Coco

More outwardly beautiful and inwardly deep even than Inside Out, Pixar picks apart our notions of death and remembrance and does so with literally breath-taking energy and emotion. Dark concepts, brilliant animation and genuine attention to detail in image and tone and casting craft a film that may live forever.

Casa de mi Padre

Brilliant idea gets lost in translation.  Ferrell’s Spanish is alarmingly good and the seriousness of his performance perfectly fits the premise, but the cinematic execution wavers between amusing and over the top.  Bernal y Luna tambien, have regular chemistry but weak roles and impress less than Aguillera’s awesome Bond song.

Babel

Alejandro Inarritu takes his multiple storyline structure international to interweave several tales of communication breakdowns. Barraza and Kinkuchi perform as well as Pitt, Blanchett and Bernal. Many will argue that inclusion of Asian story doesn’t make sense, but confusion may not be a bad thing; the film is called Babel.