Toys

Toys; fantasy / satire, USA, 1992, D: Barry Levinson, S: Robin Williams, Michael Gambon, Robin Wright, Joan Cusack, LL Cool J, Arthur Malet, Jamie Foxx, Jack Warden, Yeardley Smith  

The owner of the famous Zevo Toys company dies, and leaves the managment of his business to his brother, General Leland Zevo, who intends to the switch over to production of war toys to sell them to the Pentagon. This upsets the frivolous Leslie Zevo, son of the deceased owner, who teams up with Gwen, Alsatia and Leland's son Patrick to stop the creation of war toys. In a finale at the factory, war toys battle peaceful toys. Leland is killed by his own war Sea Swine. Leslie takes over the company and falls in love with Gwen.

“Toys” is the darndest thing: it makes sense in the aspects of visual style and set designs, but its story and jokes simply don’t work. “Toys” start off wonderfully, with the enchanting song “The Closing of the Year” sang by Wendy & Lisa, and written by Hans Zimmer, which is magical and appropriate to transform the viewers into this magical world, all the while this is cross cut with an ominous car driving through the meadow. Some of the visual ideas and solutions are also great at times, referencing surreal paintings by Rene Magritte. And yet, the sole plot is a strange mish-mash of two disparate ideas which nullify each other: on one hand, it wants to tell a story about a happy toymaker Leslie; but on the other hand, there is this dark concept of General Zevo who wants to make war toys for the Pentagon. 70 minutes in, and you still don’t know what this movie is about. One can view it as an allegory on the fight between two succesors of this (toy) kingdom; Leslie, who wants a pacifist rule and happiness, while the General pushes for militarization, yet what a weird movie to present the latter.   

The General’s story never truly feels right or genuine, just shoehorned. And thus these war plot points feel odd and misplaced, like they belong in a different movie. The movie needed a different purpose outside these heavy-handed messages about some abuse of kids for unconscious child soldiers. Peculiarly, no kids are shown playing with Zevo Toys outside the factory. The finale is a disaster, presenting some slowly moving miniature toy tanks against slowly moving toys, but watching a plastic swan slowly waddle for an attack is just anticlimactic and stiff. The movie works the best when it just goes in for full zany energy, such as the creative MTV music video to distract the surveillance camera, or when Robin Williams displays his comic sense in the scene where he looks at the photocopy of Patrick’s (African-American) and Gwen’s (White) faces, side by side, compares it to "before and after", and then mimicks Michael Jackson’s high pitch voice: “I never had a surgery, never, ever!” Williams is strangely passive and subdued here as Leslie, when he should have been given full comedy charisma to dominate more, to counter General Zevo, and thus most of the movie is simply either unfunny or only meagerly funny. Overall, "Toys" can be summed up in one sequence: Leslie and several other engineers are discussing about their new plastic toy, fake vomit, all the while the blocks of walls around them are experiencing indentation, Tetris-style, as the room is shrinking. Visually, the scene looks impressive, but all the small chat about adding peas and other traces of food in the fake vomit simply feel pointless and unfunny.

Grade:+

After Dark, My Sweet

After Dark, My Sweet; crime drama, USA, 1990; D: James Foley, S: Jason Patric, Rachel Ward, Bruce Dern, George Dickerson

After injuring his opponent in a match, Kevin "Kid" Collins quit his boxing profession and is now a nomad traveling through California. After a fight in a bar, a widowed woman, Fay, invites him to her car and drives him to her home, where she offers a trailer for Collins to stay. He is attracted to her, but doesn't want to commit, and thus just leaves one day. He is taken in by Dr. Goldman, who realizes the Collins has a medical condition. Collins just leaves once again, and returns to Fay. She is under the influence of Uncle Bud, who persuades Collins to kidnap a boy of a rich couple. Disguised as a chauffeur with sunglasses, Collins picks up the boy from a daycare park. The boy has diabetes, so Collins has to steal Dr. Goldman's insulin, whereas he suspects Bud wanted to shoot him and feign he saved the boy to collect the money from the rich couple. Bud goes to the airport to collect the ransom money, but is shot by an associate, and then the police storm the area. Fleeing in the car with Fay and the boy, Collins stops and decides to save Fay from the police: he pretends he is crazy and that the wants to kill the boy, so Fay takes the gun and shoots Collins.

Included in Roger Ebert's Great Movies list, "After Dark, My Sweet" is an excellent 90s film noir, albeit peculiarly unappealing to the mass audiences due to its unspectacular, unassuming style. It is kind of like the cinematic equivalent to broccoli: healthy for you, but the audience simply doesn't like it. The director James Foley refuses to place the emphasis on the crime elements, and instead focuses on the psycholigical aspect of the protagonist Kevin "Kid" Collins (a good Jason Patric), a man who always runs away from any kind of responsibility or connection, until he changes in the finale ("It was why I had been made like I was: to do something for her that she could not do for herself, and then to protect her so that she could go on, so that she could have the reason for living that I'd never had"). The characters of Collins and Fay have chemistry, and align towards the film noir rule—a lonely man finds a woman who is seemingly attracted to him, until he realizes she just wants to use him for a criminal plan; moody dialogues; tragic ending. The cinematography is remarkably crystal clear, almost as in a Hollywood film, not an independent movie. However, the movie does feel somewhat conventional and standard at times, with numerous moments that are well made, but unmemorable, and thus this comes off as a potential flaw. The stakes are raised and the suspense levels rush up during the kidnapping sequence, which is itself unusual—Collins, disguised as a chauffeur, deliberately picks up the wrong kid from a daycare park, because he suspects that his boss, Uncle Bud, wanted to shoot him and collect the money from the boy's rich family as a "hero". When he goes back to get the real boy, the kid doesn't protest, but just passively allowes to be taken away in the car by Collins. It's as if the boy is himself a symbol for "Kid" Collins, a passive person who drifts through destiny, until it is time to take control. Despite a rather lukewarm, unsatisfactory and too quick ending, "After Dark, My Sweet" succeeds as an aesthetic distillation of film noir into the modern world.

Grdae:+++

A Christmas Story

A Christmas Story; black comedy, USA / Canada, 1983; D: Bob Clark, S: Peter Billingsley, Melinda Dillon, Darren McGavin, Ian Petrella

It's just a few days before Christmas, and Ralphie (9) only has one wish for his present: a BB rifle gun, the one his hero, comic-book cowboy Red Ryder has. However, his mother doesn't want to hear about it, fearing he might hurt himself with it. Ralphie experiences numerous misadventures in his hometown: his father is angry at the malfunctioning boiler; Ralphie's little brother Randy doesn't want to eat his food; the teacher rejects his essay about wanting to buy a BB rifle gun... On Christmas, alongside numerous other gifts, Ralphie is happy to find a BB rifle gun that his dad bought him. However, while shooting outside, Ralphie is thrown back by the blast and breaks his glasses.

Similarly like "Home Alone" and "Bad Santa", this film takes the Christmas holidays only to twist and spoof them into a black comedy, since the "Porky's" director Bob Clark was not immune from occasionally crude or vulgar jokes which do clash weirdly sometimes with the story, yet overall "A Christmas Story" is still a movie with its heart on the right place, depicting both the realistic chaos surrounding Christmas and the crazy childhood of the protagonist Ralphie (Peter Billingsley, who would later become a producer of "Elf" and "Iron Man"). With time, this film's reputation grew out of proportion (among other, Roger Ebert even included it in his Great Movies list), since not every joke works to the fullest, whereas some are even downright grotesque: the viewers' taste will depend on how they judge such sequences as the mom tricking the little Randy into eating his dinner by making him imitate a pig licking the plate or when one kid licks a cold pole during winter, and his tongue gets stuck on it (later even copied in "Dumb and Dumber"). 

