THE YOUNG POPE - EPISODES 1 AND 2

Recommended. Paolo Sorrentino seems to associate Venice with young age - it featured in "Youth" and now in the upcoming HBO GO series. His pope is young, telegenic, has a flair for marketing, happens to fantasise about sex (would you expect nudity in something titled "The Young Pope"?), wears red shoes, smokes and wants Rome to become a suburb of Vatican City. He grins constantly, says outrageous things, is totally unpredictable which all give the film strong suspense. The dialogues are absolutely brilliant. The pope's first homily is formidable. I felt as taken aback as the crowd in the second episode final scene.

HACKSAW BRIDGE

Watchable. The first half is annoyingly sententious and religious, the second (the battle) extremely brutal. On the other hand it's uplifting to anyone whose values have ever been confronted - if you have ever wondered whether to defend your convictions, this film clearly shows it's worth it.

MASTERMINDS

Watchable. I wasn't laughing but quite enjoyed this silly comedy. It avoided "Hangover"-style vulgarity. Jason Sudeikis is as good as usual. Zach Galifaniakis has exceeded all his previous enactments. He's so convincingly happy-go-lucky and clumsy that the movie's worth seeing just for his sake.

THE ACCOUNTANT

Watchable. The accountant Chris Wolff says he likes incongruencies. I don't. And while I loved a bigger part of the film: Ben Affleck, still looking hot, his characted gifted wih Asperger syndrome, the financial conundrum, the shaping of the boy's character, swift combat scenes, Chris's blunt interactions, at some point the plot becomes so over the top it goes towards usual American cheese. The final: "How do I find you?" "I'll find you." exchange was so cliche I just knew I was going to hear it.

DOCTOR STRANGE IN 4DX

Watchable. A car crush and getting punches in 4DX - makes it terrifyingly real. Not a life I'd like. The city structure bending CGIs just bend your mind. I guess it would look even better at IMAX. The plot however is plain silly. As usual with Marvel, there is a Stan Lee's cameo and 2 after-the-credits scenes.

UKRAINA! FILM FESTIVAL

BRATY. OSTANNYA SPOVID (BROTHERS: THE FINAL CONFESSION) (2013)

Watchable. Grim and tragic - not surprisingly based on a Swedish novel. But it's Ukrainian so so it's terribly religious in addition. Not that the story is any less moving or hard-hitting - the film is made very well. It's just dark and heavy.

THE RUSSIAN WOODPECKER (2015)

Watchable. Just like in the case of Andrzej Fidyk's "Yodok Stories", when overt expression of political opinions is a threat to your freedom or even life, artistic performance is a way round. Fedor Alxeandrovich  is a thorough documentalist, not shy of obtaining data surreptitiously. He's got radioactive strontium in his bones and a history of political opposition in his family (his grandfather). While many see him as an oddball, in this crazy world of public lies, he's the most normal. Step by step, he discovers a disturbing possibility - that the Chernobyl tests resulting in the 1986 catastrophe, were a front to hide a communist careerist's mistake which otherwise might have cost him life. Soon it turns out Soviets never disappeared. The only minus of the film is that, as the result of being so artistic, it lacks suspense.


PODZIEMNE PANSTWO KOBIET (2009)

Recommended. A shocking documentary about the horrible conditions of terminating pregnancies in Poland. That means 80-200 thousand women a year suffering humiliation and additional distress just as a result of the ban. It also makes some gynaecologists rich like warlords - shall I dub them banlords?


UKRAINA! FILM FESTIVAL

MAIDAN.

Watchable. It follows the development of the protest. It's like a chronicle without taking sides or giving a deeper insights. Watching the winter protest reminded me of ACTA protests in Poland a few years ago. I wonder if Polish women will be protesting in snow and frost shortly.

UKRAINA! FILM FESTIVAL

TINI ZBUTYKH PREDKIV (SHADOWS OF FORGOTTEN ANCESTORS) (1965)

Walked out. Sort of folk musical with very bad music, shaky and rushed camerawork and no obvious plot. Looks archaic too.

