Blue Mountains, or Unbelievable Story

Tsisperi mtebi anu daujerebeli ambavi; satire, Georgia, 1983; D: Eldar Shengelaia, S: Ramaz Giorgobiani, Vasil Kakhniashvili, Teimuraz Chirgadze, Sesilia Takaishvili

Tbilisi. Writer Soso delivers two copies of his manuscript for a novel, titled "Blue Mountains, or Tianshan" to a publishing house, and the editors assure him that they will read it. But they don't. Soso keeps showing up in the building, asking editors Vaso, the director and Irodioni if they read it, but they always have excuses, citing that they are busy. Months pass, and Soso keeps showing up in their offices, but nothing changes, they just keep him waiting. During a committee session, the dozen officials all say they will yield towards the opinion of the majority, but nobody read the manuscript. A crack appears on the ceiling, the building collapses, they all relocate to another building, but keep their mentality of stalling.  

"Blue Mountains" is one of those movies that are classics in their home country, but much weaker when seen outside in the rest of the world. The problem is not in the topic, which is surprisingly relevant and universal—but more so in the rather lax, too conventional and slow execution, which drags. The concept of a writer who wants to publish his manuscript, but nobody at the publishing house wants to read it, is a bitter satire on problems of artists who want to follow their dream, but don't have the means to achieve them—who knows how many amazing films and novels were never made just because producers or publishers didn't want to bother with "unknown" authors? Unfortunately, the director Eldar Shengelaia does not have a sense for comic timing nor how to build up a joke, since the movie is overstretched and not particularly funny. In one of the best moments, writer Soso delivers his manuscript to the director of the publishing house, "Blue Mountains, or Tianshan", but the man does not even listen to him, and instead just superficially talks about some people on motorcycles playing "motorball" with a football on the field seen through the window, to get rid of him as soon as possible, feigning he will read both "Blue Mountains" and "Tianshan", not even realizing these are the same title, not two different manuscripts. The director even has this exchange with him: "Soso, you must be more active. Bother people!" - "I am bothering you". - "Good!" As cracks start appearing on the ceiling of the publishing house, and one overweight official even pulls the entire window to open it, the allegory takes on grotesque dimensions about the decay and collapse of inefficient bureaucracy and incompetent institutions not doing their job, but this cannot quite compensate for the fact that the film is at times a little bit boring.

Grade:++

Slice of Life

Slice of Life; science-fiction short, Croatia, 2019; D: Dino Julius, Luka Hrgović, S: Anton Svetić, Ivica Pustički, Emilija Habulin, Miran Šabić, Karla Zelić

In a metropolis in the future, a man in a flying car is trying to sell as many drugs as possible to earn 100,000 credits for a space trip to another beach planet. However, since he is 10,000 credits short, he robs an ATM machine. A corrupt cop makes a photo of him and blackmails him, demanding the money for himself. The man and the cop fight in a toilet, and the cop is killed. However, the man misses the flight and now has to wait another year for the next opportunity.

In one of the best Croatian independent short films in the last twenty years, directors Dino Julius and Luka Hrgovic crafted a homage to "Blade Runner" by releasing it in the year it plays out, remarkably re-creating its mood and aesthetics. "Slice of Life" was filmed in their house garage, using matte paintings, miniature models, walls and an old car, filmed in Blackmagic Design 4K camera—but it all looks so fantastic it is incredible. There is not much of a story or directing skills in here, it's all style over substance, but the huge close ups and meticulous eye for little details (drops dripping from a faucet, the hero typing in numbers on his laptop to crack the password of an ATM machine, the mouth of the corrupt cop eating ribs, a silhouette of a flying car passing by over a screen of a mouth of a woman in a TV commercial...) all create a stunning aesthetic and visual style that looks so modern that it has weight. No character speaks a single line (except for the off audio of TV commercials heard from screens), but everything is clear in this simple story of greed and fight for money, as the hero wants to flee to another world in time. You can almost smell the odor of some scenes (the hero removing rats from a restaurant dumpster and taking some noodles in a paper box to eat; him lighting the cigarette of the brand "Slice of Life" in the finale) and feel the rain seen in so many frames. It is a remarkable and impressive film, stylish to the cinematic boiling point. Villeneuve's "Blade Runner 2049" is not the true spiritual sequel to "Blade Runner"—it is the much more worthy "Slice of Life".

Grade:+++

Eliso

Eliso; silent historical drama, Georgia, 1928; D: Nikoloz Shengelaia, S: Kira Andronikashvili, Aleksandre Imedashvili, Kokhta Karalashvili, Tsetsilia Tsutsunava, Aleksandre Jorjoliani 

The Caucasus, 1864. Goreshist Russia wants to expel Chechens from a village in order to resettle Cossacks there, using it as a springboard for further imperialism and colonialism towards the south. A Chechen girl, Eliso, is in love with a Georgian lad, Vajia. Her father Astamur, the village elder, hears from commander Seidulla that they are to be evicted from their village. The Chechens all sign a petition that ostensibly says they want to stay, but Seidulla then reveals that, since they cannot read Cyrillic, the petition actually stated that they "voluntarily" signed on to leave the village. Vajia goes to a Russian military outpost, battles the soldiers and forces the general to issue a decree allowing the Chechens to stay. He brings the document to Eliso, but it is too late, the Chechens are already moving. Astamur says he only regrets that they didn't burn the village behind them, so Eliso runs back, sets the village on fire, and returns back to the caravan. Vajia wants to marry Eliso, but since he is a Christian, and the Chechens now blame every Christian, Astamur rejects his proposal, and Eliso travels with the Chechens into the Ottoman Empire.

Ranked in a local poll as one of the 12 best Georgian films of all time, "Eliso" is an ethnographic study of the peoples in the Caucasus as well as a historical lesson about the deportation of the Chechens during the 1864 Circassian genocide, which is a subject touched upon only indirectly. Their deportation in the end also marks the end of the Romeo & Juliet-type couple, the Christian lad Vajia and Chechen Muslim woman Eliso, who departs with her nation. Using wide shots of the mountainous region, whose desolate nature becomes an allegory of human cruelty and rough nature, the director Nikoloz Shengelaia crafts an economic, but also intimate and ambitious portrait of rural people who are not sophisticated, but still have more honor, humanity and integrity than the Russian military that is encroaching them. Two most memorable sequences: in the first, Vajia enters the Russian military outpost and eventually starts a fencing duel with three Russian soldiers, having only one sword and a shield in his hands. He jumps on a table, one soldier grabs his leg and pushes him to fall down, but Vajia simply continues fencing with them, lying on the ground (!), and then going under the table for cover. In the second, the Cossacks are heading towards the village on horses, but a hundred Chechens villagers simply sit on the ground, thereby blocking their entrance, since the horses stop and refuse to trample on humans. The maniacally fast editing of the Chechen dance sequence is also unusually hyperactive and dynamic for the silent movie era, creating its very own rhythm. The ethnic cleansing in the finale advances into a symbol for human suffering due to intolerance and selfish plans of remote people in power, advocating for universal human rights and sanctity of lives which should never be interrupted. 

