Some Must-See movie reviews.

These are some of the best films of the last few years, (2008-2011) and I think they are must-see cinematic experiences for any real film lover. I highly recommend them all.

SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE: (4 stars out of 5)

The 2008 Best Picture Oscar this year, Danny Boyle's "Slumdog Millionaire" is a unique film, artistically done and beautifully filmed. It gives us duel images of India. We see the sad, impoverished Indian where Mother Theresa once tended to the sick. But we see it laid side-by-side with the new, shiny modern India. They seem like different worlds. The old India is represented by the Oliver Twist-like life of the young protagonist, and the new India is represented by the popular TV show "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire". The contrast is striking!

The Plot: 20 year old Jamal (Dev Patel) is a contestant on the Indian version of "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" but is arrested after the first of two tapings on the suspicion that he somehow cheated. They torture him, demanding to know how this uneducated 'Slumdog' from the hellish streets of Mumbai could have made it all the way to the 10 million mark. The bulk of the rest of the movie is a series of flashbacks, where we see the wealth of experience Jamal has had in his short life and how he gained the hard-won knowledge that brought him his recent success. We see Jamal's childhood, as he and his older, nastier brother Salim try to survive after their mother is killed for being a Muslim. They live on the mean streets, stealing or begging for a living. They hook up with fellow orphan Latika, who will have a profound effect on Jamal's life, as both his strength and his weakness. As the brother's grow, they have many adventures, some light-hearted (as when they pretend to be tour-guides at the Taj Mahal) to dangerous (the Fagin-like thug who takes them in but has diabolical intentions.) Latika is separated from Jamal several times, but he always manages to find her again. She grows up to be a beautiful young girl (played by Frieda Pinto) and his efforts to rescue her from a bad situation with a gangster lead him to enter the "Millionaire" show.

Will the police believe Jamal and release him? If so, can he win the final round of "Millionaire" or will he lose all the money he's won so far? Can he save Latika from the Gangster? The suspense is maintained throughout by Boyle who controls the time-jumping plot-line with deftness and style.

THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON: (4 & a half stars out of 5)

A career-best performance by Brad PItt and some wonderfully artful direction from David Fincher highlight an impressive cinematic treatment of F. Scott's Fitzgerald's novel about a man who ages backwards. Perhaps the real star of the film are the make-up artists who so convincingly create the illusion of aging (and youth-ing) by the films attractive leads.

The Framing story concerns a dying, elderly woman (Kate Blanchett) discussing her great, lost love with her daughter (Julia Ormond) during a hurricane. That lost love was, of course, Benjamin Button. Benjamin is born on the eve of the end of WW One ("A special time to be born"). At the same time, a clock is built by an inventor who lost his son in the war. The clock only runs backwards, reflecting the inventors wish that we could roll back the years and undo the horrors of the war. Benjamin is born as a troll-like, shriveled little creature, with arthritis, bad eyesight, weak bones and all the other problems of a 90 year old man. After his mother dies in childbirth, his distraught, disgusted father abandons the baby at an old-age home, where the boy is taken in and raised by the kindly nurse Queenie who looks after all the old folks at the home.

Benjamin is 'raised' (so to speak) along with the elderly who accept him as one of them. To every one's surprise, he seems to be getting stronger and healthier as the years go by. It becomes apparent that he is getting younger. Then Benjamin meets a young child named Daisy, grand-daughter of one of the patients, who he forms a close friendship with. When Benjamin leaves the home to see the world, she asks him to write her every day. He does so. Benjamin has a Forest Gump-like series of adventures over key periods in time, including WW Two. He continues to get younger, and has his share of sexual encounters. But its when he meets the now grown Daisy (played by the beautiful Kate Blanchett) that he realizes who his soulmate is. The relationship looks promising when they are the same age ("We met in the middle" Daisy says) but how can their love survive when he is getting acne and she's getting wrinkles? What will happen when Benjamin and daughter Caroline are the same age ("You can't raise us both" Ben ruefully tells Daisy.)

