The Boys (Season 2)

The Boys; fantasy-thriller series, USA, 2020, D: Phil Sgriccia, Liz Friedlander, Steve Boyum, Fred Toye, Batan Silva, S: Karl Urban, Antony Starr, Jack Quaid, Erin Moriarty, Dominique McElligott, Aya Cash, Jessie T. Usher, Laz Alonso, Tomer Capone, Karen Fukuhara

Billy “Butcher” returns to Hughie, Marvin and Frenchie. They are hunted down by the superheroes led by Homelander, but manage to escape. Homelander finds out the new superhero among the ranks of Seven, Stormfront, is actually a woman born in Berlin over a century ago, as her husband Vought performed Nazi eugenics experiments, which was continued by the Vought corporation that aims to create superhumans via their Compound 5. Stormfront and Homelander start an affair. A-Train, angry that he will be excluded from the Seven upon Stormfront’s insistence because he is black, hands over this confidential documentation to Hughie and Annie, aka Starlight. They in turn send it to the media. Billy reunites with Becca, but she refuses to leave without her son Ryan. Billy and the gang try to trick Homelander into leaving Ryan’s house while they take away Ryan, but then Stormfront appears and starts chocking Becca. In panic, Ryan’s superpowers activate and his laser kills Stormfront, but accidentally also Becca. Billy still decides to take care of Ryan.  

The 2nd season of “The Boys” is a step back compared to the better first one. It seems the authors wrote themselves into a corner on at least three times, so they resorted to convoluted, forced resolutions to save their protagonists. At the end of the first season, Homelander brought Billy to see Becca again, at her house. Why didn’t Homelander eliminate Billy right there? He just let’s Billy walk away, in a very lame example of screenwriting. Sure, Billy is framed for Madelyn's murder, but they could have still eliminated him outright and then released the accusation. Later, when Homelander finds Hughie in a sewer and orders Starlight to kill Hughie in episode 2.3, the resolution is also unconvincing, yielding to “deux ex machina” clichés. The sick tendency to show bizarre, random splatter violence and vile murders (in a shocking, traumatizing sequence, just as a doctor and former employee was about to testify against Vought at a hearing in episode 2.6, dozens of people’s heads start exploding in the room, compared to which even Cronenberg’s “Scanners” seem restrained), as well as bad ideas (The Deep hallucinating that his fins are talking to him in episode 2.2; the yacht running through a whale in episode 2.3), which takes its toll on the season. Unfortunately, the authors resorted to typical “shock engineering” to keep the viewers’ interest, which is already a bad sign. The reveal that Vought was created through Nazi eugenics experiments on people was a tad too banal, but lately it became actually relevant, as Stormfront is a symbol for the ever growing normalization of far-right tendencies and extremism in politics (she even mentions the term "white genocide").  

Nonetheless, there are still some more intelligent, subversive and creative allegories on the modern era, which lift the season up a notch. One of the more subversive jabs is aimed at how any error or crime of those in power can simply be whitewashed by gaslighting the masses through social media and fake popularity conditioning, controlled by these same people in power. As superhero Stormfront explains to Homelander: “You don't need 50 million people to love you. You need five million people pissed. Emotion sells, anger sells”. That way, the fact that Vought corporation experimented with injecting Compound 5 substance into babies turns from a scandal to a patriotic necessity, redirecting the narrative into a polemic that many more potential future superheroes will make America stronger from supervillains wanting to attack them. Another layer of this theme can be interpreted in compliance and Faustian bargain, from Vought employees and even their CEO disagreeing with the corporation’s evil policies, yet still obeying and remaining passive because it is profitable. Billy thus stands out as someone with integrity, in an active existence, as opposed to them: he is powerless, but still has the courage to keep going. One episode is excellent—2.4—while others are either good or weak. One genius sequence in episode 2.7: when an ex-superhero sets himself on fire, this triggers a fire alarm, which inadvertently causes Annie to be released from her prison cell. In a battle, Black Noir overwhelms her, but then Queen Maeve puts a candy bar into Black Noir’s mouth, and he is suddenly weak. Maeve then explains to Annie that Black Noir has a peanut allergy, in a brilliant restructuring of the Kryptonite concept. Despite clumsy and heavy-handed moments, season 2 still works.

