–Forever Scared, SAZ–The Palestinian Rapper for Change, Voices from El Sayed, Zahara (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women)
My Daughter the Terrorist (seen at MoMA’s Documentary Fortnight – 8th International Festival of Nonfiction Films)

Runners-Up: BIO DOCS you can learn from despite gaps and/or glosses:
A Road to Mecca: The Journey of Muhammad Asad (Der Weg nach Mekka - Die Reise des Muhammad Asad) (briefly reviewed at 18th New York Jewish Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum)
Neither Memory nor Magic (seen at MoMA’s Documentary Fortnight – 8th International Festival of Nonfiction Films)
Carmen & Geoffrey (emendations coming after 9/13/2009)
Herb & Dorothy
Yes Madam, Sir! (seen at DocuWeeks)
The English Surgeon
Killing Kasztner: The Jew Who Dealt With Nazis (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women)

MOST VISUAL HEAD TRIPS
The Limits of Control (kudos to DP Christopher Doyle and the score)
Tetro (kudos to DP Mihai Malaimare, Jr. and Osvaldo Golijov's score)
Red Cliff (Chi bi) (kudos to DPs Lu Yue and Zhang Li, costumes by Tim Yip, art and production design)
Where the Wild Things Are (kudos to James Gandolfini's voicing, Karen O's leit motif with song "Hide Away", and the Jim Henson Creature Shop)
The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus (despite the sentimentality, kudos to Tom Waits as The Devil and Christopher Plummer as Immortal)

Runners-Up: MOST VISUAL HEAD TRIPS
Public Enemies (kudos to costumes, DP Dante Spinotti, and Elliot Goldenthal's score, even with several borrowings from other films)

WORST SUBTITLES:
Cargo 200 (Gruz 200)

BEST REVIVALS IN NEW PRINTS
Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles
Golem with Tom Nazziola's musical score performed live by The BQE Project at the World Financial Center
Night in the City
Leon Morin, Priest (Léon Morin, prêtre)
David Golder (seen with new English subtitles at MoMA's Julien Duvivier retrospective)
Falsch (seen at Film Society of Lincoln Center's Beyond L’Enfant: The Complete Dardenne Brothers retrospective)
Le combat dans l'île
Rage by Pasolini (La Rabbia di Pasolini ) (briefly reviewed at 47th New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Pyaasa (The Thirsty One) (briefly reviewed at 47th New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Le Amiche at MoMA's 7th International Festival of Film Preservation
The Red Shoes

Thanks for theatrical showings for my first-time viewings on big screens of:
C.R.A.Z.Y. (seen at MoMA's Canadian Front); Correction (Diorthosi) (seen at The Hellenic-American Chamber of Commerce's 3rd New York Greek Film Festival); In a Lonely Place (new 35 mm print) and They Live By Night in a double feature with Knock On Any Door (seen with all the guys at Film Forum’s Nick Ray retrospective).

MY BEST FILMS of 2008 (In the order I saw them, many reviews yet to be written, particularly of festivals-viewed, non-theatrically distributed films):
Beaufort
Still Life (Sanxia haoren)
4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (4 luni, 3 saptamani si 2 zile) (despite subtitles in British slang)
Lost in Beijing (Ping guo)
The Grocer’s Son (Le Fils de l’épicier) (previewed at Rendez-Vous with French Film at Film Society of Lincoln Center) (Viva Nicolas Cazalé)
Megane (Glasses) (seen at New Directors/New Films at Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
The Counterfeiters (Die Fälscher)
Shotgun Stories (kudos to writer/director Jeff Nichols and his musician brother Ben, DP Adam Stone and Michael Shannon)
The Secret of the Grain (La graine et le mulet) (kudos to actors Habib Boufares and Hafsia Herzi, and writer/director Abdellatif Kechiche) (scroll down for my capsule review) (previewed at Tribeca Film Festival))
Strangers (seen at Tribeca Film Festival))
Edge of Heaven (Auf der anderen seite)
Kabluey (kudos to writer/director/star Scott Prendergast)
Boy A (kudos to Andrew Garfield and Katie Lyons)
The Galilee Eskimos (Eskimosim ba Galil) (seen at Israel Film Festival)
The Wrestler (kudos to Mickey Rourke, Darren Aronofsky’s directing, cinematography of Maryse Alberti, make-up, editing, Clint Mansell's haunting leit motif, and Bruce Springsteen’s closing song)

Runners-Up: Movies that Stick with me Despite My Gripes
A Secret (Un Secret) (previewed at Film Society of Lincoln Center’s NY Jewish Film Festival) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women)
Let’s Dance! (Faut que ça danse!) (seen at Rendez-Vous with French Film at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Paris (seen at Rendez-Vous with French Film at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
La Zona (The Zone) (seen at New Directors/New Films at Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
The Visitor
Battle For Haditha (kudos to actor/former marine Elliot Ruiz, but needs to be seen with PBS’s non-fiction Frontline episodes Bad Voodoo’s War and Rules of Engagement, as well as Full Battle Rattle)
Sangre de Mi Sangre (Padre Nuestro)
Take Out
Estômago: A Gastronomic Story (previewed at MoMA’s Premiere Brazil!) (kudos to Giovanni Venosta’s score)
The Pope's Toilet (El Baño el Papa) (previewed at Lincoln Center’s Latin Beat)
August Evening
I Served the King of England (Obsluhoval jsem anglického krále)
A Thousand Years Of Good Prayers
Rachel Getting Married (kudos to Anne Hathaway and Declan Quinn’s cinematography)
A Christmas Tale (Un conte de Noël)
Milk (kudos to Sean Penn and ensemble)
The Class (Entre les murs) (My additional notes.)

BEST MOVIE MUSICALS:
Planet B-Boy (so it’s a dancing documentary)
A Story of the Red Hills (Lal Pahare'r Katha) (seen at Tribeca Film Festival)

Runners-Up: MOVIE MUSICALS that Stick with me Despite My Gripes:
Jodhaa Akbar (kudos to the elephants, drums, dervishes, palaces and costumes as worn by the most beautiful-humans-on-the-planet Aishwarya Rai and Hrithik Roshan)
Young@Heart (so it’s a singing documentary)
Playing for Change: Peace Through Music (hey – first there was the songwriter before there was the performer) (seen at Tribeca Film Festival)
Soul Men
Were The World Mine

BEST ANIMATION
Fear(s) of the Dark (Peur(s) du noir) (previewed at Rendez-Vous with French Film at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Sita Sings the Blues (seen at Tribeca Film Festival))
Wall-E
Azur and Asmar: The Princes’ Quest (kudos to Gabriel Yared’s music) (seen at New York International Children's Film Festival)
The Tale of Despereaux

Runners-Up: (ANIMATED MOVIES that amused or touched me despite my gripes)
Kung Fu Panda (kudos to opening dream sequence and Dustin Hoffman’s voicing)
The Year of the Fish
Bolt 3D

BEST VIOLENT NEO-NOIRS
In Bruges
London to Brighton
Jar City (Mýrin)
Love, Pain & Vice Versa (Amor, Dolor y Viceversa) (seen at Tribeca Film Festival)
Stuck

Runners-Up: VIOLENT NEO-NOIRS that stick with me despite my gripes
Fermat's Room (La Habitación de Fermat) (previewed at Tribeca Film Festival)
Tell No One (Ne le dis à personne)
Mad Detective (Sun taam) (kudos to the The Lady From Shanghai tribute)
Timecrimes (Los Cronocrímenes) (previewed at Spanish Cinema Now at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
King of the Hill (El rey de la montaña) (seen at Spanish Cinema Now at Film Society of Lincoln Center) (kudos to the score by David Crespo and cinematography of José David Montero)
What Doesn t Kill You (kudos to Mark Ruffalo)

