Reviews

"Why do people go to the cinema? What takes them into a darkened room where, for two hours, they watch the play of shadows on a sheet? The search for entertainment? The need for a kind of drug? All over the world there are, indeed, entertainment firms and organisations which exploit cinema and television and spectacles of many other kinds. Our starting-point, however, should not be there, but in the essential principles of cinema, which have to do with the human need to master and know the world. I think that what a person normally goes to the cinema for is time: for time lost or spent or not yet had. He goes there for living experience; for cinema, like no art, widens, enhances, and concentrates a person's experience-and not only enhances it but makes it longer, significantly longer."

Andrei Tarkovsky

I came across this quote wright before entering the cinema to watch Oppenheimer and it sums up pretty much the essence of what I experienced watching this masterpiece, calling it a movie seems to not be enough.

It's history, it's science, it;s engineering, it's art, it's psychology, it's a cinematographic matesterpiece, it's human, it's touching and it's terrifying.

Amazing series! I can't wait for the next season, because what I've seen so far has left me wanting more. I can't quite put my finger on what I loved the most about Julia, the visuals, the feel good atmosphere, the costumes, the writing (witch is absolutely marvelous, smart, witty, heartfelt and funny) but I think it was the characters. A very fine casting job is what I found here, it feels like the roles where tailor made for every actor. After only 9 episodes I had grown so fond of everybody on set that it was difficult to part. Also Julia is a great portrayal of love, friendship, personal development, trust and marriage. Don't miss it!

Great depiction of what science predicts regarding our responsabilities as the crown species if we screw up.. Anyway, I thought of Mr. Carl Sagan, Neil Tyson, Brian Cox and all the other wonderful people who made this matter accessible and also made me love this wonderful Blue Planet even more, to be mindful of what I do in every step of the way because it matters and yes it does! I'm alive and so is She!

Just saw this wonderful picture last night on the big screen. I felt mostly gratitude because the creators showed me all these spectacular places and colorful life in just two hours of visual poetry, humorous and cozy storytelling and hauntingly beautiful music, the result of 10 years of work on their behalf, a project of love and respect towards the One and Only Mother Nature with all her forms of life, big and small.

I grew up in the countryside of Transylvania, in a small village surrounded by endless pine forests, the kind that inspired Bram Stoker I think, so I was very close to nature. I loved it, those places had nothing to do with tourism and it was quiet, it was wild as it should be, and now, thanks to Romania Salbatica I got to visit those places again and much more, it was lovely to see Nature again like that, just minding her own business, undisturbed.

No, I'm not talking about the characters of the movie (though I can't say that I didn't fall for each one of them, I did, they took me on a ride on their own personal rollercoaster), I'm talking about the story that unfolded at the end of the movie. I was just sitting there absolutely taken by the mesmerising beauty of the cinematography when a small group walked in. They set down behind me and they were eating popcorn, chitt-chatting, laughing, making comments on the plot, just living it. These kinds of noises bother me most of the time, well this time I found it cute even. I didn't turn around.

The story is perfectly round, exquisite, I cried twice. First when the exact appropriate aria came along in the exact appropriate moment, when I thought that it can't go any higher emotionally and then just before leaving the movie theatre. Dazzled by this amazing, some two hours of length of magic a man called out to me. "Excuse me miss, can you take a photo of us?" "Sure", I said, than the lights went on and I saw this small gang of people, in their 50's and the gentleman said: "we're just like them, we're friends for almost 40 years now..". I hope the pictures turned out well, since I couldn't see clearly from the tears swelling up, but I do recall that I told them how beautiful they are.

Lately I ask myself a lot why is it exactly that I love art so much, maybe because it's a mirror to life.

Beside the fact that it made me want to rush to see a ballet as soon as possible there's no elegant way to say that I'm a coward when it comes to violence, any kind, physical or psychological, you name it. The Red Sparrow is a beautiful, but, a soul crushing experience.

One has to work hard in order to find ease or even a little bit of light in this story. It lures the spectator down on a path to the underworld, the one of the strong and the powerful, a world that is accessible only to a few, this few is shown to us by a considerate range o characters, leading to the inevitable conclusion that human nature is capable of being unique in every individual under the most impossible of circumstances even.

