SERCE, SERDUSZKO

Watchable. Not your typical Jan Jakub Kolski film. We're leaving the fairy-tale countryside universe. The main protagonists are a punk and a little girl ballet dancer and it's a film of the road. There's a fantastic character of a priest rapping in religious fervour. The film fortunately retains much of Kolski's characteristic style.

The screening I went to was followed by a meeting with Borys Szyc who only truly proved his acting skills mocking movie directors. No film has given him the chance to show off the way he did then. He was brilliant.


LA ISLA MINIMA (MARSHLAND)

Watchable. Protracted and ambiguous to the point where I barely understood the film. Shot imitating the 1980s in a bad way (the picture looked old technically). There's a mystery which never gets fully explained.


QUE HORAS ELA VOLTA? (THE SECOND MOTHER)

Watchable. A social drama, well acted and involving but with an ending which offers neither a hope nor an explanation of the girl's motives.


IM LABYRINTH DES SCHWEIGENS (LABYRINTH OF LIES)

Recommended. Another great German film dealing with the country's Nazi past. Very much a courtroom drama but also subtly revealing both the concentration camps horror and the scale of ignorance in the happy-go-lucky post-war society.


FASANDRAEBERNE (THE PHEASANT KILLERS)

Watchable. A typical Scandinavian (even if geographically Danish) crime story: brutal, with the culprits being rich and being hunters fond of torturing humans as well. While it's all executed perfectly, the plot is standard in this manner.


SONG OF THE SEA

Watchable. Slow and stylish. Not to every taste. Disney it isn't. It's based on the touching Nordic or Celtic tale of a seal living as a woman and hence longing for the see.


AFRYKAMERA 2015

VIRUNGA

Recommended. A very well shot (especially the initial part in which the camera follows running shooters), planned and eye-opening documentary about national park rangers defending the world's only mountain gorillas habitat not only against poachers but even more so against a British oil company which is doing its utmost to drill in a section of the park. The film's so good it only makes me wonder what "Citizenfour" must be like as "Virunga" lost the Oscar race to the film about Edward Snowden.



THE BOY NEXT DOOR

Watchable. For a bigger part pleasing to watch - J-Lo plus a hot guy twice younger than her in steamy situations plus the tension in between. Ruined by a standard Hollywood ending in which the hot guy suddenly turns out to be a psychopatic killer and the whole thing ends in flames. Much over the top. "The Guest" it isn't.


MARY KOM

Walked out but would have stayed if I hadn't had a more promising cinema offer for the evening. Slow and ramshackle with mediocre music and even Priyanka Chopra looks so masculine she's hardly appealing to the eye. Still, my guess is it may be worth seeing for motivational purposes as it tells the story of a humble background female boxing champion who has everything going against her. All she's got is her inner strength and it suffices to succeed.


THE RIOT CLUB
Watchable. A very British film dealing with the class system. An Oxford University-based secret society consisting of upper class guys is capable of every atrocity committed out of the need to fill superior to lower classes while being sure of excellent connections to the legal and political circles letting them act in total impunity. Nothing new but very well acted by a few good-looking guys. New acting prodigies in the making.


PK

Watchable. Silly and intelligent at the same time. A warm comedy about an idiot alien deals with the notion of God/gods and the issue of charlatans. It's not very funny though. Nor is it high-tech.


YEH JAWAANI HAI DEEWANI

Watchable. A simple love story where the travel-hungry protagonist got me intrigued. It's about the clash of domestic and nomadic lifestyles. But it's mediocre in all possible ways.


THE SECOND BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL

Watchable. Great, if sparse, music throughout, with a Bollywood-style dance at the end. The dialogues should be amusing but somehow aren't. The pace is a bit too slow and the stories too far-fetched. A nice mix of English accents.


WOMAN IN GOLD

Recommended. First you just notice the great actors at their best. Then it becomes an involving courtroom drama. Finally, while mixed with the court case, a moving story of coming to terms with exceptionally traumatic past. And it's based on true stories surrounding a famous painting by Klimt.

Have you seen the hologram advertising the new Terminator in cinemas? It changes top to bottom revealing the machine and Schwarzie interchangeably. I love it!


JEWISH MOTIFS INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

RADICAL EVIL

Recommended. The film dissects, through the Einsatzgruppen quotes, psychological experiment cases and expert opinions, how ordinary people in groups can become ruthless murderers.

LE PROCES DE VIVIANE AMSALEM (GETT: THE TRAIL OF VIVIANE AMSALEM)

Recommended. Both a courtroom drama gripping from the first scene and a psychological film, the latter even more, about a difficult unrequitted love.


NIGHT FILM MARATHON - THE NIGHT OF AVENGERS

I skipped "Avengers 3D" as I had seen it before and had found it just watchable then. So I saw

CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER
AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON

Watchable. Both films have rubbish plots and the hot Chris Evans for a girl viewer to survive the movies. Plot-wise the first "Captain America" movie was much better.


CHILD 44

Watchable. Loosely based on Chikatilo's murders but as unexciting as a serial killer story can possibly get. What ruins the film is: Tom Hardy - it was hard to watch his ugly, fat, boar-like face for 2 hours 17 minutes, Tom Hardy again - his fake Russian accent sounded just weird and, finally, a protracted plot.


PIKU

Watchable. A nice light comedy about... family and constipation issues. Situationally amusing at times but not hilarious. No singing and dancing.


JOURNAL D'UNE FEMME DE CHAMBRE (THE DIARY OF A CHAMBERMAID)

Watchable. Don't expect hot action or eroticism. It's a story of violence and of a psychopathic relationship between masters and servants - psychopathic from both sides. It's just sick.


NIGHT FILM MARATHON - THE MARATHON OF MAD MAX

MAD MAX
MAD MAX 2
Watchable. Both 80s films get you interested from scene one and maintain a steady pace. Silly and full of violence for the sake of violence yet quite involving (in the action and its developments, not the twisted psychology of the characters). A nice 80s-style set of weirdos.

MAD MAX: FURY ROAD

Watchable. Tom Hardy's revolting face doesn't hinder much here. His deep, low voice is a perfect match for the burnt-out, cynical rebel. The female beautiful breeders characters and zombie-like bald swarms of workers are very naff. It's all too fantastical. The weakest of the three films of the night.


SHE'S FUNNY THAT WAY

Watchable. Again: well-acted but hardly hilarious. Some situation humour makes you laugh out loud at times. Lots of famous actors and one director (Quentin Tarantino) cameo, a ridiculously inept detective as well as amusing connections between the characters make for a good watch.


EDEN
Watchable. The director's name may appear somewhat Scandinavian but don't get mistaken - she's French and it's a typical French film following the hero seemingly all the time which is just plain boring. It's bearable just because of occasionally good music (the best bit is at the very beginning however, feel free to leave afterwards) and club atmosphere.

JE SUIS FEMEN (I AM FEMEN)

Recommended. A fascinating documentary which answers all the questions I've had about the topless feminists and reveals even more. Ukraine certainly has worse problems than we could imagine in Poland or Britain: a girl was raped and burned alive, survived, had har limbs amputated after which she died anyway and the suspects were let free or a zoo owner poisoned animals to take over the land. All the more you get to appreciate the activists' determination to bring the perpetrators (often successfully) to justice. So why do they protest half-naked? Because: 1. it guarantees attention and media coverage, 2. feminists are said to be ugly and unattractive so they've decided to show you can be beautiful and sexy and still be a feminist. Who finances them? The media and their online shop sales. Other little known facts are that the Euro 2012 brought about a huge rise in the number sex parlous in Ukraine, again something we didn't experience in Poland and that the girls where tortured in Russia and Belarus. Kudos to Femen heroes!

PHOENIX

Recommended. A gripping story where "will he recognise her or not?" keeps you on the edge of your seat and a disturbing truth about human emotions is shown as well - no one wants to hear about the woman's concentration camp memories, all people want is to see her just the way she was before the war. The final song is very beautiful and constitutes the film climax.

FEHER ISTEN (WHITE GOD)

Recommended. Not a film I'd like to see again - it's full of cruelty to dogs and humans - but it's unusual - certainly nothing like whatever I had seen in the cinema before. And clearly made by someone who loves dogs. A disturbing must-see.

I'm adding a comment about 1.5 years later when I had a chance to ask the director, Kornél Mundruczó, about the film. The story behind the film harks back to his visit in a dog rescue where he saw dogs which were, effectively, waiting for death. This film, just like his later "Jupiter Holdja" ("Jupiter's Moon), is a mirror or ourselves. The title comes from a South African philosophical essay by John Maxwell Coetzee: a man from a dog's perspective is a white god. Dorota Chrobak asked him about cruelty common to Hungarian cinema. The director explained that the conflict of poetry and reality came from Hungarian tradition. It's present in folk tales and in Bartók's works. Unlike French or Romanian cinema, which is built on realism, mixing reality with poetry is typical for Hungarians. Scriptwriter Kata Wéber added that black humour was common in Hungarian society and that could be seen as brutality.

PLEMYA (THE TRIBE)

Watchable. Very poorly acted. Mildly interesting just because, as you're told upfront, "the film is all in sign language with no subtitles or translation". At the same time it's full of talking - sign language - which only adds length to the film.

THE PYRAMID

Watchable. While I hate horrors full of jumping monsters, I have to admit these ones are scary. I hope they won't make a sequel.

LA FAMILLE BELIER (THE BELIER FAMILY)

Recommended. I laughed and cried and wallowed in the songs. A heart-warming family comedy (the sign language "translations" are brilliant).

DEUX JOURS, UNE NUIT (TWO DAYS, ONE NIGHT)

Watchable. It's intriguing to see how people will react to a choice of saving a colleague's job vs. getting a pay bonus of 1000 euro and you're obviously curious to find out if the main protagonist gets to keep her job. Other than that the film and the actress in a leading role are quite average, quite clearly couldn't win the Oscar.

SHE'S FUNNY THAT WAY

Watchable. Very well acted. With some hilarious situation humour, especially a few scenes with dogs, yet not that funny throughout.

LA DISTANCIA (DYSTANS)

Walked out. I couldn't make any sense of those ugly people, mostly dwarves, doing weird things.

NIGHT FILM MARATHON - THE NIGHT OF ADAPTATIONS

I skipped "Divergent" which I had seen and hadn't been delighted with before.

