Movie reviews

ULTIMA THULE (ICELANDIC FILM FESTIVAL)

BRIM (UNDERCURRENT)

Watchable. Mostly out of curiosity what life on a boat looks like. Other than that it's like watching ordinary people, nothing enticing in the cinematography either.

FORELDRAR (PARENTS)

Watchable. Peculiar characters struggling with common dilemmas regarding conception or child raising are involving. They're over the top at times though.

BOERN (CHILDREN)

Watchable. Hot criminal dyed blond - deep in heart a good guy, just with a short fuse and a schizophreniac make for a lively film. Not much of a plot, other than a father saving his son from bullies.

VEDRAMOT

Watchable. Tackles the uneasy issue of child sex abuse at home but is mostly about hippies.

SODOMA REYKJAVIK

Watchable. Refreshing as its punk. But it's just too crazy ro evoke any emotions, even amusement.


UMIMACHI DIARY

Watchable. Very warm, family film about adults. Everyone is invariably polite and calm so you can just sit and enjoy. No real action though, everything is so mundane and correct.


IX PRASKI FESTIWAL FILMOW MLODZIEZOWYCH

WIECEJ NIZ MURY

Recommended. The only full-length movie in the festival. It's just great fun: realistic + fantasy script, fun, natural dialogues, mature acting of young actors, good music and great camerawork and editing. No preaching included.

MUZYCZNY SPARING

Too short to walk out. Resembles "Polskie gowno".

DRZEWO OGNIA

Watchable. Great music, a bit too long.

BROTHERS

Watchable. Well-acted but what is it about?

PIJACY

Watchable. Good ending, but what is it before that?

TAKIE PRZEZYCIE MIALAM

Watchable. Well shot in black and white, gives you a glimpse into what you'd consider a ruined life but which it isn't from the person's point of view. About taking care of a severely handicapped boy.

FERAJNA Z HOOVERA -WARSZAWO MA

Recommended. Beautiful cinematography and mood-setting slow motion pictures.

PROSTA RZECZ

Watchable. The shoe-repairer joke is hilarious. Other than that it's just a reasonable world view of the shoe-repairer.

NAD JEZIOREM

Watchable. Beautiful pictures but poor cinematography and editing.

Z GLOWA W CHMURACH

Watchable. Nice music, about nothing.

KON

Too short to walk out. Boring, what's the point?

KLOPOTY Z PIANA

Too short to walk out. Rubber duck, weird non-duck noises, the kind of film I didn't like even as a child.

OBOK

Watchable. Interesting form, the subject just in the beginning. It puts you right in the dumb people's world.

EVANESCENCE/ULOTNOSC

Watchable. Bad music, poor recording, voice strangely extended. The plus is the final credits explaining it's about a kidnapped daughter which makes you put all the weird disconnected scenes into perspective.

ODWAZNA

Watchable. Nice music and video, silly story.

DOBRY CZLOWIEK

Watchable. Refers indirectly to "Bogowie", interesting psychologically. Still, somehow lacks the teeth.

KROLEWNA

Watchable. You have to put up with a baby on the screen but the topic of adolescent parents is important.


BATMAN V SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE AT IMAX

Watchable. Very good. The only downsides are: editing which lets in protracted fight scenes but eliminates ones which would explain little details e.g. how Lex Luthor gets to the spaceship and the like and stereotypical female characters: either a skimply clad warrior or a nurse-like love object in a more decent, though tight, knee-length long-sleeve dress. That aside, it combines two stories to fill the gaps in them as well as to form a cohesive multi-superhero story, brings in intriguing new characters, has a great "X-Men"-like ending and is just big fun to watch for 151 minutes. Very good music by Hans Zimmer. A cameo by Vikram Ghandi as himself. The African bit takes place among Tuaregs in West Africa in a place called... Nairomi. Great actors: Ben Affleck is superb as Batman but it's Jesse Eisenberg who absolutely steals the show. Action is fast - Zack Snyder taking over from Chris Nolan has made the best "Batman" movie so far. Unfortunately it seems to be going towards something similar to "Avengers" - lots of superheroes and lots of fighting is to be expected.

LA OBRA DEL SIGLO (THE PROJECT OF THE CENTURY)

Walked out. Terribly socrealistic and quite slow.

MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING 2

Recommended. While there are just a few real laughs, it's a hugely uplifting family movie, very positive, great entertainment. Makes you forget your own troubles.

KI & KA

Recommended. Great music, an uplifting film. A drama but with events coming smoothly one after another. Makes you forget all problems and ready to act.

HIGH RISE

Watchable. It's like "Lord of the Flies" adult cut. The film is set just like the book - in the 70s: the dark ages of smoking, hippie sex lives, where leather and furs are synonyms of luxury. The only SF here is the eponymous high rise - SF to the English, I mean. I spent the whole film searching for SF in it and analyzing its inspirations. A nice touch is punk rock during the credits - very appropriate for the movie subject.

GOD'S NOT DEAD 2

Recommended. Great courtroom drama. There's something which looks like the beginning of part 3 after the credits. The credits are interesting as well as they list dozens of cases where religion was or was attempted to be banned in different situations across the US.

GEJSZA

Walked out. Painfully slow, boring, about criminals, actors often murmur something hard to understand, it seems to lack purpose. I asked the director why he made it. He appeared to struggle to find an explanation and said he had just felt like telling this story. There's a scene where you see a woman stop, then you hear high heels, and then you see a man who got out of the car in the meantime.

MUSTANG

Recommended. Just as hard-hitting when seen for the second time. And action doesn't relent for a minute.

HARDCORE HENRY

Watchable. The plot is just a pretext to show off the camerawork. There's only one take towards the end which shows the main protagonist, all the rest is shown with his eyes. Jerky camera movements together with first-person vision as well as the shoddy plot and distinct stereotypical characters resemble a computer game. Great music by Clint Mansell.

THE JUNGLE BOOK 3D AT IMAX

Watchable. The animals are cute, CGIs impressive, very good 3D visuals - finally a "Jungle Book" film which isn't cartoon. Sadly it's all too long, several scenes should be shortened, lengthy speeches and conversations are too much even for an adult.

The movie was preceded by trailers of "Captain America: Civil War" - with dreadful dubbing and lousy translation, seems like no 3D needed for the film either, and "Alice Through the Looking Glass" which looks equally impressive as the previous part.