UKRAINIAN SHERIFFS (2015)

Watchable. Oscar candidate?! Really? A documentary about a poor village where nearly everyone is an alcoholic and has served a term in prison. Culture-wise Ukraine is certainly close to Russia, taken the amount of alcohol consumed and taking ice dips in winter.

GNIZDO GORLYTSI (THE NEST OF THE TURTLEDOVE) (2016)

Watchable. Clear and thorough portrayal of Ukrainina immigration to Italy: its causes, effects on the emigrating women, their spouses and offspring. The film's very well made, it truly brings it all home. A minor weakness of the film is its not closing some subplots.

JACK REACHER: NEVER GO BACK

Watchable. Intelligent entertainment without depth. The scene from the trailer in which Jack Reacher says what "two things are going to happen in the next 90 seconds" is actually the first one. From then on a riddle follows a riddle and Reacher is always one step ahead. Or if he isn't, his presumed daughter is. The action doesn't relent for a minute so it's all good fun to watch. Apart from that it's a common recently mixture of sexism and feminism: (fighting) fit Cobie Smulders is shown partly undressed, in her push-up bra, for no reason and a bit later she has a rant about how guys tried to grope her in the army or how she's been constatnly asked to look after children and the like. Danika Yarosh is excellent as a streetwise 15 year old. Tom Cruise is visibly aged on his face and neck but in great shape - really pleasing to watch minus the close-ups.

CREATIVE CONTROL

Watchable. Why's a movie about the future black and white? Is it meant to be bleak?! Well, according to the film it's going to be all about sex and addictions: to drugs and to VR. "It's not what you think" takes on a new meaning. In augmented reality everyone becomes a product, you can cut up a voice record to have your private avatar say whatever you fancy hearing and you have virtual sex with the face of a real person combined with a porn star body. All screens are transparent and men's hairstyles and facial hair fashion resembles 70s porn actors. While I'm not fond of such a vision of the future, it's very likely to happen. In that sense it's quite realistic, not SF. The incurable characteristic of our civilization, present and future, is loneliness and search of love.

ADWOKAT W ROLI GLOWNEJ (ADVOCATE IN THE LEADING ROLE)

KOBIETY ADWOKATURY

Watchable. A documentary made, as far as I'm aware, by a lawyer. Very neat and organised. The presented female advocats just sit and talk. They stress the importance of their lawyer parents, their own devotion to the profession and their involvement in human rights cases.

BRIDGE OF SPIES (2015)

Recommended again. "Aren't you worried?" "Would it help?" is one of my fave lines, appearing three times in this film (I counted this time), it's also one of the most clever life lessons ever. Lots of other jokes, e.g.: "I wonder who they'll send to identify me." "Not your East German family I hope. I doubt they could identify each other." Tom Hanks and Mark Rylance in their top roles. And a very, very clever plot. I guess I could see it a couple more times still enjoying it.

I skipped "Chicago" which I had walked out from years ago as well as "A Few Good Men" and "Eric Brockovich" which I had seen a number of times and remembered all too well.

RUNAWAY JURY (2004)

Watchable. Chaotic at first but full of ingenious court tricks which look quite realistic, who knows, might come in handy. Kept me on the edge of my seat nevertheless. Simply the tension of which way the verdict would sway was enough. And there's a surprise towards the end. Likeable characters, some anyway.

AMISTAD (1998)

Watchable. One of the best closing statements ever tells about freedom being our natural state because it's when we lose it that we fight to get it back. Anthony Hopkins is marvellous: first a nebbish ex-president only to turn into a prominent barrister. Sadly no other actor is. It shows some interesting ways of finding an interpreter (counting to ten in the language going through a market) and of misperceiving certain behaviours across cultures. It's just that the actors seems to be random people with no skills and the story jumps to and fro. But if you sit through all the disarray, you get rewarded with a memorable speech by Anthony Hopkins as an attorney.

WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION (1957)

Watchable. Agatha Christie, on whose book it's based, liked dressing up her baddies and so is the case here. It is standard Agatha Christie: involving yet predictable. The true gem are the dialogues between the mischevious drunk/smart barrister and his maid, just like the ones between Miss Marple and hers and just to what lenghts he goes to hide his smoking and drinking - truly amusing.

ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS

Watchable. While I didn't laugh even once, I felt entertained throughout. Really light, colourful and de-braining. Let's hope DJ deadmau5 doesn't sue them over "DJ Dead Mice". Kate Moss looks like a mermaid in her glimmering green dress. The ending is great as it's a direct play on the final scene from "Some Like It Hot".

A MONSTER CALLS

Watchable. Tragic, sad and depressing, about a schoolboy's mum dying of cancer. And so slow-paced I slept through the middle. Says some sad truths about people.

PUTIN FOREVER?

Watchable. I'm not sure if it had to be 93 minutes long. The whole film is just home-based interviews with Russian opposition activists. You see how determined they are to end Putin's rule and how aware they are it's going to take years of demonstrations. Boris Nemtsov appears disarmingly gentle and kind. So the ending listing all of the portrayed activists either in voluntary exile or, Nemtsov, dead, is striking. Is Putin immovable? Good, jumpy Russian music. I couldn't resist the impression Poland may reach the stage at which Russia is now.

WSZYSTKIE NIEPRZESPANE NOCE (ALL THESE SLEEPLESS NIGHTS)

Watchable. Lots of techno and electro music (mostly Das Komplex and Lutto Lent). Partly filmed in 1500m2 and Bar Studio. Two guys: one hot, one not. On of them dances very well and a lot. Frustration shown in their constant smoking. All about music, drugs, looking for happiness and the fear of loneliness.

INFERNO

Watchable. A blockbuster following Hitchcock's rule that "A good film should start with an earthquake and be followed by rising tension." The beginning is confusing only to reflect Professor Langdon's muddled state of mind. Then regular action takes over with all the mandatory twists and turns, red herrings and solving the ideogramic puzzle. Florence, Venice, Istanbul feature with the accompaniment of Hans Zimmer's music giving the film a monumental feel. A good action movie following the genre rules.

AMERICAN HONEY

Watchable. According to Roman Gutek, what distinguishes American cinema is: the genre of western, the development of musical, science fiction and myths, not being a national cinema. This one tackles myths. 162 minutes you don't feel at all. While it re-works well-known motifs, it does so interestingly. I felt touched by the story from the scene indicating sexual abuse going on in Star's home. That was the moment I really took to her. She's very young, 18, and poor. The first city on her way is "Superman's City" (Kansas). The whole film is full of American symbols. The youngsters identify themselves with Darth Vader as the epitome of lost love and hopes. US stars and stripes are everywhere: in the girl's name, on a train passing by their road van, the company owner's swimsuit, make-up and nail polish colors. The motley crew from all over the US listen to rap and travel through the country "rhymin' & stealin'". The film also features a number of American ballads, all in some way referring to the American dream, just like what the sales team try to live. It's also about others trying to achieve it, like the abbatoir truck driver dreaming of his own yacht. But mostly it's about selling a dream - the team, often high on drugs or alcohol, try to push needless goods doing just that. The quintessence of America.

I went to the presentation of an upcoming Polish movie titled "Po prostu przyjazn" and it looked dull, with nothing funny in the trailer and, worst of all, it got compared to "Listy do M." ("Letters to Santa"), the first part of which I had walked out from. I'm still curious of the film as the subject of friendship is obviously something anyone can relate to. It's just that my hopes are low.

