Hunger (2008)

- A stomach-turning experience, but an experience nontheless

The most peculiar thing about "Hunger" is that it finds beauty in a film that depicts people being tortured and treated like animals, caged in cold, dark cells and living in their own excrement. It will certainly leave a bitter taste in your mouth. But at the same time writer/director Steve McQueen constructs his film so carefully that you can neither take your eyes off the screen nor stop to admire what you see.

Django Unchained (2012)

- Tarantino Unchained!

I guess Mr. Tarantino couldn't resist to turn everything up to eleven when dealing in his most beloved genre - the spaghetti western. Like a hyperactive, young kid in the playground or maybe like an untameable, hungry dog breaking loose, he is running, jumping and kicking around his latest film in relentless pleasure while his hero Django, an obvious Afro-American reincarnation of 1966's Franco Nero, is riding, shooting and kicking around slavetraders in pre-civil war Mississippi. The result is a lot of fun and a lot of chaos.

Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012)

- Life through the eyes of a child

When the Oscar Nominations were anounced a couple of days ago, there were - as usual - some surprises ... but this time also of the positive kind. From some critics you could even read that the Academy had done a pretty good job this year. The members showed a lot of love for Haneke's "Amour" but even more interesting was to see the indie hit "Beasts of the Southern Wild" being particularly strong in the major categories. Whether that happened by accident or conscious decision, either way the nominations are not undeserved.

Happy New Year ... for the movies?

A quick look back and ahead

Thank heaven the conspiracy about the end of the world was baloney! We are still here and will be able to enjoy many more movies in the future. But will 2013 be able to live up to the really strong last year 2012?