MOGLIE E MARITO (HUSBAND & WIFE)
Recommended. Not only is it laugh-out-loud funny at times, especially the man in a female body moving and talking like a man and seen as a woman, it's strikingly smart as well. Italians have made a modern version of "Switch" with serious and valid undertones. Sofia is called "pretty but dumb" when she says... things men typically say. The same guy who first slams a glass door in a female intern's face, later, with a woman's mind, tells her about arrogance men are taught from childhood. Having a female personality he constantly withdraws so easily you want to yell "Fight!" at him. Women "torture themselves in high heels" - something the opposite sex "would never do" and lash out at each other like no man would at another male.
Sunday 25 February 2018
Thursday 22 February 2018
I'M NOT ASHAMED
Recommended. You almost hear a ticking bomb: it's a year in life of a Columbine slaughter victim - the year preceding the mass shooting. You see a seemingly ordinary high school but here teenage turmoils peak in a massacre. Literally. 12 students and 1 teacher shot dead, 25 people injured. The larger picture is of what self-righteousness leads to and of how extremely differently the same person is perceived. Rachel gets murdered because the killers see her as a "stuck up Christian bitch" - the quality several people actually admire in her. Internal conflicts make some people take lives and others save lives. This story struck a chord with me. I also had lost a friend who had been a good guy so watching the film I just couldn't stop tears. Social interactions in the high school are shown realistically. As is the impact of violent computer games on teenagers who start fantasizing about transfering the game into real life. Rachel and her family's pictures are presented over the early end credits.
FIFTY SHADES FREED
Watchable. Brant Daugherty as bodyguard Sawyer looks hotter than Jamie Dornan as Christian Grey. Dakota Johnson is still feminine and gentle even taking over control (and Christian "can live with it"). The film's a steamy tale of a Prince Charming who becomes a controlling husband and about people who threaten the rich and beautiful. The baddies are also beautiful. You need to put your brain at rest to enjoy it. Cheesily romantic music completes the picture. A very early mid-credit shows Ana(stacia) with a kid and pregnant again.
Recommended. You almost hear a ticking bomb: it's a year in life of a Columbine slaughter victim - the year preceding the mass shooting. You see a seemingly ordinary high school but here teenage turmoils peak in a massacre. Literally. 12 students and 1 teacher shot dead, 25 people injured. The larger picture is of what self-righteousness leads to and of how extremely differently the same person is perceived. Rachel gets murdered because the killers see her as a "stuck up Christian bitch" - the quality several people actually admire in her. Internal conflicts make some people take lives and others save lives. This story struck a chord with me. I also had lost a friend who had been a good guy so watching the film I just couldn't stop tears. Social interactions in the high school are shown realistically. As is the impact of violent computer games on teenagers who start fantasizing about transfering the game into real life. Rachel and her family's pictures are presented over the early end credits.
FIFTY SHADES FREED
Watchable. Brant Daugherty as bodyguard Sawyer looks hotter than Jamie Dornan as Christian Grey. Dakota Johnson is still feminine and gentle even taking over control (and Christian "can live with it"). The film's a steamy tale of a Prince Charming who becomes a controlling husband and about people who threaten the rich and beautiful. The baddies are also beautiful. You need to put your brain at rest to enjoy it. Cheesily romantic music completes the picture. A very early mid-credit shows Ana(stacia) with a kid and pregnant again.
Wednesday 21 February 2018
THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI
Recommended. Tackles a number of America's problems in one cohesive story suggesting a connection between them. It flogs white, healthy people for their racism, police violence and negligence, men leaving wives for young beauties with no brains, families failing to support each other or bring up their offspring properly, lacks in education, kidulthood, troops raping civilian women they were sent to protect on foreign missions, people threatening each other, silencing the inconvenient, failing to protect crime victims, greedy advertising companies, media jumping to unfair conclusions without looking into the cases they cover, the Church being the first to judge and doing so on the religious versus non-religious division, everyone's eagerness to sweep issues under the carpet. Then it gives you little signs of decency in the downtrodden ones and in the oppressors trying to be good men once in a while. Putting a black guy in charge of racist whites was a brilliant move. Should work in real life too.
