General release movies in October:
APPALOOSA
Watchable. The movie is quite dull, enlivened only by sparkling Renee Zellwegger.
THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PYJAMAS
Recommended. An interesting story with a powerful message. Just watch how it developes!
BRIDESHEAD REVISITED
Recommended. I loved the englishness of the serial several years ago but after several episodes I got a bit weary of it. The movie perfectly condensed the story, retained its superb English-feel and is really witty. I saw it twice.
BURN AFTER READING
Watchable. A quirky story on the verge of being funny.
THE CHASER
Watchable. An interesting Korean take on "Silence of the lambs" genre. Plenty of cultural oddities make it stand out but some elements of the plot aren't easily comprehensible.
CITY OF EMBER
Walked out. Filmed in juut one colour pallette, visually resembling French "La Cite des Enfants Perdus", wash-off of Kevin Costner's "The Postman". Not that "The Postman" was any interesting.
DEATH RACE
Watchable. Fast swift action. Nothing new but easily watchable.
DRONA
Walked out. This movie had a huge advertising campaign while normally Bollywood screenings sell out without much promotion which made me cautious. When I went to see it, I immediately understood why: they tried to make it into an English-style musical with fantastic creatures in it and ended up with total kitsch.
EAGLE EYE
Watchable. An intriguing story of a surveillance society, very contemporary but it could do with fewer or shorter chases.
THE FALL
Walked out. Several dull nonsense stories told by a character in the main story.
FLY ME TO THE MOON 3-D
Watchable. The movie could be livelier but it's still cute and the animation enchanting yet feeling cosy.
GHOST TOWN
Watchable. Quite funny.
GOMORRAH
Walked out. Just another mafia movie. Quite dull, with numerous scenes with no relevance to the action.
HELLO
Watchable. An ordinary story about call centre workers with a blatant Indian propaganda ending but the characters are likeable.
THE HOUSE BUNNY
Watchable. The silly protagonist is quite endearing but it could be funnier. "Legally Blonde" it ain't.
HEROES
Walked out. Too much blatant propaganda. Music could be better too.
HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL 3
Walked out. All the characters are just annoyingly silly and superficial. The musical could do with better music too.
HOW TO LOSE FRIENDS AND ALIENATE PEOPLE
Watchable. Swift, fast action but this comedy could be funnier.
IGOR
Walked out. "Nightmare Before Christmas" - style animation and the story about machines. As interesting as working at a factory production line.
INCENDIARY
Watchable. Little short of greatness. Great acting, powerful story and the survival propaganda isn't straight in your face. Takes a while to get started though.
I'VE LOVED YOU SO LONG (IL Y A LONGTEMPS QUE JE T'AIME)
Recommended. It should get an oscar in the Foreign Film category. It's deliberately slow. Starts good and then only gets better.
KARZ
Watchable. An intriguing story about reincarnation, deceit and revenge. A bit stereotypical Bollywood with just-good music but rewarding with swift action.
KIDNAP
Recommended. A gooD story with good twists of action.
MIRRORS
Walked out. As repetitive as horrors get.
THE MUTANT CHRONICLES
Walked out. Continuous warfare with vampire-like creatures in it, visually dark and blue for some reason.
NIGHTS IN RODANTHE
Walked out. A dull affair of boring middle-aged people.
REDBELT
Walked out. A movie about running a school rather than about karate.
RIGHTEOUS KILL
Watchable. Another movie about killing criminals who escaped justice but not entirely stupid.
ROADSIDE ROMEO
Walked out. A Bollywood movie about metrosexual goons who take pride in their appearance. Someone falls in love like, as usual. And all of it enacted by cartoon characters of dogs.
THE ROCKER
Watchable. A movie about how you achieve success in show business nowadays. Some bits are more disgusting than amusing but the action is fast and the music rocks.
SAW V
Walked out. Will they finally stop flogging the dead horse!? In part one the killer is a genius. Now he turns out to have so many accomplices and copycats that I just couldn't work out the plot.
SUPER AGENT K9
Walked out. This comedy isn't funny at all, it's just plain stupid. Luckily it's Turkish so not many people are tempted to see it anyway.
SWING VOTE
Watchable. Kevin Costner seems to stick to propaganda movies. This one is surprisingly good, unfortunately stereotypical anyway.
TAKEN
Watchable. Quite a clever movie about a father rescuing a kidnapped daughter. Not very stereotypical.
THEN SHE FOUND ME
Walked out. Too much daily life and the affair of ugly middle-aged people didn't keep me hooked.
TROPIC THUNDER
Walked out. An overtalked comedy that could be funnier.
