Remake

Remake; war drama, BiH / France / Turkey, 2003; D: Dino Mustafić, S: Ermin Bravo, Ermin Sijamija, Helena Minić, Aleksandar Seksan, Dejan Aćimović, Lucija Šerbedžija, Miralem Zupčević, Jasna Diklić

Paris. French film producers introduce Tarik, a Bosniak writer of their upcoming film, at a party. He remembers his life a year ago: Sarajevo, March 1 9 9 2. Tarik submits his film script to a French company. When the Bosnian War erupts, Tarik's girlfriend Alma is able to cross into Bosniak-controlled Sarajevo, while Tarik and his father Ahmed are evicted from their apartment in Grbavica by a Serb paramilitary. Tarik is assigned forced labor by digging trenches, but his old friend, Serb Miro, who was forcefully drafted, helps him escape. Tarik is again caught by Serb forces and verbally abused by commander Mišo, his former neighbor. The UN is able to release Tarik from captivity. In Paris, Tarik meets Mišo again and wants to shoot him, but eventually does not. Tarik returns to Bosnia as a soldier, throw a grenade in a Serb bunker and realizes he killed Miro inside. He is also killed in the explosion... 50 years ago, Tarik's father Ahmed is in a relationship with Eva. Appalled by the Nazi and Ustashe persecution of Jews and Serbs in World War II, Ahmed joins Communists and is sent to the Jasenovac concentration camp. He is released by Communist Marko, but Ahmed shoots him upon hearing he accidentally killed Eva when he wanted to assassinate her father. 

Based on writer Zlatko Topčić's allegedly real life events he experienced during the Siege of Sarajevo which he then connected in a parallel story of his father's experience in World War II, "Remake" is a bitter and effective war drama that sardonically contemplates how some historical patterns repeat themselves, and how each new war is basically a remake of a previous one. By showing these two parallel stories that rhyme, the director Dino Mustafic uses several scene transitions to flip-flop between one and the other. For example, in one scene Tarik and his friends observe hundreds of protestors walking on the street of modern Sarajevo, advocating for peace, holding slogans about "brotherhood and unity" and a photo of Tito, which then elegantly transitions to different protestors on the same street protesting against Fascism, in a time jump 50 years earlier. 

Tarik's captivity in a Serb concentration camp, where he is witness of abuse (some fifty prisoners are given only 16 seconds to eat mashed potatoes for lunch, with plates on the ground, and they are not allowed to use their hands, so they eat like dogs) is mirrored with his father Ahmed's captivity in the Ustashe-run Jasenovac concentration camp (with one particularly gruesome scene of dozens of men being lined up naked and ordered to walk outside under the excuse that they will take a bath, only for them to be lined up near a shore where they are killed by being hit with giant hammers from behind and their corpses being thrown into the Sava river), to bring the theme across: war only destroys people and their humanity, and never achieves any benefits to their lives. Circumstances might change, two groups that were allies in the past may become enemies in the future, but unless they disavow violence, this cursed cycle will never end. This is underlined in the subplot where Tarik recognizes his tormentor, ex-Serb commander Mišo (who was, ironically, his neighbor and friend in Sarajevo before the war), in Paris, is tempted to shoot him—but then refuses, thereby outgrowing this atavism. Some bits are a bit didactic, schematic or overstretched, since the theme threatens to "eat" the film's style and storyline, yet Mustafic is able to find a balance, whereas he has a sense for characters who feel alive (in one amusing scene, after an argument caused by Tarik belittling his girlfriend Alma for wrongly guessing a mime game, she just shows him her middle finger: "One word. And it's not the ring finger!"). 

