Paddington 2

Paddington 2; fantasy comedy, UK / France, 2017; D: Paul King, S: Ben Whishaw (voice), Hugh Bonneville, Sally Hawkins, Hugh Grant, Brendan Gleeson, Madeleine Harris

London. Anthropomorphic bear Paddington wants to buy a 3D postcard-book about London for his aunt’s birthday. However, the book is stolen from the store by washed-up actor Phoenix, a master of disguise, while the police mistakenly arrests Paddington for the crime. Paddington is sent to prison, where he forms an unlikely friendship with a brute cook, who helps him escape. Together with his foster family, the Browns, Paddington finds out Phoenix was the book because it contains clues to a hidden treasure, but luckily the villain is stopped and arrested, clearing Paddington’s reputation.  

“Paddington 2” established an unlikely sensation and an almost mythical reputation—even though a sequel, it received even more praise than the 1st film, and actually became one of the rare movies with an astonishing 100% positive reviews on critics’ website Rotten Tomatoes. While such a high consensus is in reality a little bit overrated and overhyped, since this is no chef-d'œuvre, “Paddington 2” is still a surprisingly fun film with an universal inspiration that entertains both the kids and the grown ups, and has at times some wonderfully creative and unique gags. When you watch its first 20 minutes, you might feel a little bit stupid, since it seems like the opening to a typically harmless kid’s film starring a humanoid bear, yet once Paddington lands in prison, the jokes become remarkably rampant. 

One of the best ones is when Paddington talks with other prison inmates about the bad food (“It’s not as bad as it seems. It’s even worse”), and thus stands up to complain to the cook, Knuckles, a brute so scary that every inmate is afraid of him. Clumsy as he is, Paddington accidentally throws ketchup at Knuckles’ apron, but then when he tries to wipe it off with mustard, it makes the stain only worse—while the camera cuts to a wide shot of the kitchen, where every inmate is now hiding under their tables, too afraid to look what will happen to Paddington now. In another joke, Knuckles has a deal and wants to have a 'brute handshake', so he spits into his hand and gives it to Paddington—who just spits into Knuckles' hand, too, without touching it. Hugh Grant has a field day as the main villain, actor Phoenix, who is, congruently, a master of disguise, and thus puts on costumes while searching for the treasure, ranging from a nun up to a man with a beard. Alas, some six sketches are made about the suspects, one for each of Phoenix’s disguise, all until Mrs Brown sits next to Phoenix—and she suddenly has a “flash” of all six sketches popping on Phoenix’s head, as she realizes he is all of these characters. Some omissions are still there: the Brown family is kind of a weak link, as they are rather standardly written and underused, acting more as extras, whereas neither the sequence of Paddington on a dog chasing a burglar, nor the finale are nowhere as fun as the rest of the movie. The second half exhausted all of its good jokes, since it is just a standard chase of the burglar on autopilot. Simple, yet so effective: this film demonstrates just how funny the most innocent, family-friendly jokes can be.

Grade:++

A Witch's Way of Love

Un Amour de Sorcière; fantasy comedy, France / USA, 1997; D: René Manzor, S: Vanessa Paradis, Gil Bellows, Jean Reno, Jeanne Moreau, Dabney Coleman

Wizard Molok kills a scientist, and plans to do the same with Michael Firth, a famous inventor. Molok has this plan because Firth can save a little baby from obtaining witchcraft, which would mean a normal human life. When Firth arrives from New York to France, he meets the baby's mother, young witch Morgane, and spends a night with her in the forest. Tomorrow, Morgane and Firth drive to a castle to meet Morgane's mother. When Molok finally finds Firth, Morgane promises that she will not use Firth to save her child from witchcraft if Molok spares Firth's life. Morgane falls into a coma, so Firth himself saves the baby from Molok and escapes to the castle. When Molok catches up to him, Firth sets him on fire and transforms him into water, while Morgane wakes up.

After two interesting, darkly weird feature length films starring kids, "The Passage", about how people are at the mercy of destiny, and "Deadly Games", about how a kid is at the mercy of a burglar who invades his mansion, director and screenwriter Rene Manzor made a departure to this more "light" film, a weak, but proportionally sympathetic and straightforward fantasy comedy romance "A Witch's Way of Love". It takes an unusual topic of a good witch, Morgane (a charming Vanessa Paradis), but overall it lacks humor, emotions or inspiration, and is a solid film, but nothing more (or less). Had Manzor followed the tone of the storyline and dedicated more humor, he could have gotten a better result than this one, which sometimes looks like an overstretched version of the TV series "Sabrina the Teenage Witch". The film has no irritating or illogical flaws, yet no truly great moments, either. While Jean Reno astounds in the untypical role of a villain Molok, Paradis is the real highlight here, and one almost wishes she was in a better written film than this one.