It was close to a meditative experience, though a dark and scary one, the one you have when you finally decide to face your fears and accept that all is possible.

The plot is gripping, anything one can expect when it comes to the level of power this movie depicts.

Every good piece of art has to have something to do with romance, well, here I found a kind of "in your face", primal, raw and tempting kind of it.

Not for the faint at heart that's for sure, however, good cinema is like good food, it's important the way one plates it up. Here "The Chef" did a fantastic job, finding the perfect combination of visuals, sound, acting that make the Red Sparrow an unforgettable cinematic experience.

I was thinking how I could best describe Foodie love, especially since I don't want to give any spoilers but still.., I just had to say something about it because this show kept me, from beginning to the end with a smile on my face and on the edge of the seat/bed, although it's nor action, nor a mystery as genre. It felt like a mouth of fresh air, like the one you take when you finally get the chance to take of the mask given the pandemic circumstances ;) Watching it, living it struck me with quite a few adjectives like: moody, dreamlike, blurry, uncertain, unexpected, annoying, smart, witty, clumsy, human, gourmand, delicious, sexy, complicated, frightening, brave, satisfying, dark, hot, goofy, delightful, groovy..., and a yummy soundtrack. From someone who loves "The Secretary".

I usually check out the genre before I watch a movie. The Nest, we're being told is a drama, romance, well, for me it was a tragedy, literally. The acting is nothing than exceptional, also the sound usage which includes lots of nuances of silence, mostly that kind of heavy silence that induces the feeling that something very bad is about to happen, it kind of made me feel for the characters from the very beginning. Most of the basic story line can be called predictable, the situation of the chachters has been already experienced by most of us, in other movies, books or/and real life but.. The Nest has achieved to make it surprising, entertaining, gripping. It amazed me that from the first moments of the movie, with the seemingly happy and idealistic, cozy routine line of family life the creators achieved to send signals that this is not the real thing, it's not the story because more is going to be reviled along the way. It's also a romance, yes but not your average kind, not the kind that one would expect, for me it was a romance with everything from one's surroundings, people, animals, nature, objects, feelings, the nest one builds from and for love. I watched The Nest yesterday, on the very first day of the year and I remember I had my notebook close to me, with a blank page (naturally since it was January the 1th.) so I can write down whatever comes to me about the movie but it remained quite blank until the fallowing day because I couldn't make out what I could say about it, I needed time to organize this experience. I guess it's mostly about how not to confuse one's self confidence and abilities with greed and blindness because there's only a thin line there like the case between love and hate, also present here by the way, and, of course gratitude (it can be a difficult one to spot and to hold on to). It's a veritable experience, a story of beauty in all it's possible forms, an experience that "nails" one down in front of the screen, without feeling the need to check the phone or take a brake to go smoking.

This statement may be true but let us not forget that drunken people and children always tell the truth and boy there's a lot of truth being told in this movie. It's a perfectly crafted and constructed dark comedy I had the privilege to watch at TIFF a few days ago, that movie which makes me forget to look at my phone, makes me forget that I'm a little bit cold, there are mosquitoes and it's late at night. I enjoyed every moment of it. Yes, dark, surreal, funny, at times suffocating, pleasantly idealistic and profoundly touching, due to the fantastic writing, directing and acting. Also it was/is a haunting experience, a movie that stays with one after watching it, at least in my case it's still here and it keeps me thinking about, among other things the hardship of being a politician (the unimaginable things that one is capable to do in order to keep one's power) and a person at the same time. I imagined my own country's ministers doing the same outraging things that the ones on the screen were doing and I can't help but say to myself that it's not all fiction, or it's not fiction at all, inspiration for any kind of art comes from nowhere else than reality and there's a perfectly matching saying that fits the experience of this movie, reality beats the movies... A dreamlike construction, the story of a son who forgets everything else when it comes to his father, the story of a father who never gives up on his son and much more, the perfect puzzle that ads up beautifully at the end.