The Diary of Paulina P.

Dnevnik Pauline P.; comedy, Croatia, 2023; D: Hrvoje Hitrec, S: Katja Matković, Judita Franković Brdar, Borko Perić, Igor Kovač, Aria Dunda, Ramona Ivanda

Paulina P. is a 9-year old girl from the 3C class in Zagreb. She lives with her mom and dad, an aspiring physicist who wants to disprove Einstein's theory of relativity. Paulina encounters several adventures: their class receives a new teacher; an abandoned house is rumored to host ghosts, but she instead finds a puppy inside and adopts him for her birthday; a new popular girl arrives in class, Ana, and Paulina hates her, but eventually becomes her friend; Paulina orders her boyfriend to take her out ice skating for Valentine's Day... When her mom and dad argue and break up, Paulina conjures up a plan to make them up again by renovating the abandoned house to be her dad's private workroom. The plan fails, but her parents do make up in the end.

The film adaptation of Sanja Polak's eponymous novel, "The Diary of Paulina P." is a solid, albeit underwhelming comedy that works as some sort of a lesser version of "Pepper Ann". As it is the problem with most of kids movies, "Paulina" also seems too naive, kitschy and unrealistic at times, without sharpness or spice, occasionally dangerously coming close to the synthetic feel of "Pippi Longstocking", and thus this type of humor will feel outdated as soon as the kids in the movie grow up, whereas the leading actress Katja Matkovic delivers a stiff and mechanical performance. Nonetheless, there is still some good moments of "universal" humor that manages to liven up the film. The story is episodic, more like a 'slice-of-life' set of vignettes without a clear storyline, but some of the episodes have charm. The best joke is a one with surreal sharpness: Paulina reveals her plan to the mother of her teacher as to how she plans to make up her parents, by renovating an abandoned house to be her dad's new workroom. A random house painter accepts the task and goes on to start work, and on his way he picks up another handyman, who in turn persuades over a dozen people at a cafe to enter his van and help. A dozen housepainters and handymen thus gather at the abandoned house to start work. Paulina shows up with her parents there, but the abandoned house is still derelict. Nontheless, Paulina accepts a pizza delivery and bonds with her parents, who make up. Cue to the house painter observing from the bushes and talking with other handymen: "Paulina must be angry that we didn't do aynthing with the abandoned house." - "How could we? We're just characters in her imagination!" Another amusing scene is when a boy randomly asks Paulina if he can sit next to her during the bus trip, and she has this thought: "Whenever someone falls in love with me, I immediately fall in love with him!" Despite a too neat construction, the film is still moderately fun to watch and has some good chronicles from the kids' experiences in elementary school.

Grade:++

Sonic the Hedgehog 3

Sonic the Hedgehog; fantasy action comedy, USA / Japan, 2024; D: Jeff Fowler, S: Ben Schwartz (voice), Colleen O'Shaughnessey (voice), Keanu Reeves (voice), Idris Elba (voice), Jim Carrey, James Marsden, Tika Sumpter, Lee Majdoub, Natasha Rothwell, Krysten Ritter

A super-fast anthropomorphic hedgehog, Shadow, escapes after being frozen for 50 years in a secret military compound. He teams up with insane scientist Gerald Robotnik, the grandfather of Dr. Ivo Robotnik, who thus in turn joins them. Sonic, Knuckles and Tails unite to try to stop them from finding a secret key needed to complete a dangerous space station with devastating laser capacity. Gerald uses Shadow to power the space station and announces he intends to destroy the entire Earth, as revenge for his granddaughter Maria who died when Shadow tried to escape from the compound and was chased by soldiers. Robotnik thus joins forces with Sonic, Knuckles and Tails to stop Gerald. Robotnik diverts the laser away from Earth and dies in the explosion of the space station, together with Shadow. Sonic, Tails and Knuckles return to Earth.

Compared to the very fun part 2, the third film in the "Sonic the Hedgehog" film franchise is a small disappointment. It still has a few amusing jokes, but this time with too much empty walk spread out between them, and generic, standard action to fill out the missing ingredients. Thus, a certain creative apathy is sensed in the story. Comedian Jim Carrey seems to be playing a different Robotnik character in each "Sonic" film, and this time he even plays a double role as his own grandpa, Gerald Robotnik. In one of the best jokes, Dr. Robotnik "breaks the fourth wall" when he stands next to his grandpa Gerald, and as they both turn their heads towards the camera, they say: "It's as if we're two characters in a movie, played by the same actor!" In another good joke, after Sonic escapes with Knuckles and Tails from inside a secret base inside a hill, which collapses onto itself from a mini black hole, leaving a crater, he comments with: "We need to inform Google maps". 

The highlight is a sequence in the middle of the film when Maddie and Tom disguise themselves and Rachel and Randall to try to enter the top secret London building, but when they don't have a security clearance to pass, Rachel has this hilarious exchange with the security guard: "Let me introduce myself. I'm Rachel. Rachel gonna-get-you-fired. Do you know what GUN stands for?" - "Of course, Guardian Union..." - "No! Getting Ultra Nasty... Go ahead and take those sad fingers and start typetty type-type!" Unfortunately, "Sonic 3" needed more of such inspired moments, since the rest is mostly a schematic sequel on autopilot, with a rather pretentious and bombastic action finale, equipped with one dumb, autistic buffoonery (Gerald using robot claws and scorpio tale, while Robotnik is using praying mantis robot claws to fight each other), whereas the characters of Tom and Maddie and underused and forgotten. Uneven and overstretched, the movie is this time much more powerful during its dramatic moments (the relationship between Maria and Shadow), though it does offer a neat contemplation of a mental fight between nihilistic self-destruction and optimistic-constructive faith in humanity. 

Grade:++

Sonic the Hedgehog 2

Sonic the Hedgehog 2; fantasy action comedy, USA / Japan, 2022; D: Jeff Fowler, S: Ben Schwartz (voice), Idris Elba (voice), Colleen O'Shaughnessey (voice), Jim Carrey, James Marsden, Tika Sumpter, Natasha Rothwell

While in exile on the mushroom planet, the evil Dr. Robotnik manages to create a laser beam which causes a creature from another dimension to appear, Knuckles, a red-colored anthropomorphous hedgehog and enemy of Sonic the hedgehog. They join forces and attack Sonic in his American home in Green Hills, but he is rescued by Tails, a fox that observed him. Knuckles want to obtain an emerald with great powers, and thus Sonic and Tails try to find it first. Sonic and Tails go to Hawaii for help from Sonic's friend Tom, who attends the wedding of Maddie's older sister Rachel. When the emerald is found in the middle of a town revealed by the retreat of part of the ocean, Robotnik takes its powers and uses it to create and giant robot in order to take over the world. Knuckles realizes he was deceived, so he teams up with Sonic and Tails to stop Robotnik. 

"Sonic the Hedgehog 2" is one of the best video game film adaptations: unexpectedly hilarious, full of creative outbursts in a whole array of jokes, likeable characters, all in a rare sequel better than the original. Writers for hire for sequels are a dime a dozen, but this represents a rare example where the writers (Pat Casey, Josh Miller, John Whittington) were on such an insane level of comedy spree that they almost reached the levels of Monty Pythons and the Marx Brothers at times, having a blast with the playful story. Likewise, Jim Carrey as the villain Dr. Robotnik is still able to extract enough comic tricks in the film. In the opening, for instance, Sonic appears as some sort of pseudo-Batman figure who descends from the top of a building in tune to the song "It's Tricky" by Run Dmc to pursue the van of bank robbers, and since the breaks don't work, Sonic simply uses a power tool and his super-speed to dismantle the entire vehicle, until only an empty platform with the criminal on top slowly grinds to a halt in front of an ice cream store, which is a pretty clever idea. 

