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I have seen these movies in 2008, ranked in descending order:

Sukiyaki Western Django (****-).  If you didn't think it was possible to create a Japanese Western set in a frontier town in 1200s Nevada, then you haven't seen this shoot 'em up, where the English speaking Japanese actors spout dialogue that would be at home in any classic western.  A gunslinger comes to town and ends up bringing to end the uneasy truce between two rival gangs seeking treasure rumored to be buried near town.  Brought to life by Takashi Miike, maker of Happiness of the Katakuris.

Boy A (***+).  A young boy tag-along is involved in the killing of a young girl.  Years later he is released with a clean slate and a new identity.  As he begins to fit into a new, adult world, he saves a young girl's life.  The resulting attention threatens to destroy his new life.  Excellent performances.

Neurotica (***+ GG Short).  We get inside the minds of the patrons of a gay bar, from the neurotic to the arrogant to the nervous straight guy.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (***+).  Okay.  This really wasn't a great Indiana Jones movie, and it certainly pales next to the original, but it was fun having Indy back, and I'm glad they let him age along with Harrison Ford and that they brought back Karen Allen's Marion Ravenwood.  But now it's the communists rather than the Nazi's seeking ancient treasures with which they might gain the power to rule the world, and Indy's got to save the day.  This time he comes across a "find" that he really wasn't expecting.

Mamma Mia! (***+).  Okay, so it really is just a *** film, and I agree with those who point out that Pierce Brosnan can't sing, but the film does a decent job of bringing the fun albeit slight musical to the big screen, most of its key elements are retained, and frankly the actors come across as if they're having a lot of fun, and that breaks through the 4th wall and rubs off on the audience.

Boystown (***+ GG).  A.k.a. Chuecatown.  A realtor in Madrid's Chueca district tries to turn the neighborhood into gay perfection, but has to deal with troublesome old ladies and a slovenly bear couple who get in the way.  Things get complicated when the obnoxious mother of one of the bears moves into the unit next door when its occupant is killed and leaves it to the son.  Mother doesn't like his part.  Lots of fun - it reminded me of La Comunidad, which was also about a Madrid realtor.  (in Spanish)

In Bruges (***+).  A couple of Irish men end up at a Bruges, Belgium, B&B for what isn't a vacation.  One is willing to play the tourist, the other is frustrated by the isolation in the small town.  It's eventually revealed that they are a couple of hit men sent there after a hit accidentally resulted in the death of a small child until their boss can decide what to do with them.  In many ways, it is an odd but funny fish out of water story as the two cross paths with a dwarf actor and a sexy con artist.  Some of the strangest lines of dialogue I've ever heard actually work quite well in the movie.  But I did spend much of the start of the movie wondering if they had left off the first reel, and I can't say I agreed with the choice of endings - though I'd be hard pressed to come up with a better one, so these kept it out of the 4-star range.

Pat's First Kiss (***+ GG Short).  Animated tale of a shy Canadian man who heads to Europe in hopes of getting his first kiss from another man.  He succeeds, but not in the way he had hoped.

Clandestinos (***+ GG).  Three juvenile delinquents break out of a detention center and head for Madrid.  Joel finds a woman, Moroccan Driss latches on to Xabi, and Xabi, a hustler, tries to get back with his Basque terrorist lover.   

Burn After Reading (***+).  Hapless gym employees mistake the draft of a hapless intelligence agent's memoirs for secret information and hatch a plan for getting some money out of their discovery.  But things don't work out the way they planned in this Coen Brothers film.  Solid film and impressive cast, but the story could have been stronger.

The Window (***+ GG Short).  So you move into an apartment with a window that gives outsiders a pretty direct view into the bedroom and bathroom entrance.  At first you go through gyrations to keep prying eyes out, but as your comfort level grows, you may become increasingly indifferent to it.  In this film short, three men eventually come to embrace their window.

Exeter (***+ GG Short).  Exeter offers reparative therapy to straighten out gay people, or at least so says one of the program's "successful" graduates who hosts this infomercial.

