Reviews

Andrey Zvyagintsev is one of the best directors nowadays and i truly regard Loveless his greatest film so far. It is a complex, deep portrait of a society in decay since it is composed of superficial people, extremely selfish and harsh. What really matters is their little world and their perfect image which is filtered through the social media. People totally empty whose attitude will have tragic consequences. Loveless is a socking experience because of its unbearable truth. This society that is described could be anywhere. Not only in Russia. So, besides the perfect screenplay, Loveless carries an absolutely powerful direction and a hauntingly beautiful cinematography. Moreover editing, music and acting are all top class. Loveless is an unforgettable experience, a film that is recommended to everyone. It will make you think and think for good. 10/10

People never seemed so helplessly alone as in Pulse, Kiyoshi Kurosawa's probably best movie. A poetic, melancholy as much as creepy horror allegory. The most impressive features of Pulse are the masterful direction with amazing shots, perfect use of the depth of field and surprising panoramic movements of the camera and the haunting cinematography which creates a gloomy but also beautiful world. 9/10

A strange film which leans mainly to its haunting atmosphere which is achieved thanks to the beautiful cinematography and the mindful, minimalist direction. The story is also elliptical and its most interesting aspect is how the limits between what is really happening and what is a dream or a hallucination are getting blurry. It Comes at Night is a film full of doubts and uncertainty, sealed in its own world. The characters and their actions don't have the importance they probably should and the viewer doesn't really care to sympathize with them since he can't enter into a world totally shut in its own shell. It is a movie that doesn't want to give any answers but it isn't either a great one so that the viewer will try to fill by himself the blanks. 6.5/10

I appreciate Stuart Gordon. He is a good director in the horror genre. Among his best movies i would place Re-Animator, Dolls and Dagon. But not From Beyond. The screenplay is superficial, it doesn't capture the atmosphere of Lovecraft's story (Dagon was perfect in that field). Likewise the direction which is unsurprising, focused on showing off the nasty special effects. In the hands of Cronenberg or Carpenter this would be a totally different, much better, disturbing horror movie. 4/10

I'm a huge fan of John Carpenter and i strongly believe that this is one of his best (my number 3 after Halloween and The Thing) and most underrated movies. It's a dark, scary, Lovecraftian story and at the same time a clever allegory about what does reality consists of. Perhaps it's the words. Very atmospheric and disturbing, directed perfectly (great editing as well), with Sam Neil just amazing in perhaps his best performance and due to me the best acting in all of Carpenter's movies. 9/10

Prince of Darkness does not belong among Carpenter's best movies. The main problem lies to the screenplay which is rambling and has a pretentious seriousness, not convincing at all. Even so, Prince of Darkness rewards the viewers since direction and cinematography are almost perfect offering some genuine shocks without being cheap. The atmosphere is convincingly claustrophobic and disturbing, Carpenter is the master of that. The music score, without being the best produced by Carpenter, is creepy and effective. 7/10

Assault on Precinct 13 is another great moment in John Carpenter's filmography. First of all the screenplay is masterful. The way all the characters are introduced in order to intersect is precise and methodical. A few flaws during the confrontation are minor. Direction and cinematography are great as well. For example, the way the empty streets are filmed like a deserted urban landscape (mainly with panoramic shots) or the claustrophobic and tense atmosphere that is achieved at the precinct. And this part of the movie brings in mind a lot The Night of the Living Dead. Moreover, the exceptional synths by John Carpenter underline functionally the action. 8,5/10

A few words about John Carpenter's masterpiece...this is the best slasher ever made, and one of the best horror films generally, for a queue of reasons such as: Brilliant direction and cinematography like for example the surprising opening subjective one-shot or the way the depth of field is used. Much more complex than average slashers writing. In Halloween, the serial killer is not just a deranged person who kills. He is a true embodiment of pure evil, an entity that simply refuses to die. Moreover, Carpenter underlines the almost disturbing calm of the suburbs. Even if there is a matter of life and death, the neighbors will remain indifferent.They will simply close the grille. The classic, masterful, ominous synths, an organic part of Halloween's creepy atmosphere. 10/10