Grade:+++

Silence

Silence; historical drama, USA, 2016; D: Martin Scorsese, S: Andrew Garfield, Adam Driver, Tadanobu Asano, Yosuke Kubozuka, Shinya Tsukamoto, Liam Neeson, Issey Ogata

In 1639, using a Japanese local Kichijiro, Portuguese Jesuit priests Sebastiao and Francisco travel from Macau to Tomogi, Japan, to find out what happened to priest Ferreira who went there to convert Japanese to Christianity. Sebastiao and Francisco find a group of Japanese Christians hiding from the authorities, who are killing Christians. Eventually, they are discovered and arrested. Francisco tries to save four people tied up and thrown into the ocean from the boat by the authorities, but drowns himself. A government Inquisitor Inoue tries to persuade Sebastiao to renounce his religion to save other captives from death. When Ferreira shows up and reveals he renounced Christianity and blended in with the Japanese, to save locals from the death penalty, Sebastiao does the same. Inoue sends him to live with a widow whose husband died. 

In one of his weakest films, Martin Scorsese practically made a pamphlet for Christianity. Based on the novel "Silence" by Shusaku Endo, the film's historical setting of two Portuguese priests trying to keep up a Christian stronghold in Japan in the 17th century is interesting, but its story is simply too boring and too long at an overlong running time of 160 minutes, with monotone, ordinary dialogue that have no inspiration. The whole film is too thin, without much to connect to movie goers, except as an ode to persecution of Christians. Scorsese uses a wonderful, gorgeous cinematography (a bird's-eye view of a ship sailing on the ocean; the camera spinning around priest Ferreira who is turned upside down by the authorities for preaching Christianity; an occasional contrast between huge close-ups of someone's head and the panorama in the background...), but it is all technicalities, and no substance or essence. One of the rare examples of some awe is the disturbing sequence of Japanese Christian Mokichi who is tied up to a cross near the shore with two others, and as the ocean levels rise in the evening, the waves are splashing them well over their heads, as priest Sebastiao observes from the hill, and narrates how "it took Mokichi four days to die". However, except for their struggle, and Sebastiao's wondering about God's silence, not much is here to deserve to invest the viewers' time to watch these events. The Portuguese tried to assimilate a Japanese area through their religion, but failed. That is the core theme that is avoided in the story. Another is the appeal for freedom of religion. However, for such a topic, the story and execution warranted a richer inspiration.

Grade:+

The Boys (Season 4)

The Boys; fantasy action thriller series, USA, 2024; D: Phil Sgriccia, Karen Gaviola, Fred Toye, Eric Kripke, S: Karl Urban, Jack Quaid, Antony Starr, Erin Moriarty, Jessie T. Usher, Tomer Capone, Laz Alonso, Karen Fukuhara, Colby Minifie, Valorie Curry, Claudia Doumit, Giancarlo Esposito, Chace Crawford, Simon Pegg, Ann Cusack

Superhero Homelander wants more power, so he unexpectedly hires Sage, the most intelligent woman in the world, with the power of self-regenerating brain, to be his advisor. They concoct a plan to have superhero Victoria Neuman run as Vice President to US President elect Bob Singer, so that she can kill him, take over, and be de facto Homelander's proxy. Homelander gets a new assistant: Misty / Firecracker, who leads an internet propaganda campaign to always attack his enemies. Meanwhile, Billy, MM, Frenchie, Kimiko, Annie January / Starlight and Hughie from "The Boys" team up with A-Train who gives them secret information he heard from Homelander. They release Stan Edgar, who leads them to a secret laboratory that developed a virus that can kill a superhero. Just as Victoria shows up to talk with Hughie to team up, Billy, having injected Compound V in himself, kills her. Homelander announces martial law to hunt down all the "Starlighters". 

The fourth season of "The Boys" once again shows what a patchwork and mixed bag it is: it has both one of the best episodes of the entire series, 4.1, where everything is so meticulously written and planned down to a T, and every little detail and action has a why and because; and one of the worst episodes, 4.6, drowning in sado-masochistic excess and banality. All the seasons are like that— inconsistent, walking between genius and garbage. Yet this one is among the better ones, with insane satirical allegory on modern American society, whereas Karl Urban and Erin Moriarty are once again excellent in their roles as Billy and Annie January / Starlight, respectively. Antony Starr is disturbing in the role of the villain-superhero Homelander, who seems like the evil, degenerate Superman from "Superman III" won in a fight against the good Clark Kent and went on a quest to gain more and more power, in a totalitarian aim to rule (and re-shape) the entire country. As the previous seasons warned, if someone is given unlimited power, how can there ever be a normal society based on rule of law? Who will stop him from doing crimes or abusing everyone? Episode 4.5 embodies these disparate traits of "The Boys". On the one hand, it addresses these problems of absolute power when Ryan orders a director to apologize to his female assistant for harassing her, but his apology to her ("I'm sorry if I exploited our inequitable power dynamic and made you feel uncomfortable") actually refers to Homelander standing right next to Ryan, in his rule of fear over humans. 

The new character of the super-intelligent superhero woman Sage has some wonderful wisecracking comments ("Y'all just think I'm stupid poor white trash", says Homelander-fanatic Misty / Firecracker, as Sage replies: "I don't think you're poor"). The bizarre joke where The Boys go to a top secret rural laboratory, but its superhero components accidentally leaked into the ground and "contaminated" some of the animals, so they encounter "superhero chickens" at a farm who are so invincible that they cannot be killed when shot at, is hilarious. But the flying sheep, revealed later on, were just stupid and too much. The same goes for Homelander's "revenge" against the laboratory scientists in episode 4.4 who experimented on him when he was a kid—it goes into extreme violence and torture, and is kind of a stretch (would all these same people still be working in the exact same place after 20 years? And after no more superhero experiments are necessary?). And as one scientists ironically adds, even as a kid, Homelander could have simply broke the laboratory door and walked away anytime he wanted. The worst episode, 4.6, involves Hughie dressed up as a superhero, but stuck in a dungeon of a rich sadomasochist, in an awful and unnecessary sequence of explicit perversions. Yes, upstairs in the mansion, all the billionaires and Homelander are planning a coup d'état to take over the US, but their perversion and decadence is already elaborated enough without a need to show the infamous dungeon sequence, as already Sage's comment at seeing so many billionaires in the mansion is sharp: "38% of the US GDP is in this room." The conspiracy theory convention episode 4.2 is also very funny and subversive, summed up in a simple scene where Sage asks: "What are you selling?", and Misty replies: "Purpose. These people got nothing." Different directors yield different results per episode, but season 4 has so many surprises that it is at times incredible (even Will Ferrell has a delicious cameo; the deal between Neuman and Misty in case she becomes the Vice President: "No teaching of critical Supe theory"; Sage orchestrating an internet anti-Starlight campaign, "until 100 million people are outraged by Starlight for reasons they cannot explain"), with politics taking over the center stage. But then again, through its themes (corruption; false idols; domination of the upper class (in this case, the superheroes); criminals covertly taking over the entire country through propaganda claiming they are the good guys), politics was the inevitable outcome already established in the first season. 