Grade:+++ 

Journey of Hope

Reise der Hoffnung; drama / road movie, Switzerland / Turkey, 1990; D: Xavier Koller, S: Necmettin Cobanoglu, Nur Sürer, Emin Sivas, Yaman Okay, Mathias Gnädinger, Dietmar Schönherr

Eastern Turkey. Haydar and his wife Meryem have seven children, but feel there is no future for them in their village. After receiving a postcard from relative Celam who lives in Switzerland and praises said country, Haydar decides to sell his horse, cows and majority of land to get money to travel there. He at first plans to leave the children with grandparents, but Meryem persuades him to bring their oldest son Mehmet with them. They board a bus to a harbor in Aegean Sea and hide in a shipping container, because Haydar did not inform the agent to buy an extra ticket for the kid. They depart at Naples and take a truck drive to the Swiss border, but get rejected because their passports do not have a visa. In Milan, they contact people smugglers who agree to take them in exchange for Haydar giving them half of his future salary. While trying to cross a mountain, Mehmet dies from cold, whereas Haydar is arrested by the border patrol and sent to jail for investigation.

Roughly based on a real-life incident of a Turkish immigrant who tried to cross into Switzerland in '88, "Journey of Hope" is an interesting road movie depicting immigration to first world countries in a naturalistic manner, and from the perspective of these less fortunate outsiders living in poverty. The director and screenwriter Xavier Koller crafts the film in a raw, rough, astringent, minimalistic and objective way, refusing to slip into sentimentality, always keeping a distance, though he sympathizes with his three heroes and their long journey. At almost two hours, the movie is overlong, and needed more artistic inspiration or creativity to offer a richer viewing experience, since it is rather too simplistic in this edition. Koller builds the film on little gestures and quiet details: upon hearing that Haydar wants to emigrate from Turkey, his father laments: "Even grass comes out with all its roots. Once you've sold everything, you're worth less than this grass. You'll be without roots, a nothing." While stowaways in an Italian ship, Haydar, his wife Meryem and son Mehmet are given a small room to stay, yet since there is a poster of a topless woman on the wall, Haydar covers it discreetly by hanging a towel over it. The best frame is probably the one where, after trying to cross the cold mountain, three Turkish immigrants lean on to a glass window of a hotel, freezing in snow outside, while a man emerges from a swimming pool inside in swim briefs, telling them to go away because the "entrance is closed". Also, in the hotel, a border patrol officer is arguing with a doctor over how much more immigrants Switzerland can absorb: "We are up to our neck with this!" - "Then learn how to swim!" - "And you should learn Turkish!" Touching upon some timeless themes of immigration, xenophobia, prejudice, the search for a better life, tolerance and compassion, "Journey of Hope" is a quality film, but it could have been much better if it dared to be just half as courageous in crossing its cinematic boundaries as the protagonists were in crossing country boundaries.

Grade:++

Dragnet

Dragnet; crime comedy, USA, 1987; D: Tom Mankiewicz, S: Dan Aykroyd, Tom Hanks, Christopher Plummer, Alexandra Paul, Dabney Coleman, Jack O'Halloran, Harry Morgan

Los Angeles. The stiff, rigid Sergeant Joe Friday is assigned a new partner, the liberal, relaxed Pep Streebek, and their first assignment is to investigate mysterious crimes committed by an unknown cult called P.A.G.A.N. Following leads, Joe and Pep go to a secret gathering of the cult and save a virgin woman, Connie, from a ritual sacrifice to a snake in a well. She recognizes the cult leader behind a mask: Reverend Whirley. It turns out Whirley is trying to raise crime rates to topple the current Mayor and push Commissioner Jane Kirkpatrick in the upcoming election as the new Mayor, and conspires with erotic magazine publisher Jerry Caesar to finance this plan. When Whirley plans to kill Caesar in his mansion with poisonous gas, Joe and Pep stop and arrest him. Joe starts a relationship with Connie.

Tom Mankiewicz's feature length debut film, a humorous film adaptation of the popular eponymous TV crime series, and a rare movie where Tom Hanks has a 2nd billing to a comedian, "Dragnet" is a film that is under-hyped. It has flaws, some clumsy scenes (the chaotic ritual sacrifice attempt of the cult P.A.G.A.N.) and a few obvious cliches (random male fan service in the scene where a "Playboy"-style woman shows her chest to Joe and asks if these are "breasts of a 43-year old" or Pep bringing Joe for a coffee in a strip club), but its virtues actually rise to the occasion in several moments, whereas Dan Aykroyd plays the stiff protagonist Joe Friday with gusto. The legendary "Dragnet" theme is also impressive. Several jokes are simply clever—for instance, the opening scenes show how a police officer arrives at a warehouse and asks brute Emil, disguised as a fireman: "Chief, where's the fire?", and then Emil lights a Molotov cocktail and throws it into the warehouse. While questioning the landlord about the suspicious Emil who lived at her apartment, she describes him as: "Useless scum-lapping shitbag", but Joe interrupts: "Just the facts, ma'am". During the interrogation room, Emil spits at Pep, who quickly dodges left—and thus the spit hits Joe in the face, who was standing behind Pep. Upon hearing Joe is missing since last night, Pep is worried: "No, Joe Friday has never stayed out all night, either. The day he was born, his mother had him home by 9:00".

