The Secrets in their Eyes

Taking Stock – The Best of 2010 So Far

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Well, we’re at the halfway point of the movie year – the summer movies are winding down, and the Oscar bait is still ahead of us in the autumn and holidays.  So it’s time to take stock of the year’s movies to date.  I now have ten movies on my list of Best Movies of 2010 – So Far. You can read my comments and watch the trailers on the Best Movies of 2010 – So Far page.

Better yet, you can see Toy Story 3 and Inception in the theater this week.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, A Prophet, The Girl on the Train, Fish Tank, The Ghost Writer and Sweetgrass are all available on DVD right now.  Sweetgrass is also available on Netflix streaming video.

The Secrets of Their Eyes will be available on DVD on September 21. The DVD release of my top film of the year so far, Winter’s Bone, is October 26.

Sweetgrass

This week's Movies To See

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Gene Evans in Sam Fuller's The Steel Helmet

 

Click here for this week’s recommendations.  Scroll down this blog to watch trailers.  My top recommendations are Toy Story 3, The Secrets in their Eyes (El Secreto de Sus Ojos), Micmacs and Iron Man 2. You can still find The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo in theaters.

My top picks on DVD is The Deep End. Last week’s pick, Stranded: I’ve Come from a Plane That Crashed on the Mountains and The Messenger are also good choices on DVD.

To Kill a Mockingbird and The Steel Helmet are on TV.

Movies to See This Week

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Click here for this week’s recommendations.  Scroll down this blog to watch trailers.  My top recommendations are Toy Story 3, Micmacs, The Secrets in their Eyes (El Secreto de Sus Ojos), and Iron Man 2. You can still find The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo in theaters.

My top picks on DVD is Stranded: I’ve Come from a Plane That Crashed on the Mountains. The Messenger, Crazy Heart and Broken Embraces (Abrazos Rotos) are also good choices on DVD.

Monkey Business, All The King’s Men, The 400 Blows and The Shootist are all on TV.

The Shootist

This week's Movies to See

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Click here for this week’s recommendations.  Scroll down this blog to watch trailers.  My top recommendations are The Secrets in their Eyes (El Secreto de Sus Ojos), Iron Man 2 and, of course, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. 

My top picks on DVD are still The Messenger, Crazy Heart and Broken Embraces (Abrazos Rotos).

Some Like It Hot, Diabolique and Monkey Business are all on TV.

The Secrets in their Eyes (El Secreto de Sus Ojos)

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This is one of the year’s best.

I finally got to see The Secrets in their Eyes (El Secreto de Sus Ojos), this year’s Oscar winner for Best Foreign Language Picture over A Prophet (which I admired).  It is an outstanding film, and  more accessible than A Prophet.

The Secrets in their Eyes is a police procedural set in Argentina with two breathtaking plot twists, original characters, a mature romance and one breathtaking, “how did they do it?” shot.  The story centers on a murder in Argentina’s politically turbulent 1970s, but most of the story takes place twenty years later when a retired cop revisits the murder.

Veteran Argentinian actor Ricardo Darin shines once again in a Joe Mantegna-type role.  Darin leads an excellent cast, including Guillermo Francella, who brings alive the character of Darin’s drunk assistant.

Director Juan Jose Campanella is receiving justifiable praise for the amazing shot of a police search in a filled and frenzied soccer stadium.  It ranks as one of the great single shots, along with the kitchen entrance in Goodfellas and the battle scene in Children of Men.

The Secrets in their Eyes (El Secreto de Sus Ojos)

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I can’t wait to see The Secrets in their Eyes (El Secreto de Sus Ojos), which opens today, but I won’t be able to for a couple weeks.  It won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Picture over A Prophet (which I admire) and has a very high Metacritic score of 76.

I have seen one of its stars, Ricardo Darin,  in Nine Queens, an excellent con job flick a la House of Games or The Sting.  Nine Queens is available now on DVD.