INSURGENT

Watchable. Artisan make: quite good CGIs but not mind-blowing, involving action at a good pace but far-fetched and terribly PC plot.

THE HOST

Watchable. A good number of hot guys, involving plot, happy ending. It's just no longer funny or moving when seen for the second time.

IF I STAY

Walked out. If you stay (I didn't) you're likely to get frustrated by the silly plot heading nowhere.


CANIBAL

Watchable. Not as shocking as the title would imply. While it's still involving, for obviously morbid reasons, it's slow-paced and not very convincing.

BLUE LIPS

Watchable. A few stories in one film rarely work. Here you just watch a handful of peculiar characters who all happen to be in Pamplona at the time of the San Fermin Fiesta. From the safety of your cinema seat you follow their issues with accommodation or lost luggage. Nothing unusual.

THE GUNMAN

Watchable. A standard action fare - well made and acted but with sime obvious ridiculities of the plot and protracted shoot-outs.

ELLE L'ADORE

Watchable. An involving crime drama for an unknown reason advertised as a comedy. About how a mundane incident changes ordinary people into criminals. Keeps you hooked from the first quarter of the movie though not on the edge of your seat - you can relax and recline.

CHARLEEN MACHT SCHLUSS (ABOUT A GIRL)

Watchable. The main two characters are sort of weirdos but likeable ones. The story of teenage depression rang some bells to me so I found it easy to identify myself with the girl who suffered just with growing up, no particular reason to it.

PARTY GIRL

Watchable. The protagonists are simple minds but the whole story of a family reunion was touching.

OPTIMISTENE (THE OPTIMISTS)

Recommended. Finally two nations where over-60s don't act like old pricks. It's so uplifting it's a must-see.

DIE FRAU DES POLIZISTEN

Walked out. Everyday life of an average family is so mundane and average that when some violence starts the action doesn't get any more lively.

THE DUFF

Recommended. I laughed and cried. It's all very involving, sometimes emotional and with some situation humour here and there. Kept me glued to the screen.

JAK CALKOWICIE ZNIKNAC

Watchable. The lesbian night tour of Berlin, with its shabby clubs, streets, gutters and kebab joints, is not interesting but is hypnotic.

FAST&FURIOUS 7

Watchable. Let your brain rest. Stop thinking and admire the views (hot chicks, muscled guys, landscapes, flying cars, glamour, cliff-hangers, crashes) and the music (by David Guetta among others. It was shot on locations in Atlanta, Colorado, Abu Dhabi, California. Only Japan is fake.

DIFRET

Recommended. A 14-year-old girl is kidnapped, held captive, raped, beaten, has her arm broken. When escaping she kills her main oppressor. She gets arrested, expelled from her home village and is waiting for the trial which will most likely end in her getting the capital punishment. Well, it's rural Ethiopia. An in-depth portrayal of the conflict of customary law with state law and the clash of modern city vs. traditional village cultures. The Ethiopian film is, curiously, produced by Angelina Jolie.

EX MACHINA

Recommended. Hard SF. A fascinating, if scary, vision of the near future. Very plausible and frightening when you think how easy it is to build somebody's profile through their google search. It reminds me of "Species" somehow - a beautiful, non-human protagonist uses men to her advantage threatening all of humanity.

After the film I visited the top level toilet in Galeria Mokotow, Warsaw. It felt like from the world of the future as well: a shoe-cleaning machine, touchless taps as well as soap, disinfectant and hand cream dispensers, conveniently located hand-dryers.

JOURNEY TO THE WEST

Walked out. You follow a monk who takes each step for five minutes. Literally.

CHAPPIE

Watchable. As cute as ET. The story with a clearcut military baddie and his adopted family reminds me of ET as well. The main difference is that the film is full of machines and that at ET I had been crying through the whole film. This one is not that sad. The machines and the temporary lack of police resemble "Robocop". On the whole it's an entertaining, if uninnovative, mix of popular SF movies.

CLOUDS OF SILS MARIA

Watchable. Actually not all of it. It's boring, about a washed-out star played by one (Juliette Binoche). Kristen Stewart acts very well. But the true highlight of the film is the view of the clouds forming a snake in the Sils Maria Valley.

VIOLET

Watchable. Shot on 65 mm and digital Alexa, it tries to be original and visually it is to some extent but it's nearly silent, following the external expression of the protagonist's reaction to a tragic event. It's pleasingly quiet and drowsy at the same time.

NIGHT FILM MARATHON - THE NIGHT OF POLISH CINEMA

DISCO POLO

Recommended. A warmingly fairy-tale, full-colour view of the 80s. It all looks more like Wes Anderson's than any Polish film. It's unique here. And makes you love the disco polo genre even if you always despised it. The "Funny Games" references are brilliant too.

ZIARNO PRAWDY

Slept through. I just saw the beginning I had missed the previous time and fell asleep. Was so knackered couldn't help it.

POLSKIE GOWNO

Watchable. It's not a good film. I guess I watched it out of interest in how businesses work. There is one moderately funny situation where a band member drunkenly hires someone who ends up in bed with him after which the band run before dawn.

BOGOWIE (GODS)

Watchable. It's not that funny the second time round but watches smoothly, the action is fast enough.

SASIADY

Walked out. A set of weirdos living in one dilapidated block. A guy taking pleasure in electrocuting himself is just one of them.

BODY/CIALO

Walked out. A bunch of lowlifes: a cynical prosecutor, his bulimic wife, a voyerist therapist.

NAR DYRENE DROMMER (WHEN ANIMALS DREAM)

Recommended. Kept me gripped from the first minute. It has some memorable scenes and is quite stylish. Altogether it has captivating atmosphere.

MANGE TES MORTS (EAT YOUR BONES)

Watchable. I'm not really interested in everyday lives (or deaths) of criminals but you can see it as a psychological portrayal of low IQ people who know no other life than crime.

NIGHT FILM MARATHON - THE NIGHT OF HORROR

I skipped "The Woman In Black" as I had seen it before. So I saw:

THE WOMAN IN BLACK ANGEL OF DEATH

Watchable. A few startling bits don't make for a truly scary horror. At least it has a plot to follow.

ANNABELLE

Watchable. A few startling bits don't make for a truly scary horror. At least it has a plot to follow.

REC 4

Walked out. The first 20 some minutes had a plot. Later zombies, all covered in blood for some reason, started jumping on everyone. I wasn't interested in watching who'll get killed when.

JUPITER ASCENDING 3D

Watchable. The storyline is really silly, for kids only. At the same time though the visual effects, costumes and cinematography are spectacular and worth seeing in 3D.

INTO THE WOODS

Walked out. It's a musical and it's really full of typical ear-tearing musical songs with hardly any word spoken in between. Couldn't stand it, even for Chris Pine, a glimpse of whom I caught only once before leaving.

KINGSMAN

Watchable. Great fun. My only objection is that it's too anti-class-system PC. But other than that it's light entertainment in the style of old Bond movies minus chauvinism.

PRIDE

Watchable. Hard to believe gays used to be discriminated in Britain in the 80s. I'm neither gay nor a miner yet I enjoyed this cheerful comedy about predjudice. It's also an interesting fragment of the modern history of the UK. You can learn how certain rights were gained. Also, it features lots of great music of the 80s (Bronski Beat, Culture Club, Dead or Alive).

ACADEMY AWARDS CEREMONY 2015

I set my alarm for 1:45 (Polish time) expecting a reliable Pro7 Live Stream as in previous years. It didn't work. Resorted to the Filmweb forum under the Oscars nominees list. Finally http://www.brettygood.com/ seems to be working and it's 2:58 am already.

Costumes and Make-up Awards for "The Grand Budapest Hotel" - not surprised.

Foreign Language Film - I'm on the edge of my seat already. Pawlikowski's speech is nice, especially the bit about being "in the epicentre of world attention".

Lousy jokes so far. Snacks forbidden but seat fillers presented instead.

Finally a stream where even commercials are in English (ABC).

Now a winner's advertising his local donut bakery.

As I said before, "Joanna" didn't deserve an Oscar. It didn't get one. Neither did "Our Curse" which I haven't seen and most likely won't.

The stream's breaking up a bit.

Jokes still lousy.

Several actors in the audience look as if they were wearing masks, specially John Travolta. Surgery plus make-up? They somehow all resemble Putin.

The "Birdman" mock sketch is good!

"American Sniper" for Sound Editing. Happy to hear that.

Patricia Arquette's feminist manifesto speech was astonishing. Why is she talking about it?

Visual Effects - my fave category. Deservedly "Interstellar" this year.

Cinematography unfortunately not for "Ida".

Can't wait to hear Lady Gaga perform.

Oh, so Giger died last year? I didn't even know. Marquez In Memoriam too - what did he have to do with films?

Cumberbatch's speech about film editing was interesting. Apparently editors: help find a needle in a haystack, "save actors' asses" and remind directors why they made the movie in the first place.

I've just realised how bad the Polish translation of "The Imitation Game" title was - completely neglecting the protagonist's trying to blend in with the straight crowd.

"Citizenfour" winning the Best Documentary  - "the subject of the film, Edward Snowden, couldn't be here for some reason" - finally a good joke!

Polish commentators expected references to Ukraine. So far I've heard only one possible about the celebrities' oscar goodie bag containing "an armoured ride to safety if a revolution comes". Instead it's all about a bigger number of blacks incarcerated in the US nowadays than in slavery times.

Best Score for "The Grand Budapest Hotel" whose music I didn't like.

One of "Birdman" scriptwriters thanked his family and dog - loved it!

Ah, so "The Theory Of Everything" was based on Hawking's wife's book. That explains why the film's more about her than him.

What a moving speech by The Imitation Game" scriptwriter Graham Moore who admitted he had attempted suicide at 16 because he "didn't fit in".

Best Director - Alejandro G. Inarritu for "Birdman" - who else? The only film which was different.

Very good speech by Cate Blanchet about great acting being when you're afraid to blink an eye lest you miss an important moment. Not the case of Eddie Redmayne but his performance was remarkable. Must be terribly hard to act mobility impaired.

Actress In A Leading Role - Rosamund Pike is my hope and the Oscar goes to...Julianne Moore. Haven't seen that film. Her husband's younger than her. At last a woman admitting it.

The PWC guy really looks like aged Matt Damon.

"Oscar predictions" were brilliant!

Is Sean Penn the only one looking actually his age?

"Birdman" the Best Picture? I disagree. Preferred "American Sniper".
Clearly the whole ceremony was about equality.

