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Reviews
Oppenheimer (2023)
3 hours with 90% dialogue and confusing time jumps
After 2 and a half hours, you realize that it all revolves around the conflict between Oppenheimer and Strauss, who originally hired him to create the Atom Bomb. Strauss later tried to undermine him simply because he didn't want to give Oppenheimer so much credit. Other topics such as competition with the Nazis, how the bomb was made, Oppenheimer's relationship with Eisenstein, and his love life are only briefly touched upon. There is a continuous musical score accompanied by overwhelming sound effects to alleviate the boredom. You are relieved when things become slightly clearer at the end what is the focus of the movie and especially that the film is finely over.
Bestseller Boy (2022)
Well Amsterdam story but so far it does not take you away.
Amsterdam plays the main part as far as I can see in the first episode. The serie is filmed on very good Amsterdam locations so good that you are tempted to visit that city if you did not already. So many locations which I know all well cause I live in that city and love it. Good choice! And the main character Momo is a beautiful boy played by a good actor which makes all these locations all the better. But then were is the story? Maybe it is still coming. Momo writes a book and let everybody know this on many locations. Much further than that we don't get .... so far. Ok I ll watch the next episode cause I love my city and I start to love Momo.
Penyalin Cahaya (2021)
All for that photo?
It was an interesting movie to watch being so professional well filmed and with all those beautiful people. The plot was however a bit meager and on points unbelievable. On tree- quart of the movie we know who is the culprit. Moreover his motive in my eyes strange and futile. He could have got those photos in a more legitimate way. His unnecessary and ritualistic behavior was demonstrated in the end in his opera like appearance in the dengue scene which was as beautiful as it was unbelievable.
The Serpent (2021)
A flat horror story
What about a horror story in which you know the main facts and culprits beforehand? What stays is how the horror unfolds and that is only interesting for sensationalists. I expect more of a movie. Interesting would at least be to know why these culprits do all this. What are there motives? But nothing about that except the money. The main figure is just a creep like his girlfriend. No psychology, background and what is the band between them They are not interesting at all. Their assistants still show a little hesitation sometimes but then, why not? The background of backpackers in south east Asia made me curious having been there. However with its cliche presentation it confirmed my memorie of the superficial way of life these people had and still have being it with different clothes and more numerous. So disappointed I stopped watching after the first episode. I hope for people who continue it gets more interesting.
The Guest (2014)
Totally rambling script to show a lot of over the top violence
We know these movies of the nice stranger corrupting a family. From the beginning it seemed this was not the best of them. The nice friend this time is a monster of Frankenstein, a programmed ideal fighting machine. At least the original Frankenstein monster was somehow sympathetic. This is just was he is a poor construct of a script writer. And then the music at the end, sort of light uplifting music making the end into a musical of violence. And the military police, so absolutely ridiculous unbelievable. Yes a waste of time and so Americain to put up another 90 minutes of violence. They love it.
Moffie (2019)
Failed filming of the book
I decided to read the novel Moffie first and I liked to read it: an intense description of the apartheid's redneck mentality contrasted with the lives of a band of boys in the army who recognize eachother search for what is really worth in life passed the restricting culture of their white upbringing of the apartheid era. The novel is full of traumatic events and menacing figures in the youth and the army which are very testing for the sanity of the main figure because of his great sensitivity and vulnerability.
The movie curtails the novel in a desastreus way. The youth events are all gone and replaced by one which is ok but far from being so good as the originals. The difficult and central relationship with the father is almost completely gone. The band of boys in the army is reduced from four to three and the homosexuality is brought back to a few suggestions. The erotic tension is often there like in the many shower scenes with all well build young men but in the relationships it is never acted out. In the novel this is also most of the time hidden by the main person but there he thinks about his desires a lot. In general in a movie mental situations, thinking etc are difficult pictured and only heard in a voice over in what ever form. I don't say a voice over should have been used to express all that thinking and feeling from the novel but at least all the tension of the hidden feelings for each other could have been more expressed in what ever cinematographic way. At least it could have been to the open like in the end of the book.
Vitalina Varela (2019)
Beauty but what for?
