tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28382811169408563512024-03-19T09:48:11.236+01:00Movie CriticA film review site, now with over 3,400 movies from all around the world.
It's not as much a 'critic's site' as much as it is a memo for films, with observations about them.Marin Mandirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17535059667967149300noreply@blogger.comBlogger3466125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2838281116940856351.post-12351587768988653012024-03-17T17:40:00.002+01:002024-03-17T17:40:27.856+01:00Breaker Morant<p><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLMxIavcB69Kmroeu5XdX3rc5Nrpz5VXCksGAIiTfjwqvmrAAqhhDn-AT_nYZBMvHAsM1acpw4KdKNCHjCiwE4WEuM0598xs6vfYemK7Oue4pah8Twaw-VFQfCNq__nO7P0Jqqc1W_pmJsEzmiCISoDasKGB4GLXSPrDoknn-f_0C7YQXiFPqXaTaQU-M/s500/MV5BMjA1OTQ5Mjc2MV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwMTg0MjE2MQ@@._V1_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="427" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLMxIavcB69Kmroeu5XdX3rc5Nrpz5VXCksGAIiTfjwqvmrAAqhhDn-AT_nYZBMvHAsM1acpw4KdKNCHjCiwE4WEuM0598xs6vfYemK7Oue4pah8Twaw-VFQfCNq__nO7P0Jqqc1W_pmJsEzmiCISoDasKGB4GLXSPrDoknn-f_0C7YQXiFPqXaTaQU-M/w229-h320/MV5BMjA1OTQ5Mjc2MV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwMTg0MjE2MQ@@._V1_.jpg" width="229" /></a></b></div><b>Breaker Morant; historical legal drama, Australia, 1980; D: Bruce Beresford, S: Edward Woodward, Jack Thompson, Bryan Brown, Lewis Fitz-Gerald, Rod Mullinar</b><p></p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQs7A8Rkvu4cf57SygbN3w08XgcsodC_bCCyPB66JhAe4Br3PX3d5rLojqpHCUH0NR0NwpPcfOfWM8ZbWZhLA3G1YtVBl2_UCViYqkiDT1_DS6WV62NQHXvpyRsaldRIDu31wzc0KL0mTRXZkCxUk-atxpYC6eiQDaTZuV-EnJ9QaYMhVKzPvDABX1BtA/s172/stil%200-2-0-3.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="33" data-original-width="172" height="33" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQs7A8Rkvu4cf57SygbN3w08XgcsodC_bCCyPB66JhAe4Br3PX3d5rLojqpHCUH0NR0NwpPcfOfWM8ZbWZhLA3G1YtVBl2_UCViYqkiDT1_DS6WV62NQHXvpyRsaldRIDu31wzc0KL0mTRXZkCxUk-atxpYC6eiQDaTZuV-EnJ9QaYMhVKzPvDABX1BtA/s1600/stil%200-2-0-3.png" width="172" /></a></p><p>Second Boer War 1 9 0 1. Three Australian soldiers under the jurisdiction of the British Empire—lieutenants Harry Morant, Peter Handcock, George Witton—are brought in front of a military tribunal under the indictment of killing nine Boers (descendants of Dutch settlers) POWs and one German missionary. The three are defended by lawyer and Major James Thomas. Numerous witnesses show up, recounting that after the Boers killed Captain Hunt, the three went on a rage, discovered a tent with Boers and shot a man wearing Hunt's uniform. They also killed six Boers who surrendered, and also the German missionary who talked to the Boers. The court finds the three guilty and sentences Witton to life in prison, and Morant and Handcock to death.</p><p>An unknown classic from "Down Under", one of the best Australian films of the 80s, "Breaker Morant" is a gripping trial drama based on a real historical event during the Second Boer War. A lot of credit goes to the veteran director Bruce Beresford who directs these static trial sequences with a lot of great shot compositions, unusual camera angles and aesthetic images (the "fake split screen" of soldiers building two coffins on the far left side of the frame, while a wall in the middle separates the defendents in the prison back yard on the far right side of the frame; the silhouettes of Morant and Handcock sitting in the foreground while the firing squad is standing over the horizon in the background, while the Sun is above them) that enrich the cinematic experience. Another great component is the brilliant performance of Jack Thompson as the lawyer defending the three Australian lieutenants at the military court. A special charge is achieved by the way the movie plays with the audience: at first, it sets up the whole story from the perspective of the three and their lawyer who passionately defends them, as to make the viewers assume they are innocent and victims of gross injustice of the British martial court. However, as witnesses appear and the movie goes to flashbacks, revealing for what they were indicted for, a dichotomy appears—they <i>are</i> guilty. They <i>are</i> war criminals. One especially dark episode has six Boers waving a white flag, approaching the British military outpost, who are then sent in a prison camp while Morant talks to his colleague that "he doesn't remember any white flag" and then proceeds to order the soldiers to shoot the prisoners. Beresford crafts the film on two levels, humanistic and legal—the viewers understand the three indicted lieutenants, but from the legal standpoint they also understand that they are guilty. While a little bit overstretched in the final act, "Breaker Morant" is a surprisingly intelligent film.</p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Grade:+++</span></p>Marin Mandirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17535059667967149300noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2838281116940856351.post-12793411872004198932024-03-16T18:05:00.005+01:002024-03-16T18:05:53.882+01:00Oppenheimer<p><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAjkH4fVmz8VM4fGJKEb3R0DofwwFSU5VtOIOcWLpGMBaTxeyaGwqZJXrBhzawUHhLOxCUQ-Xka5Gjcu3ZOSKN-6kE9VxEa1UqHFX5-Ghup_lJQ4Ldfs0osIXkjnVBRerwqoD-0_G80TAYxHHC-KOUSmc0LbOdQx-GK9H8UeQK2YJJUHt1sdl4YDQYT5I/s384/Oppenheimer_(film).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="384" data-original-width="259" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAjkH4fVmz8VM4fGJKEb3R0DofwwFSU5VtOIOcWLpGMBaTxeyaGwqZJXrBhzawUHhLOxCUQ-Xka5Gjcu3ZOSKN-6kE9VxEa1UqHFX5-Ghup_lJQ4Ldfs0osIXkjnVBRerwqoD-0_G80TAYxHHC-KOUSmc0LbOdQx-GK9H8UeQK2YJJUHt1sdl4YDQYT5I/s320/Oppenheimer_(film).jpg" width="216" /></a></b></div><b>Oppenheimer; historical drama, USA, 2023; D: Christopher Nolan, S: Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Robert Downey Jr., Kenneth Branagh, Benny Safdie, Florence Pugh, Josh Hartnett, Casey Affleck, Gary Oldman</b><p></p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKV4xmJzOdIJQuC0FqfjzdOiUwYcl2B8BXgb_4IsRs6V77KHutxvYwVkMjlS2P4rS_5eNrDXN4shplGsnjZF_dluS52GeerTrrx57URalS6KUe92YBAOfVNGRK_kF-Mtvt826Ww14jficRKJcPcz5yfbmBVGRbCQXuR7Z5cbVglJM2zcSdAjvxROc9RGw/s172/stil%200-2-1-2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="33" data-original-width="172" height="33" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKV4xmJzOdIJQuC0FqfjzdOiUwYcl2B8BXgb_4IsRs6V77KHutxvYwVkMjlS2P4rS_5eNrDXN4shplGsnjZF_dluS52GeerTrrx57URalS6KUe92YBAOfVNGRK_kF-Mtvt826Ww14jficRKJcPcz5yfbmBVGRbCQXuR7Z5cbVglJM2zcSdAjvxROc9RGw/s1600/stil%200-2-1-2.png" width="172" /></a></p><p>J. Robert Oppenheimer is fascinated by physics while a student at the University of Cambridge. As a grown man back in the US, he reads that the Germans discovered nuclear fission, which alarms the American government. World War II erupts, and US Colonel Leslie Groves recruits Oppenheimer and many other scientists to try build the first atomic bomb in an isolated town built just for them, Los Alamos. Oppenheimer becomes the director of this Project Manhattan. They succeed and detonate the first atomic bomb in July 1 9 4 5. The US Army immediately drops two on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which ends World War II. Afterwards, Chair of the US Atomic Energy Commission Lewis Strauss initiates a committee questioning Oppenheimer's loyalty due to his previous links with Communists, end thus ends his security clearance. </p><p>The biopic about Robert Oppenheimer, the "father of the atomic bomb", is good, yet still a little bit overrated and overlong. The middle part of "Oppenheimer", the one showing how the US Army actually built a whole isolated research town, Los Alamos, in the middle of nowhere in order for the scientists to create the first atomic bomb is excellent—but the first part showing Oppenheimer's private life and relationships is boring, whereas the final, third part, involving a committee hearing in the comically small room that can barely fit nine people is unnecessary, since there are no stakes in it after the detonation of the atomic bomb after which such an overlong epilogue feels like a 45-minute anticlimax. Cillian Murphy is brilliant and perfectly cast at the tormented title protagonist, achieving a huge career boost, but Matt Damon almost steals the show as US Colonel Leslie Groves, in the genius performance that is much better than Robert Downey Jr.'s as Lewis Strauss, who doesn't get much to do in the script. In one delicious sequence, Groves meets Oppenheimer and tells him he heard Oppenheimer is a "dilettante, a suspected communist, unstable, egotistical, neurotic", upon Oppenheimer interrupts: "<i>Nothing good? Not even 'he's brilliant, but'...?</i>" - "<i>Well, brilliance is taken for granted, so no</i>."</p><p>Christopher Nolan sometimes has troubles with illogical plot holes when he writes his own scripts ("Inception", "The Dark Knight Rises"), yet by adapting a real-life biopic he managed to avoid those issues this time around, since the events unfold naturally. However, as a director, Nolan has trouble finding the right pace in this movie, since several moments are excessive, rushed, whereas a big nuissance is the musical score which plays almost all the time, nonstop, sometimes so detached from the rest of the film that it's even bombastic during just normal, static scenes of two people talking. Two great sequences: one is the colossal countdown until the first test detonation of the atomic bomb at night, when Oppenheimer and the crew watch the mushroom cloud through dark glasses, which reaches almost Hitchcock's intensity of suspense; the other is when Oppenheimer holds a speech after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima, while he has a hallucination of a bright explosion "wiping out" all the audience in the room. It also shows some rarely talked about details, such as when the nuclear scientists were unsure if, once started, the nuclear explosion may cause a chain reaction which may never stop. The moral and ethical question the movie poses is if Oppenheimer is guilty for any future use of atomic bombs in any conflict. Sadly, some sharper philosophical dialogues are missing. "Oppenheimer" should have ended after two hours, after the atomic bomb testing, since the committee hearing is given more room for the movie's running time than the sole room it was held in, a small private hearing without much weight later on. It didn't merit prolonging the story for another 45 minutes, while one dumb scene (Kitty imagines her husband Oppenheimer is naked (!) while sitting during his testimony in front of the committee, and then even that he is having sex with Jean Tatlock (!) in the room) should have been cut. Overall, still an intelligent depiction of these events.</p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Grade:++</span></p>Marin Mandirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17535059667967149300noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2838281116940856351.post-74542259216030345672024-03-15T12:37:00.004+01:002024-03-15T12:42:12.227+01:00The Boy and the Heron<p><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilT7ahfryyWoHYup0WaH3tBt7iwjVwjyI5sG-RB_jvCDNbwP3PisqWBg0IR_mlMq3IvaNoeKp82HmYND5HHrQLJwz-2lEuIwK1Suajki1m1D3gZPdE6i35j9MU5yPgab8NPmC9LMLRsZUtFlcQleB3CRMiKyyW1QoggUzsKRK3MI_HKEdMDwnxdGyHT3I/s2560/MV5BNmI2MzJkYzYtM2Y2My00NmJmLTgxZDAtODAwNjBmM2RlZjRhXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTUzMTg2ODkz._V1_.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2560" data-original-width="1879" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilT7ahfryyWoHYup0WaH3tBt7iwjVwjyI5sG-RB_jvCDNbwP3PisqWBg0IR_mlMq3IvaNoeKp82HmYND5HHrQLJwz-2lEuIwK1Suajki1m1D3gZPdE6i35j9MU5yPgab8NPmC9LMLRsZUtFlcQleB3CRMiKyyW1QoggUzsKRK3MI_HKEdMDwnxdGyHT3I/w222-h320/MV5BNmI2MzJkYzYtM2Y2My00NmJmLTgxZDAtODAwNjBmM2RlZjRhXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTUzMTg2ODkz._V1_.jpg" width="222" /></a></b></div><b>Kimitachi wa Do Ikiru ka; animated fantasy drama, Japan, 2023; D: Hayao Miyazaki, S: Soma Santoki, Masaki Suda, Aimyon, Yoshino Kimura, Takuya Kimura</b><p></p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEUWviwkFDDndhbgrtwCwxZ3nQIRaU7uIR-gqC6xX8ZFJAkxPL6uV88WGDgkHpWOYhAK7MFD6akKR4kfoKg2DN8ODmchdKwON2YJ4jvmE2EKn6JCTP7FeMH91nzmUNLmcUIAhV8bhsGDlYw-Gttgx1srfv6MPumMbKHGbGrLQYklC_JxZWpOTgZ7zOLxs/s172/stil%201-1-2-2.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="33" data-original-width="172" height="33" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEUWviwkFDDndhbgrtwCwxZ3nQIRaU7uIR-gqC6xX8ZFJAkxPL6uV88WGDgkHpWOYhAK7MFD6akKR4kfoKg2DN8ODmchdKwON2YJ4jvmE2EKn6JCTP7FeMH91nzmUNLmcUIAhV8bhsGDlYw-Gttgx1srfv6MPumMbKHGbGrLQYklC_JxZWpOTgZ7zOLxs/s1600/stil%201-1-2-2.png" width="172" /></a></p><p>Japan, World War II. During the bombing of Tokyo, a hospital is caught on fire and Mahito's (13) mother dies there. Mahito's father remarries Natsuko and moves to a safe village. From the house, Mahito observes a strange heron in the lake. The heron turns out to be a mythical man in costume, and he tricks him into entering a different parallel world. Mahito enouncters strange creatures in that world, such as floating Warawara that ascend to be born in the real world, as well as fisherwoman Kiriko and firewoman Himi who protects the Warawara from being eaten by hundreds of pelicans. Mahito encounters an old man who creates worlds using 13 small stone blocks, and who invites him to be his heir and create better worlds. Mahito refuses, takes Natsuko back to the real world and settles with living there.