Lloyd Neck (***+ GG Short).  A girl has a bit of a crush on her brother's friend Jesse, a photography buff.  But Jesse has a crush on the brother, Taylor, who recently broke up with his girlfriend.  I liked how the movie let us know that Taylor was aware of Jesse's crush without feeling it was necessary to tell us whether Taylor in fact was gay, even if his sister suspects it.

In The High School (***+ GG Short).  The lone line of dialog in this short really cuts to the chase.

Hirsute (***+ GG Short).  A scientist working on inventing time travel meets his future self, who has come back missing his body hair and personality.  Great twist to the time travel plot, but the fixation on hair was never explained.

Tell No One (***+).  A French couple is attacked while on holiday at the family farm - he's knocked out, she's killed.  Except several years later, she seems to be alive again.  Is it true?  That's what he tries to find out, but someone out there is bent on revenge.  (in French)

The Orphanage (***).  A woman and her family return to the home that was an orphanage when she was raised there.  She plans to turn it into a new home for children, but the ghosts of children past have something to say to her first.  Good reviews, but not enough suspense for me - although I did like the plot twist.  (in Spanish)

Enchanted (***).  A Disney cartoon princess falls victims to an evil queen/her future mother in law, and is cast down a well that turns out to be a portal into a very real New York City's Times Square.  She has to adapt to the real world as does her prince, who comes to rescue her.

XXY (*** GG).  An intersexed teen raised as a girl is coming of age.  Her mom's brother in law is a surgeon.  His family brought in for a visit, but also to assess the teen who in turn brings out some feelings in his teen son.  (in Spanish)

The X-Files:  I Want To Believe (***).  I want to believe that The X-Files could have life as a movie series, but this movie seemed to be little more than a long TV show episode than a real movie.  One of the creepy event rather than mythology episodes, and I always preferred the mythology episodes.

My Last Ten Hours With You (*** GG Short).  The final day in a relationship between two men where one is scheduled to leave the country the next day.

Herzhaft (*** GG Short).  A youth soccer coach is caught having a fling with one of his players by the player's mom.  She threatens to expose him if he gets near any kids, but then they team up to find her runaway son.

Feedback (*** GG Short).  Gay man puts everything into his storytelling, but his gal pal thinks that he goes over the top.  Her feedback to him creates a rift, especially when she's on the receiving end of some feedback from him.

Benny's Gym (*** Short).  Benny bullies Alfred in front of his friends, but is also envious of Alfred, especially his home life.  So they strike up a friendship, but Benny hides it from his buddies.  It's a complex relationship between a couple of 11-year-olds boys, though not necessarily a gay one, regardless of whatever they might end up growing up as.

Ta (*** GG Short).  A couple guys in a public bathroom get high on cocaine and get a bit playful.  (in Portuguese)

Babysitting Andy (*** GG Short).  A man and his boyfriend baby-sit his niece Andy, who's obnoxious now but may just be a young lesbian.

Paranoid Park (***).  Steven Soderburg's low-budget take on the life of a high school skater boy who finds himself in serious trouble.

Sweet And Salty (*** GG Short).  A couple of teen boys get the feeling in the pool and then take their first few tentative steps to act on those feelings up in one of the guy's bedroom when they're interrupted.

The Young And Evil (*** GG Short).  A young, disenchanted black gay man chases the bug and engages in other risky behavior.

Love Kills (*** GG Short).  A young, disenchanted German gay man has series of increasingly dangerous encounters.

Silver Road (*** GG Short).  Buddies through high school, now one of them leaves for college the next day while the other stays behind.  A stolen kiss isn't welcomed.  But it was predictable nearly from the start of this short.

Fagette (*** GG Short).  Pansexual rap video - the rap was more clever than the video, though.

Souljah (*** GG Short).  Local thugs harass members of an African immigrant family until the sun decides to seek revenge.

Vicky Christina Barcelona (***-).  It didn't help that I hit a tired patch in the middle of the movie and had a hard time keeping my eyes open.  Although the movie came across as well done, I can't say that I cared enough about any of the characters to care about their story.  I was in Barcelona earlier this year, so I was hoping to see the city as another character in this Woody Allen film.  But the city was really rather irrelevant.

Shelter (***- GG).  Coming out tale of an artist-wannabe stuck in a dead end job as he helps raise the son of his loser sister.  