Luckily, there are many other "proper" jokes that amuse better. In one of the best, the story depicts the always annoying childhood appearance of a big bully who picks on the little kids, here in an alley, where Randy falls on the snow and stays laying there, so Ralphie the narrator goes: "Randy lay there like a slug. It was his only defense". In another, while helping his dad change a tire, the camera zooms in on Ralphie saying "Fuuuudge" in slow-motion, as the narrator explains: "Only I didn't say "Fudge." I said THE word, the big one, the queen-mother of dirty words, the "F-dash-dash-dash" word!" This is mirrored earlier when the dad swears while trying to repair the broken furnace:"In the heat of battle my father wove a tapestry of obscenities that as far as we know is still hanging in space over Lake Michigan." The story satirizes consumerism, parenting, naivety, negligence and primitivism in society, with several clever observations, whereas in doing so it is often surprisingly honest, without any attempts to succumb to idealism of nostalgia, depicting that even childhood has its problems. A more cynical version of your run-of-the-mill Christmas film, "A Christmas Story" simply enjoys the absurdities of it all.

Grade:++

The Shooting

The Shooting; western, USA, 1966, D: Monte Hellman, S: Warren Oates, Will Hutchins, Millie Perkins, Jack Nicholson  

The Wild West, 19th century. After returning to a mining outpost, Will only finds the scared Coley there, who tells him that the other two workers, Leland and Will’s brother Coigne, went to a nearby town “for some fun”, but accidentally killed someone, and that an assassin shot Leland whereas Coigne has disappeared and is hiding. A woman shows up, ostensibly because she had to shoot her horse that broke its leg, and offers them money to go to an unknown town. Will, Coley and the woman ride across the desert, and are followed and ultimately joined by assassin Spear, the woman’s friend. Spear leaves Coley behind, but Coley finds a horse, catches up with them, aims at Spear, but is shot. The horses die, Will attacks Spear and breaks his hand with a rock. The woman climbs up a rock formation and shoots a man hiding there, Coigne, who looks exactly like Will.  

It may come as a surprise that the highest rated Jack Nicholson film on Rotten Tomatoes with a 100% (!) score, “The Shooting”, is not the best Nicholson film, since the legendary actor made at least a dozen better films later on, yet it serves as a document from the early stage of his career, when he was unknown and made experimental independent films like this one. Monte Hellman’s surreal western is unusual and refreshing, but is not that well thought out nor is it consistently interesting, with several empty walks before the strange existential ending sets in, contemplating how the main protagonist Will has de facto set out to kill himself. There are some neat details that keep the viewers' attention (the mysterious woman just keeps randomly shooting for no reason during her journey with Coley and Will, so Will suspects she is giving signals to the assassin following them from a mile away; the woman complaining that the coffee tastes like snake poison), and the story has contemplative notions about fatalism and self-realization, yet it is not always logical, and doesn't truly ignite all until Nicholson, playing the assassin, shows up half way into the film.

Grade:++

Next Stop, Greenwich Village

Next Stop, Greenwich Village; drama / comedy, USA, 1976; D: Paul Mazursky, S: Lenny Baker, Ellen Greene, Christopher Walken, Shelley Winters, Antonio Fargas, Mike Kellin, Lois Smith, Lou Jacobi, Dori Brenner, Jeff Goldblum, Bill Murray, Vincent Schiavelli

New York, 1 9 5 3. Larry Lapinsky (22) leaves his home, despite the protest of his over-controlling mother, and moves to Greenwich Village to live in his own apartment. He is happy with his girlfriend Sarah, and hangs around with many other people, including Robert, an aspiring playwright; Anita, a lonely woman who constantly threatens to commit suicide, until she one day really cuts her own throat; Bernstein, a gay African-American... Larry wants to be an actor, but has to accept a job at a snack bar first. Larry is also annoyed by the constant visits of his mother and father. Upon finding out that Sarah cheated on him with Robert, they break up. Larry is cast in a movie, and thus leaves the place for Hollywood. 

"Next Stop, Greenwich Village" is a bitter-sweet, semi-autobiographical coming-of-age film by Paul Mazursky, who here has a sense for broken souls and melancholic artists, whereas all the actors are fully fledged out characters, and thus we believe and feel sympathy for them even when they sometimes do inexplicable things. This is already evident in a scene near the opening, in which the lad Larry and his girlfriend Sarah chat in bed, and she jokingly says: "I wonder if my mom's diaphragm fits me". Sometime later, after making love with her, Larry is full of energy and runs on the street at night, but stops at a poster of "A Streetcar Named Desire", stands next to Brando, looks at actress Leigh, who plays Blanche, and then flips a bubble gum from her blouse: "You have some chewing gum on your tit. I thought it was a diamond tiara!" The movie is filled with wacky dialogues and humor, and one never knows what these characters might do next—in the same scene, Larry, Sarah and Robert talk seriously about abortion, and then they become silly and do hopscotch in the park. Shelley Winters is very good as Larry's overbearing mother, though she is underused and appears in only five short sequences, but Ellen Greene is excellent as Larry's girlfriend Sarah. This also goes for the main actor, Lenny Baker, in his only leading role before his too early death, who is a formidable Larry, who can be both optimistic and critical of himself ("I am 10 years away from a good Hamlet!"). Many other actors got a very good start in small roles, including Christopher Walken, Bill Murray and Jeff Goldblum. While without a plot and with some unbalanced moments (the dream sequence), this 'slice-of-life' film feels alive and is a somber memory of youth: it is full of problems, annoying characters, disappointment and flaws, and yet it is the only thing you got, and once it is gone, it is lost forever.

Grade:+++

Starting Over

Starting Over; drama / comedy, USA, 1979; D: Alan J. Pakula, S: Burt Reynolds, Jill Clayburgh, Candice Bergen, Charles Durning, Frances Sternhagen, Wallace Shawn

Phil is surprised when his wife Jessica tells him she wants a divorce, but he accepts it and moves out to try to restart his life somewhere else. While visiting his brother Mickey, he is set up on a blind date with Marilyn, a pre-school teacher. At first reluctant, Phil and Marilyn get to know each other, and eventually start a relationship, realizing they like each other. After Jessica has a hit song as a singer, she returns to visit Phil, and eventually they end up together again, which disappoints Marilyn. However, Phil still leaves Jessica and returns to Marilyn, realizing he loves her. 

The first film for which the legendary James L. Brooks wrote a script, "Starting Over" is a good, noble, touching, albeit rather meagre first step towards his cinematic career, without the author's higher inspiration found in his later, more refined films ("Terms of Endearment", "As Good as It Gets"). Burt Reynolds delivers a surprisingly humble, solemn and gentle performance as Phil, a man stuck in a limbo between his ex-wife (his past) and possible future new girlfriend (his future), yet Alan J. Pakula seems to have been the wrong choice for a director, since he does not seem to have the same humanistic sensibilities as Brooks. Too much empty walk hinders the story, lacking more great scenes, yet Brooks' trademark handwriting can be found in the opening sequence in which Jessica and Phil decide to get a divorce, yet he still thanks her for the good years they spent together. In another good moments, Phil and Jessica have a neat exchange ("How do I look, anyway?" - "As good as you want to be."), whereas the typical shrill humor can be found in only one, but great little scene (while Marilyn is taking a shower, Phil mischiveously makes a photo of her under the curtain). The three main actors are well fleshed-out characters, it's just that the movie is bellow their standards cinematically since it is bland at times.

