Goodbye Solo. Modeled on the best of Iranian fims, Rahmin Bahrani’s account of a lively Senegalese taxi driver and a grim old Yankee in Winston-Salem is gently moving and exquisitely made. Life and death are only two of the subjects encountered in this superb work. (5/6/09)
Hunger. This first film by the British artist Steve McQueen focuses on Bobby Sands, of the IRA, who starved himself to death in a British prison in 1981. The real subject is not Ireland but the giving of one’s life for a cause. Imaginative and, penetrating. (4/15/09)
Treeless Mountain. From South Korea, a film that permits us to spend some time with two captivating sisters, aged six and four. They go through a story of sorts, but the glowing pleasure is in being in the company of these un-cute, self-involved, enchanting girls. (5/20/09)
Stanley Kauffmann is The New Republic's film critic.
By Stanley Kauffmann