Zack Snyder's Justice League

Zack Snyder's Justice League; fantasy action, USA, 2021; D: Zack Snyder, S: Ben Affleck, Gal Gadot, Ray Fisher, Ezra Miller, Jason Momoa, Henry Cavill, Ciaran Hinds (voice), Jeremy Irons, Amy Adams, Diane Lane, J. K. Simmons, Connie Nielsen, Willem Dafoe, Jesse Eisenberg

Villain Steppenwolf uses his army to try to obtain the three Mother Boxes on Earth, hoping to please his master Darkseid, and thereby terraform Earth to resemble their planet Apokolips. However, he did not count on superheroes Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Cyborg and Flash uniting, and reviving the dead Superman. Using their combined forces, the superhero team manages to kill Steppenwolf and send his body back to Apokolips. 

Similarly like the resurrected Superman in the story, Zack Snyder's director's cut of the "Justice League" was also resurrected in 2021, four years after the trimmed down theatrical cut, in one of the most unlikely comebacks in Hollywood history. Even though the studio had to invest a further 70 million $ to complete it, which would add to the cumulative cost of 370 million $ and place it as the 2nd most expensive movie up to that time, Snyder managed to outfox all the opposition and bring the vision he planned in the first place. Ironically, even though the story is much more articulate and complete in this edition, giving more room to develop the characters—it is nothing better than the theatrical cut. You cannot quite put your finger on it, but the Snyder Cut is never as fun nor as engaging as you wish it to be. Maybe it is because of its overlong 4-hour running time (for which he was criticized by film critic Ramboraph4life, who accused him of trying to make ""Lawrence of Arabia" of superhero movies"); maybe because of Snyder's sterile, bleak, grey style; maybe because the whole thing is so darn humorless (missing are the moments that liven things up a bit, like Aquaman holding the lasso of truth, or Flash accidentally falling on Wonder Woman); or maybe because only Barry / Flash and Wonder Woman seem like real characters, while all others are so bland, one-dimensional and stiff, from Aquaman up to Batman, who feels as if he never rises to the occasion. Cyborg was developed a lot better in this version—but he is still a character you do not care about. This lack of chemistry when the six superheroes interact is a huge missing piece to conjure up some charm, since just filming dry events and routine dialogues in stunning HD cinematography can only go so far. However, there is one moment that reaches the highest Parthenon of inspiration and is more beautiful than any scene in any Marvel superhero movie: it is the one where a girl driving a car crashes with a truck, and Barry / Flash reacts by starting to run so fast that time starts to flow in slow-motion. Barry stops for a moment in front of the car denting upwards while hitting the truck, and just stares at the beauty of the girl flying slowly above. He takes a hot dog flying, touches her hair, and then gently folds the girl's arms and pulls her a couple of feet away from the upcoming accident, placing her on the ground. Just then, time returns back to normal, and the car flips in the background, exploding on the street, while the girl is saved on the ground. A moment of majestic perfection and cinematic magic that will linger in your mind long after you have seen it. And it is a pity the rest of the movie never repeats anything like this again.

Grade:++

Roe v. Wade

Roe v. Wade; drama, USA, 2021; D: Nick Loeb, Cathy Allyn, S: Nick Loeb, Joey Lawrence, Robert Davi, Stacey Dash, Jamie Kennedy, Corbin Bernsen, Greer Grammer, Wade Williams, Jon Voight, Steve Guttenberg, Mindy Robinson, William Forsythe, Justine Wachsberger  

After his pregnant girlfriend had a heavy handed abortion, Bernard Nathanson decides to become a doctor to perform safe abortions for women. He joins Larry in a pro-abortion movement in the 60s, trying to get it legalized. Norma McCorvey wants to have an abortion in Texas, so the lawyers list her as “Jane Roe” and go all the way to the Supreme Court to legalize abortion. This leads to the Roe v. Wade judgement in 1 9 7 3, in which the justices legalize abortion with a 7-2 vote. After seeing an aborted fetus, Nathanson becomes a pro-life activist.  

