Showing posts with label reviews. Show all posts
Showing posts with label reviews. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Beaufort



Category: Movies
Genre: War, History, Action, Drama, Foreign Language
Director: Joseph Cedar

The Israeli movie Beaufort, nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, is a movie you don’t want to miss. Even if you don’t typically go for subtitled movies, I think you’ll have a hard time not appreciating this one. You won’t get a glossed over Hollywood version of war in this film. No matter what your feelings about the Mid-East conflict are, go into this one with your mind and heart open to the rich characters so wonderfully portrayed by the mostly very young Israeli cast. In particular, Oshri Cohen does a magnificent job in his role as the conflicted officer Liraz who feels torn between his orders to prepare for retreat and his feeling that the retreat itself is a betrayal to the very thing for which he and his men have been fighting - and dying. I give it a resounding 2 thumbs up!

The Book Thief


Category: Books
Genre: Literature & Fiction
Author: Markus Zusak

I recently read The Book Thief by Markus Zusak and for the first time in a very long time I was forcing myself not to stay up all night in order to get to the end. Not because it wasn’t good. Quite the opposite. I was rationing the pages so that I could enjoy it that much longer. What a gorgeous tapestry of human emotion and the trials and tribulations that are so intricately interwoven with them. Bravo!