Bel Ami (2012)

A penniless man claws himself to the top of French society in the Belle Epoque by playing the game of love (and being played by it).

This adaptation of Guy de Maupassant's social realist novel manages to fit everything into the 100-min runtime of a feature film without feeling too hurried.

Watch this: with an open mind. Despite the stunt casting, the cast including Pattinson is more than up to the task of serious drama.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 28 March 2012.

The Flowers of War (金陵十三钗) (2011)

Zhang Yimou steals Casablanca and sets it in China during the 2nd Sino-Japanese war.

Christian Bale is the cynical American who must help a few convent girls escape before the Japanese annex Nanking.

We cannot recommend the film for non-PRC audiences; either the source material is coarsely written, purple, and jingoistic to boot or Zhang Yimou has a severe case of "let's beat up the demonic Japs".

Even 55 days at Peking is less obnoxious.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 28 March 2012.

A Dangerous Method (2011)

Freud, Jung, their patients, and their followers talk  themselves into one fine mess in this period biopic.

The tawdry details, the high-fallutin' theories, and the purple drama are all true, which makes this piece of entertainment even better. You may have to brush up on classic psychanalytic theory first to appreciate what's happening, though.

Watch for: Brilliant stage writing, Cronenberg transitioning from body horror to psychological horror. Pay no attention to Kiera Knightley's overacting!

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 21 March 2012.

The Hunger Games (2012)

Post-apocalyptic America: a fascist state rules by fear and entertainment. The entertainment being Running Man crossed with Battle Royale. Through the protagonist, it explains functional sociopathy to a teen audience.

Highly predictable script but TWO reasons why this film is so worth watching:

Beautiful cinematography and a set design that's literally an actor in its own right, and easily the best actor in the cast.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 12 March 2012.

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (2011)

When this was a novel, it was a modern satire of the Colonial Adventure: an unremarkable Englishman goes to an exotic country and helps its Tribal Overlord achieve a rather bizarre feat of modernisation.

The film adaptation retains this premise, strips out all that is satirical about its premise, and turns it into a romcom.

Watch for: the immense effort taken to take something essential out of a script while still delivering a finished product, or for the political satire that's still lurking deep underneath.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 21 March 2012.

A Simple Life (桃姐) (2011)

A middle aged bachelor takes care of his amah when she retires and enters a nursing home.

This is the closest Hong Kong auteur Ann Hui gets to making a weepy Hallmark movie and extolling the virtues of benevolence and loyalty that typify old school Chinese.

Watch for: Ann Hui's very understated scriptwriting. Mind you, this could easily have been a shrill story about ageing and the plight of domestic servants in Hong Kong. Not that the territory doesn't need a shrill poke about these issues.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 14 March 2012.

Trespass (2012)

The remake of Funny Games didn't work and wasn't convincing because we all hold the American upper middle class - the descendants of robber barons - to lower standards of decorum and niceties.

The makers of Trespass understand this and give us a highly entertaining, however improbable, 90 minutes of Wall Street elites kicking ass and outwitting their captors.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 14 March 2012.

Love Strikes! (モテキ) (2011)

The romcom gets a one-off re-invention here courtesy of the Japanese.

A socially awkward geek finds himself suddenly and unreasonably irresistible to the opposite sex.

You might say this is an absurdist Flowers for Algernon of romcoms, where our geek is still socially awkward and his love interests are still pros at the dating game.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 14 March 2012.

Joyful Noise (2012)

An ailing gospel choir hits the big competitions despite colourful internal rivalries.

Predictable like a sports movie, but it's just an excuse to see Dolly Parton, Kris Kristofferson, and Queen Latifah bust into song.

If Glee ran long enough, it'll end up covering the songs featured here.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 14 March 2012.

A Separation (جدایی نادر از سیمین) (2011)

Within a domestic drama and courtroom procedural lies a complex, morally ambiguous story about being good and lying for the greater good, and the inability to do otherwise.

Director Asghar Farhad's neorealist direction is an antidote to the standard American formulations of the suburban angst drama.

Watch this for: superb and empathetic storytelling.

Read my full review on Fridae, first published on 7 March 2012.

Act of Valor (2012)

A team of US navy SEALS undertake a series of missions across the globe to foil an imminent terrorist attack.

Beginning as a series of training videos for actual SEALS, the missions, tactics, and strategies are highly realistic - certainly far more realistic than what we see in war films.

Watch this for: realistic depiction of war missions, a glimpse at the latest US military hardware.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 7 March 2012.

The Devil Inside (2012)

A psychologically disturbed young woman brings a camera crew to visit her mum, who has been locked up in a Vatican sanitarium since the Devil made her kill her cell group.

It's highly predictable, highly incompetently written that you can't take this seriously.

It's so highly incompetent and improbable that it might be the Spinal Tap of demonic possession horror films, though.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 7 March 2012.