Grade:++

The Commitments

The Commitments; musical drama-comedy, Ireland / UK, 1991; D: Alan Parker, S: Robert Arkins, Glen Hansard, Dick Massey, Angeline Ball, Maria Doyle, Bronagh Gallagher, Andrew Strong, Michael Aherne, Johnny Murphy, Colm Meaney

Dublin. The unemployed Jimmy decides to create a soul band, The Commitments, and be its manager. He holds an audition in the home of his parents, and numerous people apply. He chooses three girls as singers—Natalie, Imelda, Bernie—and seven guys as musicians—Outspan, Derek, Dean, Steven, Billy, Joey Fagan—plus the overweight Deco as the lead singer. Jimmy buys them instruments and finds a first gig: at a church hall, under the excuse that it is an anti-heroin musical event. Joey seduces all the women in the band, claiming to have known Elvis. They don't have money, but they book other gigs. Deco becomes impossibly arrogant, thinking he is the main star of the band. Just s a talent agent offers them a contract with a budget company, The Commitments start a fight and break up in disunity.

The surprising winner of BAFTA awards for best film, director and adapted screenplay, "The Commitments" is one of the most popular Irish films of the 20th century, a simple, but accessible and effective bitter-sweet story about a dozen nobodies who attempt to becomes "somebodies", in this case how a bunch of Dubliners start a soul band from the title to raise their significance. Even though he previously directed mostly dramas, the director Alan Parker shows a lot of sense and enthusiasm for humor in this comedy, augmented by the screenplay based on the novel by Roddy Doyle, who perfectly captures the mentality and spirit of the Irish from that era. However, there are too many characters in this story (and band), and thus there is not enough time to dedicate to all of them, thereby inevitably leaving most of them feeling like extras, as we don't find out much about them. Nonetheless, three actors stand out the most and feel genuinely fascinating: Robert Arkins as manager Jimmy, the founder of the band; Johnny Murphy as trumpet player Joey Fagan; and especially the comical Colm Meaney as Jimmy's dad, who remarkably just accepts his plan to host an improvised audition at his home. 

The first half of "The Commitments" works the best, elegantly establishing many characters and the poor circumstances they want to escape from. In one funny sequence at a wedding, a guy is pushed and accidentally spills his drink over the dress of the local beauty Imelda, mostly along her chest area, who says she will wash it later, while two guys look at her, until one says: "Wash it? I'd frame it!" Fagan has a way with words, being able to persuade a lot of people with his enthusiasm, especially when he introduces himself to Jimmy: "Why would you want to join us?" - "The Lord sent me. And the Lord blows my trumpet." Jimmy is very effervescent, spending either his time talking to himself by imagining he is having an interview after becoming famous, or coaching the amateur band: "I want a strict diet of soul!" The second half loses its humor, charm, and is "eaten" too much by sole singing and stage performances of the soul band, which become excessive, leaving too little room for the "proper" storytelling, since, after all, this is not a collection of music videos. This reduces the film's initial high impression. The ending is also disappointing, showing that there was never real unity in this band, which also takes a toll on these sympathetic characters from the beginning, who ended up rather arrogant in the end. One unforgettable quote between Jimmy and Fagan must be mentioned, showing thinking outside of success, looked at it only from the perspective of optimistic life journey: "I've achieved nothing!" - "You're missing the point. The success of the band was irrelevant: you raised their expectations of life, you lifted their horizons. Sure, we could have been famous and made albums and stuff, but that would have been predictable. This way it's poetry."

Grade:++

Cowboys

Kauboji; comedy, Croatia, 2013; D: Tomislav Mršić, S: Saša Anočić, Živko Anočić, Matija Antolić, Hrvoje Barišić, Krunoslav Klabučar, Ivana Starčević, Rakan Rushaidat

Theater director Saša is sent to a small desolate town to stage its first theater play in 12 years. Six local wackos audition—Domagoj, Juraj, Javor, Bruno, Miodrag and Ivan—and since they are the only ones who showed up, they are all hired to be actors. A woman, Marica, wants to join, so she is enlisted, as well. Saša decides to make a western play for them. Despite numerous problems, including threats from the supervisor that he will shut the whole project down, and the fact that Bruno might be gay, they perform the play on stage. The theater is full. The play is about a sheriff who upholds the law in the wild west. The audience gives them applause, while Saša dies from pneumonia in the hospital.