BEST COMING OF AGERS
XXY (previewed at New Directors/New Films at Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Paranoid Park (kudos to DP Christopher Doyle)
Water Lilies (Naissance Des Pieuvres) (previewed at New Directors/New Films at Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Let the Right One In (Låt den rätte komma in) (previewed at Tribeca Film Festival)
The Pool
Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist (kudos to Kat Dennings and Ari Graynor)
Slumdog Millionaire (kudos to Danny Boyle’s direction, editing, Anthony Dod Mantle’s cinematography and music by A.R. Rahman)

Runners-Up: COMING OF AGERS that stick with me despite my gripes
Somers Town (seen at Tribeca Film Festival)
The Tracey Fragments (I seem to be the only who remembers that the 1964/5 NYC World's Fair movies used the multiple images technique before Woodstock, 24, etc.)
Son of Rambow
Reprise
The Wackness (kudos to Olivia Thirlby) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women)
Nights and Weekends (kudos to co-writer/co-director/co-star Greta Gerwig) (though I have to admit that I missed the year’s other mumblecore romance In Search of a Midnight Kiss)

BEST ACTIONERS
The Bank Job
The Dark Knight- IMAX (kudos to Heath Ledger and the cavities-rocking sound design)

Runners-Up: ACTIONERS that stick with me despite my gripes
Cloverfield
Iron Man (kudos to Tom Morello’s guitar on the soundtrack)
The Incredible Hulk
Blindness (kudos to directing, cinematography and editing, not the heavy-handed metaphors)
Miracle at St. Anna (best subtitles of the year)
Defiance (kudos to Daniel Craig and Liev Schreiber) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women) (The History Channel produced the short, complementary The Bielski Brothers with family and survivors' interviews.) (For more context see Forgotten Transports to Belarus (Zapomenuté transporty: Do Belarus): Men Who Fought)

BEST VILLAINS
Mark Strong in Body of Lies (his Savile Row tailor and hair stylist should have gotten listed rather than Russell’s and Leo’s)
Tom Wilkinson in RocknRolla (and Mark Strong isn’t bad as a baddie here too)
Meryl Streep in Doubt (though I think priest abuse survivors wouldn’t really see her as a villain)
Frank Langella in Frost/Nixon

BEST FEMINIST FABLES
Vivere (To live! kudos to Hannelore Elsner & writer/director Angelina Maccarone)
Irina Palm (kudos to Marianne Faithfull)
Flight Of The Red Balloon (Le Voyage Du Ballon Rouge) (kudos to Juliette Binoche)
Alexandra (kudos to Galina Vishnevskaya and writer/director Alexander Sokurov)

Runners-Up: FEMINIST FABLES that stick with me despite my gripes
Nana (kudos to Mika Nakashima and Ryuhei Matsuda)
Boarding Gate (kudos to Asia Argento channeling Aeon Flux)
Never Forever (kudos to Vera Farmiga and her “f**king blue eyes”)
Four Minutes (Vier Minuten)
Beauty in Trouble (Kráska v nesnázích) (kudos to Anna Geislerová and born-to-play-a-vampire Jirí Schmitzer)
Belgium, Moscow (Aanrijding in Moscou) (kudos to Barbara Sarafian) (Moscow is a small Belgian town district of Ghent is why they're speaking Dutch or Flemish)

Runners-Up: FEMINIST FABLES (JUST FOR ROMANCE'S SAKE)
My Blueberry Nights (I sure would like to know where I can eat at the Edward Hopper-esque outer borough diner where Jude Law is working.)

FEMALE-FOCUSED GENRE OF THE YEAR: Single Mothers Driven to Desperation Near the Canadian Border:
Best: Frozen River (kudos to Melissa Leo) (previewed at New Directors/New Films at Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)

Runners Up:
Turn the River
Snow Angels (the book took place in PA, but the movie is vaguely Canadian, as it was filmed in Nova Scotia)
Stone Angel (kudos to Ellen Burstyn)
And then there was: Sleepwalking

BEST FILM INFLUENCED BY AMBROSE BIERCE's An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge:
Yella

BEST BEST FRIENDS FOREVER OF THE YEAR:
Christine Baranski and Julie Walters in the resistance-is-futile Mamma Mia!

Favorite Mother Line
Mad Money: Won’t your kids notice if you run away? Nah, they never call anyway.

MOST VISUAL HEAD TRIPS
Mister Lonely
The Fall (including looking at Lee Pace)
Synecdoche (kudos to make-up/hair and production design)
Australia (kudos to matte scenery, costumes and production design)
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (kudos to make-up, production design, CG and score)

Runners-Up: MOST VISUAL HEAD TRIPS
Speed Racer
Changeling (kudos to the cinematography of Tom Stern, costumes and production design)

BEST SCENERY:
Up The Yangtze
Before the Rains
Mongol

Runners-Up: BEST SCENERY
Brideshead Revisited (what I could stay awake to see)
Appaloosa (kudos to Dean Semler’s cinematography that kept me from laughing at the script, but Most Egoistical Song over the credits)

BEST COSTUMES
The Duchess

Runner-Up: BEST COSTUMES
Australia

BEST SONG:
In Rodanthe written and sung by Emmylou Harris
Dark Streets, the soundtrack songs and the score with B.B. King's guitar (My additional note.)

BEST DOCUMENTARIES:
The Hebrew Lesson (Ha’Ulpan) (previewed at NY Jewish Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Murder of a Hatmaker (Assassinat d'une modiste) (seen at NY Jewish Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Trouble the Water (previewed at New Directors/New Films at Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA) (My additional notes.)
Brothers in Arms (seen at NY African Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center/Cinema Tropical)
Algeria, Unspoken Stories (Algérie, histoires à ne pas dire) (seen at Tribeca Film Festival)
To See If I’m Smiling (Lir’ot Im Ani Mehayechet) (seen at the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
The Betrayal (Nerakhoon) (previewed at the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center) (Gran Torino is sort of the Hollywood take)
Bigger, Stronger, Faster*: The Side Effects of Being American
My Winnipeg
The Order Of Myths
Man on Wire
The Forgotten Woman - the non-fiction counterpart to Water (seen at DocuWeek)
Waltz With Bashir (Valse im Bashir) (also a Best Animation) (previewed at Film Society of Lincoln Center’s NY Film Festival)
Stranded: I Have Come from a Plane That Crashed on the Mountains

DOCS that are Close Runners-Up
American Teen (see it with Nimrod Nation)
War Child (missed it at Tribeca Film Festival where the subject’s musical performances won it the Audience Award, caught it in preview at DocuWeek)

Educational Runners-Up (DOCS you can learn from despite gaps and/or flaws):
Chicago 10
Moving Midway (previewed at New Directors/New Films at Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA) (to also mark the bicentennial of the abolition of the slave trade is the related Traces Of The Trade: A Story from the Deep North that I previewed at the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center before it went straight to PBS)
Cuba: An African Odyssey (seen at NY African Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center/Cinema Tropical) (This is the missing link between the two parts of Che.)
Standard Operating Procedure (but needs to be seen with several other related docs)
Encounters at the End of the World (kudos to Herzog’s narration)
Pray The Devil Back To Hell (bravo to score by Blake Lleyh of The Wire and vocalizations by Angélique Kidjo) (missed it with the heroines in their colorful native garb at Tribeca Film Festival, previewed it at DocuWeek) Then see what is in effect Part 2: Iron Ladies Of Liberia)
Yodok Stories (seen at DocuWeek) (See Return to the Border as a useful supplement.)
Children of the Sun (seen at Israel Film Festival)
2008 Other Israel Film Festival in New York- Desert Brides, The Boys From Lebanon, ID Blues (Part 1 - My Blood is Red Like Yours and Part 2 - Land of the Negev), Heart Of Jenin, Lady Kul El Arab (shown on PBS's Wide Angle as Contestant No. 2) (emendations coming after 5/7/2009) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women)