Grade:++

Innerspace

Innerspace; science-fiction comedy, USA, 1987; D: Joe Dante, S: Martin Short, Dennis Quaid, Meg Ryan, Kevin McCarthy, Fiona Lewis, Robert Picardo, Vernon Wells

San Francisco. After his girlfriend Lydia broke up with him due to his alcoholism, US Navy pilot Tuck enlists to a top secret project of miniaturization, in which his submarine shrinks to microscopic dimensions in a lab in order to be injected into a rabbit. However, a rival company, led by Victor, storms the lab, and a scientist flees and randomly injects Tuck's submarine into the body of the coiled Jack, a store clerk. Tuck attaches instruments on to Jack's eye and ear, and thus is able to talk to him. Reluctantly. Jack contacts Lydia and runs to find the second microchip held by Victor, who wants to sell it to foreign agents on a black market, in order to enlarge Tuck again. Despite obstacles, they find the microchip, Jack sneezes out Jack, whereas the lab enlarges Tuck back to normal size, so he marries Lydia.

Intended as a star making vehicle for comedian Martin Short, "Innerspace" did not attract much attention at the US box office, but it is still a fun and rather creative restructuring of "Fantastic Voyage". The story never truly blends in all those disparate elements together, since the director Joe Dante does not always have a sure sense for comedy, and thus some parts feel frustratingly convulsive, forced or 'rough' (for instance, the entire sequence where Jack sees the angry lady from his dream at the store, and the pain in his eye in the office, are simply unfunny), yet the story slowly builds its stamina, and improves with its running time. Excellent comedian Martin Short rises to the occasion and is able to carry the entire story, with some moments that are worthy of his talent. In one of the best, the miniaturized Tuck, in his submarine, establishes "contact" inside Jack's ear, and thus Jack can hear Tuck's voice, nervously looking around, but there is only a man and a woman sitting next to him in the waiting room, their lips not moving, so he manically asks the man: "Did you hear that?!" The villain henchman with the robotic hand, Mr. Igoe, has a fair share of good little jokes, as well: after completing his assignment in a mall, he walks by a clown, and cannot resist but not to pop the latter's balloon on his way out; in another, Mr. Igoe attaches a "vibrator" on his hand, as he leans towards a woman smiling at him. And at least one sequence is a marvel worthy of the best tricks by Méliès: the one where Tuck is able to change Jack's face into the Cowboy's face, and Lydia is shocked to see that Cowboy is still tied up in the bathroom, which is a great feat. The parallels between actions of Jack and Tuck have sense, while Tuck even becomes Jack "inner voice" of courage and initiative, changing his character for the better, and thus "Innerspace" works and feels dynamic, though the open ending works against it.

Grade:++

The Ear

Ucho; psychological drama, Czech Republic, 1970, D: Karel Kachyna, S: Radoslav Brzobohatý, Jiřina Bohdalová, Jiří Císler, Milica Kolofiková, Jaroslav Moučka

Prague during the Communist dictatorship. Ludvik, a Communist official, and his wife Anna, a teacher, arrive home late at night after a party. They cannot find their keys, so Ludvik climbs up over the fence, but is surprised the gates are unlocked, as are the house doors. They suspect the Communist agents placed bug devices inside their home. A housing official, Kosara, was arrested for defying an order, and Ludvik was his close associate. The couple argues, and Anna accuses Ludvik of being a conformist who bends to whoever is in power, as he was once singing both for Benes and Gottwald. Ludvik locks himself up in a room, as Anna climbs outside to break the window and reach him, fearing he might committ suicide. In the morning, a phone call informs Ludvik he was promoted.  

“Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” meets “The Conversation”—this sharp and remarkably subversive political allegory, one of the best Czech films of the 70s, is a dark commentary on Soviet Communist dictatorship of its time, which is why the movie was banned and landed in the bunker, all until the fall of Communism in Europe 20 years later. The director Karel Kachyna crafts "The Ear" as a minimalist ’kammerspiel’, playing out the story only inside the home of the couple, with occasional flashback scenes that play out in Ludvik’s mind when he tries to recount what he said at the party (the camera takes his POV, as various Communist officials look directly into the camera and talk to him), since almost every second dialogue can be interpreted with a double meanning, threatening message or blunder, which all just adds to the sense of heightened paranoia. The character of alcoholic Anna plays a somewhat comic relief, since she treats everything as a joke, and even addresses the alleged secret agents listening them in their home: "Listen Ear: Comrade President is a grandad... The mother, unfortunately, hasn’t got enough milk!" It is all dark and scary, claustrophobic even, yet it always keeps up its humanistic touch and a sense for calm. In one clever sequence, the couple accidentally drops a fork behind a stove, and as Ludvik looks behind it, he finds a small, square bug device on the ground: he wipes the floor with one finger, and wipes the device with the other finger, and then compares it by seeing dust on one and none on the other, indicating it was placed recently. A nihilist contemplation on the feeling of an all-encompassing entrapment in a complete surveillance totalitarian society, and a testimony for those who want to forget history.  

Grade:+++

Donbass

Donbass; war drama / satire, Ukraine / Germany / France / Netherlands / Romania, 2018, D: Sergei Loznitsa, S: Boris Kamorzin, Georgiy Deliev, Tamara Yatsenko, Olesya Zhurakovskaya, Irina Plesnyaeva, Thorsten Merten, Valeriu Andriuta, Sergei Smeyan

In 2 0 1 4, mentally ill dictator Vladimir Putin aids and abets the creation of a pro-Goreshist pseudo-state in eastern Ukraine, Novorossiya, comprised out of rebels in Donetsk and Luhansk. Episodes of people living there: actors put on make-up and are rushed to a scene of a rocket attack on the street to say prepared anti-Ukrainian lines in front of the cameras. Walter, a German journalist, is accosted at a checkpoint by a Novorossiya soldier who compares all Germans and Ukrainians to fascists. Pyotr opens up a clinic office to the staff, demonstrating how corrupt the doctor is, but later gets a bribe from a new doctor taking over. A Novorossiya soldier left a military barrack without the permission of a superior, and stole a woman’s phone, so he is punished with walking through a row as other soldiers beat him with sticks. An Ukrainian soldier is tied up to a pole on the street as civilians gather to harass and hit him. A wedding is held in Novorossiya official building. A mortar attack hits a bus on the street. The actors from the opening are shot in a lorry by the Novorossiya paramilitary, and new actors are brought in to now do a victims report in front of the cameras of them.  

Allegedly based on several true incidents, the director Sergei Loznitsa probably realized that Kremlin’s propaganda is such a parody of itself, which was dated already during the 20th century, let alone during the Internet age, that he decided to assemble his anthology film “Donbass” as a dark satire on the naive people who still follow it in the pseudo-state Novorossiya, the ISIS of Europe, who speak of and act on behalf of ethnic fundamentalism in all seriousness, not knowing they are pawns in a giant Poe’s Law. By its episodic structure, the movie reminds of Mungiu's communist satire "Tales from the Golden Age", as its events are so kafkaesque and demented that it baffles the mind, and thus creates a giant mirror to Novorossiya, which is just a sockpuppet of Russian irredentism. In one quietly funny episode, Pyotr, a shady man, opens up the office of a clinic to the staff, lamenting how the previous doctor was so corrupt that he hid medicine and meat in the freezer, stole equipment, and then asks a kid: "When was the last time you saw candy?" However, as the staff leaves, Pyotr just goes to the next room and gets a bribe from the new doctor, and arranges to take the "missing equipment", in a delicious irony. In another, a man complains to a Novorossiya military commander that his vehicle has been confiscated, and wants it back, but the commander rejects the claim since the vehicle was drafted: “How do you expect us to fight, on bicycles?” But there are also grim, dark and disturbing moments, such as the one where the Novorossiya paramilitary tie up an Ukrainian soldier on a pole on the street, and people just come to harass him, including a grandma who hits him with her crutch in the stomach, and youngsters who make photos of him. Loznitsa crafts a surprisingly fluent film, managing to stay objective, but also adding a sly commentary. Nonexistent lives of nonexistent minds in a nonexistent state: “Donbass” shows all these mental states of people without reason or self-critical requestioning, and shows Novorossiya as what it is—Planet of the Apes.  

