good movies

I guess I just haven't been to the movies lately, so even though a lot of good movies came out in the past year, I just didn't go and see them. Anyway, the upside of this is that I've gotten some really great dvds lately. In the past week, I saw three great movies: the squid and the whale, a history of violence, and north country. north country was just good because it was well acted and had some women's rights elements and it was a good story and showed that the law can get good things done (I've been wondering about that lately). the squid and the whale also was really well acted, and was a great story. it had such a great mix of humor and sorrow and thoughtfulness and rawness and honesty. i know it's based on the writer/director's life, at least in part, and i always wonder whether that actually makes things seem more poignant. like remember a heartbreaking work of staggering genius? would that have been nearly as good if you knew it were fiction? this clearly relates to questions of the jt leroy / james frey "scandals" (are they really scandals?), and the question of, if it's good, why does it matter? finally, a history of violence was so unexpectedly good. i like cronenberg, but i don't like violence generally, so i didn't expect that this movie would be so well done and moving and interesting. anyway, these are all total generalizations, but i recommend all three movies. yay movies.