What I've been watching:

Amreeka
This story of a Palestinian mother and son who move to small-town Illinois chronicles their difficulties in finding work, fitting in, and making a new life for themselves in America at the time of the Iraqi invasion. It is touching, engaging and uplifting.

Lorna’s Silence
This is a very quiet Belgian/French film where little is explained—you must watch as the story unfolds. Lorna is a Rumanian woman who has married a Belgian to enable her to become a citizen so that she can divorce him and marry a Russian mobster, thereby allowing him to become a citizen. It’s all very shady and demands a total lack of feeling for all involved. Unfortunately for Lorna, she cares too much. It takes patience to watch this film but it is definitely intriguing.

In the Loop
When a British minister says in an interview that war in the future is “unforeseeable” he sets off a crisis of international proportion. Peter Capaldi carries the film with his foul-mouthed but very funny performance. With James Gandolfini as a peace-loving general. Funny…but a little hard to follow.

A Serious Man
This is a quiet little movie by the Coen brothers about being Jewish in the upper Midwest during the 60’s. The hero of the story is the dad for whom everything that could go wrong, does. I liked it.

The Cartoonist
This is a documentary film about Jeff Smith of Bone fame who believes in the ability of comics to tell an epic story. It took him 15 years, but he finally did just this. An inspiring story about a likable guy.