NIGHT FILM MARATHON - THE OSCAR NIGHT

As I had seen "Birdman", "The Imitation Game" and "Joanna" before and none of them delighted me, this time I saw 2 out of the 5 marathon movies only.

AMERICAN SNIPER

Watchable. Begins like an ordinary war movie but later throws you in the middle of it, showing how merciless it is. Chris Kyle is cheesily pure here but the long-term rivalry between him and Mustafa keeps you on the edge of your seat. I wouldn't mind it if it won an Oscar.

IDA

Recommended. Shot in modern quality black with stylish acting it has a lot of character and the forest views resemble artistic woodcuts. Storywise, well, I admit I didn't expect a nun's story to move me but it's more of a life journey here.

ZIARNO PRAWDY

Recommended. Pure logic over superstitions. A cross between "The Da Vinci Code" and the "Genesis" series. A criminal intrigue involving you deeper and deeper.

JOANNA

Walked out. About bringing up children.

WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS

Watchable. It didn't make me laugh but it interestingly ridiculed both youth culture and all sorts of vampire movies.

FIFTY SHADES OF GREY

Watchable. At the second watching the sex almost disappears, it feels so mundane, you hardly notice it. It didn't make me laugh or cry this time either. I mostly admired the views of Seattle. The whole story felt also light-hearted and pleasing to watch.

ESKIYA (THE BANDIT)

Walked out. Archaic. Gangsters' daily lives weren't exactly fascinating to me.

REDIRECTED

Watchable. "Hangover" British-gangster-style. Here guys are coming to after a party in Lithuania. You just follow one crazy adventure after another.

THE VOICES

Watchable. It's downright ludicrous. It's just one of those movies which keep you hooked from the first killing. It could be a deep psychological movie about a disturbed man hearing voices telling him to kill. Instead it's just unbelievably silly.

FIFTY SHADES OF GREY

Recommended. I haven't read the book but I know it was meant to be an adult version of "Twilight". With all this hype around the film I expected them to cock up this "Twilight" imitation, especially the scene with Christian saving Anastasia from being run over or the mind-reading thing and the like. I have to say the film proved to be incredibly good. I laughed, I cried, I was excited. While I have seen the first "Twilight" movie four times at the cinema alone, with "Grey" I guess once is enough. But I did have fun.

KEBAB I HOROSKOP

Walked out. First of all it's not funny. Additionally it's slow and absurd.

THE LITTLE DEATH

Watchable. More of a psychological drama than a comedy about sex. Will be well received by single people as it's comforting to see how dreadful it is to be in a relationship. Other than that it's not very funny. Well, once in a while you'll hear a joke, e.g. "I want to tell you something important. I love you..." "How was that important?!" but mostly it's about people with weird sex preferences trying to save their relationships.

HROSS I OSS (OF HORSES AND MEN)

Walked out. For the half an hour when I stayed I couldn't figure out what it was about.

WALK OF SHAME

Watchable. Fun to watch. Several people laughed out loud. I didn't. But I'm blonde and the story just range very true to me. Too short. I want more!

SACRO GRA

Watchable. A film for people who haven't seen much in their lives. It shows people from all walks of life but could have been shot anywhere in Europe.

SERENA

Watchable. An original but far-fetched story.

SHAUN THE SHEEP

Watchable. A film with very few words. Some funny bits, e.g. one of characters, dressed up as a surgeon in the operating room, looks at the patient's records and gets a vomiting reflex. But on the whole it's a sad story about how people treat animals.

WILD

Recommended. I was nearly half an hour late but the storyline was easy to get into. A backpacker's dream movie, showing the highs and lows of trekking. I found myself in many of Cheryl Strayed's travel experiences. Lucky me I've always had a padded rucksack which never gave me abrasions.

THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING

Watchable. It's more about a woman who devoted her life to nurturing her disabled husband only to be betrayed by him with a nurse. It still shows Hawking's strong personality and will to survive. Altogether, in spite of superb acting, it's mediocre.

LA FORCE MAJEURE

Watchable. A quiet drama about how one little unsettling incident can grow into permanent fear.  A plus is a wide array of different lifestyles portrayed, a minus its slow pace and making a mountain out of a mole hill, as I see it.

CARTE BLANCHE

Watchable. Not as good as the trailer implied, with some protracted sequences, nevertheless altogether interesting in the way the protagonist managed to hide his blindness taking advantage of  others who often found it convenient to turn a blind eye.

P'TIT QUINQUIN

Watchable. Weird. The criminal intrigue is involving, crimes peculiar, characters even more so. It's a dark comedy which made me smile several times but not laugh out loud. It's too long for sure, those 197 minutes could have been shortened. At the same time I kind of miss the police chief with his ticks and the film's bizarre philosophical humour and would like to see part two, especially that the film lacks a clear-cut ending. The storyline and grotesque form are incomparable with any other film and while many people were laughing loud, many left too.

THE NIGHT OF CINEMA

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY

Walked out. A talking raccoon, a tea creature, a man listening to old rock and a green woman together with interesting scenography won't compensate for a downright stupid plot.

JESSABELLE

Watchable. I expected better. It was more annoying than scary. The local voodoo folklore and the birth mystery kept me till the end. Other than that it's skippable.

BOGOWIE

Watchable. Really good, almost a comedy, with brilliant dialogues and situational humour. Well-paced, it showed absurds of living under communism. Religa was an admirably strong personality. It ends all too suddenly.

JOHN WICK

Recommended. Music in film matters. I knew I was going to enjoy it already after watching a trailer. The movie doesn't disappoint either. But, while I imagined that it would be a mindless shootout, it far surpassed my expectations: the jargon, the cinematography, the plot, acting and the music of course were superb. Great idea with the hotel for hitmen. It was really fun.

THE IMITATION GAME

Watchable. The storyline is predictable: we've had war espionage, Asperger's syndrome and the discrimination of women and homosexuals in cinema before. At the same time it's interesting, very well acted on all parts, with a shocking ending which has nothing to do with Enigma.

If any of you happens to understand Polish, here's historical truth about the 3 Polish men who broke the Enigma code:
http://warszawawpigulce.pl/?p=2244

BIRDMAN

Watchable. "Black Swan" it isn't. For the first half an hour I seriously considered walking out - it was chaotic, full of cliches and about theatre. Later on it started becoming better and better with an excellent ending with obvious references to Aronofsky's "Black Swan". The main character's loud thoughts were annoying throughout. Brilliant music during final credits.

HISZPANKA

Walked out. I left half an hour into the movie, already after about a dozen others had gone out. The megaproduction is a total misunderstanding and a miserable dumping of the money into the project. Theatrical acting, poor cinematography, weird music between scenes, slow pace, ridiculous plot.

BIG EYES

Watchable. Not the best but not the worst of Tim Burton's. The main minus is Amy Adams acting like a sweet idiot rather than a downtrodden wife. Christopher Waltz is more convincing. The story is quite interesting showing how admirable work performance and selling it are two different things.

LOVE, ROSIE

Recommended. Two beautiful leads, distinctly portrayed characters, delightful British accent, perfect acting, a moving story with good twists, good music. I just loved every minute of it.

MORTDECAI

Watchable. The mix of sophistication and vulgarity does work out even if I disliked the vulgar part. The best thing about the movie is its playing stereotypes, especially Mortdecai's gentlemanly manner of speech and cultural clashes, e.g. the Englishman in California: "I miss out rain and indifference."

NIGHT FILM MARATHON - THE BEST FILMS OF 2014

THE FAULT IN OUR STARS

Watchable. What was the whole fuss about? I mean, why was everyone in Poland oh-so-delighted with it? Well, it's a clever film about living, dying and our attitude to the terminally ill, coming from the obnoxious character of the teenagers' beloved writer, but the whole cancer story is overly sweet. From what I know from a friend with a cancer, the brutal reality is a far cry from everyone making their dreams come true.

THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL

Watchable. I've never been a fan of Wes Anderson, having walked out from some of his films in the past, yet this one is interesting, well, weird, with no message behind the story, but involving. Remarkably well acted, especially by Tony Revolori as Zero Mustafa.

INTERSTELLAR

Watchable. I'm not a great fan of Christopher Nolan either and "Interstellar" does feel protracted, those 169' could easily be limited to around 120. Still, it's one of his better movies. A classical space opera, partly shot in Iceland, like every other movie of the genre, with deep psychology, like most of SF these days, some sociological observations and brand new concepts of the ocean planet or the curved habitat.

The fourth film was "Fury" from which I walked out previously so I didn't even attempt to start watching it again last time, at 5:30 am in that.

No nomination for "The Hunger Games" for Make-up and Hairstyling?! I can only hope they're waiting for the next year final.
http://oscar.go.com/blogs/oscar-news/oscars-2015-nominees-announcement-and-live-stream

LE MERAVIGLIE (THE WONDERS)

Watchable. A warm film about a dysfunctional family. It's relatively pleasing to watch but I've got no idea why anyone in Cannes found it moving or whatever. Bear in mind that Sophia Coppola, who voted for it, had failed to move me with her film before. Her taste is quite peculiar.

FOTOGRAF (THE PHOTOGRAPHER)

Recommended. The movie is just incredible. Worthy of an Oscar Russian-Polish coproduction released very early in the year. Marketing-wise it stands no chance. But the crime plot together with deep psychology gives it intensity as it questions our ethics. A puzzle follows a puzzle so you need to watch and listen to every scene and sentence carefully. Clearly a Poland-based sequel is coming and I'm looking forward to it already.

I wanted to see "Paddington" but I'm not paying for any dubbing!!! No original version means I can just as well wait till it's on telly.

A beautiful compilation summing up 149 movies of 2014 by Ben Zuk from Las Vegas, NV:


http://vimeo.com/115665606

DER 7TE ZWERG (THE 7TH DWARF)

Watchable. Some references to pop culture, a heart-warming tale, a cute lonely dragon. It just could be more amusing and more tongue-in-cheek.

HOBBIT: THE BATTLE OF THE FIVE ARMIES IN 3D

Watchable. It's really 3D, not flat but just run-of-the-mill 3D so I wouldn't pay extra for that.

DUMB AND DUMBER TO

Watchable. I don't know if the first part was funnier or just fresher. This one was by no means boring but it was just mildly amusing, not laugh-out-loud funny. The daughter's IQ level is one big surprise.

