It’s the start of the month so technically I watched these films in April, but it doesn’t particularly matter because if you just so happen to take my advice and watch one of these three gems then you’ll probably be doing it in the month specified in the title, hmmm. Anyway, I’ll not burden you with my useless introductory ramblings any longer, head on down to the main body of the article and behold the choosing of my top 3 recently watched films come to fruition.

I’m Not Scared
Having not really experienced much Italian cinema except for a few video nasty flicks, I headed into this one with no clue of what to expect. Thankfully it wasn’t a waste of my time and turned out to be a rather captivating and intriguing little production. The plot follows a young boy named Michele from a small Italian village who one day stumbles upon a boy of the same age being kept prisoner in a hole beside an abandoned farm house. Michele befriends the strange boy and unknowingly involves himself in a messy and complicated situation; one which stems from closer to home than he may care to believe. I’m Not Scared is a brilliant way to waste a couple of hours and if you’ve not experienced any Italian cinema then you should check it out.

Dumplings
Middle-aged actress Mrs Lee is unhappy with her husband’s wandering fancies and her professional ineligibility brought on by age. In an attempt to regain some sort of satisfying control over her life she visits a mysterious woman who is rumoured to be able to cook special dumplings which can reverse the aging process. Of course, every special recipe always has a secret ingredient and some can be stranger than others. Directed by the often overlooked but immensely talented Fruit Chan, Dumplings is a disturbing drama cum social critique which looks at the superficial values we hold as a modern society; the notion of beauty decaying with age, for example. It’s sinister entertainment, but that’s why I like it.

Blood Diamond
It’s been around for a while, I know, but I finally got round to watching it and to be perfectly honest, I thought it was great. Leonardo DiCaprio is quickly becoming one of my more favoured actors, I mean who would have predicted that his post-Titanic run would have been so fruitful? Catch Me If You Can, The Beach, The Departed, Gangs of New York, The Aviator and now this, sheesh. Leo plays Danny Archer, a young diamond smuggler who catches wind of a rather large rock which would look nice on rich westerners’ fingers. With the help of a fisherman in search of his militia inducted son, Archer travels across the war-torn landscape of Sierra Leone in order to retrieve what he believes to be his ticket out of Africa. But his perfect future slips from his grasp as his past catches up with him.

The movie to avoid this month is: Revolver. It’s awful, absolutely terrible I tell you.