Brad Pitt has never been better, (He was nominated for Best Actor) and Kate Blanchettt is--as always--terrific. And she's never looked lovelier. Taraji Henson is also excellent as Benjamin's saintly surrogate mother Queenie. The make-up effects magically transform the actors through the years, and Fincher's directing recreates time and place admirably. Although it takes liberties with the Fitzgerald novel, this is still a fine cinematic achievement.

GRAN TORINO: (4 & a half stars out of five)

This film wasn't nominated for anything but it should have been. Clint Eastwood may be 79 years old but he hasn't lost a step in his directorial talent. 'Gran Torino' is his best film since "Mystic River". No film-maker does Americana the way Eastwood does. Not flag-waving jingoistic stories but rather stories that look into the heart of the heartland.

The protagonist of "Gran Torino', a guy named Walt Kowalski, could be an older version of Dirty Harry or some of the other tough-guy parts that served Eastwood so well in his youth. This film may, in fact, be Eastwood's way of closing the book on those action heroes he's too old to play now and giving his macho image a finale, touching send-off. As the film begins, Kowalski is recently widowed. Not being close to his children (who want to put him in an old-age home) and shunning the good intentions of the local priest Father Janovich (who promised Walt's late wife that he'd look after Walt) Walt lives a solitary existence, with only his dog for company. His prized possession is his 1989 Gran Torino which he renovated himself and frequently polishes. To make things even more unpleasant for Walt is that he hates his Korean neighbors. Walt is a Korean war veteran and he's never gotten over the hatred he felt for the Korean people. In recent years, however, his longtime neighbors have either died or moved away and Korean immigrants have been buying up their houses. Walt finds himself surrounded by the race he hates most. He sits on his porch snarling at any Asians he sees, while his American flag proudly waves in the breeze.

Things change when Walt--against his better judgment--rescues the neighbor's kids from the local gang of street thugs. First teenage boy Thao Lor requires saving and then pretty Sue Lor gets into a situation where Walt saves the day. Soon, to his chagrin, Walt find himself a local hero, and the whole neighborhood is leaving gifts and food on his doorsteps. He is invited to a barbecue which Sue Lor convinces him to attend. To his amazement, Walt slowly comes to realize that he has more in common with these foreign visitors than he ever had with the white neighbors who lived alongside him for decades but remained strangers. Walt becomes a father figure to the kids. But the street gang is still a menace and they not only have Walt but also the two kids in their cross-hairs. Walt faces a conundrum. He wonders if he'll be forced to play the hero one last time in his twilight years? Has he still got it in him to be the warrior he once was?

Eastwood is at the top of his game here, both as a director and actor. Its a shame he didn't receive a nomination for either, because this is an insightful film and, in a symbolic way, it ends the iconic reign of Eastwood as a macho action hero. This film is an affectionate goodbye to the archetype character that made him a star years ago. The hero may be gone but Eastwood is still a director of inestimable skill.

DOUBT: (4 stars out of 5)

John Patrick Shanley wrote and directed this screen adaptation of his award-winning play about how gossip brings down a priest in a 1960's Catholic school.

Father Flynn (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) is friendly and nurturing to the boys in his parish, especially Donald Miller, the only black child in the school. This hasn't escaped the all-seeing eye of the school's head-nun Sister Aloysius (magnificently portrayed by the ever-talented Merryl Streep) who imagines a sinister intention to the Father's private meetings with the boy. She asks novice nun Sister James (Amy Adams) to keep and eye on Father Flynn. When Sister James innocently reports something she finds a bit unusual, Sister Aloysius sees it as a justification for suspecting Father Flynn of child molestation. She tries to force him out of the school while hunting for concrete proof of her unsupported theory. She has a meeting with Flynn where she drops not-so-subtle hints about her beliefs. Young Sister James starts to feel guilty for her part in bringing this accusation about. Flynn finally loses his trademark pleasantness and confronts Sister Aloysius in an emotionally charged scene (perfectly played by both Streep and Hoffman). Is Father Flynn guilty or is this a witch hunt by a nun with a personal vendetta? Shanley is deliberately ambiguous in his treatment of the subject and the title says it all. The acting is top notch and Streep might have won another Best Actress Oscar for her powerful portrayal of a woman who is ruled by her convictions, even when there's doubt.