I was the only viewer who stayed till the very end after the credits and got to see... the trailer of "Dumb and Dumber for" coming out next summer. Looks like Harry and Lloyd stepped on two guys' toes...

FIVE FLAVOURS 8. FILM FESTIVAL

RANG ZI DAN FEI (LET THE BULLETS FLY)

Walked out. Looks like a mock version of very old westerns.

BAHAY BATA (BABY FACTORY)

Watchable. Even though it's about a maternity ward, the viewer is spared disgusting scenes. Sanitary conditions in the poorest hospital in the Philippines are surprisingly good. Still, I learnt little more than that from this documentary.

SERBUAN MAUT 2: BERANDAL (THE RAID 2: BERANDAL)

Walked out. Another mindless gangster movie.

BING DU (ICE POISON) 

Walked out. So slow I just couldn't keep track, made me too sleepy.


FOODIES

Watchable. It's interesting to find out that there is a group of people travelling specially to eat out in the world's best restaurants (including one who doesn't go below 3 Michelin stars, mind it, one star means a place well worth eating in, 2 stars are worth a detour, 3 are worth travelling the world). But the film is a mere tour of some 20 restaurants and silly chit-chat between the foodies and the famed chefs.


ENEMEF -THE NIGHT OF THE HUNGER GAMES

THE HUNGER GAMES
THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE
THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY - PART 1

Recommended. I'm just amazed at how many times I can watch it without getting bored. The cinematography, costumes and make-up, which I absolutely loved in the first two films, are subdued due to the more serious tone of the almost-ending. Still, the twists of action well make up for the loss in colour and it's the most gender-equal film ever. I just love all three parts and I'm definitely going to the next year four-film marathon of the whole series.


HANNAH ARENDT

Watchable. It feels weird to watch a lecturer smoking during classes and my overall impression of the film is that I'm happy to live in more enlightened times when I can be free of smoke in most places. Other than that, while her observations were groundbreaking and confirmed by Milgram's experiment (both in 1961), she was a philosopher which, in my eyes, makes her boring by definition. It was more interesting to hear others discussing her than listen to her own lecture.

DIE BELIEBTEN SCHWESTERN (BELOVED SISTERS)

Watchable. Psychologically implausible. Only a man, here Dominik Graf, could come up with a concept of sisters loving each other so much that they even share a man. Period details were fascinating though, including the chauvinism.

3 COEURS

Watchable. Another story of a love triangle involving sisters. More realistic, apart from both women being in love with a man at least 10 years older, showing that how our lives go depends on pure chance and coincidence. Painfully slow.

MASTER OF THE UNIVERSE

Watchable. A talking head which is not the most involving form. He predicts the crisis will spread to France next and highlights cases indicating that no single banker can be blamed because the whole system is faulty. It reminds me of Andre Brink's view of apartheid where investigating one crime led to the awareness that the whole system is constructed in a way precluding individuals from making the right choice. A bizarre fact about investment bankers is that you score points for "nights" - working a night or two nights in the office is essential (in Germany at least) to get promoted.

SAINT LAURENT

Watchable. Very similar to the previous film about the designer, with some scenes referring to the earlier or later period of his life. Altogether he had a boring life: drugs and sex orgies all the time. The view of his house full of artworks and his collections compensates for the dullish plot to some extent.

SAMBA

Watchable. I like Omar Sy, especially in comedies and this is one, even if mildly amusing ("I have problems sleeping. Especially at night.") The story is involving and the issues of illegal immigrants are important but it fails to truly move your heart and is not as hilarious as "The Intouchables".

KREUZWEG
 
Walked out. Religious, a multi-children family, static. Nothing to watch.

MACONDO

Watchable. The cultural differences between eastern and western family structure should be the pivot of this film while the tiny bits of the clash of cultures presented were nothing new to me which makes it more of a story of a naughty kid.

EL NINO

Recommended. Fast action, good suspense, hot actors, excellent music, especially the Arabic-style bit sung in Spanish. The motorboat looks just like the one of the smugglers I saw with my own eyes when in Gibraltar.

BLIND DATES

Watchable. The povertly, greyness, lifestyle and human relations of contemporary Georgia resemble those of communist Poland. Culture-wise it's weird to see all single women wear extremely short dresses and being treated with decency. The story isn't fascinating, the cultural part just enough.

SEN O WARSZAWIE

Watchable. I'm not a great fan of his music but the film makes you appreciate his talent. The pace is not fast but tells all his life story including his love affair and troubles with communist authorities. Most off all the film makes you grateful for living in market economy.

NIGHT FILM MARATHON - THE NIGHT OF THE HOBBIT

AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY
THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG
THE BATTLE OF THE FIVE ARMIES

Watchable. I had seen the first two installments before, obviously, so only the third part was new to me. It's a clear-cut series which is actually best seen all at one go. They are all in dark brownish tones due to co-operation with Guillermo del Toro who is not my style. Secondary to LOTR, it's similarly long and grandiose, while "Hobbit" was actually a book I first read in childhood so I'd prefer a lighter tone. The third part is the worst in the trilogy. Luckily the battle at least looks different than in LOTR. Still, I have some favourite scenes in all 3: the hedgehog and rabbits in the first one, the dragon in the second, the battle scenes in wintry scenery in the third. Plus the views of the Shire and its inhabitants.

NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM: SECRET OF THE TOMB

Watchable. It's fun, with some witty bits (e.g. Girl: "So I'll see you on Saturday", Boy's Father: "No way!", Boy: "Way!" - it's my translation from Polish as the movie was dubbed) but a number of silly scenes (like all with the female guard) as well. The British Museum in the film becomes a cross of the namesake and of the Natural History Museum. Great CGIs.

I've got two open tickets to use up by the end of the year in a mainstream cinema. I was horrified when I went through the repertoire - most of the films which I haven't seen yet are about children! Eventually I selected two films which I'm going to see in far away cinemas: "Dumb and Dumber To" and "Der 7bte Zwerg" so these reviews are coming next.

BLACK BEAR FILMFEST

COFFEE, CAKE & SHORTS

NIEBIESKI POKOJ (BLUE ROOM)

Watchable. Weird animation. Some intriguing images but I couldn't grasp what it was about.

FRAGMENTY (FRAGMENTS)

Watchable. No real plot. Very well acted scenes of the world where only money matters and other values are secondary.

DOM OPIEKI

Watchable. It's funny to watch an elderly lady lighting her way with a figure of a saint. The horror of the situation is not clear. Without the synopsis in the festival guide I wouldn't know why she's running.

SIERPIEN

Watchable. Children can be sophisticatedly cruel. But it's too slow-paced to outrage.

WILQ NEGOCJATOR (WILQ NEGOTIATOR)

Recommended. Wickedly twisted. Specific humour and animation, the kind of "Jez Jerzy".

14TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL WATCH DOCS

BROTHER'S KEEPER

Watchable. Very slow and American way full of talking heads. What's interesting is the clash of city and village lifestyles and perceptions.

DZIECI DZWONIA (CHILDREN CALLING)

Watchable. Most calls are pranks so while I was curious to hear why children need psychological support on the phone, not much was serious.

WEB JUNKIE

Watchable. The cinema was full of addicts. A good film showing how to treat such an addiction. I guess I'd like it better if it had more science, not just scenes from the boot camp.

The most chilling was a comment from the audience. Apparently nowadays parents give a computer even to a 2-year-old in a cot so that the child plays with it and parents have the kid off for a couple of hours. It seems to be a norm even in Poland.

GRINGO TRAILS

Watchable. A behind-the-scenes look at tourism and its impact on communities. Shows different issues from various perspectives. Lacks a bite.

THE ENGINEER

Watchable. A bit of CSI, a bit of social psychology. The film however doesn't say much about how gans work in El Salvador. In the 1.5 hour long Q&A the Guatemalan director explained what was missing in the film. I'm looking forward to his upcoming exploration of the roots of violence in the region (El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras).

CROP

Watchable. It's an account of how a president wished to be shown in the media. Some tricks are revealed, still it's about one politician only.

NATIONAL DIPLOMA

Watchable. Truth about getting the school ending certificate in black Africa (the Congo) - corruption, magic etc. Nothing new for an africanist, yet highlighting vital cultural differences. A reason why their qualifications shouldn't be accepted as equal to ours.

A QUIET INQUISITION

Watchable. The film proves that several abortions are needed in order to save women's lives. A bit too much talking about the doctors' dilemmas. The election-driven law implementation is menacing. It was powerful but could be more if presented more dramatically, without talking about each day of a victim's dying.

WERKA

Watchable. It's uplifting to see how a person can change, yet doesn't fully explain the motives. Why is it children that have become the woman's vocation?

SOLIDARNOSC WEDLUG KOBIET (SOLIDARITY ACCORDING TO WOMEN)

Recommended. Michael Moore-style insight into the change of the society - how gender inequality was perceived as normal and how women were manipulated out of power by their male co-unionists.

WHITEY: UNITED STATES OF AMERICA V. JAMES J. BULGER

Watchable but I considered walking out. Scary how corrupted FBI in Boston was. Unfortunately the reason why Bulger couln't be captured for 3 decades gets revealed too soon so the film lacks suspense. It's also full of talkative talking heads so you fall asleep, wake up and they're still talking about the same. Each character has a full chance of expressing him/herself even it's going to bore you to death.

BAI RI YAN HUO (BLACK COAL, THIN ICE)

Watchable. Methodically slowly revealing secrets, well made, yet somehow deprived of emotions. Painstakingly portraited Chinese lifestyle - smoking, alcohol, sexual harassment are the norm. Not a place I'd like to live in.

Before the film I saw a trailer of the latest "Hunger Games" installment. I had thought it would be the last. Yet "Mockingjay, Part 1" implies the makers have followed the "Twilight" and "Harry Potter" suit to cash in twice on one book. It worked with the other two enterprises though so so be it. I'm looking forward to the film anyway.

SVECENIKOVA DJECA (THE PRIEST'S CHILDREN)

Watchable. Entertaining but not very funny. OK, the scene of following the teacher and the political commentary about the two lovers were amusing but the whole thing is a moral tale about the freedom to have or not to have children. Lovely views of a Croatian seaside town.

GUI RI ZI (SHADOW DAYS) - part of FIVE FLAVOURS 8. FILM FESTIVAL

Recommended. A harrowing story about how oppressive to women China is. The hardest-hitting are forced abortions but men's attitude to women is also scaringly chauvinistic.