The film pulls in crowds even in morning hours.
THE PLACE
Recommended. With a great script one location is enough. Paolo Genovese succeeded again. This time a mysterious man makes people do things they wouldn't normally think of. What they do about the tasks reveals what they are deep inside. Plenty of twists of action, tasks overlap. He clearly plays mind games with the protagonists and with the viewer. The man's taking notes makes people wonder, just like it does when you take notes in a public place in real life. He notes down people's feelings. The conversations show what lies beneath the professed desires. What people want to feel.
Recommended. Tackles a number of America's problems in one cohesive story suggesting a connection between them. It flogs white, healthy people for their racism, police violence and negligence, men leaving wives for young beauties with no brains, families failing to support each other or bring up their offspring properly, lacks in education, kidulthood, troops raping civilian women they were sent to protect on foreign missions, people threatening each other, silencing the inconvenient, failing to protect crime victims, greedy advertising companies, media jumping to unfair conclusions without looking into the cases they cover, the Church being the first to judge and doing so on the religious versus non-religious division, everyone's eagerness to sweep issues under the carpet. Then it gives you little signs of decency in the downtrodden ones and in the oppressors trying to be good men once in a while. Putting a black guy in charge of racist whites was a brilliant move. Should work in real life too.
The film pulls in crowds even in morning hours.
THE PLACE
Recommended. With a great script one location is enough. Paolo Genovese succeeded again. This time a mysterious man makes people do things they wouldn't normally think of. What they do about the tasks reveals what they are deep inside. Plenty of twists of action, tasks overlap. He clearly plays mind games with the protagonists and with the viewer. The man's taking notes makes people wonder, just like it does when you take notes in a public place in real life. He notes down people's feelings. The conversations show what lies beneath the professed desires. What people want to feel.
Tuesday 20 February 2018
YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE
Watchable. The title carries a double meaning: you can read it either as pointing a finger of blame at the main protagonist as he has never taken responsibility for his deeds or pointing at the images in his head where the current events mix with painful past and potential future situations. The hitman is not a hunk. He's ugly, fat, aging, burnt out and suicidal - remorses have caught up with him. The highlight is the dynamic instrumental music used a few times. However, the credits reveal fragment of the score of "The Shawshank Redemption" applied as well. As the music doesn't stand out on its own, I believe it's a reference to the film title pointing us towards the explanation of the protagonist's motivation as trying to redeem himself. Just once we get a mention of his girlfriend of 20 years earlier who "would have been a good mum" which provides us with another clue - he may be building the life he never had. A prolonged shot of a house landing with a centrally positioned note of a "Recycling program" also indicates that. The whole thing looks like a cross of "Taxi Driver" with "Leon" and "Hitman" meaning it's weird and lacks originality. While the callousness and cynism of the sex perverts is shocking, the nude painting in the flat and the prolonged shots of smeared blood are so in your face the story could really do without them. The main problem with the film is that its brutality trivializes the tale.
MARIA BY CALLAS
Recommended. I barely knew who she was but half-way through the documentary I remembered a TV serial about Jackie Kennedy and Aristotel Onassis and it dawned on me: she was the diva who became his lover. So now I got the other end of the story. And much more. Maria Callas was first a conscientious conservatory student and then a work titan. A magnetic actress on top of her opera mastery. She was very assertive, especially with prying journalists, had impeccable work ethic, strong personality, adamantly stating a woman couldn't do both a full-time job and domestic chores and children. She focused on her career, seeing it as a destiny which was indisputable to her. She lived an enviably privileged life and was fully aware of it. As she put it, fame got to everyone's head, especially her first, much older than her, husband's but not hers. Died of heart attack at only 53, following the passing away of her true love - Aristo. The film is chronological and features interviews and letters intertwined with music. I felt truly moved a number of times.