Teeth (***-).  Guys who, um, overstepped their bounds with a young woman soon found out that there was something unusual about her body - a full set of rather sharp teeth in a cavity where you would least expect to find them.  Although acceptably well done in many ways, it never seemed to quite figure out what kind of movie it wanted to be.

Religulous (***-).  Comic Bill Maher takes a look at western religions.  I'm a fan of his, for his sense of humor, his ability to get people with very different views to sit down together and have some fun as they debate the issues of the day, and for the similarities of our world outllooks.  But this documentary-like look into religion felt like more of a series of disconnected episodes and lack much of a sense of cohesiveness, let alone his humor.  Even the editorializing at the end was disconnected with what was shown in the rest of the movie.  It just didn't meet expectations.

Portrait Of A Couple (***- GG).  A gay couple is packing for their pending move to Spain when one of them gets a call from an anonymous fling informing him about a possible HIV infection.  We see his reaction.

Hamlet 2 (***-).  A bad high school drama teacher needs a hit to save his program and his job.  He ends up writing a sequel to Hamlet that is highly controversial, but his bad kid students embrace it and bring it to life.

Military Intelligence And You (***-).  A spoof of World War II era military training films, where comments about military intelligence take jabs at the Bush Administration's conduct of the Iraq war.  Alas, a romantic subplot that would never be found in a true training film only served to remind me that it was just a spoof, and there were too few laugh out loud moments to make it all that good a spoof.

Area X (**+ GG Short).  One of the leads was described as a runaway.  We're filled in on his back story - he's new to NYC from Pennsylvania, his dad suspected that he's gay and hired a $200 hooker to make a man out of him, thus leading to the runaway bit.  Except we also learn that he was attending community college and that he's old enough to go to bars.  And all that undermines the rather ordinary story of his meeting a friendly hustler in that bar who indeed is friendly but ultimately remains a hustler.

Antarctica (**+ GG).  A group of very attractive 20-somethings have lots of shallow one night stands but don't seem to understand why they're single.  Uh, maybe it's because all they do is have one night stands.  (in Hebrew)

The Pull (** GG Short).  An interesting premise - what would the impact be on a couple who decides in advance when their breakup date is going to be - conveyed in a rather uninteresting way.  The split screen style didn't really work well here.

2008 movie counts:

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Year 2007 Movies Seen and Reviewed

In many ways it was a great movie year, with several favorite film makers (Lynch, Tykwer, the Polish Brothers, the Coen Brothers, Burton) and favorite series (Pirates, Bourne, Spider-man - though I missed Spider-man somehow) putting in appearances in the theatres.  But if it weren't for film shorts at a festival, I would have had a relatively low movie count for the year.  I even skipped the Seattle International Film Festival entirely for the first time since I moved to Seattle.

I have seen these movies in 2007, ranked in descending order:

Pan's Labyrinth (****-).  In 1940 Spain as Franco's army is cleaning up the last of his opponents, a girl and her pregnant mom head for a military camp where mom's new husband runs things.  He has little use for the girl - whose father is dead.  She finds escape in a fairy tail-like adventure, which may be real or simply a figment of her imagination.  (in Spanish)

INLAND EMPIRE (****-).  This is what movies would be if movies were mind-altering substances.  So what exactly is this latest David Lynch movie about?  Well, it's about...  

An actress with a jealous husband is making a movie with a well-known Hollywood womanizer...

    The characters in a movie being made are carrying on an illicit affair...

        A suburban housewife with an abusive husband gets pregnant...

            The sitcom-y shenanigans of a family of rabbits in a small apartment that are in on a secret...

                The not so sitcom-y shenanigans of a group of Polish circus performers...

                    A Lynchian homage to musicals, featuring a group of prostitutes line-dancing to Loco-Motion...

If you spend too much time trying to figure this movie out, you're probably trying too hard.  It's about a woman in trouble.  Leave it at that.  And just sit back and go along for the ride.  You'll either love it or hate it.