Grade:+++

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom; science-fiction action, USA, 2018, D: J. A. Bayona, S: Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Rafe Spall, Ted Levine, James Cromwell, Daniella Pineda, Justice Smith, Toby Jones, BD Wong, Isabella Sermon, Jeff Goldblum  

A volcano threatens to destroy Isla Nubla, together with the dinosaurs on it, so Claire and Owen reluctantly accept the offer of the rich Sir Lockwood to help relocate the dinosaurs to mainland to save them. However, the team leader Wheatley abandons Owen, Claire and Franklin after retrieving Blue, the trained Velociraptor. An assistant, Mills, double crosses and kills Sir Lockwood to sell the captured dinosaurs at an auction for military purposes. Wheatley is killed while trying to take a tooth from a tranquilized Indoraptor that escapes from its cage. However, Blue kills the Indoraptor. When a gas leaks inside the storage, Sir Lockwood’s cloned daughter Maisie frees the dinosaurs, who thus now roam the Earth again.  

After a good reboot of the "Jurassic Park" franchise with "Jurassic World", the sequel made a step back again, settling for a solid, but downright predictable, cheap and monotone film with a story riddled with plot holes. The only good part is the opening act which poses a complex ethical question—would it be justified in letting the cloned dinosaurs just go excinct for a second time around or should mankind relocate and save them from the island about to collapse from a volcano? This is indeed something to ponder about, but sadly the movie abandons the debate to just focus on the stale, routine plot of hunters capturing dinosaurs to bring them to a military auction—which is itself misguided, since dinosaurs would simply be inefficient in modern warfare with high-tech weapons. Several insanely illogical moments shake the film. 

In one, the three human characters hide in front of a gyrosphere vehicle while dozens of giant dinosaurs are running left and right from them, fleeing from lava. A carnivore dinosaur shows up, Carnotaurus, but instead of Owen running inside the gyrosphere, he just stands there (!), looking at the dinosaur as it slowly approaches. Owen is then suddenly gone, while Claire and a man inside just leave the door open (!), as the dinosaur's head slowly leans close to the door, mimicking the T Rex scene from "Jurassic Park", until predictably, another dinosaur shows up from nowhere to interrupt it. Anyone with common sense would certainly close the door upon seeing the dinosaur approaching. The rest of the movie is equally as plausible and reasonable. The way the villain Wheatley is killed, through his greed to collect teeth from tranquilized dinosaurs, is so dumb it's almost a comedy. However, the image of Indoraptor climbing on the rooftop of the mansion to enter Maisie's bedroom from the window is kind of creepy, whereas the "invasive species" ending (the surfers scene) tickles the imagination. "Fallen Kingdom" turned into an exploitative film: people love watching dinosaurs, sure, but here everything is neglected (characters, story, style) except for the visual effects of the reptiles. Watching this dinosaur 'fan service' is almost like watching a stand-up comedian just reading a phone book on stage for two hours, since the producers thought he is so popular the audience just needs to hear him say anything to be satisfied.

Grade:+

On the Rocks

On the Rocks; drama / comedy, USA, 2020, D: Sofia Coppola, S: Rashida Jones, Bill Murray, Marlon Wayans, Jessica Henwick, Jenny Slate  

New York. Writer Laura suspects her husband Dean is cheating on her during his long business trips to far away locations. They have two kids together. Laura’s father Felix suspects the same, so they go on to secretly trail Dean from a car. On a Mexican trip, Laura confronts Felix for leaving her mom to be with another woman. When it turns out Dean was faithful all along, Laura returns back home.  

A gentle, minimalist, albeit a little thin drama about the fear of infidelity, ageing and betrayal told from the female perspective, “On the Rocks” works thanks to director’s Sofia Coppola’s sense for fluent storytelling and melancholy. However, one is left with the impression that a lot more could have been done with it. The initial story on whether the husband is cheating or not quickly becomes a catalyst for something else, the relationship between daughter and her father, Laura and Felix, who are played well by Rashida Jones and Bill Murray. It all comes full circle, in the Mexican resort, where it is finally revealed that all this is not about Laura’s husband, but about her physiological projection, about her father who cheated on her mother, at which point she confronts him into admitting the best monologue of the film: “When your mom and I were first together, she was so amazing, she shone all her light on me. And when you guys came along, all that light went to you two. And when someone looked at me like that again... You know, I wanted that glow again... We all just wanna be loved.” More of these kind of moments would have been welcomed, yet the rest feels often too loose, vague, meandering, when a tighter narrative grip would have been better.  

Grade:++

The French Dispatch

The French Dispatch; art-film, Germany / USA, 2021, D: Wes Anderson, S: Benicio del Toro, Léa Seydoux, Adrien Brody, Tilda Swinton, Frances McDormand, Timothée Chalamet, Lyna Khoudri, Bill Murray, Jeffrey Wright, Mathieu Amalric, Edward Norton, Willem Dafoe, Henry Winkler, Stephen Park, Owen Wilson, Liev Schreiber, Christoph Waltz 

In the French town of Ennui-sur-Blase, American Arthur established a newspaper, The French Dispatch. After he dies from a heart attack, three stories of his journalists are told. 1) Moses Rosenthaler is in prison for killing two people in a bar, but art dealer Cadazio thinks he is a great painter. Moses paints nudes of Simone, his prison guard. Moses quits art for 3 years, and then resumes with a fresco on a wall, which is useless for exhibition. 2) Reporter Krementz sleeps with student rebel Zeffirelli, and even revises his manifesto. She persuades him to be with revolutionary girl Juliette. 3) Reporter Wright recalls how police officer Nescaffier resolved the kidnapping of his son by giving the criminals poison in the relish, which the kid avoided because he never liked it.  

Anthology “The French Dispatch” again displays the director’s highly elaborated iconography and several narrative levels through the triple story about journalism, but it also seems that Wes Anderson became a prisoner of his own style. He doesn’t care about characters or plot, as he never progressed in that area, and thus has to rely more and more on the exponential growth of his spectacularly eccentric style, yet unless it is uniquely creative, as it was in “The Grand Budapest Hotel” (in that film, even an animated dancing man appeared in the closing credits, since Anderson was so high on inspiration that he could do whatever he wanted there), even that shows limits here. All the three stories are good as an art-film, yet none of them grip to the fullest, nor do they have humanity. Anderson’s excessive details and bizarre subplots often seem unnecessary, since they don’t lead to a specific point. The best idea is probably the sympathetic one where painter Moses, who is in jail, paints nudes of Simone (excellent Lea Seydoux), his prison guard (!), who thus flip-flops between being his model and his “captor”. The jokes are too episodic and lack an elaborate touch, yet some of them have charm, such as editor Arthur firing a youngster in his office, and adds: “No crying in my office!”, as the camera lifts up to reveal the sign “No crying” above the door. In another, revolutionary youngster Juliette admits that she is a virgin, and Zeffirelli says: “I am a virgin, too, except for Mrs. Krementz”. A “Matrix”-style scene in which camera drives across “frozen” people during a prison riot is interesting, as Anderson likes to play with the visual style. While again filled with stylish shot compositions, the movie lacks a soul that makes it come alive.  

Grade:++

Ghostbusters: Afterlife

Ghostbusters: Afterlife; fantasy, USA, 2021, D: Jason Reitman, S: Mckenna Grace, Finn Wolfhard, Logan Kim, Carrie Coon, Paul Rudd, Celeste O'Connor, Olivia Wilde, Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, Ernie Hudson, Annie Potts, Sigourney Weaver  

After inheriting a house in the rural Summerville, two kids, Phoebe (12) and Trevor (15) and their mom move there. Strange things keep happening in town, until the kids realize that their grandfather was the late Egon Spengler, a Ghostbuster. The latter set up an entrapment for the dark forces of Gozer, but they were freed from a coal mine built by Ivo Shandor. With the equipment of her grandfather, and the original Ghostbusters Peter, Ray and Winston, the kids are able to trap Gozer and save the town from an apocalypse.  