THE WRESTLER: Mickey Roarke makes the comeback of the year (maybe the decade) in Darren Aronofsky's moving film about an over-the-hill wrestler. After years of making a series of very poor films, Roarke left Hollywood for several years to try boxing. He career as a pugilist was short-lived and he returned to films, with a strong supporting role in "Sin City". Here, in his first starring role in years, Roarke gives the best performance of his career. He embodies the aging grappler perfectly. His years as a boxer no doubt helped him in the role.

Roarke plays Randy "the Ram" Robinson, once the hottest Wrestler in the business and the headliner of the biggest Wrestling events in the country. Now, past his prime and recovering from heart surgery, "the Ram" is no longer the force he used to be. His once grand career is limited to the small-time wrestling circuit, appearing in school gyms and tiny auditoriums for a small paycheck. He even has to work in a supermarket to supplement his income. His only friends are the local kids who look up to him. He longs for a return to his glory days, even though he knows a body can only take so much. When the opportunity for a high-profile rematch with his former rival comes, he considers returning to the big-time, despite a resurgence of heart problems. The Ram's only confident is Cassidy (Marisa Tomei, who brings a lot of heart to the role and who still looks great) a stripper in the club which Randy the Ram frequents. He wants to date her but she has her own code against dating customers. Cassidy's story parallels the Ram's. As a 40-something stripper, her days as a sex-object are rapidly coming to a close, and she is rejected by some of the men who come to the club looking for very young girls. She doesn't like the job but she needs it because she's a single mother and stripping provides her with the money to support her son and send him to school. While the Ram debates his career options and has a brush with his own mortality, he tries to fix the broken relationship with his daughter Stephanie (Even Rachel Wood, who keeps getting better and better with each film she's in) who resents him for leaving her and her mother. Randy the Ram is a man who can only do one thing and can't imagine himself doing anything else. He needs the roar of the crowd, and feels diminished as a man for being unable to remain the man he was. His pride is even more injured than his worn and scarred body.

Aronofsky's sensitive direction and Roarke's amazing performance (he was nominated for Best Actor and I think he really should have won) lift what could have been a rather standard story of faded dreams, and turns it into a poignant tale of a proud man who is clutching at the embers of a past gone up in smoke.

SYNECDOCHE, NY: (5 stars out of 5)…Awesome!

Every once in a while a film comes along which is so insightful about human nature that it is destined to become a classic. This is one of them. Charlie Kaufman, one of the most talented writers in the industry, also directs this brilliantly observant metaphor for life and the way we try to force it into our own vision of what it should be. Why this amazing movie wasn't nominated for anything is beyond me. Perhaps its too complicated and complex. Its one of those films which are ahead of its time.

Watching this film is a cerebral experience because it works on different levels. On one level, its the story of a lonely man and his play. On another level, this is an autobiography for the viewer. As you watch this film, you realize that Kaufman made a film that could be about you! The general plot concerns Caden Cotard, (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) a playwright with limited talent, who's marriage is in a rut. His infinitely more talented wife Adele (Catherine Keener) is a successful painter, whose success seems to mock him. His plays are hum-drum, and he is sexually attracted to one of the women he works with, and is in love with another. The three women offer him marriage, sex and love, yet he is unsatisfied because none of them are individually what he wanted. As his wife points out, "People will always disappoint you, once you know them long enough." No matter how we try to force the ones we love into the mold we wish them to be, they never became everything we want. Adele is similarly disappointed in Caden and the marriage breaks up, although she never actually tells him. She just goes on vacation and never comes back. (With their daughter in tow.) Caden decides that he needs to do something meaningful and impressive with his life. He decides to write the ultimate play, and spends the rest of his life on the project.

He begins building a simulacrum of NY in an impossibly large warehouse, and it grows into an small city where Caden can recreate his life. All his characters are imitations of people he knows, including himself and all the women who've been in his life. As he grows more obsessed, its becomes hard for him--and the viewers of the film--to tell where reality ends and the play begins. He physical ailments grow and multiply; his health is as hard to cure as are his creative troubles. Caden tries very hard over the decades to make his play-lifework out the way he wants it to. He hopes he can control events in the studio but even these events keep going beyond his control, as do the actors, whose private lives shift over into the work and cause problems Caden didn't expect. Even as he ages and people die around him, he tries to get things right. He continues to have epiphanies ("I know how to do the play now!") but the solution is never as easy as he hopes. He can only ride out the tide of time and try in vain to create a world where he has control over his life and the lives of those around him.

