The Nordic countries are the ones that most control the sale of alcohol, but also the ones that have the most problems with it. This searching (and finding) of de-inhibition is a very sarcastic look. The film also works better on its uninhibited side than on the dark side. The courage of the proposal seems subjected to a certain moralistic reading. For the dance scene alone, Mads Mikkelsen deserves three Oscars. "What a life, what a night. What a beautiful, beautiful ride".
There is no point in turning a story that already had racial components into a silly representation of BLM. Candyman killed to avoid being forgotten, but now kills for racial revenge, which simplifies the depth of the proposal. Nia Dacosta's forceful directing and Robert Aiki's extraordinary electroacoustic soundtrack elevate the quality of a film that sacrifices the horror in favor of a simplistic racial view.
The best that can be said about this movie is that it has... "charm." But for the most part it seems like a loose repetition of already known elements: songs by Lin-Manuel Miranda that seem taken from "In the Heights", the colorful design that we have seen in "Moana"... But compared to the other Latin Disney movie, "Coco" (2017), is much less creative and the absence of a clear antagonist flattens the story too much.
An audiovisual poem from a medieval poem. A personal vision that turns a knight into a normal man, whose brief moment of bravery changes his destiny for good. It is a beautiful film, which seeks in aesthetics the visualization of the transformation process of Gawain, who renounces the traditional narrative to rise to dreams and fantasy. It is, therefore, a film to be absorbed, which aims to seduce rather than tell.
[Netflix] Remi Weekes' debut has so many readings that it is rich in content, while formally forceful. A social terror film about two refugees from Sudan which, when it seems to lead us down the path of difficult integration into another country, takes a surprising turn and ends up being an intelligent reflection on survival, pain and remorse. The ghosts here do not inhabit the house, but the interior of the people.
As in "True Grit" (Henry Hathaway, 1969), the protagonist accompanies a girl on a journey through the dangerous Western. But Captain Kidd is not a drunkard like Marshal Rooster Cogburn, he is a man whose ethics make him strange amidst deception and violence. Like him, this film is low-key, calm, with some good action scenes but a general tone of irrelevance. It is a western as decent as it is not very remarkable.
[Sheffield '23] Although it may raise the debate on the limits of explicit images of war, especially in relation to childhood, this documentary doesn't feel like a sensationalist film but rather an honest reflection of the reality of the chaos experienced by the city of Mariupol, reduced to rubble in just two months. A journalistic work that tries to dismantle the accusations of propaganda (including staging with actors) made by Russia, but which is not reduced to 20 days after the first bombings, but rather reflects the reality of Ukraine today.
A clever adaptation in which the author / director uses the camera to construct a family drama like a ghost movie, the vision of these "intruders" from a distance, the structure of the dark and sinister apartment always in view. But the secrets are not behind the noises and moldy walls, but inside the family. Karam creates a kind of ironic ghost-story in which the truth, like the apartment, has two levels.
[Disney+] After "Mulan" (2020) Disney continues to try to conquer the Chinese market and the rest of the world has to continue supporting stories structured with elements from decades ago. The formula ends up being repetitive and boring because the writers have no experience in animated film, and they do not intend to deviate from the traditional. The result is visually rich but narratively poor.
As disingenuous in its historical revisionism as the actors' African accents, it's a commercial movie that sells empowerment when it's actually offering submission, with unnecessary subplots and a sweeten portrayal of the ferocity of the Dahomey Amazons. It gives the impression that it hides the lack of a clear position on slavery with superficial samples of African folklore.
Another disappointing experience that softens the sadomasochistic implications of the original to follow a less disturbing and much more conventional path. It's the reinvention of tame horror, because it feels more creative on the surface than deep down, coming up with interesting atmospheric solutions without building a mythology that actually brings real purpose to the cenobites as a reflection of human desires.
Park Chan wook pays his particular tribute to "Vertigo" (1958), the romanticism turned into obsession. I'm not sure if the pieces fit perfectly, but this puzzle of mystery and ambiguity provokes curiosity. It seems that the film is made to need more than one viewing to capture all its details. Perhaps if the frills are removed, the story will end up being too simple, but it is a romance from the perspective of a director who always imagines the most surprising point of view.
A missed opportunity to pay homage to the original films, returning the prominence to the initial characters, but the production effort is sustained by a weak and repetitive script, which contains all the defects of this reboot that Colin Trevorrow started in 2015. When the Hollywood machinery does not know how to stop in time, it ends up creating nonsense as boring and inconsequential as this one.
[Göteborg FF] The justification for the animation is based on the concealment of the protagonist's face. Amin is an "unreliable narrator", who has based his life on lies to be accepted, as homosexual and refugee. A therapeutic journey to which we are invited to share Amin's memories (and some lies). At the end, we are moved and grateful for the courage of a man who didn't want to show his face but shared his soul.
[Göteborg FF] What the director achieves in this chronicle of the rise of a porn star is hard to find. Deconstructing a certain misogyny in the industry, the privileged male position (agents, directors, big stars are men), the protagonist begins a journey that will not be consolidated until she assumes precisely a male attitude. Provocative, explicit and unpleasant at times, the director takes the risk of not showing a single vagina but many penises. That this could be a risk for a commercial film explains everything.