It is wonderful to see Hanks simply "chewing the scenery" as a comedian, before his departure into more dramatic roles in the 90s. Aykroyd plays Joe as some sort of Sheldon Cooper, a too rigid robot-man who is a slave to rules and laws, and thus his teaming up with the relaxed, untrammeled Pep works because he gives him that passion, emotions and free spirit that makes him more human. The plot concept about manipulative toxic conservatism is remarkably subversive even today by showing that sometimes people who scream the loudest about morals are often the biggest criminals and hypocrites in private, embodied in the villain Reverend Whirley (very good Christopher Plummer), founder of M.A.M.A. (Moral Advance Movement of America), who is secretly the leader of the P.A.G.A.N. cult; wants to increase crime rates in L.A. to topple the current Mayor and install his own puppet; and cooperates with Jerry Caesar, an erotic magazine publisher, because, in his own words: "Without Jerry Caesars, there would be no moral outrage. And what's the good of moral outrage unless you have something tangible to direct it against? ... I'll control both sides of the equation". Whirley thus wants to support and nurture his own nemesis to have an excuse to gain more money and power from the people. The screenplay is not thought-out to the fullest, though—for instance, the plot hole here is that Whirley wants to assassinate Caesar. Why? It would eliminate his necessary rival. This is illogical, or, at the very least, "Dragnet" needed at least one more scene where Whirley is preparing to set up a new replacement for Caesar. As crazy as all of this is, "Dragnet" is a surprisingly well made crime comedy which shows that humor can even enhance the original serious source material.

Grade:++

Bean

Bean; comedy, UK / USA, 1997; D: Mel Smith, S: Rowan Atkinson, Peter MacNicol, Pamela Reed, Harris Yulin, Tricia Vessey, Andrew Lawrence, John Mills, Burt Reynolds

London. Since they cannot fire Mr. Bean, an obnoxiously incompetent security guard working at an art gallery, the board of directors decides to get rid of him by sending him to unveil the painting Whistler's Mother which is about to be shipped to a Los Angeles art gallery. Once in L.A., Bean settles at the home of gallery's curator David Langley, which in turn causes David's wife and two kids to leave him. Bean accidentally sneezes on the painting, thereby destroying its paint, but hides it inside the gallery's wall. To fix this, Bean secretly goes into the gallery at night and replaces the real painting with a poster. When General Newton arrives together with reporters to see the unveiling, they are fooled into believing it is the real one. Bean also wakes up David's teenage daughter Jennifer from a coma after a motorcycle crash, and thus the Langley family forgives him. Bean returns back to London.

6 years after the TV show "Mr. Bean" was released, the producers made this feature length film, which is of varying quality: some jokes work, some are contrived and inept. Two additional flaws are the tendencies of director Mel Smith to recycle jokes from the TV show (the rollercoaster and airplane scenes, for instance) and to indulge in the dumbest possible type of American 'lowbrow' humor for the broader masses, instead of staying true to its British humor (the failed gag of a motorcyclist giving Bean the middle finger, so Bean thinks it is a form of a friendly greeting in California and shows his middle finger to everyone during the ride in a car, was already bad when it was used the first time in the weak comedy "The Beverly Hillbillies"). However, Rowan Atkinson still has a sense for comic timing which helps tip the movie in the better direction, relying on physical comedy and slapstick reminiscent of comedians from the silent movie era, which used it as a form of universal appeal. Bean speaks very little, but is still able to transmit his personality through body language. Surprisingly, Peter MacNicol almost steals the show from Atkinson in dialogue moments, when his character David reacts to the idea that Jon Bon Jovi should unveil the painting Whistler's Mother: "I've nothing against Jon Bon Jovi. The man has had two great hairstyles in the last ten years, which is an achievement not to be sniffed at", but then adds he is still the wrong person for such a task. The finale in the hospital is forced, once again showing that the episodic set of sketches could have been aligned better for a feature film. "Bean" is a fun, silly, crazy, wacky light comedy, but the authors were more inspired in the better sequel "Mr. Bean's Holiday", which had a more harmonious set of jokes.

