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Eugenia made some excellent points on her blog from September 27

The Great Debaters

This film is set in 1935.  It's based on a true story and stars Denzel Washington, who also directed the film.  Washington stars as a professor at Wiley College.  He is the leader of the school debate team.  The school is a negro school and Washington attempts throughout the film to express his political views through his students.  The climax of the film is when the team gets invited to debate Harvard, the leading white team in the nation.  A last minute topic change creates tension in the team as they try to write their arguments (something that Washington's character had previously done for them).  The team form Wiley college ends up winning the final debate, and the film ends this way.  The film itself is a great commentary on the time in which it is set.  One great line used in the debates is "In Texas negroes get lynched." I enjoyed the social commentary of this film and highly recommend it.

Richard III

This film is based on the play by William Shakespeare.  It stars Ian McKellan as Richard.  The story is a tale of betrayal and murder.  Richard is bent on becoming king and will stop at nothing to take the crown.  This includes murdering not only his brothers, but also his nephews.  The most interesting part  about the film is it's modern feel.  Instead of being set in medieval times the film is set around the 1930's.  Because of this Richard III is a type of Hitler character.  The film definitely portrays him as such.  Also instead of swords there are guns and instead of cannons, tanks.  What was most interesting to me is that though the scenes and characters were modernized the dialogue was not.  The characters still spoke in the tongue of Shakespeare.  This made some parts of the film slightly hard to understand.  The story is well put together and easy to follow.  I would recommend this film to any fan of Shakespeare. 

Adaptation

This film stars Nicolas Cage and Meryl Streep.  Cage plays a writer name Charlie Kaufman who is trying to write a script based on a book about flowers.  Streep plays the woman who wrote the book.  As Kaufman tries to adapt the script he runs into a lot of problems.  The film is most interesting because of its reflexive elements.  For instance the film Kaufman is attempting to write is the film you are watching.  So, not only is the film a film about filmmaking it is a film about the making of itself.  Throughout Kaufman gives little story ideas into his tape recorder that have either been in the movie already or appear later.  Even in the end we hear a voiceover of Kaufman describing the ending as the ending is happening.  The film is credited as being written by Charlie and Donald Kaufman.  Donald is an imaginary character and as a matter of interest was the first imaginary person to be nominated for an academy award.  In the film Donald is also played by Nicolas Cage.  He represents the alter ego of the actual writer Charlie.  Throughout the film Donald is writing an outrageous script about a serial killer with multiple personalities.  In the end of the film Charlie asks Donald for help with his film, and the actual film suddenly takes a thriller twist.  The movie is filled with reflexive elements.  Too many to write in a couple of paragraphs.  I would recommend this film to anyone that is interested in screenwriting, or reflexivity.  It is a marvelous piece.

The Count of Monte Cristo

This movie is a tale of betrayal and vengeance.  It tells the story of a man betrayed by his best friend and how he gets his revenge.  Jim Caviezel plays Edmond Dantes, the man who later becomes the count of monte cristo.  His performance is excellent and very convincing.  When in prison he plays a man who is nearing insanity very well.  Richard Harris stars as a priest who was taken prisoner for disobeying orders from Napoleon.  His performance is entertaining to say the least.  The film is full of wonderful camera techniques and rich colors.  The cinematography is superb.  One particular shot that comes to mind shows a man gambling away his fortune then effortlessly zooms past him to focus on two characters watching him from the other side of the room.  Also, the final sword fight is wonderfully choreographed and well edited to give a feeling of anxiety to the audience as they watch two friends fight to the death.  This is definitely a film I would recommend watching.

Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon

This film is definitely not a classic martial arts film. It's more of a love story, but still has quite a few action fight scenes. The story is a bit hard to follow. And the fact that it is in Chinese and the dialogue must be read doesn't make the film easier to understand. The basic storyline is about a girl who wishes she were something else other than herself. She is a governor's daughter who wants to be a warrior. She was trained in the fighting style of the Wudan, as the film calls it, by a murdering woman who stole the secrets from a legendary Wudan warrior after killing him with poison. The young girl, Jen, is being forced into an arranged marriage and, of course, is in love with someone else. She ends up running away and to escape the life she left behind becomes a warrior by stealing a sword and picking fights with men in taverns. This being my first time seeing the film, I found it hard to understand. Perhaps a second viewing would bring more of the story together and make it more enjoyable. The film is quite different from any martial arts film I've seen. One large difference I noted was that the supposed hero of the film dies. It also focuses more on the love of two warriors, and how their love could never be rather than the fighting and winning (though there is enough of that to not disappoint). The strangest thing about the film is the character's abilities to fly based on their training in the Wudan. At some points it seems as though they are flying, though it could just be that they move so effortlessly, jumping and climbing, that it appears as though they are flying. Either way it was kind of strange. It is a film worth watching.

This Film is Not Yet Rated

This is probably the most entertaining documentary I've seen.  Filmmaker Kirby Dick takes on the MPAA to make his documentary about the rating system.  It brings up several interesting points about what gets a movie an NC-17 rating instead of an R rating.  He interviews several filmmakers whose films received NC-17 ratings.  One main theme that seemed to be in all those films was unusual sexual themes, such as homosexual sex.  Dick points out that scenes of homosexual sex gave movies NC-17 ratings while scenes shot in similar fashion of straight sex received an R rating.  The thing I found most interesting that I did not know before is that the people who rate movies are kept secret from the public.  Dick actually hires a private investigator to find out the names of the people.  The amateur PI succeeds and the names of the people are revealed in the film.  Some other topics that are covered in the film are the idea of violence vs sex.  It is brought up in the film that in Europe the ratings are exactly opposite.  In the US, the more sexual material there is in a film the harsher the rating, but in Europe films receive harsher ratings for violence.  One man in the film states that he feels the films that portray the actual results of violence should receive a lower rating and the films filled with "fantasy" violence, or violence without blood, should receive a higher rating.  He believes that teenagers should see the results of violent acts instead of being led to believe in a fantasy world where no one bleeds when they get shot.  Another point the film brings out is that the MPAA favors studio films over Independent films.  One independent filmmaker submitted his film and received an NC-17 rating.  When he asked what he could change to get an R rating he was told that the raters don't take notes so he would just have to change some things and resubmit the film for a new rating.  Later the same filmmaker submitted a film he was making in association with Paramount studio.  This time when the film received an NC-17 the MPAA provided him with specific details on what to change in order to get an R rating.  In the end of the film Dick submits his own film to the MPAA and because of the graphic sex scenes taken from various NC-17 films his film also receives an NC-17.  He then goes through the process of an appeal, where the members of the appeals board are also kept secret.  It's interesting to note that during the appeal filmmakers are not allowed to reference films with similar content that received a lower rating.  Dick again hires the PI to find out the names of the appeals board members and discovers that most are very well paid members of large production companies.  Something I found extremely interesting is that there are two clergy on the appeals board.  One is from the Catholic church and one is from the Episcopalian church.  The clergy don't actually cast a vote, but they are there to influence the vote.  It's interesting that the clergy are always from those two religions.  The board relies on two men from two specific Christian religions, to represent the morality of the nation.  Dick ends up losing his appeal and rejects the films rating, which is the right of the filmmaker, his film was released without a rating.  The film is put together very well and is very informative.  I would recommend this film to anyone who'd like to learn more about how the ratings system works, but do give the warning that it did receive an NC-17 rating before it was rejected.