SHINE A LIGHT

(Paramount Vantage)
Runtime: 122 min

Scorsese and The Stones, a magical combination on the screen and on your ears. Martin Scorsese documenting two 2006 performances that took place during The Rolling Stones A Bigger Bang tour, this is also the first documentary features which open this year's Berlin International Film Festival. Intercut with archival footage of their career, their performance are awesome as ever. It is clear that this documentary was meant for hard core Stones fans, since there are no song title appeared whatsoever, but unless you live in a cave for the past 50 years or holed up in Paris Hilton's basement listening to her so-called album, anyone from both side of the equator can distinguish between "Jumping Jack Flash" and "I Can't Get No Satisfaction".

The lensing and camera movement are vibrant, it can capture Mick Jagger's theatrical performance and eccentricity of Keith Richard, mind you, tracking shot is Scorsese's trademark and he also employs nine Academy Award winning and nominated cinematographer. Not only that, with Bill Clinton and added performance of Christina Aguilera, Jack White, and Buddy Guy, this is may be the most intimate documentary ever made.

For a band whose age qualified to retire and enjoy their success, kudos for their infinite passion for music and performance which shaped our culture. With this documentary, fans (and you) can get ultimate satisfaction.

For those who wonders about the song title, here's the performance list in chronological order:
1. Jumpin' Jack Flash
2. Shattered
3. She Was Hot
4. All Down the Line
5. Loving Cup - with Jack White
6. As Tears Go By (Jagger/Richards/Oldham)
7. Some Girls
8. Just My Imagination (Norman Whitfield/Barrett Strong)
9. Far Away Eyes
10. Champagne & Reefer (Muddy Waters) - with Buddy Guy
11. Tumbling Dice
12. You Got the Silver - lead vocal by Keith Richards
13. Connection (incomplete/cut with 1999 interview clips) - lead vocal by Keith Richards
14. Sympathy for the Devil
15. Live with Me - with Christina Aguilera
16. Start Me Up
17. Brown Sugar
18. (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction
19. Shine a Light (incomplete; audio only)

THE DARK KNIGHT

(Warner Bros)
Runtime: 2 Hours 32 minutes

From Gothic to Psychotic, Nolan has brought a new kind of superhero. The Dark Knight is very haunting, with chilling score from Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard and a perfect directing, no wonder the fans will scream for the third movie.

Joker’s diabolical scheme cost Batman’s sanity and in the end it left the viewers wondering about the amount of hard core nihilism and violence in this film. Surely this is not for children or the weak hearted.

The late Heath Ledger has stolen the show, and he stole it with grace. Throughout the film, he devises traps that force Batman (Christian Bale), Commissioner Gordon (Gary Oldman) and District Attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) to make near impossible moral and ethical decisions. The transformation of Harvey Dent into Two Face also got a nice portion, viewers doesn’t feel that Harvey is just some addition in this 2 hours 32 minutes long film, Harvey, Batman and Joker are the triumvirate that makes this film alive. A small trip to Hong Kong makes this film realistic and Chicago plays a good role as Gotham.

Unlike most summer movies who sacrifice the story for the sake of mind-numbing special effect, The Dark Knight has a deep and poetic drama. It creates a world where being a superhero is at best a double-edged sword and no triumph is likely to be anything but short-lived. With this film, Nolan has surpassed ever expectation, and if there’s a third outing, better be more superb than this, because Nolan has set the bar for superhero movies higher.

IN BRUGES

(Focus Features)
Runtime: 107 min

If Fargo located in Europe it will be in Bruges, Belgium (pronounced "broozh") only without snow and naive Sheriff. Closer to Coen's Miller's Crossing, the dark comedy and characters resembles the crime world of Coen brothers.

This half-comic, half-serious account of two Irish hitmen who are sent to medieval city of Bruges to cool down after a job went bad kicks in with Colin Farrell as Ray and Brendan Gleeson as Ken. The reason why they were sent there explained by a bloody flashback. From Ken's voiceover it was also revealed that they were sent there to cool down by their boss, Harry (Ralph Fiennes), a character that only shows up in the last third of the film.

Verbally and behaviourly they have a love-hate relationship and the plot revolves on how they spent their day in the "fairytale" city with cobbled stone road, medieval village, canals and pristinely preserved Gothic architecture plus the peculiarities of their character. Ray also bumps in with some locals, like Chloe (Clemence Poesy), a charming drug dealer working on a film shoot, and dwarf/midget actor Jimmy (Jordan Prentice). Then the story moves in a fascinating way, full with surprising and bloody coincidences (they are on a small town anyway so they will bump with each other again). The good thing about this film is how it stir your emotion, you don't know whether you should laugh or cry as they both regret about a hit gone bad, but they didn't regret about the hit itself.