Movie reviews

SPUTNIK RUSSIAN FILM FESTIVAL

КРОВЬ (BLOOD)

Recommended. Decent Russian-school cinema. Intimate, with sympathy to the protagonists. Engrossing. Clear-cut structure in spite of going to and fro in time. With good-looking main actors and a good number of twists and turns. It depticts two brothers: one with a goal and one who doesn't know what to do with his life yet both live empty lives. Memorable bits are when one blames his brother for smuggling the stuff he uses himself and when he remarks: "You ended up the way I was supposed to". With a beautiful song along with the end credits. 


PLAIRE, AIMER ET COURIR VITE (SORRY ANGEL)

Recommended. Sexy, not romantic but beautiful in the way the gay story isolates a relationship. It deals with love, disillusionment, hopes and camouflaged fear. The emotions are not quite explicit but after leaving the cinema you suddenly realise how many feelings were concealed inside both men. Magnificently acted, especially by Pierre Deladonchamps  as Jacques. Music is not prominent but matching and the music piece titles reflect the developments in the story. 


NIGHT FILM MARATHON - MINIMARATHON OF FANTASTIC BEASTS

FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM 2D

Watchable when seen again. Shot in Liverpool pretending New York. Fights prolonged. A very feminine legilimens. The niffler is both cute and funny. Giggle water advert appears in magical press. Not meant for the big screen - reading the newspaper headlines and ads is often impossible. Best to catch it all on DVD I guess. Great cinematography, full od depth even in 2D.

FANTASTIC BEASTS: THE CRIMES OF GRINDENWALD 2D

Watchable. A set-up for a trilogy. As always the second part is the darkest and the grimmest. Evil comes from Austria this time so, taken the period it's set in and Grindenwald's pure race ideology, he's the magical world equivalent of Hitler. On the bright side the niffler is back, actually more than one. There's a new cute dog-like creature too. 3D-like cinematography. Enchanting music by James Newton Howard.


WARSAW JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL 

THE DRIVER IS RED

Recommended. A thriller-like short animated documentary about capturing Nazi war criminals, especially Adolf Eichmann.

THE ACCOUNTANT OF AUSCHWITZ

Recommended. A gripping future-length documentary about the complexities and obstacles in sentencing Nazi criminals. With the huge prevalence of Nazism in the post-war population, including judges who were ideologically Nazi, justice required a time lapse more than anything else. Different attitudes from both sides are presented. Uncertain outcomes of subsequent cases amount to full tension.

THE ROLLING GROUND

Watchable. A short film where a girl walks a rolling ground listening to a recorded account of how her ancestor survived a few sorts of prison camps during WW2. No conclusion.

BUDAPEST NOIR

Watchable. The Jewish motif is unnecessary here. Otherwise it's a surprisingly good film noir. Not my fave genre per se but this movie is less dark, uses more colour in the visual layer and the story deals with prostitution, politics and a family tragedy. Shocking how men divide women into whores and decent ones and how deadly the consequential predjudice can be. Based on that predjudice their attitudes to crimes against them differ drastically.

KICHKA: LIFE IS A CARTOON

Recommended. Life is unlike movies. Some secrets never come to light. So the Shoah survivor never learnt of his likely family in Israel. During the 3 years he spent with his father in concentration camps he never asked because his dad was so debilitated. But forming a huge family helped him survive the loss of 30 of his so, unlike others - who committed suicides after leaving camps, he filled his loneliness with people and comic cartoons. Later a son of his became a recognized cartoonist himself. While humour replaced the talk of the Holocaust, the son, step by step, discovers what the survivor father wasn't able to say.

DAS LETZTE MAHL (THE LAST SUPPER)

Watchable. Over-talked but valuable since it's the first movie presenting Jews in Germany of the 1930s as German citizens with full rights, not outsiders. From the makers' research such were the sentiments that even some Jews served in Wehrmacht till the end of the war. The film doesn't stretch that far. It's just one day of a fictitious family with episodes based on real life people e.g. the Jewish inventor of TV which the Aryans stole to use for their propaganda. Sentimental music deprives the movie of tension.


ASSASSINATION NATION

Watchable. Funny how a sexist guy of 33 tried to make it feminist. When teenage girls talk about sex all the time, you know it must have been scripted and directed by a man. Girl talk about the size of "his dick in the grey tracksuit" is plain ridiculous. Female teenagers aren't like that. It's how nasty adult guys (Sam Levinson in this case) sexualize them. The rest of the film attempts greatness. American flags and their colours in clothing abound. In the slasher form the picture points the finger of blame at prudish hypocrites demanding of teenagers standards they don't comply with themselves. It shows how kids are surrounded with sex, violence and a total lack of privacy and also how everyone, minor or adult, has got something to hide. Nobody's innocent, some are just less guilty. 

CREED II

Walked out. Protracted cliches like male talk at work and an expectant mother at home. No tension. Silly conversations include her asking if he's defecated before the fight. And, after cancer in part one, in part two the baby may be born deaf - another cheap medical trick in the script.

MILOSC JEST WSZYSTKIM (LOVE IS EVERYTHING)

Watchable. A slow and tear-jerking 'romantic comedy', much in Polish style. I laughed just three times: when the Santa jumped into water to the amazement of the filming crew, when the undertaker burst into tears and at "Jestem Ewa Szajnocha, lat 22, eee... 35." ("I'm Ewa Szajnocha, age 22, argh... 35."). It's a remake of obscure Belgian "Alles is liefde" ("Love is All") from 2007. I haven't seen the original. In the Polish version the love stories are far-fetched and unnatural: either a 40+ woman ditches her 18-year-old lover to return to her aged ex-husband or a quarrelsome, grunting when laughing, shop assistant attracts a celebrity footballer. The hobo hangs a sock to get a present western-style. It's not a Polish tradition. A number of romantic songs in Polish and English.

SOFIA

Recommended. Moving in the beginning, adding suspense shortly and gripping till the very end. And it's... about having a baby and getting married. In Morocco where the situation is a complex case encompassing penal law, business, honour - everything but love.