March movie marathon
The Hurt Locker: A film about war, rather than a war film. Masterly direction, pitch-perfect performances all round, gripping set-pieces and not a word or scene wasted, but weakest in its portrayal of two cultures trying and failing to connect. Most powerful scene: not the defusing of various bombs or the explosions that bookend these harrowing successes, nor the physical and emotional breakthroughs and breakdowns which all three principal characters experience, but the final shot of the main character (Jeremy Renner), a bomb-squad specialist who feels most alive when faced with death, embodying the film's opening quote "War is a drug".
Avatar: From what I, uh, see, if this is the future of film-making, we can look forward to tales full of sound and fury, signifying stuff such as CGI wet dreams are made of, with scripts and plots that are dodgy at best and dangerous at their (intentionally?) ignorant worst. Also 3D-headache-inducing.
Alice in Wonderland: Why, Tim Burton? One understands the limitations and practical difficulties of live-action 6-year-olds running around the imaginaria of Deacon Dodgson, but the resulting psychotic psychedelic mishmash of moods, mannikins and movie tropes makes for a rather underwhelming Underland. Eye-candy, perfectly-cast voice-work, and Helena Bonham-Carter (whose appearances are far too short, IMHO) do not a coherent movie make.
The Cove: If you've ever heard whale-song, seen performing dolphins, or eaten sushi, watch this.
Up in the Air: A man who starts the movie making a living by practicing and preaching to others the virtues of jettisoning excess baggage (he works for a company that sends specialists to break the bad news to employees fired by other firms around the country) and travelling as light as possible (figuratively and otherwise, in motivational seminars), ends by feeling the unbearable lightness of being when his attempt to settle down is brought to a crashing end (not literally).