Watchable. The title carries a double meaning: you can read it either as pointing a finger of blame at the main protagonist as he has never taken responsibility for his deeds or pointing at the images in his head where the current events mix with painful past and potential future situations. The hitman is not a hunk. He's ugly, fat, aging, burnt out and suicidal - remorses have caught up with him. The highlight is the dynamic instrumental music used a few times. However, the credits reveal fragment of the score of "The Shawshank Redemption" applied as well. As the music doesn't stand out on its own, I believe it's a reference to the film title pointing us towards the explanation of the protagonist's motivation as trying to redeem himself. Just once we get a mention of his girlfriend of 20 years earlier who "would have been a good mum" which provides us with another clue - he may be building the life he never had. A prolonged shot of a house landing with a centrally positioned note of a "Recycling program" also indicates that. The whole thing looks like a cross of "Taxi Driver" with "Leon" and "Hitman" meaning it's weird and lacks originality. While the callousness and cynism of the sex perverts is shocking, the nude painting in the flat and the prolonged shots of smeared blood are so in your face the story could really do without them. The main problem with the film is that its brutality trivializes the tale.
MARIA BY CALLAS
Recommended. I barely knew who she was but half-way through the documentary I remembered a TV serial about Jackie Kennedy and Aristotel Onassis and it dawned on me: she was the diva who became his lover. So now I got the other end of the story. And much more. Maria Callas was first a conscientious conservatory student and then a work titan. A magnetic actress on top of her opera mastery. She was very assertive, especially with prying journalists, had impeccable work ethic, strong personality, adamantly stating a woman couldn't do both a full-time job and domestic chores and children. She focused on her career, seeing it as a destiny which was indisputable to her. She lived an enviably privileged life and was fully aware of it. As she put it, fame got to everyone's head, especially her first, much older than her, husband's but not hers. Died of heart attack at only 53, following the passing away of her true love - Aristo. The film is chronological and features interviews and letters intertwined with music. I felt truly moved a number of times.
Saturday 17 February 2018
NIGHT FILM MARATHON - NOC HORROROW - ANTYWALENTYNKI (THE NIGHT OF HORRORS - ANTIVALENTINE'S)
I skipped "Escape Room" and "Winchester" which I had seen before and saw only:
MARROWBONE
Watchable. Hottie George MacKay (known from "Captain Fantastic") in an atmospheric film full of 1960s period details. Set in America, interestingly shot in Spanish Asturias and Terrassa in Catalunya. Good suspense, no real scares. A less ordinary horror but still the story's second-hand. All ends well.
REDWOOD
Watchable. Trashy but with a good twist.
The cleaner who came when the movie was ending looked like a monster. I used to wonder where they find those scary weirdoes for horrors. So now I know.
I skipped "Escape Room" and "Winchester" which I had seen before and saw only:
MARROWBONE
Watchable. Hottie George MacKay (known from "Captain Fantastic") in an atmospheric film full of 1960s period details. Set in America, interestingly shot in Spanish Asturias and Terrassa in Catalunya. Good suspense, no real scares. A less ordinary horror but still the story's second-hand. All ends well.
REDWOOD
Watchable. Trashy but with a good twist.
The cleaner who came when the movie was ending looked like a monster. I used to wonder where they find those scary weirdoes for horrors. So now I know.
Thursday 15 February 2018
LE REDOUTABLE (REDOUBTABLE)
Watchable. Fantastically enacted colourful 60s. Some tongue-in-cheek scenes, e.g. after Jean-Luc Godard persuades his wife out of appearing naked in another director's film and complains about pointless nudity in movies both characters... get naked, also the director repeatedly loses his glasses in public demonstrations. The highlight is the couple's conversation with their hidden motives given in brackets. The whole thing is on the philosophical side and affirms the need of living your life your own way. The title comes from the name of a submarine ploughing its way through water steadily. It also dabbles in the question of whether movies should be about life or made just for fun. Intellectual but pleasant.
EARLY MAN
Watchable. A children's movie about football. British, of course. And made of puppets. Plenty of puns and gags which fail to amuse. Characters are named e.g. Queen Oofeefa or Asbo. Jurassic Pork is sold at a street stall. My favourite is a rabbit captured in a hunt which runs away stealing a bowl of salad. "No dinosaurs or rabbits were harmed during making this feature."