Every topic can in theory be suitable for a movie. But there are right ways and wrong ways when handling a controversial topic. And the movie “Roe v. Wade”, about the famous Supreme Court case which legalized abortion in America, did it the wrong way: it’s biggest problem is that it stooped down to an ideological and an emotional appeal, when it should have just taken the perspective of a legal appeal. Since it is a rarely talked about event in cinema, the Roe v. Wade case is intermittently interesting: it depicts how abortion doctor Bernard Nathanson joined others to try to make abortion legal, as to get his profession out of the area of semi-illegality, and thus their grassroots movements found a great case to test the practice, Norma McCorvey, who wanted to have an abortion in Texas, where it was banned. The lawyers Sarah Weddington and Linda Coffee deliberately aimed her court case at the Supreme Court. However, this is where the story involving Dr. Nathanson should have stopped, and focused on the sole Roe v. Wade case. Bizarrely, the storyline did the opposite. The movie spends only 30 minutes on the said Supreme Court case, while the remaining 80 minutes involving both pro-choice and pro-life movements are given undue weight, since they are off-topic. They are simply outside the scope of the topic, since the main theme is the Roe v. Wade case. Ironically, the movie is at its best during these scarce courtroom sequences, which are calm and restrained. Jon Voight, as Justice Burger, is thus underused, yet a small surprise here is Stacey Dash, unexpectedly delivering a gem among the performances. For some reason, the film treats the verdict as some sort of conspiracy: yes, there was pressure from both sides to swing the case in their favor (Nathanson and his pro-abortion associate Larry brag at the beach how they inserted false statistics and published them by Time magazine; two Justices, Stewart and Blackmun, allegedly had a wife and a daughter, respectively, who both worked at the Planned Parenthood association, insinuating they were in the conflict of interest), but these are straw man arguments, since in reality this just reveals the author’s lack of understanding of the legal system— a judge is not guided by any emotion or outside media interference, only by objective, referenced, reasonable interpretation, expansion and exploration of the international law and constitution, based on equilibrium of rights and autonomy. And nothing from the story disputes the latter.   

Several sequences are highly dubious and misrepresenting: for instance, activist Margaret Sanger from Planned Parenthood is depicted as a racist holding a speech in front of people with a cross burning behind her, as the movie heavy-handedly inserts an association fallacy that the origins of the US abortion movement are linked to a person who wanted to “reduce the Black population”. At least some credit should be given to the two directors for presenting both sides of the argument, thereby at least nominally trying to stay neutral. Yet certain aspects still lean towards one side: in one particularly exaggerated sequence, the police storm a hotel room that is performing abortions. One doctor, though, just continues doing the procedure on a woman lying on the bed while holding an instrument, saying: “This is an operating room! You have no authority here!” A police officer then lowers his gun and punches the doctor with his fist (!) — not even asking if the procedure is maybe already half-way done or what the woman is now supposed to do, just suck it back in? In another over-melodramatic moment, pro-life activist Mildred is watching “Golden Girls” on TV, in which a woman says that going to an abortion is like “going to the dentist”, which shocks Mildred’s mother so much she drops a plate from her hand, which smashes on the floor. All these episodes are unnecessary and irrelevant for the main trial, since none of them had any influence on the verdict, anyway. What was the point of inserting five sequences of abortion clinics? The movie would have been so much better if it decided to stick to just the said trial, and showing the lawyers giving arguments for and against abortion, as in the sequence where a debate is held as to when a fetus can be considered a person. This way, though, it is not a movie about Roe v. Wade, but about the conversion of Dr. Nathanson. Unfortunately, this seems like a movie version of a Wikipedia:Coatrack article—instead of neutraly exploring a theme, it has been edited to promote a point or argue about something else.   

Grade:+

Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby

Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby; sports comedy, USA, 2006; D: Adam McKay, S: Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly, Sacha Baron Cohen, Michael Clarke Duncan, Leslie Bibb, Gary Cole, Jane Lynch, Amy Adams  

Ricky Bobby is a successful NASCAR driver, always winning at the races, but is disappointed that his dad Reese disappeared since his childhood and never watched one of Ricky’s races. When gay French driver Jean beats him in a tournament, Ricky’s life falls apart: he goes bankrupt; his wife marries his best friend Cal; Ricky has to move with his two kids to him mother’s place. However, Ricky’s dad shows up and trains him to drive cars. At a tournament, Ricky wins against Jean and falls in love with his assistant Susan.  

