RATATOUILLE - brad bird - 9.2 / 10

Creating art of any kind and then sending it out into the world to be evaluated, critiqued and judged is a singularly strange experience whether the ‘art’ in question is a book, a movie, a song, a meal or even a letter to the editor. Though the creator of this object-- whatever it may be-- didn’t necessarily create their work to satisfy other people, there’s no doubt that the reward of seeing an audience (even an audience of one) appreciating what you’ve created can be very great indeed. Just as, similarly, the disappointment of failing to connect to your audience can be crippling. Something that you’ve trained for years to do, thought and planned about for days on end, and worked tirelessly to perfect is then sent out into the world to be judged by people who may or may not even give your work their full attention. The artist knows that their opinion shouldn’t matter. And yet, pleasing them is validating in a way that nothing else in life ever really can be. And when that satisfied audience is a knowledgeable one-- a critic, say, or a friend whose opinion you value-- the satisfaction is that much sweeter. That singularly gratifying feeling is what Ratatouille, the story of a rat who becomes a gourmet chef, is really about; and it’s what provides the film’s deeply satisfying climax.

ALL THE REAL GIRLS – david gordon green – 8.6 / 10

It would, of course, be an oversimplification to say that there are only two kinds of film dramas. There are, however, two opposing, polar opposite kinds of dramas with everything else (more or less) falling somewhere in between. On the one side you have the kind of drama that attempts to mimic life as closely as possible. The characters, settings, structure and style are almost indistinguishable from that of a documentary. Scenes can be long and meandering or short and seemingly without purpose. The actors are often not very attractive (or, if they are attractive, they’re dressed in such a way as to de-emphasize that attractiveness). The lighting is often drab. The shots are almost uniformly handheld. And, much like in life, this sort of drama almost never has any real sense of closure. For lack of a better term, let’s refer to this sort of film as ‘realist.’