I watched this movie praised by most critics for its beauty. And it is a beautiful shot movie because of mis-e- scene, acting, lightning and camera. It is all superb in its self inflicted-limitations. Very simple mis-en=.scene and dressing of mostly very poor slum interiors, all shot at night. Fascinating acting of the woman Vitalina who's face is so great to look at in the many close ups. The lightning which makes with its claire obscure and brilliant color accents everything into a Carravagio painting. And the camera which chooses always a fixed cadre like a painting and gets the light and colors in a subtle way. There is hardly a story cause there is no development. It is more the depiction of the failed life of the just died husband of Vitalina, told to us through her eyes, her monologues, searching for details and questions to the priest who buried him. In one scene the husband is shown seen on his slender young naked back lying in the matrimonial bed still in Cabo Verdi. The now young wife Vitalina stands up and walks out of their self build house into a beautiful but dry landscape.
The general theme of the movie is the misery of life in general and that of Cabe Verdian migrant workers in particular. My question watching the movie was and is what is the function of all this beauty, what is it for? Is it to show that allthough life is miserable the figures in this movie experience it as beautiful? The answer is negative cause they are desperate in their life and see no light. Is the beauty meant to soften our experience of viewing all this malheur? Of course it does. How to watch so much ugliness for such a long time if there is not something nice to be seen? It has that softening and pleasurable effect but it is not the main function of all this esthetica . I think the function is deeper. Is it l'art pour l'art: beauty for beauty sake? Maybe but what does that mean here? I think that in a religious way we are shown the deep humanity of all these unlucky and unhappy people and the possibility to reconcile ourselves through this beauty with human life. At least I think it is meant that way by the maker of the movie. Did it work that way with me? In a way yes but not in a satisfactory way. Maybe that's my fault.
La cordillère des songes (2019)
The Chilean Andes witness of a brutal past and present.
Impressive movie of a real artist. Poetic reflection on the years of Pinochet's dictatorship and its consequences to this day. The Cordillera are the Andes of Chile which are shown with beautiful images serving to present the real Chile. These majestic mountains hovering over Santiago have seen 20,000 years of human history and not only the last 500 years.
Between these nature images the history of Pinochet's years are shown with archive footage from another documentary maker who comments in person on them. His story and that of others describe how Allende's dream came to an end by the brutal introduction of the liberal market, which to this day oppresses the Chilean people, making the poor poorer and the rich richer. Stated is in the comments that there is no regret among the oppressors but only the conviction that they did the right thing. The thought and think to make the country healthy murdering their opponents like the Nazis did to make Europe healthy by cutting out the Jewish part. To express regret by them would mean guilt and remorse to which they are incapable. That's all expressed in the commentary and interviews. The oppressors themself do not speak and I would have found that interesting. They are only accused in the movie. Not that I think the accusation is not justified according to what they did in the past. But thinking that they are incapable to have regret is something I would like to be seen checked by interviewing the oppressors.
The Cordillera as a metaphor or witness works well as images in between the interviews and archive footage, processing the inflicted emotions and thoughts with impressive but neutral nature images, music and commentary. It also works very well when the exploitation by copper mining of the Cordillera mountains is shown as a exploitation of Chili by mostly foreign capitalism. And it works wonderful when if the street pavement stones from the Cordillera are shown lying around next to the small copper placates in the pavement with the names of the victims who's blood flowed on these black stones while they screamed for justice.
Di jiu tianchang (2019)
Best for the art direction and historical reconstructions
I saw this movie in a Cathaypacific 11 hour flight so three hours was not too long to fill the time. I took a interval for a nap.
I was fascinated by the 30 years of historical reconstructions of Chinese streets, work places, restaurants and apartments. Full of details and extras in the scenes. The story was good but could have been clearer in depicting the changes in the lives of the many figures in the movie changes due to the historical changes. Most difficult was the main plot especially cause I could not figure out which son was who and even how many sons there were or have been. Even by looking back some scenes I could not figure this out.
Nocturne (2019)
Having a filmers block should stop wasting money on a movie
It's clear that the main (all time smoking) figure in this movie has problems. From the start we pick up by him chasing his girl that she is leaving him and he does not want that. Now we all know that one should always let you work and business give prevalence over your girl. In this case the main figure does not do that. This is not a spoiler cause there is no plot. He keeps going after the girl, has memories about her but does not accomplices anything else but some very vague conversation with not introduced people. All is done on night scenes in cars and on ugly plots between poor suburb apartment buildings. I was so surprised about the hundreds of people on the credits who worked on a movie on very a few very simple locations and hardly without effects. I must admit I was grossly bored.