It must be an interesting process inside the mind of director-screenwriter Adam McKay when he sets out to make a pure comedy. All of his early films are of that genre, and it seems as if he wrote down all the silly ideas he had when he was 12 years old, and then just decided to film them as a grown up. Even “Talladega Nights” fit in this pattern, since McKay and his team do not even bother about creating a story, since it does not matter, and are instead only interested in conjuring up as many random jokes as possible, hoping they will hit a punchline. In fact, over a dozen scenes seem as if they came from a whole set of different movies. Even when the viewers don’t like a particular joke, a hundred more are just around the corner. Juvenile and dumb, the film is not as hilarious as McKay’s other comedies, such as “Stepbrothers” or “Anchorman”, and is instead more restrained, never as vulgar or insane as the said two films. Sacha Baron Cohen makes a guest appearance as the French rival Jean, leading to several ridiculous dialogues with the title protagonist (“I feel like I’m Highlander!” - “What is Highlander?” - “It’s a movie. It won the Academy Award.” - “Oh, for what?” - “For the best movie of all time”). Ironically, some of the best jokes arrive in the post-credit bloopers, from Cal during prayer (“I like to think of Jesus as a mischievous badger!... I like to imagine Jesus as a shapeshifter!”) up to the funny sequence where Ricky is lying in a coma in a hospital bed, and his friend Lucius is trying to reach him (“I sometimes dress up as Donna Summers, you know, put on a skirt and 4-inch heels. Last chance for romance, for love...”, upon which Will Ferrell cannot take it anymore and starts laughing with his eyes shut). A light comedy without ambitions, and too talkative at that, yet it is fun.   

Grade:++

John Wick

John Wick; action, USA, 2014; D: Chad Stahelski, David Leitch, S: Keanu Reeves, Michael Nyqvist, Alfie Allen, Adrianne Palicki, Willem Dafoe, John Leguizamo

Former assassin John Wick goes crazy after Rusian mafia thug Iosif steals his car and kills his dog, the gift of Wick’s late wife. Wick starts a killing spree against the mafia, all by himself. Viggo, Iosif’s father, implores Wick to stop. After killing Iosif and Viggo, along with a hundred gangsters protecting them, a wounded Wick finds another dog and walks away back home.  

“John Wick” is a standard action flick, in a reduced, simple story about the title protagonist battling the Russian mafia all by himself, yet the sympathetic Keanu Reeves and painstakingly choreographed action and fight sequences give it some raw charm. “John Wick’s” main problem is that it takes itself way too seriously, with bloody murders and melodramatic music, when its concept (after all, the hero’s motivation is that the bad guys killed his dog) should have been handled with irony, maybe even as an action comedy—Arnie would have had a field day if he starred in a similar movie in the 80s, and one has to be reminded of the Spencer-Hill comedy “Watch Out, We’re Mad” where the heroes take on the mafia for destroying their Buggy. However, Wick does have a high coolness factor in the sequence where he storms the Orthodox church, a front for the mafia, wounds a priest and drags him to the basement, ordering the latter to open the door where all the money is stored. Looking at all the cash and valuables, the priest asks: “What are you going to do with all of this?” And Wick just says: “Nothing”, and throws a torch on the money, burning it all. The movie is a ‘don’t think’-action roller coaster which is there to thrill, entertain and have the hero eliminate the villains, and that is just what it does, depending on each viewers’ inclination for such type of films.  

Grade:++

Attack on Titan (Season 3)

Shingeki no Kyojin; animated action fantasy series, Japan, 2019; D: Tetsuro Araki, S: Yuuki Kaji, Marina Inoue, Yui Ishikawa, Hiroshi Kamiya, Daisuke Ono, Shiori Mikami, Yusaku Yara  

The fake king of Eldian is removed by the military in a coup d’etat. The real king is Rod Reiss, whose family has the ability to control the Titans. The last remaining descendant of the Reiss family, Historia, refuses to transform into a Titan and eat Eren to get his powers, so Reiss drinks the Titan liquid and transforms into a giant, unstable Titan, but is killed when trying to attack the city. Historia is thus chosen as the new Queen. The troop then goes to the outer wall to recapture it from the Titans, but fall into an ambush led by the Beast Titan. In a dangerous move, Levi is able to remove the man inside the Beast Titan and save the troop from death. Eren and the soldiers go to the remains of his destroyed house, and find the notes of Eren’s father Grisha—revealing the truth about the lost history of Eldian: a long time ago, the Reiss family obtained the Titan powers to give Eldians the super weapon to invade and annex Marley from overseas. However, Marleyans rebelled, fought back and expulsed Eldians back to the island. The Reiss family errected walls around Eldia and used Titan powers to erase the memory of its citizens, falsely claiming that all humankind outside the wall was killed by the Titans. Upon hearing this, Eldians are shocked.  

