Memento

MEMENTO (2000)

Directed by: Christopher Nolan

Produced by:

Suzanne Todd
Jennifer Todd

GRADE:

8/10

OPINIONS:

This movie is innovative, scientifically relevant and makes you feel like a person who has lost his memory.
The peculiarity of this movie is that many scenes are shown in reverse chronological order.

At the beginning you won’t understand anything, but then the “puzzle” will be completed while the movie goes on, and there are lots of unexpected turns of events.

PLOT (no spoiler):

The main character is Leonard Shelby (Guy Pearce), affected by anterograde amnesia since a fight with two men who killed her wife. Leonard killed only one of the attacker, and the other one escaped.

Now his aim is to catch and kill the man who escaped, and he has some information about him: the possible name is John or James, and his last name should start with G. The police don’t believe Leonard, because of his illness, so he tries to find “John G.” by himself.

Since he can’t remember anything for more than a few minutes (after the fight), he writes everything on some photos and notes, and gets tattooed with the most important things, like “kill John G.”, John G.’s license number, etc.

Some people help Leonard, but some others just use him. It is difficult to know who is a friend and who is not. In fact…

A beautiful mind

A BEAUTIFUL MIND (2001)

Directed by: Ron Howard
Produced by: 
Ron Howard
Brian Grazer

GRADE:
9/10

OPINIONS: 
If you like movies based on real stories this is definetly for you. The plot is dramatic for some aspects due to the difficult life that the main character lives because of his schizophrenia. At the end of the movie, i couldn't believe that a mental desease can cause such terrible problems.
The movie won the Oscar prize in 2002.

PLOT (no-spoiler):
John Nash (Russel Crowe) is a math student at Princeton university where he meets many other excellent students that have already published some relevant papers. He is the only one that has not published yet and he is obsessed by his will to find an original idea. He finds his ispiration in a pub, discussing with a friend on how to approach a group of girls. He thinks that a collaborative approach is better than a selfish approach and from that he creates his theory that now is at the base of the game theory. During his studies he starts developing a form of schizophrenia and that will cause him a lot of problems making the story more intriguing...

Siddhartha

SIDDHARTHA (Hermann Hesse)

GRADE:
7/10

OPINIONS:

Siddhartha is a famous novel written in 1922, and it is inspired to the Buddha’s life story.

Buddha’s original own name in fact was Siddhartha Gautama.

In my opinion this story is interesting because we can see our life in a different way, and we can understand that we don’t need all those material things we own.

However, sometimes this book can seem a bit boring, but when you will finish it you will feel spiritually richer (whether you are Buddhist or not!)

PLOT (no spoiler):

The protagonist is Siddhartha, a man who leaves his family, his home and all the things he has in order to look for spiritual illumination. He becomes a wandering beggar of the Samanas, together with his friend Govinda, and they wander, meditate, and listen to the teachings of the Buddha (the author refers to the Buddha as "Gotama").

Siddhartha thinks that everyone has to find a unique meaning of the life by himself, without learning it from his teacher, so he continues his meditation life alone…

Forrest Gump

FORREST GUMP (1994)

Directed by: Robert Zemeckis
Produced by: Wendy Finerman

GRADE: 
8/10

OPINIONS:

I think that the story is very strange, paradoxal for some aspects, at the end of the movie you are not able to find an explanation to the facts that happened, but probably this is the strength of this classic movie. 

The most famous phrases like "Run Forrest Run!" and "Life is like a box of chocolate, you never know what you're gonna get" have become common in our everyday life.

PLOT (no spoiler):

Forrest Gump (Tom Hanks) starts telling his life story to strangers at a bus stop. Forrest is not a brilliant guy and in his childhood he had physical problems too. He starts talking about his mother, that gave him many right advice everytime with a different phrase that he remembers very well, like "Stupid is who stupid does" and "Life is like a box of chocolate, you never know what you're gonna get". 

On the first day of school, he meets Jenny (Robin Wright Penn), he grows with her and he falls in love with her. She helps him when he is annoyed by bullies, and escaping from this people Forrest discovers that he is able to run very fast. This will lead him to have an incredible life...

The little prince

THE LITTLE PRINCE (Antoine De Saint-Exupéry)

GRADE:
9/10

OPINIONS:

The little prince is a very nice book for readers of all ages.

It talks about the strangeness of the adult world, the sense of life and the human nature.

The meaning of this story depends on the kind of reader: if he is a child it will be a fantastic story, if he is an adult it will be a philosophical book, that shows the world from a different point of view.

However, even if you read it in your childhood, you absolutely have to re-read it: it will look like a different book!

The most famous phrase of this book is told by the fox: “it is the time you have lost for your rose that makes your rose so important.”

PLOT (no spoiler):

A plane crashes in the Sahara desert, where the pilot meets a young, polite and strange boy, who asks him to draw a sheep.

The pilot, confused, asks for more information and the boy just says that he is the prince of a far asteroid, where he lives alone and takes care of a beautiful and rare rose.

Since baobab trees are invading his asteroid, he needs the drawing of a sheep in order to eat that plants.

The pilot says that the sheep would eat his rose too, so he draws just a box, that contains a sheep: the boy is so happy of this drawing!

The little prince has left his asteroid and his rose to explore the rest of the universe, so his journey continues, and he meets many other strange people…

Shooter

SHOOTER (2007) 

Directed by: Antoine Faqua 

Produced by: Lorenzo Di Bonaventura 

GRADE: 

9/10 

OPINIONS:
I saw this movie many years later his distribution, and I definetely regret not having watched it at a cinema. I think it's one of the most exciting movies ever!
If you like action, guns, snipers and an intriguing story you must watch it. 

PLOT (no spoiler): 

Bob Lee Swagger (Mark Wahlberg) is a sniper of the U.S Marine corpe. After loosing his best friend in war, he decides to resign and live in an isolated home with his dog. One day, Colonel Isaac Johnson (Danny Glover) asks for his help to stop an assassin who is planning to kill the U.S president. To do that, he needs to analyze the places where the president is scheduled and to choose the one that is most likely to be used by a sniper. He chooses Philadelphia and he guides the police to find the assassin but, in this moment, the story takes an unexpected turn...

A Thousand Splendid Suns

A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS (Khaled Hosseini)

GRADE:

10/10

OPINIONS:

I read this book in a few days, I just couldn’t stop reading.

There are violence, war, hope and love all in the same book. It would attract every kind of reader.

I think this story can give us an idea of how living between war and male domination is like.

After you will have read “A thousand splendid suns”, you will surely look for other books written by Khaled Hosseini (and if you read “The kite runner” you will find some surprises!)

PLOT (no spoiler):

In the first part of the story, Mariam is a teenager who lives in the outskirts of Herat with her mother. She is a Jalil’s illegitimate daughter, a business man who lives in the town with his three wives.

One day Mariam goes to Jalil’s home, but he doesn’t let her go in. She starts feeling hate for her father, but when she returns back home she finds out that her mother has committed suicide.

She has to stay in Jalil’s home, until Jalil’s family finds a man for Mariam: Rasheed. Rasheed is around 40 years old, and lives in Kabul. They get married and try to have a child, but Mariam is not able to have children. Her husband wants a son, so he becomes gradually aggressive and violent.

In the second part of the story Laila, Jalil and Mariam’s neighbour, is a girl who loves her childhood friend, Tariq. But Kabul is bombarded, so Tariq and his family have to leave Kabul. Laila, who is alone now, becomes Jalil’s second wife and gives him two children...