Movie reviews

UKRAINA! FILM FESTIVAL ONLINE

ТЕРИКОНИ (TERYKONY)

Switched off. Actually after half an hour I fast forwarded the rest. People eke out an existence in a poverty-stricken region. Children play roaming their town and adjacent areas with the only difference that a theatre or a former house have been destroyed in the war waged since 2014 and a girl mourns her father on the first anniversary of his death, while for others "it's normal". Childhood in a war zone is dull, often joyful, sometimes sombre. Not much to watch for.

SHORT FILMS SET 3

Прапор

Марія

Зона комфорту

Черевички неношені

Юля

Маеstro

ПРАПОР (FLAG)

Watchable. Produced by Warsaw Film School, with Mateusz Pacewicz as the script consultant, it's a very simple, cheap, one-location story set in 1991, when Ukraine became an independent state. Family history forms a backdrop. 

МАРІЯ (MARY)

Watchable. About a girl pimped by her own father therefore highly disturbing. Unfortunately the sex and murder scenes look theatrical. The religious finale, combined with the title, gets you thinking. Was Jezus' mother raped by Archangel?

ЗОНА КОМФОРТУ (ZONE OF COMFORT)

Watchable. An engaging story, even if disturbing at some points, though poorly shot - it often looks like theatre rather than film - and poorly cut - purely technically. Music pieces by Tchaikovsky, Mozart, Verdi are pleasant but few and silence in the main part of the film detracts from the experience.

ЧЕРЕВИЧКИ НЕНОШЕНІ

Recommended. Wonderfully told, hilarious at some point, professionally filmed and fantastically acted, with a shocking finale. 

ЮЛЯ

Watchable. The school graduates' dilemma of whether to stay in their small town or leave, mostly for abroad, is tedious. What's worse, the ponderings are interspersed with singing and dancing. But one thought is worth considering: "It's not a place that makes a person but a person that makes a place."

MAESTRO

Watchable. Medical torture - an operation shot up close. 

CAT DADDIES

Recommended. Diverse life stories of humans and felines. While I'm more of a dog person myself, the stories in this American documentary are touching, revealing how much people need cats and cats need people for mutual support. A secondary message coming out of the film is not to overdo cancer treatment since it can leave you less fit than before. The Polish translations of the cat names - needless in the first place - are weird and wrong language-wise. There are two hilarious scenes, one of them is a guy playing on cats.

HALLOWEEN ENDS

Watchable. The opening is fine. Especially with pop music. Later, through the narration of remembering past events and hole-in-the-large-pipe images like in "It", it gets ridiculous. But the two lead protagonists are likeable and form a lovely couple. The masked man incident and ominous conversations are far-fetched - even for the "Halloween" franchise. It has never been much of a horror or meaningful. Early versions were annoyingly slow-paced. This one, just like the previous, is fast, with good pop music, which eases the swallow of the nonsensical plot. The last 20 minutes or so nonsense piles up unbearably. I considered walking out at the finale. I wish it were really the end.

MIA AND ME: THE HERO OF CENTOPIA

Watchable. I was two minutes late so can't comment on the very beginning. The actors' opening and closing sequences make sense when you bear in mind the movie's Australian. Still, it's mostly animated, with plenty of singing and dancing. Colours and pop music make it easy though lots of purple in the backgrounds of Centopia isn't pretty. Floating rocks and blue people with weapons are a "Avatar" rip-off. The plot is run-of-the-mill. Some scenes are ridiculously feminist as if women were physically just as strong as men. 

BROS

Watchable. A beautiful love story even if one guy is neurotic and the other a Channing Tatum-looking gay. Amy Schumer makes a cameo as Eleanor Roosevelt. I didn't understand many other references to real life persons. Even the US culture codes were often hard to comprehend. But I'd love such a creative museum. There's some humour, e.g.: "I'm in the middle of a divorce and you didn't even ask once" "OK. How is your divorce?" "I don't want to talk about it." The movie has a Christmas feel.

SONDA (THE PROBE)

Watchable. A totally amateurish short film. Tongue-in-cheek, e.g. a university Department of Astronomy and Astrology. The story is rooted in scientific predictions of rising sea levels and the reactions to the threat are realistic. The catastrophic and post-apocalyptic ending is totally crazy. The whole thing, sadly, is poorly shot, the visual effects seem made by an elementary school pupil, so are the props and costumes.