Grade:+++ 

Mr. Klein

Monsieur Klein; war drama, France / Italy, 1976; D: Joseph Losey, S: Alain Delon, Juliet Berto, Michael Lonsdale, Jean Bouise, Jeanne Moreau

Paris, World War II. Robert Klein is an art dealer living at 136 Rue du Bac, earning a fortune by cheaply buying valuable paintings from Jews who are looking for fast cash to escape the totalitarian dictatorship and Nazi persecution. One day, Klein finds a newspaper for Jewish news, Informations Juives, even though he is not a subscriber. Investigating, he finds out another Robert Klein, an anti-Nazi resistance member, is using his name. Klein finds his namesake's empty apartment and obtains a photo of his associate, a woman called "Isabelle", "Kathy" and "Françoise". Since the authorities are suspicious of his heritage, Klein orders a record of his family's history confirming none of them were Jewish. Klein decides to sell all his paintings worth 10 million francs, while his lawyer Pierre gives him a fake passport so that he can flee abroad. Klein meets Nicole in train, his namesake's associate, and decides to return back to Paris to meet his namesake. Klein and his namesake, and all the Jews, are all arrested by the police, gathered at a fenced detention center, and then further sent to sealed-off trains into the unknown. 

American director Joseph Losey made an excursion into France by directing this critically acclaimed film that depicts the Holocaust and the persecution of Jews during the Nazi-German occupation of Paris in a subtle, indirect, even allegorical and abstract manner, incorporating surreal and mystery elements from Franz Kafka's "The Trial". The latter is the films biggest weakness: too much symbolism used in the protagonist's search for his namesake, a Jewish underground resistance member, as well as too many unanswered questions in the end, take away and distracts too much from the main topic of the Holocaust, which should have been shown in classic fashion without this kind of artistic obfuscation. Nonetheless, it is a slow-burning, powerful, intelligent and ambitious film with an excellent leading role by Alain Delon as Robert Klein. The opening sequence is extremely powerful: a middle-aged, overweight woman stands naked in a clinic while a doctor is measuring her head ("Naso-labial space normal. Septum slightly flattened. Lower lip fleshy. Jaw typical for non-European races."), trying to determine if she is Jewish or not. In one simple situation, "Mr. Klein" already establishes the context and feeling of the society during that time. 

As Klein tries to find his namesake (who is never seen in the entire film), he attracts suspicion of the authorities, causing only more and more problems for him. Even though Klein is not Jewish, but Catholic, he is still provisionally given the same restrictions as other Jews, causing his protest in front of the police officers who came to raid his home ("My painting... I'm not allowed to buy or sell. No more bars, no restaurants, no cinemas, nothing! Everything's forbidden! They say I can't go anywhere, even to a public piss-house! Just because my grandmother's birth certificate is missing"). The anxiety, paranoia and that feeling of dread and helplessness as Jews (or anyone suspected of having Jewish heritage in family) had their human rights shrinking from day to day, are the strongest points of "Mr. Klein", without having to spell everything out in heavy-handed messages. And this works better than the symbolism which comes across as staged and too artificial (for instance, the dog that follows Klein on the street even though he is chasing him away, because the dog's owner was Klein namesake). Losey directs the film conventionally, but he has a strong story, and some scenes are clever, nonetheless (the scene at the train station where Klein is saying farewell to his lawyer Pierre, while his namesake is right behind him, his back turned towards the camera, saying farewell to his associate Nicole in the train). Some moments are more entrenched in the subconscious than the logical (why would Klein suddenly decide to return to Paris, to seek his namesake, despite the danger?), but the finale is so devastating and disturbing, while staying perfectly calm all the time, that the viewers will not be left indifferent. 

Grade:+++  

The Boys (season 3)

The Boys; fantasy action thriller series, USA, 2022; D: Phil Sgriccia, Julian Holmes, Nelson Cragg, Sarah Boyd, S: Karl Urban, Jack Quaid, Antony Starr, Erin Moriarty, Dominique McElligott, Tomer Capone, Jessie T. Usher, Laz Alonso, Karen Fukuhara, Colby Minifie, Jensen Ackles, Giancarlo Esposito, Chace Crawford, Simon Pegg, Ann Cusack

Billy "Butcher", Hughie, MM, Serge and Kumiko find out that the former Vought superhero, Soldier Boy, was not killed during the Cold War in Nicaragua in the 80s, but is actually held in a coma in a compound in Moscow, so The Boys travel there, kill some Russians and release Soldier Boy, hoping to use his superpowers to kill Homelander. Annie, aka Starlight, gives The Boys some new Compound V doses, which, when injected, give them superpowers for 24 hours. Billy uses these injections for his mission, but it gives him a terminal illness. Queen Maeve cooperates with them because she also wants to kill Homelander. Annie, Hughie, Serge and MM refuse to kill Homelander while he is inside the Vought building, fearing hundreds of people will be killed with him in the clash, so Billy, Maeve and Soldier Boy ditch them and go to Vought on their own. Upon finding out Homelander has his and Becca's son Ryan with him, Billy wants to cancel the assassination to save Ryan, but Soldier Boy refuses, so he is thrown out from the building and arrested. Maeve loses an eye in a fight with Homelander and thus decides to leave to hide from him.

The 3rd season of "The Boys" is better than the 2nd, but still weaker than the 1st. It has suspense, an energy rush, and is addictive, but also makes mistakes in excessive splatter violence, as if the authors at times try to engage the viewers more with shock value than with genuine intelligence and confidence in their own style. This is already obvious in the first episode, 3.1: a superhero has shrinking powers, so a gay man asks him to shrink and go inside his penis (!), in a bizarre, ludicrous moment that seems like a bad screenwriting idea, especially in the bloody (and uncalled for) conclusion. All episodes end on a "cliffhanger", but then the next one does not seem like a natural continuation of this plot point, since the screenwriters seem to go on in circles instead of advancing the plot, to prolong the series. At times, "The Boys" seem like a superhero soap opera; other times, they seem like a more ambitious, intricately plotted, subversive commentary on modern American society: just imagine Homelander is the richest man in the world, a billionaire who can buy any influence and bribe any politician, and then you get the bigger picture. Is there justice in such a society? Does an ordinary man have equal rights as Homelander? The theme is the decadence of absolute power, just done through the superhero genre. Homelander is a superhero who becomes evil through corruption of his own ego, and slowly establishes a superhero aristocracy. Even when a reporter asks one critical question on TV in episode 3.6, Homelander calls it a "mediocre ambush" and simply walks away, displaying full impunity.

