Matthew Odam’s Top 10 movies
the CIA and doggedly pursues leads about the whereabouts of bin Laden, despite hundreds of dead ends and bureaucratic bumps. And the key break in the case comes not from torture, but from bribery. It’s a thrilling story,
1) “Amour.”
After watching this movie, I wandered out of the theater and just stared at the sundappled hills of West Austin, trying to collect my thoughts. Awed, moved, inspired, heartbroken. Writer-director Michael Haneke’s story of an aging Parisian couple takes place almost entirely in their apartment, as former piano instructor Georges ( JeanLouis Trintignant) ushers his ailing wife, Anne (Emmanuelle Riva), toward death. You feel the full measure of the frustration, sadness, anger and acceptance that comes with terminal illness and death. The performances are amazing, the mood is taut and the effect is almost overwhelming. It’s a movie that’s hard to recommend, but one everyone should see. (Scheduled to open in Austin Jan. 25.)
2) “Silver Linings Playbook.”
I could sit here and pick apart this movie, poke holes in it and take all the joy out of my experience of having seen it. But I don’t want to do that. I want to remember falling for the mania and whimsy and the touching father-and-son story. I want to remember the feeling I had while crying watching Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper’s characters dance to Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan’s “Girl From the North Country” duet. Sometimes you just have ending with the raid on bin Laden’s secret compound in Pakistan. Although “Zero Dark Thirty” is rooted in current events, it will probably be as captivating 50 years to allow yourself to be swept away by a movie and its performances. Call me a softie.
3) “Zero Dark Thirty.”
Kathryn Bigelow’s dense and captivating film takes the audience on an unsentimental journey through a decade that changed our country and world. Through the lens of a deeply personal story, the