Thomas in Love

Thomas est amoureux; science-fiction drama, Belgium, 2000; D: Pierre-Paul Randers, S: Benoît Verhaert (voice), Magali Pinglaut, Aylin Yay, Micheline Hardy

The future. Thomas (32) suffers from agoraphobia — a fear from open spaces — and thus it has been eight years since he left his apartment for the last time. He has sex with a CGI woman through a virtual reality world on a computer, whereas he uses Skype to talk to his mother or a mechanic when he needs a repair. A psychiatrists recommends Thomas to find a girlfriend. Thomas talks with Melodie through the monitor, and has sex with her through Internet, but this relationship falls apart. But then he meets Eva, which causes enough sparks for him to overcome his fear and leave the apartment to meet her in person.

"Thomas in Love" is one of the most unusual movies of the decade: the entire story, set in a near future, is filmed exclusively through the POV perspective of the title hero, and thus the main actor Benoit Verhaert is only seen in the final scene from the back, when he finally leaves the apartment, and the viewers mostly only hear his voice off the screen. This is both legitimate and problematic at the same time: on one hand, it stays true to the theme of alienation and deterioration of social skills in the modern (Internet) world, yet that way Thomas ends up as an un-affirmed character, while all the supporting characters (who show up on the visual telephone on his monitor) end up more effective. The opening 3-minute long sequence is highly interesting and memorable, since it shows a CGI animated space station in which a CGI woman is floating, taking her clothes off until she is naked and has "sex" with Thomas (again, all from his POV) — even though bizarre, it is an erotic and cleverly directed opening act, showing already how Thomas feels more comfortable interacting in a virtual than the real world. While not completely great, it is an interesting psychological drama with good moments (the driving psychiatrist talks with Thomas via the monitor, already showing their inappropriate relationship where private, intimate confessions are treated as fleeting routine) and a very solid theme that is worried about the future of humanity, a one where the whole society might become alienated and only have contact through the Internet, posing the question if real emotions can survive such an artificial state in the long run.

Grade;++

A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence

En duva satt på en gren och funderade på tillvaron; black comedy, Sweden / Germany / Norway / France / Denmark, 2014; D: Roy Andersson, S: Holger Andersson, Nils Westblom, Charlotta Larsson

Three people have a heart attack and die on three different places. Jonathan and Sam are two traveling salesmen who try to sell their useless "comical" products, including vampire teeth and masks. A man on a horse enters a bar and then leads the 18th century Swedish army into war, but they return wounded and decimated. An instructors teaches a class how to dance ballet. A girl recites a poem about a pigeon reflecting on existence in front of a school theatre. Jonathan and Sam argue over their business and separate. Jonathan has a dream about British men doing something terrible to some Natives and is plagued by this.

One of the most noticed examples of Scandinavian "Neo-Dadaism" and surreal humor, Roy Andersson's bizarre film is a strange experiment without a plot, revolving only around episodic vignettes that show up and disappear without any sense of urgency to the storyline, framed only by two travelling salesmen, yet its 'daft' mood and peculiar sense of humor assure it a certain (hermetic) charm. Just as the title hints at, "A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence" is a film essay about the banalities, contradictions, peculiarities and mysteries of human existence, and Andersson crafted them almost as if the characters are watched by some aliens puzzled by this life form: the entire storyline is filmed in static wide shots, without any cross-cutting, or without a single close-up even, all adding to its distant tone, with an almost comic-book mise-en-scene, following a strange rule that each sequence is narrowed down to only one scene. Even the two main protagonists are distant and elusive. Andersson follows his theme by making fun out of art, including dance and theatre, as well as patriotism and war, de-masking them as human constructs, and thereby showing the human limitations that need to be transversed. This is also evident in the two most disturbing sequences: a scientist is making a phone call, asking if a person is all right, all the while ignoring a small monkey "crucified" onto a lab equipment, getting electric shock every once in a while; a group of 19th Century British soldiers locking up Natives in a giant barrel and setting it on fire underneath, which is reminiscent of the Khaibakh massacre — they both show how human existence can be completely indifferent to the suffering of other existences around them. As Jessica Kiang proposed in her review, the modern day depression of people may lie in this guilt from the crimes in the past, "a kind of original sin, a stain in the blood". "Pigeon" is not for everyone's taste, yet its strong shot compositions and uneasy thought provoking points assure it validity.

