Erik Moe: Critic at Large

Hunger = highly recommended

Hunger is brutal and beautiful. The film tells the story of Bobby Sands, who led the 1981 IRA hunger strike at Maze Prison in Northern Ireland. Not easy viewing by any means. The visual depth and humanity created by artist-director Steve McQueen earned him a comparison to Rembrandt from the Guardian’s Jonathan Jones.

• Niloofar = recommended. The Smithsonian Freer and Sackler Galleries had a nice series of Iranian films going. Sadly, I caught only one.
• Since Otar Left = highly recommended. A Georgian film to follow the Georgian feast.
• Nollywood Lady = fine.
• The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers = fine.
• Ajami = fine. A best foreign film Oscar nominee. Impressive for the use of untrained actors, but halfway through I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was just watching the Israeli version of Crash.
• The Devil and Miss Jones = highly recommended. Part of a Jean Arthur retrospective at AFI Silver, this is essentially a screwball version of “Undercover Boss” amid a union organizing drive at a New York department store. Every labor activist out there will thoroughly enjoy the ending.
• Terribly Happy = recommended. Aptly billed as Coen Brothers-esque.
• Up in the Air = recommended. Emotionally not all that different from driving a Volkswagen Bug into a brick wall.

Tags: daniel ellsberg, hunger, prisons, steve mcqueen