home • film hq --> 5 Star Films

Comments: About a girl whose father discovers she is prostituting herself ... OR ... a movie about a guy who discovers his daughter is prostituting herself. Either way, this is a very touching film ... from Kim Ki-Duk.

The road trip and the whole car thing. "Learning to drive", "Spinning your wheels", Come on! Incredible! My favorite Kim Ki-Duk film ... so far. And to those who feel the film starts out like an after-school special, yep, that's the point.

Summary: Jae-Young is an amateur prostitute who sleeps with men while her best friend Yeo-Jin "manages" her, fixing dates, taking care of the money and making sure the coast is clear. When Jae-Young falls in love with one of those man she surpresses her feelings towards him in respect of her friend who's jealous. One Day Yeo-Jin fails in doing her job overlooking police officers looking for underaged porstitutes. In order to not get caught Jae-Young jumps out of a window almost killing herself. On her deathbed, she wishes to see the man again whom she fell in love with and turned away from. But the man only agrees if Yeo-Jin sleeps with him. She does but as they arrive in the hospital Jae-Young is already dead. Trying to understand her best friend, Yeo-Jin tracks down every man she slept with and does the same. As her father learns about this he gets on revenge with fatal consequences...

Details [+/-]       Back to top

Summary: Sarah Silverman: Jesus Is Magic, the movie, is the year s most outrageous comedy starring the funniest, sexy woman in America today - Sarah Silverman. Sarah delivers her trademark comedy that is so outrageous you have to watch her film over and over again. Available only in its original unrated, uncut theatrical version.

Details [+/-]       Back to top

Comments: In the Last Great Invasion of the Last Great War, The Greatest Danger for Eight Men was Saving... One.

Summary: When Steven Spielberg was an adolescent, his first home movie was a backyard war film. When he toured Europe with Duel in his 20s, he saw old men crumble in front of headstones at Omaha Beach. That image became the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan, his film of a mission following the D-day invasion that many have called the most realistic--and maybe the best--war film ever. With 1998 production standards, Spielberg has been able to create a stunning, unparalleled view of war as hell. We are at Omaha Beach as troops are slaughtered by Germans yet overcome the almost insurmountable odds.
A stalwart Tom Hanks plays Captain Miller, a soldier's soldier, who takes a small band of troops behind enemy lines to retrieve a private whose three brothers have recently been killed in action. It's a public relations move for the Army, but it has historical precedent dating back to the Civil War. Some critics of the film have labeled the central characters stereotypes. If that is so, this movie gives stereotypes a good name: Tom Sizemore as the deft sergeant, Edward Burns as the hotheaded Private Reiben, Barry Pepper as the religious sniper, Adam Goldberg as the lone Jew, Vin Diesel as the oversize Private Caparzo, Giovanni Ribisi as the soulful medic, and Jeremy Davies, who as a meek corporal gives the film its most memorable performance.
The movie is as heavy and realistic as Spielberg's Oscar-winning Schindler's List, but it's more kinetic. Spielberg and his ace technicians (the film won five Oscars: editing (Michael Kahn), cinematography (Janusz Kaminski), sound, sound effects, and directing) deliver battle sequences that wash over the eyes and hit the gut. The violence is extreme but never gratuitous. The final battle, a dizzying display of gusto, empathy, and chaos, leads to a profound repose. Saving Private Ryan touches us deeper than Schindler because it succinctly links the past with how we should feel today. It's the film Spielberg was destined to make. --Doug Thomas

Details [+/-]       Back to top

Comments: For the record: Brad Pitt is a fine actor. This is a fine film. Brutal. I dare anyone to imagine going through what my man Brad experiences at the end of this film.

Summary: A film about two homicide detectives' desperate hunt for a serial killer who justifies his crimes as absolution for the world's ignorance of the Seven Deadly Sins. The movie takes us from the tortured remains of one victim to the next as the sociopathic "John Doe" sermonizes to Detectives Sommerset and Mills -- one sin at a time. The sin of Gluttony comes first and the murderer's terrible capacity is graphically demonstrated in the dark and subdued tones characteristic of film noir. The seasoned and cultured Sommerset researches the Seven Deadly Sins in an effort to understand the killer's modus operandi while green Detective Mills scoffs at his efforts to get inside the mind of a killer...

Details [+/-]       Back to top

Comments: This film stars two of my favorite Korean actors, Do-yeon Jeon and Kang-ho Song, and is written and directed by Chang-dong Lee, who gave us OASIS. Both films are character driven.