In another joke, when Dr. Robotnik returns back to Earth from exile, his henchman, who has been working an unsatisfying job at a cafe (he makes high art of detail-painted face of Dr. Robotnik on the foam of a cappuccino, but a customer just ignores it and uses his spoon to stir the cup before drinking it), closes the store, and just to make sure nobody will show up, changes the sign of the sanitary inspection notice from "A" to "F-", while Robotnik gets back in shape by using his two miniature drones to clean his nose with a laser. One insane gag has Sonic and Tails show up at a tavern that is so full of shaddy characters that a seemingly normal looking grandma knits a sweater with a skull on it, while a fisherman hacks the head of a fish which falls in front of the two protagonists, and randomly says: "Run" (!). The highlight: the spectacular way Sonic and Tails interrupt the Hawaii wedding of Maddie's sister Rachel in the middle of the film—but then another plot twist appears on top of this sequence, which gives it an extra dimension of humor as a cherry on top, in a moment that is both stunning and unexpected. The flaw is the convoluted story in search for some emerald that gives its owner super powers, which feels rather chaotic and unfocused, as well as the overlong running time of 120 minutes, whereas the finale lost its inspiration and settled only for a routine, standard action fight against Robotnik's giant robot. Nontheless, "Sonic 2" is a fresh, energetic, smooth and good-natured comedy film full of positive energy, and the viewers enjoy in its ride.  

Grade:+++

The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent

Čovjek koji nije mogao šutjeti; historical drama short, Croatia / France / Slovenia / Bulgaria, 2024; D: Nebojša Slijepčević, S: Goran Bogdan, Alexis Manenti, Martin Kuhar, Dragan Mićanović

Štrpci, Bosnia, 1 9 9 3. A train from Serbia stops unexpectedly at the site, and a Serb paramilitary enters and asks for everyone for their identity documents. A man in the train compartment obliges and remains silent when a paramilitary soldier asks a young lad without documents if he is a Bosniak. Just then another passanger, Tomo Buzov, a retired officer, intervenes and orders the young lad to remain seated, while he stands up and is taken away by the paramilitary and other Bosniak passangers out on the field. The train then continues its journey.

The first film adaptation about the Štrpci massacre, Nebojsa Slijepcevic's short film "The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent" unravels like a modern contemplation about passivity and integrity when faced with a crisis situation, as well as the 'bystander apathy effect'. A concise, quality and minimalist film that starts off with a train stopping unexpectedly, and a man (Goran Bogdan) observing through the window what is happening—everything is only hinted at (a paramilitary unit boards the train and asks passangers for documents; military trucks seen through the window), but the suspense is subtly growing, and the build-up is exquisite, since everything is clear. The paramilitary soldier asks the protagonist: "What do you celebrate?" When the man replies with "6 May", the soldier let's him off the hook, since it is the Serb-Orthodox holiday of Đurđevdan (Saint George's Day, as opposed to the Catholics who celebrate it on 23 April), but then starts harassing a young lad without any documents. And then the real hero stands up, Tomo Buzov (excellent Dragan Micanovic), who protests and defends the lad: "I'm a retired officer. What kind of an army are you supposed to be? You just remain seated!"—his idealistic stance and act of kindness, almost as some sort of a knight, is magnificent and offers that forgotten awe from the power of heroism. However, Slijepcevic made a strategic error by not depicting neither the execution of these passangers nor the sound of shooting. Instead, the train just resumes its trip, the man from the beginning smokes a cigarette, the end. Ultimately, at 13 minutes, the movie is too short for such a topic, and is missing the second half, the murder. Another flaw is that Tomo is the supporting character in his own story, which feels somewhat unbalanced and with undue weight.

Grade:++

The Holdovers

The Holdovers; drama / black comedy, USA, 2023; D: Alexander Payne, S: Paul Giamatti, Dominic Sessa, Da'Vine Joy Randolph, Brady Hepner, Ian Dolley, Carrie Preston

History teacher Paul Hunham initially intended to spend his Christmas alone again, but he is stuck taking care of five teenage students who were abandoned at the boarding school Barton Academy. When four of them are picked up by relatives or friends, Paul is left alone with student Agnus, whose mother doesn't want him for the holidays as to spend it with her new rich husband. With the persuasion of school cook Mary, Paul and Agnus take a car trip to Boston to be among people for Christmas. Mary stays with her relatives, while Agnus goes to a mental asylum to see his absent father, who is institutionalized there. Returning back to the boarding school, Agnus' mother is angry because his visit caused his father to become violent, but Paul takes the blame for the decision of visit, and is thus fired. However, he gains respect from Agnus.

"The Holdovers" are an anti-Christmas movie. The holidays are sometimes used in cinema as means to show those characters who have someone to be with during this time, and those who don't have anyone—and since the director Alexander Payne has a very bitter, cynical and pessimistic worldview, he naturally shows the latter less fortunate characters which are avoided in your run-of-the-mill mainstream Christmas movies. Written by David Hemingson ("Pepper Ann"), "The Holdovers" starts off as a very depressing experience where the viewers think history teacher Paul (excellent Paul Giamatti) and student Agnus will be left alone and "stuck" in the empty boarding school for the entire Christmas, but after 40 minutes it luckily "twitches" itself from this grey frequency and becomes more dynamic when the two go out on a car trip to Boston and suddenly start to bond—by the end, it becomes clear that Paul and Agnus are the same person, just in different age. 

Like all of Payne's movies, this one also has no real story, but is instead a 'slice-of-life' character study, composed out of small vignettes and episodes, but all of which unite in the end and reach a point. Paul is another of Payne's outsiders and misanthropes, but a one who accepts that he is alone because he was born ugly—in a conversation with cook Mary, he explains it with determinism: "This is not exactly a face forged for romance". The film also has several great, witty dialogues ("I can't fail this class". - "Oh, don't sell yourself short, Mr. Kountze, I truly believe that you can."; in the museum, Paul goes: "There's nothing new in human experience, Mr. Tully. Each generation thinks it invented debauchery or suffering or rebellion... Before you dismiss something as boring or irrelevant, remember, if you truly want to understand the present or yourself, you must begin in the past"; "Do you think I want to be babysitting you? Oh, no, no, I was praying to the god I don't even believe in that your mother would pick up the phone or your father would arrive in a helicopter or a submarine or a flying saucer to take you"). Payne knows better than to craft a typical character arc or redemption lore in the last third, since life doesn't always have big events that change characters fully, yet he granted a rather elegant heart-warming finale regarding Paul's relation with Agnus, congruent to the Christmas spirit. Despite some omission and a rather meandering storyline, "The Holdovers" may be Payne's best film.

Grade:+++

The Master and Margaret

Majstor i Margarita; fantasy satire, Serbia / Italy, 1972; D: Aleksandar Petrović, S: Ugo Tognazzi, Alain Cuny, Mimsy Farmer, Pavle Vuisić, Bata Živojinović, Fabijan Šovagović, Ljuba Tadić, Danilo 'Bata' Stojković

Moscow during the Stalinist dictatorship. Playwright Nikolai Maksudov rehearses his new play about Pontius Pilate, but when the actor playing Jesus Christ says: "Every government is a form of violence against people", theater owner Berlioz cancels the premiere. A woman, Margaret, saw the rehearsal and becomes close with Nikolai. Satan, in the form of gentleman Woland, has his henchmen Azazello and Korovyev eliminate all of Nikolai's opponents: Berlioz dies when he slips and a streetcar cuts off his head; a newspaper critic who wrote a negative review without even seeing the play is attacked by Woland's black cat; Azazello kicks and kills Bobov, who took away Nikolai's apartment. Nikolai is sent to a mental asylum, but is freed by Woland's powers. Woland demonstrates a magic trick in the theater, giving the audience money and clothes, but then taking it away and leaving them naked. The play is reinstated, but Nikolai and Margaret drink Pilate's wine and die.