The 3rd season of the “Attack on Titan” anime series reached a threshold of improvement: while the first two seasons tended to just (obviously) overstretch the story through repetitive, albeit epic action fights of people with the 30ft tall Titans, running in circles, here the story finally started to progress and go somewhere. Likewise, the animation is stunning, and even more detailed than before—if that is even possible—whereas even the action and battle sequences seem to reach a new level. One of them is undeniably the passionately directed, ‘tour-de-force’ battle spanning four episodes (episodes 50-53, aka 3.13-3.17), in which Levi, Armin, Eren, Mikasa, and the other scouts enter the outer wall to recapture it, but find it empty, only for the Beast Titan and his dozen Titans to surround them in an ambush outside, by throwing a boulder on the exit of the wall, trapping them. The shot compositions, in which the contrast between the small humans and the giant Titans interact, comes to full expression in this segment, whereas every single little detail is a masterclass on its own, from Armin figuring out the enemy left a long time ago based on their remaining cooking pots which are cold, up to the daring suicide march of the soldiers towards the Beast Titan, chanting (“It’s us who give meaning to our comrades’ lives! The brave fallen! The anguished fallen! The ones who will remember them are us, the living. We die, trusting the living who follow to find the meaning in our lives!”), all done with a lot of pathos. The only exception is the too simple, convenient way they find a solution to break out of this ambush.  

The character developments are again just “minimal”, while the dialogues tend to be standard, yet there are some refreshing moments here: for instance, Levi captures two Royalist henchmen, and ties one up to a chair in the interrogation room, but ostensibly leaves the door open, so that the first henchman can overhear the other henchman talking how he revealed all the secrets to avoid torture, and that the first one is a sucker. The first henchman thus admits that Reiss is the true king, giving up on loyalty. However, the second henchman was just reading out loud a script prepared beforehand by the Scouts, who tricked the first one. Pretty clever. The finale is the highlight, though. The reveal of all the secrets and the hidden background of the people of Eldia and Marley in episodes 56-59 (aka 3.19-3.22) is unique and fascinating, combining the historical analogy of Imperial Japanese invasion of China; isolationism and deliberate illiteracy of a closed society of North Korea; fleeing to alternate reality by the weak-minded who cannot cope with real life responsibilities; discrimination and persecution of Jews in ghettoes during WWII; and the Faustian bargain through lust for absolute power and domination by using Titans as super weapons reminiscent of the alternative version of the giant fire demons in Miyazaki’s “Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind”. All this is combined into a grand theme of two groups trying to alternately rule and subjugate each other in a vicious circle of destruction, instead of learning from history and renouncing these impulses of irredentism and ethno-nationalistic supremacy within themselves, accepting equal status for all. Truly, an unrepeatable highlight of the author Hajime Isamaya. Pompous and bombastic, but also grounded and philosophical at times, season 3 stands as a titan among the “Attack on Titan” seasons.   

Grade:+++

Only Angels Have Wings

Only Angels Have Wings; drama, USA, 1939, D: Howard Hawks, S: Cary Grant, Jean Arthur, Richard Barthelmess, Thomas Mitchell, Allyn Joslyn, Rita Hayworth   

Barranca, South America. Entertainer Bonnie is hapy to meet two fellow Americans, pilots working for a small company that carries airmail. However, the said pilot crashes that night due to fog, upsetting Geoff, the main pilot of the company, and others, including Kid. Bonnie stays and falls in love with Geoff. One day MacPherson shows up to ask for work, and Geoff begrudgingly gives him a position, since MacPherson is now married to Geoff’s ex-love Judy, and abandoned Kid’s brother in a plane that crashed. During a dangerous flight, which has to be flown during bad weather to meet the criteria for obtaining a government business deal, MacPherson refuses to abandon the damaged plane, landing it, but co-pilot Kid is wounded and dies. Geoff goes on to fly, and Bonnie stays to wait for him.  

