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Paul's Favourites

The 7th Arts's highest level of achievement can be judged alongside great literature, great music, and great painting, with many filmmakers creating enduring masterpieces. The list of film titles below may not all be enduring masterpieces, but I have however, fond lingering memories of all of them. They all fit the criteria of what I feel films can or should do, to not only be well crafted, but also to entertain, inform, enlighten and more often than not, take the viewer down roads less travelled... Can only hope you also will discover or rediscover some viewing pleasures among my all-time favourites' listed below.

Winter's Bone (2010)

7.2/10
Director: Debra Granik
Starring: John Hawkes, Jennifer Lawrence

With the threat of her family being evicted from their home in the Ozarks if her bail-jumping father isn't caught within the week, 17-year-old Ree Dol... Read more

The Cove (2009)

8.5/10
Director: Louie Psihoyos

In the 1960s, Richard O'Barry was the world's leading authority on dolphin training, working on the set of the popular television program "Flipper". D... Read more

Departures (2008)

8.1/10
Director: Yojiro Takita
Starring: Masahiro Motoki, Tsutomu Yamazaki, Kimiko Yo, Kazuko Yoshiyuki, Ryoko Hirosue, T...

When his orchestra disbands, Daigo Kobayashi (Masahiro Motoki) decides to start over and moves back to his small hometown. Desperate for work, he secr... Read more

Audience of One (2007)

7.4/10
Director: Michael Jacobs

After Pentecostal preacher Richard Gazowsky got a greenlight from God to make a science-fiction epic based on the story of Joseph, he and his San Fran... Read more

Garbage Warrior (2007)

7.8/10
Director: Oliver Hodge
Starring: Michael Reynolds

Michael Reynolds is a revolutionary eco-architect whose buildings utilize the waste we humans produce and reduce the impact we have on the delicate en... Read more

The Kite Runner (2007)

7.6/10
Director: Marc Forster
Starring: Khalid Abdalla, Homayoun Ershadi, Shaun Toub, Atossa Leoni, Said Taghmaoui

Director Marc Forster's adaptation of Khaled Hosseini's bestseller about one man's search for redemption following a childhood betrayal in his native... Read more

The War on Democracy (2006)

8.3/10
Director: Chris Martin
Starring: John Pilger

Social activist John Pilger helms this muck-raking documentary - an unflinching dissection (and evisceration) of U.S. policies in Latin America during... Read more

Deep Water (2006)

7.8/10
Director: Louise Osmond, Jerry Rothwell
Starring: Narrated by, Tilda Swinton

The stunning true story of the first solo, non-stop, round-the-world boat race. In deep financial straits and possessed of an unquenchable thirst for... Read more

Vitus (2006)

7.7/10
Director: Fredi M Murer
Starring: Teo Gheorghiu, Bruno Ganz, Fabrizio Borsani, Julika Jenkins, Urs Jucker

A compelling domestic drama showing the family dynamics and ambititions surrounding child prodigy Vitus. A piano master by age six, Vitus' future seem... Read more

The House of Sand (2005)

Director: Andrucha Waddington
Starring: Fernanda Montenegro, Fernanda Torres

In 1910 Aurea and her mother arrive in the Brazilian town of Maranhao where her husband believes he'll find prosperity in the barren desert. As the fa... Read more