Grade:++

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood; animated fantasy adventure series, Japan, 2009, D: Yasuhiro Irie, S: Romi Park, Rie Kugimiya, Shinichiro Miki, Daisuke Namikawa, Kenta Miyake, Megumi Takamoto, Hidekatsu Shibata  

Brothers Edward and Al wanted to revive their deceased mother using alchemy, but the experiment goes wrong: Edward loses his leg and arm, and replaces it with metal limbs, while Al loses his entire body, and now exists as a giant empty knight’s armor. They embark on a journey to find the philosopher’s stone to get their bodies back and are enlisted by Roy Mustang as state alchemists. A serial killer, Scar, an ethnic Ishbal, kills every state alchemist because the country, Amestris, committed genocide against Ishbals who wanted independence from it. Edward and Al discover that a philosopher’s stone can only be created through sacrificing living humans, and that the state was doing that using convicts sentenced to death. The military also created homunculus, artificial humans. Ling, a prince from the East, is transformed into Greed. King Bradley turns out to be a homunculus himself, Wrath, after an experiment when he was a normal human. It turns out that a long time ago the King of Xerxes ordered an alchemist to make him immortal, and he used the blood of his slave von Hohenheim to create a homunculus, a black being in a glass, which sacrificed the lives of all people of Xerxes to give Hohenheim immortality and itself Hohenheim’s clone body, called “Father”. During the Sun eclipse, “Father” and Selim want to sacrifice five humans (Mustang, Edward, Al, Izumi, Hohenheim) in underground Central City, and use the souls of 50 million Amestrians to open a portal to the Eye of God, which he absorbs. But Hohenheim placed philosopher’s stones across the country which nullify the alchemy circle and return the souls to people. “Father” is returned to the netherworld, while Al retrieves his body back.   

6 years after the first anime adaptation of "Fullmetal Alchemist", new authors re-assembled a new version, "Brotherhood", which is more faithful to the manga source. As much as the 1st anime adaptation was very good, "Brotherhood" is simply better, even though it goes on for 64 episodes. However, its pacing is so furious and dynamic that it simply engages with ease, and its reputation is huge: at one point, it was even the highest rated anime series on IMDb. The first 2/3 of its storyline are outstanding, flip-flopping between action, adventure, fantasy, comedy and drama, all done to full satisfaction—but the finale loses that sense for fun and natural story flow, and undergoes a bit of a "Dragonball-ization" since it exhausts itself with too many excessive fights that start to look all the same, ending up a bit monotone. The opening episodes rise to the occasion since the characters are likeable, sympathetic, whereas the mystery involving the villain is set-up nicely—it is akin to a blend of Faust, Aztec human sacrifice, scientists willing to drop any ethics to find new discoveries, and Griffith from "Berserk". The humor in that segment is the most refreshing ingredient: for instance, in episode 3, priest Cornello says he is the “fist of god”, so Edward goes to a statue of god, and uses his alchemy powers to create a stone fist emerging from it, which stretches out from the statue and punches Cornello. In episode 6, Slicer belittles his rival Edward by describing him as a "little boy", so Edward replies: “Don’t take it too badly when you get beaten by a little boy!” In episode 25, upon hearing her mini panda might have been eaten by a dog, May cries so much her tears extinguish a fire for a pot. In episode 29, one official salutes: “Lieutenant Hawkeye, just returning from the restroom, sir!”

