Peculiar Reviewer

The first Chilean film ever to be nominated for a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar is Pablo Larraín's No , which revolves around the 1988 Chilean national plebiscite of General Augusto Pinochet for another 8-year term as Chile's President. Pinochet had forcefully taken over control of Chile in 1973, overthrowing Salvador Allende's socialist government. In this referendum, the public is asked to vote a controversial "yes" or "no" to continue the military dictatorship that has existed in their country for the past fifteen years. A political retelling without the fluff and glamorization, Larraín blends together actual found footage through the advertising campaigns of both parties in this examination of the ad tactics used to bring a nation to a decision for their country. Gael García Bernal plays an in-demand advertising executive who is persuaded by the opposing side to run the No campaign, which aims...

It's not often when a movie comes along that takes hold of you throughout its duration, feeling its tension that cuts like a knife. The film that took home Iran's first Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2012, A Separation is new on DVD this week. The film begins with the separation of Nader and Simin, an urban upper middle-class couple residing in Tehran. Simin does not want their 11-year-old daughter living under the predominate conditions in Iran, unable to get her husband Nader to agree on the family leaving together. Writer/producer/director Asghar Farhadi gives us a somewhat simple plot, combined with a calculated pacing to portray the breaking of a bond with intense fervor. Amidst this separation lay the contrasting ideologies about religion, gender roles, and morals. Much like a classic Hitchcock thriller, delicate investigation unravels characters' intentions. A Separation ...