Some more inspired moments of writing shine. For instance, Homelander cares about his approval ratings among the audiences, and is informed that his teaming up with Starlight has a 94% approval. In episode 3.4 Homelander provokes Hughie, who stands up to him, but luckily Starlight intervenes and warns Homelander: "Touch him, or anyone he cares about, and I'll walk and take my approval points with me." As Homelander decides to take over Vought and expulse the CEO of the corporation, Stan Edgar (excellent Giancarlo Esposito), the two of them have a fabulous dialogue in said episode: Stan is an ordinary human, without superpowers, but he is perfectly calm, intelligent, with impeccable manners and wit. Homelander goes: "You're just... nothing", and Stan replies: "Then why are you still here, waiting for my approval like I'm your daddy? And even if I were, what would there be to approve of? The company is yours. No one left to stand up to you. But I think you'll come to sorely regret that." Some characters show growth and development: A-Train was careless about his negligent actions in the pilot episode, but when he sees the racist arrogance of fellow superhero Blue Hawk who injures black people, including A-Train's brother ("Black lives matter!" - "Supe lives matter!") in episode 3.5, A-Train changes and apologizes to Hughie later on. There is also a fascinating moment in episode 3.7 when Black Noir goes from a one-dimensional to a three-dimensional character, when he imagines cartoon characters (!) are recreating his trauma with Soldier Boy in front of him. Episodes 3.6 and 3.7 are excellent, but the final episode is a botched finale. Just as Black Noir became interesting, he is killed. Why? A wasted opportunity. The Boys retrieved Soldier Boy from a coma to use him to kill Homelander, but then in the last episode they split into factions, and again into different factions, until all this crumbles into pieces and becomes inconsistent and obfuscated. Their disagreement over how to kill Homelander feels unworthy of a contrivance, and should have been handled better.

Grade:++

The Butcher Boy

The Butcher Boy; psychological drama / crime, Ireland, 1997; D: Neil Jordan, S: Eamonn Owens, Stephen Rea, Alan Boyle, Andrew Fullerton, Fiona Shaw, Aisling O'Sullivan, Milo O'Shea, Sinéad O'Connor

A small Irish town during the Cuban missile crisis. Francie Brady (12) lives with his alcoholic father and suicidal mother. Francie runs away from home and spends some time at a cinema and reading comic books, but when he returns, his mother has died. His only friend is boy Joe, but Mrs. Nugent advises him against seeing Francie, whom she deems as mentally unstable and a "pig". As a revenge, Francie causes a mess and defecates at her place, and is thus sent to a reform school. When a priest tries to molest him, Francie is released by the principal under the promise to keep quiet about the incident. Dad dies while Joe disappears from the town. Francie finds him in a catholic school, but Joe says he is not his friend anymore, so the priests throw Francie out. Francie finds a job as a butcher boy and kills Mrs. Nugent, hiding pieces of her corpse under cabbage waste. The police arrest him and he spends 30 years at a mental asylum. As a grown up, he is released from the institution.

"A Clockwork Orange" meets "Problem Child"—something like that could be used to describe this bizarre patchwork by Neil Jordan, based on the eponymous novel by Patrick McCabe. The protagonist in question is a mentally ill boy, Francie, and his aggressiveness should be discouraged, which makes Jordan's job of trying to somehow explain his behavior by showing him as a victim of traumatic childhood somewhat unconvincing. The story also seems lost, meandering through several episodes, which all comes across as aimless. The topic seems to be wrong, but Jordan still directs the film with a lot of creativity and black humor: the idea that the narrator speaks with Francie in one scene 36 minutes into the film is genius; whereas Sinead O'Connor is fabulous as Holy Mary in four brief scenes, who talks to Francie as an apparition. One great laugh has Holy Mary being absent for a very long time in the final third act, and when she finally appears again next to a grown up Francie, he just turns around and says: "Hi, stranger!" Jordan even goes so far to make fun of pedophilia in Catholic church in the scene where Francie, in a reform school, is telling about his vision of Holy Mary, while a priest (Milo O'Shea) is leaned on right behind him, as the narrator goes: "So there I am, telling him the story, and the next thing his hand is jiggling in his pocket. What are you doing there, Father Teddly? Pay attention!... Just what is one half of Father Teddly doing over with the boot case, and the other half on the floor?" Though this subplot should have been developed further, and not just glossed over like it is a trivial thing. Some little details are exquisite (a cupcake spinning on a record player; Mrs. Nugent's two brothers want to scare Francie by holding his face down in a river, after a while he stops moving, so they panic and run away—but later, when a shocked Joe turns him around, Francie smiles in the water, because he just faked that he drowned). Can a story about a mentally ill child killer be translated into great art? In this case, not quite. But it is still a good, albeit controversial film about wrongly adapted individuals whose lack of social skills just make them ruin their life even more.

Grade:++ 

Masters of the Universe

Masters of the Universe; fantasy, USA / Australia / Canada, 2026; D: Travis Knight, S: Nicholas Galitzine, Camila Mendes, Idris Elba, Jared Leto, Alison Brie, Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson, Morena Baccarin, Sam C. Wilson, Kristen Wiig (voice)

He doesn't have the power: kid prince Adam is too weak to stop Skeletor's army from invading and taking over the kingdom of his father, King Randor, while he has to flee to Earth, leaving planet Eternia behind. 15 years later, Adam Glenn works in human resources of an IT company in Oklahoma City, but when he finds his sword of power, his Eternia friend Teela finds him and brings him back to his world. Using the sword, Adam transforms into the powerful He-Man, teams up with Duncan and others, and defeats Skeletor and his assistant Evil-Lyn, thereby restoring the kingdom and freeing the people.

39 years after the first feature length "Masters of the Universe" '87 film, screenwriters Chris Butler, David Callaham, Aaron and Adam Nee restructured the He-Man storyline in the most radical way in this 2nd attempt, but the gamble paid off: this film works better. "Masters of the Universe" walks on the verge of self-parody, but this gives it a dose of freshness and vibrancy, full of references to the original animated show, whereas it even has a delicious cameo by Dolph Lundgren, the original '87 He-Man. There are several questionable choices here—the blend between innocent comedy and some hard-core, intense battle sequences (in a fight at Snake Mountain, He-Man impales henchman Karg with his sword to the wall, goes to fight with Goat Man and throw him from the top of the building, and then returns, retrieves his sword, while Karg falls to the ground) is uneven—whereas the two acting choices for Skeletor and He-Man are not entirely convincing—Jared Leto's voice is so scary and psychotic that his jokes almost don't come across; Nicholas Galitzine is neither muscular nor charming enough. However, while Lundgren's He-Man is better physically looking in the '87 film, Galitzine's He-Man has the better personality, since he is given a character arc of being true to himself, which makes him a three-dimensional character.

Some outrageous jokes are wonderful, and outflank the clichés. For instance, after a deadly-serious 20-minute opening sequence, which shows how Skeletor's army invaded the kingdom on Eternia and 10-year old Adam fled to Earth, there is a fabulous cut—to a grown up Adam, in a suit, talking to a woman, his date, in a restaurant: "Anyway, that's how I ended up in Oklahoma City! How about you, Julie, is your family from around here?" Genius. Another funny bit involves Adam working at an office, but then storming out upon hearing the news that someone found his magic sword, so his boss, who is ultra-politically correct, says to him: "Adam, if you walk out that door, you can kiss this place goodbye!... Consensually." The director Travis Knight even inserted a joke regarding the Internet meme of Prince Adam in tune to the song "What's Going On" in the sequence where Beast-Man first shows up, and Adam is in the police car while said song plays in the background. The two best performances are by the excellent Alison Brie as Evil-Lyn and Camila Mendes as Teela. In one very amusing moment, just as He-Man is about to attack, he is "frozen" by Evil-Lyn's spell, who just recites random magic words, which just go on and on, until Skeletor finally interrupts her by coughing: "That will do, Evil-Lyn. He's frozen". The augmented humor works for the cynics, while the finely choreographed battle sequences work for action seeking viewers, and even though these two disparate elements don't work together, the viewers will at least enjoy one half of them in this surprisingly entertaining movie: "Conan the Barbarian" meets Mel Brooks.