It is an oddity that the Yugoslav-Italian co-production "The Master and Margaret" by Aleksandar Petrovic is only the 2nd film adaptation of Ukrainian writer Mikhail Bulgakov's eponymous novel that gained cult status—and is a restructuring of "Faust". Several later film adaptations tried to transfer the novel to the screen, but failed creatively. Petrovic's version is shortened and condensed, with several omissions, but still has its moments due to Bulgakov's satirical sharpness when tackling the themes of artistic (self)-censorship, corruption by evil and fear of dictatorships. His main allegory is that, in this edition and setting, Stalin is Satan, here played by the mysterious henchman Woland, who seems to embody the Soviet secret police and their inexplicable whims when attacking people randomly. One hilarious moment appears when Nikolai and Berlioz are arguing in a cafe, Berlioz mentions that "Jesus never existed", and all of a sudden the mysterious stranger Woland opens the door and sits at their table to talk to Berlioz: "If I heard correctly, you said that Jesus never existed?" - "Yes, you heard correctly." - "Bravo, bravo, bravo! Allow me to thank you, from the bottom of my heart!" After the wild conversation, the confused Berlioz leaves the cafe, and Woland turns around to say: "Jesus existed, I saw him. I was there!" Another clever moment appears when Nikolai is interrogated by the committee for his play about Pilate and Jesus, because the text could be used by the enemies, upon which he poses the question: "Why would the truth serve our enemy?" Bulgakov used the novel to appeal to Stalin to leave him alone, to allow him to write without fearing that his art will be banned for not being appropriate. The conclusion feels a bit incomplete and vague, though Woland's magic tricks used on the audience in the finale are so insane and bizarre they have to be seen.

Grade:++

Canary Black

Canary Black; action thriller, UK / Croatia / USA, 2024; D: Pierre Morel, S: Kate Beckinsale, Ray Stevenson, Rupert Friend, Branko Kostić, Ben Miles, Saffron Burrows

Zagreb. Avery Graves is an undercover CIA agent who one days finds her home empty, and her husband David kidnapped by a mysterious group who order her to find a top secret file, "Canary Black", by the end of the day. Avery thus interrogates a CIA detainee and runs away, forcing her superior Hedlund to start a search after her. Avery gets a secret password by tying up the Director of the CIA in the hotel, and downloads "Canary Black": it's a virus program that can destroy all computer systems in each country. The kidnapper, Breznov, uses "Canary Black" to publicly blackmail all countries to transfer 1% of their GDP to his private account or he will unleash the virus. Avery stops him, but finds out David was a double agent who informed Breznov about the virus.

"Canary Black" is a standard and routine, but still effective and dynamic action thriller that works. It tackles the ever actual topics of blackmail and forced choice in the spy world, here untypically set in locations of Zagreb, which gives it a certain spark. Kate Backinsale is here to show off and present how "badass" she is, but she does this with style and charm, and therefore makes the protagonist Avery interesting even during the moments when her decisions don't make any sense. Plot holes appear several times in the story: for instance, criminal Breznov forces Avery to find the "Canary Black" file for him, but when she instead tries to find track down the locaiton of his phone call, he punishes her by setting her a trap in which she enters a room and steps on a mine under the carpet. What is it? Does Breznov want her to find the file or does he want to kill her? Because she barely survives this trap. The chase and shootout sequences are solid, sometimes good, though not that inventive, whereas the dialogue is dry. Humorless and conventional, though the reveal of the purpose of the file virus,a nd the commotion is causes among the heads of state during an international conference is suspensful, whereas the plot twist at the end arrives unexpected.

Grade:++

The Man Who Fell to Earth

The Man Who Fell to Earth; art-film / science-fiction drama, UK, 1976; D: Nicolas Roeg, S: David Bowie, Candy Clark, Rip Torn, Buck Henry

A humanoid alien arrives to New Mexico. He appears as an Englishman, Thomas Jerome Newton, and sells rings at a pawn shop to get money. With the money, he hires lawyer Farnsworth to patent a self-developing film and found the World Enterprise Corporation, earning more than 300 million $. Newton accumulates more wealth through his patents, to finance a spaceship that he will pilot to bring Earth's water to his dying home planet, a desert, where his wife and two kids await. Newton starts a relationship with a hotel assistant Mary-Lou and beecomes addicted to alcohol. The US government finds out he is an alien and abducts him, performing tests on him in a laboratory. When they cannot find anything, Newton is released. Scientist Bryce tracks down Newton who made a recording of radio signals and is selling them in a store. Newton is stuck as a human on Earth.

Walking a fine line somewhere between ambitious and pretentious, challenging and autistic, cryptic and incomprehensible, Nicolas Roeg's surreal sci-fi art-film "The Man Who fell to Earth" still seems modern today, but not that fresh. Long before the wave of movies about aliens visiting Earth in the 80s, such as "E.T.", "The Brother from Another Planet" and "Starman", this cult film depends a lot on the inclination and taste of the viewers, since those expecting classical narration will like it less, yet despite Roeg's experimental editing playing with ellipses, the story seems mostly consistent from today's perspective. For instance, in the opening act, we see the alien Newton (a very good David Bowie) selling a ring at a pawn shop. Cue to next scene where Newton gives a large number of cash to a patent lawyer to patent a new invention. Cue to next scene where a couple is playfully kissing and cuddling, they make a photo, and instantly the self-developing film shows their photos. Despite some gaps, everything is perfectly clear so far: Newton uses his alien technology to create a company with new inventions and accumulate himself wealth, with the ultimate goal of transporting water to his dying desert planet. All this is, ultimately, congruent and logical: the disorienting approach is there to show the perspective of this alien in a foreign world, and transmit this "weird" feeling through unusual editing and framing. 

Roeg, though, is very honest with intimate scenes, and thus the love moments between a naked Newton and Mary-Lou (a fantastic and underrated Candy Clark) feel so genuine. The movie abounds with bizarre moments. Sometimes, maybe even too much. Around 45 minutes into the film, Newton is driving in a car with Mary-Lou talking, while he has a random flashback to his home planet, a desert with himself, his wife and two little kids in spacesuits, and a yellow triangle house with a nylon above. The two best sequences are the one where Newton emerges from the bathroom naked, finally revealing his alien body, with a silver skin, bald head and hypnotizing yellow eyes, as Mary-Lou is so freightened she runs away. However, she stops in the hallway, he passes by and there is a close up of her urinating from fear. He lies in bed, and Mary-Lou takes her clothes off and still goes towards him, nontheless. She longs being close to him, regardless who or what he is. In the other, the patent lawyer is thrown out from the window of the skyscrapper, and the camera spins around its axis as it follows his body falling from the sky—cut to a match cut of another scene of a man falling into the swimming pool. The final act is a disppointment, though. We needed more of a punchline than the anticlimactic ending we got. One interpretation of the story is maybe a symbol for every human being born on Earth: every child is an "alien" and the world is new and strange to them, and then undergoes all the phases of process of life (finding a job, gaining independence, love, success, alcoholism, betrayal, failure, acceptance of decay). Overall, though, the main theme still stands—a person passively accepting misery and disappointment as something inevitable in life. 

Grade:+++

I'll Do Anything

I'll Do Anything; drama / comedy, USA, 1994; D: James L. Brooks, S: Nick Nolte, Whittni Wright, Albert Brooks, Joely Richardson, Julie Kavner, Tracey Ullman, Jeb Brown, Chelsea Field, Ian McKellen, Anne Heche, Vicki Lewis

Los Angeles. Matt is still a struggling actor going to auditions just to get rejected every time. He goes to pick up his 6-year old daughter Jeannie from his ex-wife, and has to take care of her. Film producer Burke allows Matt to have a screen test, but after it fails, Burke hires him as his driver. Matt starts a relationship with Burke's script reader Cathy. Inadvertently, Jeannie gets cast in a sitcom, and Matt gives her acting advice, thereby strengthening their father-daughter relationship.