A belated semi-sequel to “Ghostbusters II”, “Afterlife” is a soft reboot that is decent, though it works far better in the first half, when it strives to be original, then in the second half, when it strives to just be a predictable clone. The director Jason Reitman creates good new characters, the next generation of Ghostbusters, and the most is achieved in the charming Phoebe, who, although underwritten, still hints at a greater potential. Reitman also writes himself around the fact that Spengler did what he did, even though the scientist would never do that. The opening is pretty clever: a Ghostbuster is chased by an invisible ghost on a farm, and attempts to catch it in his trap—but due to a power outage, there is no electricity, making the trap null and void. Some of the lines of the kids have wit: for instance, one of them, annoyed by living in such a small, insignificant town, jokes:“I'm 4th generation dump". Phoebe also jokingly defends her brother at one point: “Technically, most of 15-year olds are virgins”. Paul Rudd also shines here and there as the lazy school teacher, who is so negligent he plays the horror movie "Cujo" in the class on TV. The new technical additions and gadgets include a remote powered ghost-trap on wheels that comes in handy during a car chase. Unfortunately, the second half is hijacked by copy-paste nostalgia references to the original, of which it becomes too much of a slave. The finale makes the same mistake as “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker”, by just recycling the ending of the original, since having Gozer appear for a second time around feels too similar to the ending of “Ghostbusters”, which is too close to plagiarism. Had Ivo Shandor been the main villain, it would have all made far more sense. As if the character arcs are forgotten at that point, and the movie ends suddenly without an epilogue. Due to such excessive use of references and the iconography of the famed original in the last third, people cannot agree upon if it is a worthy homage or exploitation. "Afterlife" mostly succeeds in reviving the franchize, but it also shows how each subsequent "Ghostbusters" film is in one way or another a rip-off of the 1st film.

Grade:++

Mila

Mila; computer animated war drama short, USA, 2021; D: Cinzia Angelini

Trento, Italy, World War II. Mila, a little girl, rides a Carousel horse with her mother. Allied war planes start the bombing campaign of the city, and her mom dies in the carnage. A woman randomly saves Mila and takes her in at her home. The two stay over the night, and the woman repairs Mila's hat and plays with her. The next day, the two go out, and peace returns to the city.

A gentle, emotional and melancholic animated short film, based on a true story, "Mila" explores the effects of war on kids, in this case the title heroine who becomes an orphan in World War II. The director Cinzia Angelini chooses a story without any dialogue, relying instead only on a visual depiction of events, small gestures and symbols to tell the tale. A somewhat too austere, too straight-forward depiction of this simple story, which needed more inspiration or finesse, "Mila" is still undoubtedly a good film, where some of the crucial moments appear so subtly the viewers might miss them if they blink. For instance, the death of Mila's mom on the Carousel after the bombing is never depicted directly, and she can only be seen lying on the side for a couple of seconds. In another, the woman who adopts Mila repairs the little girl's hat, as to keep the last memory of her life before the bombing for her. An easily accessible, but also demanding and ambitious little film, "Mila" is a compact, but touching tale. 

Grade:++

The Policeman

HaShoter Azoulay; comedy, Israel, 1971, D: Ephraim Kishon, S: Shaike Ophir, Avner Hizkiyahu, Zaharira Harifai, Itzko Rachamimov, Yosef Shiloach, Nitza Saul  

Tel Aviv. Police officer Azoulay never notices any criminal activity around him, and thus his superior, police chief Lefkowitch, intends to not renew his contract. Azoulay is unhappily married with the overweight, cigarette addicted Betty, and they have no kids. He mistakes an innocent man in a cinema for an Arab suicide bomber. He also unwillingly arrests prostitute Mimi in a raid, but they remain friends on the street. Upon hearing that Azoulay will be replaced, criminals stage a fake robbery to have him arrest one of them, so that he could stay in the police precinct. Azoulay is thus promoted to a Sergeant, but immediately sent to retirement by Lefkowitch, to not mess anything up.  

Even though it is regarded as a classic in Israel, this gentle police comedy made in the vein of Czech humor does not feel as fresh anymore, since the director Ephraim Kishon was not as inspired as Ephraim Kishon the novelist, leaving the film feeling thin, overstretched and with several ‘empty walks’ here and there. It is simply not that funny, featuring several cheesy or forced gags trying too hard to be sympathetic. “The Policeman” works the most thanks to the main actor Shaike Ophir as Azoulay, a more grounded, tragic version of Inspector Clouseau, and, especially, wonderful supporting actress Nitza Saul as the good-hearted prostitute Mimi, who awakens Azoulay’s dormant emotions, and one almost wishes the movie should have explored their relationship more and made her the lead, instead of just letting her “disappear” in the entire second half. 

The best jokes arrive swiftly and unexpectedly: in the police station, police chief Lefkowitch is annoyed when he sees the wall plastered with mugshots of criminals, and spots that some prankster placed a newspaper photo of Yasser Arafat among them. Azoulay is watching a black-and-white crime film on TV and imagines himself starring in it, beating up criminals in a warehouse to save his beloved Mimi. Finally, when the news hits that the absent-minded police officer Azoulay will be fired because he never notices any crime acts around him, the criminals panic, knowing he was their “unwilling accomplice” for years and fearing that now a new, tougher cop will disrupt their business, so they concoct a hilarious plan of stealing artifacts from a monastery, all to get deliberately caught by Azoulay. When Azoulay arrests and handcuffs the volunteer criminal, the later pulls out Azoulay’s pistol behind his back, just to prove how silly this whole thing is, yet then holsters it back again. Even while being taken away to prison in a police van, the criminal just suddenly bursts into laughter while watching the oblivious Azoulay who “caught” him. Truly, the only sequence that rises to the occasion and reaches Kishon’s best days. The final image takes a more somber route by sending a bitter message: you never get what you really wanted in life, and then it’s all over.  

Grade:++

Toma

Toma; drama, Serbia, 2021; D: Dragan Bjelogrlić, Zoran Lisinac, S: Milan Marić, Tamara Dragičević, Petar Benčina, Andrija Kuzmanović, Marko Janketić, Ivan Zekić, Srđan Todorović, Milena Radulović

"Happy people don't write songs". The life of folk singer Toma Zdravković (1 9 3 8-1 9 9 1): as a lad, he worked in Leskovac as a waiter, but then met famous singer Silvana Armenulić, who came for a guest concert at his tavern, and they teamed up to sing together, with success. They repeat that in Tuzla. Toma falls in love with her, but she leaves without saying goodbye to work abroad, where she marries Radmilo. Toma meets Nada when he was a judge at a Miss Beauty pageant, and they get married. Nada cheats on him, so Toma divorces her and goes to Chicago to sing Italian and Spanish songs at local pubs. Silvana phones Toma to inform him of her upcoming American tour, but dies in a car accident. A disappointed Toma spends numerous nights gambling, drinking alcohol and smoking. He marries Gordana, they get a child and return back to Yugoslavia. Toma is diagnosed with cancer, but continues his tour as the Yugoslav Wars are about to ignite. He dies.

