RATING: A

After building a list of fascinatingly simple and moving short films, including Color Blind, Shervin Youssefian (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1352346/) explodes onto the Hollywood scene with this superb low-budgeter that combines film noir with comedy with thriller and manages to still come out as a believable contemporary work of art. The film weaves in and out at a lighting pace and youre out of the theatre before you can release your breath. "The film was packed with twists and humor and it felt more like a 30 minute film because of its pace than the hour and a half film that it is," says Alberto Finna, one of the enthusiastic viewers at a test screening.

Machiavelli Hangman (http://www.hangmanmovie.com) had been buzzing around the internet circuit as the to-beat film of 2006 in spite of its incredible low-budget of 150k. In a year that produced such major studio films like Batman Begins, War of the Worlds and later Superman Returns, it is refreshing to see that there are smaller films that get some breathing time.

Interestingly enough, Machiavelli Hangman is very much like the popular Crash that starred a list of A-listers like Sandra Bullock, Don Cheadle and Matt Dillan. These types of films that tell multiple stories at once and let the audience focus on more than one subplot are becoming increasingly popular because of their interactive value. "Finally, Hollywood is starting to produce films that have something to say and leave a lot of it for us to interpret," enhances Finna.

Memento surprised many studio executives who had doubts about its performance at the box-office when it gained momentum and was head to head with the bigger honchos that year. The doubts were understandable about Christopher Nolans arthouse film because Memento doesnt have the conventional narrative style as most films. The editor of the film who was later that year nominated for an Oscar chose to present the film backwards. This was a technique that was never attempted before, out of fear of losing the audiences attention.

Another arthouse film that enjoyed much success with audiences domestically and abroad was David Lynchs much acclaimed Mulholland Dr. that many believe is a twisted adaptation of Disneys Alice in Wonderland. The film won Lynch a Directors Award at the Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for an Academy Award for screenwriting.

Modern filmmakers seem to be catching on to the trend and they are offering more material to ruminate on to the audience, instead of simply chewing the data and feeding it to the moviegoers. Audiences are grasping smarter and the films have to keep up.