Runners-Up: BIO DOCS you can learn from despite gaps and/or glosses:
Trumbo
Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired (though, technically, I saw it first on HBO)
Never Apologize: A Personal Visit With Lindsay Anderson (seen at Lindsay Anderson: Revolutionary Romantic at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Fire Under the Snow (missed it at Tribeca Film Festival, caught it at DocuWeek instead of watching the Olympics)
An Unlikely Weapon: The Eddie Adams Story (previewed at DocuWeek)
Anita O’Day: The Life Of A Jazz Singer

Best COMIC RELIEF from Depressing DOCS Despite My Gripes about their offenses or nonsense:
Priceless (Hors de prix)
Pineapple Express
Tropic Thunder (minus Tom Cruise's caricature)

Runners-Up: COMIC RELIEFS that Stick with me Despite My Gripes:
Burn After Reading
Loins of Punjab Presents
Zack and Miri Make a Porno

BEST REVIVALS IN NEW PRINTS
It Always Rains On Sunday) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women)
Fanny and Alexander (the uncut 312 minutes)
I Don’t Hear the Guitar Anymore (J'entends plus la guitare)
Mickey One (seen at MoMA’s Jazz Scores)
Stuff and Dough (Marfa si banii)
Warsaw Bridge (Pont de Varsòvia) (previewed at MoMA)
Circus Performers (Saltimbancii) (seen at the Gene Siskel Film Center’s Romanian Cinema Rising)
Kagemusha (Shadow Warrior)
The Exiles
The Human Condition (Ningen no joken): Part 1 - No Greater Love; Part 2 – Road to Eternity; Part 3 – A Soldier’s Prayer (yes, all 10 hours)
Delwende (Get Up and Walk) (seen at MoMA) which made an ironic match across time and continents about women as scapegoat witches with the beautiful new 35 mm print of Day of Wrath (Vredens dag)
Lola Montès (colorfully restored)
Ashes of Time (Dung che sai duk) (Redux)
Mishima (new 35 mm print with restored scene and Japanese narration)

Thanks for theatrical showings for my first-time viewings on big screens of:
Last Year in Marienbad (L’Année dernière à Marienbad); S.O.B.; Thirst (Atash); Or (My Treasure) and Kaddim Wind: Moroccan Chronicles (Ruah Kaddim – Chronika Marokait) at Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Israel at 60; Black River (Kuroi kawa) (much more worth my time than the melodrama Immortal Love (Eien no hito) even in a new print) as part of the Film Forum’s Nakadai retrospective; Macario and Night Falls (La Noche avanza) at Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Wounded Pride, Simmering Passion: Roberto Gavaldón retrospective; Killer’s Kiss (outdoors at the Elevated Acre); Amarcard in a new 35mm restoration; What Happened to Santiago (Lo que le pasó a Santiago) at Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Latin Beat; new 35 mm print of The Catch (Shiiku) and Boy (Shonen) at the In the Realm of Oshima Sidebar of Film Society of Lincoln Center’s NY Film Fest; the documentary L'aimee with La Vie des Morts, all 144 minutes in a wavering sound print of La Sentinelle, all 178 minutes in a scratchy print (with British subtitles that translated Colette as Dickens) of My Sex Life... Or How I Got Into An Argument (Comment je me suis disputé... ma vie sexuelle), at Every Minute, Four Ideas: The Films of Arnaud Desplechin series at the IFC Center; Un Flic (A Cop) (with The Sicilian Clan in a new 35 mm print of the cartoon-sounding English version in an old-fashioned double-feature for Delon fans of all persuasions), Quai Des Orfèvres (double-featured with Pépé Le Moko), the full nerve-shaking 2½ hours of Wages of Fear (Le Salaire de la peur); and a new 35mm Scope print of Shoot the Piano Player (Tirez sur le pianiste) in the Film Forum’s French Crime Wave; and Contempt (Le Mépris) (me and all those young straight Bardot-appreciating men who found their way to an art house). But I should have continued the Film Forum’s Godard retrospective by seeing Vivre sa vie instead of their new print of 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (2 ou 3 choses que je sais d'elle).
Is it OK here to salute revivals I didn’t see in a theater? So kudos to the excellent, well-moderated TCM’s Asian Images in Film Festival, as part of its Race & Hollywood series, where I saw Samuel Fuller’s Crimson Kimono (and others were also available On Demand).

MOST ILLEGIBLE SUBTITLES:
The Lovers (Les Amants) (shown in thanks-for-revival-anyway)
Live And Become (Va, Vis Et Deviens) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women)

MY BEST FILMS of 2007 (In the order I saw them, many reviews yet to be written, particularly of festivals-viewed, non-theatrically distributed films):
The Lives of Others (Das Leben der Anderen) -- view it with its non-fiction counterpart The Decomposition of the Soul (La Décomposition de l'âme)
Zodiac
The Wind That Shakes the Barley (scroll down for my capsule review)
Black Book (Zwartboek) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman.)
Offside
Red Road
Away From Her (kudos to Julie Christie and use of Neil Young songs)
Jindabyne
A Mighty Heart
Two Days in Paris (see the doc Forever for another view of the Père-Lachaise cemetery)
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (kudos to cinematographer Roger Deakins and Casey Affleck)
Lars and the Real Girl
American Gangster (not original but kudos to cinematographer Harris Savides, production and costume design, editing, NY/NJ locations, the clash of titans casting and director Ridley Scott for channeling Scorsese through Spike Lee)
No Country for Old Men (kudos for ensemble casting, cinematographer Roger Deakins and consistent thematic revisioning of the scenic, violent western)
I’m Not There (kudos for ensemble casting, Cate Blanchett, Heath Ledger, cinematographer Edward Lachman, editor Jay Rabinowitz, use of Dylan songs actual, covered and in dialogue, production design and director Todd Haynes)
Dan in Real Life (kudos to the Sondra Lerche songs)
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Le Scaphandre et le papillon) (kudos to cinematographer Janusz Kaminski and editor Juliette Welfling – oh, we’re supposed to confuse the women, according to director Julian Schnabel)

Runners-Up: (Movies that stick with me despite my gripes)
My Mexican Shiva (Morirse está en Hebreo) (previewed at the NY Jewish Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
The Italian (Italianetz)
Regular Lovers (Les Amants réguliers) (but most illegible subtitles of the year)
Grbavica: The Land Of My Dreams
Breach
Taste of Tea (Cha no aji)
After The Wedding (Efter Brylluppet) (I’m mad for Mads Mikkelsen!)
Into the Wild (kudos to the scenery and Vedder songs)
Wristcutters: A Love Story
Love and Honor (Bushi no ichibun)
Grace Is Gone (best of the Iraq-war-related features of the year)
There Will Be Blood (kudos to Daniel Day Lewis, Jonny Greenwood’s score, Paul Thomas Anderson’s direction and Robert Elswit’s cinematography)

BEST ROMANCES
Quiet City

BEST DOCUMENTARIES
2 Or 3 Things I Know About Him (2 oder 3 Dinge, die ich von ihm weiß) (The Unknown Soldier (Der Unbekannte Soldat) is a good take on the context.)
Into Great Silence (Die Große Stille) (Don’t chomp on your popcorn!)
The Cats of Mirikitani
Third Monday in October (as seen at Tribeca Film Festival))
The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters
Helvetica (in tribute to my dad’s oldest friend, the late book designer Philip Grushkin who would have loved this movie that brought back what it was like to hear him talk about typography)
Steal A Pencil For Me (emendations coming after 5/9/2008)
Protagonist (It’s the missing link in explaining men’s behavior in the informative Nanking (emendations coming after 6/12/2008)) (and Terror’s Advocate, though for the last it also helps to see Days of Glory (Indigènes) and Battle of Algiers, among other films, for context.)

Runners-Up (DOCS that stick with me despite my gripes):
The Case Of The Grinning Cat (Chats perchés)
Deep Water (Don’t read any spoilers!)

