Incomprehensibly rejected by the main streaming platforms such as Netflix, which distributed the documentary "Icarus" (Bryan Fogel, 2017) that won an Oscar, the reasons could be in the economic connections of these platforms with Saudi Arabia. Because "The Dissident" clearly raises not only the involvement of members of the government in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, but that of the crown prince herself. It is a courageous documentary that uses the audio transcripts of the moment of the murder to build a structure around the crime, incorporating other elements that somehow broaden the view from concrete activism to the control of information technologies by the governments.
Watching a PWSA movie is like eating an extremely salty popcorn. It does taste like popcorn, but the intense flavor ends up being unpleasant. The director gives what he thinks is expected, and don't expect characters development. Non-stop action edited as if it were a two hours trailer, one second per shot. A mix between "Mad Max" and "Pirates of the Caribbean", better in the scenes with Milla Jovovich and Tony Jaa. Diablo!
[IFFR] The opening of Rotterdam FF is a fascinating film, built on a solid script with brilliantly developed characters. Between the dark comedy and the thriller, it has characteristics of other ATJ titles, but in some moments, in the game of coincidences and the weird tone, it is reminiscent of the Coen brothers. Addressing topics such as grief and the consequences of our actions, this film is full of surprises.
[HBO Max] Wonder Woman is a supporting character in her own sequel. So much so that they need to recover a character from the first movie to be her adventure partner. Goofy villains are the protagonists, but the action scenes are poorly shot. The only thing from the 80's are the visual effects. At least, Hans Zimmer believes the epic of the character. This is what happens when a mediocre director becomes a star.
[HBO Max] It's surprising that the collaboration between Guillermo del Toro and Robert Zemeckis results in such a bland film. It doesn't make sense to set the film in Alabama when most of it takes place in a hotel. Changes, in fact, make story worse instead. It's a film with an excess of CGI and a lack of imagination. And it makes little use of the iconography of the witches, less terrifying than in Nicolas Roeg's.
[Sitges FF] The shadow. Rarely have shadows produced so much chill. The multi-faceted director builds a superb representation of the world of dreams / nightmares. It achieves an atmosphere of constant unease, thanks to a claustrophobic cinematography of grays and blues, in which reality and dreams are progressively confused, and to one of the best scores of the genre this year. We end up immersed in a world of dreams, trapped in a nightmare from which we have no escape.
"How is a baker like a beggar? They both need bread". This is a story of bakers and beggars. Rich and poor. From those who can buy a cow and who have to steal her milk. A western with a feminine look. Kelly Reichardt's cinema is quiet but deep. She constructs the characters with patience but complexity. The last one is a radical film that talks about the roots of capitalism through a story of friendship.
The disappearing town. The community that defends itself. The missing water. The film is a clever mix of genres. Blood-tinged political cinema. Gal Costa sounds. "Too much violence," says the most violent character. John Carpenter sounds. A dystopian western more complex than "Westworld". The strangers scenes are unbalanced. The colonization of the disadvantaged. The death is a spaghetti western. "Se for, vá na paz".
One of Wes Anderson's most playful films in terms of narrative structure, which looks at the fifties in black and white and furious color. The symmetrical visualization of the asymmetrical story, the composition of the perfect image that recreates the disorder of a story that reflects the postwar obsession with atomic destruction and the arrival of extraterrestrials in a desert recreated in Spain. A cryptic film that talks about many things without apparently saying anything, but above all about the loss and mourning, through the representation of the creative process.
[HBO Max] It uses most of the resources of animated cinema in a story that is unbalanced between wanting to please all audiences and trying to focus on the child's gaze. Like when it tries to build an empowered female lead, but ends up inevitably fueled by a romantic relationship. It is something like wanting to provide positive messages but that deep down contain a deep traditional look. The animation is well executed without being overly shiny and the soundtrack finds inspiration in Jerry Goldsmith, but the story is too boring and cliché.
[AtlàntidaFF '22] It is not a coming-of-age film of growth in which maturity is the final destination, but rather a close look at that youthful moment in which there are responsibilities but also space for emotions overflowing. This positivity and disinhibition may make this story seem less transcendent, but it is quite the opposite, a deep insight into emotions in a complicated stage of life, facing an uncertain future but living an exciting present.
There is almost as much artificiality in the characters (particularly the non-chemistry between Gal Gadot and Armie Hammer) as there is in the background of a faked Egypt with chroma screen and flawed CGI. Essentially, that is the main problem of a film that exudes neither the romantic passion that its characters should have, nor the wanderlust that the winding desert and the pyramids of Egypt should have.
[RTVE Play] Fragments of love with 3D animated paintings. Unattainable loves, lost loves, loves recovered through a shop window, permanent loves and traveling loves. Alberto Mariego shows different kind of loving expressions, passionate, wrapped in colors (blue, red...), almost impossible definitions, but enveloping and hypnotic. Get love back before it's too late. Soko sings: "We might be dead tomorrow."
What strikes the most is the kindness with which the farmers treat the cows that they lock up, burn, inseminate, and separate from their offsprings. In the countryside, the calves run as they yearn for freedom. Something similar is the treatment that the director gives her film, close to the eyes, attentive to the mooing, but in the end manipulative in the use of sound, like a "kind" vision into a concentration camp .
