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.
One of the weirdest documentary series that can be found. The irony of John Wilson manifests itself in episodes with strange themes such as scaffolding or ways of covering furniture. The mastery of the project is in how it manages to make each episode drift towards unusual paths, which cast doubt on the lucidity of the human being. It is an unusual look at life, a discovery of the most remote places of our existence.
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.
A beautiful tribute to an actor who achieved recognition as an actor by defying limitations. An example of improvement for people with disabilities. R.I.P. Clark Middleton.
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.
Wonderful reinterpretation of History. With a sense of humor darker than the Emperor's heart. It is a comic satire that is not usual to find on television, and maybe that is the reason because it has not found the right target of viewers, not used to read between the lines.
It is not a perfect show, because it has ups and downs in some episodes, but there are others that are absolutely enjoyable, such as the funny trip to the Kingdom of Sweden in "Meatballs at the Dacha" (1x08). I"An occasionally true story".
After eight seasons, the perfect ending the characters deserved. It is surprising how this tv show has managed to go beyond its original concept to build one of the best reflections on how conflicts in the Middle East are handled from the West.
[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.
[tv+] Throughout this kind of anthology that establishes connections between the characters, there are some stories that are more interesting than others, especially as it moves forward in time and show more distant possible futures. It isn't so much a question of imagining a future marked by climate change, but of forecasting, based on current scientific data, what life in our society would be like in forty years from now. There is less dystopia to propose some solutions through bioengineering, and although it is inevitably discursive, the proposal is more interesting than usual.
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.
[HBO] A messy script that's constantly running ahead of events, as if it's so eager to explain itself that it leaves constant narrative gaps. Episode six, a kind of short film anthology, is intended to be explanatory but leaves more questions than answers. The new showrunner Philippa Goslett has the mission to fix the mess (if it is possible) and, on the way, eliminate the sexist tone of the show.
[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.
A pirate adventure that takes place mainly indoors, a children's series that conveys the sensation of a cheap product, not only because of the recycling of settings from the series "Black sails" (Starz, 2014-2017) but because of a mediocre staging and poor visual effects. That a battle between pirate ships is resolved visually with medium shots and close ups demonstrates the scant talent and minimal resources. Instead of translating the animated universe into more or less believable real action, the result is actors in costumes imitating cartoon actions.
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.
An intelligent adaptation of the Anne Rice novels that manages to be faithful but at the same time update the story and its characters. It introduces interesting elements of reflection and builds much more complex characters, who are made credible by the splendid performances. The destructive and violent romanticism is shown without limits, and especially the appearance of the new Claudia is brutal and ironic. There is a dark sense of humor that accompanies an outstanding series.
[Netflix] As with many stories featuring teens, the inability to give them a believable voice is disappointing. Once again, this short stories anthology series, that builds a main plot to stretch it out to exhaustion, offers implausible dialogues of fifteen-year-olds talking as if they were thirty years old. And it reflects on life and death through characters who don't have a solid life experience.
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.
[HBO Max] The comic made a harsh criticism of the manipulation of journalism in war zones, but the objective of the series turning the protagonist into a doctor in search of her son is not clear. An inclusive story that is as classist as it claims to be, using all the stereotypes about minorities. The feigned depth turns into deep boredom. Only fragments remain of the graphic novel. John Carpenter did it better in "Escape from New York" (1981), one of the references to the original.
From the beginning, the show marks its own style with an intelligent and acid sense of humor. These small stories that are carried out by the main characters, with their own entity, build a vision of race and tradition through a new generation that has been raised with white popular culture, as the reference to Tarantino shows. But above all it's full of unforgettable characters (Uncle Brownie, Big or Spirit).
[Amazon] With this work, Barry Jenkins offers a new dimension to that representation of the trauma of slavery that is already common in movies and series. Majestic in the visual concept, deep in the psychological journey through the discovery of many forms of slavery and many forms of liberation. There are episodes that are masterpieces, there are ideas that reveal the genius of a great director.
[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.
[Netflix] Lupin without Lupin. An entertaining series that is based on a character whose modern version would have been interesting to discover. Instead, we have an Arsène Lupine impersonator (proper Omar Sy) who is, however, a more tormented character, with less spark than the original. The proposal is entertaining, although not very ingenious in the way of developing the story (entering the jail, the disguise ...). It achieves part of its goal, but more creative effort would have been interesting.
[tv+] There is a tense construction in the two central characters of this show that manage to maintain a constant pulse throughout the entire season. Especially when it surrounds them with an ambiguity in which we sometimes doubt both the probable corrupt activities of Peter Capaldi's Hagerty and the psychological stability of Cush Jumbo's June Lenker. So the story always manages to stay on the knife's edge to lead to an outcome that is less predictable than it might seem. Which is already an important merit.
[Prime Video] Has elements too similar to "Westworld" but less attention-grabbing. In the first part, the characters are well introduced and it creates a mystery that is interesting, but as it develops, it seems that it never ends up specifying its path, as if it were thinking more about the next season than the current one. And we discover an artifice wrapped in a sci-fi fantasy that is actually profoundly empty, even with characters taking center stage only to play secondary roles as the story unfolds.