"Cowboys" is a fun comedy about seven people with aimless existence who unite to perform a play on stage and thus give themselves some meaning and goal in their empty lives, and it once again shows how sometimes it is more interesting watching artists making a movie or a play than watching that sole movie / play. The first 20 minutes are the best, elegantly and skillfully setting everything up so smoothly that the viewers not only instantly understand what is going on, but are also engaged. The sole audition scene, where the six locals appears and disappear on the screen in jump cuts, is aesthetic and very funny, with some absurd dialogue ("Acting experience?" - "More amateur ones. Like, at home"). The theater director Sasa complains to his supervisor that all these candidates are atrocious actors, but, surprisingly, he just calms him down: "Nobody even expects from these people to become real actors. Neither from you to make a masterwork. The important thing is that you are here, that the town gets its first play after 12 years. And that you accept this as such." In another comical scene at the bowling alley, three of these amateur actors sit at a table, until one has this exchange with Miodrag: "Are you a Serb?" - "No, I'm half Gypsy, half... Someone else. I know who. And you?" - "What me? I'm normal!" He then asks the third guy, who is always quiet: "Are you always quiet?" - "No", he replies. And then just continues being quiet. The rest of the film never really manages to repeat this level of comedy, settling mostly only on amusing, but standard, routine, without much creative liftoffs, and it's a pity that out of the seven characters, only three truly stand out (Miodrag, Bruno, Marica), while the rest is not that distinct and "disappears" in the crowd. Despite the fact that there isn't a clear payoff nor a rounded up conclusion at the end (it would have been interesting to see how the play affected their lives in town afterwards, or what self-esteem Marica got from playing her role), "Cowboys" is a well made comedy that will be more appreciated by artists and creators.

Grade:++

The Perfect Host

The Perfect Host; psychological drama / crime, USA, 2010; D: Nicholas Tomnay, S: Clayne Crawford, David Hyde Pierce, Megahn Perry, Helen Reddy

Los Angeles. John Taylor robbed a bank in collusion with his girlfriend Simone, a bank teller who told him she needs money for her disease. Getting rid of his car and having a wounded foot, John randomly rings in front of a mansion and asks to come inside, claiming he was robbed. He is received by Warwick Wilson who claims to be preparing a dinner for his guests. John drinks his wine and falls unconscious. When he wakes up, he is tied up, while Warwick turns out to be a psychopath who just imagines he is having guests in his empty kitchen. John wakes up the next morning outside on the street and finds out Simone plans to leaves the city with the money, without him. He confronts her at the parking garage and takes the money, but the money is taken away from him by Warwick, who is a police lieutenant. Some time later, a detective receives a photo of Warwick and John together, and Warwick invites him for dinner.

This unknown independent film by Nicholas Tomnay is a surprisingly well made and clever blend of crime and psychological drama, playing with the always intriguing concept of a prey and predator switching roles in a plot twist. "The Perfect Host" from the title is played by the excellent David Hyde Pierce as the psychotic Warwick, who isn't as innocent and weak as it first seems. There are some creative details here (for instance, the desperate John randomly picks a mail box of a mansion, finds a letter inside signed by some Julie, and then rings the doorbell, claiming to be Julie's friend who lost his luggage at the airport and needs help) and each ten minutes in the first half offer some new twist or surprise to keep the story interesting and unusual, whereas the cinematography is aesthetic. In one of these surprises, Warwick imagines he is having guests at the table in his kitchen, only for the next scene to reveal him talking to himself, with only the confused John looking at him, revealing his deranged nature. However, after 45 minutes, the story kind of loses its surprise effect, and thus the rest is rather solid, but underwhelming, without any clear major pay-off to Warwick's psychosis. A final plot twist could have been that he is even imagining to be a police lieutenant, but that is contradicted when John hears his associate via walkie-talkie and the detective receiving John's photo, which undermines this theory. There was not that much depth to Warwick's character, and some moments are a bit contrived (why did Warwick apply fake wounds on John's face? Why did he simply release John?), yet "The Perfect Host" manages to be a slow-burning psychological crime-drama with the two leading actors carrying up the story for 90% of its time, on only one location.