In one of Howard Hawks’ lesser films, it becomes clear that just his themes about friendship and loyalty alone cannot carry the whole story if it simply has no inspiration. This aviation drama about pilots is bland, schematic, meandering and overlong, though some charm is given to it thanks to the solid performances by Cary Grant and Jean Arthur. As Hawks himself established, a movie works if it has “three good scenes, no bad scenes”. There are indeed no bad scenes here. But no good scenes, either. The one that comes close is when the character MacPherson is introduced, an outcast due to his cowardly blunder in the past, and the protagonist Geoff says this while holding a drink: “Even you can’t ruin a good liquor!” The finale in which MacPherson undergoes a character arc and decides to show courage and do the right thing is noble, and follows Hawks’ often theme of overcoming weaknesses. Unfortunately, Geoff is a boring and unexciting character, as is Bonnie, and thus the story fails on its most important target, the two main characters, whereas the ending is abrupt and unsatisfying. One sequence in particular is ridiculous: Bonnie wants to stop Geoff from flying an airplane during bad weather by pointing a pistol at him. They agree she would not hurt him, so Geoff turns around and heads towards the door, but Bonnie clumsily puts the pistol away at the table—and it fires all by itself, wounding Geoff at the shoulder, so he is unable to pilot. Unconvincing plot ploy. Even worse, conversely, is that Geoff, some time later, still heads off into a plane to co-pilot it in the last scene, nonetheless, as if the screenwriters forgot he is wounded! Not every movie from the 30s reached the status of a classic. For some, that is unfair. But in this case, it is justified. This film is an easily watchable flick, but at 120 minutes, it needed much better written dialogues and ideas to appeal to more than just aviation fans.   

Grade:+

Quo Vadis, Aida?

Quo Vadis, Aida?; war drama, Bosnia and Herzegovina / Austria / Germany / France / Netherlands / Norway / Poland / Romania / Turkey, 2020; D: Jasmila Žbanić, S: Jasna Đuričić, Izudin Bajrović, Boris Ler, Dino Bajrović, Johan Heldenbergh, Raymond Thiry, Boris Isaković, Emir Hadžihafizbegović

Bosnian War. In July '95, the Serb forces enter the UN safe zone of Srebrenica, annexing it. Aida, an interpreter for the UN, is among the 25,000 Bosniak people who flee towards the UN Dutchbat base, hoping they will be safe there. The Dutch Colonel Thom Karremans is overwhelmed by the situation, while NATO is hesitant at carrying out air strikes against the Serb military. As war criminal Ratko Mladić orders the Serb forces to separate the men from the women, Aida tries to protect her husband Nihad and her two sons Hamdija and Sejo by appealing to Karremans to put them on the list of the UN staff, but this fails. The military of the Republika Srpska buses all the Bosniak women out of the area, while Aida's husband and sons are among the numerous Bosniak men who are massacred. Years later, Aida visits her old apartment in Srebrenica, where one Serb soldier now lives there. She identifies the remains of her family at an exhumation site.

There are right ways and wrong ways to make movies about war crimes. And "Quo Vadis, Aida?" by director Jasmila Zbanic, about the Srebrenica massacre and the Bosnian genocide, is one of those movies that did it the right way. There are several moments where the storyline could have fallen into preachy ethno-accusations or one-dimensional banality—but surprisingly, Zbanic skilfully avoided all of the traps and delivered a concise, restrained, objective and wise film. The said historic event is gripping and dramatic all by itself, and it is a wonder why it was so rarely put on film. Throughout the entire film, the viewers will feel a cold shudder: everything is just hinted at, shown indirectly, but it is terribly gruesome watching all the events unfolding, since one knows what avaits at the end. By its structure, the movie is quite similar to Wajda's "Katyn", as well as in its theme of consequences of territorial nationalism and irredentism. 

In one memorable sequence, Serb soldier Joka (Emir Hadzihafizbegovic) arrives with his unit at the UN headquarters and demands to go inside, ostensibly to check if there are soldiers among the civilians hiding inside. At first, the Dutch peacekeepers refuse to allow them in, but their boss, Colonel Karremans, orders them to let them in, displaying indifference and naivety. As Joka's soldiers enter the compound, walking through thousands of civilians inside, he shouts: "If I find a single bullet among you, you are all doomed! Understand?", upon which the crowd just has to answer with: "Yes". General Ratko Mladic feigns that he is worried about all the people, giving chocolate bars to kids in front of the cameras, and asking about the well being of women on the bus ("I wish you a safe journey! I am giving you life!"), while at the same time preparing the largest mass murder of the war behind their backs. Other chaotic moments stand out—a couple is forcefully separated by the Serb forces; a Bosniak man disguises himself as a woman to escape with them; a Serb soldier takes a UN helmet and puts it on his head. Some minor flaws (the actor playing Mladic does not resemble him; the flashback to Aida's memory of dancing at a night bar seems pointless) fall in the background, and the major virtues take the lead: a strong film, with a devastating, emotional ending.