Grade:+

You Only Live Twice

You Only Live Twice; action, UK, 1967; D: Lewis Gilbert, S: Sean Connery, Akiko Wakabayashi, Mie Hama, Tetsuro Tamba, Teru Shimada, Donald Pleasence

An unidentified rocket opens up, "swallows" a NASA spacecraft with American and Soviet astronauts on board, and then disappears and lands somewhere near Japan. Since the US and Soviet politicians accuse each other, the British MI6 fakes James Bond's death, sends his coffin into a sea, but retrieves it on a submarine, and then Bond gets the mission to go to Japan to investigate. He meets his allies, Aki and Mr. Tanaka, who help him. Bond discovers that Mr. Osato, a Japanese industrialist, is collaborating with SPECTRE, which was paid by a "secret country" to lure America and the Soviet Union into a war, in order for the said country to rise to stardom afterwards. Luckily, Bond and Aki storm the secret hideout in a volcano, led by Blofeld, and stop SPECTRE's plan of a nuclear attack.

The 5th James Bond film featuring Sean Connery is unfortunately one of the weaker ones, which is a pity considering that its setting is in Japan, which is refreshing. However, for a spy film, this is counterproductive: if a spy is supposed to be sent to Japan, then he or she should be Asian, since a White spy like Connery sticks out like a sore thumb, and thus cannot "invisibly" blend in during his investigation without causing suspicion. The screenwriter Roald Dahl (!) was an interesting choice, but it seems the Cold War and spy subgenre is not quite his thing: the story is illogical, filled with sloppy action sequences, where rarely something connects as a whole. Take for instance the opening act: the rocket that "swallows" the NASA spacecraft seems today almost like something that came out of an "Austin Powers" film, whereas if MI6 wanted to feign Bond's death, why was there a need to use actors to play out soldiers who ostensibly shoot him in bed? Why not simply skip that, send Bond in a coffin in the sea, and just spread the story that he was shot? There were no witnesses, anyway. Some of the "macho" cliches aged badly, as well: Bond is in bed with a Chinese woman, and asks her a cringeworthy question ("Why do Chinese girls taste different from other girls?"), or the weird moment where Tanaka orders his women to wash Bond, telling him that "in Japan, men come before women", which is embarrassing. The fake metal water on a volcano, which is a rooftop for the secret base, is also laughable. However, at least Blofeld's appearance of a bald villain in a grey suit, holding a cat, was inspiration for Dr. Evil, while Akiko Wakabayashi is a beautiful, underrated actress whose charm graces the screen.

Grade:+

Elf

Elf; fantasy comedy, USA, 2003; D: Jon Favreau, S: Will Ferrell, James Caan, Zooey Deschanel, Mary Steenburgen, Daniel Tay, Bob Newhart, Ed Asner, Peter Dinklage

Buddy is a human who grew up living on North Pole, thinking he is one of Santa Claus' elves. One day, upon discovering the truth, Buddy sets out to meet his real father, Walter Hobbs, a publisher in New York. Upon arriving there, Buddy causes chaos, and Walter is surprised that the DNA test confirms he is Buddy's father. Walter introduces Buddy to his wife, Emily, and 12-year old son Michael. Buddy becomes friends with Jovie, a worker in a store. When Buddy accidentally calls a short writer, Miles Finch, an elf, it ruins a business agreement, causing Walter to throw Buddy out of his life. However, Buddy and Michael manage to ignite the Christmas spirit on Christmas, giving power of Santa's sleigh. Publishing Buddy's story, Walter achieves a bestseller.