Watchable. A children's movie about football. British, of course. And made of puppets. Plenty of puns and gags which fail to amuse. Characters are named e.g. Queen Oofeefa or Asbo. Jurassic Pork is sold at a street stall. My favourite is a rabbit captured in a hunt which runs away stealing a bowl of salad. "No dinosaurs or rabbits were harmed during making this feature."
DARKEST HOUR
Recommended. There's a saying that people come to your life for a reason, for a season or for a lifetime. Winston Churchill was such a one-season man. He played his role in forming resistance against Hitler's invasion but got ousted from his post one year after the war ended. The movie shows how reluctantly he was accepted as Prime Minister, how his inflamed speeches turned the course of history and how, incapable of decing whether to negotiate with the enemy or not, he follows the king's advice, mingles with common citizens on the Tube, since "people normally say what they think", and gets a clear-cut answer. An uplifting movie, showing Churchill's foibles but imposing enough gravitas to render him as a responsible and reasonable politician. Big Ben chimes after the credits.
PENGABDI SETAN (SATAN'S SLAVE)
Watchable. Scary at times but with ghosts, poltergeists, dead bodies and zombies all thrown in one movie. Yet the family is fun, e.g. when a seven year old dismisses his brother's walking dead theory: "This zombie's smart, carrying a torch." The finale implies a sequel and that's looking up. The red berries and the neighbour couple who just can't let the family go got me intrigued.
Wednesday 14 February 2018
I, TONYA
Recommended. Totally not what I expected. Not just a sports movie but a crazy criminal mockumentary comedy. The story spun by the media 24 years ago was that figure ice-skater Tonya Harding hired someone to break her friend-competitor Nancy Kerrigan's kneecap before championships. It turns out they weren't really friends, the incident was a prank played by morons and she wasn't so sporty either - she smoked. The movie is her perspective. Looks like she got a raw deal in life. She didn't fit in with the high-brow crowd of other figure skaters and jurors. Years of training and extraordinary skating prowess never brought her as many victories as they should. Direct as she was, she confronted a juror about it only to hear it was in fact about a "wholesome American family". "I don't have a wholesome American family" was her reaction and her predicament. Battered first by her own mum, then by her love partner, never getting any help, even a policeman once ignored blood on her face, she doesn't get the injustice of the Nancy Kerrigan incident: "She got hit once and all that shitshow?!" Unlike some other people involved, whose memory of the incident got distorted, Tonya has no illusions in life. She calls herself a redneck who she certainly is, using vocab like "the awesomest". The brilliant skater won her first championships when she was... 4. Her mum is adamant that "Tonya was American" and rightly so: she made herself. Well, first her mother brought her to trainings, later claimed to have made Tonya a champion and finally betrayed her. Both are quite mouthfulls ("I don't swear, you cunt!"). Apart from the abusive mother-daughter relationship, we have the morons in the skater's circle: her husband and his best mate as well as the dumb criminals hired by them to scare Nancy. First the attacker moved his car every 15 minutes meaning to... avoid suspicion and it took him 2 days to realize his victim was in a different city. Allison Janney kills in the supporting role of the mother. Deserves the Oscar she's been nominated for even more than Margot Robbie does. Real interview and skating shots are shown during early credits.
光 (HIKARI aka RADIANCE)
Watchable. A quiet movie with plentiful close-ups of the main actress's (水崎 綾女 or Ayame Misaki) beautiful, expressive face. Unfortunately the subtle story of striving not to forget and of how each person perceives the same things differently is shambolic, tedious and the love far-fetched. You can see what it's like to create audiodescription and how hard it is to please the focus group. One of protagonists remarks she likes interpreting people's motivations in movies. This one is hard in this matter: it simply doesn't ring true.
