21 Grams (2003)

Acting was very good, but the story was fairly depressing. I liked the non-sequential style used, regardless of how many times it's been  done before. It was a very well made movie, but it still left me feeling
unsatisfied.

Rating: C+

Melancholia (2011)

I swore I would never see another Lars Von Trier film again after the nightmare that was Antichrist. But I kept reading things that said this one was worth seeing, so I acquiesced. Things move very slowly, sometimes in slow motion. It’s dreary. The wedding scene is as boring as the one in Rachel Getting Married. Halfway through you’ll be ready for the planets to collide so the film with end. I used the FF button to get there faster.

Rating: F

The Science Of Sleep (La Science des Rêves) (2006)

If Michel Gondry makes it, I'll see it. Sure, not everything he does is a hit—case in point: Human Nature—but at least when he misses it's a wonderfully eye-popping miss. Such is the case with Science of Sleep.

The film is bursting with creativity. So much so, that it sometimes forgets that stories need to be told and plots must be unfolded. Not surprisingly, the film itself is concocted in a similar dreamlike state that the main character Stéphane seems to find himself in.

You know how when you suddenly wake up from the most amazing dream, where you remember almost everything and can't wait to tell someone about it? But then when you do start to tell someone about your dream, you sound retarded and words can't quite do justice to the images in your head.

Well, I think that's what happened with Michel's vision this time around. It got garbled in the translation from dream to film. I'll never stop appreciating his attempts though, because sometimes the end result is a masterpiece like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

Rating: C-