Ata-2

This is simply the best movie I have seen since Shawshank Redemption. It tells the story of a family living in the wilderness who are forced to face modern society. Its funny, with a pinch of sad, and a huge dollop of thought-provoking.

Matt Ross is a genius who has found his voice and style in this film. The direction is just incredible. The script has all the fluff stripped out so it moves along at a great pace. It is edited to perfection so every scene draws you further in. It feels like "Into The Wild" as directed by Clint Eastwood. I have been going around telling random people about how great this movie is and how it will clean up at the Oscars.

I don't see it appealing to everyone however. That is what makes it such a great film because no one left the screening ambivalent. The open-minded Austin, Texas audience was vastly in the Fantastic camp, but I can see this film is not going to go down well everywhere with everyone. If it did, it would be some fluff piece and not the classic it is destined to be.

If the remake of Infernal Affairs (The Departed) won all those Oscars then a re-make of this movie will surely clean up. Its one of those movies that just doesn't let up. At any given time there are at least three threads to the story, each of which keeps you on the edge of your seat. I actually had to stop it at one point so I could calm down a bit.

The acting by everyone involved is very believable and that makes it quite harrowing at points. I don't want to give away a single thing about the story but what I can say is that its an absolutely brilliant twist on a story that has been done many times before.

If you are going to see just one foreign film this year then let it be this one.