O Pagador de Promessas (1962)
A real Brazilian movie
I love to watch old black and white movies and if you look for the history of foreign films up for an Oskar you find some gems like this movie. Such a real Brazilian movie and especially from Salvador de Bahia, the old capital where the cultural history of Brazil (except for the original people) is present. Colonial white oppression, the corrupt white middle class, the African people with their religious cultures and capoeira, the Catholic Church between them but like always only saving it's own position and then simple campesino who embodies the true values of human kind. In a collusion of them all, feasts, religion and fights occur and turn into a spiritual happening, a cruxifiction in which human dignity prevails. A wonderful movie from times when things seems to be clear.
Paddleton (2019)
Best straight movie in years
This is realy a movie about heterosexual guys who like each other as friends. It's all games and very small talk although they say they don't like small talk. What a minimal movie about our split up alienated modern life devoid of rituals, meaning and spirituality. This dying guy (no spoiler, it tells you in the first shot) has a friend who goes with him a long way. He is sooo lucky to have a loyal friend. Many don't. Read "The dead of Ivan Ilyich" by Tolstoy and you will know...
Zagros (2017)
Heart sinking movie
Very believable struggle beween the traditional Kurdish sociëteit and modern western life. The romantic village life in Kurdistan is in this movie unmasked in a vilifying way. We long sometimes to that safety of simple life of this shepherd Zagros in a society were everything has its simple place and where you are one with the community where you live in. Like Zagros says it in the beginning of the movie sitting with his beautiful wife and sweet child in the Kurdish landscape and says that this is the most beautiful place in the world. I heard once a western journalist say in a documentary about life in the Kaukasus meeting people demonstrating and celebrating their oneness in such a village: "You live in a real community. We westerners lost our tribe." And yes we do have that feeling of loss living our individualistic often lonely western lifes. We go on holidays to tiny Italian villages, old little towns in Bulgaria, kampungs on Bali to experience the seemingly harmonious life where people feel close and caring for each other.
But this film demonstrates how oppressive such a traditional community can be. We see a few people trying to free themselves from that tiranny of gossip and strict traditions by emigrating to the modern west. If this works is put into question. Escaping to the west one always takes the belief in the conventions of the tradition with him or her. In this movie only the people who are traumatized deeply by the terror of the traditional village make a successful escape because they don't see a way back. But also for them the village will always come after them.
Caravaggio: The Soul and the Blood (2018)
Little viewing time of the paintings.
The analysis of Carravagios work is presented in comments of a price over and interviews with Italian art specialists. However we get so little to see of the paintings itself and then in short details or with a moving camera. The total showing of the work is always very short like 4 seconds. Then there are quotes of Carravagio himself, very interesting but as a voice over with actors who play scenes which are of a misplaced symbolic character.
Winter's Bone (2010)
Why liberal movie makers make films about Trump lovers?
A wonderful movie to watch; the nature and the people in the movie are fascinating. But what was it all about? A view on people who live at the edge of society, living a dismal life of cruelty, crime, drugs, anti-law and suppression of women? Sure that is it but I sense more in this movie like in many other American movies about borderline people in the countryside. It seems the movie makers of these films are looking for something genuine American under all tha raw behavior: independence of modern urban life which tries to overpower them. The state and all what is represent. In this movie 'Winters Bone' the independence of the person, his or her house and property is prominent all the time and the means to defend them by guns. And there is despite the drugs which sooth the rawness and pain of this life an admiration for this independence as something untouchable and at the hearth of being American.
That is strange cause it are these people who admire Trump in his outspoken right wing and racist policies. Would these film makers in their hearth also admire Trump and not the soft liberal attitudes of the millennials in the city? Those are mostly portrayed in the movies as failures, estranged people in their urban life. The hillbillies are in the end not failures but proud people.
Alceste à bicyclette (2013)
Is it a comedy?