THE WAVE
Watchable. An interesting story that tries to be thought-provoking but is not.
Having seen everything, I had to take a break from cinema waiting for new releases. Tomorrow I'm back at the cinema. Yabbadabbadoo!
Thursday 30 October 2008
and the remaining festival reviews:
HABER
Watchable. The way the movie was filmed seems a bit too theatrical and too little cinematic but the story is interesting and the final message stays in memory.
LITTLE ASHES
Watchable. The movie is a bit too nostalgic and sentimental. The makers seem to have believed the lives of celebrities would sell themselves per se. Still, it tells a story of a little known aspect of Dali's and Lorca's lives.
NO THROUGH ROAD
Watchable. A thriller with good suspense but with too much standard movie violence at the end.
ONE DAY REMOVALS
Watchable. This movie also looks a bit too theatrical rather than cinematic and has some lengthy bits between the absolutely hilarious gags and some good lines. As a comedy great, just looks a bit amateurish - that's the only problem. Still, I'm really happy to have got the DVD after the screening.
THE RIND (LA CASCARA)
Watchable. The story is quite weird and about nothing in fact but the mystery keeps you watching.
RUNNING WITH MUM
Watchable. Too many silly interviews in this doc but you hear unknown facts about the war and when you focus on the info you can easily imagine the events as if you were there.
SENSELESS
Watchable. The story about a captured and tortured man keeps you in suspense throughout and has one good twist but again, feels like another "Hostel" wash-off.
TURTLES ARE SURPRISINGLY FAST SWIMMERS
Watchable. This comedy is constantly on the verge of being funny.
WHO IS K K DOWNEY?
Walked out. The movie is about total weirdos. It was really hard to identify myself with any of the characters.
HABER
Watchable. The way the movie was filmed seems a bit too theatrical and too little cinematic but the story is interesting and the final message stays in memory.
LITTLE ASHES
Watchable. The movie is a bit too nostalgic and sentimental. The makers seem to have believed the lives of celebrities would sell themselves per se. Still, it tells a story of a little known aspect of Dali's and Lorca's lives.
NO THROUGH ROAD
Watchable. A thriller with good suspense but with too much standard movie violence at the end.
ONE DAY REMOVALS
Watchable. This movie also looks a bit too theatrical rather than cinematic and has some lengthy bits between the absolutely hilarious gags and some good lines. As a comedy great, just looks a bit amateurish - that's the only problem. Still, I'm really happy to have got the DVD after the screening.
THE RIND (LA CASCARA)
Watchable. The story is quite weird and about nothing in fact but the mystery keeps you watching.
RUNNING WITH MUM
Watchable. Too many silly interviews in this doc but you hear unknown facts about the war and when you focus on the info you can easily imagine the events as if you were there.
SENSELESS
Watchable. The story about a captured and tortured man keeps you in suspense throughout and has one good twist but again, feels like another "Hostel" wash-off.
TURTLES ARE SURPRISINGLY FAST SWIMMERS
Watchable. This comedy is constantly on the verge of being funny.
WHO IS K K DOWNEY?
Walked out. The movie is about total weirdos. It was really hard to identify myself with any of the characters.
Tuesday 28 October 2008
RAINDANCE FILM FESTIVAL 2008 full-length films continued:
GARDENS OF THE NIGHT
Watchable. A well-researched realistic feature film showing how sex trafficking children works. They just show the psychologic techniques used by the pimps which is very enlightening. Still, the film doesn't feel powerful.
GUNNIN' FOR THAT NO. 1 SPOT
Watchable. It's not very interesting if you aren't a basketball fan but is the players' life stories are shown in a warm, cosy way.
GARDENS OF THE NIGHT
Watchable. A well-researched realistic feature film showing how sex trafficking children works. They just show the psychologic techniques used by the pimps which is very enlightening. Still, the film doesn't feel powerful.
GUNNIN' FOR THAT NO. 1 SPOT
Watchable. It's not very interesting if you aren't a basketball fan but is the players' life stories are shown in a warm, cosy way.
Wednesday 22 October 2008
RAINDANCE FILM FESTIVAL 2008
This year's festival films were much better than last year. In 2007 I walked out or hardly tolerated most. This year the majority of movies were really good. The annoying element this year was the organisation: plenty of screenings were seriously delayed, sometimes more than one hour and many popular movies sold out simply due to the fact they were shown in a small screen, while the big one wasn't very crowded.
Events:
ANATOMY OF A REEL
Mark Tonderei talked about filming "Hush" - a British thriller which has sold to 25 territories already and which will be released here in the UK in March 2009. Hopefully the presentation was comprehensible to other movie makers. To me it wasn't.
