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Reviews
Das schreckliche Mädchen (1990)
All around great film
Das Schreckliche Maedchen (The Nasty Girl) is a great film by virtually any measure. Michael Verhoeven does a fine job directing, the story is engrossing, and Lena Stolze is simply amazing. Her performance as Sonja throughout the movie demands unheard of range. She portrays Sonja from early teens throughout adulthood, and at no point do you question it. She looks and acts the appropriate age at all times. This may be the finest performance by an actress ever.
The story of a girl raised in postwar Germany and her search for the truth regarding her town's history during the war is touching, thought-provoking, and realistic (Actually based on a true story). This should be required viewing in any history class, not just for the historical facts of the movie, but for the portrayal of the revisionism that can take place to put history in a better light by distorting the truth. This film is primarily concerned with truth, and the struggles sometimes necessary to uncover it.
Zelly and Me (1988)
An underrated film
Zelly and Me is a very good movie about a little girl's relationship with her grandmother. Isabella Rossellini is wonderful as usual as the girl's nanny, Zelly. David Lynch also is excellent as Willie, Zelly's boyfriend. With the relationships between the four main characters, the movie manages to intelligently portray real motivations in why people act the way they do when it might seem more logical to act in some other way. Zelly and Me is at times touching, but not overly sentimental. Everyone in the cast gives convincing, realistic performances.
The Straight Story (1999)
Best movie of 1999
Richard Farnsworth and Sissy Spacek are incredible in this movie. The cinematography and sound are also fantastic. This movie will move you to tears (Or at least really close to it) no fewer than 5 or 6 times. Do not get me wrong, this is no sappy tear jerker. No one ever cries on screen. The emotion hits the audience without overt emotionalism on the part of the actors. If this movie had been promoted like The Sixth Sense, or even American Beauty, it would have been a shoo-in for a best picture Oscar.