The Host (****-).  The movie opens with a dastardly U.S. military officer ordering a Korean lab assistant to dispose of a number of old chemicals down the drain - which empties into the Han River, which in turn runs through the heart of Seoul.  Obviously some years later a dangerous man-eating mutant monster cross between a tadpole and a carp, with legs and sharp teeth emerges from the river.  With a hankering for some Seoul food, it chases down the locals, eating some on the spot, taking others back to its secret lair.  One little girl finds herself stuck in the monster's lair, and it's up to her dysfunctional family to try to find her.  Complicating all of this is a government story that suggests that the monster is the product of some virus, and those exposed to it - like her family - need to be placed in government quarantine.  A great monster movie, well-done with nicely developed characters, a quirky balance of suspense and humor, and a cheesy yet realistic looking monster.

Perfume:  The Story Of A Murderer (****-).  A man with an almost supernatural sense of smell wants to capture the essence of women in a bottle of perfume.  With a little practice, and an increasing body count, he learns how to do so.  Of course, the locals aren't too keen on the murders going on around them.  Made by Tom Tykwer, one of the the directors whose work I routinely seek out.

Lars And The Real Girl (****-).  A socially awkward young man gets a mail order anatomically correct plastic woman whom he treats as his real girlfriend, much to the consternation of his brother and brother's wife.  The small town where they live rallies around Lars and makes his girlfriend a part of the community.

No Country For Old Men (****-).  A welder out hunting happens upon what's left of a drug deal gone bad and takes the money.  The man to whom the money belongs is a methodical killer who relentlessly tracks down the welder and his money across southwest Texas.  An aging sheriff attempts to solve the case but his old-style approach is no match for the killer.

Groucho (****- GG Short).  Spanish teen flirts with gay couple in his building while trying to hide his being gay from his parents.  His life is about to be turned upside down with the arrival of a hunky American teen who will be sharing his room.  (in Spanish)

Zodiac (***+).  The investigation into the Zodiac killer, who killed some locals and taunted the police and press in the San Francisco area over the span of several years.

Hairspray (musical remake) (***+).  The 1980s John Waters movie was one of my favorites.  The Broadway musical is indeed my favorite - and I got to see it with the incomparable Harvey Fierstein as Edna Turnblad.  So the movie based on the musical based on the movie had a lot to live up to.  And then there is the problem of taking a 2 1/2 hour Broadway show and cutting it down into a movie with a running time under two hours.  So I didn't know what to expect.  Well, the changes needed to shrink down the story for the most part worked - if I wasn't familiar with the Broadway show, I probably wouldn't have missed them.  The music is as singable and toe-tapping as ever.  The move from the exaggerated Baltimore of stage to a real city on screen worked pretty well, too, although some of the stage version's cleverness was lost in the transition.  The cast?  Well, the new Tracy was outstanding, and a lot of what sounded like stunt casting at the time actually worked out very well.  Basically a full of fun song & dance movie.  Alas, there was one huge weakness.  And that would be John Travolta's take on Edna Turnblad.  Edna has always been played by a big guy - Divine, Harvey, etc. - so I was curious as to how Travolta might pull it off.  But it wasn't his looks and fat suit that were weak, but rather his character.  Edna became flat and timid, coming across as the only character who didn't know that this show is just supposed to be fun.  And while he got the dance moves down alright, he was easily the weakest singer of the bunch.  I don't know if it was a poor choice of an actor or a poor choice on how to act the role, but the weak portrayal of Edna weakened the movie - although I decided to just ignore Travolta when settling on my rating.

The Life Of Reilly (***+ GG).  I mostly knew of Charles Nelson Reilly's career through his game show appearances and a handful of other TV appearances, and I can't say that I was much of a fan - mostly I was pretty indifferent.  But I had heard some great reviews for this movie, essentially a film of his one-man autobiographical stage show.  In addition to giving insight into what really was an amazing career as a stage and screen actor and acting teacher, the show is hilarious and more than a little bittersweet as Reilly shares the story of his life.

Juno (***+).  A wise-cracking 16-year-old girl gets pregnant.  After deciding that she can't go through with an abortion, she carries it to term intent on giving the child up for adoption to a well-to-do couple she identified in an ad in the paper.  The movie is quite funny and well done except the girl seems to be wise beyond her years but surrounded by many others who aren't.

