I'm falling down on my film reviewing duties. Let's see, what have I seen recently?

Katyn
Although somewhat un-nuanced in some of the characters, this Polish film is worth watching for its depiction of a gruesome event in Polish history. Forced by the Soviets to pretend the atrocity had been commited by the Germans, the Polish people reacted to this far-reaching and tragic event with a split in the national psyche. Denying it was denying truth - an impossible situation; holding close the perpetrators, as they were forced to do, was like holding their hands in a fire.
Netflix note: A play-now selection, it cut out for me just as the officers were about to enter the building near the forest, and I never saw the ending.
Coraline
I'm not a little girl, so chiefly my interest was in the kick-ass stop-motion animation.
Vera Drake
This character study has a simple, linear plot but rises to lofty heights by the quality of the acting and the perfectly nuanced characters.
Me and You and Everyone We Know
Miranda July has been kicking around for years, and although I always think of her as Northwest (she recorded at Kill Rock Stars and I've seen her around Olympia) she's not, really. This was her first feature film, and is interesting in a quirky way, although my feeling is that now she's done a Miranda July-esque character she'll need to broaden her filmmaking horizons or go back to the performance/video art side of the street. I need to catch her second flick to see what she did.
Gardens of the Night
Unflinching depiction of the life of an abducted child. After about five minutes I was thinking: ZOMG why did I decide to watch this? Well done, but...
Starting Out in the Evening
A character study of an aging author whose constrained existence receives a bit of shaking up when a graduate student focuses on his work for her master's thesis, this film features very good acting.
Visioneers
In the future people work at unfulfilling jobs and occasionally explode from pent-up emotions (literally). Yes, let's make this the plot of a movie! Er, ok.

Labels: Netflix