The Three Sisters from Bel-Air (2003)

Director: Sylvain Chomet
Country: France
Length: 78 minutes
Genre: Animation, Adventure

This is a French animated film about an elderly lady, Madame Souza who journeys through France searching for her kidnapped grandson, Champion. Along her journey she meets three sisters that were once famous performers and are now old, tired and forgotten.

The film has very, very little dialogue (I have been told there's 10 spoken words), while the dialogue is spoken in French and there are no subtitles, it is not at all necessary to understand what is said in order to know what the movie is about or what's going on.

What makes this film so great, aside from the retro-styled animation, is the mind-bottling soundtrack. Most of the music is performed using miscellaneous items you would find in your home (vacuum cleaners, newspapers, pots and pans) and bicycle rims or other old junk.

This is a fantastic film and one of my favorites. I strongly recommend it to anyone who's a fan of Animation or Foreign films.

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American Movie (1999)

Director: Chris Smith
Country: USA
Length: 107 minutes
Genre: Documentary

a 90's cult classic documentary, American Movie follows independent movie director Mark Borchardt as he struggles with poor financing, very terrible planning and borderline alcoholism. The movie follows Mark as he films his movie "Coven" in order to raise funds to film his masterpiece, Northwestern. Everything you see is completely real and absolutely hilarious.

The best part of the film are the people in it. Mark, his friends and family are some of the most ridiculously funny people I've ever seen in a movie, that happen to not be actors. While the film is guaranteed to make you laugh, it will also make you appreciate how dedicated and hardworking the people in the independent movie industry really are. There are a number of scenes that show really personal issues which Mark faces that I could relate to, and I'm sure you will to. So mix yourself a peppermint schnapps and sprite, and enjoy this goofy documentary.

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Gummo (1997)

Director: Harmony Korine
Country: US
Length: 86 minutes
Genres: Drama

One night a few years ago I was channel surfing and paused on IFC (my usual go to entertainment for insomnia). On the screen there were two teenage boys riding bikes down a hill to the song "Dragonaut" by the California stoner metal band, Sleep. I didn't know what the hell I was watching but I was really intrigued by the music and continued to watch.

Harmony Korine (who wrote the script for "Kids") directed this film about Xenia, Ohio a town that after being hit by a tornado in 1974 just never seemed to recover. While there is no linear plot, the film instead consists of random clips of the towns residents, many of whom are homeless or very disturbing.

I watched this movie about five times and still couldn't find the meaning of it until a friend explained that there was none. He just told me that the only way to understand it is "to relate to it".

What do you think? Please leave thoughts and feedback if you've seen this movie or after you see it, I'm really curious to hear what others think about it. I'm going out of town for a couple of weeks, I look forward everyones posts!

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