Grade:+++

The Beguiled

The Beguiled; drama, USA, 2017; D: Sofia Coppola, S: Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst, Colin Farrell, Elle Fanning, Oona Laurence, Addison Riecke

The American South during the civil war. Martha runs an all-girls school with five students and a teacher, Edwina, in a mansion in the rural area. One day they find a wounded Union soldier, John, and bring him in to nurture him back to health in a room. John wants to avoid going back to war, and thus tries to charm Martha, and even says that he loves Edwina. However, when Edwina finds a student, Alicia, in bed with him, she attacks John, and he falls down the stairs, injuring himself. Martha decides to amputate John's leg, allegedly because it is very wounded. When John wakes up, he is angry and threatens the girls with a pistol. Martha serves him dinner with poisonous mushrooms, so John dies, and they throw him out.

Sofia Coppola's 8th film is a lyrical meditation on both the mistrust between the male-female relationships, as well as the strained relations between the American South and North, one representing conservatism, the other a more liberal mentality. Unfortunately, the dreamy mood deteriorated into its opposite, a boring set of scenes which just cause the viewers to become sleepy. For a whole first hour, nothing happens. There is no palpable sexual tension between John (Colin Farrell) and Edwina (Kirsten Dunst), nor between any other of the all-female students, save for formal scenes where they act the way they act, but without much causality. Sadly, the dialogues are also bland and routine, unmemorable, as well as the thin storyline, and thus all the seven women are underused characters who do not get much to work with or to demonstrate their acting range. The tangle in which Martha (Nicole Kidman) amputates John's leg livens the scenery up a bit, creating a certain dramatic tension and unexpected turns, yet even this can only go so far. An interesting idea was to film a lot of night scenes in natural light, barely lit by candles, to give it a more authentic feel. Overall, though, despite a bitter-dark ending, it is not clear what point "The Beguiled" wants to say or how it intends to captivate its audience along the way.

Grade:+

Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael

Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael; drama / comedy, USA, 1990; D: Jim Abrahams, S: Winona Ryder, Thomas Wilson Brown, Jeff Daniels, Laila Robins, Frances Fisher, Dinah Manoff, Graham Beckel, Stephen Tobolowsky

Dinky (15) is a straight A student in high school, but terrible at social relations. An outcast, she is also cynical towards her adoptive parents. When news hits the town that one of its inhabitants, Roxy Carmichael, who became famous for appearing in a popular song, is returning back for a visit after 15 years, he town people prepare for a huge event. Dinky is convinced that Roxy is her biological mother, and inquires about her with Denton, a man who had a baby with Roxy. Dinky runs away from home to buy a dress and prepare for the welcoming party. Unfortunately for the huge crowd, Roxy does not show up, and only sends a letter that she is thankful. Denton admits to Roxy that his and Roxy's baby died. Dinky thus accepts her town and gains a boyfriend, Gerald.

In between his cartoonish-wacky comedies "Top Secret!" and "Hot Shots", the director Jim Abrahams untypically directed this more 'grounded' comedy, and a dramatic one at that, that follows the unadjusted teenager Dinky, played wonderfully by Winona Ryder. "Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael" plays out almost like a forerunner to the "Daria" episode "The Misery Chick", except that it ends in an underwhelming, anticlimactic ending without much of a reward for the set-up, almost like "Waiting for Godot". One one hand, it is amusing observing how the people in the small town fall into the trap of a cult of personality of Roxy, who achieved semi-fame with a song and is now returning, raising their hopes that they can move out of this "insignificant existence" (a group of her former classmates practically compete in exaggerated compliments at Roxy, from her thighs up to her stockings, until the wife of one of them protests: "Are you in love with me or with Roxy?!"). But on the other hand, it does not connect with the main heroine Dinky, who for some reason thinks Roxy might be her mother, revealing her own feeling of insecurity and a need for something more in life. The film works the best in small 'slice-of-life' moments of its characters, including a funny love poem Dinky reads out in class ("From a deep, immaculate kiss, she spread her two ripe, dripping limbs. And then I happened."), up to teenagers throwing food at her shoulders during lunch break, or a guy licking his two fingers to go through and 'straighten' his two eyebrows. It is a quiet little film about outsiders who grow up into a more mature, social version of themselves, yet it is sometimes boring and not that well constructed in its meandering storyline.

