Movie reviews

19TH DOCS AGAINST GRAVITY FILM FESTIVAL

БАБИЙ ЯР. КОНТЕКСТ (BABI YAR.CONTEXT) - Q&A WITH DIRECTOR/EDITOR SERGEI LOZNITSA 

Sergei Loznitsa was making three films at the same time so used some help with editing. He would send him episodes - he had the beginning, the ending and the structure to fill in. The director was wearing a suit at the Q&A, was very collected and well-organized.

WARSZTAT KULINARNY Z PIOTREM BRUSIEM-KLEPACKIM (CULINARY WORKSHOP WITH PIOTR BRUS-KLEPACKI)

He told us about and prepared two Asian-style vegan dishes. Delicious, abundant, generous and informative. Great fun.

KONKURS FILMOW KROTKOMETRAZOWCH. BLOK 2 (SHORTS COMPETITION. BLOCK 2)

The set consisted of 5 short films:

NUISANCE BEAR

Recommended. Churchill in Manitoba, Canada. An annual polar bear migration from the point of view of the animal. The town's in the way, not the other way round. The bear is beautiful and grabs your heart with its frustration at navigating the maze of road blocks.

ANIMAL SALVATGE (WILD ANIMAL)

Watchable. It drags but still it manifests people's attitude to farm animals - heart-wrenching at times.

HANGING ON

Watchable. Suspended, up in the air, waiting to be evicted, as soulless law puts tenants at disadvantage. A sad look at the house market. 

LE FRERE (THE BROTHER)

Recommended. Touching how loving the family is and how they feel about one another. Their daily routine, backstory and anime mix, putting you in the shoes of a carer of a disabled family member. 

TEMPO HOME

Watchable. Stephen King's quote "Home is where they want you to stay longer" opens the documentary. It's a thorough depiction of refugees' lives in the Tempelhof temporary settlement and of the rules and instructions facilitating their adaptation, which is impossible in a temporary dwelling anyway.

TEMPO HOME - Q&A WITH THE DIRECTOR AND THE EDITOR

Women refused to be protagonists, offering that their husbands talk to the film crew. The filmmakers informed the audience that after Tempelhof the refugees are moved to a new temp housing, then a viewer asked: "Czy to też lotnisko?" ("Is that also an airport?") - "Dworzec" ("A station"). The airport has been out of operation for 20 years so the sound of its creation was used in the film to show it was also temporary and is temporary for travellers too. The editor explained the throwing out rubbish rule was Mittags Ruhe, of which he learnt having stayed in Berlin for over a year. The director has spent all his life there. Director Kamil Bembnista considers it a mistake that people are kept suspended like this. 

LE SENS DE LA FAMILLE (FAMILY SWAP)

Watchable. Too many gags are about private parts. Only two jokes are hilarious: when the teenager in an adult body is driving and is rebuked: "It's not England" or when a girl has a lama and thinks it's a pony. The characters, changing bodies, are convincingly acted. 

X

Watchable. You expect a bloodbath from the opening. There's gore everywhere. What comes next is about the first film about movie-making I enjoyed. That is till it turned thrashy. Omens like a dead animal, eerie music, a face in an attic window are pretty standard - though the music theme here is exceptional and returns in a longer piece at the end of final credits. It's Atmos-recorded and quality even in an ordinary screening room. The set-up is exciting: a bunch of wannabe stars in hippie times are shooting a blue film in midst of the Bible Belt. And you know the slasher genre rule about having sex, don't you? Yet it's not that simple. There is gore galore but you never quite know who's going to die how and who's to survive. Still, what ruins the fun are the antagonists. By the look they might be dead already just as well. From the back story the old woman tells the girl you can calculate they're both about 70 years old. So when their sex desires come to play it ain't pretty. I don't even mind a few simplistic jump scares since those had impact. But sex-crazed septuagenarians, probably necrophiliac, are over the top and just revolting. The film plays with the genre, e.g. "Psycho" is mentioned and re-enacted in a way or a guy drinks milk with "missing persons" on the packaging when some of the protagonists are searched for already. All props return to be used. Aerial images are impressive. It plays a lot with double screens and parallel action. A surprise comes at the finale. And the religious community is portrayed irreverently like hell. Thoroughly engaging but, however original the elderlys' sex is in film, this is what deprives you of all the pleasure recurringly.

SPREE

Recommended. This slasher is pure fun. A serial killer takes you on a ride. Fast-paced, with great music. A satire on influencers, stand-uppers, Uber type services but that doesn't matter. The formula is pretty simple but Joe Keery in the role of a wannabe influencer streaming his killer spree ride, plenty of comments displayed on the screen, however tacky they sound, glue you to the screen. Top-notch cinematography makes the kills all attractive.

Reviewed from the distributor's screener, cinematic reception might differ.