Grade:++

The Quiet Girl

An Cailín Ciúin; drama, Ireland, 2022; D: Colm Bairéad, S: Catherine Clinch, Carrie Crowley, Andrew Bennett, Michael Patric

Cait (10) is a secluded, misunderstood girl who often runs away from her house. She has three sisters, all of whom are neglected by their parents who don't care that much for them. Since her mother is pregnant again, she sends Cait to spend the summer at her relatives, the middle-aged Eibhlin and Sean. The childless couple welcomes Cait, and she helps them at their cattle farm by cleaning the stable. At a funeral, a woman tells Cait that Eibhlin and Sean had a son who drowned in a slurry pit by chasing a dog. As the school is about to start, Eibhlin and Sean return Cait back to her home, where her mother gave birth to a son. As Eibhlin and Sean leave in a car, Cait catches up with them, and calls Sean "dad".

Colm Bairead's feature length debut film is, as the title already hints at, a quiet, meditative, introverted and gentle little drama about growing up, filmed in Irish language. "The Quiet Girl" is well meant and honest, but still too slow, suffering from too much 'empty walk' and conventional storytelling which does not engage on some higher level. The opening act neatly establishes how the heroine Cait (very good Catherine Clinch) feels neglected by her distant parents: when she is brought to stay over at her relatives, her father is so backward that he smokes in the kitchen during the meal, extinguishing his cigarette on the plate, and then leaves the farm in his car—with Caith's suitcase still inside the trunk! Relative Eibhlin makes Caith feel not only welcomed, but also gives her a feeling of worth and importance, and even says to her: "If there are secrets in a house, there is shame in that house. We don't have any shame here". Not much is going on, though, as the storyline is rather routine and stale. The story contemplates about some unfairness in life—Caith's parents have four children, but don't care about them, while Eibhlin and Sean don't have children and truly appreciate Caith, but cannot keep her—and conjures up emotional, realistic characters. One just wishes all of this was more creative and better written.

Grade:++

The Boys (Season 2)

The Boys; fantasy-thriller series, USA, 2020, D: Phil Sgriccia, Liz Friedlander, Steve Boyum, Fred Toye, Batan Silva, S: Karl Urban, Antony Starr, Jack Quaid, Erin Moriarty, Dominique McElligott, Aya Cash, Jessie T. Usher, Laz Alonso, Tomer Capone, Karen Fukuhara, Giancarlo Esposito, Chace Crawford, Simon Pegg, Goran Višnjić

Billy “Butcher” returns to Hughie, Marvin and Frenchie. They are hunted down by the superheroes led by Homelander, but manage to escape. Homelander finds out the new superhero among the ranks of Seven, Stormfront, is actually a woman born in Berlin over a century ago, as her husband Vought performed Nazi eugenics experiments, which was continued by the Vought corporation that aims to create superhumans via their Compound 5. Stormfront and Homelander start an affair. A-Train, angry that he will be excluded from the Seven upon Stormfront’s insistence because he is black, hands over this confidential documentation to Hughie and Annie, aka Starlight. They in turn send it to the media. Billy reunites with Becca, but she refuses to leave without her son Ryan. Billy and the gang try to trick Homelander into leaving Ryan’s house while they take away Ryan, but then Stormfront appears and starts chocking Becca. In panic, Ryan’s superpowers activate and his laser kills Stormfront, but accidentally also Becca. Billy still decides to take care of Ryan.  

The 2nd season of “The Boys” is a step back compared to the better first one. It seems the authors wrote themselves into a corner on at least three times, so they resorted to convoluted, forced resolutions to save their protagonists. At the end of the first season, Homelander brought Billy to see Becca again, at her house. Why didn’t Homelander eliminate Billy right there? He just let’s Billy walk away, in a very lame example of screenwriting. Sure, Billy is framed for Madelyn's murder, but they could have still eliminated him outright and then released the accusation. Later, when Homelander finds Hughie in a sewer and orders Starlight to kill Hughie in episode 2.3, the resolution is also unconvincing, yielding to “deux ex machina” clichés. The sick tendency to show bizarre, random splatter violence and vile murders (in a shocking, traumatizing sequence, just as a doctor and former employee was about to testify against Vought at a hearing in episode 2.6, dozens of people’s heads start exploding in the room, compared to which even Cronenberg’s “Scanners” seem restrained), as well as bad ideas (The Deep hallucinating that his fins are talking to him in episode 2.2; the yacht running through a whale in episode 2.3), which takes its toll on the season. Unfortunately, the authors resorted to typical “shock engineering” to keep the viewers’ interest, which is already a bad sign. The reveal that Vought was created through Nazi eugenics experiments on people was a tad too banal, but lately it became actually relevant, as Stormfront is a symbol for the ever growing normalization of far-right tendencies and extremism in politics (she even mentions the term "white genocide").  

Nonetheless, there are still some more intelligent, subversive and creative allegories on the modern era, which lift the season up a notch. One of the more subversive jabs is aimed at how any error or crime of those in power can simply be whitewashed by gaslighting the masses through social media and fake popularity conditioning, controlled by these same people in power. As superhero Stormfront explains to Homelander: “You don't need 50 million people to love you. You need five million people pissed. Emotion sells, anger sells”. That way, the fact that Vought corporation experimented with injecting Compound 5 substance into babies turns from a scandal to a patriotic necessity, redirecting the narrative into a polemic that many more potential future superheroes will make America stronger from supervillains wanting to attack them. Another layer of this theme can be interpreted in compliance and Faustian bargain, from Vought employees and even their CEO disagreeing with the corporation’s evil policies, yet still obeying and remaining passive because it is profitable. Billy thus stands out as someone with integrity, in an active existence, as opposed to them: he is powerless, but still has the courage to keep going. One episode is excellent—2.4—while others are either good or weak. One genius sequence in episode 2.7: when an ex-superhero sets himself on fire, this triggers a fire alarm, which inadvertently causes Annie to be released from her prison cell. In a battle, Black Noir overwhelms her, but then Queen Maeve puts a candy bar into Black Noir’s mouth, and he is suddenly weak. Maeve then explains to Annie that Black Noir has a peanut allergy, in a brilliant restructuring of the Kryptonite concept. Despite clumsy and heavy-handed moments, season 2 still works.