ZAKLETE REWIRY (1975)

Recommended. Plausibly acted, with a story so involving that the depth of undertones won't overwhelm you. Nowadays it could additionally be read as a metaphor of the corporate world.

JESUS LIEBT MICH (JESUS LOVES ME)

Watchable. A warm movie about Jezus returning on Earth. With beautiful views of a lake and underwater takes. Unfortunately it's too crazy, as if the makers couldn't decide which genre it should be in.

QU'EST-CE QU'ON A FAIT AU BON DIEU (SERIAL (BAD) WEDDINGS)

Watchable. Funny - good lines e.g. "Regardez, qui est venu! La famille Benetton!" ("Look who's come! The Benetton family!) and situation humour e.g. a guy flicking an e-cigarette. A warm family movie. Still, I rarely laughed out loud.

PAULETTE

Watchable. Gently amusing, e.g. the racist granny serving tea and buiscits to the white cop only, even if not really laugh-out-loud funny. Quite uplifting though and something you can watch with your family.

WATCHERS OF THE SKY - part of WARSAW JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL 2014

Recommended. The film shows that genocide can take place anywhere in the world and therefore should be prevented at all costs yet how hard it is to make politicians commit to the cause. It also tells a yarn about Tycho - an astronomer who watched the sky night in night for 25 years with no immediate use for the knowledge but saying that his job would one day save 25 years of work of someone who would know what to do with it. Later his tables where used for the man's first landing on the moon.

SICK FUCK PEOPLE - part of HUMAN DOC FESTIVAL 2014

Walked out. Everyday lives of lowlifes are hardly interesting.

KICK

Watchable. After months of waiting for the release I got an invitation to the first night screening. What a treat! I had lots of fun before, after but also during the movie. Still, I've seen better Bollywood. The humour in "Kick" is entertaining but doesn't make you laugh. The main character is silly rather than manly. I don't understand why there's a red double-decker bus saying "King's Cross" in Warsaw. Lots of action gives the movie a good pace though. And the music rocks!

SINISTER (2012) - PART OF A HALLOWEEN MARATHON

Walked out. A jumble of run-down horror motifs and dumb police.

DZIEN DOBRY, KOCHAM CIE!

Recommended. Really light and funny. Lots of situation humour. With an endearing character similar to the flatmate from "Notting Hill". No deep concerns. Just a perfect, relaxing night out.

A NAGY FUZET (THE NOTEBOOK)

Watchable. An Oscar contender?! All characters are so masochistic and sadistic at the same time that only morbid curiosity keeps you glued to the screen. Deep it's not.

JIMMY'S HALL

Watchable. Seemingly a casual story of a local folk club, it's a much more involving story about how the clergy was able to ruin people's lives - in Ireland a hundred years ago, or is it?

As I have a massive backlog in blogging, I'm (for the first time and exceptionally) posting a draft covering 51 movies I saw (or walked out from) in the last two months. All the titles are there, some reviews are missing yet.

MAGIC IN THE MOONLIGHT

Watchable. I liked 3 of numerous jokes: "I must say you're a lovely little scoundrel", "I don't understand it: I put the whole engine apart, I put it back in and I still have these two little pieces." and  the proposal (you just have to hear it with your own ears). Other than that it's typical Woody Allen: clever, ironic and sceptical - feels repetitive after so many of his movies.

THE GIVER

Watchable. A cross between "The Island", "Divergent" and "The Brave New World". Unfortunately not too clever, e.g. the protagonist escapes in one set of clothes and then passes through various climate zones each in a different outfit. But, as usual in science fiction, it's fun to watch the created world.

DARK STAR

Walked out. Cameron's first film is an attempt at slapstick in the outer space. And the props look really fake.

PI

Watchable. Even though not that revelatory after several years, Clint Mansell's music and the well-structured plot maintain a rhythm that stays with you.

HOTEL

Recommended. It's not easy to talk about traumatic issues and this film does it amazingly well. It's about coping with situations that overwhelm us.

COMPUTER CHESS

Walked out. It's full of geeks having their nerdy conversations.

KOMISARZ PUK I BROJLERY NIEUPRZEJMOSCI

Walked out. It's too stupid and absurd to be funny.

A MOST WANTED MAN

Recommended. Slowly and gently do you get entangled in a spy plot. Two terror suspects, two security agencies. Who's there to trust? A subtle rendition. A curiosity - Herbert Groenemeyer has a minor role.

OMAR

Recommended. Another excellent spy movie. A different country, another muslim enemy. The story's full of twists and turns. You never know who to trust.

MISSION SPUTNIK

Watchable. Silly, for children but quite heart-warming.

SERCE LWA

Watchable. Too PC. But the characters are lively and the male lead hot.


SIN CITY A DAME TO KILL FOR

Recommended. Visually stunning, the few 3D effects are superb. Two mesmerising stories.

BLUE RUIN

Walked out. Slow, with few words but with an early kill instead. I didn't wait for the obligatory final slaughter.

LES VACANCES DU PETIT NICOLAS

Recommended. Laugh-out-loud funny, very well acted, for all ages, with serious subtones made hilarious.

MALE STLUCZKI

Walked out. People boring, mundane and lacking sense in interiors I wouldn't like to visit acting in a way which would put me off such weirdos in real life too.

KAZE TACHINU (THE WIND RISES)

Recommended. An involving story of love, duty, career where animation doesn't distract you from the story.

NOAH

Watchable. The transformer-like fallen angels are off-putting and the story too children-oriented. But it's still Aronofsky with his ability to make you emotional. It's also a proof he's capable of making a blockbuster as much as he is of more intimate films.

WISH I WAS HERE

Walked out. It's about Jews, dying of cancer, children's schooling and having a weirdo in the family. If none of these issues concern you, neither will the film.

WHAT IF

Walked out. Friends, a couple and a would-be couple talking about physiology all the time.


L'ENLEVEMENT DE MICHEL HOUELLEBECQ (THE KIDNAPPING OF MICHEL HOUELLEBECQ)

Walked out. If you ever kidnap anyone, give them a book to read. Otherwise they're going to bore you with philosophical discussions.

JE FAIS LE MORT

Watchable. Moderately funny, partly predictable, partly surprising.

MAGYAR RAPSZODIA

Walked out. No plot. Pure chauvinism. Fully dressed soldiers and a naked woman. Disgusting.

THE MAZE RUNNER

Recommended. A story like no other, full of mystery and puzzles, with an intriguing ending.

BEFORE I GO TO SLEEP

Watchable. Psychologically absurd but with good suspense.

MAGIC IN THE MOONLIGHT

Watchable. "You only live once. Or two or three times, depending on your supply of ectoplasm.", "I don't understand it: I put the whole engine apart, I put it back in and I still have these two little pieces." and the proposal were most funny for me this time. I enjoyed it about the same as the first time.

SOUS  LES JUPES DES FILLES (FRENCH WOMEN)

Watchable. "I'm not a nanny!" "You're their father!"

A HARD DAY'S NIGHT

Watchable. Fun on the whole but the jokes themselves weren't very amusing.

WELCOME TO NEW YORK

Watchable. It's not as much a crime case as it is a study of sex addiction. Quite realistic which is both good and bad for the movie. Becomes too philosophical towards the end. Starts with sex.

STAR WARS REBELS

Watchable. Very good animation. The story's fun too. It just took me too long to work out who was who and doing what.

RELATOS SALVAJES (WILD TALES)

Watchable. Six stories about people driven round the bend and losing it. Some are so ridiculous that they make you laugh, some are tongue-in-cheek (my fave is the explosion engineer's). Great acting throughout. Produced but not scripted or directed by Almodovar.

GEOGRAF GLOBUS PROPIL (THE GEOGRAPHER DRANK HIS GLOBE AWAY)

Walked out. It's about people wasting their lives, drinking, unruly teenagers at school, dysfunctional relationships.

GERONTOPHILIA

Watchable. Very tasteful taken the normally-disgusting subject, with a hot male lead (the young one, I mean), great music.

I only hope the film is not going to make old pricks pester young women even more than they do already.

LA STRADA

Recommended. Once upon a time a long time ago Italy was poor, people sexist without even knowing it, life simpler and final credits limited to the word "Il fine".

DIE VAMPIRSCHWESTERN (VAMPIER SISTERS)

Watchable. An interesting family movie about a mixed vampire-human family. Inspired by "Twilight" heavily and "Harry Potter" a little bit (mail comes in the form of a bat). Low-end humour and lousy CGIs.

NIGHT FILM MARATHON -THE NIGHT OF FINCHER

I skipped "The Social Network" and "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" as I had found them just watchable before and the remaining two films were long enough:

GONE GIRL

Watchable. The start is boringly slow and the ending over the top, especially the bloody part. But the portrayal of a psychopath and the complex detective story full of twists and turns are superb. Somebody taking care of a cat surely is a good person. Or is he?

THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO

Recommended again. "You're going to deal with thieves, misers, bullies - my family." or "I'm reading your notes." "They're encrypted." "Please." and "May I kill him?"


ZORAN, IL MIO NIPOTE SCEMO (ZORAN, MY NEPHEW THE IDIOT)

"E quante volte ti ho aiutato io?" "Mai."

MOMMY

Watchable. The story of a depraved mother who gets her unruly teenage son sectioned is involving action-wise, in spite of the running time of 140 minutes, but doesn't really evoke emotions.

FILTH

Watchable. "Trainspotting" it is not. Well, drugs are still there, good actors too (James McAvoy this time) but there's too much about crime-ridden police and about gays and the evil-to-the-core protagonist is attractive but the subject feels so run-of-the-mill years on.

THE DROP

Walked out. Left the cinema before my IQ lowered. Each and every character in the film is a moron - just listen to their dialogues. It's also protracted and deprived of emotions.

THE JUDGE

Recommended. Was it released in autumn on purpose? Because Robert Downey Jr. as a full-time cynic this time seems to be fighting for an Oscar. A gripping courtroom drama intertwined with a moving family story.


ADWOKAT W ROLI GLOWNEJ (ADVOCATE IN THE LEADING ROLE)

I skipped Kieslowski's "The short story of killing" as I'd seen it before and it's not the type of film I'd fancy watching again so I saw the remaining five:

REVERSAL OF FORTUNE (1991)

Watchable. An involving story slightly marred by the pointless narration of the comatose wife.

