BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN (2005)

"Jack, I swear..."

Wyoming, 1963. Two young cowboys are hired to take care of some sheep way off in the wilderness for a few months. They fall in love and then spend the next 20+ years living a lie. Both get married and have kids, but their hearts belong to each other and their entire existence revolves around the infrequent visits where they can be together.

Honestly, it was hard to simply write out that brief synopsis without crying.  BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN is such a great movie.  A masterpiece of human emotions, regret and lost love.  When Heath Ledger says "Jack, I swear..." all I could think about was how we're only blessed with one trip around this racetrack and it's so easy to waste that time and get caught up in life and dumb shit and unintentionally neglect the ones you love or to simple lose them for other reasons that are completely out of your control. Relationships (and humans) are such a fragile thing sometimes.  Treat every day like it is your last.

BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN isn't just a masterpiece of emotions, but also a masterpiece of filmmaking.  Perfect direction by Ang Lee, breathtaking cinematography, heartbreaking story, great pace, masterful acting and the music is a joy.  Highly recommended.

NIGHTCRAWLER (2014)

As a cynical, poison-filled, unloved, unliked, dead soul slowly rotting away in a ugly worthless human carcass I related quite a bit with the awkward, unsociable loner Louis Bloom, played brilliantly by Jake Gyllenhaal.  One evening, quite by accident, Louis sees freelance cameraman, Bill Paxton, filming two police officers saving a woman from a burning car.  This gives Louis an idea and next thing you know he's out on the street filming overnight events for the morning news.  He has a natural eye for the more sensational stuff and before long his personal drive has brought him a small amount of notoriety.  This only drives him further.

I enjoyed every second of NIGHTCRAWLER.  The photography by Robert Elswit was absolutely spellbinding, the story had me hooked from beginning to end, the acting by the entire cast was fantastic, nice pace, smart script, satisfying ending.  The only thing that keeps this film out of my favorites films category is it wasn't dark or misanthropic enough for my tastes.  That said, it's a great movie, I just like my dark movies to be really dark.

Highly recommended.