I thought that instead I could have fun asking actors about their taste in films as well as to get some lateral info I was curious of. My overall impression was that most actors found it difficult to speak without a script. Some got literally taken aback by the question. Magdalena Rozczka dubbed it "cruel" as, apart from work, house chores left her no time to watch anything. She'd love to see everything that's on at the cinema. Piotr Stramowski, looking even more of a hipster and arrogant than in the upcoming film, said "it wasn't like he felt he had to go to the cinema". He watches stuff but clearly it's not his passion. Agnieszka Wiedlocha's taste was the most eclectic ranging from Kusturica to the "Sex and the City" series which she could watch over and over as well as anything with Meryl Streep. Generally they seemed to fancy Polish full-length works, especially the latest two loud productions: "Ostatnia rodzina" and "Wolyn", both usually seen at the Gdynia Film Festival and American series, obviously including "Breaking Bad", in one case even "Stranger Things" (Aleksandra Domanska), but never anything as extreme as "The Walking Dead" or even megapopular "The Game of Thrones" . Aleksandra Domanska was the chattiest and provided me with a long list of her faves from classics like late Wajda's "Ziemia obiecana", "Czlowiek z marmuru" or "Czlowiek z zelaza", non-late-Wajda's "Przesluchanie" and "Casablanca", through anything with Meryl Streep to "masculine" movies by Tarantino, rather older plus "Inglourious Basterds" as well as lots of series, including: "you certainly won't know this one - "Gilmore Girls". Kamil Kula, who only doesn't like watching himself, hasn't yet found the time to see "Ostatnia rodzina" and "Wolyn" but was going to. As Maciej Zakoscielny, the most non-verbally expressive of the crowd, had just recommended both to me, especially "Wolyn" which had "shaken" him, I enquired if Kamil Kula followed his colleagues recommendation. Certainly not, he looked at me astonished. Maciej Zakoscielny's taste was the closest to mine - he was the only one to have enjoyed " The Neon Demon" and, as he was dubbing Eddie Redmayne, he's got the chance to see "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them". The youngest of the actors, 10-year-old Adam Tomaszewski, has always had dramatic parts but when watching prefers comedy shows, especially "Mr. Bean". While the oldest one - Bartlomiej Topa, who rarely finds time to watch anything but would love to see more - liked "The House of Cards". No one else did.

The lateral info I got was:

• The current season of "Singielka" was shot in spring and, to Kamil Kula's knowledge, is the last one. The serial won't be continued.
• Adam Tomaszewski has been acting since he was 3 and his parents had brought him to an agency just because they had been repeatedly told their son had been "lovely like in a commercial". He's appeared in commercials, films, a serial and theatre. He was the blind man's partner's son in "Carte Blanche" as well as a drug dealer in "Skazane". He finds theatre the hardest as he can't make any mistake. His the oldest child and he's got two younger sisters. The middle one - Oliwia - has had a small role once too but felt shy, got stressed out and refused to do it ever again. The youngest one, now 3, is in the agency too but so far has been deemed either too young or too old for the offered parts.
• I asked Bartlomiej Topa about his role I hadn't liked in "Karbala". I had found a clash between his commander's position and his giving orders with a trembling voice. The actor explained to me his perception of the character: "he went there to build water pipelines and give away sweets", he didn't need to be tough, "where he was he could have whispered orders and would have been obeyed".

Between 20-23 October the Iluzjon cinema in Warsaw will be hosting UKRAINA! - a Ukrainian Film  Festival which I'm going to.

Shortly afterwards the 7th American Film Festival takes place in Wroclaw. While I'm not going there, I just have to remark on its logotype which looks blurred like a 3D picture seen without 3D glasses. Poor print or poor graphics?

After both festivals, in early November the Muranow cinema will finally open the 2 new screens. They're going to have 40 seats each and show niche movies which normally disappear from cinemas too soon.

JESTEM MORDERCA

Watchable. Perfectly recreated 70s in communist Poland: pervasive smoking, drinking, 70s fashion, interiors. Lots of humour, e.g. the first computer. Agata Kulesza unrecognizable in her fat costume. The action takes place in Silesia and several actors speak with Silesian accent - just enough to demonstrate where it's based but soft enough to be comprehensible to the rest of Poles (I can't fully understand my original Silesian friend and I had no problems with the film). The movie's very well scripted psychologically, extremely well acted, costumed, made up and set up. I only found it frustrating not to find out the truth. In that manner the film is too true to real life - no one knows. It would have hit harder if it had taken sides.