THE LINCOLN LAWYER (2011)

Recommended.

12 ANGRY MEN

Recommended.

LINCZ

Watchable.

ANATOMY OF A MURDER

Watchable.


VI AR BAST! (WE ARE THE BEST!)

Watchable.

10,000 DAYS ON EARTH

Walked out. An ugly, washed-out, obscure musician drones on about his life. Mine is luckily far more interesting.

FURY

Walked out. Mindless bullies in war.

THE GUEST

Recommended. Fun. What "Scream" did with the horror/slasher, this movie does with thriller/slashers. It has both suspense and intelligent humour (look how he defends the school boy in the principal's office) and the leading Dan Stevens is such hot. The film is so suggestive that spillt popcorn looked to me like bullet shells.

10.000 KM

Walked out. Go and find a relationship of your own - it will be more interesting than the one on the cinema screen + via Skype.

ENEMY

Watchable. It's not very comprehensible. From the beginning till the lookalikes' first contact it was hard to understand what was going on. As the story develops, it gets better and better. Architecture makes impression. I haven't read the book by Jose Saramago but it's said that the movie is flat in comparison to the book which makes for a great book recommendation.

LUCY

Watchable. Standard action and fiction fare with a hot kickass lady in a skimp dress. Based on the false premises that we use only 10% of our cerebral capacity, scientifically it's rubbish and nonsense. Lots of inconsistencies within the plot. The makers of the movie must have used less than the usual 100% capacity of their brains indeed.

VIOLETTE

Walked out. Slow, boring, about dysfunctional relationships and lesbians - ugly ones.

BANK LADY

Watchable. Involving and psychologically credible, with good suspense but it lacked something - I think the acting was too mundane, with little showmanship.

MISS KICKI

Watchable. I was curious of Taiwan and the ambiguous relationship of the two boys. The character of the mother didn't keep me glued to the screen. The pace of the film was too slow for me as well.

LE GRAND BLEU (THE BIG BLUE) - DIRECTOR'S CUT

Recommended. Probably the same version I saw in childhood as the ending and music score were changed for the US market only. A cult movie whose love of depths brought on a whole generation of divers. The film is perfect in all ways.

SABOTAGE

Watchable. Beautiful views of a bridge with forested isles in the background. Elderly Arnold Schwarzenegger and fat Sam Worthington. Standard action plot, low-end humour.

BOBRY

Watchable. Wooden acting. Good script. Crime in the afterlife is the best description. It's also the best idea in the plot. Humour exists but, due to poor acting, is not as prominent as it should. My fave bits were: "Myślelismy, ze wino mu nie wszedło" ("We thought the wine didn't went down with him"), "Gwiazdy tańczą po lodzie" (a pun meaning either: "Celebrity Dancing On Ice" or "Celebrity Dancing After A Blow Job"), "Szalet damsko-męski U Damiana" ("Male-female Toilet At Damian's") and on a store: "Artykuły monopolowe, budowlane, AGD i inne" ("Off-licence, building, household and other products"), the hanging and the final scene.

THE EVIL DEAD (1981)

Watchable if you want to compare the versions. Trashy though a bit less trashy than the new one. A cross between "The Exorcist" and "Psycho" - demons run with daggers.

Screening open-air leads to funny effects, e.g. the protagonists hear a noise from the cellar. One of them dismisses it as "It must be some animal.". They go into the cellar, search it in silence for a few minutes and then... a dog in the audience barks.

TWENTY FEET FROM STARDOM

Recommended. Beautiful, beautiful voices, curiosities (did you know that the backup singers who had worked, among others, with Whitney Houston, made flying animals voices for "Avatar"?) and touching stories about how some people become stars and others, though even more talented, never make it. A well deserved Oscar.

CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER

Watchable. Very good 3D, an involving story with a twisted ending. Only the You-know-who inspired noseless, here additionally red, face of the villain is too tacky.

IL ROSSO E IL BLU

Watchable. An ordinary school drama with a funny character of an extravagant elderly teacher. Watch him throwing books out the window ("That old crazy prick again!").

SONG FROM THE FOREST

Watchable. Being an africanist I was curious to see how an American got into the Balaka culture. I liked the typically African ethnic music but it's a typically American documentary full of talking heads which leaves the topic of intercultural relations underexplored.

AMBASSADA

Recommended. It has everything I love in science fiction the most: time travel creating an ingenious alternative reality. It's also funny and very uplifting for the Polish folk ("Don't tell me we border China!"). All the fun lasted for me till after the movie. A handful of us stayed till the end of the credits which was close to midnight and finally someone remarked: "We'd better leave. We don't know what was here before the war."

BEGIN AGAIN

Watchable. Interesting relationships of all dimensions but the music is lousy and it's about musicians.

KERTU

Watchable. It's weird and disturbing which can be either a plus or a minus but the story feels forced either way.

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY - THE 17-MINUTE IMAX TRAILER

Watchable. Silly storyline. Interesting characters, e.g. an animal-looking guy who doesn't consider himself an animal, a green woman otherwise resembling Angelina Jolie, a LOTR-inspired walking tree.

DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES

Watchable. Interesting, moving but with too much fighting (a proper war).

SUPERCONDRIAQUE

Watchable. While not wholly hilarious, I did laugh out loud a number of times, e.g. seeing him with a befriended rat on his shoulder. It also conceals a second story after a twist of action which doesn't get revealed in the trailer.

BLOOD TIES

Walked out. Life after leaving prison appears to be boring. Better to stay in. Also, aging Clive Owen having an affair with young and beautiful Mila Kunis?! Hardly plausible.

UNDERBAR OCH ALSKAD AV ALLA (WONDERFUL AND LOVED BY ALL)

Walked out. The comedy is not funny and it's about theatre which isn't my cup of tea anyway.

THE PURGE: ANARCHY

Watchable. Gripping social fiction. But in real life if one night a year you could commit any crime you liked, would there be so many murders? I believe robberies and sexual offences to be more likely.

NIGHT FILM MARATHON: THE STEP UP NIGHT

STEP UP 2: THE STREETS

STEP UP 3D

Watchable. Fun to watch, great dancing, silly storylines, lots of hip-hop.

STEP UP REVOLUTION 3D

Recommended. It just blew me away. Amazing plot, music including my fave techno, mind-blowing choreography.

STEP UP: ALL IN 3D

Recommended. Music and choreography like above. Lots of good fun. Alexa's attire drawing on "Hunger Games" costumes.

EL MARIACHI (1992)

Watchable. A perfectly acted, apparently by amateurs, movie with lots of style. A bit too slow at times.

THE NUT JOB

Watchable. It's boringly full of chases and explosions with infrequent funny bits, "Gangnam Style" makes for a good soundtrack to one scene. Other than that the film is entirely skippable. I wonder if Polish children undestand that one grey animal is a rat and the other a squirrel.

EDGE OF TOMORROW

Recommended. Excellent, hard-core hardware SF. And the time manipulation is brilliant. Fantastic visual and sound effects. Commonly compared to "Groundhog Day" it's more of a computer game inspiration rather - Live. Die. Repeat.

HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON 2

Watchable. The film shows how reaction times vary between generations. For me the first half an hour is at the gamers' speed. Then it slows down a little bit and you can appreciate the occasional humour, e.g. the threat: "The boat is flammable, we're in the ocean. How's your swimming?" "Very poor." The middle part is an "Avatar" rip-off and towards the end it heavily draws on "LOTR". The best thing though is that it's full of love for animals. Kids should see it for educational purposes.

GRACE OF MONACO

Watchable. An inspiring story told in a cheesy and dull way.

CHENNAI EXPRESS

Watchable. A comedy which is funny but silly.

GOLIYON KI RAASLEELA RAM-LEELA

Watchable. First I went through the ludicrous film to see Priyanka Chopra and then I continued to see the non-standard ending.

HUNDRAARINGEN SOM KLEV UT GENOM FONSTRET OCH FORSVANN (THE 100-YEAR-OLD MAN WHO CLIMBED OUT THE WINDOW AND DISAPPEARED)

Watchable. Slow and painfully boring with a handful of funny scenes in between. I liked the one with a hammer on a construction site best. But most of the story is like Forrest Gump in a dark comedy way.

JASKOLKA

Walked out. Why would anyone sit watching some degenerate weirdoes?

NIGHT FILM MARATHON: THE X-MEN NIGHT

X-MEN 2
X-MEN: FIRST CLASS
THE WOLVERINE (2013)
X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST

Watchable. Seen for the umpteenth time all earlier parts were still fun you didn't want to sleep through even if a little tacky. The new Bryan Singer film brings nothing you haven't seen in the cinema before, yet delightfully mocks some good oldies - the spoofs of "Terminator" and "Inception" are just disarming.

The trailer at the end of the latest instalment shows a cult in ancient Egypt. I wonder what that is going to be...

FADING GIGOLO

Watchable. Fading Woody Allen lacks energy but some lines were funny, e.g. "Have you got any children?" "Six. I wanted to have more but I took a while to get pregnant."

BELLE ET SEBASTIEN

Recommended. A beautiful fairy-tale-like story about the love of nature, animals and fellow humans.

LA VENUS A LA FOURRURE

Recommended. Two actors completely steal the show. You become engulfed in the ambiguities of their relation.

YVES SAINT LAURENT

Watchable. An interesting personality. Sadly, the film covers only a short excerpt of his life skipping  both his growing up and upbringing and his death, we only see him young and successful. The French, as usual, focus on sex life.

POSTMAN PAT: THE MOVIE - YOU KNOW YOU'RE THE ONE

Recommended. An endearing tale of a nice neighbourly chap and a crazed corporate psycho with lots of hints at pop culture. The cat is cute.

THE NIGHT OF CINEMA

WALESA. CZLOWIEK Z NADZIEI (WALESA. MAN OF HOPE)

Recommended. Accurately and convincingly recreated communist-time reality togehter with suspense worthy of a crime story. Walesa is portrayed as a people's man, fearless, active, with lots of common man's common sense.

A CLOCKWORK ORANGE

Recommended. A masterpiece in a league of its own. The storyline is unique, the acting superb. The costumes play with the bowler hat gentlemanly stereotype. And movie psychos rarely get as good as Alex.

The comparison of Poland and the UK of the 70s in the above movies leads to two conclusions: In those dark ages smoking was ubiquitous Europe-wise. The differences in the working class standard of living were drastic.

