Movie reviews

BLACKKKLANSMAN

Recommended. A feature with numerous connections to the real world. Names matter. John David Washington is cast as Ron Stallworth on whose book the movie's based. Some songs are by Terence Blanchard or Dan Whitener or James Brown. There are references to a potential future black president (in the 70s - long before Obama). It ends in real life footage from the 2017 Charlottesville riots. The movie masterfully puts you face to face with your predjudices. The way the black cop pulls KKK members' legs is just brilliant. The Polish translation is off the original at times so all the more it's better to focus on the original and spot the dialect nuances. The movie's gripping, hilarious and heart-wrenching. Though-provoking too in how a history lesson not learnt repeats itself.

NIGHT FILM MARATHON - THE MARATHON OF OF SUPERPOWERS

I needed to charge up my superpowers. I just skipped "X-Men: First Class" and "Logan" which I had seen before and saw the other two:

THE DARKEST MINDS

Watchable. Really good fun. Like a copy of the first "Divergent" movie but with the actors younger and cuter. The action's well-paced and the idea, based on Alexandra Bracken's book, of all children either dying, decimated by a disease, or mutating, is new. The notion of mutants deemed dangerous by "normals" is like from "X-Men". Yet, the movie watches very well, mostly due to convincing performances of the young leads: Amandla Stenberg (Rue in "Hunger Games" and the lead in "Everything, everything") as Ruby Daly and Harris Dickinson as Liam. And all pieces of the puzzle fall into place in the end.

CHRONICLE (2012)

Watchable. I'm not into found footage mockumentaries so initially I found it annoying, especially that the guys used their superpowers for moronic pranks. But, as they gain more forces and hone the existing ones, the movie becomes little short of spectacular. It's actually in a way more impressive than the standard superhero fare since, if it occurred in real life, the outcome would be most likely something along these lines. 


BEYNELMILEL (THE INTERNATIONAL) (2006)

Watchable. Endearing characters. A girl is trying to get mentally closer to the guy she's infatuated with and reads "Kadin ve sosyalizm" ("Woman and socialism") quite in vain since the aloof type hardly notices her advances. Her grandpa's amorous attempts with a dancer in her 50s are charming. All in all, it's a gentle comedy: partly political, partly romantic which after 1.5 hours turns into a tragedy with deaths of two of the main characters. The score comprises, apart from the title piece, of traditional Turkish music and a piece by... Chopin.

THE BOOKSHOP

Watchable. Starts with an annoying off-screen commentary it could really do without. What follows is wooden acting and a series of static scenes. No music. The lady entrepreneur's passion no one cares about and her problems with the powerful woman hellbent on destroying her business - in white gloves - are something many contemporary start-up owners can identify with. Yet, period details are painstakingly recreated and the film has a quaint old-time charm of unhasty life in a seaside village. It also conveys the love of literature.

ZAMA

Walked out. No plot, just a series of meaningless events. Slow, with virtually no music score.