The characters in this film are subtle and understated for the most part, and they rely on each other to complete and fully reveal themselves. Do-yeon Jeon's character, the recently widowed mother, is restless and affected, her world is heavy and she is intense yet fragile. Kang-ho Song's character, the guy who is infatuated with her, is carefree, loose, thick, and thoroughly durable. We see him as a complete boof but somehow don't mind him tagging along all the time. He seems necessary.

The plot of this film doesn't even matter. It's just a vehicle, a world, for the characters to inhabit, yet there is an intricate story line. The only problem I have with this film is the length of the prayers. "Our father who art in heaven" says enough, no need to go all the way to "for thine is the Kingdom and the Glory" blah blah. Having said that, however, the scene where Do-yeon Jeon goes to the prison to forgive the man who committed the most heinous of crimes against her is one of the strongest and smartest statements on religious belief I've seen.

Do-yeon Jeon won best actress at this year's Cannes.

Summary: Sin-ae moves with her son Jun to Miryang, the town where her dead husband was born. As she tries to come to herself and set out on new foundations, another tragic event overturns her life.

Details [+/-]       Back to top

Comments: I will call this my all-time favorite movie. I don't think I'll ever tire of watching it. Such a smartly written film. People often ask how I can watch a movie over and over again. I tell them it's the same way I listen to a piece of music over and over again. Once you've heard the lyrics to a song you know what it's about, right? Something about the experience just makes your mind and body feel good. Movies do that too.

Summary: Romantic comedy set in London in the late 16th century: Young playwright William Shakespeare struggles with his latest work "Romeo and Ethel the Pirate's Daughter". A great fan of Shakespeare's plays is young, wealthy Viola who is about to be married to the cold-hearted Lord Wessex, but constantly dreams of becoming an actress. Women were not allowed to act on stage at that time (female roles were played by men, too), but dressed up as a boy, Viola successfully auditions for the part of Romeo. Soon she and William are caught in a forbidden romance that provides rich inspiration for his play.

Details [+/-]       Back to top

Comments: No one makes it alone.

Summary: A disturbing film about a recovering drug addict trying to regain control of her life, Sherrybaby succinctly depicts what can happen when want and desire aren't offset by control. In this bleak indie film, Sherry Swanson (Maggie Gyllenhaal, Stranger Than Fiction, Secretary) has just been released from a three-year stint in prison. Dressed in her inappropriate uniform of a halter top and oh-so-high platform heels, she goes to brother's house to see her 5-year-old daughter, Lexie (Ryan Simpkins). Sherry is determined to be a mother to her child, but without a home, job, or any other form of stability, she grows frustrated and jealous of her brother and sister-in-law's roles in Lexie's life. Tall and willowy, Gyllenhaal brings a sad desperation and simmering sexuality to the role. Sherry's middle-class childhood was a blur of sex and drugs, and she seems incapable of breaking out of that destructive trap. While the script by first-time feature film director Laurie Collyer isn't wholly original, the picture moves at a good pace, giving insight as to why Sherry's resigned to using sex to get what she wants. While the family secret doesn't come as a complete surprise, it is somewhat perplexing that no one addresses it. Ultimately, it's Gyllenhaal who makes you care about a character that most people would've given up on. --Jae-Ha Kim

Details [+/-]       Back to top

Comments: From two American masters comes a movie like no other

Summary: The work of two great American artists merge in Short Cuts, maverick director Robert Altman's kaleidoscopic adaptation of the stories of renowned author Raymond Carver. Epic in scale yet meticulously observed, the film interweaves the stories of twenty-two characters struggling to find solace and meaning in contemporary Los Angeles. The extraordinary ensemble cast includes Tim Robbins, Julianne Moore, Robert Downey, Jr., Jack Lemmon, and Jennifer Jason Leigh—all giving fearless performances in one of Altman's most compassionate creations.

Details [+/-]       Back to top

Comments: In search of wine. In search of women. In search of themselves.

Summary: With Sideways, Paul Giamatti (American Splendor, Storytelling) has become an unlikely but engaging romantic lead. Struggling novelist and wine connoisseur Miles (Giamatti) takes his best friend Jack (Thomas Haden Church, Wings) on a wine-tasting tour of California vineyards for a kind of extended bachelor party. Almost immediately, Jack's insatiable need to sow some wild oats before his marriage leads them into double-dates with a rambunctious wine pourer (Sandra Oh, Under the Tuscan Sun) and a recently divorced waitress (Virginia Madsen, The Hot Spot)--and Miles discovers a little hope that he hasn't let himself feel in a long time. Sideways is a modest but finely tuned film; with gentle compassion, it explores the failures, struggles, and lowered expectations of mid-life. Giamatti makes regret and self-loathing sympathetic, almost sweet. From the director of Election and About Schmidt. --Bret Fetzer

Details [+/-]       Back to top