JohnnyBGood2

Maren Ade has set a German "Kammerspiel" in sunny Sardinia; a Dogma-looking, Eric Rohmer-inspired account of a young couple on vacation in a big, beautiful house - and their reluctant, but increasingly blatant attempts at penetrating each other's bodies and souls. She loves him. Does he love her?

"Alle Anderen" is not pitch-perfect (and has been received with varied reactions - from a posh Jury Grand Prix in Berlin '09 to fairly feeble reviews). Indeed, it's a bit too long for its own good and strangely uneven at times. But at one point, you just surrender to the subtle narrative and the complex, fully fleshed out characters (needless to say, Birgit Minichmayr and Lars Eidinger are phenomenal in the leads. Their performances look so simple, so easy-to-pull-off).

Maren Ade has accomplished the difficult stunt of putting the audience in the very same room, at the same intense wave-length, as these searching, anxious people. She allows us to eavesdrop to cunning conversations, to witness a constant (if not always visible) emotional struggle. And she keeps a shrewd surprise for the very end, suddenly pulling the rug from under our feet, forcing us to re-evaluate everything we've seen and heard up until this point.

The sound of silence can be damaging. Tears and laughter can be emancipating. Because in the end, it's all about love.

Buffalo 66 is Vincent Gallo's distinct directorial debut. Gallo's skinny, nutty character Billy gets out of jail, tries to pee during the film's first 10 minutes, then kidnaps an astonished but complacent Christina Ricci and embarks on an improvisational odyssey through Gallo's hometown Buffalo, NY.

Odd creatures abound, such as Billy's parents, played by a wig-wearing Anjelica Houston and Ben Gazzara, a Cassavettes regular (Cassavettes' spirit soars over the movie, as does Ozu's).

The many grotesque scenes where nothing happens could be a road straight to hell. Instead, Gallo manages to create a memorable movie about - we've heard this one before - a lonely guy who meets a lonely girl. The sequence in the bug-infested motel where Gallo and Ricci share a bathtub is exquisite.