Table of Contents
Introduction vi
127 Hours 2
3:10 to Yuma 5
Adaptation 8
World Hotspots #1: Europe 10
Amélie 11
Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy 13
Animal Kingdom 15
Antichrist 17
The Artist 20
Shattered Glasses: What happened to Hollywood's 3D dream? 22
Avatar 23
The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call -New Orleans 26
Black Swan 28
Blue Valentine 31
Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan 34
Long Live the New Flesh #1: Actors 36
The Bourne Supremacy 37
Bowling for Columbine 39
Brokeback Mountain 41
Captain America: The First Avenger 43
Capturing the Friedmans 45
True Stories: Ten of the best documentaries 47
Carnage 48
Casino Royale 50
City of God (Cidade de Deus) 52
Cloverfield 54
Collateral 56
The Dark Knight 58
Tights! Camera! Action! The unstoppable rise of the comic-book movie 61
Dark Water 62
The Day After Tomorrow 64
The Departed 67
Oops! Flops, Farragos and Fandangos: Movies everyone would rather forget 69
District 9 70
Donnie Darko 73
Downfall 75
Drive 77
Long Live the New Flesh #2: Actresses 80
Eden Lake 81
Elephant 84
Enter the Void 86
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind 88
Far From Heaven 90
Deja View: Best and worst remakes 92
Femme Fatale 93
The Fighter 95
Fish Tank 98
Cruel Intentions: The new cinema of suffering 101
Funny Games U.S 102
Gomorrah 104
Gone Baby Gone 106
Good Bye Lenin! 109
Down to Earth: Demise of the Hollywood star 111
Gran Torino 112
Grizzly Man 114
Hanna 117
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban 119
World Hotspots #2: Asia 122
Hero 123
Hidden (Caché) 125
A History of Violence 127
Hostel 129
The Hunger Games 131
Breaking the Celluloid Ceiling: Women directors 133
The Hurt Locker 134
Ichi the Killer 136
The Illusionist 138
Inception 141
Inglourious Basterds 143
Grand Theft Movie! Is piracy destroying the film industry? 145
Iron Man 146
Juno 149
The King's Speech 151
Knocked Up 154
Let The Right One In 157
Little Miss Sunshine 159
The Lives of Others 161
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring 163
Virtual Unreality: Performance capture 166
Lost in Translation 167
Midnight in Paris 169
Milk 172
Moneyball 174
Moon 177
Long Live the New Flesh #3: Directors 179
Mulholland Drive 180
No Country for Old Men 183
Oldboy 185
Pan's Labyrinth 187
World Hotspots #3: The Americas 190
Persepolis 191
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl 193
A Prophet 195
Punch-Drunk Love 197
The Road 199
The Royal Tenenbaums 202
Shaun of the Dead 205
Shutter Island 207
The Little Movies that Could: American indies 210
A Single Man 211
The Skin I Live In 213
The Social Network 215
Spirited Away 218
The Station Agent 220
Sunshine 223
Super 8 226
Synecdoche, New York 228
Team America: World Police 230
War! What movies is it good for? 232
There Will Be Blood 233
Toy Story 3 236
Transformers 238
The Tree of Life 240
Twilight 242
United 93 244
Up in the Air 247
WALL-E 249
Family-Friendly Film: Movies for the matinee crowd 251
We Need to Talk About Kevin 253
The Wrestler 255
Index 258
Picture credits 264
