5/10
As far as Woody Allen movies go, this one fell pretty flat for me. It's not a comedy, but the issues the characters go through are tackled so lightly and are without any real resolution that I was left wondering really what the point of it all was. The acting was solid (though I felt Penelope Cruz was over the top, as she often is) and Barcelona was well photographed, that's about all I came away with.
4/10
I saw this as part of the ongoing Latin American Film Festival in Montreal, and apparently it was a huge hit in its native Columbia when it came out a couple of years ago. The story centers around Marlon, who emigrates from Columbia to New York with his ultra-sexpot, temptress girlfriend Reina, with (her) promises of a better life and the glory and wonder of America, and so on. Marlon is far more reluctant. Of course the New York Marlon finds is considerably harsher than the one on the scenic posters in the Paraiso Travel "underground immigration office" in Columbia, especially when he gets seperated almost immediately from Reina. The film cuts between the couple's rough and dangerous journey to New York (a journey many real immigrants no doubt have made), and Marlon's struggles to survive all the while searching for Reina.
I thought there were a lot of things wrong with this movie - while Marlon and Reina's journey is a hard one, Marlon's arrival in New York goes about as smoothly as any homeless non-English-speaker's ever has - he spends exactly one night on the streets before he's taken in by the kindly wife of the owner of a Columbian restaurant, he finds work first doing hard labour and eventually in the restaurant, he's given places to sleep for free (none of which are ideal but certainly better than the streets), and he even meets another gorgeous girl as Reina finally starts to become a distant memory. It also doesn't hurt that Marlon looks like he walked onto the screen straight from a modelling gig - he may indeed be the most attractive homeless man in cinema history. This makes Marlon a difficult character to sympathize with, especially after he blows off or displays almost outright ingratitude for these opportunities that other immigrants would no doubt kill for. Add to that the fact that the story doesn't really bring anything new, the emotion is generally flat for the entire film, and everything plays out entirely as one would expect virtually from the get-go, and I didn't find a whole lot to enjoy here (but a lot to write about, I suppose).
8/10
Really good documentary, less about heavy metal and the band that plays it and more about friendship and continuing to dream the dream. It's really hard not to cheer for the band and their redemption at the end, however fleeting it may be, is inspiring all the same. While the story is fascinating, I did think the movie started to sag in the middle and I found myself losing interest for a bit before I was roped back in, but overall I'd definitely recommend this to anyone, metal fan or not.
7/10
Albert Serra's follow-up to Honor de Cavalleria, another take on a famous journey, this time that of the Three Wise Men. This one's a bit different because our protagonists actually arrive at their destination, and we spend quite a bit of time with other characters (namely Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus, waiting for the Wise Men). Even though the movie is black and white (more like silver) it's gorgeous and contains numerous breathtaking sequences and still more supreeeemely long takes. I liked Honor de Cavalleria a bit more but this one was still pretty spellbinding. Can't wait to see what Serra comes up with next.
7.5/10
Better synopsis than I could come up with:
"On November 20 1971, Klaus Kinski wanted “to tell mankind’s most exciting story – The story of Jesus Christ”. But he couldn’t. The stage performance of the scandal-ridden actor kept being interrupted by an audience that did not want a sermon, but a discussion instead.
Jesus Christ Saviour by Peter Geyer shows a tumultuous evening of back and forth insults, the struggle of an actor to have his say, a theatrical happening in a time critical of authority and the spectacular failure of an attempt to better the world through literary means. Making use of all available picture and sound clips from the evening, Geyer creates an intimate impression of the live experience, a testimony to an extraordinary moment and an exceptional artist."
More a historical document than a documentary, I can't imagine anyone not a Kinski diehard would find this very interesting (Kinski's ramblings are certainly boring at times) but I'm glad I saw it. It's quite amazing how instantly hostile the crowd is. I think Kinski leaves the stage in anger four times total. Watching him still struggle to recite his text at midnight on the auditorium floor to a hundred or so hangers-on looking completely drained is both amusing and sad. As far as I can tell, the recital remains unfinished in the film. I wonder if there's a copy of the full text available somewhere. This movie appears to be the first release from "Kinski Productions" so I wonder if there's more unearthed/unavailable Kinski coming to DVD in the near future (how about Kinski Paganini, as awful as it's said to be, for starters??).