Compared to the three excellent films he directed in the 20th century ("Terms of Endearment", "Broadcast News", "As Good as It Gets"), it seems the ambitions of screenwriter and director James L. Brooks dropped a bit in his 3rd film "I'll Do Anything", but he still has enough skills to create characters whose likeability alone is enough to become a virtue on its own. Nick Nolte has no sense for a comic timing, which inhibits the comedy side of the storyline, and the relationship between Matt and his 6-year daughter Jeannie is not that interesting—but the tantalizing satirical segment revolving around the Hollywood system works, whereas outbursts of Brooks' pure genius manifest occasionally in some fantastic dialogues. For instance, in one scene Matt is talking with his ex-wife on the phone, who is shouting at him, until he snaps: "I can scream too, you know!" When Matt finally goes to pick up his daughter after not seeing her for two years, his ex-wife berates him: "Why are you sending her letters when you know she can't read?" In the Hollywood studio, there is this exchange between a man and a woman: "We're development executives. We're the people you want to be." 

A small surprise here is Julie Kavner, the voice actress of Marge Simpson, as Nan, who gives one heck of a speech to the arrogant film producer Burke: "No woman has ever told you that you have an almost barbaric insensitivity? That you seem to have lapsed into some sort of final cynicism where you actually believe that not only does everyone think the way you do, but only you have the courage to express it? That you seem horribly certain that everyone else is only pretending when they talk about love... I am here for the same reason that 86% of older women love Beauty and the Beast. I would like to believe that underneath the creature there’s a sweet caring guy." The movie takes a sly jab at Hollywood studios at times—in one of the most painful and unforgettable, Matt does a great screen test, but then producer Burke asks the women watching the tape if they would go to bed with Matt. When they say no, Matt is excluded from further consideration for the film role. Brooks doesn't care that much about the plot or the narrative or the style as much as he cares about creating wonderful characters and dialogues, a 'slice-of-life' emotional collection. In this edition, he is a bit overstretched and without a clear focus. "As Good as It Gets" is the better film. But the moment where Matt goes to Cathy's (excellent Joely Richardson) apartment to do a read-through of the script, they sit on the couch, and then she suddenly leans towards him and randomly kisses his nose, is so sweet it could easily fit as a missing scene in "As Good as It Gets", showing that even some of the lesser artists' works carry the seeds of greatness in them.

Grade:++

Captain Conan

Capitaine Conan; war drama, France, 1996; D: Bertrand Tavernier, S: Philippe Torreton, Samuel Le Bihan, Bernard Le Coq, François Berléand, Catherine Rich

Macedonian Front, World War I. Captain Conan leads a French Army unit to attack the Bulgarian Army behind the trenches. After the end of the war, the army boards a train to Bucharest and settles there, waiting for further instructions. Faced with nothing to do, the soldiers lack discipline and steal from the locals, but Conan always defends them in front of his superiors. Officer Norbert becomes the prosecutor assigned to investigate the offences, and scorns Conan for having an affair with a woman, and then throwing out her husband down the stairs, who broke his knee. Disguised soldiers rob a night club, and are arrested and sentenced mildly. Young soldier Erlane deserted and is accused of giving the Bulgarian Army secret information about the position of the French on the front, and is also convicted. The army is sent east, to join the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War, fighting Bolsheviks. After the war, Norbert meets Conan again, who is back doing his old haberdasher job, and who is diagnosed to have only six months to live due to an illness.

"Captain Conan" is a rather disjointed depiction of the lives of soldiers: the opening and the ending segments (with a combined running time of 30 minutes) show the battle part of their profession, while the whole middle segment (100 minutes) shows the boring part of their job, when they have to wait in Bucharest for months for further instructions, yet their boredom kind of contaminated this overlong and overstretched bulk of the movie itself. The most was achieved out of the main actor, the hyper-energetic Philippe Torreton as the title character, who minimizes and covers up the looting of the soldiers during peacetime, assuming that they are conditioned to be warriors on the front, and that such instincts cannot just go away when they get back to the normal life. Some of the lines are good ("What is your idea of a victory?" - "When I can raise my head up and walk everywhere without having to fear that it will get blown up"; "Did you steal the farmer's chicken?" - "Yes, but I returned it cooked!"; "The Germans had better uniforms than you." - "Well, we still kicked the Germans' butts with these uniforms"), but the movie is mostly too talkative and with conventional dialogue, exhausting with too much babble and always the same repetitions of variations of Conan defending his soliers in front of other officers. Allegedly, the battle sequence were unrehearsed, and thus they feel incredibly kinetic and energetic, since the actors didn't know what to do, giving them a feeling of real-life chaos. For instance, a soldier arrives at the hill to give Conan a letter with orders, but as he is about to leave, suddenly an explosion goes off in front of him, so he dodges right. A bonus is a rare film depiction of the Allied intervention against Communists in the Russian Civil War at the end. Like most of film directed by Bertrand Tavernier, this one is also good, but there is still something missing to be considered a true classic of great cinema, some focused inspiration that would align all these random episodes into a tight whole.

Grade:++

Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence

Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence; war drama, Japan / UK / New Zealand, 1983; D: Nagisa Oshima, S: David Bowie, Tom Conti, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Takeshi Kitano, Jack Thompson

Java, World War II. The Imperial Japanese Army is running a POW camp for British prisoners, under the supervision of Captain Yonoi. Lieutenant Lawrence knows Japanese and is thus used for translation, and is friends with Japanese officer Hara. Major Jack Celliers is accused of guerilla activity and subjected to a mock execution, but he doesn't flinch, which brings him the fascination of Yonoi. When a radio is smuggled inside the camp, the Japanese send Lawrence and Celliers to a prison, but Hara releases them for Christmas. When Yonoi wants to excute a British officer, Celliers makes a step forward and kisses Yonoi, who faints. The new commander buries Celliers up to his neck in sand, and the latter dies from the heat. After the war, Lawrence visits Hara, sentenced to death by a Tribunal.

A thematically similar "twin" to Lean's "The Bridge on the River Kwai", Nagisa Oshima's prisoner-of-war drama "Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence", based on the memoirs of Laurens van der Post, is an analysis of the inner conflict between two groups (in this case, the British prisoners and their Japanese guards) as a synecdoche for the wider observations of such manifestation in war in general, where one side wants to dominate the other. Some of the quotes have merit ("They were a nation of anxious people and they could do nothing individually. So they went mad en masse."; "You are the victim of men who think they are right... Just as one day you and captain Yunoi believed absolutely that you were right. And the truth is of course that nobody is right"). The two main actors—pop stars David Bowie and Ryuichi Sakamoto—were probably deliberately chosen for their roles for their lack of acting experience, to bring across how "out of place" their two characters are in the war, and who would rather be doing something else during peacetime, but the movie still failed to bring a more articulated point across, whereas it feels way too overstretched in its running time of two hourse. Some of the random moments of shocking violence and cruelty startle the viewers, most notably in the lingering sequence where the Japanese Army forces a man who failed to perform "harakiri", and who has a bandage over his stomach, to "finish the job", so the man takes a knife and takes a long time to stab himself in the abdomen area, whereas one of the prisoners is so shocked he bites part of his own tongue while fainting. These kind of moments weren't really necessary in the story, and fail to be anything more than cheap shots at shock attention, whether or not this was based on real events. The storyline meanders across several directions, not really knowing where it is going nor what it wants to say, but Oshima has a sense for some aesthetic shot compositions (for instance, the blue filter of night scenes) and shows irony in the ending where the tables are switched and the situation between prisoners and guards has been turned upside down. 

