3. Footloose
There are too many teen oriented musicals(hi Glee!) for Footloose to have the same impact as the Kevin Bacon original, but Craig Brewer's version is more exuberant, with far superior music and dance numbers.
2. The Ides of March
It's third week in the charts, you don't need me to tell you all the reasons why it belongs here. Just know it's a tight political thriller with a superb cast beginning with George Clooney, Ryan Gosling, and Philip Seymour Hoffman.
1. The Skin I Live In
Pedro Almodovar's twisted masterpiece. A film so bizarre you'll be simultaneously disgusted and unable to look away until the feverish conclusion. Antonio Banderas gives his most nuanced performance in years as a plastic surgeon obsessed with crafting a new synthetic skin, but equally intrigued by the woman he's holding captive as a test subject. That doesn't begin to explain the many sharp curves of Almodovar's wicked creation. A must see.
DVD Pick of the Week: . Beats, Rhymes, and Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest
This won't come as a surprise to anybody who follows the site, as I've had Michael Rapaport's insightful documentary as my best film of the year for months. Following their humble beginnings in Brooklyn in the 1980s, to their dominance over the hip hop scene by crafting a sound nobody had ever heard before. A combination of funk, jazz, and R&B, along with two diverse but complimentary lyrical styles, A Tribe Called Quest became the flagbearers for a new generation of rap fan. Unfortunately, stardom has a price, and internal strife soon caused the group to drift apart. Rapaport, clearly a devoted fan in his own right, tries to get to the heart of the dispute in hopes of a possible reconciliation.