Grade:++

The Commitments

The Commitments; musical drama-comedy, Ireland / UK, 1991; D: Alan Parker, S: Robert Arkins, Glen Hansard, Dick Massey, Angeline Ball, Maria Doyle, Bronagh Gallagher, Andrew Strong, Michael Aherne, Johnny Murphy, Colm Meaney

Dublin. The unemployed Jimmy decides to create a soul band, The Commitments, and be its manager. He holds an audition in the home of his parents, and numerous people apply. He chooses three girls as singers—Natalie, Imelda, Bernie—and seven guys as musicians—Outspan, Derek, Dean, Steven, Billy, Joey Fagan—plus the overweight Deco as the lead singer. Jimmy buys them instruments and finds a first gig: at a church hall, under the excuse that it is an anti-heroin musical event. Joey seduces all the women in the band, claiming to have known Elvis. They don't have money, but they book other gigs. Deco becomes impossibly arrogant, thinking he is the main star of the band. Just s a talent agent offers them a contract with a budget company, The Commitments start a fight and break up in disunity.

The surprising winner of BAFTA awards for best film, director and adapted screenplay, "The Commitments" is one of the most popular Irish films of the 20th century, a simple, but accessible and effective bitter-sweet story about a dozen nobodies who attempt to becomes "somebodies", in this case how a bunch of Dubliners start a soul band from the title to raise their significance. Even though he previously directed mostly dramas, the director Alan Parker shows a lot of sense and enthusiasm for humor in this comedy, augmented by the screenplay based on the novel by Roddy Doyle, who perfectly captures the mentality and spirit of the Irish from that era. However, there are too many characters in this story (and band), and thus there is not enough time to dedicate to all of them, thereby inevitably leaving most of them feeling like extras, as we don't find out much about them. Nonetheless, three actors stand out the most and feel genuinely fascinating: Robert Arkins as manager Jimmy, the founder of the band; Johnny Murphy as trumpet player Joey Fagan; and especially the comical Colm Meaney as Jimmy's dad, who remarkably just accepts his plan to host an improvised audition at his home. 

The first half of "The Commitments" works the best, elegantly establishing many characters and the poor circumstances they want to escape from. In one funny sequence at a wedding, a guy is pushed and accidentally spills his drink over the dress of the local beauty Imelda, mostly along her chest area, who says she will wash it later, while two guys look at her, until one says: "Wash it? I'd frame it!" Fagan has a way with words, being able to persuade a lot of people with his enthusiasm, especially when he introduces himself to Jimmy: "Why would you want to join us?" - "The Lord sent me. And the Lord blows my trumpet." Jimmy is very effervescent, spending either his time talking to himself by imagining he is having an interview after becoming famous, or coaching the amateur band: "I want a strict diet of soul!" The second half loses its humor, charm, and is "eaten" too much by sole singing and stage performances of the soul band, which become excessive, leaving too little room for the "proper" storytelling, since, after all, this is not a collection of music videos. This reduces the film's initial high impression. The ending is also disappointing, showing that there was never real unity in this band, which also takes a toll on these sympathetic characters from the beginning, who ended up rather arrogant in the end. One unforgettable quote between Jimmy and Fagan must be mentioned, showing thinking outside of success, looked at it only from the perspective of optimistic life journey: "I've achieved nothing!" - "You're missing the point. The success of the band was irrelevant: you raised their expectations of life, you lifted their horizons. Sure, we could have been famous and made albums and stuff, but that would have been predictable. This way it's poetry."

Grade:++

Cowboys

Kauboji; comedy, Croatia, 2013; D: Tomislav Mršić, S: Saša Anočić, Živko Anočić, Matija Antolić, Hrvoje Barišić, Krunoslav Klabučar, Ivana Starčević, Rakan Rushaidat

Theater director Saša is sent to a small desolate town to stage its first theater play in 12 years. Six local wackos audition—Domagoj, Juraj, Javor, Bruno, Miodrag and Ivan—and since they are the only ones who showed up, they are all hired to be actors. A woman, Marica, wants to join, so she is enlisted, as well. Saša decides to make a western play for them. Despite numerous problems, including threats from the supervisor that he will shut the whole project down, and the fact that Bruno might be gay, they perform the play on stage. The theater is full. The play is about a sheriff who upholds the law in the wild west. The audience gives them applause, while Saša dies from pneumonia in the hospital.

"Cowboys" is a fun comedy about seven people with aimless existence who unite to perform a play on stage and thus give themselves some meaning and goal in their empty lives, and it once again shows how sometimes it is more interesting watching artists making a movie or a play than watching that sole movie / play. The first 20 minutes are the best, elegantly and skillfully setting everything up so smoothly that the viewers not only instantly understand what is going on, but are also engaged. The sole audition scene, where the six locals appears and disappear on the screen in jump cuts, is aesthetic and very funny, with some absurd dialogue ("Acting experience?" - "More amateur ones. Like, at home"). The theater director Sasa complains to his supervisor that all these candidates are atrocious actors, but, surprisingly, he just calms him down: "Nobody even expects from these people to become real actors. Neither from you to make a masterwork. The important thing is that you are here, that the town gets its first play after 12 years. And that you accept this as such." In another comical scene at the bowling alley, three of these amateur actors sit at a table, until one has this exchange with Miodrag: "Are you a Serb?" - "No, I'm half Gypsy, half... Someone else. I know who. And you?" - "What me? I'm normal!" He then asks the third guy, who is always quiet: "Are you always quiet?" - "No", he replies. And then just continues being quiet. The rest of the film never really manages to repeat this level of comedy, settling mostly only on amusing, but standard, routine, without much creative liftoffs, and it's a pity that out of the seven characters, only three truly stand out (Miodrag, Bruno, Marica), while the rest is not that distinct and "disappears" in the crowd. Despite the fact that there isn't a clear payoff nor a rounded up conclusion at the end (it would have been interesting to see how the play affected their lives in town afterwards, or what self-esteem Marica got from playing her role), "Cowboys" is a well made comedy that will be more appreciated by artists and creators.

Grade:++

The Perfect Host

The Perfect Host; psychological drama / crime, USA, 2010; D: Nicholas Tomnay, S: Clayne Crawford, David Hyde Pierce, Megahn Perry, Helen Reddy

Los Angeles. John Taylor robbed a bank in collusion with his girlfriend Simone, a bank teller who told him she needs money for her disease. Getting rid of his car and having a wounded foot, John randomly rings in front of a mansion and asks to come inside, claiming he was robbed. He is received by Warwick Wilson who claims to be preparing a dinner for his guests. John drinks his wine and falls unconscious. When he wakes up, he is tied up, while Warwick turns out to be a psychopath who just imagines he is having guests in his empty kitchen. John wakes up the next morning outside on the street and finds out Simone plans to leaves the city with the money, without him. He confronts her at the parking garage and takes the money, but the money is taken away from him by Warwick, who is a police lieutenant. Some time later, a detective receives a photo of Warwick and John together, and Warwick invites him for dinner.