</p><p>Hayao Miyazaki's 12th and final feature length anime film, "The Boy and the Heron" is a cryptic allegorical tale imbibed a little bit too much in Japanese historical-cultural references and Miyazaki's own cocooned autobiographical mindset. While the bizarre, surreal creatures in the parallel world tend to get a bit too 'autistic' and 'gibberish', the underlining storyline still has some clear messages—Mahito is traumatized by the "broken" real world, damaged by World War II and mindless violence and suffering, which took away his mother. Yet by entering the parallel fantasy world, he also finds imperfections and omissions, such as the tragic sequence where a wounded pelican begs Mahito to kill him, explaining that the pelicans must eat the fantasy creatures Warawaras since the oceans contain no fish for their food. Mahito then encounters the old man, a sort of god of this world, who lives in the perfect palace on top, selfishly holding this paradise for himself while all the imperfect creatures around him suffer due to his negligence. The old man asks Mahito to be his heir and continue his work, to creatue "more harmonious worlds" using 13 small stone blocks. Is the old man a symbol for Miyazaki himself, asking for someone to continue his (now flawed) work, or else Studio Ghibli will fall apart? Or is it a dark commentary on religion and power, where the people on top only think about themselves and are numb to the plight of millions around them? Through this symbolism, Miyazaki gives a meditation on each new generation which was victim of human errors from the past, and advocates that they reject this past mindset and create a new, better world, with new thinking and more justice. There are several problems in this abstract film, including that the Heron is an incomplete character—yet even though it is not among Miyazaki's best films, it still features traces of his best work, which will hereby invite the viewers to check these out.</p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Grade:++</span></p>Marin Mandirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17535059667967149300noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2838281116940856351.post-22172607832079546032024-03-14T13:19:00.005+01:002024-03-14T13:19:59.921+01:00Primal Fear<p><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgximXUS-2cCI55TZjEaxG4bhOuFF_BOQNkgzkVcj3VK5MRNON6YslidjLnW1fCiW4hjzX7_oUdKJAPLPLrXcNX5dyVvCPaUCM5tDR9EtwoGM8o4LpUmJAJlWcI1Im3H217JN7qXhG7doiRrYiosWuKClPBdtsFLl4jZFpvrcktqZje-F6w2lOq9SVMShU/s384/Primal_Fear_(1996_film)_poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="384" data-original-width="259" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgximXUS-2cCI55TZjEaxG4bhOuFF_BOQNkgzkVcj3VK5MRNON6YslidjLnW1fCiW4hjzX7_oUdKJAPLPLrXcNX5dyVvCPaUCM5tDR9EtwoGM8o4LpUmJAJlWcI1Im3H217JN7qXhG7doiRrYiosWuKClPBdtsFLl4jZFpvrcktqZje-F6w2lOq9SVMShU/s320/Primal_Fear_(1996_film)_poster.jpg" width="216" /></a></b></div><b>Primal Fear; legal thriller, USA, 1996; D: Gregory Hoblit, S: Richard Gere, Edward Norton, Laura Linney, John Mahoney, Alfre Woodard, Frances McDormand, Terry O'Quinn</b><p></p><p>Chicago. Archbishop Rushman is killed and mutilated with a knife in his home. The police chase after a guy with blood on his clothes running away nearby, and arrest him: it is Aaron (19), the orphan altar boy. Aaron is charged with Rushman's murder, and sly lawyer Martin Vail is the first to offer to represent him at trial. Aaron claims he was in the room, but that a third person killed Rushman. Martin finds a secret VHS tape at the church in which Rushman filmed Aaron having sex with a girl and another guy. Martin sends the tape to prosecutor Janet, his ex-girlfriend. Aaron feigns he has a split personality, "Roy", who killed Rushman, and attacks Janet during trial, whereby Judge Miriam stops the case and orders Aaron into a psychiatric hospital. Aaron later admits to Martin he feigned his split personality.</p><p>The feature length acting debut of Edward Norton immediately announced him as the new acting hope thanks to the legal thriller "Primal Fear", though the leading actor Richard Gere is even better, overshadowing him as the cynical lawyer Martin. When Martin starts off semi-narrating the film with such snappy lines as: "<i>On my first day of law school, my professor says two things. First was: from this day forward, when your mother tells you she loves you, get a second opinion... If you want justice, go to a whorehouse</i>" or "<i>Why gamble with money when you can gamble with people's lives?</i>", the viewers are instantly engaged and intrigued, since he is established as a sharp character who is shady, yet still clever enough to have some principles and ethics. His exchange with lawyer Janet (Laura Linney) near the beginning is also delicious, since he insists they were in a relationship, while she just coldly rebuts him with: "<i>It was a one-night stand, Marty. It just lasted six-months</i>." Bizarrely, the writing becomes much less inspired and more standard when Martin gets to represent Aaron at trial, since several "bumps" appear, most notably in the unnecessary random splatter scenes of someone killing Arcbishop with a knife. The sole core of Martin's legal defense is rather bland and stale, though the excellent Alfre Woodard manages to ignite some interest here and there in the role of the Judge. The plot twist at the end reminds too much of the one in "<a href="https://moviecritic2000.blogspot.com/2008/06/usual-suspects.html">The Usual Suspects</a>", thus lacking some true surprises or highlights, yet due to the strong first act "Primal Fear" is still a quality legal film.</p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Grade:++</span></p>Marin Mandirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17535059667967149300noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2838281116940856351.post-11174711065717389242024-03-13T15:34:00.005+01:002024-03-15T16:30:37.374+01:00Dune: Part Two<p><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR5V2Ec1EI3xzV79L7AOHUa-4ZkulVXpjjQilFmUURpHDYQHAg-WiavCDp2XcBy-8wfY1H4gIVdVmDrANHdWGL1zUDX2XtAyEsHdR6krF7ay8UuxWRSISOPVseF_I-tVPdnS7axMbhlcZXs11mVH7ZXKgld8BSTrQfl7Mxx4_Vuew30FtIi04ZaEc7jl0/s1551/dune2.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1551" data-original-width="1042" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR5V2Ec1EI3xzV79L7AOHUa-4ZkulVXpjjQilFmUURpHDYQHAg-WiavCDp2XcBy-8wfY1H4gIVdVmDrANHdWGL1zUDX2XtAyEsHdR6krF7ay8UuxWRSISOPVseF_I-tVPdnS7axMbhlcZXs11mVH7ZXKgld8BSTrQfl7Mxx4_Vuew30FtIi04ZaEc7jl0/s320/dune2.jpg" width="215" /></a></b></div><b>Dune: Part Two; science-fiction, USA, 2024; D: Denis Villeneuve, S: Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Josh Brolin, Austin Butler, Stellan Skarsgård, Florence Pugh, Dave Bautista, Christopher Walken, Javier Bardem, Léa Seydoux, Charlotte Rampling</b><p></p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9YI3nMIfB1-dvKRTZSDLPDHX6LTWstVmduHF-gdAIwFux1QsmoMEWymQRhcmz0bNi8IpG0myLUxZucLAJmQBlFnrvQU-ZAHm6sgncLPBREs6spEWjYUSDMwA0v825yLhZcw1ZESmZ-PdEkRXn_Q0wYg0oVMxgBfiG5xZ9yat4A4SARZ300TfK66laKVM/s172/stil%200-3-1-2.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="33" data-original-width="172" height="33" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9YI3nMIfB1-dvKRTZSDLPDHX6LTWstVmduHF-gdAIwFux1QsmoMEWymQRhcmz0bNi8IpG0myLUxZucLAJmQBlFnrvQU-ZAHm6sgncLPBREs6spEWjYUSDMwA0v825yLhZcw1ZESmZ-PdEkRXn_Q0wYg0oVMxgBfiG5xZ9yat4A4SARZ300TfK66laKVM/s1600/stil%200-3-1-2.png" width="172" /></a></p><p>In the year 10,191, the desert planet Dune is a battleground between two sides: Paul Atreides and his mother Lady Jessica unite with the native Fremen tribe to fight against the House of Harkonnen that have taken over the monopoly on the exploitation of the coveted "spice" resource from the planet. Fremen tribe leader Stilgar assumes Paul is the prophecized messiah, a title which Paul begrudingly accepts to achieve his vengence against the Harkonnen's. Several raids against "spice" extraction platforms cause Vladimir Harkonnen to send sadistic nephew Feyd-Rautha to counter-attack and wipe out the Fremen. Paul drinks the "spice", declares himself Mua'Dib and uses atomic weapons to break the wall of the capital. There, he battles and kills Feyd-Rautha and Vladimir Harkonnen, captures the Galactic Emperor and forces him to hand him over the throne. Paul thus takes the Emperor's daughter Irulan as his wife.</p><p>Director Denis Villeneuve achieved one of the biggest turnarounds in cinema history when he transformed the story excommunicated in Lynch's <a href="https://moviecritic2000.blogspot.com/2008/06/dune.html">first film</a> adaptation into gold with this new version that was critically recognized and became a hit at the box office. Unlike the <a href="https://moviecritic2000.blogspot.com/2021/10/dune.html">first part</a>, which took a lot of time to establish this futuristic world, "Dune: Part Two" cuts right to the chase and delivers a more dynamic, tight storyline with a perfect pacing—in fact, the longer this movie lasts, the more intruiging it gets, since all the pieces start connecting closer and closer towards the finish line. This is one of those epic spectacles that need to be seen on the big screens to enjoy it in its full form. A lot of this credit goes to the cinematographer Greig Fraser who has a dreamy camera that documents a plethora of aesthetic, magnificent images. Even the 100ft long giant sand worms appear pretty in this crystal-clear cinematography. </p><p>One instant classic is the monumental sequence where the camera pans left to right around Paul standing on a sand dune, looking at the approaching giant sand worm over the horizon, and as the worm "crashes" through the dune, Paul jumps on top of it, riding it across the desert. Two other sequences of Fremen "riding" these worms are also incredible to look at due to the amazing technology they were filmed with. One sequence stands out stylistically from the rest of the film—the bloody fight in the arena involving sadistic villain Feyd-Rautha, filmed in black and white. Paul's raids against the "spice" extraction platforms are exciting, linking the story to guerilla attacks against colonial powers and various independence movements. However, while Villeneuve is a highly professional director, he still lacks some creative-innovative playfulness that would make his movies really fun to watch. The scenes where Lady Jessica (a rather underused Rebecca Ferguson) and Paul drink "spice" to gain a higher consciousness or the sequence of the final battle lack some abstract 'raw power' that would make "Dune: Part Two" a sheer joy to watch. Nonetheless, this is arguably the best possible "Dune" film adaptation. As much as Lynch's "Dune" was a dirty mess, so much is Villeneuve's "Dune" a clean sweep.</p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Grade:+++</span></p>Marin Mandirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17535059667967149300noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2838281116940856351.post-6438173999130156952024-03-11T16:58:00.005+01:002024-03-12T15:29:41.483+01:00Over the Top<p><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4hgF9PwJ9e9I3pImUvBPu3yjIP7X1LRsBVargRgPqCGt09CFLCIKR3M_8xHoR3YZArFrjjuEl8B886zZJzBME9VCXw9HYsJf-EL9afnil1-VOvjEGyvp1HZqR29AZwIiwSFaJy2GhZI-o07NyzdXS4rdo5U-7RP1UIWteyVUNlYJvDrY9fWPeOnxf1lY/s800/27568.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="568" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4hgF9PwJ9e9I3pImUvBPu3yjIP7X1LRsBVargRgPqCGt09CFLCIKR3M_8xHoR3YZArFrjjuEl8B886zZJzBME9VCXw9HYsJf-EL9afnil1-VOvjEGyvp1HZqR29AZwIiwSFaJy2GhZI-o07NyzdXS4rdo5U-7RP1UIWteyVUNlYJvDrY9fWPeOnxf1lY/s320/27568.jpg" width="227" /></a></b></div><b>Over the Top; sports drama, USA, 1987; D: Menahem Golan, S: Sylvester Stallone, David Mendenhall, Rick Zumwalt, Robert Loggia, Susan Blakely, Chris McCarty</b><p></p><p>Truck driver Lincoln Hawk, after abandoning his wife Christina, arrives at a military school to finally meet his son Mike (12). Lincoln takes Mike with him on a ride in his truck, showing him his skill: Lincoln is an expert in arm wrestling. Arriving at the hospital, they are informed that Christina died from a disease. An angry Mike takes a taxi to his rich grandfather Jason Cutler. Lincoln sells his truck, obtains 7,000$ for it and bets 20:1 on himself in an arm wrestling match in Las Vegas. Mike finds out his grandfather hid all the letters Lincoln was sending to him for years, so he goes to Las Vegas, where Lincoln manages to defeat the favorite, Bull. With the money, Lincoln and Mike decide to open their own company. </p><p>Israeli filmmaker Menahem Golan achieved huge success in his native country both as a producer ("<a href="https://moviecritic2000.blogspot.com/2024/03/the-house-on-chelouche-street.html">The House on Cheleuche Street</a>") and a director ("<a href="https://moviecritic2000.blogspot.com/2015/01/operation-thunderbolt.html">Operation Thunderbolt</a>"), until he co-founded Cannon Films and started a new career in the US in the 80s. One of the American films he directed was a movie that was more hated than it deserved to be, the decent sport-road movie father-son drama "Over the Top", which has its 80s charm despite numerous flaws: the minute the truck passes by and the camera pans up towards a mountain in the background, while the title "Over the Top" pops up, you know it's going to be a cheesy movie. This is one of those 80s movie you cannot be mad at. Golan has a sense for some aesthetic images thanks to his cinematographer David Gurfinkel, such as the scene where the camera lingers on Lincoln sitting on the back side of his truck, looking in the distance. There are several problems in the storyline, though—for instance, the 12-year old Mike is picked up from school by a man who is a complete stranger to him, Lincoln (Sylvester Stallone), who claims to be his father based only on a photo of himself and Mike's mom. </p><p>While driving in the truck, Mike exits, runs across the highway, a car almost hits him, but he is chased after and caught by Lincoln who holds him and understands ("<i>I hate you!</i>" - "<i>Then hate me, we have to start someplace!