New Releases: August 11th, 2009

We have three heavy hitters this week, there's 'The Class,' a lifelike case study set in the French education system, which I haven't seen but soon will due to its excellent critical appraisal as well as the pre-Oscar rumors that called it a shoe-in for best foreign film. Next, there's 'I Love You Man,' to which future generations will owe the proliferation of the word 'bromance.' It's supposedly a fine example of the romantic/buddy comedy and I plan to check it out at my earliest. Finally, we have 'Waltz With Bashir,' and in my perfect world this is the film that should have won best foreign film, best animated film and best documentary last Oscars, it is assuredly all three. It's part Persepolis, part Waking Life, but also quite different from those films. The visuals are astonishing, like a page of a graphic novel brought seamlessly to life, retaining the tactile, handmade feeling of traditional cel animation but adding to it the perfectly smooth and fluid movement that only computers can provide. They didn't take documentary footage and extrapolate it into stunning animation just for show though, the film's singular goal is to blur the line between objective reality and the subjective world of dreams and memories, and without giving anything away, the film's final few shots make the entire effort worthwhile. It's got something for everyone, and I hope you'll give it a spin and enjoy it as much as I did. Oh yeah, and 17 Again.

New this week:

Donkey X