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THE 3 BEST FILMS

El laberinto del fauno

Directed by: Guillermo del Toro

Genre: Drama; Horror; Fantasy;

Starring: Ivana Baquero, Ariadna Gil, Sergi López, Maribel Verdu and Doug Jones

"After "Pan's Labyrinth", Guillermo del Toro will never again be dismissed as a director of horror movies. The artistry evident even in "Mimic'' and "Hellboy'' is confirmed in spades in his new work, a lock for an Oscar nomination as best foreign language film. Visually stunning, it meshes haunting images with a complex multilevel story about the enchantment of youth -- a time when fairy tales take on a reality that can shield children from painful truths -- and the unadulterated evil of fascism. Whether intentional or not, "Labyrinth'' bears a resemblance to Picasso's "Guernica.'' Del Toro uses a similar palette -- the color is so faded that some scenes appear to be black and white with shades of gray -- and his eerie mythical characters sport multiple eyes in unusual locations as on the famous mural. Most significantly, the strokes of two true masters are used to conjure up a horrific representation of the brutality, suffering and death during Spain's long struggle for freedom."

by Ruthe Stein in San Francisco Chronicle

""Pan's Labyrinth" works on so many levels that it seems to change shape even as you watch it. It is, at times, a joyless picture, and its pall of sadness can begin to weigh you down. But that's part of del Toro's intent, and of his technique. At one point the faun -- whose motives are never quite clear, either to us or to Ofelia -- expresses his displeasure with her, accusing her of being weak, of being only human. He tells her that, like others of her kind, she's destined to die: "All memory of you will fade in time." That's a horrifying thing to hear, and not just when you're a child. But del Toro doesn't buy this cruel taunt, and with "Pan's Labyrinth" he disproves it. Memories are carried in myths and stories; that's one way they survive. All those dragons slain and stepparents defied: None of it has been in vain. If fairy tales were all simply pretty, they wouldn't have stuck with us, awake and asleep, for so many centuries."

by Stephanie Zacharek in Salon.com

Once

Directed by: John Carney

Genre: Drama; Musical;

Starring: Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová

""Once" proves to be as smart and funny as it is sweet; it swirls with ambiguity and conflict beneath a simple surface. In all of 88 minutes, Mr. Carney's singular fable follows its guy and girl through a week of musical and emotional growth that could suffice for a lifetime. Music is intrinsic to the filmmaker's plan. The love story can be seen -- and felt and heard -- as a succession of chord changes, and the exquisite resolution amounts to a mutual musical offering. At a time when movie musicals have come to be synonymous with emotional and visual extravagance -- the super-mega-over-the-topness of "Chicago" or "Dreamgirls" -- Mr. Carney has dared to take everything down to its essence. What's left is two intensely likable people trying urgently, through very few words and a baker's dozen of eloquent songs, to come to terms with love they've lost and collaborate on the future."

by Joe Morgenstern in The Wall Street Journal

"Summer brings out the Bigfoot in Hollywood with blockbusters at the ready to stomp out any movie that values simplicity and sincere emotion. Well, don't let summer squash Once, the Irish musical from writer-director John Carney that struck a lyrical chord at Sundance earlier this year. Cut through the Spidey-Shrek hype and seek it out. You won't be sorry. It's a magical, beguiling wonder. When I say Irish musical, think U2, not Riverdance, and get set for a gift of a movie that is absolutely worth seeing more than once. The Frames frontman Glen Hansard as a Dublin songwriter who takes his guitar to the streets and sings himself hoarse to deaf ears. That is, until he meets a pretty Czech pianist (Marketa Irglova) who gives him the guts to quit his dad's repair shop and t finding the bucks to make a recording. That's it, a bittersweet love story with ravishing Hansard music ("Falling Slowly" is a killer) and the ache of romance in its soul. Nothing about this mood piece should work — the budget is shoestring and the actors are inexperienced. But Once brims with small pleasures that pay major dividends. Carney, who played bass for the Frames till 1993, is a filmmaker to watch. Blending the hip and the heartfelt, the tough and the tender, he creates a movie you want to hold close."

by Peter Traver in Rolling Stone

The Departed

Directed by: Martin Scorsese

Genre: Drama; Action; Mystery/Suspense;

Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Jack Nicholson, Matt Damon, Mark Wahlberg, Vera Farmiga, Martin Sheen, Ray Winstone and Alec Baldwin

"Martin Scorsese’s The Departed, from a screenplay by William Monahan, based on Andrew Lau and Alan Mak’s 2002 Hong Kong crime thriller Infernal Affairs, provides an electrifying entertainment for this fall moviegoing season in its police-mobster machinations and deep undercover penetration by both sides of the law. In this respect, The Departed strikes unexpectedly deep chords of tragic poignancy with the emotional fallout from an atmosphere of perpetual paranoia so characteristic of our post-9/11 world. No one can completely trust anyone else. Mr. Scorsese and his associates have assembled a remarkably charismatic cast to impart coherence and conviction to a narrative that could have easily dwindled into an affectless succession of gratuitous intrigues."

by Andrew Sarris in New York Observer

"Presumably, it's Monahan -- a Boston native and former editor at the satirical magazine Spy -- who can be thanked for the script's spot-on Southie vernacular, as well as its antic sense of fun. But Scorsese is to be commended for taking something of a risk at this point in his career. It's possible, throughout "The Departed," to see a 63-year-old director trying hard to prove his swaggering-young-man bona fides, whether in scenes designed to shock (Costello re-breaking someone's arm in a cast, then later distractedly removing a wedding ring from a severed hand while talking about John Lennon) or the film's final bloodbath, in which Scorsese looks like he's trying to out-Scorsese himself. But for the most part, "The Departed" represents both a fond look back on the roots of a great filmmaker's artistic life and a new expansiveness. As that final shot suggests, the man who once set out to make the audience wince now seems more inclined to leave us laughing."

by Ann Hornaday in Washington Post

BEST ACTING PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR

Jack Nicholson for The Departed