A fairy tale about the visibility of the middle classes and the superficiality of icons (Christian Dior's elegance hides a deep crisis, romantic Paris is surrounded by garbage...). The pursuit of dreams is the leitmotif of a story with stereotyped characters who know how to twist the cliché (Isabelle Huppert, Lambert Wilson...), more inspiring in its superfluous development than other more ambitious films.
A minimalist story in which the future that the journalist asks the children he interviews about is also the representation of a complex present in an unstable North America. With obvious references to "Alice in the city" (1974), this generational meeting is transformed into a somewhat pessimistic vision of a youth that has an uncertain future before it, but looks at it with the optimism that maturity has lost. .
Although it has a fantastic and almost surreal tone at times,the film is about the sorrow and tragedy of a creatively brilliant life but marked by tragedy. In the case of Will Sharpe, who has also released "Landscapers" (HBO Max, 2021) it was impossible that it was a biopic with a conventional narrative. And although risk also assumes imbalance in some moments, it transmits with great efficiency that world of creativity and madness that surrounded the life of Louis Wain. And it makes us wonder if madness will not be the final destination of the brightest minds.
[tv+] It copies the French film, preserving the most moving scenes. It improves the representation of deaf people thanks to actors who are deaf (Troy Katsur, Marlee Matlin), and it also improves Emily Jones with a deeper performing than Louane Emera (despite winning a César Award). But there is a constant manipulation of feelings, an absolute surrender to the cliché. Sundance has overrated a popcorn movie.
There are two victims of Lee Daniels' directorial clumsiness: Billie Holiday, who deserved a better film portrait; and Andra Day, who deserved a more appropriate movie to shine. This is a reductionist film: it reduces Billie Holiday to a drug addict who is a good singer; and reduce the historic racial conflict to one song. There's such a messy editing and such erratic directing that it seems surprising.
[Apple Tv +] I find it difficult to connect with this rich girl with insecurities about her husband's fidelity. Sofia Coppola imitates Woody Allen, but she comes up with a comedy so subtle that it's not funny. The dialogues aren't particularly brilliant, and the father-daughter relationship is very strained at times. Although we have long forgiven Bill Murray for playing himself always, even he can't save the movie.
It captures horror through a horrifying everyday life, using the viewer's cinematic memory to reflect the perversion of the Holocaust off-screen. The invisible look at the daily life of a family that has achieved their aspirations as human beings, at the same time dehumanizes them, and the introduction of expressive overhead shots breaks that invisibility to show the most direct reality. The director takes risky decisions that manage to integrate perfectly, and an ending that places us directly in the horror of the denials of the reality that we constantly live.
[IFFR'22] Gabriele Mainetti brims with imagination in this mixture of a superhero movie and a parodic representation of the Nazis close to Tarantino. Although there is an obvious attempt to give depth to the characters with their complexities and contradictions, the film works best in the realm of pure entertainment, with imaginative staging and dazzling action scenes that make it a surprising popcorn movie.
[Netflix] Adam McKay takes advantage of the apocalyptic genre to craft a satire more focused on political criticism of the United States. A one-way vision that comes from an original idea by Bernie Sanders 'speechwriter in the 2020 campaign. But the cartoonish trend brings this movie closer to "Hot shots" (1991) and all those goofy parodies produced in 90's that to a more clever satire on the imbecility of humanity.
There is an almost masochistic appreciation of pain, in the way of listening to someone who is absent. "The text questions you", says Kafuku, you have to give in to it, as Sonia affirms in "Uncle Vanya": "What is going to be done!... You have to live!". Finding a safety net in Chekhov's work, letting the characters build at their own pace, the film wins as the driver's background takes over the plot.
[Netflix] Sorrentino looking Fellini face to face, paying tribute to his mentor Antonio Capuano, loving cinema as an escape from reality, but transferring his own reality to cinema. The tragedy of life as the driving force behind the coming-of-age, women as sexual objects, the religion of football, the family as ballast and as an impulse. Loving and hating, laughing and crying, the contradictions of life.
An authorized biopic is always a double-edged sword, even more so if it highlights a kind of messianic plan of the father rather than his daughters' own values. Because, after all, the Williams sisters are to their credit, as black women in a primarily white sport. A film designed in the shape of the Oscar, it contributes little to the staging of tennis and runs for about two and a half hours totally unnecessary.
It has an engaging approach that turns an environmental drama into a Christmas dark comedy. The mixture of genres does not fully achieve balance, but when the script focuses on the third act, it builds a final part that is very emotional, and that makes us reflect on the importance that only five minutes can have. Lorne Balfe does an outstanding job, composing a Christmas soundtrack that hides large doses of irony.
"Dune" for teenagers. Slow motion adaptation that hides in the blockbuster showmanship that doesn't even target Frank Herbert's ideas about fate and anti-messianic philosophy. An overwhelming and expensive prologue that pushes us to the dynamics of incomplete films that, at this rate, would need more films than "Star Wars" to adapt the entire saga. An unpromising future.
[AtlàntidaFF] The most controversial thing about the documentary is how it hints at themes without completely defining them. It is stated that, in his early 20s, he was an escort in Paris, living with a man who gave him money, but that word is never mentioned. There are some hints of sexual harassment, but without specifying. What is clear is that there was a lack of protection to which adults were obliged. The documentary feeds on the drama of the protagonist and exploits it to that last image that seems to be taken from a romantic painting, with the semi-darkened image of Björn Andrésen walking through the corridors of a ruined building. It's another form of exploitation, but this time with his consent.