LAST VEGAS

Watchable. Not really funny but truly warm and light-hearted, showing there is life on retirement. All grumpy old people should see it.


WARSZAWA 1935

Watchable. Most of the film is too dark for already-darkening 3D glasses. Otherwise it's an interesting recreation of my home city at times when it was different beyond recognition.

GODZILLA

Recommended. Original Gojira movies climate with state-of-art CGIs. A nice surprise was that it actually has a plot.  Some scenes are reminiscent of famous disasters like the nuclear leak in Fukushima or the tsunami of a few years ago. There are also symbolic scenes like the view of a Chinatown gate with dragons in the foreground while the monsters fight in the background and at least one iconic scene which you'll have to see for yourself.

NIGHT FILM MARATHON - PSYCHONIGHT

TRANSCENDENCE

Watchable. The film is unequal. The beginning and ending are boring - protracted and silly. The middle part however, from the moment he takes over the world until he loses the power, is great - proper science-fiction with some ingenious ideas.

On a different note, every woman dreams of a man who'll understand her. This one had all her dreams made true. And she was upset.

BLACK SWAN

Recommended. Still great. Ambiguous and full of suspense. Great acting.

INCEPTION

Watchable. Felt silly re-seen after years. Still, the visuals are impressive and the sound effects unforgettable.

THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT

Recommended. Full of suspense and such good twists of action that I had forgotten some and enjoyed them again. A unique story.

OVER GADEN UNDER VANDET (ABOVE THE STREET AND BELOW THE WATER)

Watchable. Perfect acing, involving script, good directing all in a far-fetched story about relationships.

BABAM VE OGLUM (MY FATHER AND MY SON)

Recommended. Turkish Almodovar.

THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2

Watchable. Amazing are the CGIs, the soundtrack is very good too, the acting is lousy and the dialogues just pathetic.

The trailer at the end (in the middle of credits) shows Mystique from "X-Men". Strange but promising. I'm a great "X-Men" fan.

JEWISH MOTIFS FILM FESTIVAL

A PLACE IN HEAVEN

Watchable. You can learn what forms the basis of Jewish patriarchy but the film itself is so protracted you're just aching to leave. The cast includes Michael Alonso but he only appears in a cameo as a wounded soldier who dies quickly.

KORCZAK

Recommended. A truly great film about a great man.

JEWISH MOTIFS FILM FESTIVAL

OUT IN THE DARK

Recommended. Having seen pictures of the lead actors, especially Michael Alonso, I went to see a hot gay flick. It was much more than that. Both leads are hot indeed but it's a subtle love story, a political drama and a thriller all in one. Unforgettable.

NIGHT FILM MARATHON - HIGH-OCTANE CINEMA

BRICK MANSIONS

Watchable. "Banlieue 13" ("District 13") it isn't. The tongue-in-cheek money laundering scene, numerous puns and some good action scenes are a plus. Unfortunately the two lead actors and slow English lines pale in comparison to energetic acting and machine gun speed French conversations of the original.

RUSH

Watchable. Casting an Australian actor speaking American English to pretend to be British was a big mistake. Still, it's fun for linguists as, apart from a mixture of English varieties, you get German and Italian. Some scenes are funny, e.g. hitching a ride after a car breakdown. Hans Zimmer's music is marvellous, including the credits score. The psychology of characters and their rivalry appears genuine. Last but not least that's how history of sport is made.

LONE SURVIVOR

Watchable. On the one hand it's yet another war movie and yet another Seals appraisal. On the other a chance to see a real war and real Afghanistan. Demystifies the local population.

JACK STRONG

Recommended. Another linguistic attraction. Plus perfectly drawn characters and the Cold War atmosphere. Excellent suspense. Convincing acting. And the real life mystery of Kuklinski's sons deaths.

NIGHT FILM MARATHON - THE NIGHT OF ADAPTATIONS

DIVERGENT
VAMPIRE ACADEMY
ENDER'S GAME

Watchable. All of them (the first two seen for the first time, the last one for the second) this time were quite fun but standard fare, nothing you wouldn't have seen before. And all of them talk about teenagers/school and teach you that practise of martial arts makes perfect.

THE MORTAL INSTRUMENTS: CITY OF BONES 

Walked out. I had found it watchable the first time but it seemed too silly to see it again.

THE OSCARS 2014 ACADEMY AWARD CEREMONY

"The Dallas Buyers Club" hasn't been shown in Poland yet. Neither has "The Great Beauty".

I wanted "Star Trek: Into Darkness" to win the Visual Effects but it all seems to go to "Gravity" this year. At least the Sound Mixing and Sound Editing deservedly. Cinematography less so. Not sure about Film Editing. Oh, no! Even Directing?! I walked out from the movie! Remember!

Kenyan Lupita Nyong'o the Best Supporting Actress - it would be unjust to give the award to anyone else.

Not only is this year's show full of usual inside jokes but also a pizza delivery: "Tip him whatever you feel is right. No pressure of a billion people watching."

Paul Walker dead?! How come? Oh dear, how eponymous when a star of "The Fast And The Furious" dies in a car crash!

Where are Oscars for "The Wolf Of Wall Street"?! I'm still waiting!!! Oh no, not even for Leonardo... or the movie... The Most Overlooked Film Of The Year Award??

NIGHT FILM MARATHON - THE OSCARS NIGHT

12 YEARS A SLAVE

Watchable. A very good film which, however, doesn't rise above a regular slave film. It does its best to show varying points of view and attitudes of both slaves and their owners, just like the original book by Solomon Northup did, but on the whole it's a brutal account of atrocities everyone associates with slavery already. Brad Pitt doesn't sound even remotely Canadian in his cameo unfortunately. It's worth noticing, that although the film is predominantly black, including the director, it comes out shortly after revelations about Cleveland abductions and several cases involving enslaving white women worldwide.

THE WOLF OF WALL STREET

Recommended. Whatever I said about the film previously, still holds true after the second watching. I loved every minute of it from the beginning to the end. It deserves Oscars in all the five categories it has been nominated for, especially for Leonardo di Caprio as the lead actor.

PHILOMENA

Recommended. A moving story of the evil brought about by those who believed their moral standards applied to everyone. The third true story nominated this year. And rightly so.

GRAVITY 3D

Walked out. Couldn't stand that bore again. While the music and sound categories deserve Academy Awards, it's too little to sit through something so deprived of emotions.

THE LUNCHBOX

Watchable. A serene film about... life. Just life. Nothing revelatory about it but pleasing to watch, makes for a nice, quiet evening out.

THE HOBBIT: THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG IN 3D AT IMAX

Watchable. I hate Guillermo del Toro - his grim cinematography style ruins every film. As for Peter Jackson, he exaggerated with extending the relatively short novel into 3 long films. While I enjoyed the added characters and scenes on their own, they protracted the film beyond the limits of my patience. This part is also less funny or cheerful than the first one but the dragon is impeccable, you can see its every scale.

NEW YEAR'S EVE FILM MARATHON 2013

THE WOLF OF WALL STREET

Recommended. American dream as seen by a psychopath. The scene of between the phone call from the casino up to the arrest in its own right should earn Leonardo di Caprio an Oscar. True to the book by John Belfort which in turn is quite honest, according to the investigator, especially the most unbelievable bits check out, it's more than just a lively story of life and crimes of the Wolf of Wall Street. Most importantly it shows, known to me from London, drug-fuelled traders at work and play. No wonder such people have ruined the world's economy. Another tasty bit is the impersonification of his second wife (Nadine - Naomi in the film) - looking just like the original but with bigger curves.

You have to admit money helps in preserving good looks - JB being 51 looks much better than many guys around my age (a recent date from the internet just made me cringe and the guy was 44). And that's after a good few years of substance abuse.

CASSE-TETE CHINOIS

Watchable. Audrey Tautou speaking Chinese is a gem. I was curious of the lead character's issues with settling in New York but I'm not sure for what other reason one might watch it.

ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE

Walked out. Vampires for retired people.

NIGHT FILM MARATHON: THE NIGHT OF THRILLERS

OLDBOY (2013)

Watchable. The memorable teeth pulling scene is gone in the American version which makes the film just a little bit less violent. Or maybe it's just me who's become desentisized as the younger part of the audience seemed as shocked and disturbed as I was watching the Korean original 10 years ago. On the whole it is really good, even if not groundbreaking for me, in fact nowadays some brawls seemed like too long and just too much.

PRISONERS

Recommended. A perfect thriller.

STOKER

Watchable. Too fantastical for a thriller but with a gripping plot anyway.

SIDE EFFECTS

Recommended. An excellent, full of twists of action, story of deception.

WATCH DOCS 2013

FIRE IN THE BLOOD

Recommended. An eye-opener. It turns out most drug research and development is government funded and only 12% comes from pharmaceutical corporations which benefit from it financially. A clever depiction of inner workings of pharmaceutical companies under different jurisdictions.

GOD LOVES UGANDA

Watchable. That's how I found out about killings of homosexuals in a number of African countries but in a typically American documentary style it's full of talking heads with little data provided and shortlisting it for an Oscar is a bit over the top.

NOCES ROUGES

Watchable. Reveals little known aspects of the Khmer Rouge regime, unfortunately in a typical French documentary style where the camera follows the protagonists everywhere without editing.

LONDON - THE MODERN BABYLON

Recommended. A punk-style social history of London covering racial tensions, poverty, sexual revolution and the core of London lifestyle - partying throughout decades - with great music background. The funniest bits are racial though, e.g. a black guy saying: "London used to be a paradise, but then came Russians, Czechs, Poles, Somalis and other Africans."

HOW TO MAKE MONEY SELLING DRUGS

Recommended. I'm against liberalisation of drug laws but the film fantastically explains the economics of drug dealing and fighting this crime.

NO FIRE ZONE: THE KILLING FIELDS OF SRI LANKA

Walked out. It's more like a news broadcast than a documentary film.

BANAZ: A LOVE STORY

Recommended. I had heard of honour killings several times before but it was only this full-length account of one that made me realise the horror of being cornered, stalked and murdered by your own family. Just compare it to an American thriller in which the protagonist is stalked by just one character. Here, it's a real life, organised crime committed by people you normally trust.