Educational Runners-Up (DOCS I learned from despite gaps and/or flaws):
No End In Sight
Sicko
The Rape of Europa
Banished (a follow-up to Buried in the Bitter Waters: The Hidden History of Racial Cleansing in America by Elliot Jaspin)
Taxi to the Dark Side (see in conjunction with Ghosts of Abu Ghraib and The Prisoner Or: How I Planned To Kill Tony Blair)

BEST VIOLENT NOIRS
Eastern Promises
Michael Clayton (even though it’s a lot like Damages)
Gone Baby Gone (kudos to cinematographer John Toll, Amy Ryan and Casey Affleck, and the extras casting)
Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (if the House of Atreus lived in NY)

BEST GROWING-UP
Bridge to Terabithia
Ping Pong (loved the Springsteen references!)
In Between Days
Rocket Science (kudos to high school debate accurately portrayed)
Blame It On Fidel (La Faute à Fidel) (scroll down for my capsule review)
Juno (kudos to Ellen Page and Kimya Dawson songs)

Runners-Up: (Coming-of-Agers that stick with me despite my gripes)
Whole New Thing
Gracie (kudos to using Bruce’s “Growing Up” in a NJ movie) (Chak De! India is a fun, field hockey in India take on the same theme.)

BEST FEMINIST FABLES
L’Iceberg
Year of the Dog
Live-In Maid (Cama adentro)

Runners-Up: (FEMINIST FABLES that stick with me despite my gripes)
Waitress
The Jane Austen Book Club

BEST UN-FEMINIST FABLE
Enchanted (kudos to Amy Adams)

BEST SATIRES
Grindhouse
Hot Fuzz
12:08 – East of Bucharest (A fost sau n-a fost?)
Shoot ‘Em Up
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (kudos to Jenna Fischer and the songs by Dan Bern and Mike Viola, right through beyond the closing credits)

BEST MOVIE MUSICALS:
U-Carmen (U-Carmen e-Khayelitsha)
Once
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (kudos to Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, director Tim Burton, cinematographer Dariusz Wolski and the production design from the opening credits)

Runners-Up: MOVIE MUSICALS I enjoyed despite my gripes:
Across the Universe (kudos to the visuals, Beatles’ covers and Jim Sturgess)

BEST SCORE:
In the Pit (En el hoyo) (the musique concrète of Leonardo Heiblum)
Black Snake Moan (and the blues selections)
Choking Man (by Nico Muhly)

Runners-Up: Musical elements I enjoyed despite my other gripes:
Things We Lost in the Fire (only the theme and guitar by Gustavo Santaolalla)
Love in the Time of Cholera (only for Shakira’s original songs)
Southland Tales (for the use of Moby songs)
August Rush (only for Kaki King’s guitar work)
The Great Debaters (for the blues by Alvin Youngblood Hart and Sharon Jones)
Honeydipper (for the old blues and new, old-style songs by Mason Daring)

BEST ACTIONERS
Election (Hak se wui)/Triad Election (Hak se wui yi wo wai kwai) (and similar Johnny To-gangsters channeling something wicked this way comes Down Under in Macbeth)
28 Weeks Later
1408
The Bourne Ultimatum (kudos to director Paul Greengrass)

Runners-Up: (ACTIONERS that stick with me despite my gripes)
3:10 To Yuma (kudos to Bale, Crowe and Foster)
The Mist (though it is lot like the much smaller budget Right at Your Door)
I Am Legend (Kudos to the first 2/3 and Will Smith)

BEST NON-WESTERN CONVENTIONS NARRATIVES
Syndromes and a Century (Sang sattawat)
I Don't Want to Sleep Alone (Hei yan quan)
Ten Canoes
Half Moon (Niwemang) (kudos to the magic realism imagery)

'BAD BOYZ' BREAK OUT PERFORMANCES: (incomplete list)
Denis Moiseenko as "Kolyan" in The Italian (Italianetz)
Jérémie Renierin in Private Property (Nue propriété)

BEST ANIMATION
Paprika (Papurika)
Ratatouille
Tekkonkinkreet (Tekon kinkurîto)
Persepolis

Runners-Up: (ANIMATED MOVIE that made me laugh despite my gripes)
Bee Movie (there’s finally an original song at the very end of the credits)

BEST SCENERY:
Seraphim Falls
Miss Potter
300 (for the “manscape”)
Khadak

BEST COSTUMES
Lust, Caution (Se, jie) (pretty ironic for an NC-17 rated movie)
Elizabeth – The Golden Age
Love in the Time of Cholera (and production design)

BEST REVIVALS IN NEW PRINTS:
Verdict On Auschwitz: The Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial 1963-1965 (first English-subtitled release)
Mafioso
Killer of Sheep
The Red Balloon (Le Ballon rouge)
65 Revisited
War and Peace (Voyna i mir) (all 6 hours, 51 minutes)
Thanks for new 35 mm prints for my first-time viewings of:
Fires on the Plain (Nobi); Raise the Red Lantern (Da hong deng long gao gao gua); The Earrings of Madame De. . . (Madame De); Street of Shame (Akasen chitai); The Draughtsman’s Contract; Le Doulos; The Makioka Sisters (Sasame-yuki); Diva; Monika (Sommaren med Monika); White Mane (Crin-Blanc); Seduced and Abandoned (Sedotta e abbandonata) and The Organizer (I Compagni) -- but the inadequate and illegible subtitles should have been improved

My Best Films of 2006- In no order, many reviews yet to be written, particularly of festivals-viewed, non-theatrically distributed films:

BEST ACTIONERS
Night Watch (Nochnoi Dozor) (kudos to the subtitles)
Breaking News (Dai si gein)
Inside Man (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman)
Cavité
Casino Royale
District B 13 (Banlieue 13)
El Aura
13 (Tzameti)
Lady Vengeance (Chinjeolhan geumjassi)
Children of Men (kudos to director Cuarón)
Runners-Up: (movies that stick with me despite my gripes)
Love
V for Vendetta
The Hidden Blade (Kakushi-ken: oni no tsume)
The Bridesmaid (La Demoiselle D'honneur) (kudos to Benoît Magimel)
Days of Glory (Indigènes)

BEST DRAMAS
Tsotsi (kudos to Presley Chweneyagae)
Beautiful City (Shah-re ziba)
Iron Island (Jazireh ahani)
The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (Moartea domnului Lazarescu)
United 93
Half Nelson (kudos to Ryan Gosling)
Climates (Iklimler)
The Queen (kudos to Helen Mirren)
Runners-Up: (movies that stick with me despite my gripes)
Bubble
Fateless (Sorstalanság) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women)
Man Pushes Cart
Three Times (Zui hao de shi guang)

BEST COMEDIES
Thank You for Smoking
Little Miss Sunshine
Stranger Than Fiction
Borat (yeah, you know the full title)
Only Human (Seres queridos) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women)

BEST GROWING-UP
Brick
The Motel
Quinceañera (best look at gentrification) (DVD review – scroll down)
L’Enfante
12 and Holding
Runners-Up: (movies that stick with me despite my gripes)
Lonesome Jim (I am an early appreciator of Casey Affleck.)
Mutual Appreciation

BEST DOCUMENTARIES
Deliver Us From Evil (Pair viewing with Hand of God)
Yang Ban Xi: The 8 Model Works
Who Killed the Electric Car? (the one without Al Gore)
Iraq in Fragments
Cult of the Suicide Bomber (by Baer, not Rehov)
Devil & Daniel Johnston (scroll down for my capsule review)
Runners-Up: (movies that stick with me despite my gripes)
Unknown White Male (or faux?)
Neil Young: Heart of Gold
I’m Your Man
Crossing the Bridge
Shut Up & Sing
Encounter Point (seen at Tribeca Film Festival))
The Beauty Academy of Kabul

BEST FAUX DOCUMENTARIES
C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America
Brothers of the Head

BEST EXPLOSION OF A GENRE
Letters from Iwo Jima (My additional note.)
The Proposition

BEST WOMEN’S MOVIES (as they used to call them)
Sherrybaby (kudos to Maggie G.)
Heading South (kudos to Charlotte Rampling)
Sweet Land (kudos to Elizabeth Reaser and best romantic Line of the Year: Yes, I believe that ducks dream.)
Come Early Morning (kudos to Ashley Judd)
Look Both Ways
Runners-Up: (movies that stick with me despite their my gripes)
When the Sea Rises (Quand la mer monte...)
Somersault (kudos to Abbie Cornish)
Princesas (kudos to Candela Peña)
Lover Boy (kudos to Kyra)
Flannel Pajamas
Hard Candy (kudos to Ellen Page)
Secret Life of Words (kudos to the second best romantic Line of the Year: I'll learn to swim.)

