Philadelphia

Despite its classic western films cliches, Philadelphia is a wonderful film that presents the viewers with a controversial discussion that is still relevant today. This movie was released in 1993 during a period when HIV/AIDS and homosexuality was extremely stigmatic and shunned upon if someone was either gay, had HIV/AIDS or was/had both. The film had a great cast including Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington as the main actors, also Antonio Banderas, Jason Robards and many others. The film's tone was set really well, allowing its viewers to truly understand and feel what Andrew Beckett is experiencing, putting the viewers in his shoes. The film's controversy breaks down walls of homophobia through sympathy and compassion one may get from watching Philadelphia.

Babel

Watching Babel, a film directed and written by Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu brings a great emotional suspense. The film connects 4 different perspectives through different characters settled in 4 different continent. Each side of the story has their own set of challenges which intertwines the different perspectives together. The film starts off slow presenting each culture as accurately as possible, the Mexican culture, Muslim culture, Japanese culture, and American. That is one aspect of the film that I really enjoyed is how the director connects different cultures and merges them into one big plot, with their own side stories which creates a great suspense for the viewers.

The Shining

I've seen this film many times, yet there are many things for me to understand from this movie. This movie is a fantastic psychological thriller, making one feel all sorts of things as you watch. This is the opposite of all our recent cliche horror films we've seen in the last couple of years. Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece truly was a unique film using various unique methods to portrait the tone of the film. One of my favorite scenes of this film was when Danny was riding his tricycle around the hotel, and suddenly falls into this psychological paranoia trance, and the scene just goes berserk, when he starts seeing them on the floor, slaughtered then again seeing them standing while they talk to him in this demonic voice. This film is a phenomenal film, and I would recommend anyone who's up for an interesting psychological thrill.

The Island

After finishing the film The Island, by Michael Bay, I wasn't satisfied the film included many cliche action film methods that just wasn't pleasing. I liked the concept of it being a "dystopian" story,allowing the audience to feel the tension and doubt their surroundings and the way things are today. I personally wasn't expecting a different setting and feel to this film due to the director Michael Bay. He is known for his exaggerated actions in his film including, explosions, destruction, and loud sound effects to combine his scenes.

Inception

Inception. The film known for its insane mind bending plot, making it challenging for its viewers to comprehend at first. The film has numerous scenes that catches the viewers attention for example, when Ariadne goes into Cobb's dream which is taking place in a Hotel room. Later in that scene, Dom and Ariadne quickly enter the elevator and keep going on different levels in Cobb's dream. This was a clever and well portrayed scene of a very abstract concept yet managed to express that feeling as the scenes keep changing in each level. This film is also known for its ways of defying physics. Two other interesting scene that are eye catching, The scene where Arthur is running all around the hotel hallway due to no gravity during "the kick". The other one is when Cobb and Ariadne are walking together in a dream for the first time, and Ariadne starts to experiment with her dreams, creating and shifting logic across her own dream state.

The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou

My favorite scene in the film The Life Aquatic by Wes Anderson, is when the team is going on a dive and Anderson portrays a stunning cinematography by including so many bright colors in one scene. All these bright colors blending together creating this sort of surreal animated texture to it. It also includes interesting animation when the fish swim pass Steve Zissou which makes the movie kinda odd to watch yet really interesting to see many different movie making styles in one movie. This film is a difficult movie for everyone to get into and enjoy since it's a very slow paced artsy film, but nonetheless a Wes Anderson masterpiece.