Even though it was received better than the majority of the rest of his films, "Elf" is pretty much just a gentler version of a Will Ferrell comedy, meaning it is a "hit-or-miss" affair: some jokes work, some don't. And one cannot expect anything more than that. However, even though an untypical movie for him, the director Jon Favreau delivered a fun little comedy with several burlesque moments, refusing it to go into the stupid-detrimental territory of some of Ferrell's worst comedies without any criteria, whereas James Caan is neat in the rare comedy role of Walter, Buddy's dad. The best jokes arrive swiftly, such as the crazy sequence where Buddy is suspicious of an actor playing Santa Claus in a store, and tells him: "You sit on a throne of lies." But there is a major problem: with his 5-minute guest appearance as writer Miles Finch, Peter Dinklage wipes the floor with Ferrell. It is because Dinklage actually has class and dignity in a comedy, while Farrell hasn't. The said sequence is the highlight of the film, from the moment Finch is introduced as a writer who has "more classics than Dr. Seuss", through his entrance where the elevator door opens but he is not visible above the desk, up to his feisty response to Buddy who called him an "elf" ("Hey, jackweed, I get more action in a week than you've had in your entire life. I've got houses in L.A., Paris and Vail. In each one, a 70 inch plasma screen. So I suggest you wipe that stupid smile off your face before I come over there and smack it off!"). The finale is a mess, with an obligatory, tiresome "Christmas spirit" message shoehorned in, yet overall, "Elf" has just enough charm and innocent energy that it works, since the viewers are willing to forgive its weaker moments to enjoy in its stronger points.

Grade:++

I Want to Eat Your Pancreas

Kimi no suizô o tabeta; animated drama, Japan, 2018; D: Shinichiro Ushijima, S: Lynn, Mahiro Takasugi, Yukiyo Fujii

Sakura (17) has a lot of plans in life, but little time: she has been diagnosed with a terminal illness regarding her pancreas. When her classmate Haruki goes to a hospital after an appendix removal, he finds Sakura's diary and reads about her disease. Sakura refuses to tell anyone from the class about it, and wants to spend her last few months alive with Haruki helping her do all the things she always wanted. He accepts, even though he is a loner and only reads novels. They spend the time in a restaurant, traveling with a train to a different city, spending the night in a hotel, playing video games... Sakura's friend Kyoko does not understand why she is absent so often. Unexpectedly, Sakura is killed in a criminal attack on the street. Haruki changes and asks Kyoko to be his friend. 

Yoru Sumino's deeply moving story about a girl with a terminal disease who gets a guy to help her achieve her bucket list was adapted into this tender anime that laughs, saddens, terrifies, devastates, rebuilds, questions and makes the viewers think about life, death, lost chances, purpose and meaning of existence on Earth, whereas its probably most impressive act is how the director Shinichiro Ushijima manages to make even the most seemingly routine, normal or ordinary sequences seem to have much more of a value later on, in retrospect, when the storyline makes a full circle. The tragic heroine Sakura refuses to be a typical melodramatic cliche of a victim, and is instead a fascinatingly happy and cheerful person, refusing to tell anyone about her illness except Haruki, with a stand-out monologue she has that rejects isolationism and embraces people who give each other meaning: "If you are always alone, how can you know if you even exist? I think the relationships we have with other people are what shows that we are truly alive in this world. My heart only exists because of all the people in my life right now." Two sequences are masterful: the first one is when the two protagonists have to spend a night in a hotel, and Sakura challenges Haruki to truth or dare, but when he chooses dare, she orders him to sleep in the same bed. The other is the dramatic sequence in her room, where she suddenly grabs him from behind and implies she wants to experience "something naughty" before she dies, and the lighting changes from bright to dark-moody in this corner where they are now. Remarkably, the story ends with a second conclusion than expected, the one focusing on Haruki and his change from a loner who is only interested in novels to someone who truly decides to embrace life to the fullest and form new relations with people. Despite a tragic story, "I Want to Eat Your Pancreas" is a film that turns into a celebration of life: Ushijima achieved a small "home run" for anime.

Grade:+++

Deadly Games

3615 code Père Noël; thriller, France, 1989; D: René Manzor, S: Alain Lalanne, Patrick Floersheim, Louis Ducreux, Brigitte Fossey  

The 24 December. Rambo fan and child prodigy Thomas (10) lives with his widowed mother Julie and grandpa in a secluded mansion. Since Julie is a manager in a shopping store, she has to work overtime for all the customers who buy presents before Christmas, but a shady criminal is hired to play Santa Claus, and fired for slapping a girl. He overhears that a shipment is headed towards Julie’s house, and thus kills the driver and enters into the mansion through the chimney. The evil Santa Claus attacks Thomas and grandpa, who are hiding in the corridors and set booby-traps for the intruder. After a long cat and mouse chase, the evil Santa Claus is shot and killed, while Julie comforts Thomas.  