Grade:++

The Apprentice

The Apprentice; satire, Canada / Denmark / Ireland / USA, 2024; D: Ali Abbasi, S: Sebastin Stan, Jeremy Strong, Maria Bakalova, Martin Donovan, Charlie Carrick, Catherine McNally

New York City, 1 9 7 0s. Rent collector Donald Trump meets lawyer Roy Cohn and persuades him to represent his family in a lawsuit filled by the federal government that alleges his father Fred Trump discriminates against Black people by renting mostly to White tenants. Cohn blackmails an official to make the lawsuit go away. Trump wants to re-build the Commodore into Hyatt hotel on East 42nd Street, and Cohn is able to blackmail officials into giving him a tax abatement, thereby making the investment profitable. Cohn mentors Trump that he needs to be willing to do "anything to anyone" to be a success. Trump marries Czech model Ivana and builds the Trump Tower, gaining a fortune. With time, Trump falls out with Cohn, dismissing him as a loser. Cohn dies of AIDS. Trump hires a writer to write a book, "The Art of the Deal".

A biopic on the early days of the Razzie Award Winner for Worst Supporting Actor Donald Trump, "The Apprentice" is a dark satire on abandoning any scruples and doing anything for success. The director Ali Abbasi directs the movie conventionally, but efficiently, with no empty walk, presenting the first half in an objective, restrained way, almost with a human dimension, showing Trump as insecure, humble and struggling, while the second half becomes its exact opposite, a clinical, cynical depiction of a cold Trump-businessman whose only goal is to earn more and more money. "The Apprentice" is an 'origin story' in which the ruthless lawyer Roy Cohn is depicted mentoring a young Trump into becoming ruthless to succeed, giving a philosophy where victory and success are the meaning of life. He will sell his soul for success, but doesn't realize what kind of a system he is invoking—an economy based on endless cruelty. Jeremy Strong gives an excellent and energetic performance as Cohn, while Sebastian Stan also delivers a very good performance, but he does not physically resemble Trump that much, and his voice is not that close to Trump's voice. Maria Bakalova is also powerful as Trump's first wife, Ivana. 

"The Apprentice" starts with a sly archive footage of former US President Richard Nixon holding a speech: "I've made my mistakes, but in all my years in public life, I have never profited from public service... And in all my years of public life, I've never obstructed justice... I welcome this kind of examination. Because people have got to know whether or not their President is a crook". In one sequence, as Trump visits Cohn's apartment, he observes photos in which Cohn is seen with many famous people, so they have these dialogues: "How do you mix with all these people?" - "Everybody wants to suck a winner's cock". In another sequence, after blackmailing an official with photos of his gay relationship, and ordering him to make a lawsuit "go away", Cohn says to Trump: "You played sports? They probably taught you to play the ball, not the man. But you see, in reality, it's the total opposite. You play the man, not the ball... This is a nation of men, not laws. There is no right and wrong. There is no morality. There is no truth with a capital T. It's a construct, it's a fiction, it's man-made. None of it matters except winning. That's it." A sobering, nihilistic and sharp psychological analysis of the mentality of success under any cost, and the interwoven link between capitalism, blackmail, bribery and corruption—as well as success being used for therapy for some people's personal neurosis—but the ending feels incomplete and abrupt, failing to bring a more articulated point in the final scene.

Grade:++

The Spy

The Spy; thriller series, France / USA, 2019; D: Gideon Raff, S: Sacha Baron Cohen, Noah Emmerich, Hadar Ratzon Rotem, Alexander Siddig, Waleed Zuaiter, Nassim Lyes, Yael Eitan, Saïd Amadis, Hassam Ghancy

Tel Aviv, 1 9 6 1. After the Syrian Army strikes Israeli farmers again from the Golan Heights, Mossad official Dan decides to recruit office clerk Eli Cohen, an Egyptian Jew, to spy in isolated Syria. Lying to his wife Nadia that he is going for business abroad, Eli assumes a fake identity as Kamel Amin Thaabet, an importer-exporter born in Buenos Aires to deceased Syrian emigrants. Establishing contacts with Syrian emigrants, he gets a visa and travels by ship from Buenos Aires to Beirut, and from there to Damascus. He rents an apartment and makes friends with politicians and military, including the alcoholic lieutenant Ma'azi Zahreddine, the nephew of the Syrian commander-in-chief Abdul Karim Zahreddine, who shows him the Golan Heights and Syrian underground bunkers. When the Ba'ath Party takes over in a coup d'etat, Kamel bribes his way into their ranks, all the way sending telegraph messages back to Israel. Syrian intelligence agent Suidani is able to detect Kamel is Eli, a spy, and thus has him executed. 

Thriller series "The Spy" is a story composed out of pure intelligence. It takes the viewers inside this spy world, but it is all done with such a sophistication, finesse, prepared directorial strategy and delicate care that the audience is in the end engaged more intellectually than by simple suspense or thrills. There is sometimes no need to invent stories when history already has so many fascinating true events at disposal, and the case of Israeli spy Eli Cohen who took on the fake identity as Kamel Amin Thaabet and infiltrated not only the reclusive Syria, but also bribed himself to rise through the ranks into the Damascus government, is one of the most incredible life stories of the 20th century. As much as comedian Sacha Baron Cohen is known for his comic creations of Borat and Ali G, this dramatic role might remain as his finest acting performance. The writer and director Gideon Raff engages thanks to several clever details: for instance, a Mossad operative is instructing Eli about his equipment as a spy—a hand mixer device has a double bottom that can open, revealing pieces of the telegraph devices which can then be assembled and used to send radio signals back to Israel. He also gives Eli a cyanide bottle to have, just in case. 

Upon arriving at Damascus, Eli, now under the alias of Kamel, seemingly randomly walks the streets and leaves some coins every day to a street vendor, buying his newspapers regularly. He also buys every kitchen table from a company. Eli then hides microfilm with photos he made inside the hollow parts of the table legs, wraps them all up in newspapers, and sends them for shippment, since he works as an importer-exporter. The Mossad office then receives not only the microfilm inside these tables, but also valuable info in the Syrian newspapers. In episode 4, Eli gets a golden opportunity to go to the Golan Heights, a demilitarized zone, thanks to his friend, lieutenant Ma'azi. The military bases are under ground, and thus the Israelis do not know where they are hidden. Upon exiting said bunker, Eli feigns that the soldiers at the entrance must be exhausted from the Sun, so he arranges that high trees are planted above them, ostensibly for shade. Cue to Mossad agents observing with binoculars the newly planted trees, happily concluding how their secret targets are now at full display and marked in plain sight. Eli Cohen is such a fascinating character because of all these little details: he is small, alone in enemy territory, yet can achieve so much using his intelligence, meticulously planning so much, disguising his every ploy as innocent action. A shining spy series, one of the best Netflix shows of the decade, concise and without a single empty scene (the entire series has only six episodes), giving a valuable and rare insight into the Syrian-Israeli relations and society of that time, whereas even the dialogues ("You're insulting me with your luck"; Eli and Julia's exchange: "Kamel is not married. Eli is married" - "There is no Eli." - "It just sometimes helps me feel a bit less lonely" - "Kamel doesn't get lonely;" "I am in the presence of real Syrian soldier. A one who tonight single-handedly defeated two whole bottles of votka") and visual style have inspiration (in episode 5, a TV set in the center is divided between a split screen, featuring a soccer game for both a Mossad agent on the left and Eli on the right side of the frame), meaning that "The Spy" can be analyzed and praised from any perspective.

