jordanthom

Stockholm is thoughtful in its human moments, but thoroughly entertaining at the same time. Its premise warrants insanely hilarious scenes with Ethan Hawke's character Lars, but at its core it's about the unusual circumstances that relationships form- in a way that is both moving and a little messed up. This film isn't short of highly tense, stressful moments that have you completely hooked. The weird balance of absurd comedy and human drama is perfectly matched with Hawke's performance. You buy the motivations behind his character and shortly realize that he is just someone pretending to know what the hell he is doing, and it's really incredible to see someone as good as Hawke portray a character that has such a big personality.

Saint Judy does a really beautiful job at showing how defiant it is to fight for others to be treated with simple empathy. We live in an extremely unfair world, and our immigration system is just one facet of that. Where it seems like all hope is lost and there's no use in fighting, there is Judy's vibrant and determined outlook on life, just genuinely wanting to make other people's lives better. She is an infectiously bright presence, and a lot of that is because of Michelle Monaghan. She really captures the uplifting spirit of the film and makes you believe in all the good in the world. This film is both clever and inspiring, and leaves you with the reminder that there is always hope.