</i>"). Wouldn't anyone from the driving cars stop and inquire about a man chasing after a little kid running away from his truck on the highway? The reason or motive for why Lincoln abandoned and never saw Mike in person was never explained. Equally as questionable are such weird moments as when Lincoln gives the 12-year old Mike the order to drive the truck in the street or to persuade him to himself participate in arm wrestling with random teenagers in a video game arcade, even though the kid clearly doesn't want it. In a way, there is a certain symbolism here: Lincoln represents the middle, working class, while grandfather Cutler represents the upper class, and Mike thus has to decide in which camp he belongs to. Lincoln "forces" Mike to be more humble, down to Earth, to "twitch" him out of the 'spoiled brat' mindset. Yet, these elements were not done in a good way. The arm wrestling finale is banal and too routine, with the typical happy ending for the underdog, yet even that isn't that bad and has its flair.</p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Grade:+</span></p>Marin Mandirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17535059667967149300noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2838281116940856351.post-63808441555582867972024-03-09T09:42:00.008+01:002024-03-09T09:45:02.567+01:00Still Alice<p><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMGrnboo9wNMSUnsg0SUk4qtq8peUsrZLI26qU7Jqdjvbw8e-rQM_cy_PuVjzp2BnObuHUSjT-0AHbC9tY3XLMSVnJGvHYpQABSveEXd4TXH1h7_vncgE7JyEx2s4cnwIGvy-XSqCNVOqkXsrvptTQJJaJjp3fqZ3EGL-R8eSO9fwchmDp0QWcsmfNlKs/s385/Still_Alice_-_Movie_Poster.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="385" data-original-width="259" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMGrnboo9wNMSUnsg0SUk4qtq8peUsrZLI26qU7Jqdjvbw8e-rQM_cy_PuVjzp2BnObuHUSjT-0AHbC9tY3XLMSVnJGvHYpQABSveEXd4TXH1h7_vncgE7JyEx2s4cnwIGvy-XSqCNVOqkXsrvptTQJJaJjp3fqZ3EGL-R8eSO9fwchmDp0QWcsmfNlKs/s320/Still_Alice_-_Movie_Poster.jpg" width="215" /></a></b></div><b>Still Alice; drama, USA, 2014; D: Richard Glatzer, Wash Westmoreland, S: Julianne Moore, Alec Baldwin, Kristen Stewart, Kate Bosworth, Hunter Parrish</b><p></p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhX9-6b-tBJlDNvbT85DmccuJ9JRjbd4aNyjH2N0i2_USEacg30sei2ZfbtBL9TJz-ntgLTWeji0_2NbJrE8AwoXcbGys0pHMBxpNL-K6_JhA9IXdvJxNwGTF5C8tihYw7jMOUKcRnbB_LRQ_LdeCPMM3TOSpI4vO7uSRt8Gdri9x5_FHvWXnDi4pjzmDA/s172/stil%200-0-3-1.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="33" data-original-width="172" height="33" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhX9-6b-tBJlDNvbT85DmccuJ9JRjbd4aNyjH2N0i2_USEacg30sei2ZfbtBL9TJz-ntgLTWeji0_2NbJrE8AwoXcbGys0pHMBxpNL-K6_JhA9IXdvJxNwGTF5C8tihYw7jMOUKcRnbB_LRQ_LdeCPMM3TOSpI4vO7uSRt8Gdri9x5_FHvWXnDi4pjzmDA/s1600/stil%200-0-3-1.png" width="172" /></a></p><p>Linguistics professor Alice (50) starts experiencing strange memory losses and goes for a medical check, where she is diagnosed with early Alzheimer's disease, inherited from her genetics. Her husband John tries to support her, as do her grown up kids Tom, Anna and Lydia, a struggling actress. Alice tries to slow down the process via mental tests, but her state becomes worse and worse. John leaves to accept a job at Mayo Clinic. Lydia takes care of Alice when the latter is not able to talk anymore. </p><p>Based on the eponymous novel by neuroscientist Lisa Genova, co-directed by Richard Glatzer who himself suffered from a neurodegenerative disease and died shortly after completing the film, "Still Alice" is a dark and depressive film about the consequences of Alzheimer's disease, giving a lot of effort in conjuring up an authentic and, appropriately, unpleasant film depiction of such a mental state. However, overall it is still just a "one-gimmick" film where the one standout component, Julianne Moore's excellent performance, overshadows everything else, since the whole film is much more relevant sociologically than cinematically. There isn't that much inspiration in cinematic techniques or dialogues, settling only for a standard, albeit emotionally devastating story. A few editing tricks would have been welcomed: for instance, it would have been a much more powerful reveal if they didn't show Alice making a video for her later self with instructions how to take a full jar of pills and commit suicide the first time, since the second time makes it less intense. Nontheless, the viewers can engage and feel compassion with Alice's plight from which there is no escape, and thus the ending is very touching, and luckily avoids turning into melodrama most of the time. </p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Grade:++</span></p>Marin Mandirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17535059667967149300noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2838281116940856351.post-48747380161821716062024-03-08T13:27:00.001+01:002024-03-08T13:27:14.551+01:00China Moon<p><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgirVd2cJhQfpc1QWPDmaqIzFcruWrsMFM9qYsQN5DzIuCMOekQLKCZxDaeNdUK3HyAfdS4oyUi8S-W7C2NQW-UHMSgiHvTZ_wvDWv1cMkzxRHJgDCV-fNp0QKDp-GFlIGk3EFlhgVXU3Nk1NKaMggyoGUP7K4BHy1Y2rRKVxd_jTm6d32FrpMZ7OQ_nRA/s387/China_moon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="387" data-original-width="258" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgirVd2cJhQfpc1QWPDmaqIzFcruWrsMFM9qYsQN5DzIuCMOekQLKCZxDaeNdUK3HyAfdS4oyUi8S-W7C2NQW-UHMSgiHvTZ_wvDWv1cMkzxRHJgDCV-fNp0QKDp-GFlIGk3EFlhgVXU3Nk1NKaMggyoGUP7K4BHy1Y2rRKVxd_jTm6d32FrpMZ7OQ_nRA/s320/China_moon.jpg" width="213" /></a></b></div><b>China Moon; crime, USA, 1994; D: John Bailey, S: Ed Harris, Madeleine Stowe, Benicio del Toro, Charles Dance, Patricia Healy</b><p></p><p>Veteran homicide detective Kyle Bodine mentors the young detective Lamar Dickey on a crime scene, claiming that criminals always make a mistake. Kyle meets Rachel and falls in love with her, but she is married to the arrogant Rupert. Rachel flees to a hotel in Miami, but returns and shoots Rupert, persuading Kyle to not report the murder and hide the corpse in the lake. The police investigate Rupert's disappearance, and although Kyle cleaned all traces in the house, find a 38 mm bullet in the wall, the same Kyle uses. The corpse is found. Kyle discovers Rachel cooperated with Lamaer to spy on her husband, and that Lamar framed him by inserting the 38 mm bullet in the corpse. When Kyle insists Lamar give him his gun back, the police arrives at the parking lot and shoot Kyle. An angry Rachel takes the gun and shoots Lamar.</p><p>Made in the tradition of classic Hollywood film noirs in the 30s and 40s of the 20th century, the feature length directorial debut film of cinematographer John Bailey is a proportionally well made modern "update" of said subgenre, staying true to its foundations. Ed Harris is great in a rare leading role as homicide detective Kyle who falls in the typical 'love ploy' of the married Rachel who tricks him into aiding and abetting the murder of her husband. The first half an hour are bland and routine, exhausting a little bit the goodwill of the viewers, yet once the murder happens, the various plot twists start to engage dramatically, and numerous set-ups lead to a satisfaying payoffs. One such set-up is that Kyle often chastises his young new partner Lamar (Benicio del Toro) for not noticing little details at the crime scene, only to later on regret it when Lamar starts unexpectedly noticing clues in the murder of Rachel's husband, all leading to implicating Kyle himself. The sole sequence where Kyle attempts to clean all traces of the murder Rachel's husband at his home is brilliant, showing how Kyle meticulously extracts a bullet from the wall and paints it over, dumps the corpse in the lake and throws the gun at the top of a truck, which drives off. Kyle is thus shocked when Lamar observes that the perpetrator could not have buried the corpse, since it was raining the entire day, and how Rachel is lying about the broken window, which is jammed. Kyle even shoots at a sand dune, to later retrieve the bullet, compare it with the alleged bullet found in the corpse, and conclude he was framed. The ending is somewhat underwhelming and lukewarm, yet "China Moon" has more than enough virtues to confirm that it is a quality film.</p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Grade:++</span></p>Marin Mandirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17535059667967149300noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2838281116940856351.post-28843115892310015542024-03-06T18:30:00.002+01:002024-03-06T18:33:18.537+01:00Mr. Jones<p><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgotyUyuepRyqDb53Y8jYWHuLLf_1prD_CuhdET9yNqHp_H7zr26rbHIzAXlCfVQ2qi5KJuyHRIgBOUhMLMZ5ishLLK1kaWaGAF_QOIyoKNq7brLVgNMOaQa570UgFXTQHKlV6DXauLUHO3wVxhJzsnmHGggCzvgSVwjHkIw74KxsCWvWB7ubhaOI6hKtw/s330/Mr._Jones_(2019_film).jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="330" data-original-width="220" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgotyUyuepRyqDb53Y8jYWHuLLf_1prD_CuhdET9yNqHp_H7zr26rbHIzAXlCfVQ2qi5KJuyHRIgBOUhMLMZ5ishLLK1kaWaGAF_QOIyoKNq7brLVgNMOaQa570UgFXTQHKlV6DXauLUHO3wVxhJzsnmHGggCzvgSVwjHkIw74KxsCWvWB7ubhaOI6hKtw/s320/Mr._Jones_(2019_film).jpg" width="213" /></a></b></div><b>Mr. Jones; historical drama, Poland / Ukraine / UK, 2019; D: Agnieszka Holland, S: James Norton, Vanessa Kirby, Peter Sarsgaard, Kenneth Cranham, Joseph Mawle</b><p></p><p>After interviewing Adolf Hitler, aspiring Welsh journalist Gareth Jones wants to travel to Moscow to interview Joseph Dzhugashvili Stalin, the bright hope of communism. Jones obtains a visa and reaches Moscow, where he meets New York Times correspondent Walter Duranty who informs him that all foreign journalists are not allowed to leave the capital or inquire about what happens across the Soviet Union. While traveling in a train with Soviet foreign minister Litvinov, Jones secretly boards another train and exits in Ukraine. He witnesses Holodomor, Ukrainians dying because the communists confiscated their food. Back in Moscow, Litvinov warns Jones not to tell anyone about the famine or six British engineers will be executed. Jones defies and warns what happened, even though the public ignores him. After media mogul William Hurst publishes his story, it gains widespread attention. </p><p>While other countries have foreigners making adulation and tribute movies about them, Russia is stuck with almost every second foreign movie damning and vilifying it and its criminal history. One such example is Agnieszka Holland's biopic "Mr. Jones" about Gareth Jones, one of the rare foreign journalists witnessing Holodomor, the second worst genocide in human history. It starts off with bright colors, depicting Jones initially having naive hope in communism and Stalin, until he arrives to Soviet Union and slowly sobers up, realizing it is a degenerate dictatorship, whereby the colors become grey and bleak, until Jones comes to warn people about the dangers of communism. it is a pity the crucial segment—showing Jones encountering corpses on the ground and people starving due to famine in Ukraine—is too meagre and spans only around 15 minutes of the film's running time, since a more elaborate depiction of this rarely mentioned crime would have been better. The rest of the film is more of a contemplation about journalistic integrity, 'ostrich effect' and pliability of various interest groups in Britain who ignored Soviet crimes in order to insist on an economic cooperation with the Soviet Union, embodied in the cowardly character of Walter Duranty, the New York Times correspondent who became a Stalinist collaborator and Holodomor denialist-propagandist in the media. The ploys, lies, ideological fundamentalism and threats of Soviet officials feel familiar even today. While more inspiration and a tighter narrative would have been welcomed, "Mr. Jones" is a well made history lesson.</p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Grade:++</span></p>Marin Mandirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17535059667967149300noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2838281116940856351.post-43579026261186577932024-03-05T16:26:00.005+01:002024-03-05T16:39:25.646+01:00The House on Chelouche Street<p><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiucLmFbIRQWo1Y0SE0ju_pDhY5R2Rs0l09mjPXGvLEeYzDTNKGkXnfOKn6eDYSEKFuUUWgEoKaSjVRYVuD1JS7D9ctYMw47z8TUidgziBkP9nsVE_vrcjB7HfQHwAsYeDRl9cj7AybdXPSCOn3NY3PrSsZ6MzXJTLyv3gHMigDapnDz0khmbTrJ4jQC0A/s350/House_on_Chelouche_Street_poster.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="350" data-original-width="224" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiucLmFbIRQWo1Y0SE0ju_pDhY5R2Rs0l09mjPXGvLEeYzDTNKGkXnfOKn6eDYSEKFuUUWgEoKaSjVRYVuD1JS7D9ctYMw47z8TUidgziBkP9nsVE_vrcjB7HfQHwAsYeDRl9cj7AybdXPSCOn3NY3PrSsZ6MzXJTLyv3gHMigDapnDz0khmbTrJ4jQC0A/s320/House_on_Chelouche_Street_poster.jpg" width="205" /></a></b></div><b>Ha-Bayit Berechov Cheleuche; drama, Israel, 1973; D: Moshe Mizrahi, S: Ofer Shalhin, Gila Almagor, Yosef Shiloach, Michal Bat-Adam, Shaike Ophir, Rolf Brin</b><p></p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgt3vJPp7x07TryNjMI_T94SVqb3pOKNMGtlAN6vPGsGNryOQEENCR8nfjJej4PqfYbqrfV_D0jz1mGb3te1hm0cdxbg4bcwdvDoJhWBxEUlnoVHzstdt0xNovjN7nB5taMpx1dNNKHngyc1kjzB8-npmo2WwANKnXv4SErMPhYla_kbprunW6dI3akB3E/s172/Stil%201-0-2-1.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="33" data-original-width="172" height="33" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgt3vJPp7x07TryNjMI_T94SVqb3pOKNMGtlAN6vPGsGNryOQEENCR8nfjJej4PqfYbqrfV_D0jz1mGb3te1hm0cdxbg4bcwdvDoJhWBxEUlnoVHzstdt0xNovjN7nB5taMpx1dNNKHngyc1kjzB8-npmo2WwANKnXv4SErMPhYla_kbprunW6dI3akB3E/s1600/Stil%201-0-2-1.png" width="172" /></a></p><p>Tel Aviv, 1 9 4 7. Sami (15), his brother and two sisters live with their widowed mother Clara. All were wealthy Egyptian Jews who immigrated to British Mandate of Palestine and now live in poverty, in a small apartment. Clara works as a cleaning lady. Sami skips school and finds a job as a locksmith to earn money for the family, but a communist employee, Max, starts a strike, thereby halting the workshop. Sami meets librarian Sonia (25) who becomes his first love interest. He also joins the Jewish independence paramilitary group Irgun. The British soldiers arrest Nissim, who was courting Clara. As the Israeli War of Independence is about to start, and the Arab clashes start, Sami enlists into the Jewish military and leaves his home.