A biopic about singer Toma Zdravkovic—a rare and unusal subgenre among the post-Yugoslav countries—became a surprise hit in the area (over 600,000 tickets sold in Serbia and Bosnia) because of the nostalgia factor for those folk singers from the 70s and 80s, and is an overall good an honest little film, but it is still more interesting emotionally than cinematically or stylistically. The tragic story of its title hero, who rose through the ranks from being a waiter to one of the most sucessful singers in Yugoslavia, yet was broken from his unrequited love from Silvana Armenulic, is gripping, fluent, dramatic and touching, since Toma was a hedonist, but ultimately a man with a pure heart, and the main actor Milan Maric delivered an excellent performance. While conventional in its storyline, "Toma" has several memorable quotes which stay in your head. In one humorous scene, while waking up in the hospital after collapsing after a concert, the Doctor asks: "Are you married?", and Toma is quick to reply: "If that's what wrong with me, I am willing to immediately get divorced, doc!" A different, more somber moment has Toma explaining to the Doctor: "It doesn't matter how long your life is. It's how much life you insert into each day." The Doctor undergoes an amazing transformation, from the standard type who discourages Toma from doing a concert due to his bad health, up to the Doctor being the main catalyst of urging Toma to never stop doing new concerts, knowing that they are the only thing still giving him the will to go on and live. After Doctor's wife dies from a terminal illness, he says to Toma: "She wanted to have kids, but I said that there is time for that. Now I know there is never time." As Toma's health was deteriorating in the 90s, so was Yugoslavia as a state, drawing a parallel of the end of times and the cycle of change.

Grade:++

Captain Marvel

Captain Marvel; fantasy, USA, 2019; D: Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck, S: Brie Larson, Samuel L. Jackson, Ben Mendelsohn, Jude Law, Djimon Hounsou, Lee Pace, Lashana Lynch, Annette Bening, Gemma Chan

Vers, a blond woman, is member of the Starforce, a branch of the Kree civilization. Her mentor, Yon-Rogg, assigns her to fight against another alien race, the shapeshifting Skrulls, alleging that they want to get a fast-than-light device to invade far corners of the Galaxy. After briefly remembering unknown flashbacks from her past on Earth, Vers decides to travel to said planet to find Dr. Wendy Lawson, who invented the device. It is 1 9 9 5. Vers teams up with S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Nick Fury to try to find the device. It turns out Vers was a human, Carol Danvers, who worked for the U.S. Air Force, testing the device until it exploded, and her body absorbed its energy, so Yon-Rogg took her to Kree and gave her a new memory. Vers finds out that Skrulls are actually the good guys, who just want to find a new home to escape from Krees who wanted to subjugate them. Vers becomes Captain Marvel and uses her powers to defeat the Krees. Marvel leaves with the Skrulls, but leaves Fury with a pager to contact her in case of an emergency. 

The 21st movie of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, "Captain Marvel" is a 'too late' edition to the franchize, shoehorned just before the big showdown in "Avengers: Endgame", yet it still works as a good and fun piece of entertainment. By this time, the Marvel CU became something of a McDonalds for superhero movies, producing at least two per year, but even though they were giving comic-book fans just what they liked, they still delivered interesting movies. "Captain Marvel" shows that Marvel has quite imaginative fantasy or sci-fi stories to tell, especially in the intruiging twist in the vein of "The good guys fighting against the bad guys are actually the bad guys fighting against the good guys", where the heroine Vers finds out that she was mislead, which makes her a flawed, more likeable character that grows and corrects herself, whereas Brie Larson was restrained by the directors Boden and Fleck to not go overboard. The whole film is too mainstream and too accessible at times, trying to not offend anyone as to be as commercial as possible, whereas its best moments are smple jokes (Stan Lee has a delicious cameo as himself reading the "Mallrats" script; Vers enters a train and kicks a grandmother in the face, the passengers are shocked, but the grandmother suddenly starts fighting with Vers, since she is a shapeshifting Skrull), including Samuel L. Jackson as Fury, with a digital 'face-lift' (a funny gag has him looking under the sheet of a dead Skrull alien, to see how it looks like "down there", while the autopsy guy adds that the alien "is no Brad Pitt"). The final 25 minutes are the worst, giving Captain Marvel ridiculously impossible superpowers, to such an extent that not even Superman with Super Mario's super star power wouldn't be able to compete with her, making the stakes very low in the story. Nonetheless, this light superhero movie is fun, dynamic and competent in its own way, and still fits in inside Marvel CU.

Grade:++

Chimes at Midnight

Chimes at Midnight; art-film / drama, Spain / Switzerland, 1965, D: Orson Welles, S: Orson Welles, Keith Baxter, Tony Beckley, John Gielgud, Margaret Rutherford, Jeanne Moreau, Alan Webb, Walter Chiari  

England, early 1400s. After killing Richard II, the new King Henry IV has to battle rebellions against his rule. He is annoyed that his son Prince Hal spends a lot of time with overweight, sloppy knight Falstaff, drinking at taverns and sleeping with prostitutes. Hal and Falstaff even rob some travelers in a forest, and Hal plays a trick on Falstaff, robbing even him under disguise. In the Battle of Shrewsbury, Hal kills rebel Henry Hotspur, dispersing his army. When Henry IV dies from a disease, Hal is proclaimed as the new King Heny V. Falstaff is overjoyed of the news at first, but Hal feigns to not know him. Saddened by the rejection, Falstaff dies.  

Included in Roger Ebert’s list of Great Movies, Orson Welles’ 10th feature film is an adaptation of William Shakespeare’s plays “Henry IV” part 1 and 2, yet due its archaic, overlong and ponderous dialogues, it does not feel as fresh nor as alive anymore. The audio aggravates the intention of the viewers to try to understand the film, since the dub has problems, and thus subtitles are needed to decipher what the protagonists are saying at certain time. Welles was drawn to the character of the overweight, mumbling knight Falstaff who seems to mirror some of the director’s private traits, including the famous betrayal by Prince Hal when the latter becomes King Henry V, and cuts all ties with his immature past, and thus rejects Falstaff. However, Falstaff’s and Hal’s friendship never had that truly strong of a bond, since Hal acts more as if Falstaff is his butt of jokes and pranks. One great sequence shows them dressing up as monks, and as Hal tries to put on a white cloak on the corpulent Falstaff, he remarks: “How long is it Jack, since thou saw thine own knee?” 

After the robbery, Hal and his friend prank Falstaff and his entourage by dressing up in a black cloak and robbing their stolen money, only to later meet in a tavern and enjoy listening to Falstaff’s excuses and exaggerations in trying to justify how he was himself robbed: “There lives not three good men unhanged in England - and one of them is fat and grows old, God help the while.” Falstaff claims he fought four robbers, then seven, until the number grows to eleven. Finally, when Hal reveals it was he who robbed them while disguised, Falstaff tries to find even an excuse for that, by twisting it that he deliberately ran away because he recognized him: “Was it for me to kill the heir apparent? Should I turn upon the true prince?” This is a great little comedy scene, yet the movie doesn’t have that many of them. The famous Battle of Shrewsbury sequence is a little bit overhyped: it has realistic details (one knight pounding another one on the ground; several men in armor wiggling in mud like worms), yet all this is not half as interesting as the deliciously funny scenes of Falstaff, in his fat armor, peeking behind a tree, and then hiding again until all is over. The film has some traces of Welles’ sense for cinema in the well placed shot compositions and mise-en-scene (Hal standing next to his dead father on the throne, illuminated by a beam of light coming from the window of the castle), yet it never truly comes together as a whole, as if the whole story is, except for the ending, distant, schematic and too artificial to truly ignite. 

Grade:++

Mallrats — Extended Cut

Mallrats; comedy, USA, 1995; D: Kevin Smith, S: Jeremy London, Jason Lee, Claire Forlani, Shannen Doherty, Michael Rooker, Ben Affleck, Jason Mewes, Joey Lauren Adams, Kevin Smith, Stan Lee

T.S. Quint is dumped by his girlfriend, Brandi, whereas Brodie is dumped by his girlfriend Rene. So T.S. and Brodie meet up at a mall with Jay and Silent Bob to forget about their troubles, which also includes waiting in line to see Marvel comic-book icon Stan Lee. Brodie is annoyed that Rene hooked up with womanizer Shannon Hamilton. Brandi's father Svenning stages a TV show at the mall, "Truth or Date", to try to sell it to potential sponsors, and Brandi is sent to be in it. T.S. and Brodie join the show. T.S. and Brandi make up; Silent Bob plays a sex tape involving Hamilton and an underage girl, which gets him arrested, and Svenning, too. Brodie and Rene make up, as well.

