My Favorite Movies

Another one that deservedly goes straight to my top-movies list! A soul-refilling experience that restores your faith in life and people... a reality check of life's little pleasures. Audrey Tautou played Amelie to perfection that I can't really digest her performance in any other movie; she is and always remain the doe-eyed, innocent and lovable Amelie to me. The rest of the cast are quite perfect for their roles as well.
There isn't much to be said about the movie which traces the life of a simple 23-year-old French waitress with a wild imagination; however, each and every detail counts and adds something to this colorful visual painting and the experience as a whole. Direction and cinematography are simply beautiful! One more thing: Yann Tiersen's extremely becoming and salient music is like God's final touches on earth!
Funny, gripping and spirit-lifting, this is a movie you will never get tired of watching over and over again.

A dreamy experience that ponders on the truth behind our lives; life can be however you want it to be. Big Fish is certainly one of the most beautiful and surreal movies I've ever seen. Tim Burton creates a world that once you're in, you'll never want to get out. He manages to capture things that can't be said in words. I can watch Big Fish over and over again and never get sick of it because every time I discover something new. Definitely a must-see!

To really appreciate Black Swan, you have to have the soul of an artist to understand the psychological labor that true artists go through in order to produce a "perfect" piece of art. The movie depicts this process and succeeds in capturing the fine line between art and insanity.
Nina (Natalie Portman), an aspiring ballerina, gets the role of her life as the Swan Queen in the universally acclaimed ballet The Swan Lake. Being an inexperienced introvert and a stiff dependent, Nina finds it easy to embody the role of the innocent White Swan but extremely difficult to embody its evil counterpart: the seductive Black Swan. As a result, the show director, Thomas Leroy (Vincent Cassel), pushes her to dig deeper in herself and discover her own sexuality. In the meantime, Nina is totally obsessed with the new dancer, Lily (Mila Kunis), who joins the company and charms everybody with her spontaneity, playfulness, and sexual appeal. Lily becomes everything Nina is missing, everything she wants to be, i.e. the Black Swan!
At this point, the story of the ballet intertwines with reality, and Nina's daily life turns into a daily struggle to win the approval of the director by breaking the curse of the White Swan she is trapped in. Nina becomes completely indulged in the ballet that she loses the ability to distinguish between what's real and what's not. Such psychological conflict is beautifully symbolized in Nina's visions and role-giving to people in her life, and in her constant attempts to revolt against and break free from her mother and her meek self, so that she can let the Black Swan take control of her. All for the sake of art... Perfect Art.
The movie is fraught with symbolism and psychological undertones, a trademark of any Darren Aronofsky work, that the average movie viewer probably will not tolerate. Nevertheless, I think this is Aronofsky's masterpiece and his finest so far. His ability to bring such dark and unreachable artistic desires on screen and merge them with visual beauty is stunning! Every scene in the movie is a painting to be studied and taught.
Natalie Portman's mind-blowing performance deserved every ounce of the Oscar she won for this role. This girl has it all: talent, charm, beauty, grace, intelligence and maturity. Kunis and Cassel were both playful and charming, being comfortable in their seemingly tailor-made roles. And just to make everything perfect, and leaving me nothing to criticize, Clint Mansell adds his god-like touches to the movie's score turning it into a transcendental audio-visual piece of art.

I'm speechless!! The more I watch that movie, the more I fall in love with it! It never fails to move me and give me goosebumps everytime I see it. Everything about it is sizzling... the music, the dance. the performance. BEAUTIFUL!!

Passion. Art. Love. Beauty. All in one movie that will leave you utterly speechless. Shakespeare In Love has by far exceeded my expectations and deservedly topped my all-time-favorite-movies list. I don't know from where to start.. but I certainly know with whom to start; the one and only Joseph Fiennes. Were Shakespeare alive, he would be jumping out of happiness for being depicted with such vigor, heartiness and originality! Fiennes not only has playfully depicted the 17th century dramatist but also added a lot from his own passion-radiating personality - so masterfully and sincerely that you will not be able to take your eyes off the screen as long as he is on. As for the ever-radiant Gwyneth Paltrow, she is literally the sunshine of the movie. Her delicacy and sweetness take over the script and setting and even other actors, and manage to put you in a fairytale-like atmosphere. Geoffrey Rush was more than brilliant, as usual, as the money-seeker Philip Henslowe and hugely added to the comic effect. Roughly, the same can be said about Ben Affleck who was surprisingly good as the self-centered yet kind-hearted actor Ned Alleyn. Queen Elizabeth was originally portrayed by the ever-talented academy-award-winner Judi Dench. She manages to mix comedy with grandeur in her representation of the famous Queen.
Although it derives most of the characters from real life, the story is fictional, or at least not proved true. However, it poses a new perspective for regarding history. History, like art, is in the eye of the teller and the listener/viewer. Thus imagination plays the greatest role in relating the events of the story. This will leave you wondering what if this was true?! What if Shakespeare's timeless love sonnets and plays are nothing but the reflection of a larger-than-life romance.
The script is beautifully written and the score is heavenly composed.
In Shakespeare In Love, everything is carried to perfection so that it could touch every single cord of your heart.

When I first saw this movie I was 11 years old or so, and I was UTTERLY fascinated!!! Watching it now proves that first impressions never fail. You just can't help but love this movie! Everything about it is haunting: performance, story, even the inescapable gothic atmosphere. As for Cruise, I think he gave one of his all-time best performances as the ever complicated and attractive Lestat.