The film is a musing on how life goes for everyone. We try to create a life we want, fighting the obstacles in our way. We hope the people in our lives will act a certain way and we try our little tricks to get them to act the way we want them to but there's no way to control others actions and we're frequently disappointed. Time keeps rushing on, no matter how much we try to preserve a vision of life as we think it should be. We want to be the director and star of our own film but even our own story is not totally ours to control. In the end, life will write its own story and we can only follow the script.

This is an amazing film!

FROST/NIXON: (4 stars out of 5)

Ron Howard continually makes interesting films about interesting real-life people. This film recreates the famous 1977 interviews (and the events leading up to them) where Richard Nixon finally admitted his culpability in Watergate to the world. This film starts off as a fascinating look at the world of TV media but switches to a tense suspense story.

The plot: David Frost (Michael Sheen) is in a career slump. Once having been a star on both British & American television, he has since been reduced to hosting a local talk show on an Australian TV station. He yearns for the success he once had ("There's nothing like success in America" Frost sadly states) and looks for a gimmick that will bring him international attention again. He sees an opportunity in the reclusive Richard Nixon, former President of the United States. Nixon (Excellently portrayed by Frank Langella) was pardoned after the Watergate fiasco and never answered for his actions. Many people were furious that Nixon escaped any type of justice and never even apologized for his crimes. Nixon has since been living in a self-imposed exile in a seaside estate in California, surrounded by secret service men. He is rarely seen in public and has not done a single interview since. He privately seeks a way to erase the black mark against him and return to public life. Frost proposes four sit-downs sessions between the two men, where they'll discuss a number of topics, the last of which will be Watergate. Nixon agrees because Frost is seen as a lightweight; a guy who will toss softball questions at Nixon. Nixon thinks he will be able to control the interview and use it as a way of getting his side of the story out. He hopes that he can convince the American people that his actions were necessary and that he's not a crook. Also, Frost offered him a lot of money for four hours work. As for Frost, he is taking a huge risk with this interview. He can't find people to sponsor him, so he has to beg and borrow the money to buy network time and to pay Nixon's exorbitant fee. The only way he can ever repay so much money is if he can get a major network to reimburse him, and to do that, he will have to deliver what he promised them--a public apology and a confession of guilt from the close-mouthed Nixon. If Nixon doesn't come clean, Frost will be financially ruined. The first few session go horribly wrong for Frost, as the experienced Nixon steam-rolls over him with a combination of his powerful presence and well-practiced anecdotes. He has an answer for everything Frost asks. It seems that Frost won't be able to force a confession from the ex-President. What happened in that final interview session is now legendary. The movies follows mostly from Frost's point of view. He is the outsider, the has-been, not taken seriously by anyone. The pressure is on him to succeed or fall. How he slays this mighty giant is gripping cinema, and an important moment not only in TV history but for America as well.

THE READER: (4 stars out of 5)

Movies concerning the Holocaust always seem to get great reviews, perhaps because such a weighty subject deserves attention. And while 'the Reader' is not epic on the scale of "Schindler's List" it’s still a powerful meditation of the aftereffects of WW2 and the Holocaust.

Michael Berg (Ralph Fiennes) is reminded of a long ago romance, and flashbacks show us about his youthful dalliance. In post-War Germany, he met a mysterious woman named Hanna Schmidt. (Kate Winslet, who is excellent here.) She teaches young Michael (David Cross) about sex, and he, in return, reads to her. He enjoys the summer dalliance until Hanna one day suddenly vanishes, breaking his heart. A few years later, Michael is in law school and his professor brings Michael and a few other students to the courthouse to witness a trial. To young Michael's dismay and shock, the defendant in the trial is Hanna Schmidt, who is accused of killing 300 Jewish women during the war. Years later, older Michael (Fiennes) finds his fate linked with Hanna's once again, and old ghosts of the war and of that magical summer come flooding back. Fiennes gives a nice understated performance but Winslet is extraordinary, and she finally won an over-do academy award for best actress.