[IFFR'22] An Afro-futuristic musical with an anti-capitalist concept that adopts the unstructured form of slam to build a story about the exploitation of Africa, gender identity or technological threats. Overly ambitious in its many ideas, too many to be easily absorbed,, it is visually stunning and imaginative, and musically connects with Saul Williams' "MartyrLoserKing" (2016) album.
"Dear Evan Hansen" is one of the most overrated Broadway musicals of recent years, with its superficial treatment of teenage depression and its cloying songs. In the adaptation to the cinema, the little inspiration of the musical numbers, which use similar structure, does not help (with pandemic limitations or not). One of the dullest musicals ever made, the director even manages to go against the actors themselves.
The reconciliation meeting, or what can be called, between victims (all are) of a massacre in a high school offers a chamber film that is supported by the extraordinary performances of the four actors and actresses. There is some manipulation in a text that leads the viewer from one side to the other, trying to establish empathies. But despite this, it proposes a deep reflection on what is the germ of violence.
[Amazon] Sorkin gets a biopic concentrating on a single week, and talking about topics like sexism and blacklists, but also the talent and charm of an era. He has, as usual, some remarkable dialogue and a less inspired direction, but above all an extraordinary work by Nicole Kidman, well supported by a charming Javier Bardem and the excellent cast. The ineffectiveness of the documentary style scenes is made up by the fascinating recreation of the comic inspiration of Lucille Ball, uncredited director.
With an interesting approach, it proposes themes that it doesn't explore, because it chooses romantic sentimentality over existential dystopia, embracing the love story to the detriment of science fiction. It is such a maudlin film that it does not even manage to convey emotions, and loses the opportunity to reflect on the condition of the human being faced with the possibility of going beyond one's own mortality.
A story about two men and a woman written by two men and a woman in which the feminine gaze prevails, the "truth" is assumed from the beginning, so the other "versions" seem somewhat unnecessary. But there is a perfection in the representation of a medieval society so masculinized that it's difficult to argue, and it has an extraordinary contribution in the very intelligent soundtrack by Harry Gregson-Williams.
[Netflix] The film masterfully handles subtext, it has an emotional background that is expressed without the need for dialogue. The filming in New Zealand gives an almost dreamlike aspect to the landscapes of this anti-western, a kind of reverse of the genre. There is a constant tension that is shown in the distorted strings and sepulchral winds of Jonny Greenwood's music.
A film that causes uneasiness, in its atmosphere, in its slow pace, in its apparent lack of action that nevertheless hides a lot of background. It's a strange psychological challenge: what looks like madness becomes reality, just as love can turn to rage when maternity wards rival each other. The director builds an echo of constant mourning, even when (apparent) happiness reaches the family. A dark, languid and sad tale that has its roots in the folklore of a dark, languid and sad country.
Absolutely creative, perfectly told in the form of a story that is almost fantasy (the use of mirrors). Bravo represents a story from Twitter with irony (Stefani's version) and with visual and sound ideas (the use of colors) that seem to have no end. An entertaining but at the same time profound reflection on social networks and their influence. A film in which small details are discovered in each scene. emoji heart.
Music is the message. Questlove chooses the recorded (and unwatched) edition of the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, and builds a complex portrait of an era, the contrast between the man conquering the moon and the heroine conquering Harlem streets. Each performance expands as a narrative line, a vindication of the community. And furthermore, Nina Simone, B.B. King, Stevie Wonder, Mahalia Jackson, Mavis Staples...
[MUBI, 4K] Neon lights. Romantic Neo Noir. Run to avoid tears. Undying love. Never leave your apartment key on the Midnight Express. Hong Kong colonized by music. Can an apartment cry when its owner abandons it? Two stories that are two road-movies of feelings. "Where do you want to go?. Wherever you want to take me."
[Netflix] Apparently, an American director of Iranian origin does not have much connection with India. But this adaptation manages to transfer the contradictions of a complex country, the old-fashioned caste system that nevertheless is the central axis of Indian society. Although the moral conclusion of the story may be debatable, it builds a process of transformation from a young villager into an unscrupulous person. It is, therefore, a not very accommodating vision of a life marked by the origin of each person.
[Apple TV +] Overwhelming animated film that's full of brilliant ideas, beautiful designs and old-school animation. This story of growth (perhaps also coming out), confronts freedom with oppression, religion with paganism. The dark, squared village faces the colorful, infinite forest. The own identity (the wolf) that must be found and, above all, accepted, is a theme that respects the intelligence of the viewers.
Waves crashing against rocks. A violence of nature that extracts fossils from the past. This subtle, silent relationship also hides the confrontation with the conventions, the clash of social classes so different that they seem like those sea monsters in struggle represented in the paintings. The beach is the space of freedom, but you also have to fill up with mud to build something together. Love against rules.
Perhaps the fact that not much is expected from this film makes it a compelling film in the end, small but with good special effects and the right rhythm. This is a coming-of-age with giant insects around it, which works well thanks to its protagonist and a remarkable sense of humor and action. It has many similarities to "Zombieland", but knows how to reinvent it to create an enjoyable commercial product.
An opportunistic film that achieves a certain nightmare atmosphere, but has such an absurd premise that its development is implausible. When you need to tell a story in a fragmented way to extend the plot, the script has serious problems. The film wants to be provocative, but also politically correct and in this aspect it borders on ridicule. At least the soundtrack stands out, which manages to convey more than the images.
