Movie of the Week – Munich

This week’s movie: Munich (2005).

Following the events perpetrated by Black September against Israel’s 1972 Olympic team in Munich, five men are charged with finding all involved and bringing them to justice. These men are sent from Israel to Europe to find and kill those involved living and/or operating in Europe. This is based on the true story.

Munich is prolific director Steven Spielberg’s best film of the 2000s (and really his best film since Saving Private Ryan). Other notable films from the decade from Spielberg include: Minority Report and Catch Me If You Can. Spielberg worked with his frequent collaborators composer John Williams, cinematographer Janusz Kaminski, and production designer Rick Carter on the film.

It stars Eric Bana, and co-stars Daniel Craig, Ciaran Hinds, Mathieu Kassovitz, and Hanns Zischler. The supporting cast is very good as it features: Ayelet Zurer, Geoffrey Rush, Michael Lonsdale, Mathieu Amalric, Moritz Bleibtreu, Marie-Josee Croze, and  Lynn Cohen.

Garnering five Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and Director, Munich is excellent because it balances it ability to be both a great spy thriller and an involving character drama. It is not just all action, explosions, and gun fights, but a searing look at the mental and physical cost that these men paid in an attempt to make right what was so heinously done to their fellow countrymen. 2005 was maybe the strongest year for cinema of the last decade (with films like: Batman Begins, The Beat That My Heart Skipped, Capote, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Match Point, The New World, Pride & Prejudice, Serenity, and The Squid and the Whale), and Munich is right there among the year’s best. It is a must-see for fans of Spielberg and great thrillers.

Trailer: Here

Available on: DVD

Movie of the Week - Amelie

This week’s movie is Amelie (2001).

The French film is about a young girl who is a little strange due to a sheltered upbringing. One day she decides to start helping people and in the process she comes to realize she is alone and is just in need of help and love. The film is directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet (one of the great auteurs of the last two decades) and he put together one of the best technical crews ever to work on the film. Every aspect is brilliant, from Jeunet and Guillaume Laurant’s lovely script full of humor and emotion and Yann Tiersen’s memorable and fantastic score, to the visual brilliance and illumination of Bruno Delbonnel’s cinematography and Aline Bonetto’s production design, mixed with Herve Schneid’s interesting editing. The film is a perfect collaboration between the filmmaker and other artists on the project (as well as being my favorite film). The cast is also wonderful, headlined by Audrey Tautou’s star making performance as Amelie Poulain. What makes the film great and one of the best of the last decade is its quirkiness, its beautiful sense of the artistic nature of the medium and the emotion it evokes in the viewer. It is a splendid film to say the least. Check out the trailer.

Amelie [Blu-ray/DVD]