Hot Fuzz (***+).  From the makers of Shaun of the Dead, my favorite movie of 2004, this one features a London supercop who gets transferred to a small English village because he makes his London colleagues look bad.  But before the mundane activities that pass for crime in the countryside bore the heck out of him, he stumbles on major criminal activity.  Well done with good humor, but not as laugh out loud fun as Shaun... as the lead character is so serious through most of the movie.

Functional Design (***+ GG Short).  Animated flick in which a goose king helps inspire a gay young man to live honestly.

The Astronaut Farmer (***+).  It's just February and already this year I've enjoyed the latest films by David Lynch (INLAND EMPIRE), Tom Tykwer (Perfume:  The Story of a Murderer) and now Mark and Michael Polish.  It's a great start.  This film is about a retired astronaut who never made it into space but still dreams of eventually reaching orbit.  Farmer (actually a small rancher named Farmer) drains the family finances building a rocket in his barn.  Once the Feds catch wind of it and the bank begins foreclosure proceedings, he's in a race to reach his goals.  It's the Polish brothers' first mainstream movie, but like David Lynch's Straight Story, you still know that this is a Polish film.

The Simpson's Movie (***+).  I have never been a big fan of the series - I generally enjoy it when I watch it but never really got hooked on it.  But I was bored in Dayton on a business trip so figured I'd take in the movie.  Very funny and a better than average rating, and yet still not enough to turn me into a regular series viewer.  Go figure.

The Bourne Ultimatum (***+).  I've enjoyed this series as Jason Bourne brings his quest for his identity back to CIA offices in New York.  This capped off a good year for my favorite recent trilogies.  

Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street (***+).  I saw this dark musical on stage a couple years ago, and I can't say that I was all that impressed.  Given that history and I probably would have skipped this movie were it not for the fact that the movie was made by Tim Burton and starred Johnny Depp - who's singing reminded me a bit of David Bowie.  Well done, faster paced and more intimate than the stage show, although Todd's mistakes at the end seemed to pass by a bit too quickly.

The Bubble (***+ GG).  A trio of Israeli roommates take in a gay Palestinian after one of the trio falls for him.  But culture and the border situation complicate matters.

How To Go On A Man Date (***+ GG Short).  Guide for straight guys to hang out with other straight men without appearing to be gay.

Before The Devil Knows You're Dead (***).  Two loser brothers in need of some money decide to rob their parents' insured jewelry store.  Except things go terribly wrong.  And get steadily worse.  The story is told with jumps back and forth across time as it focuses on individual characters.  The movie was probably better than I ranked it, but I never did care about any of the characters.

Kompisar (Flatmates) (***+ GG Short).  Roommates - one gay and one straight - set up housekeeping.  The gay one has a crush on his fun-loving roommate.  (in Swedish)

I Hate Musicals (***+ GG Short).  He loves his musical actress gal but he doesn't like musicals, putting a strain on their relationship.  But then one day he wakes up and finds that he can only express himself through musical song and dance.

Shahram And Abbas (***+ GG Short).  An Iranian journalist and another Iranian man pose as a gay couple in an attempt to get asylum in the Netherlands.

Solace (***+ GG Short).  An online meeting turns into a personal hookup with the young man looking for Mr. Right while his middle aged partner is looking for, well, something else.

Dreamgirls (***).  The evolution of a 1960s girl group whose strong lead singer is bumped by a prettier but weaker singer just as they're about to hit the big time.  Based on the musical.  Of note...  I have never been an Eddie Murphy fan, not on Saturday Night Live, not in the movies.  But he was outstanding here, well deserving of the recognition he's gotten for his work in this movie.  And a comment...  The movie's promoter seems be echoing the plot with it pushes the famous Beyonce Knowles as the star of this show over American Idol-reject Jennifer Hudson, who plays the stronger singer who gets bumped.  And yet Hudson's Effie is the central role in this story, she's got better songs to sing, and her singing blows away her co-stars (keeping in mind, of course, that no matter how good a singer Knowles may be in real life, the character she was playing is supposed to be a less talented singer).  And yet Hudson's acting nominations have been placed in the supporting roles.  It's a case of life imitating art, I guess.