Grade;++

Spring in a Small Town

Xiao cheng zhi chun; drama, China, 1948; D: Fei Mu, S: Wei Wei, Li Wei, Shi Yu, Zhang Hongmei
A small town in China after the Second Sino-Japanese War. Yuwen is a sympathetic woman married to Liyan Dai, who has been sick for six years. They respect each other, but love eludes them, as Liyan thinks he is a burden to his wife who always have to take care of him, and feels guilty for the destruction of his family estate during the war. He has a younger sister, Xiu (16). One day, an old family friend, Zhang, now a doctor, returns after 10 years to visit them. He still feels affection for Yuwen, but does not want to intrude on her marriage. Liyan contemplates about marrying Xiu to Zhang, but he refuses, considering her too young. Feeling as a burden, Liyan drinks an overdose of sleeping pills in order to commit suicide. However, Zhang saves him, and then leaves. Yuwen waves goodbye to Zhang as she stays with Liyan.

Near the beginning of the 21st century, the Hong Kong Film Awards Association released a list of Top 100 Chinese films, and Fei Mu's last film, "Spring in a Small Town", was ranked first place on that list. While that reputation is a little bit overrated and misplaced, since many better Chinese films appeared during the 20th century, "Spring" still conquers today with its elegance, calm, minimalistic style, as well as sympathetic characters whose problems are easy to identify with, whereas its restrained, authentic and genuine performances, especially by excellent actress Wei Wei, give it an additional touch. "Spring" owes a part of its high reputation to the therapeutic "healing after a devastating war" subgenre that appeared in many countries after World War II (its equivalents are found in many films, such as the German "And the Heaven Above Us", Italian "Bicycle Thieves" or Yugoslav "The Unconquered People"), obvious even here in the character of the sick husband Liyan who is a symbol for the devastated, small Chinese man after the war who feels lost and aimless (he laments to his wife that he has been "married to her for eight years, six of which he was sick", and thus feels like a burden to her and contemplates suicide), yet Mu gave a far more optimistic note to it, suggesting that life goes on, that people should just keep standing and that this simple investment can blossom into a bright future. Similarly like Y. Ozu, even Mu decided to focus only on subtle details and nuances (in one sequence of the characters on a boat on a river, Yuwan, Liyan and Xiu are happily singing - except for Zhang, standing behind them, who has a serious face, mirroring his concern for the frailness of this family), and thus "Spring" revolves only around these four characters and their possible love triangle. The film really is too slow at times, with too much empty walk and lingering shots, as well as a too "modest" style to offer a broader spectrum of a viewing experience, yet its emotional depth still evokes power, especially in the contemplation that loyalty and friendship can be stronger than fatalism.

Grade;++

Attack on Titan (Season 1)

Shingeki no Kyojin; animated fantasy action series, Japan, 2013; D: Tetsuro Araki, S: Yuuki Kaji, Marina Inoue, Yui Ishikawa, Daisuke Ono

In a post-apocalyptic future, mysterious, 200 ft tall giants appeared, called Titans, and killed off most of humanity. The remains of mankind live in a town shielded by giant walls, yet Titans attack once again and kill the mother of teenager Eren Yaeger, who thus swears revenge and joins the military to fight the Titans. His friends are Armin and Mikasa. During another attack, Eren is eaten by a Titan, but somehow mysteriously survives and finds out he can transforms into a Titan himself when he is wounded, by biting his finger, and then transform back to a human. The military capture a female Titan, who turns out to be also a human, Annie. This gives military the reason to explore further.

One of the most hyped animes of the decade, "Attack on Titan" is basically a restructuring of the popular "mecha genre", except that instead of giant robots, the people have to fight humanoid, Zombie giants, yet the story lacks highlights, pathos and the grandeur of "Evangelion" to truly overwhelm on a higher level. The setting is mysterious and stimulative, posing many questions about the origins of the Titans that attack and eat humans, yet, unfortunately, the 1st season refuses to answer any of those, leaving the viewers rather stranded and frustrated by a lack of any conclusion. The characters are one-dimensional, humorless and stiff, which exacerbates the impression (especially since Eren, Armin and Erwin all have a similar sounding name, which leads to confusion at times), yet the action sequences do have their moments of impact, especially the "Spiderman"-style way the warriors use wires to swing from building to building to maneuver around the Titans in order to try to hit the back side of their neck, their only weak spot.