The best bits about battle and action scenes are always precisely those that have some inspiration, ingenuity or are just plain clever. For instance, in episode 5, Scar realizes Edward needs to clap his hands to use his powers, so he simply breaks off Edward's robotic arm. Scar is later surrounded by the police, but escapes by creating an explosion and going under the ground, through the sewer. In episode 19, Roy Mustang’s alchemy powers are controlling fire with gloves that have a circular alchemy symbol drawn on them. So Lust slices a water pipe above him to splash Mustang with water to nullify it, and takes his gloves. But a wounded Mustang simply later draws an alchemy symbol on his hand using his own blood, and ignites a fire with a lighter, anyway. In episode 38, two human soldiers transform into monsters (chimeras) to attack Scar, but then Edward and Al show up and beat up said chimeras, feigning they are monsters and don’t "recognize" them, to help Scar. In episode 40, Riza Hawkeye visits Mustang at military headquarters. In the kitchen she gives him a coded message by mentioning names, which Mustang writes down, and later simply takes the first letter from every name to decipher a message: “Selim Bradley is a homunculus”. One magical romantic moment: in episode 23, as Winry is leaving in a train, after Edward told her she will “cry tears of joy next time”, she leans forward, looks through the window and thinks of images of Edward, until she finally has a thought: “Now I understand. I fell in love with him”. However, it is a bit of a pity that that their relationship is rather neglected even after that. Flashback episode 40 is the highlight of this anime, an undisputable chef-d'œuvre, but it is mostly downhill after that. Episodes 24-27 and 46-48 drag and feel like “action fillers”, and the whole ending, although having a huge scale, feels somewhat calculated and unsatisfying. The action scenes take on the center stage in the finale, to such an extent that they start "eating up" the comedy, philosophy, and drama—it does not take a too big toll, but one feels the inspiration in the ending was not as genuine as it was in the beginning. The only moment of freshness is in episode 62, where Ling punches Father, who traps his arm and says he will suck the philosopher's stone from him. Ling seemingly howls in pain, but then stops, smiles, and says he is just joking, as the Father cannot take the stone without his shield down. "Brotherhood" is excellent, but why couldn't the whole finale have been as witty as this moment?

Grade:+++

The Odyssey

The Odyssey; fantasy adventure drama, USA / UK, 2026; D: Christopher Nolan, S: Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson, Anne Hathaway, John Leguizamo, Zendaya, Charlize Theron, Lupita Nyong'o, Jon Bernthal, Himesh Patel, Samantha Morton, Elliot Page

Ancient Greek Era. Odysseus, the king of Ithaca, enlists with his men into the military of Agamemnon, king of Mycenae, to fight in the Trojan War in western Anatolia. They trick the Trojans by hiding themselves into a wooden horse, and once inside the city, Odysseus and his men open the city gates from inside, letting Agamemnon's army inside. However, Odysseus and his ship crew get lost on their way back and encounter a cyclops, man-eating giants Laestrygonians, singing sirens and sea monster Charybdis. During these 20 years, suitors eat at Odysseus' castle, wooing his wife Penelope who refuses them. Odysseus finally returns, teams up with his son Telemachus, and sets up a test: the suitor who can string his bow will marry Penelope. Odysseus is able to string it, takes arrows and shoots all the suitors. Penelope recognizes him again. 

Homer's 8th century BC epic "The Odyssey" endured literary interests throughout time, but one must simply admit that some of its parts aged better, while others aged worse. The dramatic, realistic parts still have that power and energy, but the mythological fantasy bits seem rather silly, forced and dated today, which is why numerous film adaptations mostly focus on the former. Director and screenwriter Christopher Nolan tackles both segments, but the movie would have been far better if the mythological parts were simply omitted and we just had the realistic segments, since the Trojan War episode and the finale are the best, brilliantly speaking both about the rarely talked about side effects of war (people wasting their entire lives on them, struggling to find back to their old life) and the hypocrisy of people (some of the suitors were old enough to enlist in the Trojan War, but avoided being drafted, only to now shamelessly exploit the hospitality and traditions of eating and feasting for free for a whole decade at Penelope's expense, attempting to marry her). The biggest surprise is Robert Pattinson who is excellent as the villain Antinous, the draft dodger, showing remarkable acting range. The locations are also fascinating, especially Dakhla and Aït Benhaddou. However, the mythological parts are without inspiration or awe, and are at times simply illogical. In the original, Odysseus subdues the cyclops by giving him wine and introducing himself as "Nobody", which is why the drunk cyclops falls asleep, let's his guard down, and Odysseus' men can then blind him to escape from his lair. In this edition, the cyclops simply falls asleep in front of the armed soldiers after it ate two of them, without any protection from them during the night, which is illogical and naive. The episode of Circe "rubbing" the faces of the eating soldiers to transform them into pigs also seems more bizarre than useful. The dialogue is conventional and standard, whereas the nonlinear 'out-of-order' narrative seems more like obfuscation than inspired storytelling. Despite virtues and aesthetics, Nolan should have invested more time into concise storyline and characters than just high-definition cinematography.