After entering the movie scene in big style with "Clerks", director and screenwriter continued it a step back with this chaotic shopping mall comedy, "Mallrats", which is, at least in the extended edition, forced and unworthy. Puzzlingly, Smith included vulgar, vile or tasteless jokes in order to appeal to the wide audience, but they just set up the movie to fail in advance: the fortune teller with three nipples, for instance, or the disasterous gag in which Brodie, as a revenge, sticks his hand in his butt, and then shakes his stinking hand with Svenning, touching it, mentioning his ring, and giving him chocolate, which Svenning eats with gusto, and licks his now dirty fingers. Why have this scene in the first place? It wrecks the movie, and lingers negatively, overshadowing the good parts. Some good lines live it up here and there. For instance, Rene tells her ex-boyfriend Brodie how she thinks about doctors who make advancements in curing diseases; engineers who design skyscrapers; navigators who map a plane's fly path... "people who lead big lives", adding at the end: "I think about all that and I cry, because I've got nothing better to do than f*** you". In another great verbal moment, T.S. and Brodie contemplate if "Louis' fallopian tubes can handle Superman's sperm", and how only "Wonder Woman's uterus is strong enough to carry his kid". Sadly, the movie needed more of such high level examples of humor, and less those low ones. The good, intellectual jokes are worth more than ten scenes of dumb jokes here, which are never as funny to truly justify going so low. 

Grade:+

Clerks II

Clerks 2; comedy, USA, 2006, D: Kevin Smith, S: Brian O’Halloran, Jeff Anderson, Rosario Dawson, Trevor Fehrman, Jason Mewes, Kevin Smith, Jennifer Schwalbach Smith, Jason Lee, Ben Affleck

New Jersey. Dante finds out his store caught fire and burned out. He finds a new job in a fast food restaurant. It is his last day there, since he plans to marry Emma and move to Florida. Things get complicated when his boss Becky reveals she is pregnant with him, whereas his friend Randal throws a farewell party inside, featuring a man having sex with a donkey. They are all arrested, but released soon. Dante proposes Becky and rebuilds his old store to work with Randal as friends again.  

12 years after his indie debut film “Clerks”, director and screenwriter Kevin Smith returned to his roots with this disappointing sequel that seems as if it was directed by an imposter imitating Smith. While the first film had no story, but its running time was filled out with consistently good jokes and dialogues, “Clerks II” is a movie whose running time is filled out with bad, lame jokes and dialogues, demonstrating for the first time that Smith has lost his touch, and instead settled for a populist comedy aimed at vulgar teens. The first truly great dialogue worthy of the level of the original is the sequence where Randal confronts two “LOTR” fans by summing up the entire “Lord of the Rings” film trilogy as this: first film, Randal walks across the floor. Second film, Randal walks across the floor. Third film, Randal walks across the floor, stops, and pretends to throw something from his hand. Truly delicious, but it happens only 25 minutes into the film, which is long for a first good gag. The next good one also happens only 25 minutes later, failing to cover up the lack of inspiration. One bad sequence wrecks the film: in the finale, for Dante’s farewell party, Randal accidentally hires a man who, it is implied, gives a blow job to a donkey, and later takes his underwear down to have intercourse with the animal. A disaster of poor taste. That the authors would resort to bestiality to try to keep the viewers’ attention is sad. “Clerks II” have more obscenity and vulgarity, to try to appeal to the wide audience, but its problem is that it’s simply not that funny. It is way too forced. The only good part is the surprisingly sweet relationship between Dante and Becky, yet everything else in not worth writing about. Despite a bigger budget, these "Clerks" have far less spirit.  

Grade:+

French Cancan

French Cancan; musical comedy-drama, France / Italy, 1955, D: Jean Renoir, S: Jean Gabin, Françoise Arnoul, María Félix, Anna Amendola, Jean-Roger Caussimon, Philippe Clay

Paris towards the end of the 19th century. Henri Danglard owns a night club that entertains the male audience with belly dancer Lola, who is also his lover. However, he owes a lot of money, and the shows are not going that well lately. One night, Danglard spots a girl, Nini, dancing French can-can, a dance from the 1840s, with her lover Paulo in a tavern, and is fascinated by her. The next day, Danglard persuades Nini to join his troupe so that he could organize a new night club, the Moulin Rouge, featuring can-can. Nini accepts money to finance the Moulin Rouge from Prince Alexander, but becomes Danglard’s lover, angering Paulo, and causing Alexander to try to shoot himself from a broken heart. Upon finding out Danglard found a new, younger lover, Esther, Nini refuses to dance on the opening night of the Moulin Rouge, but is finally persuaded to go out and dance with a dozen other women, because art is more important than personal problems. The premiere is a success.  

Included in Roger Ebert’s Great Movies list, “French Cancan” is an unusual turn in director Jean Renoir’s career, who surprised the critics with this departure from ambitious dramas to go on an excursion into a light, optimistic musical-comedy that celebrates life. At times it is indeed fresh and effervescent, depicting the origins of Moulin Rouge, yet at other times it feels stiff and dusty. Renoir uses the often trope of an artist in crisis who accidentally meets someone who inspires him of his greatest achievement—in this case, protagonist Danglard who is fascinated when he sees a girl, Nini, dancing the French can-can in a tavern with her boyfriend Paulo, and thus decides to put this dance on his regular schedule to attract an audience. Francoise Arnoul is simply fantastic as Nini, conveying both innocence and wild energy during dancing, establishing herself as the undisputed highlight of the film. Renoir uses all these dance trainings as an excuse to dwell on women’s bodies and their sensual lifting up of skirts, but when the result is this cheerful, then so be it. 

Renoir’s style is too conventional and ordinary, yet some of his details are poignant: in one, he shows the trials and tribulations of a performer’s life in the scene where Paulo threatens to cut all ties with Nini if she performs the can-can in front of a mass audience, since he considers it too intimate. In another, there is a codified “running gag” of Nini witnessing Danglard constantly meeting an old lady on the street and buying flowers from her, again and again, implying she was his former mistress, until this comes full circle when Nini spots Danglard kissing a younger girl backstage, causing Nini to revolt against his constant dumping of old lovers for younger ones. Not every scene is interesting, but there are some nice bits of trivial details that illustrate the feel of these artists living at that certain time and place—including a sequence where one of Danglard’s assistants brings croissants for the bankrupt troupe in the room, since she works in a cafeteria, and Danglard, in his pajamas, really cherishes this delicious meal for breakfast. The finale takes a long time, but offers a great dance of a dozen women doing the can-can, including Nini pulling up her skirt completely, leaning forward and showing her underwear to the audience. A surprisingly uplifting and relaxed film from the director, with enough good parts to cover up for the overstretched ones.

Grade:+++

Bombshell

Bombshell; drama, USA, 2019; D: Jay Roach, S: Charlize Theron, Margot Robbie, Nicole Kidman, John Lithgow, Allison Janney, Kate McKinnon, Mark Duplass, Malcolm McDowell, Connie Britton 

2 0 1 6. One strike, and you’re out—after posing some unexpectedly tough questions to Presidential candidate Donald Trump, Fox News reporter Megyn Kelly is lambasted by Trump’s fans on the Internet, while the CEO of Fox News, Roger Ailes, offers no support. A new employee, Kayla, wants to be a host of a show, but Ailes’ audition consists of insisting that she lifts her skirt up. Every female host has to be a "bombshell" if she wants to work for Ailes. The ageing host of the network, Gretchen Carlson, is fired, ostensibly due to low ratings, and decides to sue Ailes for sexual harassment. Gretchen finds support in Kayla, who confirms Ailes wanting sexual gratification from women for promotion. Ailes is replaced, while Robert Murdoch takes over Fox News until a new replacement is found.  