</p><p>A semi-autobiographical, gentle 'coming-of-age' drama by Moshe Mizrahi, "The House on Chelouche Street" is an overall good, albeit standard film with underwritten, mediocre dialogues. A lot of the threads are connected to the specific Jewish mentality and (immigration) history, depicting a 'rough' and problematic emergence of proto-Israel: the Egyptian Jewish family were wealthy, but had to "shock adapt" to a different life in Tel Aviv where they live in poverty in a small apartment (the five of them sleep in one bedroom), whereas Mizrahi creates a good reconstruction of the rarely depicted life in the British Mandate of Palestine. Teenage protagonist Sami undergoes a crash course in growing up, from skipping school, finding a job, meeting his first love, and then having to enlist to military to fight in the war. In one notable, but somewhat banal moment, mother Clara serves dinner to her four kids, but the daughter protests: "<i>Why does Sami get to have meat?</i>" Clara responds: "<i>Because he is the only one who works, he needs energy</i>". Sami takes pity, grabs the meat from his plate and places it on his sister's plate. The sister eats it, but Clara slaps her for punishment. Except for a beautiful 4-minute love / sex sequence between the bashful Sami (15) and librarian Sonia (25) in bed, some halfway into the film, the rest is solid, yet somewhat routine, without major artistic lift-offs, making "Chelouche" not that different than many other similar films, though Mizrahi's sympathies for the characters are endearing.</p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Grade:++</span></p>Marin Mandirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17535059667967149300noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2838281116940856351.post-80183588851262995682024-02-29T16:37:00.002+01:002024-02-29T16:37:42.030+01:00Tatort: Reifezeugnis<p><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP0ibMqLheX5y799Grqbjqb0mQjoAgnH4Hfp11_XtrjXXJtZECrNXbZYr411ciJRSofXlS7pn5vD1J_C2jcvcZ7_4yfWK0VrXA3ehql956q5ywAcHoouWYEYJQYwQXxuusQxXN-VRch0CWreg1rUsPD1vbgXVfCmTqqxyDwQSdvF3C_xpM79N3dfXuaFk/s1000/819t5pmptZL._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="744" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP0ibMqLheX5y799Grqbjqb0mQjoAgnH4Hfp11_XtrjXXJtZECrNXbZYr411ciJRSofXlS7pn5vD1J_C2jcvcZ7_4yfWK0VrXA3ehql956q5ywAcHoouWYEYJQYwQXxuusQxXN-VRch0CWreg1rUsPD1vbgXVfCmTqqxyDwQSdvF3C_xpM79N3dfXuaFk/s320/819t5pmptZL._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg" width="238" /></a></b></div><b>Tatort: Reifezeugnis; crime, Germany, 1977; D: Wolfgang Petersen, S: Nastassja Kinski, Christian Quadflieg, Klaus Schwarzkopf, Judy Winter, Markus Boysen</b><p></p><p>Teenage girl Sina Wolf (17) has a secret love affair with her married high school teacher Helmut Fichte (32). While secretly meeting and kissing at the lake, they are seen by Michael, the classroom student in love with Sina. Michael blackmails Sina, threatening to cause trouble for Helmut unless Sina has sex with Michael. In the forest, while he wanted to force himself on her, Sina takes a rock, hits Michael in the head and kills him. Police Commissioner Finke is on the crime scene, but Sina lies that an unknown man attacked her and killed Michael who tried to protect her. Finke tricks her by presenting the corpse of a recently killed rapist, whom Sina identifies as her attacker, but the man died outside of Germany. When his wife pressures him, Helmut finally ends his relationship with Sina, who writes a letter confessing the murder and tries to kill herself in the lake, but she can swim, so she is found alive and well by Finke, Helmut and his wife.</p><p>Before his departure to Hollywood, German director Wolfgang Petersen delivered one of the most popular editions in the long TV-movie series "Tatort", episode #73, "Reifezeugnis" (roughly translated as "Graduation Diploma"), which caused quite a controversy when Nastassja Kinski appeared in two short scenes topless even though she was only 15 years old at the time, making the decision questionable. However, overall it is a clever, quiet, sophisticated and quality made crime TV-movie about the always popular topic of a teenager having an affair with a teacher from school, evenly crossing from crime drama to a romance, and back, whereas Kinski demonstrates a surprisingly strong acting ability. Little details will force the viewers to pay twice as much attention than usual (for instance, the information that Kinski's character Sina found a drawing of a suspected rapist in the newspaper and used his appearance to invent her attacker is presented in only one scene), and the relationship between Sina and teacher Helmut has certain sparks (in one scene, while they are both in bed, Sina recounts how in six years she plans to be a teacher, and to have a baby by the age of 25, thereby looking at Helmut and kissing him before leaving the bed). Unfortunately, the second half loses its energy and interest, dwindling in overstretched sequences of 'empty walk', indicating that the story should have been shorter, until it settles for a conventional second half. Bizarrely, police commissioner Finke has been demoted to practically a supporting character who doesn't get much screen time, and is thus underused. </p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Grade:++</span></p>Marin Mandirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17535059667967149300noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2838281116940856351.post-84299708600480222722024-02-26T20:54:00.005+01:002024-02-28T18:34:54.256+01:00Hill 24 Doesn't Answer<p><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTUARFYL3VOd5wGTjfWr0ZSfeo7XRCNalXeqZSOfVDWqGTBn9AdLqM7TPuLIqkuXtFmC8acoySoTljgdxSRYAJE5fhc9Mo1PjbOWW_rSOGx29DNHPMVEDIMw7TUXJpqDsrwdqjdMdRAKp5FD97ull4Uuq8tbkihsrTc2izS9n7_48XjuXsWrZiyZ9IHNg/s960/hill-24-doesnt-answer-md-web.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="726" data-original-width="960" height="242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTUARFYL3VOd5wGTjfWr0ZSfeo7XRCNalXeqZSOfVDWqGTBn9AdLqM7TPuLIqkuXtFmC8acoySoTljgdxSRYAJE5fhc9Mo1PjbOWW_rSOGx29DNHPMVEDIMw7TUXJpqDsrwdqjdMdRAKp5FD97ull4Uuq8tbkihsrTc2izS9n7_48XjuXsWrZiyZ9IHNg/s320/hill-24-doesnt-answer-md-web.jpg" width="320" /></a></b></div><b>Giv'a 24 Eina Ona; war drama, Israel, 1955; D: Thorold Dickinson, S: Edward Mulhare, Michael Shillo, Haya Harareet, Michael Wager, Zalman Lebiush, Margalit Oved</b><p></p><p>Israeli War of Independence. Four soldiers—James Finnegan, Goodman, David and Esther—die securing a Jerusalem hill for Israel. Their stories are told in flashback: during the British Mandate of Palestine, British police officer James was ordered to find Jewish suspects who blew up a radio station. He followed Berger to a house, owned by Miriam. Instead, James fell in love with Miriam, and volunteered for the Jewish army. American Goodman arrived for a tourist visit, but was so fascinated by the Jews he joined them in the war, and when he was wounded, he met Esther. David fought in the Negev desert, and stumbled upon an ex-Nazi who was wounded and died in a cave. The four die, but the UN observers accept the hill as secured for Israel. </p><p>Sometimes regarded as the first film of cinema of Israel, included in the book "1001 Movies You Must See", "Hill 24 Doesn't Answer" is biased and idealized, yet still a surprisingly well made film with more than enough good stylistic ideas by British director Thorold Dickinson. The sole opening is already inventive: the heads of four dead volunteers—James, Goodman, David and Esther—are shown lying on the ground, but as each of their names are read out aloud off screen, this is juxtaposed with sudden cuts to each one of them standing up into the frame, alive, as the movie then goes to a flashback when they were alive and called upon in the office to secure the hill from the title in a daring military expedition. Dickinson has also other cinematic techniques which give the movie spark, even though they are sparse: for instance, 19 minutes into the film, Miriam is inside her house, and then approaches closer to the camera, which is followed by an aesthetic match cut to her same position in frame while in another location, the office, sent for interrogation. </p><p>Other, "proper" ideas are also well done, such as when a British official, dressed as a civilian, is secretly spying on Miriam, but she just jokingly turns his newspaper upside down, since he cannot read Hebrew script. The story has a lot of sympathy for Jews, even making a parallel with an exodus when the wounded Jewish soldiers have to leave East Jerusalem after the Arabs captured it in the battle, which somewhat strays from the objective point of view at several instances. A major omission is that three of the four protagonists were shown in the flashback, except for Esther who is sadly neglected and doesn't get her own story or a more in-depth character development. The most bizarre flashback involves David, who fought in the Negev desert and captured a man in a cave who turns out to be an ex-Nazi, who admits: "<i>I just want to fight. Anybody... anything! I did not learn anything else!</i>" Despite some banalities, the movie is much more competent than expected, and is honest in its depiction of the rarely talked about creation of Israel, as well as the British Mandate of Palestine which preceded it.</p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Grade:++</span></p>Marin Mandirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17535059667967149300noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2838281116940856351.post-83625067426383082832024-02-18T14:00:00.004+01:002024-02-19T17:59:04.600+01:00The Castle<p><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikGUHXK2dVhcNiZrTX9qHPqMBtejZHMqqV9-C_mo3XRDdy9i5_yNJG-CFWKPwHZ6nPce0EtBfrSHvgVwZaRutzlO1BMICVKXnNB_hEqVJh-aY3D3tL4SwlvdUTKWBtrw0yk9-PgT-oq5sWf-7dibcfgyoIqNUWBtab0Wr3SleER67T4PnlnSz7HOhR4lg/s1000/81o1vQfF35L._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="708" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikGUHXK2dVhcNiZrTX9qHPqMBtejZHMqqV9-C_mo3XRDdy9i5_yNJG-CFWKPwHZ6nPce0EtBfrSHvgVwZaRutzlO1BMICVKXnNB_hEqVJh-aY3D3tL4SwlvdUTKWBtrw0yk9-PgT-oq5sWf-7dibcfgyoIqNUWBtab0Wr3SleER67T4PnlnSz7HOhR4lg/s320/81o1vQfF35L._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg" width="227" /></a></b></div><b>The Castle; comedy, Australia, 1997; D: Rob Sitch, S: Michael Caton, Anne Tenney, Stephen Curry, Sophie Lee, Anthony Simcoe, Tiriel Mora, Bud Tingwell, Eric Bana</b><p></p><p>Darryl Kerrigan, the father of a family living in a house in a suburb of Melbourne, is informed by the government authorities that he has to leave his home since the nearby airport is planned to be expanded on his land. Darryl protests and hires a friend, a freelance lawyer, Dennis, to represent him in court, but the judge rejects his complaint. Unknown thugs come at night to pressure Darryl to accept the offer, and then his car windshield is smashed. Upon hearing about his plight, a retired lawyer, Hammill, accepts to represent him for free and files an appeal at the High Court of Australia in Canberra. The case is ruled in Darryl's favor, who gets to keep his house, and his kids and wife rejoice.</p><p>One of the most popular Australian films domestically, "The Castle" works due to the fact that it is able to appeal both towards the specific local cultural mentality—the attempted eviction of a family from their house is reminiscent of the Australian dispossession of the native Aborigines, thereby imbibed in historical subconsciousness—and universal audience—since anyone in any country can identify with a father who would protect his home. Written in a rather thin, too rudimentary and overstretched way, where the director Rob Sitch and screenwriters seemingly cannot agree upon if they should present this story in the form of a legal court battle or "practical battle" on the field, the film is still fun to watch and appeals thanks to its likeable characters, with Michael Caton standing out as dad Darryl. Too much of the time is focused on "off-topic" moments which don't have anything to do with the eviction threat, yet they are still amusing (dad complimenting mom's cooking, saying to the kids that they don't need to waste their money on restaurants when they can get such good food at home; dad jokingly trying to help his now-grown up daughter to make it in show business by saying how he should send a tape of her when she was a two-year old to the Home Videos). The highlight is the "serious" court battle led by veteran lawyer Hammill (excellent Bud Tingwell) who gives an outstanding speech in front of the judges. Later on, during a break, the moved Darryl looks at Hammill and says: "<i>I wish I had your words</i>". More humor and inspiration would have been welcomed, yet overall this is still a charming little film about the fight for your own rights.</p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Grade:++</span></p>Marin Mandirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17535059667967149300noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2838281116940856351.post-68345014266053252402024-02-12T10:31:00.013+01:002024-02-16T19:29:30.853+01:00The Zone of Interest <p><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqIUv_52UhjiI144w2iTm-ro93hRU25XI8pJWDqpyKo88kYayinmIpDPnRgsw8TGwY_61HylqlRBa5Gc98KbZXqSe4VzXMhjGxefZ9bfTz6lwmYB55wcNtsDu9FmKrooxpUiC9sarxKea5YDj3xKJemBmy3OKMBscga3W9G4VRLy6630quyEN6dDrBDlg/s2250/MV5BYzRmOGQwZjktYjM2Ni00M2NmLWFlZDYtZGFhM2RkM2VhZDI1XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTM1NjM2ODg1._V1_.