Grade:++++

The Concert

Koncert; drama, Croatia, 1954; D: Branko Belan, S: Nada Škrinjar, Viktor Bek, Branko Špoljar, Miroslav Petrović, Mirna Stopić

Zagreb. A group of music students arrives at a Kaptol apartment and bring a piano with them, where they find the former piano player Ema, now reclusive. Her story: in 1 9 1 4, Ema is a little girl and likes to play the piano of the store owner for employs her mother, the cleaning lady. As the news of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand spreads, the store owner sells the piano, Ema wants to stop the sale, but people accidentally drop the piano on her, breaking her hip and leaving her with a limp... 1 9 2 2. Ema plays a piano and is spotted by piano teacher Berislav across the next building, but since she limps, she decides to not go on a date with him... 1 9 2 9. Ema and a band of three other musicians is summoned during a rainy night to play after the wedding of Jurica and Greta, but one of the guests bought a radio so he doesn't want to waste money on live music... 1 9 4 1. During World War II, Ema spots Berislav being chased and shot by the Ustashe. Back in present, Ema collapses on the piano.

Included in a film critics' poll as one of the 10 best Croatian films of all time, Branko Belan's "The Concert" is still a notch below all this hype, dazzling more with its modern style of flashbacks, but underwhelming in its drama parts and emotions. Told as a series of four flashbacks in the life of a tragic piano player, Ema (a solid Nada Skrinjar), the movie is surprising in denying Ema her due as the main protagonist, and instead pushes her in the background, only as a passive observer of events, until the viewers feel as if she is the supporting character in her own lifestory. This imbalance wrecks "The Concert". The director Belan has a sense for some fine directed moments: for instance, when Ema, as a little girl, observes a newspaper reporter typing on the typewriter, there is an association dissolve to a scene of two hands playing the piano keyboard. In another story, while limping slightly, the grown-up Ema spots a disabled man, barely walking with a cane on the streets holding on to the hand of another man, while later the camera zooms in to a close up of a random woman observing the limping Ema in the same pitiful manner, whereby the movie says everything the viewers need to know about why she would all of a sudden be ashamed to go on a date with Berislav. The best sequence is the one in the fourth story, where Ema is in a bar, observing a singer and a piano player, the camera zooms in on Ema's face and then there is a flashback to a brilliantly directed sequence of her playing the piano on stage at the national theater, wearing a wedding dress, imagining all the people she knew from her life to be in the audience. The leitmotive of a piano influencing her life and emotional state throughout her lifetime is clever and well made, implying the fatalism of destiny, yet overall one wishes Ema was the leading catalyst of the story, and not just the mechanical toy of this fatalism, whereas some random moments of episodic characters lead nowhere (for instance, Edmund, convicted of embezzlement, or his deranged father, a retired military official, committing suicide in the bathtub).

Grade:++

One False Move

One False Move; crime, USA, 1992; D: Carl Franklin, S: Bill Paxton, Cynda Williams, Billy Bob Thornton, Michael Beach, Earl Billings

Los Angeles. Criminals Ray, Pluto and Lila "Fantasia" enter a house and kill the people inside to steal their money and cocaine, and then flee. A neighbor recognizes Ray's car. The police discover a tape from the house where someone says they are heading for Star City, Arkansas, so detectives McFeely and Cole are sent there to team up with local sheriff Dale Dixon to arrest them when they show up. Along their drive, a police officer randomly stops them at a road, so Ray, Pluto and Lila shoot him. In Houston, Texas, Ray and Pluto want to sell the drugs, but when the dealers want to give them only a small financial compensation, they shoot them. Lila arrives at Star City, where she meets up with Dixon, with whom she had an affair and secretly had a son, Byron, who lives with her brother Ronnie. When Pluto and Ray arrive at the house, Dixon ambushes them, but in the shootout, they are all killed, with only Dixon left wounded on the ground.

"One False Move" retroactively achieved a re-newed interest when film critic Gene Siskel named it as his no. 1 favorite film of the year. However, in reality, the movie is still two notches below this overhyped statement: it is a fluent, astringent and multi-layered crime film, yet it is at times sloppily written and "rough" in its structure. For instance, the murders in the opening sequence are chaotic, banal and disjointed, never really ringing authentic. The criminals Ray, Pluto and Lila enter a house and randomly tie up the inhabitants, kick them, slap them, Ray even pours some inflamable liquid over the hair of a woman and threatens to put it on fire using a lighter, asking for where some Marco lives, but since the viewers are not given any context, this whole sequence just feels "off", like random violence without any sense or purpose. Two people were dancing and a third one was filming them with a camera, which even catches the conversation where Lila says she is heading for Star City, yet, remarkably, later Pluto is seen watching the tape, but just leaves it in the house when he leaves, allowing for the police to obtain it and have a clue where they are going. Wouldn't it have made much more sense for Pluto to destroy the tape and any possible evidence from the scene of the crime? It just feels illogical. 

"One False Move" is very slow in its set-up, and it doesn't really ignite all until some 43 minutes into the film, when there is a great sequence where Ray and Lila are at a store in Texas and spot a cop shopping there, so they try to discreetly buy and leave as fast as possible. However, the cop follows them and pulls them over, just to check out their suspicious behavior, allowing for a suspensful and electrifying showdown which ignites the film. For some reason, the film tries to portray Star City sheriff Dixon (Bill Paxton) as some sort of misunderstood hillbilly with a good heart, but he doesn't come across as such: for instance, Dixon arrives at a house where an angry husband thrusts an axe at the door of his house, having a feud with his wife inside, and even resists Dixon who tries to restrain him, pushing him backwards and breaking the window. Instead of arresting him on the spot, Dixon talks to the husband, tells him to make up with his wife, and then gives him the axe back (!), turns around (!), and considers the situation solved, which feels so wrong it's painful to watch. The character of criminal Pluto hinted at a much more complex character than we got: he wears glasses and is clearly much more intelligent and articulate at talking than Ray, played brilliantly by Michael Beach, but there is no character growth, no change, no insights or lessons, and he just ends like any brute criminal would in the finale, which is a letdown. There are some fresh camera angles towards the end (the frog perspectives of a man playing a harmonica or Ray driving the car), and a plot twist involving the secret relationship between two people, yet the dialogue is rather standard, and the ending a typical bloody shootout cliche, leaving a good film that could have been much better.

Grade:++

The Eighth Door

Osma vrata; thriller-drama, Serbia, 1959; D: Nikola Tanhofer, S: Milivoje Živanović, Rada Đuričin, Ljiljana Krstić, Nada Škrinjar, Slobodan Perović, Jovan Miličević, Pavle Vuisić

Belgrade, World War II. Retired professor Predrag walks along the street and spots a resistance member being chased by Nazis. The resistance member boards a street car and puts a notebook in Predrag's pocket, before being arrested. Back in his house, Predrag realizes the notebook contains the names of secret resistance members, and those whose names are underlined will be arrested soon. His wife and his daughter Vera cannot agree what he should do. The wife of the killed resistance member enters the house and asks Predrag to give her the notebook. When the Gestapo shows up and searches for the entire house, Predrag hides the notebook in a baby carriage. Having found nothing, the Gestapo leaves, and Predrag gives the notebook to the wife of the resistance member who leaves the house.

