My Own Private Oscars

My Own Private Oscars In the week after the Oscars, I wanted to share my favorite films of the last year – some are entertaining, some are spiritual, some are informational and all of them highly recommended.

Films

• Munich – an intelligent and sensitive film about the 1972 Olympic Games tragedy and its human back-story

• Little Miss Sunshine – sweet, touching and funny family drama with quirky and endearing characters Nobody Knows – tragic true story with amazing acting by a ensemble cast of kids; beautiful, different and not at all Hollywood; Japanese

• Borat – not exactly PC, but simply put, it is one of the funniest movies I have ever seen A Very Long Engagement – Audrey Tautou is irresistibly charming and that’s worth the price of admission

• Science of Sleep – unique, endearing and inventive film like nothing I have every seen before; Gael Garcia Bernal is amazing as the hero that tows the line between innocent and crazy.

• Gloomy Sunday – beautiful and tragic period piece with great music. I couldn’t get enough of the title song; German

• Behind The Sun – beautifully shot and powerful film demonstrating the futility of revenge; Brazilian

• Akeelah and the Bee – inspiring, positive feel-good family film

• Pan’s Labirynth – visually stunning, emotionally intelligent, psychological drama that seamlessly blends fantasy and reality

Documentaries

• Inconvenient Truth – an important film to see; it has been the tipping point in the popular view-point on global climate change; the protagonists (us) in the film are both the villains and victims of the story.

• The Future of Food – a thorough expose of the food industry; this is my version of a horror film

• The Secret – an inspiring documentary of the Law of Attraction – “What you think, feel and vibrate is what you attract into your life.”

• Who Killed the Electric Car – this film just fuels my own desire to eliminate my own personal dependence on oil

• Unknown White Male – a story of memory loss that inspires discussions of nature vs. nurture and ego vs. personality

• Shortcut to Nirvana – a documentary of the 2001 Kumbh Mela, a cross between Burning Man and a spiritual Woodstock, held every 12 years in India

• Tibet: Cry of the Snow Lion – a story of the oppression of the Tibetan people at the hands of the Chinese government

• The Story of the Weeping Camel – a touching and delightful documentary of a camel and a Mongolian family in my favorite documentary of the year