Taxi Driver. Martin Scorsese (1.976)

Taxi Driver is a vintage Scorsese movie. Unrelentless street violence, deeply disturbed characters, the streets of New York, brilliant acting and one of the best sequences ever shot on film.

The movie follows the life and tribulations of Travis Bickle, a New York cabbie who racks in an enormous number of hours a week as he doesn't have anybody to go home to and suffers from insomnia. This allows him to earn money to spare, and with this, he buys weapons.

Scorsese slowly takes us through the complicated mind of Bickle, who through his travels gets to meet people from all walks of life and absorbs a little bit of each one. He feels like a man with no purpose, so he decides to find one. he runs into a young hooker by the name of Iris and he insists in taking her out of this life. At the same time, he falls for a beautiful woman, played by Cibyll Shepperd, who happens to work for the campaign of a politician. In a plain attempt to gain attention, he cuts his hair mohawk style and, packed with several guns, shows up at this politician's rally, possibly to shoot him, but has to escape in a hurry when a security guard starts asking him questions.

There's a segment where Travis practices with his gun at his run down apartment in front of a mirror. He confronts an imaginary oponent as he draws his gun while saying "Are you talkin' to me?" in a memorable and frequently quoted scene.

Travis then shows up at the brothel where Iris works. He meets Sport, her pimp, played by the ever versatile  Harvey Keitel and shoots him with no previous warning. He walks into the building and shoots the man who assigns the rooms and is also shot in the neck himself. He continues on to the room where Iris is with one of her customers and also shoots that man. Travis then slumps to the couch, possibly bleeding to death. This action sequence is beautifully shot (if this term is applicable) and shows Scorsese's direction mastery.

At the end of this scene, a voice reads out loud a letter sent to Travis, who obsviuosly survived, by Iris' parents who thank him for saving their daughter and bringing her back to them.

In the end, Travis became a hero, a person of notoriety, something he was anxiously looking for. But, what does the future hold for him?

In the end, Scorsese displays what the streets of New York are like. An ugly underworld filled with drugs, violence and prostitution. Travis Bickle is just a simple man with a social problem, possibly a sociopath, who absorbs what he sees and feels from his bleak surroundings. He's just a by product of modern society.

This is at least my opinion. And I could be wrong.

Donnie Darko. Richard Kelly (2001)

Well, I finally got to see it. Donnie Darko has become some sort of a cult classic and for some reason I had never come accross it either at the theatre or on TV, and it was my teenage son who came up with the idea of renting it last night.

What a pleasant surprise it was.

Although at some point it looks like a coming of age movie, a teen comedy or a teen slasher flick, it combines elements from these three genres with some dark humour and supernatural themes to create something really unique.

Donnie Darko is a mature and brilliant teenage boy with schizophrenia problems who sleepwalks. He has weekly sessions with a therapist who tries to get to the bottom of Donnie's problems. He then starts to see a giant bunny who gives him instructions which he carries out, things like flooding his high school or burning someone's house. On the other hand, Donnie tries to survive high school as well as he can, dealing with friendship, love and social acceptance. His life is a complicated series of events which inevitably come to an abrupt and complicated climax.

Donnie is surrounded by a multitude of quirky characters ranging from a controlling teacher, the usual high school bullies, his tragedy ridden girlfriend, an old neighbour suffering from dementia, and his imaginary bunny friend. These array of strange characters give the movie a special appeal. It is evident that the director, Richard Kelly, decided to create an environment where nothing was normal. Surprisingly enough for an American movie, he decided to make Donnie's family completely normal and supportive. That I found confusing, giving the overall tone of the film.

Given the complexity of the story, it's difficult to summarise the strange events that ultimately occur at the climax of the movie, which I'd need to see again to totally understand (remember Inception?) but in short, Donnie unravels a time travel mystery in a book which was written by his old and crazed neighbour. Once he solves this, he decides it's best for him to die, placing himself in the spot where a lost airplane turbine will fall on his house. He gives up his life so his girlfriend can survive.

I strongly recommend this movie, although I understand its not just for everyone. My son and I enjoyed it, but I'm sure my wife and daughter would have walked out after 15 minutes. A too heavy and intricate story overloaded with strange  and disturbing characters Perfect for a Saturday night at home.

This is, at least, my opinion, and I could be wrong.