DISSECTING DISTRIBUTION
Stacey Parks provided a thorough, insightful, honest, producer-oriented breakdown on how marketing, distribution and sales of film rights work. It covered all the media and most important markets. The presentation was very audience-friendly.
Short films:
THE BENT PENNY
A well-made 16-minute triple story about our attitude to a penny: its value & superstition. A lot of meaning skillfully squeezed into a short - a little pearl. Still, overacting detracts from its quality.
DIRECTIONS
15 minutes about what you can possibly do with a shopping trolley. I don't know why anyone would find the topic interesting but Greg Muller's acting make it perfectly watchable.
HOURGLASS
An 8-minute mystery story about time and fate. Amazing scenography. Perfectly watchable.
KARAOKE
A 16-minute story about looking for a job, human interactions and purpose in life. The story isn't very inspiring but Renate Serwotke's well-tuned acting makes it perfectly watchable.
LITTLE WHISPERS
A 10-minute fairy-tale about passing away. Another well-made short.
L'ENFANT PERDUE (THE LOST CHILD)
Very anxious-looking director Josephine Mackerras made an 18-minute overlong story about coping with loss and forgiveness full of hysterical overacting and emotional turmoil. Scenography hardly existent. I didn't walk out just because it felt awkward not to stay till the end of a shortie.
THE MILKY AUDITION
An 8-minute Japanese film which probably made sense only to Japanese audience. Lots of nudity, not that the fattish girls were any pretty.
Full length films:
CETVRTI COVEK (THE 4TH MAN)
Watchable. An interesting Serbian spy movie. Seems more realistic than Bond or Bourne - the spies aren't good-looking. Has a cosy East-European feel (a butcher offers to pack someone sausages for the way as a hospitality gesture).
9TO5 - DAYS IN PORN
Watchable. A well-made documentary about porn industry. Presenter's: "no one has it, no one buys it, no one watches it but they make more money than the movie industry" sums it up well. Who is pervert: those who fuck 8 hours a day making $ 1000-2000 daily or those who fuel the demand for such jobs at all?
ACOLYTES
Watchable. An Australian thriller that promises more than it delivers.
THE BIRTHDAY
Walked out. The movie aspires to mimick Lynch but results in heaps of rubbish. The lead actor (Corey Feldman) has an annoying asthmatic voice.
THE BLUE TOWER
Walked out. A British movie about the Indian community aspiring to become second "Brick Lane" - not that that film was much better.
THE END
Watchable. A documentary about London's East End gangsters. Interesting to see how the area evolved over the years and became less and less English and more and more Bangladeshi/Indian/Pakistani. Other than that the story about the director's father and his accomplices is too personal for outsiders.
FINE, TOTALLY FINE
Recommended. A Japanese comedy about a very accident-prone girl and other misfits. Rarely do you laugh so much at the cinema.
FUGITIVE PIECES
Watchable. A poetic Canadian reflection on emigration, national identity and relationships. Very thought-provoking, to the point where, somehow parallel to the movie, it led me to reflect on one considerable difference between life in my native Poland and my adopted Britain:
In Poland we normally cook and often grow our own food while in Britain hardly anyone bothers even cooking. The British must feel really secure on their island. The second world war didn't affect them much, they don't have existential concerns, they are oriented at their own comfort and convenience. In Poland growing fruit and veg on your own allotment is kind of a national obsession. I think it's subconsious. This is how you survive the war. This is how my parents came into being. My father's first five years of life were during the war, in a small village. Soldiers didn't bother them much. They would come round and ask for milk or eggs which the villagers would give freely to Poles and to Germans all the same. Only Ukrainians were seen as menace - you had to run and hide in the woods. When my grandma got pregnant with my mum she left Warsaw. It was safer to carry the baby and give birth in the country. Also, when you grow your own food, you are independent of the market and you don't get affected by famine in case of war or a crisis. Growing and cooking your own food as well as reparing stuff is a matter of staying physically and mentally fit in times of peace and a matter of survival during a war.
It also led me to a generalisation on cultural differences in the mostly-white parts of the world - in America people look to the future (oriented at achieving success), in Western Europe people live at present (oriented at having fun right now) while in Eastern Europe people constantly refer to the past (burden of history).
More festival and general release movies later this week.
This year's festival films were much better than last year. In 2007 I walked out or hardly tolerated most. This year the majority of movies were really good. The annoying element this year was the organisation: plenty of screenings were seriously delayed, sometimes more than one hour and many popular movies sold out simply due to the fact they were shown in a small screen, while the big one wasn't very crowded.