KOTONOHA NO NIWA (THE GARDEN OF WORDS, 2013)
Recommended. Delicate animation. A heart-wrenching story of love filled with longing, barriers imposed by other people's rules but not the couple's (her being a 27 year old teacher and him a high school student). Psychologically true: the love develops imperceptibly and when the boy feels rejected he reacts with anger and denial. At the same time both are trying to find their feet in life. There's a post-credit at the end of the beautiful song ending the film.
THE DISASTER ARTIST
Watchable. Several big names dressed up and made up beyond recognition. A movie based on a film about a film: a tragicomedy based on a making-of documentary on "The Room". Tommy Wiseau, the main protagonist, is an idiot but what permeats through the story is the love of the cinema and a proof that where there's a will there's a way. Tommy's attempt at building up the hype around the premiere as well as footage from "The Room" made me laugh out loud. There's a post-credit.
Watchable. A quiet movie with plentiful close-ups of the main actress's (水崎 綾女 or Ayame Misaki) beautiful, expressive face. Unfortunately the subtle story of striving not to forget and of how each person perceives the same things differently is shambolic, tedious and the love far-fetched. You can see what it's like to create audiodescription and how hard it is to please the focus group. One of protagonists remarks she likes interpreting people's motivations in movies. This one is hard in this matter: it simply doesn't ring true.
KOTONOHA NO NIWA (THE GARDEN OF WORDS, 2013)
Recommended. Delicate animation. A heart-wrenching story of love filled with longing, barriers imposed by other people's rules but not the couple's (her being a 27 year old teacher and him a high school student). Psychologically true: the love develops imperceptibly and when the boy feels rejected he reacts with anger and denial. At the same time both are trying to find their feet in life. There's a post-credit at the end of the beautiful song ending the film.
THE DISASTER ARTIST
Watchable. Several big names dressed up and made up beyond recognition. A movie based on a film about a film: a tragicomedy based on a making-of documentary on "The Room". Tommy Wiseau, the main protagonist, is an idiot but what permeats through the story is the love of the cinema and a proof that where there's a will there's a way. Tommy's attempt at building up the hype around the premiere as well as footage from "The Room" made me laugh out loud. There's a post-credit.
Monday 12 February 2018
ALTERED CARBON EPISODES 1&2
Watchable. SF based on sex and violence. Hot Joel Kinnaman and beautiful, slender Kristin Lehman in some of the leading roles. Old science fiction motifs return, like from "Elysium" where the poor live on the ground in a derelict city while the rich occupy an edifice in the sky. Regular people are juxtaposed with Mats (short from Matusalem) - consciences inhabiting human-like sleeves for hundreds of years - and with AIs with minds quite of their own and even thinking of taking over power. Messages are passed via a cornea transfer so that you see the event with your eyes directly. A hotel is armed to protect its clients. The murder serves as a cliffhanger ending episode 1 but not in episode 2 since it ends in philosophical deliberations. The music over the final credits differs too and the score after ep. 2 is better than the tune after ep. 1.
Sunday 11 February 2018
NARZECZONY NA NIBY
Watchable. Just a few funny bits, e.g. the confusion when 2 passengers get into a taxi at the same time or when the policewomen let the heartbroken woman go after hearing her story or the children's audition - how they scream pretending adults! The whole thing is nice and just one notch higher than "Podatek od milosci", similarly built on the 3-act rom-com principle where the relationship/person in love undergoes a crisis in the middle of the film. Very good acting trio: Julia Kaminska, Piotr Stramowski, Piotr Adamczyk. Tomasz Karolak's character choosing a DVD to watch dismisses "Listy do M." ("Letters to Santa"), in which he has acted in real life, because "he doesn't like that fat actor". I don't know why the bingo club scene shows... smoking inside the venue. A few early mid-credits.
Watchable. Just a few funny bits, e.g. the confusion when 2 passengers get into a taxi at the same time or when the policewomen let the heartbroken woman go after hearing her story or the children's audition - how they scream pretending adults! The whole thing is nice and just one notch higher than "Podatek od milosci", similarly built on the 3-act rom-com principle where the relationship/person in love undergoes a crisis in the middle of the film. Very good acting trio: Julia Kaminska, Piotr Stramowski, Piotr Adamczyk. Tomasz Karolak's character choosing a DVD to watch dismisses "Listy do M." ("Letters to Santa"), in which he has acted in real life, because "he doesn't like that fat actor". I don't know why the bingo club scene shows... smoking inside the venue. A few early mid-credits.
