Fascinating movies

Other fascinating movies we've watched recently;

"Donnie Darko". It achieved cult classic status while flying under my radar, and I finally thought to put it on my Blockbuster list and thus end the wait. Wow. I appreciated it even more after Googling it and reading some snippets about the back story (not all of which I absorbed from the film after one watching). I don't want to say too much lest someone want to see it without my opinion clouding their minds... I appreciate how open to interpretation the whole thing is, even though the ending does suggest one truth. In that sense it reminds me of "Pan's Labyrinth", in which to the very end it is not clear whether the true story is in the girl's imagination, or in the harsh and violent "real" world.

"The History Boys". I read a snippet about this in the City Pages, and remembered to pick it up at the video store. My. How literate and theatrical (as it well should be, having begun life as a theater production). Loved it. Beautiful storytelling. Great characters. Great faces. Subtle. Dramatic.

"Children of Men". Wow. Bleak, desperate vision of the future - a near future in which infertility is rampant and the youngest person in the world is 20 years old. Clive Owen blows me away. I haven't seen him enough; he rocks the screen. Michael Caine is marvelous as an old hippie growing and selling his own pot. Funny man. The film made me think about how lucky we are to be living in the world we do... and also how fragile it all is.