9.5/10
Wow, this movie bowled me over. Sensational on every level, it's also deeply harrowing and almost impossible to watch without a perpetual grimace on one's face. Michael Fassbender's physical transformation is one of the most grotesque and honest performances put to screen in a long time. About the only thing you can fault the movie before is first-timer Steve McQueen's heavy-handed direction, with its endless long takes certain to earn criticism for being too "pretentious" or "arty for art's sake"...but I wasn't too bothered. And I had to admire him for it, not many directors in their debut films would have the balls to try some of the shots McQueen pulls off. Remarkable.
7/10
A black metal documentary centering on the church burnings and murders in Norway in the early 90's. Not exactly a beginners guide to the genre, the movie focuses primarily on Darkthrone, Burzum and Mayhem and almost completely ignores the first and latter waves (which is fine if you're familiar to the genre but newcomers may be left bewildered). The documentary is messy, jumping all over the place and there's often seemingly little logic put into the order of the scenes and interviews. A "subplot" involving a Norwegian painter of black metal related art is distracting and superfluous, almost as if it's included purely because it was filmed and not because it has much relevance. More compelling are the interviews with Burzum's Varg Vikernes from prison (a disturbingly engaging and charismatic storyteller, given his past), Darkthrone's Fenriz (though overfilmed), and rare home video and rehearsal footage. Members of Immortal, Ulver, Satyricon, Thorns, Emperor, and more also feature.
4/10
"Presented" and produced by Quentin Tarantino, featuring Michael Madsen, Vinnie Jones, Dennis Hopper and David Carradine...a throwback to grindhouse biker flicks of the 70's combining elements of my favorite genres, Spaghetti Westerns and road movies...couldn't be all bad, could it? Well, yeah. I didn't hate it as much as others seemed to but it was definitely not good, the main reason for this being writer/director/star Larry Bishop. As director, he's passable, though in full Tarantino worship mode. It's his failings as writer and actor that make this movie a real stinker. Some of the dialogue is so bad you can't even laugh, only cringe (an exchange involving the word "fire" as wordplay is particularly atrocious) and Bishop has seemingly cast himself as the lead to put himself in the position to grope as many half-naked women as possible (and it should be noted that all women in the film are portrayed as dick-worshipping, sex-obsessed half-wits, which at least explains why so many of these gorgeous twenty-something women appear so eager to get it on with a pushing-60 Larry Bishop). If you're a fan of the genres it blatantly rips off (or pays homage to, if you want to be generous) it's a bit easier to stomach, but not by much. There's a reason why with all the big names attached, you've probably never heard of Hell Ride...best to keep it that way.
3/10
I thought a horror Western sounded like an interesting if potentially disastrous proposition, and unfortunately The Burrowers leans towards the latter. Most of the acting is acceptable, the sparse Western scenery is nice, and the soundtrack is pleasantly understated, but those are about the only good points. The plot is lame and advances at a snail's pace, the scares are unoriginal and repetitive, and the biggest flaw of all are the "burrower" creatures themselves. More laughable than scary and often vague blurs on the screen (due to CGI budget constraints I assume), they're a real letdown when they finally make their appearance and a comedy act in the final scene. Credit to writer/director J.T. Petty for trying something new, but, like his previous film S&Man, it just doesn't work.
7/10
I think I need to stop reading about movies. I've been consistently underwhelmed by almost all the movies in the Oscar race this year and THL wasn't an exception. It was a good movie, but I expected more. I only felt the much-lauded tension at a couple of points, and at others I felt virtually nothing at all. I also thought it was a bit cheap to (spoilers) introduce random/very minor characters (the specialist at the beginning, the cameo crew with the flat tire, the colonel, only to instantly kill them off as if the movie was too afraid to take out anyone who mattered to the plot - although with only 3 main characters, there probably wasn't much else they could do.