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2250" data-original-width="1500" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqIUv_52UhjiI144w2iTm-ro93hRU25XI8pJWDqpyKo88kYayinmIpDPnRgsw8TGwY_61HylqlRBa5Gc98KbZXqSe4VzXMhjGxefZ9bfTz6lwmYB55wcNtsDu9FmKrooxpUiC9sarxKea5YDj3xKJemBmy3OKMBscga3W9G4VRLy6630quyEN6dDrBDlg/s320/MV5BYzRmOGQwZjktYjM2Ni00M2NmLWFlZDYtZGFhM2RkM2VhZDI1XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTM1NjM2ODg1._V1_.jpg" width="213" /></a></b></div><b>The Zone of Interest; war drama / art-film, USA / UK / Poland, 2023; D: Jonathan Glazer, S: Christian Friedel, Sandra Hüller, Ralph Herforth, Daniel Holzberg</b><p></p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDSWssQWnsxAUp7iAcOdlmth1wDcrgFunoLSkI7ed9up6PnTAFiSeQAEh__SAEwRNBGtq7b0kbM2GSqgqnfdoG1wOM26bDGKpTl2Ys7gwUFrWb-T7c2oCJbaSEAX0aWdZ8ozhb6imkvauCjStuKqG1AN_meij9V8_yPeyX47MhocqvkyNbm-qe3NBlpEI/s172/Stil%200-1-0-3.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="33" data-original-width="172" height="33" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDSWssQWnsxAUp7iAcOdlmth1wDcrgFunoLSkI7ed9up6PnTAFiSeQAEh__SAEwRNBGtq7b0kbM2GSqgqnfdoG1wOM26bDGKpTl2Ys7gwUFrWb-T7c2oCJbaSEAX0aWdZ8ozhb6imkvauCjStuKqG1AN_meij9V8_yPeyX47MhocqvkyNbm-qe3NBlpEI/s1600/Stil%200-1-0-3.png" width="172" /></a></p><p>Auschwitz concentration camp, World War II. Nazi commander Rudolf Höss lives in his private house situated right next to the camp, separated by a wall and barbed wire. Rudolf and his wife Hedwig take care of their five children, their garden, and chat with visitors dropping by for a drink. Sometimes, they go far a picnic in the nearby forest and swim in the river. Rudolf is angry that his superiors want to move him away to Oranienburg for another job, because he wants to stay in the house. At a Nazi confference, a new asignment of deportation of Jews to Auschwitz is ordered, and Rudolf is happy he can return back to his home. He walks downstairs and almost vomits.</p><p>"The Zone of Interest" is one of the most atypical movies about Auschwitz—most of Holocaust films go for showing the direct horrors of it, while this one sets its framework to only imply it. Not a single murder or crime from within the concentration camp is shown, as its main focus is to just show the 'detached' mentality of its perpetrators, the Nazi commander and his family living peacefully in their house right outside the camp. The ever-growing contradiction of such scenes as his wife Hedwig showing sunflowers, pumpkins and cabbage in the garden to a visitor, who calls it a "dream garden", while the walls with barbed-wire of the concentration camp is seen in the background reaches grotesque levels, thereby dwelling on such issues as ostrich effect and cognitive dissonance, as people living in a totalitarian dictatorship tend to utterly deny inconvenient truth and just shut themselves out in their own ideological world of state propaganda which tells them that everything is ideal. While the director's Jonathan Glazer's previous film "<a href="https://moviecritic2000.blogspot.com/2017/08/under-skin.html">Under the Skin</a>" was an art-film gone wrong, "The Zone of Interest" is an art-film done right. He uses wide and medium shots, and mostly static camera to give a distanced, deliberately cold approach towards these people, refusing a single close-up shot, which works congruently since they are not three-dimensional characters—they are narrowed-down pawns of a dictatorship. It is incredible how such a disturbing story is told in such a calm, tranquil way: Glazer shows an almost underserved subtlety in approachng this theme, resisting to directly attack this ideology, yet everything is clear, maybe precisely because of such a restrained vision where evil is implied only in what is outside the frame. Two unusual sequences stand out stylistically from the rest of the story, yet one can understand why Glazer included them. A nutritional, cultured and elevated art-film about the normalization of evil.</p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Grade:+++</span></p>Marin Mandirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17535059667967149300noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2838281116940856351.post-60799818548135887762024-02-11T12:50:00.006+01:002024-02-11T12:50:39.855+01:00Captain Phillips<p><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqesyHCQTHH7vOpU_wLyLCtulioMKXi2CLNAicNkt5M9_krAL8sTFuGXho0gubafzKL_oE7J4U6P4-K8iHo0Nzv2pKIAKWv9Tk3CP6wHc-9FN5yB7nBJ-r0JqL3L8H-8eAbujgVWSz_mOsGSzMbU-mFHr_rxYAcuqC9TIFUtaQ6j7PVoaduB-zG_0gbUo/s326/Captain_Phillips_Poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="326" data-original-width="220" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqesyHCQTHH7vOpU_wLyLCtulioMKXi2CLNAicNkt5M9_krAL8sTFuGXho0gubafzKL_oE7J4U6P4-K8iHo0Nzv2pKIAKWv9Tk3CP6wHc-9FN5yB7nBJ-r0JqL3L8H-8eAbujgVWSz_mOsGSzMbU-mFHr_rxYAcuqC9TIFUtaQ6j7PVoaduB-zG_0gbUo/s320/Captain_Phillips_Poster.jpg" width="216" /></a></b></div><b>Captain Phillips; thriller-drama, USA, 2013; D: Paul Greengrass, S: Tom Hanks, Barkhad Abdi, Barkhad Abdirahman, Faysal Ahmed, Michael Chernus, David Warshofsky, Catherine Keener</b><p></p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHTZ_GkwkPvzyyOHBs4cXcfchW8EE0pNITbsEUMMjmyh31hlrESS-TdwPf1J4nreZ40VTKIGzA6XmiaZS0GYP5ek6MCGOg2bWN8Ug_hrh193lURBUKw3HUDVowDD-oXaxhQffwmRYlYbXYMiFNgOvBn6bP0yJouhhBW9BnIcMl9jv-d6GhzU2YDcXcWfA/s172/Stil%200-2-1-3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="33" data-original-width="172" height="33" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHTZ_GkwkPvzyyOHBs4cXcfchW8EE0pNITbsEUMMjmyh31hlrESS-TdwPf1J4nreZ40VTKIGzA6XmiaZS0GYP5ek6MCGOg2bWN8Ug_hrh193lURBUKw3HUDVowDD-oXaxhQffwmRYlYbXYMiFNgOvBn6bP0yJouhhBW9BnIcMl9jv-d6GhzU2YDcXcWfA/s1600/Stil%200-2-1-3.jpg" width="172" /></a></p><p>Captain Richard Phillips says farewell to his wife in Massachusetts and takes a plane to a port in Oman, from where he will navigate Maersk Alabama container ship to Mombasa. During the journey, a boat with four armed Somali pirates led by Abduwali Muse boards the ship. Phillips orders all the crew to hide in the engine room, while he and his associates are taken hostages. The crew takes Muse hostage, but he and his men manage to escape and take Phillips with them on a lifeboat, trying to bring him to the Somali territory in order to demand a 10 million $ ransom. The lifeboat is surrounded by the US Navy which ostensibly takes Muse in for negotiations, yet the snipers use this opportunity to kill the other three Somali pirates and free Phillips.</p><p>A gripping and intense film depiction of the Maersk Alabama hijacking, "Captain Phillips" is another valuable contribution to the director Paul Greengrass' opus, who uses nervous, dynamic, shaky, hand-held camera to create an almost documentary outlook of these events, and in this case, it works fully. The cinematography delivers gorgeous images of the ocean and the container ship, as well as the port which gives the viewers the idea of a scale of the international transportation business in modern economy, under pressure by their bosses to deliver luxurious shipments in time, contrasting it with ugly, "dirty" images of the Somali village where the poor rural inhabitants, including Abduwali Muse, are pressured by their boss to engage in piracy and hijacking in order to pay him his warlord tax. Some of the details are sharp (the container ship uses two dozen hoses to spray water all around itself and try to chase the pirate boat away; Phillips talks to Muse while holding the pressed button of the walkie-talkie so that his ship crew, which is hiding, can hear where the pirates intend to search for them; one of the pirates is barefoot, so the crew puts broken glass on the floor in the dark, to incapacitate him) and all contribute to the three-dimensional reconstruction of the event. The second half, where Phillips is held hostage with the four pirates on a lifeboat in the ocean, is weaker, though, since the movie ends up feeling too 'raw': everything is done right, yet it is all too simplistic and schematic, as if the movie stops just at being sufficiently entertaining, without trying to pursue some deeper layers. At best, we only find out something more about the characters when Phillips and Muse have this philosophical exchange: "<i>There's gotta be something other than being a fisherman and kidnapping people</i>." - "<i>Maybe in America, Irish</i>." Despite routine, banal dialogues, "Captain Phillips" still exceeds in its visual feel and gripping events.</p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Grade:+++</span></p>Marin Mandirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17535059667967149300noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2838281116940856351.post-66500325368629658552024-02-09T17:21:00.003+01:002024-02-09T17:21:21.948+01:00The Diary of Diana B<p><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGS8ZpZn6Xn1nERTP-m8_HBApFGMSaFEKzSvnOUlaRgfI_JyYO9K8oqjB16Z42dbxCielbudRJGSxF0kTHel237MYhqjLG48QWfPwbKppKY3dJOxwaAxYh7_q2Rhv4G58sTkHRiNZYnkzkiii7sw-kjvi3NMPR_bzGi7yVIveJUAJFtiyqS_HtctEqdhU/s565/zzoxkrd6g4s3nlgbnqh4l2ag4pcywqtl.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="565" data-original-width="400" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGS8ZpZn6Xn1nERTP-m8_HBApFGMSaFEKzSvnOUlaRgfI_JyYO9K8oqjB16Z42dbxCielbudRJGSxF0kTHel237MYhqjLG48QWfPwbKppKY3dJOxwaAxYh7_q2Rhv4G58sTkHRiNZYnkzkiii7sw-kjvi3NMPR_bzGi7yVIveJUAJFtiyqS_HtctEqdhU/s320/zzoxkrd6g4s3nlgbnqh4l2ag4pcywqtl.jpg" width="227" /></a></b></div><b>Dnevnik Diane Budisavljević; documentary-drama, Croatia, 2019; D: Dana Budisavljević, S: Alma Prica, Biserka Ipsa, Igor Samobor, Tesa Litvan, Jelena Puzić, Mirjana Karanović, Krešimir Mikić, Vili Matula</b><p></p><p>Zagreb, World War II. Austrian nurse Diana Budisavljevic, married to Serb doctor Julije Budisavljević, hears of thousands of Serb children being held in concentration camps by the Ustasha and Nazi dictatorships. While the Jewish inmates receive help from the Jewish community, the Serb children receive nothing. Diana thus decides to establish her own association to give food, medicine and clothing to Serb children in the Lobor-Grad camp. Various people give donations in her apartment. She organizes that 10,000 malnourished children are relocated from the concentration camp to Zagreb, where they are temporarily adopted by families, and she keeps a record of all the names so that the children can be reunited with their parents after the war. However, after the war, the new Communist dictatorship despises her because she is an Austrian, and confiscates her records with the names, which were never found afterwards.</p><p>Docudrama "The Diary of Diana B" is an intruiging film adaptation of the "rediscovered" diary of the forgotten humanitarian Diana Budisavljevic who saved 10,000 Serb children from the concentration camps during World War II, and the director Dana Budisavljevic (related to her through Diana's husband Julije Budisavljevic) crafts an honest, noble, respectful, emotional, yet also objective depiction of this historical episode. The movie is divided in two parts: one half is a narrative film with actors playing these roles; the other is a documentary interviewing four child survivors from the concentration camps, now old people. This blend works somewhat, though the narrative part feels strangely routine, schematic, bland and mechanical, almost as a PowerPoint presentation, lacking some drama or passion. The testimonies of the survivors have some harrowing moments: for instance, a woman recalls how she and another kid would routinely receive five or six beans in their bowl for lunch, and would argue if one of them got one bean more than the other one. Another survivor recalls how he never found out when or where he was born, nor who his parents were. A lot is done to depict how Diana not only had to go through political, but also through bureaucratic obstacles as none of the institutions could fathom that someone was willing to help these Serb children, yet it also slyly implies how all dictatorships are rotten and detrimental to humankind (during World War II, Diana was despised by the Nazis for being a humanitarian, while after the war she was depised by the Communists for being an Austrian). "The Diary of Diana B" is more relevant humanistically-thematically than cinematically, yet it still offers a valuable reconstruction of an altruistic deed.</p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Grade:++</span></p>Marin Mandirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17535059667967149300noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2838281116940856351.post-24756429832779561672024-02-03T12:37:00.003+01:002024-02-03T14:23:25.482+01:00Anatomy of a Fall <p><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeUIAzaUNlny_1ftpW7UKFguWrAvpM6emJxEB6Ha7IIb2tf84mgSn5RhiReLfv5yzLcgu_bRk0qFT8DZJ_h2cBKJpApJAXaJ_ZsykCzaeDOeXcpYHGI_WS_r7bFb5RNLmoMIejlRDfWgaNpFSjYiV-w4BE1m3FxCOcaLk-nRPjeloaEhb6NPVXHyIAnYY/s300/Anatomy_of_a_Fall_(2023)_film_poster.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="220" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeUIAzaUNlny_1ftpW7UKFguWrAvpM6emJxEB6Ha7IIb2tf84mgSn5RhiReLfv5yzLcgu_bRk0qFT8DZJ_h2cBKJpApJAXaJ_ZsykCzaeDOeXcpYHGI_WS_r7bFb5RNLmoMIejlRDfWgaNpFSjYiV-w4BE1m3FxCOcaLk-nRPjeloaEhb6NPVXHyIAnYY/s1600/Anatomy_of_a_Fall_(2023)_film_poster.jpg" width="220" /></a></b></div><b>Anatomie d'une chute; legal drama, France, 2023; D: Justine Triet, S: Sandra Hüller, Swan Arlaud, Milo Machado Graner, Antoine Reinartz, Samuel Theis</b><p></p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP8kbm_UB2bHVzvJiyYZ5p1yWwl272qDRM__K4wE8xaDkQeNGlEspCS9zLiYcvJN_DXFm-iZAoGtb9gn-DNcHYaAoy76lNoYeRi5GhgeVo0Eesq-Q9has1mTWnxvJkrCEccBFwW5Zjz9zf-tBp3gu7MqcTwFCNXfQzI0sSD6jqJWLYrKTkQfK7LChxeHk/s172/Stil%200-1-2-2.