The best episodes are arguably 17, 18 and 19, because they display a genius strategy of the warriors who leave the walls for their expedition: since they have no technology, they ride on horses and disperse on a meadow for several miles, acting as a "human radar" since flare guns fired by the edge of the group will be seen from the horizon and signal if a Titan is nearby, thus allowing for the core of the group to avoid dangers by going left or right on their route. This leads to several exciting situations, aesthetic shot compositions and a sense for adventure in the open, culminating with a group having to go through a forest to ditch Titans running after them. Unfortunately, except for maybe episode 25 (featuring several great sequences, including a religious community attending a mass that gets squashed by a female Titan when its foot crashes through the church, or the epic scene of the female Titan grabbing onto a wall with its fingers to stop, thereby causing several people to get ejected from the windows of the building) and a few deeper meanings (the leitmotiv of birds that fly over the walls as a symbolism for the protagonist's yearning for freedom), a majority of the episodes suffers from a too slow pace which takes too much time to finally get going, relaying too much on a dark tone, yet it cannot compensate for the standard execution. Answers will be found in season 2, but on its own, the viewers are simply stuck with the impression that season 1 did not progress and develop the storyline to a truly satisfying level.

Grade;++

A Streetcar Named Desire

A Streetcar Named Desire; drama, USA, 1951; D: Elia Kazan, S: Vivien Leigh, Marlon Brando, Kim Hunter, Karl Malden, Peg Hillias


New Orleans. Blanche DuBois, a woman nearing 40, lost her family estate, "Belle Reve", as well as her job as a teacher in Laurel, Mississippi, and thus, now bankrupt, has to stay at the apartment of her pregnant sister, Stella. Blanche is cultured and refined, which causes her to clash with Stella's husband, Stanley Kowalski, a Polish worker. Blanche meets Mitch and starts a relationship with him, hoping that she will finally marry and settle down. She also feels guilty for the death of her husband, who committed suicide after she scorned him for sleeping with another man. However, Stanley discovers her dark secrets: back in Laurel, Blanche slept with numerous men, even with her students. This causes Mitch to give up on his plans to marry her. As Stella goes into labor in the hospital, Stanley again argues with Blanche and rapes her. Blanche loses touch with reality and is thus sent to a mental asylum.

One of the most critically recognized films of the 50s, "A Streetcar Named Desire" is still an excellent film adaptation of the eponymous play, even by today's standards — though it is somewhat overburdened with too much symbolism and excessive dialogues here and there. It is an "actor's film", and thus director Elia Kazan decided to minimize his director's interventions in order to maximize the focus on the four actors who carry the film, all of which are fantastic, ranging from Marlon Brando up to Vivien Leigh, and their electrifying dialogues. Playwright Tennessee Williams, who was gay, constructed "Streetcar" to reflect his often theme of society's prejudice towards an individual's inner desire: despite the censorship of the conservative Hays Code, it is obvious that Blanche caught her husband in a gay relationship and caused him to commit suicide due to her intolerance towards his desire. This theme goes full circle, since she is also intolerant towards Stanley's hedonistic desire, which she considers primitive, while Stanley and Mitch later judge Blanche due to her promiscuity. Blanche is also the one who judges Stella's desire in the form of a sexual addiction towards the brute Stanley: in one scene, Stella is in bed after reconciling with her husband, and has an interesting exchange with Blanche ("He smashed all the lightbulbs with the heel of my slipper". - "And you let him? Didn't run, didn't scream?" - "Actually, I was sorta thrilled by it!").