Events:
ANATOMY OF A REEL
Mark Tonderei talked about filming "Hush" - a British thriller which has sold to 25 territories already and which will be released here in the UK in March 2009. Hopefully the presentation was comprehensible to other movie makers. To me it wasn't.
DISSECTING DISTRIBUTION
Stacey Parks provided a thorough, insightful, honest, producer-oriented breakdown on how marketing, distribution and sales of film rights work. It covered all the media and most important markets. The presentation was very audience-friendly.
Short films:
THE BENT PENNY
A well-made 16-minute triple story about our attitude to a penny: its value & superstition. A lot of meaning skillfully squeezed into a short - a little pearl. Still, overacting detracts from its quality.
DIRECTIONS
15 minutes about what you can possibly do with a shopping trolley. I don't know why anyone would find the topic interesting but Greg Muller's acting make it perfectly watchable.
HOURGLASS
An 8-minute mystery story about time and fate. Amazing scenography. Perfectly watchable.
KARAOKE
A 16-minute story about looking for a job, human interactions and purpose in life. The story isn't very inspiring but Renate Serwotke's well-tuned acting makes it perfectly watchable.
LITTLE WHISPERS
A 10-minute fairy-tale about passing away. Another well-made short.
L'ENFANT PERDUE (THE LOST CHILD)
Very anxious-looking director Josephine Mackerras made an 18-minute overlong story about coping with loss and forgiveness full of hysterical overacting and emotional turmoil. Scenography hardly existent. I didn't walk out just because it felt awkward not to stay till the end of a shortie.
THE MILKY AUDITION
An 8-minute Japanese film which probably made sense only to Japanese audience. Lots of nudity, not that the fattish girls were any pretty.
Full length films:
CETVRTI COVEK (THE 4TH MAN)
Watchable. An interesting Serbian spy movie. Seems more realistic than Bond or Bourne - the spies aren't good-looking. Has a cosy East-European feel (a butcher offers to pack someone sausages for the way as a hospitality gesture).
9TO5 - DAYS IN PORN
Watchable. A well-made documentary about porn industry. Presenter's: "no one has it, no one buys it, no one watches it but they make more money than the movie industry" sums it up well. Who is pervert: those who fuck 8 hours a day making $ 1000-2000 daily or those who fuel the demand for such jobs at all?
ACOLYTES
Watchable. An Australian thriller that promises more than it delivers.
THE BIRTHDAY
Walked out. The movie aspires to mimick Lynch but results in heaps of rubbish. The lead actor (Corey Feldman) has an annoying asthmatic voice.
THE BLUE TOWER
Walked out. A British movie about the Indian community aspiring to become second "Brick Lane" - not that that film was much better.
THE END
Watchable. A documentary about London's East End gangsters. Interesting to see how the area evolved over the years and became less and less English and more and more Bangladeshi/Indian/Pakistani. Other than that the story about the director's father and his accomplices is too personal for outsiders.
FINE, TOTALLY FINE
Recommended. A Japanese comedy about a very accident-prone girl and other misfits. Rarely do you laugh so much at the cinema.
FUGITIVE PIECES
Watchable. A poetic Canadian reflection on emigration, national identity and relationships. Very thought-provoking, to the point where, somehow parallel to the movie, it led me to reflect on one considerable difference between life in my native Poland and my adopted Britain:
In Poland we normally cook and often grow our own food while in Britain hardly anyone bothers even cooking. The British must feel really secure on their island. The second world war didn't affect them much, they don't have existential concerns, they are oriented at their own comfort and convenience. In Poland growing fruit and veg on your own allotment is kind of a national obsession. I think it's subconsious. This is how you survive the war. This is how my parents came into being. My father's first five years of life were during the war, in a small village. Soldiers didn't bother them much. They would come round and ask for milk or eggs which the villagers would give freely to Poles and to Germans all the same. Only Ukrainians were seen as menace - you had to run and hide in the woods. When my grandma got pregnant with my mum she left Warsaw. It was safer to carry the baby and give birth in the country. Also, when you grow your own food, you are independent of the market and you don't get affected by famine in case of war or a crisis. Growing and cooking your own food as well as reparing stuff is a matter of staying physically and mentally fit in times of peace and a matter of survival during a war.
It also led me to a generalisation on cultural differences in the mostly-white parts of the world - in America people look to the future (oriented at achieving success), in Western Europe people live at present (oriented at having fun right now) while in Eastern Europe people constantly refer to the past (burden of history).
More festival and general release movies later this week.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)