Movie reviews

THE CRUCIFIXION

Watchable. Engrossing as a journalist investigation story: is the exorcist a murderer or a failed saviour of the tortured nun? A few visual effects give you the creeps but it's not very scary.

LA MARCHE DE L'EMPEREUR (MARCH OF THE PENGUINS)

Recommended. Blue hues of Antarctic snow and ice, all shades of pink on the sky and its reflections on the ground. 4K pictures including underwater shots. Some of the most beautiful expanses of land and ocean on Earth are inhabited by large colonies of penguins. The gentle, puffy creatures are strongly family-oriented. They couple up in spite of all other love candidates looking exactly the same. They share care of the egg and the chick. The father travels dozens, sometimes even 100 km from the interior to the ocean for food. The film first lets you unwind and then become amazed at the moral and visual beauty of penguins' life. Shame both English and Polish translations miss the original French title pun - "Emperor's March" like the music piece from "Star Wars"

FLATLINERS

Watchable. Excellent music, apart from the ending. You almost want to leave your body for the rhythm and fly amid the skyscrapers of Toronto where it was shot. The story of guilt is unnecessarily horror-like. The realistic part: competing to get into a top medical school, friendship, studies, relationships, taking on responsibilities is the most involving.

IN GUERRA PER AMORE (AT WAR WITH LOVE)

Watchable. At first I was interested in the rom com rather than the war story. The comedy, though nice, was not amusing. But I found out how Americans got duped into instilling all mafia bosses in positions of town mayors in Sicily at the end of WW2: first the overseas troops were allowed to enter without a single shot fired, then they were presented with a list of "anti-fascists" to be released from prison.

The last 3 movies seen courtesy of Cinema City.

PATTI CAKE$

Watchable. Starts with a few seconds of quality rap. Next you see a girl who's got a raw deal in life: morbidly obese, from a broken family, with a thrashy job of a barmaid in a shabby drinking den. In addition she's white and it ain't no advantage among black rhyming potheads. But you warm up to her as she's trying to land a better job to pay her nana's medical bill and you realize she hails from a whole bloodline of musical talent. You witness all her failures and hear a number of  good songs (written by Geremi Jasper). The movie gets better and better to a great finale. Leaves you wanting to chant: "PBNJ, P-PBNJ! PBNJ, P-PBNJ!"

BLADE RUNNER 2049 IN DOLBY ATMOS

Watchable. The first "Blade Runner" of 1982 was set in 2019. We still haven't got flying cars, androids or a colony on the Moon but we have huge advertising LCD screens in the city. Those are replaced by holograms in the new installment. "Tears in Rain" by Vangelis from the original "Blade Runner" are, hmm, replicated in the new one. Having said that, there are few sound effects and relatively little music so the standard sound format (5.1) should be sufficient. The 2049-based flick is quite in line with the previous. Los Angeles gets replaced with Mexico City, Iceland, Spain, Nevada as shooting locations but the climate is retained, as is the omnipresent dust. In Poland it's available in 2D only but I had the impression 3D would be even better, would make you feel the depth of the space. You still need to read the book ("Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" by Philip K. Dick) to comprehend the details. The original puzzle of who is human and who pretends to be here changes into the enigma of the blade runner's identity. While it's implied he might be human, what can account for the languages he understands? E.g. in shops he communicates in English but understands his interlocutors speaking some exotic lingos. The pregnancy is such a cheap movie plot trick and here it's used completely out of the blue ruining the credibility of the story from the onset. The romantic subplot is based on "Her". Worst of all, following a recent fashion, it may become a trilogy.

THE BIG SICK

Watchable. The title is hardly enticing, my first association was with someone vomiting. Luckily it's not that bad. And it's not a spin-off of "The Hangover" either. It's a drama about a comedian  providing only occasional laughs, e.g. a Pakistani asked to give his views on 9/11: "It was a tragedy. We lost 19 our best guys." or when his father says: "You are still kicked out of the family" handing  him in a box of biryani and adds: "Goodbye forever. Just do me a favour and text us when you reach New York." A big part is sappy even though it's based on a true story. The best thing about the movie is that for Westerners it's a rare chance to glimpse what it's like to be a Muslim immigrant growing up in the US while for immigrants there's a direct question the protagonist asks his Pakistani parents: "Why did you bring us to America and want us to live like back there?" The father is played by Anupam Kher, the seemingly full time Indian family father both in Bollywood and in Hollywood now. Another issue tackled in the film is ghosting someone. You do it without batting an eye when you want to ditch someone you date but you lose your mind when your parents want to do it to you.