Pirates of the Caribbean:  At World's End (***).  Another series of relentless misadventures involving pirates, sea myths, Davy Jones locker, and various hangers on, wrapping up the trilogy.  I liked it a lot better than most reviewers did, I suppose because I just sat back, relaxed and enjoyed the characters that I've liked through three movies now.  However, I still don't think the writers know when enough's enough.  As with the last installment, a little trimming would have helped here.

1408 (***).  Based on a Steven King short, it's about a travel writer who chases/debunks haunted inns.  He catches onto a room 1408 in a New York hotel, so makes arrangements to stay there.  And unlike most of the places he stays, this time the room has got a treat in store for him.  Alas, it wasn't as intense or suspenseful as I would have hoped.

Gay Zombie (*** GG Short).  A dead zombie is looking for love in West Hollywood.

Kali Ma (*** GG Short).  A gay Indian is taunted at school.  Watch out when his mom catches wind of it.

Mr_Right_22 (*** GG Short).  A nervous man waits for the "love of his life" online blind date to show up at a bar.

Scarred (*** GG Short).  A gay bashing goes full circle.

41 Sekunden (*** GG Short).  What happens when your girlfriend tells you that your best friend - and her ex - is a better kisser?  (in German)

Personal Security (*** GG Short).  A new and improved bar of soap touts an important new feature in this "commercial" set inside a men's prison shower.

Notes On A Scandal (***).  An older teacher craves a meaningful relationship with someone, and in her mind falls into one when she learns a secret about a younger teacher that could get the younger teacher arrested.  Great performances by Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett, but I sometimes felt I was watching a cheap TV movie, especially with the use of so much narration rather than actual storytelling.  And what I think is a first for any of my little capsule reviews:  What an obnoxious score!  The music was not just excessively loud, it was intrusive.  I guess Philip Glass was so concerned that we might miss the tension and suspense because of the nuances that Dench and Blanchett brought to their characters that he figured he'd use the score to hit us over the head with it.  They're great actors.  They certainly didn't need his help.

Tears Of The Black Tiger (***).  The son of a Thai peasant meets the daughter of an up and coming politician, but fate tears them apart as kids.  They meet again 10 years later at school, but fate tears them apart once again.  He ends up in a criminal gang.  Lots of shoot 'em ups, exaggerated violence, vibrant colors, and stylish outfits and backdrops.  But what came across in tight, fun action-packed previews seemed to drag on too long in a much slower-paced movie.

Babel (***).  The reviews never really grabbed me, and then it got nominated for an Oscar, so I figured I'd better check it out.  It is (yet) another one of those movies with several stories where the connections between them are slowly revealed through the movie.  Much like Crash, last year's Oscar winner, in that regard, except Crash hit the audience over the head with its message.  This one reveals how a gun ended up in the hands of some bored kids and the consequences of their actions.  Alas there wasn't enough emotional appeal to pull me into the story, although I did find the lives of the Moroccan and Mexican families worth watching.  As much as I have liked these multi-story movies, I think the everything-is-connected-to-everything genre needs a rest.  Or perhaps a decent parody.  A decent parody starring Kevin Bacon.

300 (***).  A few years back I went to see Sin City, based on Frank Miller's graphic novel, mostly because of descriptions of the visual presentation.  I ended up liking the movie a lot.  300 is based on another of his graphic novels, this one telling the story of how a small band of Spartans held off a Persian army of thousands.  This was also visually arresting, both the general animation and cinematography and the presentation of the Spartan army as a bunch of leather Speedo-clad muscle men.  But the story was less interesting than Sin City, and the acting was pretty wooden.

Ten Canoes (***).  A aboriginal Australian storyteller relates the story of a young aboriginal who covets the youngest wife of his older brother.  Although not as good as Atanarjuat, it was equally interesting for its insight into traditional aboriginal culture.  (in an Aboriginal language)

Gone Baby Gone (***).  A toddler is kidnapped from her lower class Boston home, and a P.I. is brought in to assist the police.  Interesting characters, and writer/director Ben Affleck captured his love for Boston, but the twist didn't resonate with me as much as I would have liked.

Ocean's 13 (***).  Another elaborate con by the Ocean's 11 gang.  I continue to like this gang even if the movies make their cons seem too easy to accomplish.