BEST OLD FASHIONED ENTERTAINMENT (completely coincidental that they both feature Edward Norton as a romantic lead)
The Painted Veil (kudos to Naomi Watts)
The Illusionist (just beats out the other magicians in The Prestige)

BEST BIO PICS
Infamous
The Last King of Scotland (kudos to both Forest Whitaker and James McAvoy)

BEST SENIOR CITIZEN
Bom bom El Perro

BEST ANIMATION
Monster House
A Scanner Darkly

BEST REVIVALS IN NEW PRINTS
Fallen Idol
Thanks for new 35 mm prints for my first-time viewings of:
Army of Shadows, Walkabout, Cléo de 5 à 7, and Rules of the Game -- (and Keanu thought so too about the last as he was at the same theater I was).

'BAD BOYZ' BREAK OUT PERFORMANCES OF THE YEAR: (incomplete list)
Andreas Wilson in Evil (Ondskan)
Dustin Nguyen in Little Fish
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau in Firewall
Raúl Esparza in Find Me Guilty

BEST BEST FRIENDS OF THE YEAR: (incomplete list)
Zooey Deschanel in Failure To Launch
Frances McDormand in Friends With Money (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman)

MOST DEPRESSING FILM OF THE YEAR: The Bridge

BEST ATTENTION FOR ACTORS I'VE BEEN A HUGE FAN OF SINCE 1998:
Daniel Craig finally for Casino Royale
Adam Beach finally for Flags of Our Fathers

CINEMATIC ARTIST OF THE YEAR:
Cinematographer Tom Stern for Flags of Our Fathers AND Letters from Iwo Jima

BEST BROADS OF THE YEAR
Meryl Streep for opposite full characters in Devil Wears Prada AND A Prairie Home Companion
Dame Judi Dench for upending stereotypes with her “M” in Casino [I miss the Cold War.] Royale and lesbian vampire in Notes on A Scandal
Jennifer Hudson for Best Debut By An Adult in Dreamgirls

My Best Films of 2005- In the order I saw them:
Assisted Living (So, nu: my commentary on the putative Jewish woman)
Turtles Can Fly (Lakposhtha hâm parvaz mikonand)
Head On (Gegen die Wand)
Oldboy
Best of Youth (La Meglio gioventù)
Walk on Water (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman)
Upside of Anger (kudos to Joan Allen)
Millions
Ha Ushpizin
Kings and Queen (Rois et reine)
Mysterious Skin (kudos to Joseph Gordon-Levitt)
Crash
Me and You and Everyone We Know
Caterina in the Big City (Caterina va in città)
5x2
The World (Shijie)
Land of the Dead
Lila Says (Lila dit ça)
Rize
Murderball
The Edukators (Die Fetten Jahre sind vorbei)
2046
The Constant Gardener
The Memory of a Killer (De Zaak Alzheimer)
Thumbsucker (kudos to Lou Taylor Pucci)
Keane (kudos to Damian Lewis)
A History of Violence
Serenity
Dandelion (kudos to Vincent Kartheiser)
Crimen ferpecto
Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
Good Night, and Good Luck
Pride & Prejudice
Zathura
Walk the Line
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
No. 17 Is Anonymous
Ballet Russes
Brokeback Mountain (kudos to Heath Ledger)
King Kong (kudos to Naomi Watts and Andy Serkis)
Munich (kudos to Tony Kushner and Eric Bana)
The New World (kudos to Q'Orianka Kilcher)
The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada
Street Fight

Runners-Up: (Movies that stick with me despite my gripes.)
Kontroll
Schizo (Shiza)
Nina's Tragedies (Ha-Asonot Shel Nina)
Dear Frankie
Sin City
Look At Me (Comme une image)
Le Grand Rôle
À Tout de Suite (Right Now)
Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room
Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (kudos to an emblematic tear)
Layer Cake
Lords of Dogtown
Saving Face
Cinderella Man
My Summer of Love
Heights
Howl's Moving Castle (Hauru no ugoku shiro)
Crónicas
Hustle & Flow
Happy Endings (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women)
Tony Takitani
Secuestro Express
Mad Hot Ballroom
The Brothers Grimm
Games of Love and Chance (L'Esquive)
Campfire (Medurat Hashevet)
Lord of War
Corpse Bride
The Squid and the Whale
Nine Lives (kudos especially to Robin Wright Penn)
North Country (kudos to Frances McDormand)
Domino
Little Manhattan
Capote (kudos to Philip Seymour Hoffman)
Paradise Now
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (kudos to Robert Downey Jr.)
Cape of Good Hope
The Syrian Bride
Syriana
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (kudos to Tilda Swinton)
Breakfast on Pluto (kudos to Cillian Murphy)
Casanova
Caché (Hidden)
On the Outs
The Matador

ADDITIONAL NOTABLE FEATURES:
Best Revivals in New Prints
Elevator to the Gallows (Ascenseur pour l'échafaud)
Harakiri (Seppuku)
Classe tous risques

'Bad Boy' Break Out Performances of the Year:
Nikolaj Lie Kaas in Brothers (Brødre) (He's much sexier than Jake Gyllenhaal in the the American remake.)
Romain Duris in The Beat That My Heart Skipped (De Battre mon coeur s'est arrete)
Alex O'Loughlin in Oyster Farmer
Garrett Hedlund in Four Brothers
Marton Csokas in Asylum
Edgar Ramirez in Domino
Kevin Zegers in Transamerica
Jonathan Rhys-Meyers in Match Point

Gracie Allen Tribute Performances of the Year:
Amy Adams in Junebug
Isla Fisher in Wedding Crashers
Jason Schwartzman in Shopgirl

Most Delightful Production Design
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

My Best Films of 2004- In the order I saw them:
Trilogy: On the Run (Cavale), An Amazing Couple (Un couple épatant), After the Life (Après la vie)
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Goodbye, Lenin!
Broken Wings (Knafayim Shvurot)
Kill Bill, Volume 2
Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring (Bom yeoreum gaeul gyeoul geurigo bom)
Since Otar Left (Depuis qu'Otar est parti...)
Twilight Samurai (Tasogare Seibei)
Baadasssss!
The Inheritance (Arven)
Before Sunset
Last Life in the Universe (Ruang rak noi nid mahasan)
Garden State (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women)
Hero (Ying xiong)
Almost Peaceful (Un monde presque paisible) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women)
Infernal Affairs
Stage Beauty
La Petite Lili
Sideways
House of Flying Daggers (Shi mian mai fu)
Dolls
The Aviator
Hotel Rwanda
In Good Company
The Woodsman
The Sea Inside (Mar adentro)
Runners-Up:
Osama
Facing Windows (La Finestra di fronte)
Maria Full of Grace
The Manchurian Candidate
We Don't Live Here Anymore
Good Bye, Dragon Inn (Bu san)
Mind the Gap
Primer
Ray
Vera Drake
The Incredibles
Ae Fond Kiss
The Assassination of Richard Nixon
Million Dollar Baby
OTHER NOTABLE FEATURES:
Cinematic Artist of the Year: Christopher Doyle
Best Creepy Movie
The Machinist
Best Intense Close-Ups
Birth
Being Julia
Most Indelible Image in an Oddball Movie
Bright Future (Akarui mirai)