“Home Alone” as a dark thriller—this peculiar French cult extravaganza takes the concept of Santa Clause entering a house and turns it into its complete, black opposite, the one of a 10-year old kid Thomas having to set up traps to try to defend his home from a siege of a psychotic burglar on Christmas eve. The director and writer Rene Manzor adorns the film with a great visual style, ranging from the aesthetic blue-filter cinematography up to unusual camera angles and camera drives, to create a creepy, but cozy mood, neatly located in an isolated mansion in a forest during the night, and its design is strange itself (there is a maze and even a basement with a rope bridge hanging over a bunch of toys), giving it even a surreal touch. Its biggest flaw is the vague motivation of the villain: is his goal to rob the mansion? Or to kill the kid? Or just to scare him? The problem is, it is never established what he truly covets, and thus they had to resort to the old cliche that the antagonist is just mad whenever the authors write themselves into a corner. For instance, the criminal Santa Claus sends the toy train with dynamite driving back, heading towards the knight armor in which grandpa is hiding, so Thomas runs to stop it, but the criminal tackles the kid and throws him on the floor. The villain has the kid. But what happens next is unclear and confusing: the kid just stands up and runs away, while the villain just remains lying there, looking at the toy train. This makes no sense. In another sequence, the evil Santa Claus grabs the kid by the neck from an ambush. Game over, again. But then, the villain just releases the kid (?), and tells him it is his turn to play hide and seek. These inconsistencies greatly disrupt the suspense, giving cheap escapes for the kid which diminish the danger. Several awkward editing choices also strain the narrative (Thomas ignites a fire in front of the villain, but then the sequence abruptly ends, instead of showing what happens next). Nonetheless, “Deadly Games” shows a better French attempt at imitating American-style commercial movies.   

Grade:++

Play It Again, Sam

Play It Again, Sam; comedy, USA, 1972; D: Herbert Ross, S: Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Tony Roberts, Jerry Lacy, Susan Anspach

San Francisco. Movie geek Allan is shocked when his wife Nancy files for divorce and leaves him. Allan's friends, couple Dick and Linda, try to save him from depression by arranging several dates for him, but none of the women like him. Allan is also a huge fan of "Casablanca" and has Humphrey Bogart as an imaginary friend who gives him love advice. When Dick leaves the city, Allan cannot resist but to fall for Linda, and the two land in bed. When Dick returns and suspects Linda had an affair, Allan goes to meet her at the airport and re-creates the ending in "Casablanca", telling Linda to board the plane with Dick.

Cinema heroes as a form of self-help for people: this early Woody Allen film—untypically directed by someone else, Herbert Ross, not by Allen himself; and set in San Francisco, not in Allen's "bastion" New York—is a funny little comedy with a prototype of the author's future (more dramatic) films, encompassing already some of his frequent themes, from an isolated intellectual, neurotic behaviors in urban life and the difficulty of ugly people trying to date and find a love life. Similarly like "Jojo Rabbit", "Play It Again, Sam" also has the idea of a protagonist talking with an imaginary authority figure for advice, here a more positive one, the one of Humphrey Bogart from "Casablanca", while Allan also has an imaginary vision of his ex-wife Nancy nagging him occasionally. This culminates in one howlingly funny moment that is comedy gold: Bogart is sitting next to Allan, and giving him advice on how to seduce Linda on the couch, more and more, with compliments ("You're uncommonly beautiful."), but just as Allan is about to kiss Linda, his imaginary version of his ex-wife shows up, holding a gun, and says: "I warned you to stay away from my ex-husband!", and shoots Bogart! Ross is better at mise-en-scene than Allen is when directing, relying more on moving camera, since Allen is more of a writer than a director, yet the latter's wacky dialogues are sometimes bound to cause at least a chuckle: in one of them, after having a date in an "undergournd" bar, two punks start following Allan and his date, and one thug even grabs Allan by the neck, causing a protest ("Your tattoo's coming off on my neck."). While not quite thought out to the fullest, especially in the rather incomplete ending, this film still has a lot going for it, if it is the viewers' cup of tea.