Grade:++   

The Boys (Season 1)

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Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)

Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn); action / black comedy, USA, 2020; D: Cathy Yan, S: Margot Robbie, Ella Jay Basco, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Jurnee Smollett-Bell, Rosie Perez, Ewan McGregor, Chris Messina, Ali Wong 

Gotham City. After Joker broke up with her, Harley Quinn finds a new assignment: a little girl, Cassandra, stole and ate a diamond intended for crime boss Roman Sionis, aka Black Mask, so he orders Harley to get it back. Harley finds Cassandra, but actually becomes her friend. In the meantime, Detective Renee Montoya, singer Dinah Lance and Helena Bertinelli, aka The Huntress, also have a bone to pick with Sionis, so they reluctantly team up with Harley. Sionis orders his men to get the diamond any way they can, even threatening to cut out Cassandra's stomach, but luckily Harley is able to stop them and kill Sionis. Later, after Cassandra defecates the diamond, Harley escapes with her from Montoya, Dinah and Bertinelli.

The 2nd film in which Margot Robbie played Harley Quinn, "Birds of Prey" is weaker than "The Suicide Squad", but better than "Suicide Squad". It is a patchwork, using a convoluted narrative obfuscation of a rather simple story in which Harley has to save a girl who ate a diamond from criminal Sionis, which makes it slightly forced at times, but it still has enough virtues to offer a good fun, especially in some meticulously choreographed martial arts and fight sequences, where the creative work of the stuntmen rises to the occasion. The story is at times almost banal (the villain Sionis is presented almost exclusively as a one-dimensional bad guy, with one nasty sequence where he orders his henchmen to torture and execute three people hanging upside down; the hyena plays no role in the story, indicating the screenplay needed at least one more re-write), but the director Cathy Yan is still able to be playful on the field of directing, enriching the film. For instance, in one sequence, as Harley is running away from Detective Montoya through a market, she randomly spots other people who create obstacles for her, as the camera zooms in on their faces and shows their name and grievance ("Name: Roller Dummy. Grievance: Broke her nose."; "Name: Ralph Murray. Grievance: Fed his brother to a hyena"). In another comical sequence, Harley, in disguise, enters a police precinct and says: "I'd like to report a terrible crime". The police officer asks: "What crime?", and she replies with: "This one!", as she reveals a gun that fires some sort of a red ball at the officer, knocking him out. The best moment happens at a brilliantly choreographed fighting sequence at a warehouse, where a big henchman with a long beard is holding Harley by her neck, but she takes a lighter and lights his beard on fire, causing him to recoil in panic: genius. These kind of stylizations and anarchic humor fit very well with Harley's crazy persona, helping sway this film towards something better than it was fated initially.

Grade:++

I, Daniel Blake

I, Daniel Blake; drama, UK, 2016; D: Ken Loach, S: Dave Johns, Hayley Squires, Brianna Shan, Dylan McKiernan

Newcastle. After recovering from a heart attack, woodworker Daniel Blake is faced with a bureaucratic heart attack: his doctor forbids him to work, but the British Government's Department for Work and Pensions refuses to pay him social welfare and orders him to get back to work. Daniel appeals, but has to wait in the meantime without any income. He becomes friends with Katie, an unemployed mother of two who moved from London. Daniel helps her repair stuff at her new home. Katie finds work as a prostitute and refuses to quit even after Daniel tells her to. Computer illiterate, Daniel has a difficult time at the employment center and attends a CV workshop. While seeing a lawyer to help him in his case, Daniel suffers a heart attack at the toilet and dies.

The movie that secured Ken Loach a second Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival, "I, Daniel Blake" is a standard, schematic and grey social drama, but it has moments of freshness due to the humorous, energetic and measured performance by comedian Dave Johns in the title role. The director Loach often copes with his didactic preaching of themes "eating" his entire story, style and creativity, and some of these flaws are apparent even here, especially in the banal, unsatisfactory and abrupt ending which feels as if it is creating some sort of apotheosis of tragedy for the title hero broken by the system. Nonetheless, Loach crafts a film that is as unglamorized from Hollywood idealism as possible, establishing a realistic and grim picture of everyday working class, who are just one health problem away from bankruptcy. The best bits in the film are those where Daniel does something funny or rebellious which makes him stand out: for instance, in one sequence at the unemployment office, when he spots the unemployed single mother Katie with her two kids treated poorly by an official, even though they are new in town, Daniel stands up: "Who's first in this queue?" A man answers: "I am". - "Do you mind if this young miss signs on first?" Daniel then points with his finger: "Now you can go back to your desk and let her sign on and do the job that the taxpayer pays you for! This is a bloody disgrace!" An official warns Daniel that he is making a scene, but Daniel insists: "She's out of the area. She's just been a few minutes. Can you not let her sign on?" In another wonderful scene, Daniel is ordered by the unemployment office to attend a CV workshop, where a man holds a lecture: "Costa Coffee advertised 8 jobs. Do you know how man applications they got from that? Over 1,300. So, what does that mean?" Cue Daniel not missing a beat: "We should all be drinking a lot more bloody coffee... Well, if you can count, it's obvious. There's not enough jobs. Fact." An ambitious, intelligent and humane film about the madness of bureaucracy in modern times and ever growing financial crisis which is taking a toll of ordinary working people, whose lives keep shrinking.

