This is a poll of polls, taking many lists into account, around 1800, and putting all that on a computer and letting it rank all those mentioned, with additional weighting given to some more important lists. This list is from They Shoot Pictures, Don't They? Great film site, check it out!

I watched this film without knowing anything in advance, and was pleasantly surprised to find it was Sofia Coppola's first film as director, and she co-wrote the screenplay.

This starts like most other teen infatuation films, a group of male high school friends ogles a group of five sisters, each born a year apart, each with her own charms. Kirsten Dunst will be the most recognizable actress and of course has the pivotal point in the plot. The parents are the strictly religious Kathleen Turner and her whipped-into-submission husband James Woods. For awhile, you think this will be a Peggie Sue Got Married sequel, which was directed by Francis, then it abrubtly grabs you by the throat when the youngest sister hurls herself onto a fence spike rather than face her first party.

Then you know Kathleen is not Peggy Sue, but more like Carrie's mother, and from that point on, the film is decidedly a drama about actions and consequences. In a way, it's like a modern Jane Austen family gone totally dysfunctional. The story by Jeffrey Eugenides from his novel has been filmed by Coppola in a non-preachy, low key style that leaves much to the audience, it will appear as deep or as shallow as the viewer's interpretation. Coppola co-wrote the screenplay, and father Francis Ford produced, but I think her direction here showed a lot of promise, and she won a few awards, mostly for first film or new filmmaker.

Stephen Daldry, 2008 (9*)
This is Kate Winslett's finest performance in a stellar career, and was rewarded with her first Oscar® for best actress. She plays a woman, Hannah, whose spontaneous act of kindness to a sick teenager, Micheal, leads to his first love affair. Her favorite pastime when they are alone is to have Michael read classic literary works to her. Michael's life is changed by this women old enough to be his mother, yet she remains an enigma to him.

Later, at law school, he again crosses paths with Hannah, a defendant in an important legal case relating to the Holocaust, and certain facts are now obvious to him that only he knows. The film eventually includes Michael as an adult lawyer, played by Ralph Feinnes in a small but effective part. Kate Winslett shines throughout, making us understand this complex character, even if we cannot justify certain actions taken during wartime. The original novel by Bernhard Schlink was a favorite of mine, and director Stephen Daldry has done the novel justice, creating an intelligent and restrained of a deeply drawn female character, and her effect on the development of a young lawyer.

Unfortunately both producers Anthony Minghella and later Sydney Pollack passed away during the making of this film and never saw its completed form.

Darren Aronofsky, 2008 (8*)
Golden Lion, Venice
This gritty film from Darren Aronofsky deservedly won Mickey Rourke many awards for actor in 2008, including the Golden Globe, but unfortunately not the Oscar. Its hard to imagine that he'll ever be better than this, and more than carries this powerful Aronofsky film about an over-the-hill wrestler now running into health problems from a career of drug abuse. Marisa Tomei also won many awards as supporting actress, but also not her second Oscar, as an aging exotic dancer in a bar, now being passed by for the younger girls. She and Randy (the Ram) strike up a believable friendship as both see some of themselves in the other.

This is another intimately personal film by Darren Aronofsky, which are usually about a character trying to make it through a tough life situation, and who are usually obsessed with one thing: drugs in Requiem for a Dream, math in Pi, brain research in The Fountain. In this case, Randy cannot see a life past the ring, it's all he's known for 20 years, and has no one in his life really but his fans. Not a pleasant story, but a realistic story on all counts, and you'll like it even if you aren't a wrestling fan, it's really about personal communication and character development. Winner of the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.

Mickey Rourke won 14 awards for actor for this, Marisa Tomei won 7.
Awards Page at IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1125849/awards

The Memory Loss Tapes is the first part of four films in the HBO series The Alzheimer’s Project, and it’s an extremely powerful documentary that touches on the most basic human emotions, those that flow naturally from love, caring, and mortality. The film was brilliantly constructed by producer-directors Shari Cookson and Nick Doob to slowly reveal the progressive stages of Alzheimer’s in seven different patients, and just as importantly, to show the families of each having to cope with different aspects of the disease.