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="33" data-original-width="172" height="33" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP8kbm_UB2bHVzvJiyYZ5p1yWwl272qDRM__K4wE8xaDkQeNGlEspCS9zLiYcvJN_DXFm-iZAoGtb9gn-DNcHYaAoy76lNoYeRi5GhgeVo0Eesq-Q9has1mTWnxvJkrCEccBFwW5Zjz9zf-tBp3gu7MqcTwFCNXfQzI0sSD6jqJWLYrKTkQfK7LChxeHk/s1600/Stil%200-1-2-2.png" width="172" /></a></p><p>Sandra Voyter is a German writer married to Samuel, a French writer, and they live with their visually impaired son Daniel and his guide dog Snoop in a mountain house in the Alps. One day, Samuel is found dead on the ground, and the police assume he fell from the third floor and hit his head on the ground. Due to suspicious circumstances, the prosecutor indictes Sandra for murder. She is defended by lawyer Vincent in court. Details emerge that Sandra and Samuel would often argue, and that she had affairs. However, Daniel testifies that Samuel implied of committing suicide months ago, and thus the court acquits Sandra, ruling Samuel's death as suicide.</p><p>Court drama "Anatomy of a Fall" gained a somewhat disproportionate critical acclaim during its time of release—everything here is done just right, proper and correct, and yet, it's all too conventional and standard to enthuse on a higher level. It's somewhat of a testament that modern movies need to have something unique and unusual to offer to stand out from the rest. The first hour of the story is the best: "Anatomy of a Fall" starts, appropriately, with a tennis ball falling down the stairs, creating an engaging 'whodunnit' investigation story in which the police and investigators try to figure out how Samuel died outside of his house, trying out several experiments (they throw a puppet tied to a rope from the third floor of the house to see if it will bounce the same way Samuel's corpse did; they have Samuel's wife Sandra talk a written dialogue inside the house, playing loud music, and having the son Daniel try to hear what she is saying...) to review, deduct and reconstruct what happened. The second hour plays out inside the courtroom, yet here the story becomes somewhat routine—while it is still interesting listening to the prosecutor and defense giving their arguments in front of the judge, it cannot have a permanent value and effect on the second viewing experience. Only once does the director Justine Triet offer some more creative directorial intervention to give it a higher dimension: in the scene where the court plays the audio tape of Sandra's and Samuel's argument in the house, and as the camera observes the faces of the people in court, it suddenly "cuts" to said scene of argument in a flashback. The bizarre moment in which Daniel gives 8-10 aspirin pills to his dog Snoop, almost killing him, makes no sense. The last half an hour needed some better plot twist or idea than we got. "Anatomy of a Fall" is a polished, aesthetic and fluent courtdrama, yet it would have been much more effective if it had been released thirty years ago.</p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Grade:++</span> </p>Marin Mandirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17535059667967149300noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2838281116940856351.post-55715172214698128122024-02-02T13:13:00.013+01:002024-02-07T18:48:39.767+01:00The Grey Zone<p><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3_QVnhsMdraH4ocD8zEtTMyvxWa53GVHpqgFs9RiXk2po52tXAhMdkRnVUkWRtCSXpVQOLtqfLKL53AOvSrRXeiJCOefyiWaCD5KTkl8v1AHAsZDKaZmGMI8KkSEy28xMICJk3fU5BEbfTVBoScMOxQTLxqTYU6euEvgBvDwnJTE6Z3MyR0wzxzO_1AM/s379/Greyzonethe.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="379" data-original-width="262" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3_QVnhsMdraH4ocD8zEtTMyvxWa53GVHpqgFs9RiXk2po52tXAhMdkRnVUkWRtCSXpVQOLtqfLKL53AOvSrRXeiJCOefyiWaCD5KTkl8v1AHAsZDKaZmGMI8KkSEy28xMICJk3fU5BEbfTVBoScMOxQTLxqTYU6euEvgBvDwnJTE6Z3MyR0wzxzO_1AM/s320/Greyzonethe.jpg" width="221" /></a></b></div><b>The Grey Zone; war drama, USA, 2001; D: Tim Blake Nelson, S: David Arquette, Allan Corduner, David Chandler, Harvey Keitel, Steve Buscemi, Daniel Benzali, Mira Sorvino, Natasha Lyonne, Michael Stuhlbarg</b><p></p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT5tS8Cnr1SSTsDSYI8Xia3tazwiL6fQK66cXswYwoIZ_OMvOX4z2D89LJ2TsCVXG5VTbZViz6hzaddvhBg0APeKP7XE2kvE-jwOxy9ruU9hHjGO1WVcLiuUe_dUikitdwIekrkYYW05tPadiA_NIX6PeioLERH0-v-vz-2_N8BjHYLtsfVn-WhGwHfrI/s172/Stil%200-3-1-3.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="33" data-original-width="172" height="33" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT5tS8Cnr1SSTsDSYI8Xia3tazwiL6fQK66cXswYwoIZ_OMvOX4z2D89LJ2TsCVXG5VTbZViz6hzaddvhBg0APeKP7XE2kvE-jwOxy9ruU9hHjGO1WVcLiuUe_dUikitdwIekrkYYW05tPadiA_NIX6PeioLERH0-v-vz-2_N8BjHYLtsfVn-WhGwHfrI/s1600/Stil%200-3-1-3.png" width="172" /></a></p><p>Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, World War II. Hungarian-Jewish Dr. Miklós Nyiszli works for the Nazi Dr. Josef Mengele dissecting corpses in the hopes that his own family will be spared from death. Jews and other prisoners are being brought to the camp, killed in gas chambers, and then the Jewish <i>Sonderkommando</i> throws their corpses in the crematoria and removes the ash. Tired of this complicity, several <i>Sonderkommando</i> members, including Hoffman, Abramowics and Max, secretly smuggle gunpowder and weapons to start a rebellion, but this plan is stalled when they cannot agree upon if they only want to blow up a crematoria or try to escape. In the end, the start a rebellion to just blow up parts of the camp, but are arrested and executed by the Nazis.</p><p>Just like most of Holocaust movies, "The Grey Zone", included in Roger Ebert's list of Great Movies, is an appropriately dark, depressive and disturbing film which shows a fall of a civilization, a dictatorship creating a hell on Earth, based on the eyewitness account of Dr. Miklos Nyiszli who worked in Auschwitz. Its main theme is, obviously, the contemplation about pure evil and the search for good, but there is also another one: how far would people go in their conformity, how much of their own integrity would they be willing to sacrifice, just to save their own life? This is illustrated in a (negatively) unforgettable sequence, where Hoffman recounts a story of a man in Auschwitz who became a <i>Sonderkommando</i> member, and helped push the naked corpses of his wife, his daughter, and even his own grandchildren into the fire of the crematorium, only to save his own skin and continue living in the concentration camp. The whole movie is a slow-burning rebellion of these <i>Sonderkommando </i>members, Jews who helped kill other Jews just to postpone their own ineviateble death for a few more months, who awaken against their own pliability, show bravery, and decide to at least <i>try</i> to make a difference. </p><p>The director Tim Blake Nelson crafts several traumatic sequences, all the more harrowing when one has in mind that they were not invented, but actually happened: Hoffman, a <i>Sonderkommando</i> member, lies to the newly arrived inmates that they will only have a "shower", that "one lice can be fatal to them", to "remember the number where they hanged their coat", and that they will see their family members as soon as they are cleaned, only for all these naked people to enter the gas chamber, the <i>Sonderkommando</i> close the door, lock it—and from there onwards only screams from the inside are heard—parallel with Hoffman sitting outside the door, ashamed. In another electrifying sequence, a Nazi official lines up a hundred women out in the field, and starts shooting them one by one, unless the two women who smuggled gunpowder reveal their plan to him—in order to stop these shootings, the two women commit suicide, one by jumping on the electric fence, the other aiming the machine-gun of the Nazi and shooting herself. Harvey Keitel is great as the SS officer Muhsfeldt, who uses the power of his command just as a prosthesis of his own ego and narcissism, as well as Steve Buscemi as inmate Abramowics. There is no optimism here. Everything in the story is depressive from start to finish, and just becomes more and more depressive. All the inmates who arrive at this concentration camp will not escape it alive. "The Grey Zone" is an unpleasant, but essential cinema that gives a three-dimensional depiction of a horrible historical event—and a meditation on passivity, servility and forced choice. </p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Grade:+++</span></p>Marin Mandirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17535059667967149300noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2838281116940856351.post-84768488601744316632024-01-29T20:50:00.005+01:002024-01-30T09:21:53.635+01:00Killers of the Flower Moon<p><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYa6tCPMRlKEDW5EB_XfG0dwhJY4JKqfuhaZ0d0M1zIoi6uPtqHF-lWRTKAjdWwMY0OUcHkfG3U4J1ZccZLtC-Se7oW8JCJa1Dh6roEh9xySYocu8b6rMYrEMMGvgcHdAgDUCfcK4Qcg6cv-oyYpPyJ0DTr076u6HAg-JLiQuDN682GqH-cTpS_Y7w5VM/s387/Killers_of_the_Flower_Moon_film_poster.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="387" data-original-width="258" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYa6tCPMRlKEDW5EB_XfG0dwhJY4JKqfuhaZ0d0M1zIoi6uPtqHF-lWRTKAjdWwMY0OUcHkfG3U4J1ZccZLtC-Se7oW8JCJa1Dh6roEh9xySYocu8b6rMYrEMMGvgcHdAgDUCfcK4Qcg6cv-oyYpPyJ0DTr076u6HAg-JLiQuDN682GqH-cTpS_Y7w5VM/s320/Killers_of_the_Flower_Moon_film_poster.jpg" width="213" /></a></b></div><b>Killers of the Flower Moon; crime-drama, USA, 2023; D: Martin Scorsese, S: Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Lily Gladstone, Jesse Plemons, Tantoo Cardinal, Cara Jade Myers, William Belleau, Tatanka Means, JaNae Collins, Ty Mitchell, John Lithgow, Brendan Fraser</b><p></p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwMJEIYdbTq4HURzo3N31eIoQErq4TEoyb4wUHPMKbk7GUflxLA7Wu-AsSottiJK_gKCG6FiD4FrJ7LCMDQTNLukewkuZ7VnpaC91CWi4cm4wtPP7MpfHhSt3pUxoRxwa4IBu1kzjOjez7bmEViYGvI47W9SzRolwgkRwZhBzgIrN60bvPc4RFn5nCxNs/s172/Stil%200-2-2-2.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="33" data-original-width="172" height="33" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwMJEIYdbTq4HURzo3N31eIoQErq4TEoyb4wUHPMKbk7GUflxLA7Wu-AsSottiJK_gKCG6FiD4FrJ7LCMDQTNLukewkuZ7VnpaC91CWi4cm4wtPP7MpfHhSt3pUxoRxwa4IBu1kzjOjez7bmEViYGvI47W9SzRolwgkRwZhBzgIrN60bvPc4RFn5nCxNs/s1600/Stil%200-2-2-2.png" width="172" /></a></p><p>Oklahoma, 1 9 2 0s. War veteran Ernest Burkhart moves in to live with his uncle William King Hale, who persuades him to meet and marry Osage Native Indian woman Mollie. Ever since the Osage Indians found oil on their land, they became rich, yet the law mandates that they must have a white legal guardian who "approves" their expenses. Ernest and Mollie get three kids. As numerous Osage Indians get murdered under mysterious circumstances one by one, but no investigation is taken, Mollie and others campaign to President Calvin Coolidge for help, who sends an FBI team. Ernest gives poison to Mollie hidden inside the insulin at the behest of Hale. They discover Hale ordered the murders so that he and his white associates will inherit all the oil rights and get its money. Hale is arrested and Ernest decides to testify against him in the court. Both are sentenced.</p><p>A fascinating reconstruction of an unjustifiably forgotten historical event, "Killers of the Flower Moon" is a movie made out of conscience and sense for justice, a one that picked up this real-life case from anonymity and made it timeless and unforgettable. The bizarre conspiracy scheme in which white men married Osage Indian women, then killed their family members little by little to inherit all the oil rights and their wealth is a dark chapter in American history, and it is wonderfully charitable and noble from director Martin Scorsese to create this movie monument to the victims of this crime. It is in a way a 'social issue-movie' and 'social activism-movie', yet it refuses to have its themes as the only ingredient, and instead takes the story, characters and craftsmanship as its center, which gives it versatility. One major flaw is that the crucial character of Mollie is strangely underwritten and underexplored. It almost plays out like a Hitchcock crime film, but its elements also again inadvertently echoe Scorsese's "<a href="https://moviecritic2000.blogspot.com/2007/10/goodfellas.html">Goodfellas</a>" (especially in the finale when Ernest realizes the crime conspiracy might even come after him). </p><p>At 3.5 hours, the movie is definitely overlong and requires a lot of focus, yet at the same time it is difficult to find any sequence that could be cut, since the authors undertook a colossal task of inserting as many details as possible since all these moments happened and were not fictional. Scorsese directs the movie in a rather standard, routine way, with only some scenes having that ingenuity from his earlier career (such as the owl entering inside the house, as a symbol for incoming death), yet when the storyline is so intruiging and engaging as here, nothing much could have been added to it, anyway. Robert De Niro is great as the hypocritical villain Hale who publicly feigns to be a good friend of the Osage Indians, even offering financial reward for any information about the murders, yet secretly plots and schemes to hire killers to eliminate certain Indians as for the chips to fall into his favor. In one memorable scene, Hale is sitting in his car, telling instructions: "<i>Tell Ramsey it's time. We're off to Fort Worth</i>." As Ernest just stares at him with a blank, confused face, Hale angrily adds: "<i>Look at me like this makes sense.</i>" "Killers of the Flower Moon" is as close to a modern movie coming to that coveted 'golden age of Hollywood' style as it gets, taking its time to create a blend of all the right stuff to deliver a nutritional, mature product.