The conflict between the two main protagonists is the driving force of the storyline: Blanche is liberal, feminist, trying to be independent or at least equal to men, living in an imaginary world ("I don't want realism, I want magic!") serving as escapism from the harsh reality and her fear of staying alone as she approaches 40 ("I'm fading now! I don't know how much longer I can turn the trick!"), whereas Stanley is conservative, patriarchal, primeval, a lower class worker, and despises illusions since he wants to live in the world the way it is. In order to underline the clash between Blanche and Stanley, Kazan even added a metafilm touch by casting two actors of completely opposite ways of acting: the "raw", method acting of Brando which is juxtaposed with the "artificial", idealized acting of the old school Hollywood of Leigh, giving it another layer of dynamics. They are allegorical for id and super-ego, each trying to conquer the other one's psyche. Certain complaints could be aimed at the overlong running time and too lengthy, ponderous monologues that do not always have a clear point, as well as a "too theatrical" setting of the "confined" storyline at times, though the latter can be somewhat given amnesty since it was adapted from a play. Nonetheless, "Streetcar" is a strong, powerful and ambitious film, a one that works like a fuse on a dynamite that slowly burns until it explodes, congruent to the explosive inner dissatisfaction of the protagonists who simply have to snap near the finale.

Grade;+++

The Forgotten Ones

Los Olvidados; drama, Mexico, 1950; D: Luis Buñuel, S: Alfonso Mejía, Roberto Cobo, Stella Inda, Miguel Inclán, Alma Delia Fuentes





The slums of Mexico City: poverty caused groups of kids to rob people and turn to criminal activity. El Jaibo, a teenage delinquent who escaped from jail, returns as the head of one these gang and they plan to steal the money of a blind man singing on the street, but he stops them and hits the leg of one of them. As a revenge, Jaibo and his gang follow the blind man and later beat him up. Jaibo blames his prison sentence  to Julian and thus kills him, thinking the latter is a snitch. The murder is witnessed by Pedro, Jaibo's gang member. Jaibo visits the Pedro's poor family because he is attracted to Pedro's widowed mother. Pedro finds a job at a blacksmith, but when a silver knife is stolen, Pedro is blamed and sent to a farm school. Pedro is aggressive, but the principal gives him 50 pesos to buy him cigarettes, in order to build his trust. On his way, Pedro is robbed by Jaibo, who also stole the knife. Later, Jaibo kills Pedro. In an ambush, the police shoot Jaibo.

Often regarded by film critics as one of the finest movies of Mexican cinema of the 20th century, Luis Bunuel's "The Forgotten Ones" is a dark and depressive social drama that realistically takes a glimpse at the theme of poverty, which is even more intense since it is shown from the perspective of children and teenagers. Congruent with such an unglamorous topic, Bunuel crafted a blunt, direct, almost explicit film in order to show such reality without any "false idealism": teenage delinquent Jaibo and his gang want to rob a blind man, and later do not even hesitate to beat him up; Pedro's mother says this to the surprised civic service officer: "Why should I love my son? I don't even know who his father is."; Jaibo gropes and forcefully wants to kiss a girl, Meche, while her brother does not care when he hears his sister screaming while working outside; a kid drinks milk directly from the udder of a donkey in a farm.

The only break from this reality is Pedro's surreal dream, filmed in slow motion, which hints at the director's frequent fascination with fantasy as the escape from depression. Throughout these scenes, Bunuel illustrates a bigger strategy by giving a case study of poverty — already in the opening scenes of fancy, grand images of skyscrapers of a modern metropolis, the narrator says: "Almost every capital, like New York, Paris, London hides behind its wealth poverty-stricken homes...", hinting at the divide between the upper class which is built at the expense of a lower class, almost as in Yin and Yang, whereas he even hints at the theories of poverty, such as restriction of opportunities and a distorted meritocracy in which the only way to survive and climb through the ranks is through theft, murder, violence and other criminal activity. Even Pedro, who is given a chance to reform in a farm school, is sunk back by his old friend Jaibo, giving the movie a gloomy perspective of social determinism in a cycle of poverty from which there is no escape, evident also in the dark ending. An excellent film, reminiscent of the 'raw' aesthetics of 'Italian neorealism', and a surprisingly "normal" storyline for Bunuel.

Grade;+++

Rick and Morty (Season 3)

Rick and Morty; science-fiction comedy series, USA, 2017; D: Juan Meza-Leon, Bryan Newton, Dominic Polcino, S: Justin Roiland, Chris Parnell, Sarah Chalke, Spencer Grammer

Rick manages to escape from prison and destroy the Galactic Federation by ruining their currency, even though he was also persecuted by Ricks from alternate dimensions, who wanted to kill him, as well. The aliens abandon Earth, but Jerry seeks divorce from Beth, since she is unwilling to choose Rick over her husband. Rick thus continues his many adventures with Morty into parallel Universes. Finally, Jerry and Beth reconcile while Rick is abandoned.