Grade:++

Austin Powers in Goldmember

Austin Powers in Goldmember; comedy, USA, 2002; D: Jay Roach, S: Mike Myers, Beyoncé Knowles, Michael Caine, Verne Troyer, Seth Green, Michael York, Robert Wagner, Mindy Sterling, Fred Savage, Diane Mizota, Britney Spears, John Travolta, Kevin Spacey

Dr. Evil plans to blackmail the world with a tractor beam which threatens to attract an asteroid and crash it into the North Pole, melting the ice caps and flooding the world, unless the governments pay him a huge ransom. He is aided by Goldmember, a Dutch villain reterieved from the 70s. Luckily, he is opposed by MI6 spy Austin Powers, who brings Foxxy Cleopatra from the 70s, as well, while Dr. Evil's henchman Mini-Me switches sides and joins Austin. Complicating matters is Austin's dad Nigel, who reveals that Dr. Evil is Austin's lost brother. Dr. Evil thus joins Austin against Goldmember and stops the tractor beam, while Hollywood makes a movie about them.

The 3rd instalment of the "Austin Powers" film series is better than the vile part II, yet still weaker than part I, which offered the highest amplitude of events and inspiration while spoofing James Bond movies. Luckily, Austin Powers does not take his clothes off in this film. Two genius sequences that are comedy gold: the first one is the trick opening, where, after an action sequence, it is revealed that Austin Powers is actually played by Tom Cruise, his girl Dixie by Gwyneth Paltrow, whereas Mini-Me is none other than Danny DeVito (!), and the viewers then find out it is all just a film set of the newest movie, "Austinpussy", directed by Steven Spielberg! In fact, Spielberg's presence is probably the reason the story was toned down from derailing too much into crude jokes, like the previous film did. The other noteworthy sequence is the clever playing with white subtitles of a Japanese businessman, where other white objects block a part of the sentence, so Austin keeps getting distorted words while trying to understand him. Unfortunately, the rest of the movie is nowhere near as inspired or comical, with too much empty walks, unnecessary subplots (what is the point of a flashback to Austin and Dr. Evil during their young days?) and recycling of stuff that was already seen in part I or II, or even "Wayne's World II" (the mole joke). As it is often the case, comedian Mike Myers is more energetic than he is sucessful at actually creating good jokes (Fat Bastard and Goldmember are unfunny), yet his charm is able to carry the film, nonetheless. A wacky and crazy comedy, and still a solid fun, despite its flaws. 

Grade:++

Boat People

Touben nu hai; drama, Hong Kong, 1982; D: Ann Hui, S: George Lam, Season Ma, Andy Lau, Cora Miao 

Akutagawa is a Japanese reporter invited by the Communist authorities to make photos of the country after the Vietnam War. However, he is more interested in capturing the dark side of the new order, including persecution of people defying Communism. Akutagawa becomes friends with Cam Nuong, a poor teenage girl who lives with her two brothers and prostitute mother. Akutagawa is almost robbed by To Minh, but has pitty on the lad and tries to help him escape the country. To Minh bribes a guard to board a boat leaving the country, but it is a trap, and all the people are shot by the army in an ambush. Akutagawa is shot and killed while fleeing from the army, but is able to help Cam Nuong and her brother board a boat leaving the country.

Even though a political film, "Boat People" is an interesting and honest achievement, a rare depiction of the state of things after the end of the Vietnam War, and one of the more famous achievements by director Ann Hui. Shown from the perspective of the Japanese reporter Akutagawa, it is assembled of small vignettes and episodes in life, which slowly turns from light neart the start to a darker tone near the finale. These darker moments are more expressionistic and inspired: in one of them, Cam Nuong's little brother Nhac scavenges along the cannal, randomly undigs a bomb, holds it in his hand, and it explodes in the same scene, shocking both Akutagawa and Cam Nuong who saw that. The fact that this happens just so casually, in a minute, is scary. This ties in with the film's theme, in which it digs itself under the surface of the Communist government to unearth the unpleasant, dark side of society. It shows more and more such sad scenes (To Minh is forced to crawl and search for hidden land mines on the countryside, and when his friend is killed in an explosion, the former is locked up inside a hanging barrel as a punishment; people trying to escape the country on a boat are machine-gunned in an ambush), and it seems it follows a fear at that time of what could happen once Hong Kong is returned to Communist China. Despite a couple of melodramatic moments and a slow pace, the film has weight and meaning, whereas George Lam is excellent as Akutagawa.