MAYA THE BEE: THE HONEY GAMES
Recommended. In the very first scene an insect is humming the famous "Pszczolka Maja" ("Maya the Bee") song by Zbigniew Wodecki! At least in the Polish version. The rest of the music is nice, even if not that catchy. Still, everone's favourites: Maya, Willie, Thekla the spider etc. are back. Maya and Violet have beautiful sparkling eyes. The story of friendship, team spirit, sport values and compassion is a winner. Maya is the first to believe in the downtrodden creatures and proves that where there's a will there's a way.
Saturday 10 February 2018
CITY OF GHOSTS
Recommended. I'm a follower of news on ISIS, have seen a number of documentaries on the subject on the big screen and on the small one. Yet this film shows things even I didn't know about, e.g. the way little children are recruited and trained - practising slitting a throat on a teddy bear - or how the ISIS media marketing works: not only have they gone a long way since primitive home-style videos, currently incorporating Hollywood-level CGIs but also are made game-like to convey the message that it's like Grand Theft Auto but for real. Some of those who broadcast the Raqqa footage had to run to Germany - a country where "people are constantly drunk" and where... they continue getting death threats.
Recommended. I'm a follower of news on ISIS, have seen a number of documentaries on the subject on the big screen and on the small one. Yet this film shows things even I didn't know about, e.g. the way little children are recruited and trained - practising slitting a throat on a teddy bear - or how the ISIS media marketing works: not only have they gone a long way since primitive home-style videos, currently incorporating Hollywood-level CGIs but also are made game-like to convey the message that it's like Grand Theft Auto but for real. Some of those who broadcast the Raqqa footage had to run to Germany - a country where "people are constantly drunk" and where... they continue getting death threats.
Saturday 3 February 2018
WINCHESTER
Watchable. Based on true events surrounding the Winchester family. Yes, the ones of the Winchester Repeating Arms Co. With a brilliant twist of action where one of characters turns out to be a ghost. Yet the rest is full of cheap horror gimmicks, mostly sudden apparitions meant to startle you. A Melbourne studio imitates San Jose in the movie.
I found a strange black pen in my coat pocket after the screening. Ghosts?
HAPPY END
I watched the beginning again and now I'm not sure if it's really essential to focus on the opening scenes. I think the later shock is bigger when you didn't read the very early phone-filmed sequence text carefully.
MAZE RUNNER: THE DEATH CURE IN DOLBY ATMOS 3D
Watchable. A satisfactory conclusion to the series. Comprehensible only to those who've seen the previous two parts. Decent 3D, sound as comprehensive as it gets. Nothing pleasant to look at so I'll give Imax a miss. This part is totally action-based with so many fights I had enough and a cliffhanger that made my palms wet.
Watchable. Based on true events surrounding the Winchester family. Yes, the ones of the Winchester Repeating Arms Co. With a brilliant twist of action where one of characters turns out to be a ghost. Yet the rest is full of cheap horror gimmicks, mostly sudden apparitions meant to startle you. A Melbourne studio imitates San Jose in the movie.
I found a strange black pen in my coat pocket after the screening. Ghosts?
HAPPY END
I watched the beginning again and now I'm not sure if it's really essential to focus on the opening scenes. I think the later shock is bigger when you didn't read the very early phone-filmed sequence text carefully.
MAZE RUNNER: THE DEATH CURE IN DOLBY ATMOS 3D
Watchable. A satisfactory conclusion to the series. Comprehensible only to those who've seen the previous two parts. Decent 3D, sound as comprehensive as it gets. Nothing pleasant to look at so I'll give Imax a miss. This part is totally action-based with so many fights I had enough and a cliffhanger that made my palms wet.
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