</p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Grade:+++ </span></p>Marin Mandirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17535059667967149300noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2838281116940856351.post-40695740574578587912024-01-27T13:16:00.002+01:002024-01-28T13:00:34.877+01:00Speaking of the Devil<p><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRLLsIsYFVhmL4wBJ1kezbFC981p56xHhMPQ-z-pvSh6W0fICBJKK_bIT_igEySRpkjdxBOHXJughDzYbvjs2fXci5TBUgQM7xE8q9bElUj0go1yuJ12SieEbmSF8GvctsitZmnkzY8hkuCXItjWXF8H59pFd91JtVbo8aqvYcQX6fQiOQFf2BgoaRSpc/s718/Piede%20a%20paradiso.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="718" data-original-width="510" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRLLsIsYFVhmL4wBJ1kezbFC981p56xHhMPQ-z-pvSh6W0fICBJKK_bIT_igEySRpkjdxBOHXJughDzYbvjs2fXci5TBUgQM7xE8q9bElUj0go1yuJ12SieEbmSF8GvctsitZmnkzY8hkuCXItjWXF8H59pFd91JtVbo8aqvYcQX6fQiOQFf2BgoaRSpc/s320/Piede%20a%20paradiso.jpg" width="227" /></a></b></div><b>Un piede in paradiso; comedy, Italy, 1991; D: E.B. Clucher, S: Bud Spencer, Thierry Lhermitte, Carol Alt, Sharon Madden, Sean Arnold, Diamy Spencer</b><p></p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL0GAJmOUnP385-VkQFvonbdSelBLUDimnxJZsY3TVGWj9_S-URaFC9mLo24HmnAbY5Vt5DJkLYV4DuVnZ_vVjaQm3CuF1AiFQn01Revd1Vdje3Ug1wfyFoDuQP3Gej2_lds-CrZCoV96a0zK8GTdPpYiobKQ2VhgLriuT7wbzTZ2iD6OzckwUXzgbk6g/s172/stil%202-1-1-1.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="33" data-original-width="172" height="33" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL0GAJmOUnP385-VkQFvonbdSelBLUDimnxJZsY3TVGWj9_S-URaFC9mLo24HmnAbY5Vt5DJkLYV4DuVnZ_vVjaQm3CuF1AiFQn01Revd1Vdje3Ug1wfyFoDuQP3Gej2_lds-CrZCoV96a0zK8GTdPpYiobKQ2VhgLriuT7wbzTZ2iD6OzckwUXzgbk6g/s1600/stil%202-1-1-1.png" width="172" /></a></p><p>Florida. Bull Webster is the owner of a small taxi company under the crunch of a loan shark, Morrison, who wants to buy the company and then destroy it. Debt is not Bull's only problem, since his daughter Candice returns to his home with a baby, yet the father is unknown. The forces of good and evil decide to test Bull's soul: an angel, in the form of a man, Victor, and the devil's henchman, in the form of a woman, Veronica, go to Earth and contact Bull. When a passanger cannot pay for the taxi fare, and thus gives Bull 10$ and a lottery ticket which later hits the 150 million $ jackpot, Bull's wife is kidnapped and taken for ransom. Bull however cannot find the ticket, until Victor tells him he hid it in his blue jacket, but it is gone. After a huge chase, Morrison threatens to shoot Victor if Bull doesn't give him the lottery ticket. Bull gives in, and thus the angel wins the match against the devil. Luckily, Bull beats the distracted Morrison, regains the ticket and uses it to open a new limousine company.</p><p>E.B. Clucher's 7th and final film collaboration with Bud Spencer, "Speaking of the Devil" is one of the best Spencer films: set in Florida to give it a sense of an American touch, filled with numerous good little jokes and a gentle story about the clash between selfishness and altruism without turning preachy, this is an overall really well done achievement. Even though Spencer's career was heading towards its sunset in the 90s, Clucher gave it one last go and delivered a fine film. The concept of the devil and an angel fighting over the soul of a protagonist has been done numerous times, for instance in Dragojevic's even better film "<a href="https://moviecritic2000.blogspot.com/2008/12/were-no-angels.html">We're No Angels</a>" released a year later, yet it still feels fresh due to the authors' positive energy, innocent charm and snappy character interactions. In one good gag, the attractive Veronica invites the protagonist, taxi driver Bull, to her hotel room, and then they have this exchange: "<i>Are you free?</i>" - "<i>No, I'm married</i>." - "<i>I meant your cab</i>." - "<i>He's not married!</i>" Upon hearing on the TV that he won the 150 million $ jackpot, Bull drops everything at the bar, rushes to his car, crashes through his fence in the backyard, and then even smashes the front door of his house open to maniacally search for the lottery ticket in his jacket. The finale, where Bull and Victor are driving in the car to get back home to stop the washing machine with said jacket inside before the timer activates it to wash, has even a clever idea: since they cannot make it in time, Bull simply takes a "shortcut" to the local power station and causes a room to explode, as to turn off electricity in the entire city and disable the washing machine. A light, somewhat overstretched, yet still sympathetic comedy that puts a smile on your face.</p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Grade:++</span></p>Marin Mandirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17535059667967149300noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2838281116940856351.post-5347488890601478832024-01-26T17:08:00.004+01:002024-02-25T12:55:51.526+01:00Even Pigs Go to Heaven<p><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi6jitRVJ_CMsduh0ZsiNm_ZZtxHqZNcV8rFGpI_j1ZjzRJOJ20DpTDMGFjg0NBqQkx-j0iNyR5NJu-VGIMFtM40IIxG6kU3j87-tZtGEJibSwhxr9rXWUrZG4LJVYwkYgB0q3f-gIIzUsQpwrNEL_caKeaHSVXFssI12NwfKRs3ZJLLKQ674oYo6Tq5k/s300/Nosila_je_rubac_%C4%8Drleni_Plakat.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="212" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi6jitRVJ_CMsduh0ZsiNm_ZZtxHqZNcV8rFGpI_j1ZjzRJOJ20DpTDMGFjg0NBqQkx-j0iNyR5NJu-VGIMFtM40IIxG6kU3j87-tZtGEJibSwhxr9rXWUrZG4LJVYwkYgB0q3f-gIIzUsQpwrNEL_caKeaHSVXFssI12NwfKRs3ZJLLKQ674oYo6Tq5k/s1600/Nosila_je_rubac_%C4%8Drleni_Plakat.jpg" width="212" /></a></b></div><b>Nosila je rubac črleni; comedy, Croatia / Macedonia, 2022; D: Goran Dukić, S: Nataša Dorčić, Tesa Litvan, Branko Meničanin, Ljubo Zečević, Areta Čurković, Dora Polić, Ljubomir Kerekeš</b><p></p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzI3dwiLMofSNHdfU1_tbwSZu0W5JK0DUiKZTmBI0Juf86vrQ8q3D_9MMA-BceOfrZrgMYwqb-eGs5S01CjIjfpxkFx4aXjbwmglHy5FA_VL5yBmlsW6Gh4B2VNCdbXs5V4Bf_xvdYrkaBRfV3TIedgwsYS3vglvbhJ96_xFSPqgpYrwIF6XG9wff_PM8/s172/stil%202-0-1-2.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="33" data-original-width="172" height="33" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzI3dwiLMofSNHdfU1_tbwSZu0W5JK0DUiKZTmBI0Juf86vrQ8q3D_9MMA-BceOfrZrgMYwqb-eGs5S01CjIjfpxkFx4aXjbwmglHy5FA_VL5yBmlsW6Gh4B2VNCdbXs5V4Bf_xvdYrkaBRfV3TIedgwsYS3vglvbhJ96_xFSPqgpYrwIF6XG9wff_PM8/s1600/stil%202-0-1-2.png" width="172" /></a></p><p>Zagorje region. Several stories revolving around a woman, Anka, who lives in a small village: a girl, Ančica, gets pregnant with a local priest, so she hastily marries the dumb Ruda to cover it up... The Croatian War erupts and several men hide in Zagorje to escape the draft, while war planes can be heard in the sky... Anka is the owner of Beba, a talking pig at her farm, and leads her to a neighboring village to breed with a Serb pig, Rocky, yet when an air raid is heard, the two pigs escape into the forest and get lost. Luckily, Anka meets Beba again at a fair near the church... Despite a feud with Ančica, Anka makes up with her and the locals prepare pig meat. Anka shows Ančica's daughter how Beba got her own piglets.</p><p>"<a href="https://moviecritic2000.blogspot.com/2008/02/babe.html">Babe</a>" meets "<a href="https://moviecritic2000.blogspot.com/2007/09/my-sweet-little-village.html">My Sweet Little Village</a>"—unusual surreal comedy "Even Pigs Go to Heaven" (original title: "She wore a red headscarf") about a woman and a talking pig does not even bother to conjure up a real plot, and is instead a loose collection of comical episodes and vignettes that all give a homage to the Zagorje region, neatly depicting their childish mentality and specific customs. Shrill director Goran Dukic ("<a href="https://moviecritic2000.blogspot.com/2012/01/mirta-learns-statistics.html">Mirta Learns Statistics</a>") crafts a wacky film that is not for everyone's taste, yet it has just enough style and sympathetic characters to sway the viewers: from the opening scenes where a man with a bucket splashes the statue of Tito to wash it, through daft dialogues ("<i>Do you think the late Ruža is watching all of this right now from above?</i>" - "<i>Of course! She is dead, she is not blind!</i>"; "<i>If she drowned, I'll kill her!</i>"), up to the bizarre idea of occasional black and yellow animation clips, and even Jesus on the Crucifix as the narrator (!), the movie has personality. Natasa Dorcic is great as Anka, who lovingly talks to her pet pig Beba, and their interactions and dialogues (for instance, when Beba hears about Virgin Mary giving birth, and assumes it was done through artificial insemination) are the highlight of the film. The funniest joke is when the women are having a party outside, in the backyard of the farm, and then even chickens start talking while observing them: "<i>Have they gone crazy?</i>" - "<i>Let them! It's better they sing than that they... fry!</i>" The chaotic narrative where certain subplots just come and go, and basically everything just stays the same, has its shortcomings, yet the film has an overall such a contagious tone at times that one is willing to forgive its flaws to enjoy in its virtues.</p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Grade:++</span></p>Marin Mandirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17535059667967149300noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2838281116940856351.post-75660407797533902012024-01-25T18:26:00.002+01:002024-01-25T18:29:16.328+01:00Spy X Family (Season 1)<p><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifs72D1vL-mXpGyL2_HxCMEJZWVZMJbG0gwU1CoxfkT8Gp81DKNQRjd9hjwIqUcpQjqIj_SPxehC_zUxlOlzcofYWtwyUdZNZVuIuWs1yT2Oowv1rx8-lr-eW0M7FrNblwFeLeDZIrP5EMQ-LxfpbG_-HQ6D7MGPG1n8z1WK1E9EKDqiZ6gBl0qEivB00/s267/download.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="267" data-original-width="189" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifs72D1vL-mXpGyL2_HxCMEJZWVZMJbG0gwU1CoxfkT8Gp81DKNQRjd9hjwIqUcpQjqIj_SPxehC_zUxlOlzcofYWtwyUdZNZVuIuWs1yT2Oowv1rx8-lr-eW0M7FrNblwFeLeDZIrP5EMQ-LxfpbG_-HQ6D7MGPG1n8z1WK1E9EKDqiZ6gBl0qEivB00/s1600/download.jpg" width="189" /></a></b></div><b>Spy X Family; animated spy comedy action series, Japan, 2022; D: Kazuhiro Furuhashi, S: Takuya Eguchi, Atsumi Tanezaki, Saori Hayami, Hiroyuki Yoshino</b><p></p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvKWxLU9s147Rvnd-edjFE8xd6ptrR5emH2bVYzyZDmJfNBZhfJDgi9tiCXxHEc6QvZ3Jec3lFxqBFMLeu0103AOnzf1fNLCOEgXzs5V86i94CbBLDRkhSkjSfAgP89i9i7kJTy0L-m8h93bimB3NLNZ54mDvsxA25jZwq06OSQtzc-RsJI6ZkMwzX6h4/s172/Stil%202-2-1-1.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="33" data-original-width="172" height="33" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvKWxLU9s147Rvnd-edjFE8xd6ptrR5emH2bVYzyZDmJfNBZhfJDgi9tiCXxHEc6QvZ3Jec3lFxqBFMLeu0103AOnzf1fNLCOEgXzs5V86i94CbBLDRkhSkjSfAgP89i9i7kJTy0L-m8h93bimB3NLNZ54mDvsxA25jZwq06OSQtzc-RsJI6ZkMwzX6h4/s1600/Stil%202-2-1-1.png" width="172" /></a></p><p>Westalis and Ostania are two "twin countries" divided by one being a democracy and the other a dictatorship. Since Ostania's state official Desmond is suspected of having a dangerous plan, Westalian top spy Twilight is given an unusual assignment: to "create" a fake family and send his kid in the same class as Desmond's son, leading him to Desmond. Twilight is thus given a new identity as Loid Forger, a psychiatrist, and marries Yor, a woman who is secretly an assassin. He also adopts a little girl, Anya, and sends her to the private school to befriend Desmond's son. They are also later joined by a big dog that can see the future. In the end, Twilight is just barely able to talk to Desmond personally, who appears briefly with his bodyguards.</p><p>An amusing comedy take on the spy era of West and East Germany during the Cold War set in an alternate universe, "Spy X Family" seems as if the story was aimed to appeal to two utterly separate audiences: one obviously intended for the grown ups who understand the socio-historical context, and the other perplexingly intended for kids in elementary school. As such, these two disparate levels of the storyline clash sometimes badly with each other. The 'grown ups' story works, especially in the first two episodes which are excellent—each of the three protagonists who pretend that they are a family have something to gain from it (Twilight is only there for "professionalism" to spy on the politician; Yor is a lonely woman who wants to impress her co-workers at job who gossip as to why she is still single, to deflect from her secret identity as an assassin; Anya doesn't want to be an orphan), and each motivation has its purpose and a logic. </p><p>The 2nd episode is especially delicious: Yor waits for Twilight for their date, but he is preoccupied with fighting villains on another location. Yor finally goes alone to a party, where her co-workers all have a date, and some even have their kids with them, so Yor is ashamed, sitting alone in the corner, as everyone thinks she lied she has a boyfriend. Just as a disappointed Yor wants to leave early, Twilight suddenly breaks the door open and enters the room, with blood (!) on his face, apologizing because he had to "restrain" a crazy patient, and accidentally blunders by saying Yor is his wife, which shocks everyone at the party, yet obviously makes Yor very proud and happy, giving her significance. The writing somewhat falters after that. Another great episode is #7 when Twilight goes to school and secretly tries to persuade Anya to apologize to Desmond's son, whom she punched earlier, so Anya sees Twilight's "SORRY" message everywhere—either being chopped in cypress trees, written on a note attached to a kid's back, or even written via ketchup on omelette in the cantina. Unfortunately, for some reason, when the story revolves around the 7-year old Anya in elementary school, it plays out like a kids' show, since the plots revolving around arts and class, Anya going shopping with her friend or getting instructions are simply boring and uninteresting. She is like Chibiusa from "Sailor Moon" in this anime. Also, Yor is underwritten, when she is one of the most fascinatingly unusual characters. Considering that very little is discovered by the end of the first season, and that there are too many 'filler' or 'empty walk' episodes, "Spy X Family" is an anime that is good, yet could have been much better if the authors were more focused on its better parts.