Season 3 was the tipping point where "Rick and Morty" definitely lost the balance between the good and bad, falling into meaningless, repetitive episodes without any kind of point or strategy. Each season was weaker than the previous, and congruently, season 3 offers the least: it has only two truly great episodes (3.1 and outstanding 3.7), while the remaining 8 are weak and fall too often into trash. Similarly like "South Park" or later seasons of "Family Guy", even "Rick and Morty" sailed into 'extreme entrtainment' by deciding to keep the viewers' attention through splatter violence, disgust, ill-conceived ideas, shlock and shock, instead of relaying on some sophisticated narrative and inspiration. Rick is far more interesting as a character when he talks about his cynical philosophy about life, yet here he was demoted to a simplistic action figure. Episode 3.3, in which Rick has transformed himself into a small pickle, and thus has to battle cockroaches in the sever, is probably the worst episode of the show till date, whereas bad ideas run galore, from a giant Summer whose skin has been turned inside out by a laser ray in 3.5 through Morty vomiting a three feet long green worm hanging from his mouth for a minute in 3.8. Actually, in one episode, 3.9, it is discovered that a kid, Tommy, has been trapped in the imaginary world of "Froopyland", and thus mated with the creatures there so that they could breed creatures with human flesh, which he would then eat himself to survive, so Rick himself ironically says: "That's it! I'm out of here!", and then opens a portal and escapes as soon as possible with Beth. There is no reason for the viewers not to feel the same, as well. The only highlight is episode 3.7, a stroke of genius and intelligent writing, by showing the Citadel, a place where all the thousands of Ricks and Mortys from other dimensions gather to form their own society, yet fall into the same corruption and injustices against themselves - but alas, to get to that episode, the viewers have to pave their way through a mass of rubbish of inferior episodes.

Grade;+

Fast Five

Fast Five; action, USA, 2011; D: Justin Lin, S: Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Jordana Brewster, Tyrese Gibson, Chris bridges, Matt Schulze, Sung Kang, Dwayne Johnson, Gal Gadot

Dominic is about to be transported to a prison, but his sister Mia and friend Brian crash the bus with the convicts and free him. They also steal cars from a traveling train, but Dom and Brian are captured by criminal Reyes who wants to know the location of one specific car with a microchip in it that contains data about the drug lord's money. Brian, Dom and Mia then escape to Rio de Janeiro and decide to to escape Reyes' persecution by teaming up with Han, Roman, Tej, Gisele and others and steal Reyes' money. At the same time, agent Hobbs works with the Brazilian police to arrest Brian and Dom. Dom and his team break into the police station, attach the vault with Reyes' money and escape with cars. A car chase ensues in which Reyes is killed. Hobbs gives Dom a 24 hour break to escape. Brian and Dom split the money and enjoy their exile.

Part five of the long and hyped "Fast and Furious" action film series was probably the first contribution that amounted to a good film, managing to somewhat lift itself up from the routine chase sequences, even though the writing and dialogue is still often dry, ordinary and conventional. The convoluted plot takes a while until it agrees with itself where it wants to go, but once it does, it sends the franchise outside the usual car races and instead turns it into a heist film, offering a few interesting new elements that give it freshness, whereas it also helps that the plot does not take itself too seriously, often resulting in amusing irony. One of the best examples is when Gisele (excellent Gal Gadot, who is especially responsible for adding more charm to the cast) walks towards criminal Reyes in a bikini and sits on his lap, whereupon he touches her butt. However, later on, it is revealed Gisele did that only because she had a special layer on her bikini which captured Reyes's fingerprints, which her team intends to use for the heist, which is amusing. The final 10-minute chase sequence in which the two cars are dragging a giant vault across the streets of Rio de Janeiro, which sometimes smashes into cars and walls during the street curves, all the while being pursued by police cars, is great and almost reaches the insanity of "The Blues Brothers" in its sheer comic destruction. The simplistic storyline was thus saved thanks to a few new ideas, as well as by performances of Vin Diesel and Paul Walker.

Grade;++