Thanks to all for your kind words and I am glad that you are enjoying catching up on your additional required viewing! The following are a few more ditties which I highly recommend from this year and last.

Like Hurt Locker, another heart walloping war film is Oren Moverman’s (writer of I’m Not There) The Messenger starring Woody Harrelson and Ben Foster. The two are script carrying professionals who’s sole job is to suit up and bare the excruciatingly painful news to the loved ones of fallen soldiers. Samantha Morton and Steve Buscemi are just two of the next of kin who they visit. The various homes react in entirely different ways whereby Moverman achieved spontaneity by leaving a few of these parts unwritten. He intentionally kept the script from certain actors only to set up the situation and to see how they would react as unsuspecting parents and spouses.

Another one about war is IFC’s In The Loop starring James Gandolfini. This one is a must see for those who love fast paced political satire. Much like The Office this film has an incredibly smart and funny script depicting the events leading up to shock and awe in Iraq in both the US State Department and British Minister offices.

In the 1960's, Richard O'Barry was the world’s leading authority on dolphin training, working on the set of the popular television program "Flipper." Day in and day out, O'Barry kept the dolphins working and television audiences smiling. But one day, that all came to a tragic end. The documentary The Cove tells the amazing true story of how director Louie Psihoyos, O'Barry and an elite team of activists, filmmakers and freedivers embarked on a covert mission to penetrate a hidden cove in Japan, shining light on a dark and deadly secret. The mysteries they uncovered were only the tip of the iceberg in this thriller of a doc whereby truth is way better than fiction!.
Which Way Home is an HBO feature about a group of Central American childrens’ irrepressible mission to sneak into the US. Filmmaker Rebecca Cammisa follows a handful of youngsters as they make their way on the top speeding railroad cars by holding onto the sides. That's hardly the only risk they face, as violence and criminal predators lay in wait for them along the long road into Mexico. This film reveals that this perlious journey actually takes months whereby the kids need to deal with: food, money, shelter and sickness. Unlike the misconception that crossing the border may mean wading through a river, this one realistically demonstrates the arduous , indefatigable spirit of young kids who unrelentingly take action toward their dreams.
Much like Which Way Home, using both his educational background and real-life experiences, Director Cary Joji Fukunaga catapulted onto the filmmaking scene with his debut, Sin Nombre. Fukunaga journeyed across Central America atop a railroad car alongside other migrant workers in order to better understand their often harrowing plights in trying to cross the border. An eye-popping experience, his travels led to writing the script for “Sin Nombre,” a tension-filled crime thriller about a young Honduran girl being escorted to the U.S. border by a repentant gang member desperately trying to escape certain retribution from his fellow bangers. Thanks to the independent success of the film, which earned several critics and film festival awards, Fukunaga now finds himself on Hollywood’s radar, earning a development deal with a major studio that promises even greater things to come.

Another gem and my favorite of the year so far is Amreeka about a single, Palestinian Mother who leaves the Israeli West Bank with her teenage son. They have dreams of an exciting future in the promise land of small town Illinois. As her son navigates high school hallways the way he used to move through military checkpoints, the indomitable Mother scrambles together a new life cooking up falafel burgers as well as hamburgers at the local White Castle. This one has a heart as big as Texas!

The last one and certainly not the least, is The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, based on the best selling European trilogy sensation. Not since La Femme Nikita have we seen a stunner such as the troubled and highly resourceful computer hacker Lisbeth Salander. Played by Noomi Rapace, she methodically seeks justice as a modern day Bat Woman, unleashing her unrelenting, and ravishing wreckage on the societal injustice she uncovers.