Fairy tales continue to be committed to the screen on a regular basis.
This year we have DisneysFrozento look forward to, in which Hans Christian AndersensThe Snow Queenwill get a facelift.
Not even Disney managed that trick.
Hollywood can give you a bad Santa, but foreign-language films can give you downright evil ones.
You know the bit inKung Fu Pandawhen Po finally gets to watch the Furious Five in training?
When I watchCrouching Tiger, Hidden Dragonthats the expression I have on my face.
And it revolves around a green sword of destiny, which is as cool as it sounds.
Anyway, enough panda-grinning.
It could be argued that death is a presence in every movie.
Hes not always on the list of dramatis personae though.
One day, a stranger arrives in town and buys a plot of land next to the cemetery.
Then he builds a high wall around his property; a wall with no doors or windows.
Clint Eastwood eat your heart out.
Imagine that you go to a dinner party from which you find you cant leave.
How long will you continue to be civilized?
The sense that anything could happen is palpable in all Bunuels films.
Kiki is a witch.
Guillermo del Toro leaves that up to the viewer to decide.
Pans Labyrinthfits together reality and fantasy in such a natural way that its astounding.
Perhaps the best it can offer is a way to deal with the horror she must live with.
Its a beautiful, grotesque film.
It makes you shudder, but, uniquely, it never feels like anything other than a childs vision.
It wouldnt be ruining any surprises to tell you that hes not a bear hunter at all.
The trolls are brilliantly scary and enormous and real in the forests and caves through which Hans tracks them.
A lot of the time you find yourself holding your breath.
These are dangerous animals and the job of killing them is hard and horrible.
But this isnt dry political commentary.
Mainly its a really cool film about trolls.
Exciting, funny, scary and one of the best found footage movies yet made.
She has a boyfriend who might also be her brother.
She witnesses the seductions and debasements of the townsfolk, who are also becoming vampires.
Can she survive this strange and terrifying week with the help of her magical earrings?
Valerie represents the ideal of girlhood that must grow up and face a brutal reality.
Or maybe Im reading too much into it; after all, isnt that what surrealism is for?
Watch this strange, hypnotic film and make your own meanings from it.
It can also be really funny.
Jafaar (Sasson Gabai) is a fisherman living in Palestine.
Until the day that he brings up his net and discovers a Vietnamese pot-bellied pig in it.
The solution involves sheep disguises, pictures of Miss Piggy, and religious martyrdom.
This film proves that fantasy is not synonymous with special effects, or big budgets.
Maybe the world can be turned into a different place, a better place, after all.
And if thats a cheesy message, is that a bad thing?
Besides, cheese and ham in the same film delicious…
