The Girl who Played with Fire (2009)

The Girl who Played with Fire (Flickan som lekte med elden) (2009), Daniel Alfredson
3.5/5
Good adaptation of the novel, good performances with a gritty but tv movie feel.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009), (Man som hatar kvinnor) Neils Arden Oplev (Sweden)
3.5/5
Well adapted from the book. Good performances, feels like real people and is quite raw, not glossed up or glorified in either violence or sexual explicitness.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)
4/5
Great adaptation staying very true to the book, with one exception. Performances are great. The film really works on the themes and characters brilliantly bringing up what is really quite trashy murder mystery pulp fiction into a good psychological thriller and character drama. Rooney Mara is exceptional and captures the character beautifully and plays alongside Daniel Craig really well. Great production value, cinematography etc. It does suffer a somewhat Hollywood-esque white washing of violence and sex, however, these are minimal.

It's Kind of a Funny Story (2010)

It's Kind of a Funny Story (2010)
3.5/5
This oddball black comedy had such great potential. The performances are great, the opening is amazing, and there are some definite truths in the film. What is disappointing is some gross inaccuracies and overly sentimental and romantic conclusions. It's a kind of expansion of the first part of "Patch Adams". Overall, a cute and quirky film about some dark issues. I really enjoyed the fantasy style sequences.

Wristcutters - A Love Story (2006)

Wristcutters - A Love Story (2006)
3/5
Interesting concept but the execution is lacking. It is kind of dull and flat, although that is kind of the point. Quirky and strange. It had potential, but the concept is somewhat flawed from the beginning. Definitely a strange and interesting world that is the place where suicides go to. Performances are good.

The Kid with a Bike (2011)

The Kid with a Bike (2011) (Le Gamin au vélo) (France)
4/5
Amazing character drama, feels very authentic and has some great emotional and moralistic drama. Acting is great, with simplistic yet effective cinematography and visual style. Music is also subtle and beautiful. The main character the child actor is amazing and the story is a tight character drama and yet broad in scope and ambiguity at the same time. This film is what is great about European cinema, it respects the audience's ability to interpret and is intelligent, challenging and thought provoking.

The Blair Witch Project (1999)

The Blair Witch Project (1999), Daniel Myrick & Bob Griffin
2/5
Categorically un-scary and nonsensical. Basically watching 3 idiots wander around some woods getting lost. Acting is poor to ok. So unrealistic and unbelievable I really don't know why it became such a phenomenon and genre breaking.

Cafe de Flore (2012)

Cafe de Flore (2012), Jean Marc Vallee (Canada/ France)
3.5/5
Great cinematography style, good performances, characters and story are interesting. Overall around 30 minutes too long and it really lost momentum and credibility by the third act. Overly romantic and sentimental which avoided some really interesting and disturbing elements, that were unfortunately bungled. Overall still a solid film.