Grade:++

Tell No One

Ne le dis à personne; thriller, France, 2006; D: Guilaumme Canet, S: François Cluzet, André Dussollier, Kristin Scott Thomas, François Berléand, Marie-Josée Croze, Nathalie Baye, Jean Rochefort, Guillaume Canet

Alex and his wife Margot are swimming on a lake, she disappears on the other side, he goes to search for her, but is hit with a bat and falls unconscious. 8 years later, Margot has been declared dead and Alex tries to continue his life as a pediatrician. He receives an e-mail which shows a video of Margot still alive at a train station. The police shows up and informs him they found two male corpses at the lake with a bat that has traces of Alex's blood; and that they discovered a key among them with a compartment with photos of Margot in bruises 8 years ago. When Charlotte is murdered, and the police finds the murder gun at Alex's apartment, Alex is the suspect and he flees. He finds out that Margot shot Philippe, a pedophile, so Margot's dad Jacques, a retired police officer, hid his corpse. But Philippe's dad, the millionaire Neuville, ordered two thugs to kill Margot at the lake, so Jacques bribed one of them to kill the other one, and then killed the former, and feigned Margot's death so keep her safe from Neuville, who bribed and controlled half of police department. Neuville is arrested, while Jacques and Margot reunite.

Excellent crime thriller "Tell No One" is a typical Agatha Christie-style murder mystery done in a tour-de-force way, slowly switching gears from a steady to a furious peace, but all done in an intelligent manner thanks to a calm, restrained, but incredibly focused direction by Guilaumme Canet. A rare French film adaptation of an American novel, in this case the eponymous novel by Harlan Coben, "Tell No One" may be conventional, and it may be relaying too much on the final twist ending, but all the subplots leading to it manage to engage, and every little questionable detail plays a role later on—nothing is wasted, everything has its why and because when it connects in the end. For instance, a random small time gangster Bruno appears in the opening act, shouting in the hospital until the protagonist Alex (brilliant Francois Cluzet) takes his injured son for treatment. Later, when Alex is chased by the police, he finds refuge by Bruno and his friend in a ghetto: as soon as the police arrive there, the local migrant poor populace is agitated as it assumes the police is coming for them, so they throw a trash can at the police car, which totally disrupts their pursuit. The 5-minute chase sequence is outstanding, almost without any dialogue, with the highlight of Alex crossing a highway as a truck hits the breaks and several cars slam into it. All the actors are outstanding, but Nathalie Baye stands out even a bit more as Alex's lawyer Elisabeth, especially in the scene where she "grills" the District Attorney when she tells him she has a tight alibi for Alex during Charlotte's murder, so the DA goes: "There's just one catch. The murder weapon was found at his place." - "Trouble is, the tables have turned. That's now your problem! Tell the press your men planted evidence without your knowledge. At worst, you're a coward. At best, a DA without authority." The story tackles all the usual motives of crime genre: framing an innocent man as a cover-up to protect a criminal at the top; corruption; suppressed truth; uncovering of a polluted system; honesty vs. dishonesty. The twist ending must not be revealed, but it is insane, an incredible example of a genius pay-off that brings down the house, and even features a twist ending after the twist ending, a dizzying, unbelievable experience.