My Best Films of 2003 - In the order I saw them:
City of God (Cidade de Deus)
Nowhere in Africa (Nirgendwo in Afrika) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women)
Raising Victor Vargas
Marooned in Iraq (Gomgashtei dar Aragh)
Finding Nemo
Whale Rider
American Splendor
Lucia, Lucia (La Hija del canibal)
Lost in Translation
Mystic River
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
Shattered Glass
The Station Agent
Pieces of April
21 Grams
Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
House of Sand and Fog
Cold Mountain
Les Triplettes de Belleville
Monster
Runners-Up:
Bend It Like Beckham
Something's Gotta Give
Elf

My Best Films of 2002 - in the order I saw them:
Monsoon Wedding
Nine Queens (Nueve Reinas)
American Chai
Late Marriage (Hatuna Meuheret)
Atanarjuat (The Fast Runner)
Rain
Lovely and Amazing
Read My Lips (Sur mes levres)
Last Kiss (L'ultimo Bacio)
Secret Ballot
My Wife is an Actress (Ma femee est une actrice)
Tully
Bloody Sunday
Drumline
Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Rabbit-Proof Fence
Adaptation
Chicago
Runners-up:
The Pianist
Baran
My Best Films of 2001 -- heavy on indies and foreign movies with limited distribution: (not in order of preference)
Donnie Darko
Amores Perros
The Princess and the Warrior (Der Krieger und Die Kaiserin)
Together (Tillsammans)
The Road Home
The Taste of Others (Le Goût des autres)
Aberdeen
Happy Accidents
A Beautiful Mind
Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Memento Best Film Influenced By Ambrose Bierce's An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
Kandahar (Safar e Ghandehar)
Dinner Rush
Diamond Men
Gosford Park
Lantana
Monster's Ball



LILITH WATCH: CRITICAL GUIDE TO JEWISH WOMEN IN (AND MISSING FROM) THE MOVIES

REVIEWS:
36 Righteous Ones (Los 36 Justos) (briefly reviewed at 2011 New York Jewish Film Festival of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman.)
51 Birch Street (emendations coming after 4/18/2007)
2009 New York Jewish Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum
77 Steps (previewed at 2011 Other Israel Film Festival) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women)
100 Voices: A Journey Home (briefly reviewed at 2012 New York Jewish Film Festival of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
Ahead of Time (briefly reviewed at 2010 New York Jewish Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum) (So, nu: my commentary on Ruth Gruber.)
Belle Épine (briefly reviewed at 2011 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
Black Book (Zwartboek) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman.)
Black Bus (briefly reviewed at 2011 New York Jewish Film Festival of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
Bride Flight (Bruidsvlucht) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman) (My additional note.)
Budrus (also briefly reviewed in Recommended Documentaries at 2010 Tribeca Film Festival) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman.)
Casino Jack (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman.)
Close To Home (Karov La Bayit (emendations coming after 8/16/2007)
Crazy Love (emendations coming after 11/1/2007)
A Dangerous Method (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman.) (previewed at 2011 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
David and Kamal (previewed at 2011 Other Israel Film Festival) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women)
The Debt (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
Dolphin Boy (previewed at 2011 Other Israel Film Festival) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women) Dressing America: Tales From The Garment Center (briefly reviewed at 2012 New York Jewish Film Festival of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman.)
A Film Unfinished (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
The Flood (Mabul) (briefly reviewed at 2012 New York Jewish Film Festival of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
Le Grand Rôle
Hit So Hard: The Life and Near-Death Story of Drummer Patty Schemel (briefly reviewed at 2011 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman.)
The Human Resources Manager (Shlichuto Shel Hamemune Al Mashabei Enosh) (also briefly reviewed at 2011 New York Jewish Film Festival of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum) (My additional note.) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
Iraq ‘n’ Roll (briefly reviewed at 2012 New York Jewish Film Festival of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
Joann Sfar Draws From Memory (briefly reviewed at 2012 New York Jewish Film Festival of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
Lea and Darija (briefly reviewed at 2012 New York Jewish Film Festival of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
Leaves of Grass (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women)
Lemon Tree (Etz Limon) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman)
Louder Than A Bomb (previewed at 2010 DocuWeeks) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
Love During Wartime (briefly reviewed at 2011 Tribeca Film Festival) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
Mahler on the Couch (Mahler auf der Couch) (briefly reviewed at 2011 New York Jewish Film Festival of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
Mary Lou (Tamid oto chalom) ( (briefly reviewed at 2012 New York Jewish Film Festival of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
My Father Evgeni (briefly reviewed at 2012 New York Jewish Film Festival of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman)
My Father My Lord (Hofshat Kaits) (emendations coming after 11/16/2008) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman)
My Führer: The Truly Truest Truth About Adolf Hitler (Mein Führer - Die Wirklich Wahrste Wahrheit Über Adolf Hitler) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman.)
Naomi (Hitpartzut X) (previewed at 2011 Other Israel Film Festival) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women)
The Other Woman (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
Over Your Cities The Grass Will Grow (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
Partly Private (briefly reviewed at Part 3 Family Ties Around The World of 2009 Tribeca Film Festival)
A Place Of Her Own (previewed at 2011 Other Israel Film Festival) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women)
The Promise – Part 1 (previewed at 2011 Other Israel Film Festival) (a TV mini-series) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women)
Rabies (Kalevet) (briefly reviewed at 2011 Tribeca Film Festival) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
Rachel (also briefly reviewed at Part 1 Recommendations of 2009 Tribeca Film Festival) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman)
Renée (briefly reviewed at 2011 Tribeca Film Festival) (My additional note.) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
Restoration (Boker tov adon Fidelman) (kudos to Sasson Gabai) (briefly reviewed at 2012 New York Jewish Film Festival of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
Romeo and Juliet in Yiddish (also briefly reviewed at 2011 New York Jewish Film Festival of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
Salt Of This Sea (Milh Hadha Al-Bahr) (also briefly reviewed in Part 3 Family Ties Around The World at 2009 Tribeca Film Festival) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman) (My additional note.)
Sarah’s Key (Elle S'appelait Sarah) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women) (My additional notes.)
A Secret (Un Secret) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women)
A Serious Man (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
Seven Minutes in Heaven (Sheva Dakot Be’gan Eden) (briefly reviewed at Part 3: Family Ties Around the World, of 2009 Tribeca Film Festival, and briefly reviewed in The NH Jewish Film Buzz, at page 21)
There Was Once… (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
This Is My Land… Hebron (briefly reviewed at 2011 Human Rights Watch Film Festival, dedicated in memory to my activist dad) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
The Tree Of Life (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman.)
Ha Ushpizin
Vasermil (briefly reviewed in The NH Jewish Film Buzz, at page 21)
Vidal Sassoon: The Movie (also briefly reviewed in Recommended Documentaries: There's No Business Like the Celebrity Business at 2010 Tribeca Film Festival) (My additional note.) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman.)
Welcome To Kutsher’s: The Last Catskills Resort (briefly reviewed at 2012 New York Jewish Film Festival of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
Yiddish Theater: A Love Story (emendations coming after 5/21/2008)
Yoo–Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg (emendations coming after 1/10/2010)