Grade:+++

The Bad News Bears

The Bad News Bears; sports comedy, USA, 1976; D: Michael Ritchie, S: Walter Matthau, Vic Morrow, Chris Barnes, Tatum O'Neal, Jackie Earle Haley

The golden days of baseball trainer Buttermaker must be behind him when he has to accept training the the Bears, a team consisting of mostly 10-year old kids. They are terrible and lose their first baseball game. The alcoholic Buttermaker thus recruits Amanda, the 12-year old daughter of his ex-girlfriend, to help boost the Bears. This indeed helps, and the Bears start getting better, while Amanda also starts hanging around the rebellious boy Kelly who drives a Harley-Davidson. During a major game, Buttermaker spots that the opposing trainer Roy is too harsh towards his team, so Buttermaker allows even for weaker players to play and participate, preferring this over winning under any cost. The Bears thus get the 2nd place.

The 1st installment of the popular trilogy, "The Bad News Bears" are a rather fun little film celebrating friendship and comradery over winning under any cost. It gets the maximum out of Walter Matthau, who works as a grouchy trainer with several cynical lines ("Now get back to the stands before I shave off half your mustache and shove it up your left nostril!"), while a close second is the very good Tatum O'Neal as the "tough" girl Amanda ("I know an 11-year-old girl who is already on the pill."), though the rest of the kids in the team are rather bland and are not able to keep up with them. The parents reluctantly allowed their kids to the cinemas due to the too much cussing of the Bears team, yet a bigger problem is that a fair share of the storyline feels rather improvised and too "loose" instead of more tight and with more inspiration. Too much baseball, too little comedy, but still and overall fun film: a small home run for the director Michael Ritchie.

Grade:++

KonoSuba: God's Blessing on this Wonderful World! Legend of Crimson

Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku o! Kurenai Densetsu; animated fantasy comedy, Japan, 2019; D: Takaomi Kanasaki, S: Jun Fukushima, Sora Amamiya, Rie Takahashi, Aki Toyosaki, Ai Kayano

Kazuma, a teenager transported to a fantasy world, and his women friends with magical powers—goddess Aqua; wizard Megumin; Yunyun; Darkness; Wiz—get the assignment to travel to a village and save it from attacks by demon king’s general, in this case Sylvia. They settle at Megumin’s house where her parents question Kazuma if he is in a relationship with their daughter. Kazuma even sleeps in bed with Megumin in her room for the night. Using their powers, they stop the demon attack and eliminate Sylvia.  

The feature length anime film of the popular fantasy anime series “Konosuba” is a pure escapist comedy extravaganza that can be enjoyed the most if one does not take it too seriously. Its low-points are, predictably, when it comes dangerously close to those ‘harem’ clichees which are beyond parody and thus cannot be salvaged through humor, yet it mostly manages to avoid them since it establishes that the teenage guy Kazuma would actually love to start a relationship with one of the girls around him—but they are not that interested. The opening act starts off very good: Yunyun storms a tavern, goes to Kazuma’s table and announces in front of everyone: “I want to have a baby with you!” It turns out Yunyun was given a written prophecy telling her that their child will defeat the demon king in the future, and thus she “has to do it”. Kazuma is content with that, and later on even drops his pants in a room, saying: “Do you want me to do it here and now?” However, the other girls quickly discover that the prophecy was just a joke text written by a prankster, shaming Yunyun, while one girl pulls Kazuma’s pants back up - angering him (“My one big break and you girls ruin it!”). In another comical moment, Kazuma is supposed to attack the 7ft tall, buxom demon leader Sylvia, but she submerges his head into her giant cleavage, “converting” him to her side, as he turns around and places both of his hands on her bra above his shoulder, defying now his previous allies. Unfortunately, the second half of the film runs out of ideas, since just a lineup of silly scenes can only go so far, and is not a good of a substitute for a well thought out joke with a point, whereas the obligatory action finale is tiresome, exhausting the attention span of the viewers who have “switched off” by that time. Colorful, wacky and fun patchwork, yet it still does not have that punch of greatness that adorned anime in their hay days.  

