Horses & Men

Something many of you don't know about me is that until about 3 years ago I had not even so much as touched a horse.  To this day I have not been on one.   I am not afraid of them; I have just never been exposed to them.  I appreciate their beauty and I have many friends who are deeply involved in horse culture.  This review is for them in particular.  Of Horses and Men is Iceland's submission to the Best Foreign Language Oscar.  It is a "collection" of stories set in a bucolic community where horses rock!
Funny and charming horses and men and, as he director suggested, "in Iceland, women are men also!"

Cupcakes

Another offering from Israel's Eytan Fox [Walk on Water, Yossi and Jagger], Cupcakes takes it cue from the likes of Mama Mia and Strictly Ballroom.  Six residents of an apartment complex playfully record a song they made up to cheer up the recently abandoned baker of the bunch.  It is secretly submitted to a Euro-song competition and takes the country by storm.  The up-beat pop soundtrack, six personal melodramas, crazy music industry manipulators and socio-political mores liven the mix. The cast includes many of Israel's biggest stars including gorgeous, Efrat Dor and Israel's answer to Sean Connery, the ever sexy Lior Ashkenazi This crowd pleaser with definitely make it to "Best of the Fest" and I hope it makes it to local theatres.

The Grand Seduction

If you enjoyed Local Hero, Waking Ned Devine and The Englishman Who Went up a Hill and Came Down a Mountain you will probably love this little picture.  Brendan Gleeson plays a scheming fisherman in a dying little harbor in Newfoundland.  They need a town doctor in residence in order to secure the location of a new factory and hundreds of much needed jobs.  He enlists the entire 120 residents of Tickle Cove to seduce a young doctor into making it his home.  With few resources but great community they succeed…. sort of.