COMMENTARY:
50/50
400 Miles to Freedom (previewed at 2012 New York Jewish Film Festival of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum)
Adam
Adam Resurrected
Adventureland
All Good Things
As Lilith (previewed at 2011 New York Jewish Film Festival of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum)
Autism: The Musical
Bachelor Days Are Over (Pourquoi tu pleures?)
Beginners
Being Jewish in France (Comme un Juif en France)
Berlin '36
Black On White: The Idan Raichel Project
Boogie Woogie
A Bottle in the Gaza Sea (Une bouteille à la mer (previewed at 2012 New York Jewish Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum)
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
Breaking Upwards
Breaking Home Ties (new print previewed at 2012 New York Jewish Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum)
Carmel
Children of the Sun
A Christmas Tale (Un conte de Noël)
Coco
Comme ton père
Dare
Dogs: The Rise and Fall of an All-Girl Bookie Joint
David & Fatima
David and Layla
David Golder
Disengagement (Désengagement)
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Le Scaphandre et le papillon)
Driving Men
Elusive Justice: The Search for Nazi War Criminals
Emotional Arithmetic (Autumn Hearts: A New Beginning)
Every Mother Should Know (Teda Kol Em Ivriya)
The Extra Man
Falsch
Family Affair (seen at DocuWeeks) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman.)
Feast Of Love
First Position (previewed at 2011 Doc NYC Festival)
Follow Me: The Yoni Netanyahu Story (previewed at 2012 New York Jewish Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum)
Forgotten Transports: To Estonia (Zapomenuté transporty: Do Estonska): Women's Friendship
Forgotten Transports: To Latvia (Zapomenuté transporty: Do Latvia): Family Strength
Funny People
Gainsbourg, Je t'Aime... Moi Non Plus (Gainsbourg - Vie héroïque) (kudos to Eric Elmosnino as well as the puppets and animation) (previewed at 2010 Tribeca Film Festival) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman.)
The Galilee Eskimos (Eskimosim ba Galil)
The Girl on the Train (La Fille du RER) (previewed at 2009 Rendez-Vous with French Film at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Girl With Black Balloons (previewed at 2011 Doc NYC Festival)
Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts
Gloria: In Her Own Words
The Hangover
Harrison’s Flowers
The Hebrew Lesson (Ha’Ulpan)
Herskovits At the Heart of Blackness
Hey, Hey It’s Esther Blueburger
A History Of Israeli Cinema
Holy Rollers
Howl
The Human Turbine (Ha Turbina ha Enosheet) (previewed at 2011 Other Israel Film Festival)
Inglourious Basterds
Irena Sendler: In The Name of Their Mothers
In Heaven, Underground The Weissensee Jewish Cemetery (Im Himmel, unter der Erde - Der jüdische Friedhof Weißensee)
In Search of the Bene Israel
The Jazz Baroness
J. Edgar
Joan Rivers- A Piece of Work
Kredens
Kaddim Wind: Moroccan Chronicles (Ruah Kaddim – Chronika Marokait)
Labyrinths of Memory (Laberintos de la memoria)
Landscape After Battle (Krajobraz po bitwie)
The Last Mimzy
Leap of Faith
Let’s Dance! (Faut que ça danse!)
Letters Home (previewed at 2012 New York Jewish Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum)
Lost Love Diaries (Yomanei Haahava Haavudim) (previewed at 2012 New York Jewish Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum)
Margaret
A Matter of Size (Sipur Gadol)
Max Minsky and Me (Max Minsky und ich)
Mendy: A Question of Faith
Midnight in Paris
Miral
Momma’s Man
Mortgage (Mashkanta)
Mothers of Bedford (previewed at 2011 Doc NYC Festival)
Mr. Rakowski
Murder of a Hatmaker (Assassinat d'une modiste)
My Australia (Moja Australia)
My Week with Marilyn
The Names of Love (Le nom des gens)
Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist
New York, I Love You
No Strings Attached plus Friends with Benefits
Or (My Treasure)
Our Disappeared (Nuestros desaparecidos) (See more background from its PBS broadcast)
Peep World
The Peretzniks
Persepolis
Pineapple Express
Phnom Penh Lullaby (seen at 2011 DocuWeeks)
The Queen Has No Crown (previewed at 2012 New York Jewish Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum)
A Refusenik’s Mother (Ima Shel Shimri)
Religulous
Remembrance (Die verlorene Zeit (previewed at 2012 New York Jewish Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum)
The Romantics
The Secrets (Ha-Sodot)
The Seven Days (Shiva)
Shoah: The Unseen Interviews (previewed at 2012 New York Jewish Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum)
Sixty Six
Skills Like This
Starter for 10
Standing Silent (previewed at 2011 Doc NYC Festival)
Starting Out in the Evening
Stella
Taking Woodstock
Then She Found Me
Thieves By Law (previewed at 2010 Tribeca Film Festival) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
Three Promises (previewed at 2012 New York Jewish Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum)
Time of Favor (Ha- Hesder)
To See If I’m Smiling (Lir’ot Im Ani Mehayechet)
The Trotsky (previewed at 2010 Tribeca Film Festival) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman.) (My colleague James Van Maanen followed up on my recommendation to enjoy it On Demand.)
Two Lives Plus One (Deux vies... plus une)
Two Lovers
Villa Jasmin
The Wedding Song (Le chant des mariées)
Weekend in Galilee (Sof Shavua Bagalil)
White: A Memoir in Color (previewed at 2012 New York Jewish Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum)
The Woodmans (previewed at 2010 Tribeca Film Festival)
Wristcutters: A Love Story
X-Men: First Class
Yideshe Mama
You Don't Mess with the Zohan

IMPACT OF 9/11 ON NYC THROUGH MOVIES – and then the wars being fought in our name
Brothers (American remake of Brothers (Brødre))
Camp Victory, Afghanistan (briefly reviewed at 2010 Human Rights Watch International Film Festival)
Fahrenheit 9/11
The Great New Wonderful
Fixer: The Taking of Ajmal Naqshbandi (briefly reviewed at Part 1 Recommendations of 2009 Tribeca Film Festival)
In The Loop (briefly reviewed in Part 1 Recommendations at 2009 Tribeca Film Festival)
The Prisoner Or: How I Planned To Kill Tony Blair (emendations coming after 10/1/2007)
Restrepo (My commentary on the film's poster re: 9/11.)
The Road to Guantánamo
The Western Front (briefly reviewed in Recommended Documentaries at 2010 Tribeca Film Festival) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman.)
You Don’t Like The Truth—4 Days Inside Guantánamo (briefly reviewed at 2011 Human Rights Watch Film Festival, dedicated in memory to my activist dad)

