Nothing that I'd rather be

Levanon (Lebanon)

Crit

Wow, it's like a remake of Das Boot, only with Israeli soldiers in an even more claustrophobic (and wet) place, a tank. It's a world where your ostensible allies, a pair of Phalangists driving a Mercedes, can be lots scarier than the Syrians that you don't know what the hell they're doing in Lebanon anyway, and the closest thing to a kindness that can be mustered is helping your chained prisoner empty his bladder. Riveting and agendaless, unless impressing upon us that war isn't really much fun can be called an agenda.

Bran Nue Dae

Crit

By no stretch can this be called a good film, but its heart is enormous and in the right place, and you'd have to be a bigger Scrooge than I to resist it. The cast is a bunch of people Americans have never heard of . . . plus Oscar® winner Geoffrey Rush, glorying as a Teutonic priest without the restraint of anyone saying, "Maybe a little too broad that time, Geoff; wanna tone it down just a tad?" Everybody is having a blast on this one.