Grade:+++

The Whale

The Whale; drama, USA, 2022; D: Darren Aronofsky, S: Brendan Fraser, Sadie Sink, Hong Chau, Ty Simpkins, Samantha Morton

Idaho. Charlie is an English literature teacher who teaches his students online, but never turns on his laptop camera. The reason is because Charlie is ashamed of his 600-pound body. Ever since his gay lover Alan committed suicide due to "religious guilt", Charlie has been living inside his apartment, binge eating. Alan's sister and nurse, Liz, occasionally drops by to take care of Charlie, urging him to go to the hospital because his blood pressure is 238, but he refuses due to medical expenses, saving all his money for his daughter Ellie (17), whom he abandoned when he divorced 8 years ago to be with Alan. Ellie is only there to ask Charlie to write an essay for her for homework. Thomas, a missionary for New Life Church, visits to try to convert Charlie. When Charlie is on the verge of a heart attack, he asks Ellie to read her essay about "Moby Dick" for him.

"The Whale" is a movie that is a tough, depressive, but also essential watch, symbolically speaking about how it feels like to bear the weight of the world on your shoulders. This is the situation the main 600-pound protagonist Charlie finds himself in, since he made several bad choices in life which all come back to take a toll on him, even though he meant no harm. He is played excellently by Brendan Fraser, in a very unusual casting that pays off and shows his emotional side. There are moments that are gruesome (for instance, in one scene Charlie chokes while eating, and since Liz cannot do the Heimlich maneuver since he is sitting on the couch, she has to turn him sideways and kick his back), and the obesity subplot seems like an unnecessary gimmick at times, but after a while, the viewers forget about Charlie's weight, and only see the characters since their personalities are fascinating to watch. The whole film is only one sequence, playing out practically on only one location, Charlie's apartment (since it is based on the eponymous play by Samuel D. Hunter), featuring only five characters, but their interactions are mesmerizing. 

Besides Fraser, the other four actors are also excellent, especially Sadie Sink as Charlie's passive-aggressive teenage daughter Ellie, and Hong Chau as the caring nurse Liz. One of the sharpest dialogue comes when Ellie confronts missionary Thomas with her cynicism: "What I like about religion is that it assumes that everyone is an idiot and that we're all incapable of saving ourselves. I think they've got something right with that. What I don't like about religion is that when people accept Jesus or whatever, they suddenly think they're better than everyone else. By accepting the fact that they're stupid sinners, somehow they've become better and they turn into a***". The whole story is built on character interactions and emotions, the center being Charlie, who lost everything and has decided to practically commit suicide through binge-eating. But he is intelligent, caring and educated, and surprises several times. In one scene, he admits to Liz he feels sorry for Ellie, as he browses her social network profile and realizes she does not have that many friends. He even offers Ellie to write her essay for homework and pay her (!) just so that she can spend some time with him. She resents him for not being part of her life for 8 years, but he just tragically counters with: "Who would want me to be part of their life?" "The Whale" is an ode to outsiders living on the margins, who are neglected by the society because they are deemed "unattractive", but it shows that, if people just give them a chance, some of these outsiders are actually brilliant minds with a whole array of wisdom and feelings like everyone else—it is just that their minds are trapped in wrong physical circumstances. It may be a little strange to mention it, but "The Whale" has emotional weight that is even bigger than its protagonist.

Grade:+++

Koke

Koke; drama, Croatia / Serbia, 2026; D: Igor Jelinović, S: Snježana Sinovčić-Šiškov, Aleksandra Janković, Šimun Šitum, Stojan Matavulj, Ana Marija Veselčić, Leon Lučev, Dara Vukić, Mare Rodin

Split. Tonina and Tajana are two middle-aged sisters. But while Tonina is taking care of their old and sick mother, changing her diapers and washing her, Tajana doesn't want to participate and lives carefree with her husband Milan, son Ivan and daughter Linda. Tonina wants to help Ivan, who graduated journalism in Zagreb, to find a job in Split. Toinina lives with her husband Bartul and daughter Tana. Tonina secretly buys a flat on the island of Hvar from relative Željka, but since she and Tajana agreed to buy it off together, Tajana is angry. Even Ivan is angry and assaults Tonina in her backyard. Tonina renovates the flat to host tourists there. On their mother's birthday, Tonina reveals the mother signed the house ownership over to her, which angers Tajana, while Ivan even spits on Tonina.

