Films to End 2010

I spent the 16+ hrs flight from Mumbai to NY -- one of the earliest flights able to get through after the snow --- stretched out detoxing, and watched or rewatched:

• The Vulture: Japanese. A fund manager comes out of retirement to rescue a Japanese car company from a Chinese fund manager in a high stakes thriller. Ancient Japan and its traditions from behind the Wall Street heroics.
  
• Raise the Castle: Japanese. Villagers are convinced to build a castle, out of cardboard, in a Don Quixotesque setting with bureaucracy, visit from Samurais of the distant past, and a woman architect/engineer. Awesome collage of concepts, and despite the rawness of execution, a fun movie.
• Up: Animation. A friend not used to repeating words, recommended this movie twice. It is a charming movie about wilderness, adventure, spirit of old people, and 1000's of balloons, but I am a dogs person and for me, it is a fabulous movie about dogs.
• Broken Embraces: Spanish. Almodóvar's ode of a movie. Every frame is exquisitely composed, and Penelope Cruz is superlative. NY Times raves. A line: "It's a normal kiss, the kind couples give each other out of habit." Not when you watch it the first time.
  
• Gran Torino: Clint Eastwood scowls, growls, spits, or instantly glows, as the outside world teases him out of his hole and he emerges a protector in this sly movie. Phenomenal review.

All worth watching. And from a flight a while ago, must watch: King of Jail Breakers. A quirky, japanese film about a man who repeatedly and ingeniously breaks out of prisons only to be caught on train tracks. It is a beautiful mystery.