Grade:++

Fullmetal Alchemist

Hagane no Renkinjutsushi; animated fantasy series, Japan, 2003, D: Seiji Mizushima, S: Romi Park, Rie Kugimiya, Toru Ohkawa, Yuuko Satou, Junichi Suwabe, Hidekatsu Shibata, Ryotaru Okiayu  

  In an alternate 19th century world, teenage brothers Edward and Alphonse “Al” Elric have burned their house down and are searching for the philosopher’s stone in order to get back their human bodies. Edward lost half and Al all of his body after they tried to use alchemy to revive their dead mother, so Edward now has a robotic arm and leg, whereas Al is a metallic armor. Alchemist Roy Mustang persuades them to become official state alchemists for the Army. Their country perpetrated the Ishbal massacre when the traditional local populace considered alchemy blasphemous and declared independence. The survivor, Scar, became a murderer who is killing alchemist out of revenge. Edward discovers that people sentenced to death by the Army were actually sacrificed in secret experiments in order to create the philosopher’s stone. However, each attempt at reviving the dead creates Homunculi, artificial humanoids which have secretly installed their representatives among the military high commanders. The Homunuculi are commanded by Dante, an ancient alchemist who continuously transported her own mind into new, younger bodies for over 400 years, prolonging her own existence, and wants the philosopher’s stone to switch into the body of a girl called Rose. Dante was the lover of Hohenheim, Edward and Al's father who mysteriously disappeared because his body started decaying after so many rejuvenations. Dante is defeated and killed, while Edward sacrifices his life to give Al's body back. Edward is in exchange transformed to Munich in the early 20th century Earth, together with Hohenheim.

The first anime adaptation of “Fullmetal Alchemist” is an intriguing enterprise: flawed and overstretched with its 51 episodes, but with several incredible moments of awe. A few creative ideas are used to exploit the potentials of the concept in which Edward can draw an alchemy sign on an object and thus reconfigure it through alchemy into something different. In one of them, he draws the sign on a train and thus “conjures up” a cannon on top of it, which he mounts and uses against the enemies who tried to kidnap the train. He uses the trick in several other clever ways, too: by touching the floor, he conjures up prison bars which trap a fleeing burglar, or draws the sign when he is chained by a serial killer, thereby breaking the chain and freeing himself. The first 12 episodes are fillers, just random adventures Ed and Al encounter on their journey, but starting from episode 13 onwards, the story finally aligns into an overarching narrative with a clear guideline that leads somewhere. Episode 27 should also be noted for a virtuoso moment: teacher Izumi is holding a book in her hand, but when Edward charges for an attack, she throws the book up in the sky, grabs Edward’s hand and catapults him away, while the book falls back into Izumi’s hand—and Edward falls down parallely in the bushes in the background. Now that is style. Some melodramatic moments fare less, including the said episode: it contains a syrupy subplot or a pregnant cat that was scared by a dog, and thus fled on the rooftop of a house (!) to give birth there, but ultimately died from straining itself too much of all the climbing. A girl wants Izumi to revive the cat with alchemy, but the latter informs her that it is not possible. The message is that people should be mature and accept harsh reality, instead of trying to “cheat” and find easy answers, but it is presented through such a ludicrous, contrived parable of a pregnant cat that it kind of nullifies it, unable to be realistic.   

The story features a fascinating socio-political essay on military rule, presented through the dark subplot of the Ishbal massacre perpetrated in order to block its independence and keep them as their colony, even including a false flag operation to invent a casus belli, which is very close to reality—for instance, it is almost identical to what Kremlin did to Chechnya when it declared independence, as well. Comedy episode 37 surprises as a refreshing “intruder” (the Army finds a bone and concludes that the skeleton of a murdered soldier is buried under ground, but it all leads to a hilarious reveal when they discover a dog was just burying its bones there), but, congruent to its own motto of equal balance, this anime also has serious moments to counterbalance humor which are on the other, dark spectrum of emotions, some of which are tragic, bloody or downright unsettling. For instance, Marta hides inside inside Al’s armor, but is killed when the military commander Bradley stabs through the armor with his sword, leaving only blood dripping down from Al. A clever set-up is also established: in a couple of episodes, Scar is seen randomly plowing the ground with a stone. At first, it is unknown why he is doing that. Until, in episode 42, it is revealed that he plowed a giant alchemy sign around an entire city, evacuated it, and then, when thousands of soldiers invaded it, used alchemy to sacrifice all of them to create the philosopher's stone—this is Scar's one giant checkmate. All this is strung up to illustrate several themes about life in the grand finale, from Frankenstein-style fear of death, trying to overcome fatalism, mankind’s struggle to gain power through enlightenment (evident even in Edward’s discovery of the true nature of his father), up to the bitter realization that for every victory something else must be lost and sacrificed as a compensation. There are several surprises in the story, but the viewers will not see the four (!) plot twists coming until they are right in front of them. “Fullmetal Alchemist” has that unique tenacity of anime: it has dozens of flaws, yet its one main virtue—it is good—is so strong and all-encompassing that nothing else matters.   