Igor Jelinovic's feature length debut film is a quiet meditation on the clash of two lifestyles: the diligent and the carefree; contemplating what is rewarded more in the end, and if that privilege itself is earned. Filmed in a realistic, raw style, with wide shots done in one take as the camera drives left and right to go from character to character talking, "Koke" finely captures the specific Dalmatian mentality of these colorful characters. The dialogues are rather standard and routine, and there are not that many surprises, which would have helped to transcend the typical mold of these kind of social dramas. Some of the best moments are Tonina watching Ivan's YouTube video where he laments that he does not want to be considered responsible for plastic pollution since he is only the consumer, but not the producer, alleging that the corporations producing plastic are to blame for not making a different kind of product; as well as a few neat lines here and there ("You cannot worry about all the troubles in the world!"). The clash of the two sisters over land ownership (first of a flat in Hvar, and then over the whole house of their mother) slowly consolidates a tighter story out of these episodes, culminating in an intense arguing in the finale during the their mother's birthday party and family gathering, though the story could have even started right where it ends in the film. The locations of Split and Hvar are untypically filmed during winter time, signaling the "cooling" of relationships between the two sisters, whereas Snjezana Sinovcic-Siskov stands out the most in the dignified, ambitious and calm portrayal of Tonina, the leading character. 

Grade:++

Black and White in Color

Noirs et Blancs en couleur; satire, France / Ivory Coast / Germany / Switzerland, 1976, D: Jean-Jacques Annaud, S: Jacques Spiesser, Jean Carmet, Jacques Dufilho, Catherine Rouvel, Dora Doll, Maurice Barrier

Fort Coulais, French Equatorial Africa, January 1 9 1 5. Nine white French colonists live in boredom, and often get visit by three white German colonists from the nearby fort of German colony Kamerun. One day, the French receive a box with newspapers, and read that Germany and France are at war since August last year. The French thus mobilize local blacks as soldiers and send them to attack the German fort, led by Sergeant Bosselet, but lose when the German machine-gun soldiers. Pacifist geographer Hubert Fresnoy takes over the military command, goes to a local village and persuades the village elder to capture blacks from the savannah to mobilize them in the French Army. Fresnoy orders them to build trenches and start a siege, but then he receives a British commander who informs them that the German Empire surrendered at Yaounde, and that Kamerun is now a British colony. The three Germans reconcile with the nine French, and become friends again. 

Jean-Jacques Annaud's feature length debut film is a biting satire on imperialism, colonialism, patriotism and racism which ravaged the local populace in Africa (and elsewhere), announcing him as an interesting director who tackles rarely talked about topics in cinema. The farcical story of nine white French colonists who read in newspapers that France and Germany are fighting each other in World War I, so they decide to attack the three white German colonists nearby, has a fine sense for all the absurdities and misguidedness of wars, conflicts and colonial rivalry. "Black and White in Color" is directed conventionally and routinely, but its story has more than enough colorful characters. The sole mobilization is already telling: the French recruit local Africans from a nearby village, who sign the mobilization enlistment with their fingerprint, are promised food and a pot as payment, while the French just give them random names: "Your name will be Armand", "Jerome", "Alexis". 

Later, when the military command makes an inventory and realizes they have only 29 rifles for the battle, one of them cynically comments with: "Well, this should be over quickly". Militarism is not the only thing Annaud makes fun of, as religion is also criticized: the two Catholic missionaries collect local cultural religious artifacts to sell them back in Europe, and throw into the fire others they deem "useless". Several clever little details also give the film little sparks here and there (Fresnoy locks himself inside a house, and a man cannot enter it, because Fresnoy's assistant took away the external doorknob as to not be disturbed). The middle part of the long mobilization attempts drag a bit and feel underwhelming, but Annaud knows exactly how to send messages without ever turning preachy or intrusive, since all the dead and wounded in this "micro world war" are local blacks recruited to fight each other, while the three white Germans and nine white French just observe from aside, never fight personally, and get to see the end of the war untouched and unharmed, when they reconcile in the finale that shows all their hypocrisy and conceit. The actors Jacques Spessier as Fresnoy and Dora Doll as Maryvonne deliver especially memorable performances.

Grade:+++