The Theory of Everything 2014

The story of physicist Stephen Hawking directed by James Marsh. The movie starts in the 1960's in Cambridge when the young genius, Stephen played by Eddie Redmayne meets his future wife Jane played by Felicity Jones. Stephen begin to notice strange symptoms and learns that he has a weird neurological problem known and Lou Gehrig disease.In spite of this disease they get married but his illness gets progressive worst. It is a story of survival, of never giving up, certainly inspirational. Eddie Redmayne does an amazing jog portraying this character, his physical progressive transformation is mind-blowing, for sure an Oscar contender for best actor.  

Only Lovers Left Alive 2013

A Goth story of vampires, released early in 2014 directed by Jim Jarmusch, this is his his latest project. It is the story of a couple of very sophisticated vampires, the guy played by Tom Hiddleston is a rockstar that lives in complete seclusion. Their names are Adam and Eve. Eve is Tangier a city that seems old in a traditional sense and Adam lives in Detroit a city of desolation, they communicate via iphone, she decides to visit him in Detroit and this is where you see their different points of view about life in general. A fantastic film, strange, sophisticated, romantic, if you are a Jarmusch fan and even if you are not, you will like it.

Nightcrawler 2014

A dark film directed by Dan Gilroy about a guy that stumbles into a new career as a videographer for crime stories in the city of LA. By doing this he meets a local channel news cast director played by Rene Russo. Louis Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal) sees the opportunity to become a regular contributor to the station. Louis is a weirs guy a night creature that is always at the verge of loosing it, or so it seems you have no idea what he is going to do. He does have psychopathic traces and is a skillful manipulator, to the point of sacrificing his own employee to get away with something. Jake's is great in this movie, go check it out!

Interstellar 2014

This film will be one of the strong contender for the big awards. Directed by the great Christopher Nolan. It is a complex narrative about a post apocalyptic world where the air is contaminated. Former NASA pilot Cooper played by Matthew McCounaghey, by accident discovers the research of Prof. Brand played by Michael Caine, where he wants to move human civilization to another planet via a wormhole. A lot of situations happen with the different characters. The movie plays a lot on the notion of String Theory, the idea of folding time, the relation of Quantum Mechanics and Gravity as well as the different dimensions, This idea of the fifth dimension plays an important part if the movies narrative. I liked the movie much more than Gravity.  

Locke 2014

It is one of the best and most intense films I have seen this year. It is a solo performance by Tom Hardy, perhaps the best young actor today. Over the space of 80 minutes, Ivan Locke's life has a complete change through a series of phone calls he receives while driving down the highway to London to face an important mistake he made. On the brink of the most important day of his career as an architect/engineer, he faces a personal decision that would cost him everything. A must see film directed by Steven Knight.

The Double 2014

In this movie Jesse Eisenberg plays two roles, one of a timid office worker, scorned by his mother, ignored by his co-workers as well as the woman of his dreams played by Mia Wasikowska. He also plays his arrogant double. It is an adaptation of Dostoyevky's tale. When the double arrives at the office everyone notices him but nobody comments of the fact that they look exactly the same. The movie is a great play on humanity and the way we view ourselves. The film is directed by Richard Ayoade. A must seen film for those Jesse Eisenberg fans.

Paper Chase 1973

 A gem of a film. directed by James Bridges. The story of a first year year student at Harvard Law School. When he attends the class of Charles W. Kingsfield Jr. played by John Houseman, he realizes it is going to be a challenge. At the same time he needs to demonstrate mainly to himself that he has what it takes like all the other students. He becomes obsessed with the professor's persona. In a twist of fate he becomes involved with Prof. Kingsfield daughter played by Lindsay Wagner.

Marathon Man 1976

An amazing thriller, that I had seen before but it was good to see again. The story of Tom Levy, a graduate student and a runner played by the great Dustin Hoffman, Tom has no idea what his brother does for a living, played by Roy Schreider. When his brother dies in his apartment the nightmare begins when all sorts of dark characters appear to find out when Tom knew, specially the former Nazi played by Sir Lawrence Olivier, other bad guys like William Devane and his girlfriend played by Marthe Keller.

Laggies 2014

The story of a life in crisis as this woman played by Keira Knightly finds herself with no direction about her life. She goes into this weird life turn and meets this teenager that he befriends and through this relationship begins to find herself. She meets and begins to fall for the teenager's father played by Sam Rockwell, they began and affair that makes her realize she needs to break the engagement with her fiance played by one of my favorite actors; Mark Webber. A strange and funny story that is worth seeing.

Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion 1970

An absolute masterpiece by Italian director Elio Petri. A political thriller that denounces the power driven class in Italy in the late 60's. The film is the story of the chief police officer that sees himself above the law, He murdered his lover played by the the stunning Florinda Bolkan. He plays this game about leaving cues for the investigators about the fact that he committed the murder, however the investigators are oblivious to this and refuse to believe he is even suspicious.  The officer has a fascist discourse that he communicates to his subordinates in a great scene when he is giving them a speech, reminding us of a young Mussolini. The great thing about the film is that within a few exceptions the film is still fresh and unfortunately the problems of the ruling class in power is still the same no matter where you go. Actor Jean Marie Volonte that plays the police chief gives an amazing performance.

Birdman 2014

Another great film by Mexican Director Alejandro González Iñárritu. The plot is a complex combining fantasy with realism, sort a new magic realism. Terrific performances by Michael Keaton and Edward Norton. A sort black comedy about a has been actor trying to comeback by producing, directing and acting in his Broadway play.

Pride 2014

A fun film directed by Matthew Warchus based on a true story. In the summer of 1984, the National Union of Mine workers is on strike, prompting a London-based group of gay and lesbian activists to raise money to support the strikers' families. Great 80's music from Bronski Beat and many others.