Excellent war thriller-drama "The Eighth Door" is a surprisingly gripping 'kammerspiel' playing out only inside one location (the protagonist's house) 90% of the time, and a meditation on finding courage to do the right thing even when the threat of evil forces you to remain docile. The Croatian director Nikola Tanhofer directs the story in a very efficient way, displaying a sense for a movie language, using match cuts, flashbacks, unusual camera angles and pans to keep the viewers engaged, whereas the simply story about the protagonist Predrag who doesn't know what to do with the notebook containing names of the secret resistance members during the Nazi occupation is easily accessible. The theme is summed up in a great little dialogue where Vera, the daughter, says to Predrag: "In order to be the man you always wanted to be, you only missed that for what you have the opportunity to do now". Even though Predrag wants to remain neutral, like many people want to during crisis times, he has to make a choice eventually. It is remarkable how Tanhofer is able to create suspense through simple situations: for instance, in one of these, Predrag receives a phone call from an unknown man, claiming the be the arrested resistance member, and wants Predrag to bring him the notebook to the bridge in half an hour, but Predrag's wife rightfully concludes that the man is an impostor, since the said arrested resistance member would certainly not have the chance to make a phone call. The finale, where Predrag hid the notebook inside the baby carriage during the Gestapo search of his house, but the baby starts crying so the guard at the door browses through the carriage to find a toy to calm down the baby, reaches almost Hitchockian levels of suspense, but the ending feels somewhat abrupt and anticlimactic, somewhat reducing the high impression up to it.

Grade:+++

The Strategy of the Snail

La estrategia del caracol; drama / comedy, Colombia, 1993, D: Sergio Cabrera, S: Frank Ramírez, Fausto Cabrera, Vicky Hernández, Humberto Dorado, Victor Mallarino, Carlos Vives

Bogota. A derelict, abandoned residential building, "Casa Uribe", is inhabited by over twenty squatters who live there. However, the authorities show up one day and demand that everyone inside must be evicted because its landlord, Dr. Holguin, wants it cleared. Romero, who has not graduated as a lawyer, manages to postpone the eviction citing the law that they have a bed-ridden sick man inside, Lazaro. Another tenant, anarchist Jacinto, devises a plan: they will dismantle the entire building from inside, piece by piece—leaving only the four walls outside—and move it to a meadow on a hill, where they will rebuild it. They manage to postpone the eviction again and again, and even send trasnvestite Gabriel to crossdress as a woman and seduce Dr. Holguin's lawyer, Victor, to have him arrive late for the eviction. As the police arrive, the tenants blow up the empty for walls from inside, which collapse, revealing an empty space.

Voted in one poll as one of the best movies of Colombian cinema, "The Strategy of the Snail" shows what a blessing resourcefulness and humor are when applied to a depressing social issue—in this case, when authorities want to evict over twenty homeless people from an abandoned residential building, these tenants simply decide to secretly dismantle and "evacuate" the building from inside and live on a hill. The concept is genius, though the writing and execution are on a lesser level. The overlong running time drags at certain moments, indicating that the movie could have been cut by 20 minutes, and the dialogue is rather bland and routine. Nontheless, the director Sergio Cabrera shows craftsmanship through several aethetic shots (a hill overseeing the Bogota metropolis), clever ideas (lawyer Romero pays a kid to go to an office and say to the evasive official Don Mauro that "some blond broad is waiting for him at Roma Cafe", and when Mauro arrives there, Romero tells him: "I'm the blonde"; in order to postpone the eviction again, Romero changes the address plaque number on the building, causing confusion among the police which have to wait until someone double-checks the veracity of the address) and directorial intervention (at the cafe, Romero asks Mauro about the new schedule for the eviction: "When will that be?", and then there is a match cut to Romero in the house, saying: "Tomorrow morning they'll come for the house"). The scenes of the tenants dismantling the building from inside, piece by piece, are the most fascinating, showing, for instance, how they tie a bathtub to a pulley, raise it up through the ceiling, and then move it horizontally via a rope outside to another place; or how they dismantle windows, tiles and even a whole block of a wall, which they then slide across the ground. The movie needed more of these scenes, and more humor. The ending literally brings down the house and is impressive for its sheer scale and ambition, though the lack of budget reveals its limitations, whereas the final scene feels kind of incomplete, lacking a resolution, yet one feels that spirit of pumped up energy as the small are trying to outrank the big authorities through their sheer cleverness, also inadvertently revealing the corruption and incompetence of this government.

Grade:+++

Godless

Godless; political drama, USA, 2024; D: Michael Ricigliano, S: Anna Ortiz, Harry Lennix, Patrick Breen, Dan Grimaldi, Thomas G. Waites

New York City. Governor Angela Porra signed the first gay marriage law, and now intends to adopt another one, allowing for late-term abortions. Due to this, Bishop Reginald Roland decides to publicly excommunicate her from the Catholic church, which causes a lot of media attention. Angela's associates back her, including Nico, a gay Jewish man. The Roman Catholic church nullifies Reginald's excommunication. Years later, Angela is President and goes to visit Reginald in a small parrish. She confesses that she had a miscarriage, while he confesses a murder when he was in the Vietnam War.

Michael Ricigliano's feature length debut film, independent drama "Godless" follows the interwoven political and religious life typical for the USA, though it is less relevant for today's time than it would have been had it been released 50 years earlier, when the influence of religious figures was stronger. Despite an interesting concept of a Bishop, Reginald, excommunicating politician Angela for adopting gay marriage law and attempting to adopt abortion laws, the storyline doesn't really know what to do with this premise. Not much changes, and in the end there is no real pay-off. There is only one intriguing little moment that captures the viewers' attention: the one where Angela is in the church and wants to get the Communion, but the priest refuses to give her the host, and covers the chalice with his hand, forcing her to leave while the other attendees just observe this. Other than that, the movie is just standing on the same place, without much creativity or higher amplitude of events, yet it offers a few philosophical contemplations about religion and politics, and which side has more leverage, whereas it has a great cinematography. In one such contemplation, a politician at a private conference tells to Angela: "We are just a litmus test for the catholic church to see if their base will vote", whereas in another Reginald calls her one of those "cafeteria Catholics". A fresh scene also shows up when Angela is about to meet Reginald, so she has this exchange with her cynical associate Nico: "Please, don't be an a***" - "I'll try". The two actors Anna Ortiz and Harry Lennix are excellent, delivering strong performances from pale, underwritten roles, sometimes even going beyond what is expected and pronouncing their bland dialogue with such an enthusiasm as if it is the best thing ever. "Godless" will be more interesting for American viewers than universal audience, since its story is thin and doesn't have a clear point at the end, yet it offers food for thought.

Grade:++

The Clockmaker

L'Horloger de Saint-Paul; crime drama, France, 1971; D: Bertrand Tavernier, S: Philippe Noiret, Jean Rochefort, Jacques Denis, Yves Afonso, Sylaian Rougerie

Lyon. Clockmaker Michel is visited in the morning by two police detectives who bring him to a place where his van was left on the road. Michel discovers that his missing son Bernard and his girlfriend Liliane are suspected of murder of factory guard Razon, setting also his car on fire. Devastated, Michel talks to Inspector Guilboud and gives interviews to reporters. Gradually, Michel hears from two women who worked in the factory that Razon caught Liliane trying to steal something, forced her to have sex with him, fired her, and that she said that to Bernard. The police catch Bernard, and even though Michel hires a lawyer to present the case as crime of passion, Bernard is sentenced to 20 years in prison. 

Bertrand Tavernier's feature length debut film, "The Clockmaker" shows how this director makes movies about life, not movies about movies. Tavernier follows his characters and their little details and private lives, because he is more interested in them than the cinematic experience, which doesn't always work in some overstretched, "plain" or trivial moments, yet the viewers can almost feel and taste the lives of this milieu. This is already visible in the opening sequence: a group of men sit for a dinner at a tavern and talk about various topics, ranging from elections ("The French want Communist mayors as long as the government is right-wing!") to everyday life (the protagonist Michel, played by the excellent actor Philippe Noiret, is shown in his first scene fixing a clock on the wall in the kitchen, and then goes to eat and comments: "That's the advantage of bachelors. We can eat onions"), which feels genuine. The viewers still don't know what kind of a movie awaits them just from this opening sequence. The next morning, as two police detectives show up and inform Michel that his son murdered a man, the movie transforms into a character study about the older generation that lost touch with the new, young generation, whose radical conduct they cannot understand anymore, especially connected right after the rift of the '68 protests in France. 