MEA MAXIMA CULPA: SILENCE IN THE HOUSE OF GOD

Watchable. It starts off as innocently as church seems to be. Then you learn about paedophilia on a local scale and then about its wider and wider circles leading as high as the Pope's immediate environment. Unlike regular paedophiles, priests don't record and share child porn. They just perpetrate the crime as they please while their non-abusing colleagues sweep it all under the carpet. Everyone is implicated this way or another, including "our" pope John Paul II. In the film only the number of, typical for US docs, talking heads becomes annoying - everything has been said already and you still get more and more people commenting on the same to ensure no one's freedom of speech gets breached.

ONVERWACHT (UNEXPECTED)

Watchable. Nothing in this film convinces you of the woman's need to abort. It's just quite peculiar to see how many women are able to discuss the issue in quite a detached manner.

GOOGLE AND THE WORLD BRAIN

Watchable. Have you heard of Google stealing people's wifi passwords and search histories while shooting Street View images? While scary enough to be fascinating, this is as far as the film goes in its allegations against Google. The rest is just about copyright.

AFTER TILLER

Recommended. I used to see abortion as evil and conducting it in the third trimester as unspeakable. The film has turned my views upside down. Most of the women portrayed wanted to have a baby but hearing of inborn diseases the child would cope with all its life, they choose the lesser evil. And the moral dilemmas involved are just as hard for the few doctors determined to help them out in spite of violent attacks on their clinics and themselves.

THE NIGHT OF CINEMA

WOLVERINE

Watchable. Every X-Men fan will want to see it so no surprise I have. Unfortunately it's the weakest film of the series - barely two mutants and a lousy shoot & run plot.

THE MORTAL INSTRUMENTS: CITY OF BONES

Watchable.  It's fun, some guys look hot, the music's good but it's just another teenage demon hunter movie.

THE HEAT

Recommended. A comedy which makes you laugh out loud. Most of the humour is situational but some lines are brilliant as well, e.g. a cop browsing a wallet of a guy she's caught soliciting a prostitute finds his family photograph: "I was worried you didn't have a wife or children."

ENDER'S GAME

Recommended. I had been waiting for the movie since childhood, then I heard that instead of Wolfgang Petersen (memorable "Enemy Mine") Gavin Hood (annoying "Tsotsi") would direct it, then it did come out and I was too busy to go to the cinema. Today, around noon, when I had a break, I finally saw it. And I loved it. The film is just spotless, very true to the book, with elements of strategy and deep humanity retained, with excellent cast and mind-blowing cinematography.

Apparently Orson Scott Card is writing a sequel - "The Fleet School".

THE HUNGER GAMES - CATCHING FIRE AT IMAX

Recommended. Worth seeing at least, although not only, for the sake of futuristic fashion - the costumes, the make-ups and other visual aspects of the future are mind-blowingly ingenious. The special effects make e.g. a dress on fire look downright realistic. The plot provides enough twists to keep you on the edge your seat.- OK, that's copied and pasted from my review of the first instalment. Now I'll just add that hair-dos look stunning as well and eyelash make-up has got even better. Can't wait to see part 3 next year.

And in the meantime, if someone gets me the books for my birthday, I want them in the English original;)

MIELE

Recommended. A movie incredible yet realistic, a deeply moving story not only about euthanasia but also about how many people live double lives.

TUI SHOU (PUSHING HANDS)

Watchable. Ang Lee's first movie is a quiet family drama with questions about one's place in life. It supposed to be about intercultural tensions while there was nothing more than issues which would occur in monocultural families all the same.

THE FIFTH ESTATE

Recommended. Fast-paced action takes you round the globe. You get a rundown on the WikiLeaks success story + lively depicted insight into the downfall of traditional institutions (banks, goverments) as much as of Assange himself - in both cases torn from within. Humour is sparse but good, e.g. after sex: "It's the first time I see a guy sneaking out of his own apartment." "Have you got a cripto-phone?" "No, but it's the best excuse if you never call again."

YIN SHI NAN NU (EAT, DRINK, MAN, WOMAN)

Watchable. While it's a predominantly serene movie about family and love, it would have been better as a pure comedy. The number of unexpected marriages and faintings is the movie's biggest asset.

AVATAR 4D

Watchable. My 1st time at 4D but my 4th time at "Avatar" is no doubt reflected in my impressions. The 4D effects are really good: blasts of cold wind, scents of the Pandoran forest and of fruit, water sprinkled on you and gusts of wind above your head when a hero gets hit in the head, all of that on top of regular motion simulation. The screen is of regular size, no match for Imax but with proper 3D depth. It's only the story that has worn off for me. Altogether it was good fun which should feel even better at a brand new movie.

NIGHT FILM MARATHON: A NIGHT OF HORRORS

EVIL DEAD (2013)

Watchable. A class B movie where the demon rises a ridiculous number of times. Once you start, adrenaline keeps you watching but it's so stupid it's better not to start at all.

THE CONJURING

Recommended. The first time ever I shrieked out of fear at the cinema. And no one laughed at me.

WORLD WAR Z

Watchable. An interesting concept, fast action moving across the world, lots of suspense and a puzzle to resolve. One of the best zombie movies. Only the cheesy family bits spoil the effect.

MAMA

Watchable. Fascinating at the beginning, interesting in the middle, with a totally ludicrous ending.

NIGHT FILM MARATHON: A NIGHT OF LOTR DIRECTOR'S CUT

Watchable. While the extra bits are beautiful and glorious, 12 hours in the Middle-earth is far too long. Each part is so protracted it should be cut into two halves. I drank a sea of overpriced Coke, tried to spot all elements copied by J.K. Rowling in "Harry Potter" later on, gently practised belly-dancing moves in my seat and I still dozed off for a while watching the last installment.


THE CONGRESS

Recommended. If not for Ari Folman, responsible for "Vals Im Bashir" ("Waltz With Bashir"), then for the grand vision and psychological insight by Stanislaw Lem, on whose book it's based, this multi-level science-fiction is a league of its own.


ADWOKAT W ROLI GLOWNEJ (ADVOCATE IN THE LEADING ROLE):

BEZ KONCA (1984)

Watchable. You've got two main characters: one female and one male. The woman's story is unusual enough to keep one interested, the man's is too political and ideological for my taste.

THE VERDICT (1982)

Recommended. A realistic trial and its backstage with truly Hollywood-style truth prevailing in the end.

TO KILL A MOCKING BIRD (1962)

Watchable. The trial is shown too superficially and a bigger part of the film is about children, not the crime. I guess I kept watching because of mysterious props placed here and there in the plot.


GRAVITY 3D

Watchable. Back to SF. Well, taken recent technological developments, more of a space-located drama than fantasy. First you get the message that nice views of the Earth (I had a feeling I was watching my business card or fanpage for over an hour - www.facebook.com/apteacher1) won't compensate for problems with the equipment and vehicles (which reminded me of my first and last attempt at diving). Then you get to admire Sandra Bullock's impressive muscles. Then it gets cheesy. Later you see some action again. And finally the saviour emerges out of water like a prehistoric reptile hence symbolising evolution. It's all not deep enough to sway me off my feet but nothing shallow. More like a docudrama about what could happen to someone working out there. I guess it may look better at Imax but I'm happy I didn't go for 4D - it would have been a bumpy ride, a giroscope last year was fine but enough.

ERASERHEAD

Walked out. Why does anyone watch this? I guess you could go and watch people in a real life mental hospital with the same effect. And in colour.

NIGHT FILM MARATHON: THE NIGHT OF WOODY ALLEN

JASMINE BLUE

Watchable. I'm not a fan of watching mentally derailed people and Cate Blanchet seems to act the same whether acting sane or disturbed. But both plots are involving and so realistic that it's easy to empathise with the characters.

ANNIE HALL

Watchable. Quite entertaining but not memorably so.

WHATEVER WORKS

Watchable the second time round. An upgraded variation on "Annie Hall". Seeing it the first time I loved the dry humour, e.g. "You're going to pass out here or go in the living room?", and the unpredictability of the story. It's also extremely well acted. What I found detracting this time is the lousy gay joke and the cheesy happy ending.

TRISHNA

Watchable. British Bollywood? Well, in this case it's a heart-wrenching storyline with Bollywood music enacted with a stiff upper lip.

TULPAN

Watchable. Interesting ethnographically but slow and silly otherwise.

TRON

Walked out. I loved it in childhood but it's too archaic nowadays.

NIGHT FILM MARATHON: THE SF NIGHT

ELYSIUM

Watchable. Much better than "District 9". Great acting, cinematography, CGIs, interesting plot. A standard Hollywood chase and idealistic ending spoil the effect.

DISTRICT 9

Skipped. I hadn't liked it much the first time round.

AFTER EARTH

Watchable. Great acting, CGIs, cinematography, action. Just a bit too cheesy.

LOOPER

Watchable. The best film of the night. Twisted, unpredictable, innovatively transforming old American motifs (corn fields, telekinesis, the mob), with great music. Some minor inconsistencies in the plot and the overall psychological implausibility (I can't imagine hating my future self) detract from otherwise great fun.

And from a different venue and event:

ALTERED STATES

Walked out. I left the weed-smelling junkies in the audience. The story doesn't make any sense to a sober person.

STRANDED

Recommended. A harrowing account of survival. Very informative as well. If you get stranded high in the mountains, first make yourself visible for the rescue helicopter. Failing that, make your way down to greener areas as soon as you can. They waited too long and only 16 survived.

REBELLE (WAR WITCH)

Recommended. An involving and moving story which is incredibly true to African culture (even the phantoms are white).

THE DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS (1962)

Watchable. Finally a "Day Of The Triffids" which I managed to watch till the end. Less naff than more modern versions. Still, a catastrophe followed by a mayhem is such a standard cinematic fare that it would be hard to make it any more than watchable.

ENCOUNTERS AT THE END OF THE WORLD

Watchable. A profound source of information on what's it like to live and work in Antarctica. Yet, it's little revelatory.

KIRSCHBLUETEN - HANAMI

Watchable. An involving and moving story about grieving and modern families, cleverly showing a clash of different perspectives, just a bit silly and over the top for me but my family is quite traditional.

ALAMAR

Watchable. Beautiful cinematography and little plot. Purely for watching, the only depth in it is in the sea.

THE FLY (1958)

Recommended. I've never managed to get through the 80s version. This one amazed me. It's like an old-fashioned detective story with science fiction bits sprinkled on top. Very atmospheric and frightening in the message it conveys.

FROM BEYOND (1986)

Watchable. Gratuitous nudity among monsters looking like plastic toys. It somehow has a style though.