Grade:+++

The Intruder

The Intruder; drama, USA, 1962, D: Roger Corman, S: William Shatner, Frank Maxwell, Beverly Lunsford, Robert Emhardt  

The secretive Adam Kramer arrives to a small Southern town. He quickly starts rallying White followers who are opposed to Black people attending school, and uses hate speech to demand racial segregation. He is opposed by intellectual newspaper editor Tom, who is attacked by a mob, leaving him in an injury where he loses an eye. Kramer seduces the wife of a certain Griffin, and persuades Tom’s daughter Ella to feign she was raped by a Black student, Joe. A mob is about to lynch Joe, but then Griffin convinces Ella to tell the truth. The mob then abandons Kramer.  

An intruder of sorts among his opus, this film showed the director Roger Corman in a different, more dramatic edition, featuring the best performance in the career of actor William Shatner, here in the uncharacteristic role of schemer Adam Kramer. Even though at first it may appear as one of those calculative ‘social issues’ films comprised only out of preachy messages, “The Intruder” is a surprisingly mature, sophisticated and thoughtful psychological drama that has a lot going for it, and seems just as relevant today as during its premiere. The most surprising analysis is that of its main antagonist Kramer: even though he is using hate speech to promote racial segregation, and all the transparent clichees that go with it (scarewords such as “Communists”, “Jews” and “Negroes” are used to incite the masses), Kramer is ironically not even racist himself, but is only using hate insofar to attract followers and gain power as a leader, using it only to promote his own ego, his illusion of self-importance. Other characters, such as Griffin, see right through him (“You're gutless, Adam, that's why you are doing this, to prove to yourself that you are not!”; "You began losing your grip on those people the minute you got it!"). The way this hate-business is dismantled is fascinating, especially in the final scene which shows that these kind of populist ideologies are chaotic and cannot have a stable, permanent value. The finale is kind of lukewarm and without a clear direction where this is all heading, but the storyline unfolds smoothly and elegantly, posing some thought provoking questions, and transforming into one of the underrated movies of the 60s.  

Grade:+++

Freaky

Freaky; horror comedy, USA, 2020; D: Christopher Landon, S: Kathryn Newton, Vince Vaughn, Katie Finneran, Celeste O'Connor, Misha Osherovich, Melissa Collazo, Alan Ruck

A serial killer left an entire town in a state of emergency after killing four teenagers. When he takes an old Aztec dagger and attacks teenage girl Millie, a strange phenomen happens and the two swap their bodies. The next morning, the killer wakes up inside Millie's body and starts killing in her high school, while Millie wakes up in the killer's body, yet manages to persuade her friends Nyla and Josh about the body swap, as well as her crush, Booker. They have 24 hours to use the dagger to change their bodies back, or the change will stay permanent. They succeed and return Millie's mind back in her body. When the killer strikes again at her house, Millie kills him, with the help of her mum and sister.

"Friday the 13th" meets "Freaky Friday"—this strange syncretism of 'hard core' slasher horror and body-switch comedy works only in the latter, but this said latter part is sadly lesser used in the story. Congruently, the two leading actors only work when they are playing their good counterpart, and not their serial killer counterpart—but Vince Vaughn is such a good comedian that he almost steals the show as the feminine Millie stuck in the body of the male killer, with a few delicious examples of humorous body language, such as when he imitates the cheerleader dance to persuade the two high school friends Nyle and Josh to identify "her", or the hilarious kiss with Booker. Unfortunately, the director Christopher Landon gets stuck in the mud of splatter violence and senseless horror clichees, such as the disgusting sequence where Millie "the killer" executes her teacher by slicing his entire body in half on a saw mill, which ruins "Freaky" right from the start. It is a pity, since more finesse and sophistication could have made a much better film out of this interesting concept. However, one stand-out sequence is such a surprising example of stylistic perfection that it has to be seen, even isolated: it is the genius slow-motion tracking shot of a "transformed" new Millie walking cool towards her high school, while the cheerleaders are doing a salto, a human pyramide or waving their flags around her, with the song "Que Sera Sera" playing until it slows down to a standstill, in a moment of sheer superiority and energy compared to the entire rest of the film.

Grade:+