We're not saying that there aren't any recommendable American indies worth checking out. In fact, it's quite a busy weekend with fifteen new movies getting limited releases. The music documentary Last Days Here is getting excellent feedback from critics (it boasts a 100% fresh rating over on RottenTomatoes).
But we're here to highlight three very different foreign flicks worth your time and money. Let's start with This Is Not A Film, an Iranian documentary partially shot on an iPhone and smuggled into France in a cake so that it could be included in the Cannes Film Festival. The doc depicts the day-to-day lifeof acclaimed Iranian director Jafar Panahi who is under house arrest in his Tehran apartment and is serving a 20-year ban from filmmaking.
The Iranian film industry has been in the spot light thanks to the success of A Separation, which won the best foreign picture Oscar this past weekend. This is Not a Film is a deceptively simple look into a man who while appealing his sentence, sets out to defy censorship and reflect on the meaning of the art of filmmaking.
For those who are looking for action, look no further than Let The Bullets Fly. As if the title of the movie wasn't descriptive enough for you, Bullets stars Chow Yun-Fat, a name that action movie fans are very familiar with with roles in Hard Boiled, The Killer, The Replacement Killers (which at one time held the record for the most bullets ever used in a movie) and the film everyone knows about, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
Let The Bullets Fly takes the same tone and approach as the 2008 Korean action flick The Good, The Bad and The Weird (also highly recommended). While that movie was set in the '40s, Bullets steps back into 1920s China where a bandit arrives in a town posing as its new mayor. He ends up facing off against a tyrannical local nobleman in a series of over-the-top action sequences.
Finally, those up for some humor should check out The Salt of Life, an Italian comedy about Gianni, a middle-aged retiree who has to contend with the women in his life. There's his spendthrift mother, his patronizing wife and his daughter, whose slacker boyfriend whom Gianni unwillingly befriends. Gianni watches his friends snare beautiful younger women and attempts to generate some sort of love affair which ultimately ends with poignant results.
Both This is Not a Film and Let the Bullets Fly are on their way to being certified fresh by RottenTomatoes with 100% ratings while The Salt of Life checks in with a solid 89%. These movies are more than just percentages though. If you're not up for The Lorax (which is getting overall decent reviews) and Project X is just way to crude for you, definitely give these three films a shot--if they're not in your area, keep an eye out for their expansion. And if none of these films appeal to you and you just want a good crime drama, Snowtown is worth a shot.
Also, we should add that last week's Sleeper to See is now an Oscar-winning Sleeper to See. Yup, Undefeated scooped up the best documentary feature awards this past weekend proving our recommendations are legit and that Harvey Weinstein is one hell of an awards campaigner. Either way, happy movie-watching!
Sleepers to See is an occasional column to tout lesser known. This column in not studio endorsed but instead is a strong recommendation from the movie geeks here at Fandango for those looking for something outside of the Hollywood mainstream.
