Movie reviews

COBWEB

Recommended. Don't be fooled by the dull and stereotypical opening. The movie quickly turns frightening in more ways than one. The abusive and weird parents are an original idea, reversing the common horror trope where it's the child that's evil. On the other hand... it's not exactly reversed. It's magnified. Real and supernatural monsters can't be quite distinguished from one another. The elementary school boy is convincingly acted by Woody Norman (known from "C'mon C'mon". The whole story is so plausible, everything internally justified, it's hard to tell the thin line between evil and monstrosity. Keeps you in the clutches of horror steadily, only smoothly intensifying it. The finale leaves no hope. 

LADYBUG & CAT NOIR: THE MOVIE

Watchable. A superhero flick cartooned for children. Also probably because it's easier to draw utterly realistic Paris landmarks: the Seine, Notre-Dame (in its complete, undamaged form), Jardin des Tuileries, building roofs etc. rather than mock a destruction of real ones. All high school and superhero tropes can be found. The downside is the action's interspersed with numerous songs. While George Michael's "Careless Whisper" is used creatively within, plenty of musical-style songs, whether dubbed in Polish or sung in English, like the one along the end credts, all sound the same and are just boring. Bartek Fukiet translated it into Polish so you can rest assured this version's as good as it gets.

THE LAST VOYAGE OF THE DEMETER

Watchable. Woody Norman is a frightened boy in this horror too. It's filmed in Malta, based on a chapter from Bram Stoker's novel "Dracula". It being a literary adaptation is refreshing after plenty of variations of the most famous vampire over the years. The movie, however, is slow-paced, like a 20th century film, not scary, but atmospheric in the way the lengthy sea journey is depicted. The most valiant characters are a black man and a woman, their stories: of obtaining education but being shunned for employment or of being the subject of decisions taken by the count or by the community respectively are touching.