Movie reviews

NO TIME TO DIE AT IMAX

Recommended. First you hear the Bond music theme together with the roaring lions in the producer's logo. Bond's iconic silhouette appears on white background. Next, as if through a sight scope, a snowy landscape emerges from the white circle. With a walking man silhouette seen from above. The opening sequence is strong and comes before the initial credits. The action takes you through Italy, Jamaica, Norway and a secret island between Japan and Russia (Faroe Island stands in). As usual, the franchise keeps up with the world events and, even with the script penned before the pandemic, this time the plot concerns a kind of virus, one targeting DNA. The story offers a few surprises, especially one concerning James Bond himself. For other developments, while it's good to remember "Spectre" to comprehend it easier, just like the famed Øresund Bridge, appearing in the film, it connects past and future James Bond productions: Judi Dench's M's portrait hangs in the MI6 hallway and James Bond is well familiar with cold war time machinery. The movie sticks to the spirit of old Bond flicks. The agent drives a vintage silver Aston Martin DB5. His arch villain is seen sitting in his representative room like a shogun and boasts a poison garden looking like a Japanese zen garden. Three hot actors: Daniel Craig, Rami Malek, Dali Benssalah, actress Léa Seydoux, resembling men's favourite Scarlett Johansson, grace the screen. The movie provides lots of adrenaline, some witty banter, but also a few heartfelt moments. Daniel Craig strikes iconic Bond poses every now and then. He certainly goes away in style. The one sentence in the post-credit, though, gives a hint of doubt. Imax makes a handful of images more alluring but most of the movie should be just as fine on a regular size screen.

PLEASURE

Recommended. Kind, gentle, fair men, no pressure to have sex in this or that form. Where's that? In the porn industry. This actors' film is similar to documentary "9to5: Days in Porn" with the main difference the documentary director was male, while this is an entirely female perspective. A lovely 19-year-old Swedish blonde is climbing the career ladder in the Los Angeles blue movie centre. Catchy colours make both the characters' outfits and set designs appealing. The film's shot on actual locations. Agent Mark Spiegler, woman director Aiden Starr, photographer Axel Braun act as themselves. The actors are porn ones. The movie boasts superb sound effects, not only ones heard from the side of the screening room but also ones tricking you into raunchy associations, e.g. gasping at night turns out to be dog's and the sound resembling male masturbation reveals itself as the movements of a ceiling fan. A blue movies job isn't all rosey though. Acted violence on set feels like real to the actress. And she's a porn professional, mind that. Another serious bit is about motivation at work. Altogether it's an exciting, saucy but sleek story for men and women alike. Adult ones, obviously.

Director Ninja Thyberg did Gender Studies in Paris a few years ago and next went to a number of porn sets. The story's compiled from what she witnessed there.

I AM GRETA

Recommended. The documentary is much like "On Her Shoulders" which was about a Yazidi rights campaigner touring the world but achieving nothing more from the Western superpowers than a celebrity status. Greta Thunberg's campaign is just as fruitless and disappointing to the girl. She appears influential, visiting people in power, be it Macron or the Pope, but those are just as superficial as she is persistent. And smart. Contrary to the popular notion, she does school - remotely - and she's the top of her grade. The documentary is also a rare occasion to learn how to pronounce her name correctly - it's Grye-ta Thun-bery. Polish cinemas show the film subtitled in Polish and English at the same time.