“Bombshell” is a bitter commentary on certain corporate companies where women have to “sexually sell” themselves to a male boss in order to get a promotion and climb up the hierarchy, depicting that there were more millionaires using the “Harvey Weinstein-method” than expected, among them even Fox News CEO Roger Ailes. The sequence where Kayla (very good Margot Robbie) wants to advance into a host on a TV show, and her audition consists out of Ailes ordering her to lift up her skirt, more and more, until her underwear is seen, under the excuse that “TV is a visual medium”, really is uncomfortable and gets that dreaded point across. Some dialogues by screenwriter Charles Randolph dissecting Fox News mentality and its aggressive push towards conservative ideology have spark (“People don’t stop watching when there’s a conflict. They stop watching when there isn’t one”; “Ask yourself, what would scare my grandmother or piss off my grandfather? And that’s a Fox story”), yet they are sparse, and the storyline feels too often like a schematic PowerPoint presentation. Even the ending feels anticlimactic and lukewarm. In the 21st century, a certain type of movies based on true events seem to have undergone a Michael-Mooreization of sorts, catering too much towards the liberal viewers. “Bombshell” is more of a docudrama than an actual movie; it thus stimulates more thematically than cinematically, proving that, despite their noble intentions, activist movies mostly do not have that coveted permanent value.  

Grade:++ 

Funny Games

Funny Games; psychological horror-thriller, Austria, 1997; D: Michael Haneke, S: Susanne Lothar, Ulrich Mühe, Arno Frisch, Frank Giering, Stefan Clapczynski

A married couple, Georg and Anna, travel with their little kid Georg Jr. to a desolate cottage in the forest. A young lad, Peter, shows up at their cottage, claiming to be the friend of their neighbors, and wants to borrow some eggs. Another lad shows up, Paul, feigning politeness, but refuses to leave the cottage. When Georg shows up, the two lad break his leg with a golf club, taking the family as their hostages in the cottage. Paul and Peter speak in riddles, ordering Georg and Anna to do trivial things, punishing them whenever they refuse. Georg Jr. flees during the night, but is caught by Paul, who confiscates his rifle. After another random game, Paul and Peter shoot Georg Jr. and leave. Anna manages to untie herself and run outside to try to get help, but is caught by Paul and Peter who return. The two criminals kill Georg with a knife and throw Anna from a boat. They then go to the neighbors to repeat the pattern.

Even though he received the most awards and acclaim for his drama films, Austrian director Michael Haneke will somehow stay remembered the most for his two peculiar excursions into the thriller genre in which he faithfully emulated Hitchcock's style, "Cache" and "Funny Games". The latter starts off like a typical drama, but 10 minutes in, when the psychopath Peter shows up at the door and enters the cottage, the movie establishes some unbearably chilly, alarming tone that never eases until the end. "Funny Games" is 98% atmosphere and only 2% violence, creating a peculiar amalgamation of static takes and threatening suspense caused through anticipation of fear—even more so, the violence is almost never shown, just implied or heard off screen (the sound of the dog howling after Peter and Paul presumably hit it off screen; the rifle shot; the knife stabbing). This is a highly disturbing, unsettling film, a one that you only see once and never again—probably because absolutely no context is given. 

It is never explained why the two criminals are doing this to the family, leaving the viewers disoriented. Even in "A Clockwork Orange", the hoodlums have some motivation for assault, but here, no reason is given for the two criminals—they don't want money, they don't want to rape the mother, they just do these tortures because they can. And the viewers are just helpless voyeurs to these acts of cruelty. Several interpretations were presented to try to explain the story—maybe Paul and Peter, dressed all in white robes, represent the upper class oppressing the middle class; maybe they just symbolize the tendencies of a group having the urge to dominate over others; maybe it shows the audacity of modern evil, where the "invincible" think they can get away with anything due to their unlimited power, twisting everything to belittle their victims, 'gaslighting' as if it is the victims' fault for everything, while they present themselves as noble and just. However, none of these interpretations are fully satisfying. At a couple of moments, Paul looks into the camera, as if to talk to the audience, which is probably Haneke's take on the viewers who cannot resist watching violent horror films, and thus enabling these kind of films to be made in the first place. The ten minue long take of Anna freeing herself and wounded Georg, tied to chairs in the room, is masterful, whereas despite weirdness, the movie keeps you on the edge of your seat throughout. The major flaw is that all the characters are one-dimensional, and thus we do not find out much about the villains. "Funny Games" is a puzzling experience—it is a slasher art-film with actus reus, but without mens rea. As if it is telling us that violence itself is pointless and mindless, and doesn't even deserve the courtesy of explanation or rationalization.

Grade:+++

Dune

Dune; science-fiction, USA / Canada, 2021; D: Denis Villeneuve, S: Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Stellan Skarsgård, Josh Brolin, Dave Bautista, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Chang Chen, Jason Mamoa, Javier Bardem, Charlotte Rampling, Zendaya 

In the year 10,191 after Space Guild, desert planet Arrakis, nicknamed “Dune”, is the only source of ‘Spice’, a special liquid that enables interstellar travel. Its main miners, the house of Harkonnen, is replaced with the house of Atreides, on the orders of the Galactic Emperor. The young lad Paul Atreides arrives to Arrakis and has trouble adjusting to its warm climate, and is accompanied by his father Leto, mother Jessica with special mental powers, Mentat Thufir Hawat, guard warrior Duncan Idaho and others. The Harkonnens stage a surprise attack on the headquarters at night, since Dr. Yueh disconnected the shields, and kill many, including Leto, taking back power over Arrakis. Leto and Jessica disappear and hide in the desert, where they form a friendship with the native Fremen tribe, including girl Chani.  

After the failures with Lynch’s “Dune” (which is more coherent in the pirated, unapproved 3-hour cut, though) and Harrison’s eponymous TV series, the director Denis Villeneuve, a new patron of Sci-Fi movies, finally adapted Frank Herbert’s famous Sci-Fi novel the right way, achieving probably the best possible “Dune” film. This edition is far more faithful to the novel, though not to the fullest (sadly, some of Paul Atreides’ philosophical contemplations were left out, though they could have left them in just in the form of texts on the screen), and abounds with creative solutions in creating such a futuristic world with unusual gadgets and designs, yet follows only the first half of the story, and thus the uninitiated may find the ending like a “to be followed”-bait. The whole film is magnificently ceremonially clinical: everything in it, from the technical aspects up to the actors, is so refined, filtered and micromanaged that it became sterile, even the characters who became mechanical and too lifeless. Out of some twenty characters, only three feel truly alive and genuine: Lady Jessica (casting the brilliant Rebecca Ferguson was a stroke of genius), who at first feels too passive, but later on proves to be a real lion during crisis situations, and is in the best sequence of the entire film (the one where, after being abducted, she manages to free her mouth and use it, since her special mental powers create a voice that can command anyone to do anything. The villain quickly covers her mouth, but she moves her head away and just says “Stop!”, which is enough to hypnotize the villain into freezing); the selfish bad guy Vladimir Harkonnen; and the sympathetic, chubby Thufir Hawtat, Mentat and commander of Atreides' Personal Guards (great Stephen McKinley Henderson). The classic story of scramble for power and growing up during crisis times has its moments, but overall, Villeneueve seems more interested in setting up neat, aesthetic images than actually creating thoroughbred, emotional or engaging characters, resulting in "Dune" feeling dry at times: everything here is done right, and yet, it simply has no flavour.

Grade:++