Creative. Brilliant. Dreamy. All that and even more. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is an extraordinary story of love that goes beyond the limits of time and defies all rules of reality. I loved every second of it and I wouldn't mind watching it over and over again.

The movie is about Joel (Jim Carrey) and Clementine (Kate Winslet), a couple who decide to undergo a memory erasing procedure to forget each other after their relationship goes downhill. Only through this unusual experience do they embark on a journey to discover their true feelings, realizing that forgetting might be the easiest cure for pain but tolerating is definitely the best. The idea is absolutely crazy in an amazing way, and turning it into a moving picture with story, plot, characters and emotional charge must have been a painstaking task. The actual timeline and the dream sequence were craftily interwoven in a way that arises the viewer's curiosity with every passing second, and gradually holds a grip not only of his mind but of his heart as well.

Kate Winslet played her character to perfection. She was the sunshine in the movie; her impulsive nature and spontaneous, fun-loving character contributed to the vividness of the story. Jim Carrey gave his lifetime best performance. He was so believable and mature I had to convince myself that this is the same Carrey who plays mainly sappy roles in inane comedies.

A million kudoses for Charlie Kaufman's exquisite mind.

OUTSTANDING! Elaborate plot, brilliant performance, and an extremely witty script. A real masterpiece.

Without a speck of doubt, Despicable Me is the best movie I've seen in a very long while! Entertaining. Hilarious. Touching. Even thrilling. I'm a very picky person when it comes to movies, but God!.. I can't find a single flaw in this one!
A MUST-SEE. Nothing else to be said.
One thing else, Steve Carell... you ROCK.

A very powerful mind-stiking ever-lasting movie!! Before watching this movie, I thought that Tom Hanks is a good actor, but now I admit he's the best ever... such an amazing performance that made the other actors' look so tiny! This is surely a must-see movie.

A real life story about love, honor and trust.

The most disturbing and thought provoking movie I've ever seen. I've just watched again the other night, and it's certainly a grower!!!!!

Visually and mentally stunning. Best musical till now.

That is one movie for the spiritual and the romantic only. Can't guarantee the maximum enjoyment if you are not. What Dreams May Come takes you to the world beyond death and challenges your spiritual beliefs, not in a defiant and aggressive manner but rather gently and endearingly. There is this binary relationship between life and death, heaven and hell, good people and sinners.. etc. However, love becomes the controlling idea and only human/divine power capable of bridging the gaps between those opposites.
The heaven scenes are literally breathtaking and visually stunning. The hell scenes are equally horrifying and morbid. The story might be a bit slow-paced but the script makes up for that being beautifully written.
Robin Williams was great as usual; the man who can make you laugh and cry in the same scene! Annabella Sciorra was so angelic.. and yeah, she has the cutest laugh ever! :)

I still can't believe that Joaquin Phoenix didn't get an Oscar for this epical and emotionally haunting performance! This guy can really act his heart out. Besides, resurrecting Johnny Cash's tunes was quite amusing.

Absolutely wonderful!! Never knew that David Tennant can be so cheeky and adorable! This is way much better than Heath Ledger's Casanova. Ledger was sexy and everything, but Tennant really has what it takes to be a Casanova; he's cute, kind, and extremely funny. Peter O'Toole also fascinated me with his performance as usual... he really added grandeur to the work. Although it is a TV mini-series, the direction was really beautiful and managed to capture the fast-moving, adventurous and dazzling world of Casanova; Sheree really did a great job. This mini-series will make you cry, laugh, love and live!!

Very lively and spontaneous with an extremely appealing cast. The movie as a whole is an intriguing youthful trip, but not without thoughtfulness.

If you want to know how could a piece of painting be turned into a movie, you will certainly need to watch Girl With a Pearl Earring. The movie was absolutely SENSUOUS, celebrating the aesthetic aspect of art. Watching this movie was like listening to a classic piece of music or watching a painting. I was completely mesmerized from beginning to end, unable to spot what made this movie so beautiful! Was it the astonishingly simple plot? Was it the breathtaking cinematography? Was it the outstanding choice of cast? Was it the haunting performance? I don't know actually, but I guess all of that.
The movie is also devoid of any extreme expression of sexual emotions, yet there are scenes in which you feel totally caught up in a very strong swirl of raw feelings.
Although slow-paced, I can watch this movie over and over again, savoring the beauty of every scene.

LOVED it! Al Pacino turned one of Shakespeare's most complicated plays into an absorbing experience, shedding light on how we can really deal with a Shakespearean text. He'll have you laughing, thinking, and wondering how you haven't noticed the beauty of such a play before. The integration of stage scenes and real life scenes, experts' opinions and ordinary passerbys' opinions, makes the documentary more vivid and engaging. Kevin Spacey as Bukingham was perfectly appropriate and fun to watch. And as for Pacino, now I can't read the play without imagining him as Richard. Wonderful work.

An epical performance by Mr. Pacino for which he deserves, not only one, but five Oscars at least! Colonel Frank Slade was tailor-made for him. The script is extremely witty, and adds more vitality and humor to the story.

A story about the miraculous abilities of belief

A classic drama thriller made of a worn out idea. As real and dark as a movie can get. Five out of five for Ben Foster.

A beautiful make-the-world-a-better-place movie