These Birds Walk (2013)
This documentary follows a runaway boy and the efforts of humanitarian Abdul Sattar Edhi to bring peace and stability to Pakistan.
It’s more in-depth than the fleeting images from news programs more obsessed with political squabbles than elucidating the real problems facing the world, but as a movie it doesn’t do much more than show how bad things are.
Like Someone in Love (2012)
A Japanese sociology student, Akiko, has a secret career as a high-end prostitute. Her latest client, retired professor Takashi, is not interested in sex, but companionship so they spend their night together talking. When he takes her to school the next morning, her boyfriend, Noriaki, assumes he’s her grandfather.
The movie ends with Noriaki discovering Takashi’s secret and threatening Akiko at her apartment.
This Japanese language film by Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami is hypnotic, with many beautiful passages of philosophical meanderings about the nature of love, but I can’t recommend it. It strives so hard to avoid saying anything or passing any judgment, it feels hollow.
Reminding me of American comedian, Jerry Seinfeld, Kiarostami’s layered and self-referential films aimlessly build on each other, with later films often reinterpreting earlier ones. This is a decent, albeit boring film, but Certified Copy (2010) is a superior example of what he’s attempting here.
The Purge (2013)
Every year from 7:00 PM on March 21st to 7:00 AM on March 22, all violent crime is legal. This annual event eliminates undesirables and allows an outlet to express repressed rage. This year, James Sandin (Ethan Hawke) and his wife Mary (Lena Heady) plan on barricading themselves during the purge, but things go awry.
I wish I could purge my memory of this film. Instead of exploring the political ramifications of a day designed to rid society of undesirables or the events which led to its creation, this movie uses the elaborate rules of the purge to give us Panic Room 2 (2002).