</p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Grade:++</span></p>Marin Mandirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17535059667967149300noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2838281116940856351.post-26633295505925502472024-01-20T18:00:00.003+01:002024-01-20T18:00:30.915+01:00Marty<p><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8zHjvPv2TnFpor3Y1sekVDIR8bT4Y3gzSgCjJVIlf0RzHJaRi09UFs-sgVfqYhPZmtEATnK8-8wSysmfWwffMcdwjIKMZStkSKhpM5hDkCcUSjukpt3SuSas-wlY2uQZ2YKJ2qjLyJoLbQXI0y2r3W0tgRDpe2BauYiap84SciiVH-MaYDO-lnvYWHBI/s1200/Marty-321225693-large.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="900" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8zHjvPv2TnFpor3Y1sekVDIR8bT4Y3gzSgCjJVIlf0RzHJaRi09UFs-sgVfqYhPZmtEATnK8-8wSysmfWwffMcdwjIKMZStkSKhpM5hDkCcUSjukpt3SuSas-wlY2uQZ2YKJ2qjLyJoLbQXI0y2r3W0tgRDpe2BauYiap84SciiVH-MaYDO-lnvYWHBI/w221-h320/Marty-321225693-large.jpg" width="221" /></a></b></div><b>Marty; drama, USA, 1955; D: Delbert Mann, S: Ernest Borgnine, Betsy Blair, Esther Minciotti, Augusta Ciolli, Joe Mantell</b><p></p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaKKOtAEiM3cyQWjtQBoEpu9t1d1fQ3gd4_bOUIPElWZ-1OWbw-r_xu7AhDz5LKlaIHW4JRaqeGEYb0wgC9gB_SxnUVk2G-5cvUV9Yx1MQsJbJayEZJEXO6JzRrhmbjGa0ffDRBgCBIotb5lx6UCyPBJ-iZKmSCCyXVIntVFHkxpJ0fG1ehyphenhyphenDdoftMH9Q/s172/stil%200-0-2-2.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="33" data-original-width="172" height="33" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaKKOtAEiM3cyQWjtQBoEpu9t1d1fQ3gd4_bOUIPElWZ-1OWbw-r_xu7AhDz5LKlaIHW4JRaqeGEYb0wgC9gB_SxnUVk2G-5cvUV9Yx1MQsJbJayEZJEXO6JzRrhmbjGa0ffDRBgCBIotb5lx6UCyPBJ-iZKmSCCyXVIntVFHkxpJ0fG1ehyphenhyphenDdoftMH9Q/s1600/stil%200-0-2-2.png" width="172" /></a></p><p>The Bronx. Marty is a 34-year old butcher who lives with his mother and is under pressure to get married since all his five siblings already did. He calls a woman he met a month ago, but she rejects him. On Saturday evening, his friend Angie persuades him to go to a dance hall to meet women. When Clara (29) gets dumped by her date, a guy who found a better looking girl, Marty comforts her and they dance together. Marty and Clara talk and like each other, as he tells her he plans to buy the meat store he is working in. Marty's mother accepts her sister Catherine to live in the house, since her son Thomas is married to Virginia and they want to have privacy. Mother and Angie try to talk Marty out of seeing Clara again since she is ugly, but he still calls her again.</p><p>The first noticeable screenplay by screenwriting Paddy Chayefsky ("<a href="https://moviecritic2000.blogspot.com/2015/12/the-hospital-emphysema.html">Hospital</a>", "<a href="https://moviecritic2000.blogspot.com/2008/10/network.html">Network</a>"), "Marty" is an honest, quiet, sincere little drama, yet today doesn't seem that fresh anymore, proving once again that a movie revolving only around a person's private feelings isn't enough to be fully cinematic. Its taboo theme of an incel is emotional and tragic, since the title character is a kind and honest soul, and he is played wonderfully by Ernest Borgnine, whereas the story shows how two ugly people, Marty and Clara, manage to nullify their "curse" by joining forces and becoming a couple. There is a great little sequence of mother and Marty talking during dinner, as he finally snaps to says out loud his suppressed pain of loneliness towards her ("<i>Ma, sooner or later, there comes a point in a man's life when he's gotta face some facts. And one fact I gotta face is that, whatever it is that women like, I ain't got it... All that ever happened there was girls made me feel like a bug! ...I'm just a fat, ugly man</i>."), which is electrifying and devastating at the same time. Yet besides that, the rest of the movie is pretty thin and banal, since nothing ever comes close to this sequence, and the storyline plays out like a standard melodrama at times, which feels underwritten for Chayefsky's talent. The subplots of Marty's mother accommodating her sister or Marty's friend talking about novelist Mickey Spillane don't really bring anything to the film. "Marty" is more valuable as a sociological study than as a cinematic experience, yet it has a sympathetic side to it.</p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Grade:++</span></p>Marin Mandirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17535059667967149300noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2838281116940856351.post-85911135320106346052024-01-16T20:09:00.003+01:002024-01-16T20:19:53.010+01:00Shaun of the Dead<p><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9QGDZPi4SbH4nq0RvLlgiDO2KuiHr3d_KYUofZXUyZHfH1lHX4eAg0qVhVakqk2hHU2wV0kJO92Bak4Q3IUU2oWhWXIGm_8CicNozSnIneXVbmE_-lrxDA92GEz6-Nqbaee2fWUUpNRInUIxWhtAaVxY3USwLm_PFJXJvxk73pjkmt0I6i8mFgg2s_S4/s1000/81dDhohgmlL._AC_UF894,1000_QL80_.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="636" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9QGDZPi4SbH4nq0RvLlgiDO2KuiHr3d_KYUofZXUyZHfH1lHX4eAg0qVhVakqk2hHU2wV0kJO92Bak4Q3IUU2oWhWXIGm_8CicNozSnIneXVbmE_-lrxDA92GEz6-Nqbaee2fWUUpNRInUIxWhtAaVxY3USwLm_PFJXJvxk73pjkmt0I6i8mFgg2s_S4/s320/81dDhohgmlL._AC_UF894,1000_QL80_.jpg" width="204" /></a></b></div><b>Shaun of the Dead; horror comedy, UK, 2004; D: Edgar Wright, S: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Kate Ashfield, Lucy Davis, Dylan Moran, Bill Nighy</b><p></p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5lfEBN4oQGRQXdr9De7At8hf0HrsHX8jM_YPppAQr-HC6LT1ALYQohkfdexPl9cqWa-v779G_0QQjWTsdF0kNk7s6Us43kPgU68cTD62mcbRVJryOGzAG07zfv2t3pXbJyYkQ_oRUZ5vLKcG2lDJpiIgwwpsHmxzOVS5p6ksCbeYU2bCmI3oDbSJCBqA/s172/Stil%202-2-1-1.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="33" data-original-width="172" height="33" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5lfEBN4oQGRQXdr9De7At8hf0HrsHX8jM_YPppAQr-HC6LT1ALYQohkfdexPl9cqWa-v779G_0QQjWTsdF0kNk7s6Us43kPgU68cTD62mcbRVJryOGzAG07zfv2t3pXbJyYkQ_oRUZ5vLKcG2lDJpiIgwwpsHmxzOVS5p6ksCbeYU2bCmI3oDbSJCBqA/s1600/Stil%202-2-1-1.png" width="172" /></a></p><p>London. Shaun, an electronics salesman, is under stress: his girlfriend Liz wants him to ditch his friend and roommate, Ed, who only plays video games all day. The stress becomes even worse when a zombie pandemic breaks out, so Shaun picks up Liz, Ed, Dianne, David, and<span> Shaun's mother, whereas his stepfather has to be abandoned after he was bitten by zombies. The group hides in the Winchester pub, and finds a gun, yet has to shoot Shaun's mother who herself became a zombie. When David and Dianne get killed by zombies, Liz and Shaun flee back to the street, where they are saved by the army. Sometime later, people has beaten the zombies and things get back to normal, while Shaun still holds a zombie Ed hidden in his shack.</span></p><p>Zombie movies have been so overused and excessively exploited to death that it is surprising how the director Edgar Wright and actor-screenwriter Simon Pegg managed to make something new and fresh out it with "Shaun of the Dead", a fun horror comedy that uses the zombie pandemic as a catalyst for character growth and detemination of personality. In this edition, the "zombie intervention" manages to reconcile characters Liz and Shaun who broke up, but teamed up again to stay alive, yet at the same time Shaun never ditches his "third wheel", the slob friend Ed who is even kept in the end, since old habits die hard. Some ideas work (when Shaun and Ed spot the first zombie in the backyard, a woman, they at first assume she is drunk), and most of the jokes are funny (a zombie in a wheelchair; Shaun and the gang pretending they are zombies themselves to simply walk pass hundreds of zombies on the streets; TV clips showing an altered world where zombies are used as participants in survivial game shows), whereas Wright's sense for just plain wacky mood is contagious. However, the movie isn't that inspired, since the typical splatter kills of zombies seem mostly banal, and a more abundance of jokes (and not just the bare happy "hang-out" mood of these characters) would have been welcomed ("<a href="https://moviecritic2000.blogspot.com/2017/07/hot-fuzz.html">Hot Fuzz</a>" is the funnier Wright-Pegg movie). As with most disaster movies, they show the characters what's truly important to them, and here the protagonist realizes he must let go of some habits to embrace the other ones which suit him more.</p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Grade:++</span></p>Marin Mandirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17535059667967149300noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2838281116940856351.post-58795333965444363992024-01-15T20:37:00.001+01:002024-01-15T20:37:34.030+01:00Caesar and Cleopatra<p><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjz6gNB-a7Ka8nmD10PA01Iw5QfAsF8c8l9tWitjpJLup1fj_fGxiB6kXwop6qcEUYgyIGpBT3_nc47EkoZE1KPPPJSoGVSUXwReM6V690P4va7GXLLOk9MP7UPzvBXh6vG7XRXyFQKYVggkg2NKnkSPeIjeVwyxfE48kzMpXvzNePBY5_nXTkG9COR384/s499/MV5BOTJjOTgxYzMtNTM4OS00MDk3LTgwZDItNWY4YjUxNjVjZDNkXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMjQwMDg0Ng@@._V1_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="376" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjz6gNB-a7Ka8nmD10PA01Iw5QfAsF8c8l9tWitjpJLup1fj_fGxiB6kXwop6qcEUYgyIGpBT3_nc47EkoZE1KPPPJSoGVSUXwReM6V690P4va7GXLLOk9MP7UPzvBXh6vG7XRXyFQKYVggkg2NKnkSPeIjeVwyxfE48kzMpXvzNePBY5_nXTkG9COR384/w226-h320/MV5BOTJjOTgxYzMtNTM4OS00MDk3LTgwZDItNWY4YjUxNjVjZDNkXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMjQwMDg0Ng@@._V1_.jpg" width="226" /></a></b></div><b>Caesar and Cleopatra; historical drama, UK, 1945; D: Gabriel Pascal, S: Claude Rains, Vivien Leigh, Francis L. Sullivan, Basil Sydney, Stewart Granger, Flora Robson, Raymond Lovell</b><p></p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh27wyVYjLolRyw8j1G7HGxcYSs5jxt9Aw_MRhB8F-Mq_46QiQsGU5v9wYtm1zlTh9iaMbO7v4YrRgdokDSDoKxnpv-ek99-ErTiTchXv7Hp5obQdfPBnOULHUheIHFKGPNUdExKqsgE4LP8HT-gY4cFjuf9nIzPhNIkfHyt9xQrkxC2VcxK3yXS8jQcY4/s172/Stil%200-1-2-2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="33" data-original-width="172" height="33" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh27wyVYjLolRyw8j1G7HGxcYSs5jxt9Aw_MRhB8F-Mq_46QiQsGU5v9wYtm1zlTh9iaMbO7v4YrRgdokDSDoKxnpv-ek99-ErTiTchXv7Hp5obQdfPBnOULHUheIHFKGPNUdExKqsgE4LP8HT-gY4cFjuf9nIzPhNIkfHyt9xQrkxC2VcxK3yXS8jQcY4/s1600/Stil%200-1-2-2.png" width="172" /></a></p><p>Alexandria, Ptolemaic Egypt, 48 BC. Roman general Julius Caesar arrives with his army and, while walking alone, incognito meets Cleopatra sitting near the Sphinx of Giza during the night. They become friends, and she is later surprised to find out about his identity. Caesar wants to intervene in the dispute of succession by proclaiming both Cleopatra and her 14-year old brother Ptolemy XIII as joint rulers. Achillas and his army attack the royal palace, but Caesar's forces prevail. When Cleopatra orders the murder of Pothinus, Ptolemy XIII's regent, this triggers an angry mob attacking the palace. Caesar's army again prevails, thanks to reinforcements, and then leaves Egypt with his ship, much to the dismay of Cleopatra.</p><p>One of the better movies about the Ptolemaic Queen, with a budget of 5.2 million $, Gabriel Pascal's lavish and exotic spectacle "Caesar and Cleopatra" was at the time of its premiere the most expensive film of its time, even more expensive than the epic "<a href="https://moviecritic2000.blogspot.com/2007/04/gone-with-wind.html">Gone with the Wind</a>" (whose budget was 3.9 million $), and both share the main actress, Vivien Leigh, who is energetic here as Hellenistic Queen Cleopatra. By limiting the story only to the first year of the encounter between Caesar and Cleopatra, and refusing to be historically accurate (bizarrely, Caesar here never falls in love with Cleopatra and even finds her arrogant), the movie feels skewed, meandering at times, whereas the ponderous and theatrical dialogues feel somehow too artificial. Nontheless, the opening sequence is brilliant, albeit entirely fictional—Caesar and Cleopatra meet at the "paws" of the Sphinx of Giza during the night, she doesn't know who he is, and thus mischiviously describes the statue as the "kitten of the Sphinx", whereas the set design gives for aesthetic, esoteric images. When Caesar accompanies Cleopatra to the empty palace throne and recommends she holds a "brave" pose, dressed in queen's clothes, while she awaits for Caesar, she is surprised when the Roman soldiers enter the room and give a salute to Caesar, realizing he was with her the entire time. The reconstruction of the city of Alexandria, with the palace, houses and pillars, is impressive, whereas certain dialogues have sharpness—for instance, Pothinus shows up and says: "<i>I came to warn you of a danger, and to make you an offer</i>", so Caesar replies: "<i>Never mind the danger, make the offer!</i>", while the Roman soldier intervenes: "<i>Never mind the offer, what's the danger?!</i>" Apollodorus also says at one point: "<i>When a stupid man is doing something he is ashamed of, he always declares it his duty</i>." More care should have been given to the chemistry between the two title protagonists, yet the movie has more than enough virtues to warrant a more often mention among the film critics and film lexicons.</p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Grade:++</span></p>Marin Mandirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17535059667967149300noreply@blogger.com0