As I wrote in the comments – I have some serious nostalgia associated with this multi-director film from 1995. It was back in high school, almost 10 years now and I picked up movies as my another interest (more info here). At first I was fascinated with Jarmusch’s movies so inevitably I came across this cinema-verité‘d pseudodocumentary shot by Paul Auster and Wang brothers.

Jarmusch has a role here as well (Bob) and you get to see some major stars of the mid-90′s such as Roseanne (from the sitcom) or what seems to be a guest appearance of Lou Reed (video here). The main dude that serves as narrator as well is Harvey Keitel, a tough bloke from Brooklyn. It’s also important to note that this film is a follow up to Smoke which is also great.
Mel Gorham as passionate Violet is also great with her mirror monologue. The overall feeling of Blue in The Face is very relaxed and chilled and I’ve got so many good memories tied to it that it’s hard for me not to recommend it to all of you.

You can get Blue in The Face on Amazon.com for only $6.99 and Smoke on DVD for $19.98. This post is the last one for this competition so I thank mostly to James for coming back here and I hope to drag more people in here in may.

By guessing the past two shots James just reached Jizz rank! This earns him a t-shirt so congrats James and thanks for being loyal visitor. Seems like Don Siegel’s classic Dirty Harry (affiliate link) is your lucky one!

Martin Scorsese’s newest addition is definitely something you should check out because it’s so unlike most of his movies. At first you might get a notion that this is a kids’ movie but that turns around in the second half where it suddenly becomes self-reflected take on early cinema of George Melies. I could spot Scorsese’s obsession with history interpretation and search for beginnings of our modern culture. It’s very probable that Melies had a big impact on later fictional cinema and I do appreciate making it more than simple historic film.

Besides this main idea the story is intertwined with little boy’s adventures in Paris of early 1900s that is rendered using great sets and sceneries with fairy-tale like camera and visuals. The whole movie is sort of bathed in warm tones much like Disney’s non-animated stuff plus there is mystery automaton subplot included so I can see this might ring well with family audience as well.

Ottway (Liam Neeson) is a sniper that works for alaskan oil company. He shoots wolves from apart so the oil can be harvested. Ottway has issues and is a hard ass too. He and seven other colleague crash in alaskan wilderness.

The paragraph above should be sufficient enough to give you rough idea what’s gonna be happening. Liam Neeson has profiled himself as a strange kind of action movie actor (you can read my article about twist in his career here). The Grey is a great survival thriller – people get ripped apart by wolves every 20 minutes or so. The imminent danger of death brings all the characters together and they create a very dear bunch that you crave for.

All the visuals are dipped in white with group gradually moving throughout woods, trying to escape the wolves’ den. Music (listen to it on Youtube) is notable, bit beyond average thanks to Marc Streitenfeld who worked on blockbuster hits such as Gladiator, Last Samurai or Blackhawk Down.

There is definitely a strong feeling of “everything goes to shit” as the group gets thinner and deeper in the woods – you get some really authentic moments and this keeps you engaged. This recipe has worked in the past (The Edge, Into The Wild) and when it’s enhanced by great cast, music and solid directing, there’s not really a chance of sub-par movie experience. Definitely one of the few films I enjoyed in April.

As usual, I’ll offer you my affiliate link for DVD for $19.96, Blu-ray Two Disc edition for $23.99 and Amazon Instant Video for only $14.99.