CHICK FLICKS
Definition: a chick flick is when only the guy changes (or has to); guy flick the chick is furniture, as in a line from Soylent Green; a date movie is when both characters change.
12th & Delaware (briefly reviewed at 2010 Human Rights Watch International Film Festival)
24 Hour Woman
About A Boy
Alex and Emma
Alfie
Alice’s House (A Casa De Alice)
Amelie (Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain)
America's Sweethearts
Angel Eyes
Arranged (emendations coming after 6/14/2008) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman)
The Beaches of Agnès (Les Plages d’Agnès) (also briefly reviewed at Rendez-Vous With French Cinema 2009 of Film Society of Lincoln Center preview)
The Beauty Academy of Kabul
Becoming Jane (My additional notes.)
Before Sunset
Be Good (Sois Sage) (briefly reviewed at 2010 Film Comment Selects of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Being Julia
Beyond Borders
Bhutto
A Bird Of The Air
Blessed Is The Match: The Life And Death Of Hannah Senesh
Blue Car
Bounce
Bride Flight (Bruidsvlucht) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman) (My additional note.)
Bridget Jones's Diary
Bridget Jones's Diary 2: The Edge of Reason
La Buche
The Business Of Being Born
Calendar Girls
Campfire (Medurat Hashevet)
Cape of Good Hope
The Carrier (briefly reviewed in Final Roundup of the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival) (My additional note.)
Casanova
Cave of the Yellow Dog (Die Höhle des gelben Hundes) (emendations coming after 5/10/2007)
Change of Plans (Le code a changé) (briefly reviewed at Rendez-Vous With French Cinema 2009 of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Chocolat
The Circle (Dayereh)
Circumstance (previewed at 2011 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Close To Home (Karov La Bayit
Crime After Crime (first briefly reviewed at 2011 New York Jewish Film Festival of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman.)
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Wo hu cang long) (with Chinese literary commentary from Prof. Eva Chou)
The Crush
Dangerous Beauty
Dear Frankie
Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood
Domino
Don't Move (Non ti muovere)
Double Jeopardy
Dreamer
Dreaming Lhasa
Earthly Possessions
The Edge Of Love
Eight Miles High (Das Wilde Leben)
Ellie Parker
End of the Affair
Evening (emendations coming after 12/28/2007)
The Evening Dress (La robe du soir) (briefly reviewed at 2010 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Ever After
Everlasting Moments (Maria Larssons Eviga Ögonblick) (emendations coming after 9/6/2009)
Failure To Launch
Familia (briefly reviewed at 2011 Human Rights Watch Film Festival, dedicated in memory to my activist dad)
Fat Girl (a ma soeur)
The Father of My Children (Le père de mes enfants) (briefly reviewed at 2010 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Feast Of Love
Fever Pitch
Flight Of The Red Balloon (Le Voyage Du Ballon Rouge)
Forces of Nature
For Love of the Game
Fraulein
Freaky Friday
Frida
Friends With Money (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman)
The Girl (Flickan) (previewed at Northern Exposures: Social Change and Sexuality in Swedish Cinema of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Girl, Interrupted
The Girl on the Bridge (La Fille sur le pont)
Girl With Pearl Earring
Girls Can't Swim (Les filles ne savent pas nager)
The Good Girl
Good Hair
Grbavica: The Land Of My Dreams
Happenstance (Le Battement d'ailes du papillon) The Happiest Girl in the World (Cea mai fericita fata din lume) (briefly reviewed at 2010 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
The Hedgehog (Le Hérisson) (previewed at 2010 Rendez-Vous with French Film at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Higher Ground
Hilary and Jackie
Hope Floats
House of Flying Daggers (Shi mian mai fu)
House of Mirth
Illégal
Introducing The Dwights (emendations coming after 1/4/2008)
The Jane Austen Book Club
Jane Eyre
Jellyfish (Meduzot) (previewed at New Directors/New Films 2008 at Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman)
The Joy of Singing (Le Plaisir de chanter) (briefly reviewed at Rendez-Vous With French Cinema 2009 of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Jump Tomorrow
Just Like Love
The Kids Are All Right
Last Kiss (L'ultimo Basio)
Laws of Attraction
Legally Blonde
Life, Above All
Lilja 4-ever
Little Sparrows
Look At Me (Comme une image)
A Lot Like Love
Love Crimes Of Kabul (briefly reviewed at 2011 Human Rights Watch Film Festival, dedicated in memory to my activist dad) (My additional note.)
Lovely and Amazing
The Maid (La Nana) (briefly reviewed at 2009 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Mansfield Park
Memoirs of A Geisha
Me, Myself, I
Message in a Bottle
Monsoon Wedding
Mulan
Must Read After My Death
My Life Without Me
My Wife is an Actress (Ma femee est une actrice)
Nina's Tragedies (Ha-Asonot Shel Nina)
Nine Lives
Noel
No Looking Back
North Country
Notting Hill
No Woman No Cry (briefly reviewed in Recommended Documentaries at 2010 Tribeca Film Festival)
Off the Map
Osama
Our City Dreams
Paper Dolls (Bubot Niyar) (emendations coming after 3/6/2007)
Parent Trap
Passion of Mind
Phoebe In Wonderland (emendations coming after 9/6/2009)
The Piano Teacher (La Pianiste)
Playing By Heart
Possession
Pray The Devil Back To Hell
The Price of Sex (briefly reviewed at 2011 Human Rights Watch Film Festival, dedicated in memory to my activist dad) (My additional note.)
Pride & Prejudice
Princesas (emendations coming after 2/23/2007)
The Princess and the Warrior (Der Krieger und Die Kaiserin)
The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio
Punch Drunk Love
Pushing The Elephant (briefly reviewed at 2010 Human Rights Watch International Film Festival)
Puzzle (Rompecabezas)
Rain
Return to Me
The Road Home (Wo de fu qin mu qin)
Ryna
Sarah Palin: You Betcha!
Secretary
Secret Sunshine (Milyang)
Seeing Other People
Séraphine (also briefly reviewed at 14th Rendez-Vous With French Cinema of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Serendipity
Serious Moonlight
She's The Man
Shopgirl
Simply Irresistible
Since Otar Left (Depuis qu'Otar est parti...)
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
Sleeping Beauty
The Sleeping Beauty (La Belle Endormie) (previewed at 2011 Rendez-Vous with French Film at Film Society of Lincoln Center) (My additional note.)
Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron
Stella (briefly reviewed at Rendez-Vous With French Cinema 2009 of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Sweet Home Alabama
Sweet November
Take My Eyes (Te doy mis ojos)
The Tao of Steve
Thirteen
Tomboy (My additional note.)
Tortilla Soup
Treeless Mountain (briefly reviewed at 2009 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA preview)
Les Triplettes de Belleville
Tumbleweeds
Tuya’s Marriage (Tuya De Hun Shi)
Under the Tuscan Sun
Upside of Anger
Vanity Fair
Villa Amalia (briefly reviewed at Rendez-Vous With French Cinema 2009 of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Waitress (emendations coming after 11/1/2007)
Water Lilies (Naissance Des Pieuvres)
Whale Rider
What's Cooking
The Whistleblower
White Oleander
Wimbledon
With a Little Help from Myself (Aide-toi, le ciel t’aidera) (briefly reviewed at Rendez-Vous With French Cinema 2009 of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
A Woman in Berlin (Anonyma – Eine Frau in Berlin) (briefly reviewed at 2009 Film Comments Selects of Film Society of Lincoln Center
Women Without Men (Zanan-e bedun-e mardan) (also briefly reviewed at 2010 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)


MASTERPIECE THEATER: MOVIES AS MEDICINE
My inconsistent, sometimes cynical designation for serious and pseudo-serious films, those that succeed at being “Masterpieces” but don’t fit in my other arbitrary categories and those that aim to be serious but succeed only at being pretentious.
12 Angry Lebanese (briefly reviewed at 2011 Human Rights Watch Film Festival, dedicated in memory to my activist dad)
2046
Adam’s Apples (Adams æbler) (emendations coming after 8/16/2007)
All of Nothing
Amazing Grace (emendations coming after 8/23/2007)
Almost Peaceful (Un monde presque paisible) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women)
American Rhapsody
Ararat
The Assassination of Richard Nixon
Assisted Living (So, nu: my commentary on the putative Jewish woman)
Atanarjuat (The Fast Runner)
Baadasssss!
The Baader Meinhof Complex (Der Baader Meinhof Komplex)
Babies (Bébés) (My additional notes.)
The Ballad of Jack and Rose
Ballast (previewed at 2008 New Directors/New Films at Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA
Bamako
Baran
Bastards of the Party
Battle in Heaven (Batalla en el cielo)
Before Night Falls
Between the Cup and the Election (Entre la coupe et l'élection) (briefly reviewed at 2010 New York African Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center and African Film Festival)
Beyond the Gates (emendations coming after 9/9/2007)
Birdwatchers (briefly reviewed at 2009 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Blind Mountain (Mang Shan) (emendations coming after 10/12/2008) (My additional notes.)
Bloody Sunday
Bowling for Columbine
Bread and Roses
The Bridge
Bright Young Things
Broken Wings (Knafayim Shvurot)
Bubble
Budrus (also briefly reviewed in Recommended Documentaries at 2010 Tribeca Film Festival) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman.)
The Burning Season (briefly reviewed at Part 1 Recommendations of 2009 Tribeca Film Festival)
Central Station (Central do Brasil)
Chain
Chicago 10 (David Dellinger and other emendations coming after 8/29/2008) (2/29/2008)
The Children Of Huang Shi (5/23/2008)
Cider House Rules
City of God (Cidade de Deus)
City Of Life And Death (Nanjing! Nanjing!)
The Claim
The Clay Bird (Matir moina)
Coffee and Cigarettes
Control Room
Crash
The Crime of Father Amaro (El Crimen del padre Amaro)
C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America
Convention
Curling (briefly reviewed at 2011 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Darfur Now
Darwin's Nightmare
Days of Glory (Indigènes) (emendations coming after 6/8/2007)
Defamation (Hashmatsa) (previewed at 2009 Tribeca Film Festival) vs. Look Into My Eyes (seen at 2009 Human Rights Watch International Film Festival ) (comparative revie੷