This unknown independent film by Nicholas Tomnay is a surprisingly well made and clever blend of crime and psychological drama, playing with the always intriguing concept of a prey and predator switching roles in a plot twist. "The Perfect Host" from the title is played by the excellent David Hyde Pierce as the psychotic Warwick, who isn't as innocent and weak as it first seems. There are some creative details here (for instance, the desperate John randomly picks a mail box of a mansion, finds a letter inside signed by some Julie, and then rings the doorbell, claiming to be Julie's friend who lost his luggage at the airport and needs help) and each ten minutes in the first half offer some new twist or surprise to keep the story interesting and unusual, whereas the cinematography is aesthetic. In one of these surprises, Warwick imagines he is having guests at the table in his kitchen, only for the next scene to reveal him talking to himself, with only the confused John looking at him, revealing his deranged nature. However, after 45 minutes, the story kind of loses its surprise effect, and thus the rest is rather solid, but underwhelming, without any clear major pay-off to Warwick's psychosis. A final plot twist could have been that he is even imagining to be a police lieutenant, but that is contradicted when John hears his associate via walkie-talkie and the detective receiving John's photo, which undermines this theory. There was not that much depth to Warwick's character, and some moments are a bit contrived (why did Warwick apply fake wounds on John's face? Why did he simply release John?), yet "The Perfect Host" manages to be a slow-burning psychological crime-drama with the two leading actors carrying up the story for 90% of its time, on only one location.

Grade:++   

The Boys (Season 1)

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Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)

Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn); action / black comedy, USA, 2020; D: Cathy Yan, S: Margot Robbie, Ella Jay Basco, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Jurnee Smollett-Bell, Rosie Perez, Ewan McGregor, Chris Messina, Ali Wong 

Gotham City. After Joker broke up with her, Harley Quinn finds a new assignment: a little girl, Cassandra, stole and ate a diamond intended for crime boss Roman Sionis, aka Black Mask, so he orders Harley to get it back. Harley finds Cassandra, but actually becomes her friend. In the meantime, Detective Renee Montoya, singer Dinah Lance and Helena Bertinelli, aka The Huntress, also have a bone to pick with Sionis, so they reluctantly team up with Harley. Sionis orders his men to get the diamond any way they can, even threatening to cut out Cassandra's stomach, but luckily Harley is able to stop them and kill Sionis. Later, after Cassandra defecates the diamond, Harley escapes with her from Montoya, Dinah and Bertinelli.

The 2nd film in which Margot Robbie played Harley Quinn, "Birds of Prey" is weaker than "The Suicide Squad", but better than "Suicide Squad". It is a patchwork, using a convoluted narrative obfuscation of a rather simple story in which Harley has to save a girl who ate a diamond from criminal Sionis, which makes it slightly forced at times, but it still has enough virtues to offer a good fun, especially in some meticulously choreographed martial arts and fight sequences, where the creative work of the stuntmen rises to the occasion. The story is at times almost banal (the villain Sionis is presented almost exclusively as a one-dimensional bad guy, with one nasty sequence where he orders his henchmen to torture and execute three people hanging upside down; the hyena plays no role in the story, indicating the screenplay needed at least one more re-write), but the director Cathy Yan is still able to be playful on the field of directing, enriching the film. For instance, in one sequence, as Harley is running away from Detective Montoya through a market, she randomly spots other people who create obstacles for her, as the camera zooms in on their faces and shows their name and grievance ("Name: Roller Dummy. Grievance: Broke her nose."; "Name: Ralph Murray. Grievance: Fed his brother to a hyena"). In another comical sequence, Harley, in disguise, enters a police precinct and says: "I'd like to report a terrible crime". The police officer asks: "What crime?", and she replies with: "This one!", as she reveals a gun that fires some sort of a red ball at the officer, knocking him out. The best moment happens at a brilliantly choreographed fighting sequence at a warehouse, where a big henchman with a long beard is holding Harley by her neck, but she takes a lighter and lights his beard on fire, causing him to recoil in panic: genius. These kind of stylizations and anarchic humor fit very well with Harley's crazy persona, helping sway this film towards something better than it was fated initially.

Grade:++

I, Daniel Blake

I, Daniel Blake; drama, UK, 2016; D: Ken Loach, S: Dave Johns, Hayley Squires, Brianna Shan, Dylan McKiernan

Newcastle. After recovering from a heart attack, woodworker Daniel Blake is faced with a bureaucratic heart attack: his doctor forbids him to work, but the British Government's Department for Work and Pensions refuses to pay him social welfare and orders him to get back to work. Daniel appeals, but has to wait in the meantime without any income. He becomes friends with Katie, an unemployed mother of two who moved from London. Daniel helps her repair stuff at her new home. Katie finds work as a prostitute and refuses to quit even after Daniel tells her to. Computer illiterate, Daniel has a difficult time at the employment center and attends a CV workshop. While seeing a lawyer to help him in his case, Daniel suffers a heart attack at the toilet and dies.

The movie that secured Ken Loach a second Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival, "I, Daniel Blake" is a standard, schematic and grey social drama, but it has moments of freshness due to the humorous, energetic and measured performance by comedian Dave Johns in the title role. The director Loach often copes with his didactic preaching of themes "eating" his entire story, style and creativity, and some of these flaws are apparent even here, especially in the banal, unsatisfactory and abrupt ending which feels as if it is creating some sort of apotheosis of tragedy for the title hero broken by the system. Nonetheless, Loach crafts a film that is as unglamorized from Hollywood idealism as possible, establishing a realistic and grim picture of everyday working class, who are just one health problem away from bankruptcy. The best bits in the film are those where Daniel does something funny or rebellious which makes him stand out: for instance, in one sequence at the unemployment office, when he spots the unemployed single mother Katie with her two kids treated poorly by an official, even though they are new in town, Daniel stands up: "Who's first in this queue?" A man answers: "I am". - "Do you mind if this young miss signs on first?" Daniel then points with his finger: "Now you can go back to your desk and let her sign on and do the job that the taxpayer pays you for! This is a bloody disgrace!" An official warns Daniel that he is making a scene, but Daniel insists: "She's out of the area. She's just been a few minutes. Can you not let her sign on?" In another wonderful scene, Daniel is ordered by the unemployment office to attend a CV workshop, where a man holds a lecture: "Costa Coffee advertised 8 jobs. Do you know how man applications they got from that? Over 1,300. So, what does that mean?" Cue Daniel not missing a beat: "We should all be drinking a lot more bloody coffee... Well, if you can count, it's obvious. There's not enough jobs. Fact." An ambitious, intelligent and humane film about the madness of bureaucracy in modern times and ever growing financial crisis which is taking a toll of ordinary working people, whose lives keep shrinking.

Grade:++

Raining Stones

Raining Stones; drama, UK, 1993; D: Ken Loach, S: Bruce Jones, Julie Brown, Ricky Tomlinson, Gemma Phoenix, Tom Hickey

Northern England. Bob, an unemployed man, and his friend Tommy steal a mutton on a meadow to try to sell it to a butcher, but he warns them that only sheep meat sells. Indeed, they earn little trying to sell  meat at a pub. Even worse, Tommy left the keys in Bob's van, which gets stolen. Bob, a devout Catholic, is desperate because he needs 105£ to buy a dress for his daughter Coleen's First Communion. His wife Anne tries to help by applying for a sewing job, but is fired. Bob tries a job as a bouncer at a night bar, but is fired. Bob borrows money from a loan shark, Tansey, who arrives one day at Bob's home and forces Anne to give him her wedding ring and other valuables to repay Bob's debt. When Bob returns back home and hears what happened, he becomes angry, takes a wrench and follows Tansey. Bob attacks Tansey at the parking garage. Tansey flees in panic in his car, hits a concrete pillar and dies. Bob confesses everything to a priest, but he advises Bob to not tell anyone and resume his life. Bob enjoys Coleen's First Communion.

