Tobias Ximénez (TobiasXimenez)

The fine line between dreams and reality has been Neil Gaiman's signature obsession on paper for sometime, and I believe stop-motion master Henry Selick (JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH) has brought one of the author's best stories to the screen with his dark adaptation of CORALINE.



This is one of the best uses of 3D technology that I've seen at the cinema, there aren't gimmicky shots of shit flying at the audience for shock sake (MY BLOODY VALENTINE : 3D), instead Selick uses the technique as a means to immerse the audience visually in an otherworldly atmosphere where landscapes and objects feel like they have real texture. You feel like you become a part of this ALICE IN WONDERLAND quality story, It's really a thrill for the senses while it lasts, wish it was longer though. Every frame of the movie has an imaginative richly layered depth, there's always something interesting going on in every corner of every frame.



Although she's a hyper stylized character with a ginormous head, this plucky little girl is very endearing and realistic. I think Coraline embodies the imagination and longing of adolescent life at that age so well, makes me wonder where Neil Gaiman got his inspiration for her character from. In a slightly different way, I think she's just as good a role model for young girls as Abigail Breslin's title character from last years KIT KITTRIDGE : AN AMERICAN GIRL.

In the realm of anti-humanist comedy, director Jared Hess almost takes the cake for offender #1

Without a doubt one of the most audacious and influential shifts in cinematic history alongside CITIZEN KANE (1941) and probably my favorite film. With this film Stanley Kubrick changed the way films were made forever. He changed "the form" so to speak. The way they were scripted, photographed, edited, designed, the use of music, etc...the list goes on and on. This enigmatic work of art continues, to this day, to cause major culture shock. Controversy and questions still erupt over the meanings of the film's countless metaphysical symbols. Kubrick wanted audiences to clash against conventional and nationalistic outlooks on a wide range of aspects of human life. He understood that we as a species are curious creatures that must raise our level of consciousness to more planetary concerns and he wanted to present us with a motion picture that could articulate that concept in a poetic and operatic way. I believe this film is ultimately about mankind needing to transcend narrow logic and ascend into dimensions that are greater than his limited aim. I do not believe it to be a pessimistic film as many have suggested. I feel like it's a work based in self-discovery and intelligent contemplation.

I truly believe Jane Campion to be the greatest living female director. Her work is so brave and poetically moving. There aren't enough words to describe the transcendental qualities and assured brilliance of THE PIANO - my personal favorite of 1993.