Maybe I take it all too serious being a European from the north. And I must admit I never read or heard Le Misanthrope. But I thought the idea of mixing up the play of Moliere and the story of the movie did not work for me completely. The story is too weak to show a real conflict between the two main figures. The jokes in the movie have mostly nothing to do with that conflict and merely take away the attention from that conflict. The slapstick of the jacuzzi incident though it made me laugh, has nothing to do with whatever. The bike incidents are silly and bad acted. (The clothes are dry and clean in the next scene). The end of the movie where the main figure shows that he is a real misanthrope and why should have been more prominent. I found the end interesting but would have liked to see more of the hate and decline of people in the main figure. It should have been more a melodrama or even a drama instead of a comedy.
We're the Millers (2013)
I could no see the whole movie ... boring!
Unbelievable ... really nothing works. You hear the grinding brains of the scriptwriters getting their next line out for the sake of the money. Only clichés are coming out. Everything is over the top: criminals, the camper, the super boss with a orka. etc etc. It is all not funny! And the characters are phony. Even when something is a comedy things got to be believable and they are not. What a waste of money and of not such a bad outline, spoiled by people who did not have their day or year. It makes me so angry that people can waste my time and money. And yes it is true like other wrote about this movie ... their is something sad under all this sitcom full of cynicism: a bunch of people who are so failed n life ... failed to be happy .. to be funny.
Her (2013)
The outline makes one curious but the result is kitsch
In a not far future, in this movie people make an intense use of social media and other ICT programs which facilitate their work and free time. Such use can be expected from the promises and growth of ICT now a day. And that growth excites and scares us. The film could raises questions about these ICT developments but though it does in a sense, it does not make this criticism as the main subject of the movie. We see a social live that has become very thin and superficial. Even with the social media, anonymous people are more contacted especially in vital areas like sex than people face to face. Computer games and other ICT involvements all come first in life. One is mainly alone in this future world. Real and relevant social contacts always loose from the ICT world one lives in. Environment is not forgotten: out of the windows of the very well designed interiors one sees a very polluted city world in a haze. The point is that the protagonist does not question this lonely artificial world governed by ICT around him. He does not struggle with it or even does not becomes a tragic victim of it. Instead he looses himself in a silly romance with a virtual person out of a computer. The movie gets unbelievable with this love affair with this programmed virtual being as one could have feelings for a cartoon figure in a movie or a beautiful girl on a billboard. It makes the man unbelievable, stupid and as unreal as his mustache. The virtual female assistant is also unbelievable not only in the sense that she is too intelligent to be technical true but more over in the sense that she develops feelings of love and seems programmed to do so. Now here we get to the kitsch of this movie. KItsch is taking away from the story the human condition that live does not make sense and we as human beings are not capable to deal with that in the end. How does one deal with life which becomes more and more regulated by computer programs which take away all life's pain and rewards of the social life of real communities? The movie shies away from that question. Making it into a romance with a machine which spies on us and regulates our behavior is kitsch, stupid kitsch.
Lore (2012)
Too small budget for good stuff
A good script with intriguing play of prejudice, genuine feelings and deceit against a tragic background. Lore is going beyond the regular holocaust movie not only because showing the German side but also playing with the expectations of the viewers. What is lacking though is a bigger budget for this historical movie. Too little extras mostly: Two US soldiers cannot represent a large army. More than a small railway station could not be rented as a building. There are no pictures of bombed cities. The nature shots are great but are eternal and don't give the right historical and geographical feel. Lore feels like a play to me lacking cinematographic historical scenery.
Simon och ekarna (2011)
Kitsch
I always wonder what exactly kitsch is. This movie makes it more clear to me. All the drama and tragedy in life is in it but it is only the outside of it while avoiding the real pain of life. It is worse than being sentimental to have such a pretense. Its making a feel good movie out of stories of life which are in reality each in itself a feel bad event. And because it avoids the real tragedy it needs so many stories to fill up this pretense of really having to tell us something worthwhile about human life. Of course the movie needs the blackest story of the European history to hide the emptiness: the holocaust. And then it does not show or even tell anything true about that genocide, the dark abyss of human nature. The Jew who barely survived the camp to die shortly after that, leaving a violin to his bastard son which he begot with a Nordic nymph in the woods of Sweden at a brook. A nymph who growing up turns out to be a schizophrenic woman living alone with pigs in that same wood. That's two cliché's with the strange twist of the pigs.I mean how much do you need Mrs Fredriksson (the author of the novel) to make a story? A lot more, a lot more.