Grade:++

Raining Stones

Raining Stones; drama, UK, 1993; D: Ken Loach, S: Bruce Jones, Julie Brown, Ricky Tomlinson, Gemma Phoenix, Tom Hickey

Northern England. Bob, an unemployed man, and his friend Tommy steal a mutton on a meadow to try to sell it to a butcher, but he warns them that only sheep meat sells. Indeed, they earn little trying to sell  meat at a pub. Even worse, Tommy left the keys in Bob's van, which gets stolen. Bob, a devout Catholic, is desperate because he needs 105£ to buy a dress for his daughter Coleen's First Communion. His wife Anne tries to help by applying for a sewing job, but is fired. Bob tries a job as a bouncer at a night bar, but is fired. Bob borrows money from a loan shark, Tansey, who arrives one day at Bob's home and forces Anne to give him her wedding ring and other valuables to repay Bob's debt. When Bob returns back home and hears what happened, he becomes angry, takes a wrench and follows Tansey. Bob attacks Tansey at the parking garage. Tansey flees in panic in his car, hits a concrete pillar and dies. Bob confesses everything to a priest, but he advises Bob to not tell anyone and resume his life. Bob enjoys Coleen's First Communion.

Ken Loach's parable on people who take desperate measures to find a solution out of their desperate situation, "Raining Stones" is both emotional and 'rough', never allowing to present the working class in idealized fashion. Loach's often screenwriter Jim Allen shows a lot of sense for the mentality of these people, so much that the viewers can easily identify with them, whereas they both find a wonderful support in the main actor Bruce Jones in the role of Bob. The protagonist is presented as a flawed hero: he wants the best for his little daughter Coleen and her First Communion, but is too 'rustic', clumsy and heavy-handed in his choices. A lot of freshness arrives from the surprising humor, which livens up the rather grey mood—in one sequence, Tommy tells Bob this joke: "Did you hear about that kid from Liverpool in the bloody wheelchair they took to Lourdes? ... And when he came out of the water, they all had a look at his legs. And his legs were still twisted. But the wheelchair had two new tires on it!" In another sequence, while Bob wants to buy an old van, Tommy has this exchange with the seller: "How many owners has it had?" - "Owners! Only one!" - "Who was it, Ben-Hur?" Everything here is dirty, raw and difficult, to be as a close to the experience of reality as possible, whereas Loach never preaches nor falls into sentimentality—the advice and reaction of the priest in the finale, when Bob confesses what he did, is a true surprise of pragmatism. The structure of the storyline feels a bit episodic, random and aimless, some moments seem fake (for instance, the illogical sequence where the daughter just let's the loan shark into their house, who demands money from the mother, even though he never presents Bob's document with borrowed money), whereas some characters deserved better treatment, for instance the underwritten role of Bob's wife Anne. Still, even though Anne's presence is sparse, she has one of the most poignant, philosophical lines in the film that say a lot about people feeling trapped by determinism and rigid fate: "It's funny how we start off, ain't it, with all these big ideas. And then you realize that things aren't going to change. I'll live and die in that flat, and nobody will ever know."

Grade:+++

Sorry We Missed You

Sorry We Missed You; drama, UK / France / Belgium, 2019; D: Ken Loach, S: Kris Hitchen, Debbie Honeywood, Rhys Stone, Katie Proctor

Newcastle upon Tyne. Manual laborer Ricky decides to try out a new job as a delivery driver who delivers boxes with items that people ordered via internet. His boss Maloney tells him he is "self-employed", but that he must pay a 1,000£ for a van. Ricky thus works 14 hours a day, 6 days a week. His wife Abby had to sell her car to afford Ricky's van, so she now takes a bus to work as a home care nurse. Their teenage son Sebastian is a troublemaker who one day steals spray cans from a store, so Ricky takes away his mobile phone. When Ricky's van keys vanish, he assumes it was Sebastian and slaps him, but it turns out it was their 13-year old daughter Liza Jane. One day, Ricky is attacked by three thugs who steals his boxes. Since Maloney will not reimburse him for the lost barcode scanner nor pay for his recovery, an injured Ricky drives off the van to continue work.