The first patient, Bessie, has only mild symptoms, so we get to see her as a lively, outgoing, and funny person. She knows what’s coming eventually but is still enjoying every day to its fullest. Another patient, Fannie, is losing her ability to drive her car, and with it her independence. Joe keeps a blog of his decline and can feel his mind slipping away. Yolanda thinks her reflection is a new best friend. Woody can’t remember his wife but can still remember song lyrics and sing with his old group.
Josephine’s daughter has had to fence in her property to keep her mom from wandering away. The patients shown exemplify the progression of the disease by revealing their everyday reality.

The most gripping part of this film deals with someone in the final stages of life, and the devastating effect it has on his family. In a heart wrenching revelation, the man’s wife admits feeling selfish for wanting to keep her husband with her as long as she can, despite the fact that he has "no life."

I don’t think I’ve ever seen mortality treated so realistically or with as much impact in any film. For parents, I would warn you to either pre-screen this for your children, especially those under ten, or counsel them before viewing. It’s something we’ll all face, but it may be distressing for young viewers to actually see in reality.

The saddest part of this illness to me is that it robs its victims of their memories at a stage in life when these are likely their most cherished possession. As a child, we would visit my great-grandmother in her nursing home, but she never remembered who we were, and she lived to be ninety-nine. I would have loved to have heard her stories that began around 1870, and just imagine the century she was able to witness.

Hopefully this film will instill a desire in many to become healers or medical researchers, and bring an understanding of the heavy cost of all terminal illnesses on the families and friends of the patients. We should all be aware now that new biotech research is necessary to cure this and similarly debilitating illnesses, and that money wasted on destructive goals is being diverted from these more humane purposes.

Many elderly patients don’t have any remaining family, as I found out when my mom was in a nursing home with Parkinson’s. Many eat alone and never have visitors, something we should never allow to happen. Visit as many of these people as you can, their smiles will be the best reward you’ll ever receive.

The Memory Loss Tapes should receive a handful of well-deserved Emmy nominations, and some awards. It's technically superb, emotionally powerful, and for me is one of the best TV documentaries ever made.

Producer-director Shari Cookson at IMDB
Producer-director Nick Doob at IMDB

[Though not yet on DVD, I'm reviewing this here in the hope that people will watch it on HBO or from their website: Click here for the HBO Link, and all episodes can be streamed from here as well.]

The Alzheimer's Organization is at http://www.alz.org/

Patients and families affected by Alzheimer’s can visit Icara Study to see if they might be eligible to enroll. [Thanks to Tracy for this]

aka Nema-ye Nazdik
Abbas Kiarostami, 1990, Iran (7*)
This is a small, sub low-budget pseudo-documentary that has much of the story re-enacted by the original participants. It involves the true story of an unemployed Iranian family man, Ali Sabzian, who impersonates a director he idolizes, Mohsen Makhmalbaf (director of "The Cyclist", the film he admires). Meeting another fan on a bus, he gains entrance to a middle-class family's home, eventually asking for money. Becoming suspicious, the family patriarch arranges to have him arrested when he returns to their house.

We join the story there, following a journalist, then later the director of this film, Abbas Hiarostami, as they interview the accused, then Iranian court officials, who decide to let them film the trial. (or was it re-enacted?) Iran, opening up its primitive legal system to journalists with cameras - what's wrong with this story?

It would be a touching story otherwise, but I can't separate myself from the locale and the Iranian regime. This is not an earth-moving case either, mere hero worship and impersonation, perhaps for financial game, as the man has a family to feed. Just about anyone would perpetrate a minor scam if it could feed their kids at the expense of those apparently well-off, and who would blame him. You feel for the criminal in this (his real crime is just poverty), who appears remorseful, as they all do when caught. I don't buy his self-proclaimed innocence in court myself, but then I'm from the nation with the most laws, most prisoners, most lawyers, most time spent in court in the world!

I wasn't as moved as most critics: the film quality is very poor, the sound perfectly awful, the worst I've ever heard. At times it vibrates into unrecognition, in one scene with director Makhmalbaf, it cuts on and off from his remote microphone, some dialogue being lost entirely. (see El Mariachi for a great example of low-budget excellence, so it can be done, and all in single takes)

I'm convinced this movie was Iranian propaganda. They let Kiarostami film in court because this case meant nothing - were any journalists allowed in Roxanne Saberi's so-called trial? I don't buy the veracity of this film, so it loses it's power without the viewer buying the premise. It's an interesting window into a closed regime, even if a cloudy, poorly made one, so in that regard it's worth seeing, just don't expect any decent production values, but the positive is some openly displayed emotions in a raw and human docudrama.