Grade:++

Passport to Pimlico

Passport to Pimlico; satire, UK, 1949, D: Henry Cornelius, S: Stanley Holloway, Betty Warren, Barbara Murray, Paul Dupuis, Margaret Rutherford  

Pimlico, an area of Central London. An unexploded WW II bomb detonates, revealing a basement with a treasure and 15th century documents confirming that Pimlico is legally still part of the Duchy of Burgundy. Using this as their base, the inhabitants of the street declare a secession and their own state within Britain. Quickly, the great great grandson of the Burgundian Duke arrives and starts his own government in Pimlico. When the Burgundians stop a subway train to ask for passports, the British government places barbed wire around the area, starting a blockade. Shortage of food causes the people to accept negotiations with London, ultimately agreeing to loan the treasure to the British, dismantle Burgundy and unite back with Britain.  

“Passport to Pimlico” is a sly satire on all kind of proto- and pseudo-states, describing such tendency among people as a form of escape to alternate reality where they would carve up some importance for themselves, in this case depicting a street declaring “Brexit” from Britain, yet for such a delicious concept, the humorous potentials were not exploited to the fullest. With several crazy ideas (shop keeper Arthur is appointed as the Burgundy Prime Minister; a border control is established in an alley, causing a man to protest: “What am I supposed to go through customs each time I leave my street?!”; the Burgundy authorities stop a subway train, while a Hungarian tourist is excited to get their seal in his passport, even though it is just some random generic seal) the movie still keeps itself afloat, despite the overlong prologue which takes up 30 minutes until it sets up the main tangle. Some parallels are pretty clever, such as the blockade of the Pimlico street, which mirrors the blockade of west Berlin, and the news reel depicting heroic struggles of the Burgundies faced with food shortages. “Passport to Pimlico” is a good film and observation of the specific English mentality, it is just that it is never truly as funny as it could have been, and that such a concept was done better and more dynamic in the “Family Guy” episode “E. Peterbus Unum” and “Republic of Bill Murray”.   

Grade:++

The Silent Partner

The Silent Partner; crime, Canada, 1978, D: Daryl Duke, S: Elliott Gould, Christopher Plummer, Susannah York, Celine Lomez, Michael Kirby, Sean Sullivan, John Candy, Gail Dahms  

Toronto. Miles is a bank teller in a shopping mall who one day finds an imprint leftover of a check note that says: “I have a gun. Hand me all of your money”. Miles realizes that someone is going to rob the bank, so he secretly hides a large amount of cash in his bag. A man disguised as a Santa Claus, Reikle, indeed shows up to rob the bank, but Miles gives him only a small amount of money. When Reikle overhears a TV interview in which Miles blames the robber for stealing 48,000 $, Reikle phones Miles and blackmails him, demanding the 48,000 $. The two try to outsmart each other, and Miles figures a girl who seduced him, Elaine, actually works for Reikle. When Reikle kills Elaine, Miles agrees to hand him the money in the bank, but once there actually tricks the criminal, who gets shot by the security guard.  

Excellent heist-film “The Silent Partner” demonstrates a remarkable intrigue-tenacity while unraveling its plot, starting already from its neat twist of the bank robbery element, moving on to advance into a clever cat-and-mouse story about robber Reikle, who blackmails bank teller Miles, only for the latter to defy him and refuse the role of a victim. The way Miles uses his ingenuity and resourcefulness to turn the tables is at times delicious: for instance, Miles follows criminal Reikle and finds out where he lives. Miles then steals a delivery van and parks it right in front of Reikle’s home, and then calls the police, who arrive and arrest Reikle. In another instance, Reikle wants to frame Miles by leaving a corpse in the latter’s apartment, but Miles dumps it in a construction site that gets poured with cement. The meticulous script by Curtis Hanson has that certain genuine factor that engages with ease, and a lot of surprises, details and plot twists will keep the viewers guessing until the end. Elliott Gould is very good as the opportunistic Miles; Christopher Plummer, as the villain Reikle, is disturbing; Celine Lomez works as the mysterious Elaine; whereas it is a treat to spot comedian John Candy in an early, serious role as one of Miles’ friends. It is rare to find a crime film that works so naturally, relying more on sophistication than violence: despite a rather far-fetched ending, an underrated film and a secret recommendation.  

Grade:+++