Movie reviews

OLD FASHIONED

Watchable. It's not so much about chastity as it is about disillusionment with earlier relationships with sex which ended badly. Well, which ended. And while Clay "doesn't want dating", this is exactly what they both end up doing. Boring and predictable. Not very religious. About paralysis by analysis and fear of failure.

摇滚藏獒 (ROCK DOG)

Watchable. Made in Hong Kong. Based on the graphic novel "Tibetan Rock Dog" created by Chinese rock star Zheng Jun from Xi'an on the mainland. With music by Foo Fighters and several others. So predictable only children will buy it. And they will - some were dancing after the movie. To adults the Chinese wolves controlling the mountainous village will be a clear reference to the Chinese occupation of Tibet. And that's all there is on the serious part. The only part I liked was the rock star's house and garden with a hedge that could be moved underground or a doormat litterally throwing unwanted visitors out of the residence.

VOLTA

Watchable. Intelligent, based on Polish politics, language and craze for historical treasures. Plenty of references to the Polish currently ruling party will be adorable to the left of the political scene. The heist is smart as well so this part will be comprehensible even to foreigners. I didn't laugh at this crime comedy though. Lack of comedians in the cast.

In the trailer Luc Besson's new SF flick "Valerian" looks like it's going to be another "Fifth Element" - good visuals, a standard (alien invasion here) plot.

CHOPIN - THE SPACE CONCERT

Recommended. "From space I saw no borders" comes at the beginning of an astronaut's commentary. Chopin's music forming the soundtrack will be probably handed in to Donald Trump during a visit. Views from space and the cabin like I've never seen before. It's these views that merit watching it, on a big screen if possible.

JOUR J (WEDDING UNPLANNED)

Watchable. "Thanks for hosting me, guys" - to the police when leaving a custody is one of few instances when the (Polish at least) translation is better than the original. Some gags are hilarious. The rom-com plot is standard. Deleted scenes are shown over the credits, a group photograph is shown at the very end.

THE LADY VANISHES (1938)

Recommended this time. Watching it for the second time I found it so delightfully witty at first and gripping in the second half, I managed to stand the nightmarish Polish voiceover it was screened with. Hitchcock was truly the master of suspense.

STAGE FRIGHT (1950)

Watchable. All of the above applies. With even more dress-ups. Very Agatha Christie-like. So fails to make the same impact.

LAST MEN IN ALEPPO

Recommended. Assad's regime's and Russian bombings are everyday, literally everyday reality for the 250 000 people still living in Aleppo and 1 million living in other places of the ongoing war. You see them up close excavating people, living or dead, from the ruins. The bodies and body parts are not shown which doesn't lessen the impact in the least. For survivors there are 3 ways to live: right there, safe but still far from normal life in Turkey or in Germany (other countries don't even come up in the film - only a regret that other muslim states have abandoned them). Several of the men who appeared in the film are already dead. It's almost post-apocalyptic there.

50% of the children living in the war-torn territories were born during the armed conflict. They don't know life other than the war. The Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs finances only aid in Ukraine. The UN is the greatest funder of humanitarian aid organizations working on reconstruction, providing water and electricity supply.

GOSFORD PARK (2001)

Walked out. So many characters that half-way through the movie I still hardly understood who was who. A murder didn't help understand the plot.