The movie was beautifully shot and directed though, and it was at least a very "real" look at what I imagine the life to be like.
8/10
A lovely, quietly moving family drama focusing on a father and his daughter, the ties that bind them, and the eventual letting go. Writer/director Claire Denis manages to say more with glances, smiles and embraces than most can with pages of dialogue, and the acting is tremendous in an understated way all around. Thoroughly satisfying.
7.5/10
Abbas Kiarostami's film of voyeurism, role-reversal, redefining and questioning the definition of an "audience", what have you - for 90 minutes we watch a hundred or so Iranian woman watch a film, from a head-on point of view. Which is to say the movie is projected "behind" us, the viewers. We never see the movie and only hear the soundtrack, and the all-female audience's (there are some men in the audience but always seated behind the women and never focused on directly) reactions help us piece the narrative together, though voice-overs and dialogue make it easy enough to follow. The other caveat is that the audience we're watching isn't really watching a film - they're merely looking at a point of light occasionally obscured by cardboard cutouts to create the appropriate reflections and shadows, are told how to act by Kiarostami, and the entire "Shirin" soundtrack to the movie they're watching has been added after. I've read from people who got equally caught up in the narrative and the reactions and found themselves crying along with the audience, but I was too intrigued by the technical aspects of the movie to get very caught up in the (highly melodramatic) "non-film". An endlessly interesting movie, but not always while you're watching it.
8/10
Slow beginning but eventually it picks up steam and actually makes you care about the two main characters, and throws in some good laughs along the way. The script is simple and effective and even though the ending is, again, a bit predictable, it's well-executed (and there's a couple of great lines that follow it). I'd recommend it.
2/10
I thought comedies were supposed to make the viewer laugh. Was I missing something? The script was lousy and both Ferrell and Reilly seemed to be sleepwalking (not a reference to their painfully unfunny sleepwalking habits in the movie). The jokes all sound like they're crafted to become campus quotables ala Anchorman but Anchorman was naturally funny, this one was just stupid.
6/10
Enjoyable enough, not nearly as good as Chasing Amy, the other Kevin Smith movie with which it shares many similarities. I thought the relationship between Zack and Miri felt too forced to really have any sort of emotional impact and there wasn't a whole lot to laugh at on the comedy side. Unlike Chasing Amy, the plot/romance was way too predictable.
9/10
First time seeing this too and it was awesome...by farrrr the best Apatow/Rogen/whatever movie I've seen. Franco and Rogen are great together, as is the guy that played Red, and the movie also has a very sweet and believable "buddy" undercurrent...much sweeter and more believable than any of the movies it's sending up, at least. Very funny, very entertaining and very clever.
10/10
Jesus...fucking brilliant movie written and directed by Sion Sono. Any attempt to summarize the plot will completely fail to do the movie justice, but basically it's the story of a 17-year old guy looking for the love of his life and then trying to be with her once he finds her. But it's so, so, so much more. Considering the movie is 4 hours long, it would have to be. But honestly, if my ass wasn't so sore, I wouldn't have known it was 4 hours, and not a moment is really wasted. The script is insane, but it's hilarious and sweet and stomach-turning and throught-provoking all at once, and the two main leads are great too...I don't really know what to say except if you get the chance to see it, don't be intimidated by its running time - go!
7/10
I think knowing more about Italy & its politics would've helped as I got lost pretty easily at times. It's hard to believe someone like Giulio Andreotti even exists though. He's like a cartoon character.
7/10
I was expecting a bit more, but it was a sweet movie with a strong performance by Jason Segal and Jonah Hill, Paul Rudd etc providing essentially what's expected of them. It felt overly long but then again we were watching the extended cut so I guess that's to be expected.
10/10
Totally great...Jonathan's review basically sums it up for me too. Really moving, and so sad.