Rocky Balboa (***).  Rocky, haunted by memories of his late wife Adrian, gets back into the ring for one last fight.  Probably a better movie to end this franchise with than some of the last few.

Family Law (***).  A lawyer-teacher, the distant relationship he has with his top lawyer-father, and the distant relationship he has with his own young son are at the center of the movie.  A decent enough movie, but it felt like something that could have just as easily been examined in a TV movie.  A big draw for me was that it was filmed in Buenos Aires - I recognized some of the outside locales.

The Witnesses (*** GG).  Young gay love, an open straight relationship, and a middle aged man who craves sex but settles for companionship come together in France shortly before the young man contracts the emerging HIV virus.  And then the middle aged man turns out to be a doctor who decides to specialize in AIDS.  (in French)

Mommy's House (*** GG Short).  Gay bank robbers get stuck on a deserted road and end up spending the night at Mommy's House, which may be haunted.

Chalk Lines (*** GG Short).  Events in the life of a closeted youth at boarding school.

Children of Men (***).  It's 20 years into the future.  People have become infertile, and thus the aging world has become chaotic.  But an unexpected pregnancy means smuggling the pregnant young woman across England to the protected Human Project.  Kind of like crossing the disease-infected England in 28 Days Later or the zombie-infected England in Shaun of the Dead, but decidedly less interesting.  I guess the lesson I'm supposed to take away from this trio of movies is that the British don't handle a crisis very well.

Milind Soman Made Me Gay (***- GG Short).  The events and lusts surrounding the growing up and coming of age of a young Sikh-American immigrant interspersed with chatty gays talking about their own process of coming to terms or coming out.  Considering the Sikh angle, the movie could have had something more interesting to say than it did, and its emphasis on artsy imagery became quite a distraction after awhile.

Hollywood Dreams (**).  A lousy actress wannabe meets an actor whose climb to the top hinges (for some inexplicable reason) on his maintaining the image that he's gay.

Barbarella (**).  I didn't go in expecting much given the reputation of this movie, but I couldn't resist seeing it anyway.  Jane Fonda a.k.a. Barbarella goes from one dopey scene to the next on some distant planet in order to prevent Durand-Durand from reinitiating war.  So bad that you can see some campiness.  Alas, not enough campiness to keep you from seeing how bad it is.  Barbarella spends the last half of the movie working with a hunky angel portrayed by John Phillip Law.  But that was 40 years ago.  The hunk is now 70, according to IMDb.  Of note, mime Marcel Marceau had a speaking role in this movie, and Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour was among the studio musicians who worked on it.

Rock Pockets (** GG Short).  The significance of couples putting their hands in each other's back pocket at the fair, especially if you're gay.

2007 movie counts:

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Annual Favorite Movie List

These are my favorite movies of each year, going back a few years.  Sometimes my favorite movie was actually released the previous year, but I didn't see it until the year listed.  For those years, I've added in parentheses my favorite movie released during that year.

The numbers listed with each are the number of movies and film shorts I saw that year.

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Mark's Movie Ratings Guide

I generally prefer independent and art house-type movies over most mainstream movies.  The independents tend to be more creative, and they often challenge the audience to the extent that even some misfires are often more interesting than most mainstream movies are.  Most mainstream movies, with their vapid stars and audience-tested endings, have become way too formulaic for my tastes.

I use a four star (*) rating system, but in my system I take genre and budget into account.  If a movie basically meets expectations for its genre and studio or independent status, I award it three stars.  Thus, a low budget independent movie that tells its story in an interesting way can get the same four stars that a big budget Spielberg Saving Private Ryan-type movie can get.  This isn't the Oscars after all.

For this reason, most movies I see get three stars (+ or -).  Some rise well-above expectations to truly entertaining or mesmerizing levels.  Those get four stars.  Those that fall short of expectations tend to get two stars.  Truly awful movies only get one star.  Unlike a movie reviewer who has to see all movies, I can be rather selective about what I see, so there aren't that many two-star movies in my system, and one-star movies are extremely rare.

I support gay-themed cinema, using my ticket-buying to encourage more films in this genre (which does mean that the worst movies I see are more likely to be gay-themed because I often lower my standards to select them).  I rate movies on their gay content, using GG to indicate a gay-themed movie.

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