If you are a fan of the Alien franchise, you can't but enjoy the latest installment. Alien: Covenants offers more than a few thrills since Ridley Scott is in top form here while Michael Fassbender is great in a complex and determining role. In general Alien: Covenant is atmospheric as much as uneven. It combines the philosophical features of Prometheus with the horror features of the first Alien. It works but not totally since the sense of deja vu is very strong while the explanation of how everything started doesn't really fit, at least to my eyes, to the Alien mythology. Moreover the action sequence towards ending is boring and predictable. 6/10

This is a strange and uneven film. It has great moments due to Assayas classy direction which avoids the cheap solutions, the beautiful cinematography and an interesting approach regarding editing. Still, the screenplay has issues and the biggest of them is the metaphysical feature which does not fit successfully to all the other features of the story. Furthermore, the screenplay gets very descriptive while it should be more suggestive. Regarding Kristen Stewart, she is trying and she is trying hard in a difficult role, but at the most demanding moments she is not convincing. 5.5/10

Everything is familiar in Life since we've already seen this concept masterfully being developed back in 1979. Alien is the guide. And of course no one has ever touched its greatness.Life is no exception. Still i really enjoyed it because Daniel Espinosa does a great job in direction creating a claustrophobic, nightmarish atmosphere and, assisted by the functional editing and the ominous music score, setting at least 3 great scenes. The screenplay doesn't offer a real character development and even the dialogues are problematic but it dares to take some serious risks, promising the biggest one at the ending which is the most daring since The Mist. 6,5/10

Influenced by David Cronenberg's early work (his so called body horror movies) but having all the features of the gory new french wave, Raw is a frequency of big, which get even bigger, shocks. This is a dark, cruel and disturbing horror film which gets even unbearable, but everything that take place work for the sake of a truly inspiring screenplay which provides amazingly well-written characters (one of the best character studies i have ever seen in horror film) and also runs as a clever allegory about the awaking of sexuality in a repressed environment. Direction and cinematography are really amazing likewise all the performances while the special effect and make up department made an astonishing work. Best french horror film since Martyrs. 8,5/10

A very interesting horror film which mostly leans on building an atmosphere of dread. It makes it successfully thanks to Ali Abassi's neat direction, the exciting photography (very good work with the lighting) and the well organized editing (pay attention to the rotation of the scenes which are taking place inside the house and the shots of the environment outside of it). The story of Shelley isn't very original but is told through a very elliptical narration. This will begrudge many viewers with limited patience since most of the answers the movie puts are not answered clearly. A daring way to narrate which i appreciated. 7/10

Watcing Donnie Darco is a unique experience..Probably this is not the best movie i've ever seen but definitely the one i love mostly. Richard Kelly made a great work by mixing in a inspired way many genres,from satire and romantic drama to science fiction and horror. Donnie Darco became a mouth to mouth phenomenon because of many things such as: the sophisticated and original screenplay,the compelling performance of Jake Gyllenhaal,the ideal 80s' revival,the exciting soundtrack. And the most important:this is a movie with soul that's full of energy. For me the independent American cinema is the most important thing that ever happened to the modern cinema and Donnie Darko is one of the main reasons.

Perhaps, one of the most important and enjoyable Greek films i've seen in the last ten years..Excellent performances(especially yiannis zouganelis is great), well-written script and effective direction from a very special, for the Greek very average standards, auteur. A film, obviously influenced by Sam Peckinpah's Straw Dogs, that could be a masterpiece if it avoided some evident and exaggerative situations and symbolizations in the end. Nevertheless, this is a movie which deserves our attention and belongs to that rare category of Greek movies which should be watched outside Greece. It's a shame that in Greece didn't work commercially, in addition with other fake and cursory big productions like Politiki Kouzina..