Ken Loach's parable on people who take desperate measures to find a solution out of their desperate situation, "Raining Stones" is both emotional and 'rough', never allowing to present the working class in idealized fashion. Loach's often screenwriter Jim Allen shows a lot of sense for the mentality of these people, so much that the viewers can easily identify with them, whereas they both find a wonderful support in the main actor Bruce Jones in the role of Bob. The protagonist is presented as a flawed hero: he wants the best for his little daughter Coleen and her First Communion, but is too 'rustic', clumsy and heavy-handed in his choices. A lot of freshness arrives from the surprising humor, which livens up the rather grey mood—in one sequence, Tommy tells Bob this joke: "Did you hear about that kid from Liverpool in the bloody wheelchair they took to Lourdes? ... And when he came out of the water, they all had a look at his legs. And his legs were still twisted. But the wheelchair had two new tires on it!" In another sequence, while Bob wants to buy an old van, Tommy has this exchange with the seller: "How many owners has it had?" - "Owners! Only one!" - "Who was it, Ben-Hur?" Everything here is dirty, raw and difficult, to be as a close to the experience of reality as possible, whereas Loach never preaches nor falls into sentimentality—the advice and reaction of the priest in the finale, when Bob confesses what he did, is a true surprise of pragmatism. The structure of the storyline feels a bit episodic, random and aimless, some moments seem fake (for instance, the illogical sequence where the daughter just let's the loan shark into their house, who demands money from the mother, even though he never presents Bob's document with borrowed money), whereas some characters deserved better treatment, for instance the underwritten role of Bob's wife Anne. Still, even though Anne's presence is sparse, she has one of the most poignant, philosophical lines in the film that say a lot about people feeling trapped by determinism and rigid fate: "It's funny how we start off, ain't it, with all these big ideas. And then you realize that things aren't going to change. I'll live and die in that flat, and nobody will ever know."

Grade:+++

Sorry We Missed You

Sorry We Missed You; drama, UK / France / Belgium, 2019; D: Ken Loach, S: Kris Hitchen, Debbie Honeywood, Rhys Stone, Katie Proctor

Newcastle upon Tyne. Manual laborer Ricky decides to try out a new job as a delivery driver who delivers boxes with items that people ordered via internet. His boss Maloney tells him he is "self-employed", but that he must pay a 1,000£ for a van. Ricky thus works 14 hours a day, 6 days a week. His wife Abby had to sell her car to afford Ricky's van, so she now takes a bus to work as a home care nurse. Their teenage son Sebastian is a troublemaker who one day steals spray cans from a store, so Ricky takes away his mobile phone. When Ricky's van keys vanish, he assumes it was Sebastian and slaps him, but it turns out it was their 13-year old daughter Liza Jane. One day, Ricky is attacked by three thugs who steals his boxes. Since Maloney will not reimburse him for the lost barcode scanner nor pay for his recovery, an injured Ricky drives off the van to continue work.

Ken Loach's penultimate film, social drama "Sorry We Missed You" is almost a shock therapy to all those idealized Hollywood films showing middle class work as pleasant and comfortable. The protagonist Ricky assumes he will get an easy job as a delivery driver, but he suddenly faces sobering problems along his way: a customer says he didn't order anything; a parking enforcement officer threatens to write him a fine for parking with his van in the middle of the street; Ricky has to urinate in a bottle because he has nowhere to stop with his van; he works 14 hours a day, six days a week... Loach simply poses an uncomfortable question—is there any dignified type of work left for the ordinary middle class? The film is a bit didactic and too schematic, presenting everything a bit too rigid and standard, since Loach often avoids cinematic technique or some more creative style to focus on the sole story and present reality as grey as it is, without any "make up", but the insight it shows into work over-exploitation and lack of any social welfare or solidarity creates some strong messages that make you think. Loach luckily never preaches, and instead just let's the story take its flow. Some of the best bits are when the characters' personalities come across as more important than the theme: in the best moment of the film, parents Ricky and Abby are arguing in their bedroom during the night, while all of a sudden they hear the knock on their door—it's their daughter Liza Jane, who tells them: "Stop it! No fighting!"

Grade:++

The Impossible

The Impossible; disaster film, Spain, 2012; D: J. A. Bayona, S: Naomi Watts, Tom Holland, Ewan McGregor, Samuel Joslin, Oaklee Pendergast, Geraldine Chaplin

December 2 0 0 4. Maria Bennett travels with her husband Henry and three children Lucas, Simon and Thomas to Khao Lak, Thailand, for a vacation. They enjoy their stay at the hotel and spend the Christmas there. On 26 December, the Indian Ocean earthquake causes a tsunami which reaches the shore and sweeps away the hotel and the guests. Badly wounded, Maria is able to find Lucas and a boy, Daniel, and climb up a tree in case of another tsunami. Locals find them and transport them to a hospital. Henry finds that his mother's bed is taken over by another patient, and cannot find her, until the staff leads him to her, who has undergone surgery, but is stable. Henry, Simon and Thomas also survived, and manage to find and reunite with Maria and Lucas in the hospital. They are then evacuated to Singapore. 

One of the first film depictions of the catastrophic 2 0 0 4 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami which killed 228,000 people along the wider area of the Bay of Bengal, based on the real-life experiences of survivor Maria Belon, "The Impossible" is an intense, terrifying and strong blend of disaster and survival film. The director J. A. Bayona takes care of the authenticity, allowing for the story to contemplate about the notions of fragility of life under threat from random disasters of the harsh, cruel universe, whereas the leading actress Naomi Watts is excellent as Maria. The film does not waste time—the tsunami occurs already 14 minutes into the film, and this segment is its most impressive accomplishment: tourists are happily walking along the swimming pool, when all of a sudden Maria's paper is carried away by the wind and stops at a glass wall, as she and others turn around to randomly see palm trees falling down along the horizon. Cue to a random 12 ft tall wave of dirty, brown water which simply sweeps everything in sight, from tourists to the hotel building. It all just happens in 20 seconds, and they simply don't have time to react at all. Maria hangs on to a tree, and the water stream is all around her, she let's go to try to swim after her son Lucas, but she is pierced when she is carried by the water into a random tree branch. This whole sequence is incredible and one wonders how they managed to film it. The rest of the film is the aftermath segment, which encompasses the remaining 2/3 of "The Impossible's" running time, but it is of lesser intensity and falters a bit in interest. Having Maria and Lucas wait at the hospital is simply not that engaging, which is why the director even uses the cliche of father Henry almost not finding Maria in her hospital bed and is just about to leave in the truck when something happens, which is banal. The storyline clearly needed some better written dialogue or cinematic inspiration for support in this post-tsunami segment. Nonetheless, "The Impossible" is a valuable depiction of the disaster, showing how it looked like and what its effects were. If there is one villain here, then it is chaos; if there is one protagonist, then it is life trying to survive and live in peace and stability.

Grade:+++