Cherrybomb (2009)

Two guys. 
One girl. 
Game on.

Malachy (Rupert Grint) is a straight A student with a part time job and a good family. Luke (Robert Sheehan) lives with his good-for-nothing father in a place rented to them by his brother, all of them dealing drugs. Playing off eachother, the guys stick together as best friends, until Michelle (Kimberley Nixon) moves back into town... A tease and a troublemaker, she is trying to make a life living with her father, but unfortunately the three are ticking off just the wrong reactions in eachother.

I really liked this movie! It is intense, fast-paced and smart, portraying British teenagers and their struggles with love, life and experimentation. Visually I particulartly liked the text messages, displayed very 'in-your-face' on the screen, giving a good idea of how we are sometimes miles away from our surroundings when texting. It is also a bit too indie at times, with lots of close-ups and cross-cutting, but all in all a great film.

Grint and Sheehan are both guilty pleasures; too young, too hot! And it's in Irish - lovely stuff! Though a teen flick, Cherrybomb is well made, well played, good entertainment.  A must-see for fans of British indie.

Runtime: 86 mins
Starring: Rupert Grint, Robert Sheehan, Kimberley Nixon

The Darjeeling Limited (2007)

Feelgood indie comedy from Wes Anderson, characteristically bizarre. Three brothers set out on a spiritual journey through India to reconnect with eachother and find their slightly excentric mother. Francis (Wilson) arranges everything, organized in little laminated itineraries, but there's a lot of issues to be worked out before the brothers can start trusting eachother.

The movie is beautifully disorganized and odd, every brother with their strange quirks. All traumatized by their father's death, all stoned on Indian pharmaceuticals. And Brody of course is beautiful :)

To be honest I'm not very good with Wes Anderson. Much of his stuff go right over my head and I'm sure there's a lot of symbolism and hidden meanings that I didn't get in this one as well, but I still liked it. I liked the 'train of life' that their father (Bill Murray) missed at the beginning, the not-so-fictional characters of Jack's short stories, the family and parental issues...

Most of all I think I liked the cliché part where they run to catch the train of life, dropping their material belongings (alternatively the baggage their father left them) as they go. It's not important to bring the past with you, it'll just weigh you down. What's important is the present, and the people you love.

Runtime: 91 min

Starring: Adrien Brody, Owen Wilson, Jason Schwartzman

Fish Tank (2009)

This British indie film is stripped of glamour and anything superfluous, and it hits hard. The repressed anger creates a tension that kept me on the edge of my seat all the way through, flipping from frustration, to worry, to empathy. It's a good movie, very real, and it left me with a great sense of sadness...

So, Mia is a 15 year old English girl with serious anger issues, and with good reason. She lives with her mother and younger sister, a family with too much yelling and booze, and too little care and boundaries. All her life keeping the world out, she has become introverted and temperamental. Now, with a serious crush on her mothers "latest catch", a possible break for her dancing and a nice guy with a car, life is suddenly breaking down her defences.

Runtime: 123 mins
Starring: Katie Jarvis, Michael Fassbender