Six movies you’ve never heard…

We all hear about the blockbusters and happily now that indie films have become popular we also get to hear about the indie films that win awards or get picked up for wider distribution.  However every year there are films that come out that we don’t hear about that are actually quite good.  Typically we stumble across these films on the odd rainy Sunday afternoon or a late night when we can’t sleep.  So hear are five films, most you will not have heard of or seen, but give them a look sometime.  I think you’ll like them particularly if you liked films like Memento or The Usual Suspects, so here are six I can vouch for and one that is out right now that looks absolutely magnificent.

Cube (1997)  – A little bit science fiction, a little bit horror film, a lot bit fantastic.  And even though she annoyed the hell at of me in the Star Trek series Nicole De Boer is amazing in this film.  They did a sequel to this one called Hypercube, and it was almost as good but has to lose points since the idea was no longer original.

Persepolis (2007) - I just recently saw this film and it is one of the best movies I’ve ever seen.  It touches upon a young girl coming of age, the feelings that we all have about not fitting in, and it’s a solid historical account of the political realities of the country of Iran.  Personally, I think this film should be compulsory for every adult in America given the current realities of the world.

The Possession of David O’Reilly (2010) – The weakest of the films listed here but one that you will cause you to convince yourself you know exactly what’s happening at least 4 different times.  Some typical horror film elements and I started out while watching it thinking I’d probably shut it off at some point, but never did.

Exam (2009) – Eight candidates sit down for an exam that will qualify them to be hired for the corporation.  From then on the film feels a lot like The Cube, but seriously intense and thought-provoking.

Nomads (1986) - The best Pierce Brosnan movie you’ve never heard of, no critical acclaim, no big box office, just a totally freaky, kick-ass, crazy horror movie.

Unknown (2006) - NO, this is NOT, the Liam Neeson big budget mystery that came out two years ago.  This is a Jim Caviezel, Greg Kinnear and Bridget Moynahan movie, five guys wake up in a warehouse, it’s obvious something horrible has gone down but no one has any memory, killer mystery in the same vein as Memento.

Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012) - This film hasn’t arrived in my town yet but I can’t wait.  If nothing else this film seems to have one of the greatest performances in history by a 6-year-old.  Seems like a crazy little film with a solid story.

Iran, Hormuz and the price of oil

Iran, Hormuz and the price of oil

So we’ve removed our forces from Iraq and it seems that the citizens of Iraq have decided that since they have so much in common with Iran that maybe they should be better allies with them, than the United States who liberated their country by bombing it to rubble and helping them execute a dictator.  Now in the end, the folks of Iraq are almost certainly better off than they were under Saddam Hussein, the country is no longer controlled by a militant minority and an evil dictator.  Eventually, hopefully they will work things out and become a new type of Arab democracy.  However, it seems more likely that they are heading for a lot of internal strife between Sunnis and Shiites. 

Additionally, the Iranians have this crazy idea that they should be a nuclear power.  That of course is an idea that doesn’t sit well with the Great Satan or the nation of Israel.  So one or both of our countries is undergoing a covert war against the Iranian nuclear program by blowing things up in Iran, in particular, Iranian nuclear scientists.

So sure, why should you care, this is just the normal insanity and stupidity of international politics right?  Well there are a couple of very good reasons why you should be paying attention to this issue and the first one is oil prices.  You may have noticed that gas prices have started rising again at the pump and there are even reports that the Chinese, who get a lot of oil from Iran are starting to look at other sources.  Sources that we use, which will up demand and therefore the price of the oil we buy.  Oil prices go up and gas prices follow, it’s as simple as that.

The other reason you should care is that an ever more desperate Iran may end up doing something extremely stupid like try to close the Strait of Hormuz.  Now no one believes they could keep the strait closed for very long, reports our anywhere from 2 days to 2 weeks.  However if they were to keep the straight closed for any amount of time, oil prices would spike significantly, gas prices as well.  And with that commodity prices follow, people buy less and our economy slows down once again.  So at the end of the day, a little stupidity in Iran could really be a problem for each of us.

Recession part 2, Depression or the Apocalypse!

So Greece has been very bad, they’ve done something nutty over the past few years, they spent and they spent and guess what, they didn’t have the money to cover the checks.  Now you may be thinking hey, haven’t we been doing the exact same thing, the answer is yes.  However, Greece went a little bit cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs and their debt is excessive in comparison to our own.  So, the European Union has developed a bailout plan and Greece has moved into austerity measures.  Austerity measures is a very nice way to say we’re cutting services, upping your taxes and you’re not getting squat for it.  It also certainly insures that unemployment will start to rise a bit,of course there have been street protests in Greece over the last couple of weeks.  The real interesting question is how will this crisis impact the rest of Europe?  Assuming everything else stays steady in Europe things will work out just fine, however if anything else goes wonky things could unravel badly for them.

So what else could go badly?  Well the European housing market is not the most stable market in the world and there has just been significant political change in the UK.  Oil prices have climbed up and look to be heading to near $100 a barrel this summer.  Should that rise continue and oil make that type of climb it could have a chilling effect on the economy.  It was $145 a barrel oil that helped hammer the global economy during the recent global debt crisis.  Commodity markets also seem to be artificially propped up with people using the extremely low-interest rates that exist to gamble on commodities.  This puts investors in a precarious position that could prove untenable.

Finally there are currently two global political issues that are quite dangerous.  First, the ongoing situation in Iran and the impending sanctions that the UN have approved with the support of Russia, China and the US.  The Iranian government is sitting on the edge of stability with a strong dissident movement in their country.  They may try mustering nationalism as a cure for their internal political ills by trying to impact oil prices or launching a missile at Israel, either of these could have a very destabilizing impact on oil prices.  The last and perhaps most dangerous current issue is North Korea, the South Koreans have accused North Korea of torpedoing one of their warships.  The US has backed this assertion and the tough language that the South Koreans have undertaken.  North Korea, as usual, has threatened war if new sanctions are implemented and folks, one day the crazy bastards that run that country are going to cut loose.

So we sit on the edge of one of those potential apocalyptic moments, not Armageddon mind you, but the type of apocalyptic events that could lead to a collapse of the global economy – global depression.  This isn’t the first time we’ve been here, it won’t be the last, and we’ve been lucky before, so we probably will be again, probably.  Besides sooner a later things have to go to shit, Glenn Beck needs the ratings!