DEATH OF TRADITIONAL CINEMA

MONEYBALL, based on the book of the same name by Michael Lewis, reinvigorates the sports drama genre, with its underdog tale and protagonist filled with conviction, yet what makes it a must-see is its exciting look at how the business of sports is played, which is certainly not via conformity. Brad Pitt is in top shape portraying real-life Oakland Athletics General Manager Billy Beane, a former baseball player turned scout trying to manage a losing team. The action begins as Beane defies industry standards and experiments using a calculated approach into predicting success, known as sabermetrics. With the help of Yale-educated economics graduate Peter Brand (Jonah Hill), Beane pushes the limits, much to the dismay of almost everyone around him. The movie takes its time to let its characters explore their potentials, and to build up the result of its analytical premise. In between, flashbacks of Beane’s life as a youngster with his life ahead of him help shape the decisions his chara...

BABEL is a cinematic achievement for filmmaker Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu, proving he really is the master of interconnected storytelling. Inarritu has come a long way from AMORES PERROS, and while his debut film is a masterpiece in itself, BABEL, his third film improves his visual language a lot better, his emotional and moral pull more visceral. Working once more from a screenplay by Guillermo Arriaga, BABEL, like the biblical tower that caused mankind’s diverse language barrier succeeded in telling a single story from multiple and multicultural points of view. You see, what BABEL really wants to emphasize is how language creates communication and miscommunication; Inarritu translated it onscreen by showing four separate encounters set in three distant countries. A couple (Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett) travels to Morocco to recover from marital problems, possibly grief; a young Japanese girl (Rinko Kikuchi) struggles with her deaf-muteness, and the troubles it presents, including...