I, DANIEL BLAKE

Watchable. Austere, at a steady pace, yet deeply moving. Sad and depressing but so hard-hitting it's hard to shake off. Showing the very bottom of British society - decent, honest people struggling to survive on benefits. Set in Newcastle so spoken mostly in geordie, partly in London accent too, due to one of protagonists. Very realistic. It's just that if you've ever been through the catch 22 of British red tape in any manner, it's a bit frustrating to watch it on the screen.

WOLYN (HATRED)

Watchable. 149 minute long with lots of sidetracking which means I dozed off a few times and, while some sense eventually emerged from the chaos, it's not easy to follow. Story-wise, I mean. Because there are also a number of truly gruesome scenes, due to the subject matter. Like the director and the distributor rightly noticed, the film may be incomprehensible to Westerners. It wasn't 100% understandable to me, either. Part of it lies in the confusion between two languages: both Polish and Ukrainian sound similar. Another thing is that British or American films have one storyline, while Polish ones, annoyingly, stray from the main plot every now and then, trying to put all different vaguely associated bits and pieces into one movie. While both reasons sound true, for me it's also my poor knowledge of Polish history.

MISS PEREGRINE'S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN

Watchable. The story's nothing like what I've seen before. It contains my perennial favourites: time loops, fantastic geography overlapping the real world map, mutants. Miss Peregrine is brilliant: beautiful, sassy, very smart, a perfectionist. It's very well acted by everyone. The created world is peculiar indeed and doesn't steal other authors' ideas. However, it sounds childish, at least in the Polish dubbing and lacks humour. Decent 3D.

I also went to a meeting with one of my fave directors, Jan Jakub Kolski, today and have to say that a person's film-making skills don't have to match their speaking skills. The creator of fascinating films sounded boring.

THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN

Watchable. I haven't read the book but have seen the movie trailer so many times I probably know it by heart now. The film itself is not a thriller but a psychological drama so that was a slight disappointment. That plus pervasive obsession with having a baby as if all three women had their lives centred about the issue. Strange a woman (Paula Hawkins) wrote a book so sexist. The finale is quite predictable too. But no worries, you don't pay so much attention to it while watching. The structure is clear yet involving, with enough mystery to keep you on the edge of the seat throughout. It's very convincingly enacted, with Haley Bennett (the beauty from "Hardcore Henry") in one of the leading roles. 3 women, 3 men (plus 1 woman and 1 man from the train) form a twisted story of crime, obsession, addiction, seduction, deceit and psychological violence.

NIE PLACZ KIEDY ODJADE (DON'T CRY WHEN I'M GONE)

Watchable. Made me cry and made me laugh a good few times. A documentary about a woman who survived the Holocaust only to find her whole family annihilated and about the rest of her life being full of joy. She wrote some popular songs, including the eponymous one and was greatly skilled in flirting with men. Both form the basis of the jokes told in the film: e.g. once a friend told her he had seen her song on the back of a bus ("Don't cry when I'm gone"), another time she was lying in hospital bed and when her visiting friends were leaving, one said: "Hang in there." to which she responded: "I'd rather let myself loose." The structure of the movie has some room for improvement. It's a bit chaotic and ends all of a sudden. But these are minor detractions from a very enjoyable film.

BACALAUREAT (GRADUATION)

Watchable. About pervasive corruption rooted in Romanian culture and difficult relationships. Its complicated story is very involving in spite of mediocre acting. The policemen are particularly poorly portrayed.


DOMACI PECE (HOME CARE)

Watchable. A comedy about being terminally ill with some truly funny bits, e.g.: "It's skin tuberculosis. Looks just like on the internet." or one with a phone falling into an open grave. So it gets sad at times but makes you laugh every now and then. Good actors in the leading roles, worse support roles and extras.