Ken Loach's penultimate film, social drama "Sorry We Missed You" is almost a shock therapy to all those idealized Hollywood films showing middle class work as pleasant and comfortable. The protagonist Ricky assumes he will get an easy job as a delivery driver, but he suddenly faces sobering problems along his way: a customer says he didn't order anything; a parking enforcement officer threatens to write him a fine for parking with his van in the middle of the street; Ricky has to urinate in a bottle because he has nowhere to stop with his van; he works 14 hours a day, six days a week... Loach simply poses an uncomfortable question—is there any dignified type of work left for the ordinary middle class? The film is a bit didactic and too schematic, presenting everything a bit too rigid and standard, since Loach often avoids cinematic technique or some more creative style to focus on the sole story and present reality as grey as it is, without any "make up", but the insight it shows into work over-exploitation and lack of any social welfare or solidarity creates some strong messages that make you think. Loach luckily never preaches, and instead just let's the story take its flow. Some of the best bits are when the characters' personalities come across as more important than the theme: in the best moment of the film, parents Ricky and Abby are arguing in their bedroom during the night, while all of a sudden they hear the knock on their door—it's their daughter Liza Jane, who tells them: "Stop it! No fighting!"

Grade:++

The Impossible

The Impossible; disaster film, Spain, 2012; D: J. A. Bayona, S: Naomi Watts, Tom Holland, Ewan McGregor, Samuel Joslin, Oaklee Pendergast, Geraldine Chaplin

December 2 0 0 4. Maria Bennett travels with her husband Henry and three children Lucas, Simon and Thomas to Khao Lak, Thailand, for a vacation. They enjoy their stay at the hotel and spend the Christmas there. On 26 December, the Indian Ocean earthquake causes a tsunami which reaches the shore and sweeps away the hotel and the guests. Badly wounded, Maria is able to find Lucas and a boy, Daniel, and climb up a tree in case of another tsunami. Locals find them and transport them to a hospital. Henry finds that his mother's bed is taken over by another patient, and cannot find her, until the staff leads him to her, who has undergone surgery, but is stable. Henry, Simon and Thomas also survived, and manage to find and reunite with Maria and Lucas in the hospital. They are then evacuated to Singapore. 

One of the first film depictions of the catastrophic 2 0 0 4 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami which killed 228,000 people along the wider area of the Bay of Bengal, based on the real-life experiences of survivor Maria Belon, "The Impossible" is an intense, terrifying and strong blend of disaster and survival film. The director J. A. Bayona takes care of the authenticity, allowing for the story to contemplate about the notions of fragility of life under threat from random disasters of the harsh, cruel universe, whereas the leading actress Naomi Watts is excellent as Maria. The film does not waste time—the tsunami occurs already 14 minutes into the film, and this segment is its most impressive accomplishment: tourists are happily walking along the swimming pool, when all of a sudden Maria's paper is carried away by the wind and stops at a glass wall, as she and others turn around to randomly see palm trees falling down along the horizon. Cue to a random 12 ft tall wave of dirty, brown water which simply sweeps everything in sight, from tourists to the hotel building. It all just happens in 20 seconds, and they simply don't have time to react at all. Maria hangs on to a tree, and the water stream is all around her, she let's go to try to swim after her son Lucas, but she is pierced when she is carried by the water into a random tree branch. This whole sequence is incredible and one wonders how they managed to film it. The rest of the film is the aftermath segment, which encompasses the remaining 2/3 of "The Impossible's" running time, but it is of lesser intensity and falters a bit in interest. Having Maria and Lucas wait at the hospital is simply not that engaging, which is why the director even uses the cliche of father Henry almost not finding Maria in her hospital bed and is just about to leave in the truck when something happens, which is banal. The storyline clearly needed some better written dialogue or cinematic inspiration for support in this post-tsunami segment. Nonetheless, "The Impossible" is a valuable depiction of the disaster, showing how it looked like and what its effects were. If there is one villain here, then it is chaos; if there is one protagonist, then it is life trying to survive and live in peace and stability.

Grade:+++