Biutiful
Dir: Alejandro González Iñárritu
2010
*****
It's fair to say that I've been quite a harsh critic of Alejandro González Iñárritu's films, I'm far from being his biggest fan so I wasn't really interested in watching another but my other half is a big Javier Bardem fan, so we sat down to watch Biutiful. It turned out to be a very aptly named film and one of the best I've seen in recent years. I can't quite believe it myself but all the things that have bugged me about his films over the years have all been replaced with pure brilliant film making. Gone has the dodgy editing, contrived story and unconvincing performances but probably more importantly, so has Guillermo Arriaga. Don't get me wrong, I like his work but Alejandro González Iñárritu never quite managed to do his stories justice. It turns out that Alejandro González Iñárritu is just as good a writer anyway, so it's nice that the first of his films that I really enjoyed was written by him. The acting is brilliant, Javier Bardem is always good and this must be a contender as being one of his greatest performances. The story is heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time, there's no schmaltz here though, the film feels very real, very brutal but all the better for it. I was captivated from the start to be honest, the film really hits it's peak two thirds in but was consistently entertaining. I think it deserves masterpiece status to be honest, as I haven't been this captivated since Breaking the Waves and that is in my top 5 favourite films of all time. Highly recommended!