Tavernier is a conventional director, sometimes allowing the events to almost lead the film more than the (vague) story itself, especially since the arrest of Michel's son doesn't happen all until an hour into the film, yet he has a knack for good dialogues, mostly between Michel and the Inspector ("France is a strange country. It has 50 million people and 20 million snitches"; "I don't think anybody ever loved me that much as that little boy, even though it lasted only for a minute. I was unhappy only twice in my life. And I think I am starting to recover from this"; "We cannot even understand our own kids, let alone the other people's kids"), but also between the Inspector and the reporter, speculating about the motive for the burned car ("I wouldn't want to pronounce the word the left..." - "But you already pronounced it"). The best sequence is a suspenful one: two men randomly throw rocks and break the windows of the store, so Michael and his friend take the car, chase the two thugs, breat them up, whereas Michel even throws one of them into the river! It stands out the most because it is dynamic, and one wishes the movie had more of this, and less of overlong sequences of Michel wandering through the streets. Tavernier's characters are his main focus, though: in the end, as bad is it is that his son is arrested and awaits trial, Michel finally re-connects with him and begins talking and finding out more about him. "The Clockmaker" is a very good film, yet it is still below the status of a classic, as something is missing in Tavernier's lukewarm approach at times, which underwhelms occasionally.

Grade:+++

Monday or Tuesday

Ponedjeljak ili utorak; drama / art-film, Croatia, 1966; D: Vatroslav Mimica, S: Slobodan Dimitrijević, Fabijan Šovagović, Sergio Mimica, Jagoda Kaloper, Gizela Huml, Pavle Vuisić, Olivera Vučo

Zagreb. 24 hours in the life of Marko. He wakes up, has breakfast, and goes to work in his job of printing press. Intermittently, he has recollections from his childhood—his father was killed during World War II; his grandmother brought him up—and thinks about his contemporary time—he divorced from his wife who takes care of their little son; he has a new lover, but she is pregnant and wants an abortion; he writes novels, but nobody wants to publish them. While watching some men beat up a horse on the street that doesn't want to move, it starts to rain and Marko imagines he talks with his late father. At the end of the day, Marko returns back to his apartment, has dinner, watches TV, and then goes to bed.

"Monday or Tuesday" continues the director Vatroslav Mimica's 'stream-of-consciousness' phase ("Kaya, I'll Kill You!"), depicting 24 hours in the life of Marko, where recollections and flashbacks of his childhood are filmed in color, while the present is filmed in black and white, to symbolize the alienation of that generation with the current time they are living in. The overall result has its ups and downs: some moments are better than the others. The opening 8-minute sequence, for instance, is brilliant—it depicts Marko having a dream of himself, in color, in a park as an old grandmother with a red umbrella is shouting: "Marko! Marko!" Marko says: "Grandma, here I am!", but the woman just walks pass him to talk to a child that represents Marko as a kid. The strange flashbacks are filmed in surreal way, sometimes interwoven with fantasy—for instance, a wall of an orange crust melts and collapses in slow motion, and then the movie jumps to grandma covering the eyes of the kid Marko as Fascist soldiers, with Freddy Krueger-like masks, take his wounded father, bleeding, away from the house. 

Another moment has kid Marko crawling through some tunnel, while a sleeping grown-up Marko in the present is seen releasing a tear from his closed eye. An indeed great start to a film, but the rest starts losing its power, especially in some banal and heavy-handed random archive clips of corpses and war crimes from World War II juxtaposed with the peaceful modern city milieu. Some moments repeat the greatness on their own, unique way—for example, at work, Marko asks a colleague if he knows someone who can make an abortion, but the guy advises him against it: "Keep the child. I'll be your best man!" - "Are you crazy? Where do we get the apartment?" - "Look at all the space. It wouldn't be bad to have another little Marko in the Universe", as he shows Marko a photo of a whole Galaxy in space. The rest of the movie struggles to justify this loose structure and meandering of random episodes, falling into the trap of empty walk. For instance, the episode revolving around a man (Fabijan Sovagovic) showing Marko his pigeon coop leads nowhere, save for some neat moments of freeze frames of a pigeon flapping its wings. Yet, all the scenes of Marko just walking through the streets without a goal can only go so far until he viewers' patience starts to get exhausted. A tighter narrative would have been welcomed, since various experimentals films feel less fresh today. As the movie abruptly ends, one cannot feels as if something is missing in the overall picture, though Mimica has a couple of interesting stylistic ideas (the camera pans from a black and white scene on the left, through dark, to a scene in color on the right).

Grade:++

El Cid

El Cid; historical drama, USA / Italy, 1961; D: Anthony Mann, S: Charlton Heston, Sophia Loren, Herbert Lom, Raf Vallone, Genevieve Page, John Fraser

The Iberian Peninsula during Reconquista, 11th century. General Ben Yusuf from the Muslim Almoravid dynasty wants Al-Andalus to continue fighting and annexing the Christian cities. The Christian nobelman Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar and his army capture two emirs, al-Mu'tamin and al-Kadir, but lets them go if they promise not to attack Christians anymore, so he is given the title "El Cid". Because of that, El Cid is accused of treason and kills Count Gormaz in a duel, the father of his fiancée Chimene. When Ferdinand, the King of Castile, dies, his two sons Alfonso and Sancho fight for the crown, and Ben Yusuf assassinates Sancho to start a civil war. However, Alfonso is declared the King, but since El Cid suspected he killed Sancho, El Cid an Chimene are exiled. They are summoned again to lead an army during the Battle of Valencia, and they win. When Ben Yusuf's army counterattack, El Cid is wounded, but is tied to a horse to charge the next day against the Moors, thereby assuring victory over the Almoravids.

"El Cid" is an example of duality among monumental epic films: on the one hand, it dazzles with thousands of extras, spectacle, lavish production values and aesthetic locations of the Peniscola walls and beach; on the other hand, it feels strangely stiff, mechanical, has underwhelming, pale characters and seems as a schematic PowerPoint presentation by a chatbot. The director Anthony Mann directs the film conventionaly, yet the sole story cannot be that easily bereaved of its intruige since it is one of the rare movie depictions of Reconquista, an era lasting over 750 years, since modern politics rather avoid films showing Christian-Muslim conflicts. The title protagonist is shown as an idealized hero, always true to his mantra of being just and fair—when he encounters a group of soldiers on horses, El Cid has a determined exchange with them ("Will you give me your prisoner, or must I take him?" - "There are 13 of us. And you're alone!" - "What you do is against God's law. Were you 13 times 13, I would not be alone!"), before he engages in a battle and defeats them all. After being exiled with Chimene, El Cid leaves a cottage and is surprised to find a hundred soldiers outside, waiting for him, and they have this exchange: "I am in exile!" - "Not you. We're all in exile!" It is difficult to find such a thoroughly honorable character in modern movies. Despite its running time of three hours, "El Cid" feels strangely as if it is told in ellipses and is missing some pieces of the bigger picture, since we don't find out more about neither El Cid nor Chimene, though their relationship is more complex than expected, especially after he inadvertently kills her father in a duel. The battle sequences, especially in the finale of the fights along the coastline of the walled city depictitng Valencia, are short and effective, as well as stylistically elegant due to being framed by such architecture, though they are no match for the choreography of future historical films, whereas the narrator's final line is strong ("And thus El Cid rode out of the gates of history... into legend"), and thus "El Cid" feels fluid and smooth even today.

Grade:++