Cristian Mungiu's 4 Months , 3 Weeks, and 2 Days received both the 2007 Palme d'Or Prize Winners at Cannes and the number one spot in Marcy's own Top Ten Movies of 2007 list. After a limited run in theaters, the gripping drama is out this week on DVD. Also highly recommended: Michel Gondry's hilarious comedy Be Kind Rewind and Nadine Labaki's Caramel, a heart-warming ensemble picture about five friends in a Lebanese beauty parlor.
1. 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days
IFC Films
The winner of the 2007 Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, Cristian Mungiu's devastating drama 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days tells the story of a young woman who helps her friend obtain an illegal abortion in 1980s Romania. It's a riveting, wrenching, horrifying and beautifully told story.
2. Be Kind Rewind
New Line Home Video
There were scenes in Be Kind Rewind that made Marcy laugh so hard that she was in pain. Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Science of Sleep) has taken a stunning leap forward -- Be Kind Rewind is his most successful film yet, relentlessly clever but also wondrously heartfelt. With Jack Black, Mos Def, Danny Glover and Melonie Diaz.
3. Caramel
Lionsgate
A comedy about women who work in a beauty parlor has the potential to be syrupy -- especially if the title is Caramel. But the titular hair removal substance used by Lebanese beauty technicians actually causes a burst of pain. Nadine Labaki's Caramel provides an intimate, incisive look at women's lives in modern day Lebanon.
