Category: Cinema

Winter´s Bone is one of the nicest surprises of the year in film releases. A well rounded film that starts slowly but traps you step by step. It seems that nothing is advancing, but many things are happening around the life of young 17 years old girl Ree (superbly portrayed by Jennifer Lawrence), an inhabitant of the region of Ozark Mountains. Following her through her odyssey of finding the corpse of his drug dealer father to save his house and family is an unique experience to get immersed in a sub-culture where the normal rules do not apply; tradition, family bonds, special slang, a particular way of living of those tough people… Everything is cared to the detail by director Debra Granik.

More than finding answers to the fate of Jessup, Ree´s father, this is a little homage to the Ozark region, with its good and bad sides.

Mention apart for the character of Ree´s uncle, Teardrop. John Hawkes really owns the show every time he appears on screen. I do not remember for a long time to see a character that can display so much power and danger just with the presence around. In fact, he hardly portrays any violent moment during the whole movie, but one has the feeling from the first second you see him in his house that he is a guy you do not want to mess around in a bar if you want to continue breathing.

A great story with great acting skills, and a very well adaptation of the original book.

Rating: 5/5

Winter´s Bone – Trailer

The Kids Are All Right is quite an entertaining movie, at least for the 3/4 of its total length. What could have been one of the highlights of past year gets darkened in the end by the hand of director Lisa Cholodenko, obliterating totally the role of one most than notable Mark Ruffalo.

Ruffalo is great in his role, laid back, relaxed, open minded, generous, flirtatious but loving, maybe with a bit of a peter pan complex not to grow up into responsabilities. But all in all, his character did not deserve that “end”? (because we certainly do not get to know much about what happens with him). Cholodenko was so focused on having to show to the audience that the love, even if it is in a disfunctional family, and the bonds, win over society, that she left the movie fall into a boring and annoying ending. Unforgivable…

All in all, the cast will make you enjoy the movie, with a Julianne Moore that continues in my humble opinion being one of the sexiest mature woman in Hollywood, with permission of Diane Lane, and Annette Bening, who maybe does not shine here like in other productions, but it is quite a good complement for Moore and Ruffalo`s perfomances.

Even been a heterosexual man, I do not care if a movie tells the story of love and a family composed by men, women, aliens or ants. But ruining the script like that in a kind of self masturbation for waving her ideals in front of the audience is something that Cholodenko should have avoided. Like probably I will avoid her future filmography if she continues like this.

Rating 3/5

The detail: You can see at the beginning of the movie how Laser´s friend, Eddie, is wearing a t-shirt from the Finnish rock band 69 Eyes.

The Kids Are All Right- Trailer

There was a time right after the great The Sixth Sense when I thought, and I was not alone, that M. Night Shyamalan was destined to be the next big director for thrillers in Hollywood. Nowadays, Shyamalan is just a bad parody of those times, seeming that every new one of his movies just gets worse and worse than the previous one. And once again I must not be alone in this, when he got a handful of Razzie Awards, the ones given to the worst of cinema industry every year, for this The Last Airbender.

Honestly, how is it possible that directors like Peter Weir need to wait almost a decade between project and project, and Shyamalan still counts with huge budgets and great stars for his movies? They say that sometimes you need luck in this life…

All in all, actually The Last Airbender, is not such a bad movie, at least if you compare it to the previous Shyamalan`s movie, The Happening, that must have been one of the most ridiculous and stupid movies I have ever seen in my life.

It is true that special effects and decoration suck, and the movie looks quite childish, but there are a couple of characters like Dev Patel as Prince Zuko and Shaun Toub as Uncle Iroh that make more than a decent role.

It will probably disappoint the followers of the original comics’ series, but it is certainly a movie that you can watch with the family, if you have children.

Rating 2/5

The detail: Maybe Dev Patel looks familiar, as you may have seen it in the previous Academy Award movie winner Slumdog Millionaire.

The Last Airbender – Trailer

Spanish director Rodrigo Cortés has been able to show in his first long length movie that you can achieve great results without having to count with a great budget or stunning special effects.

Buries is original from many points of view, starting from the fact that opening credits appear at the beginning, a wink to suspense classic films, and continuing for having the first minute of the movie just in total darkness, only hearing the breating of the main character, portrayed in a very plausible way by Ryan Reynolds, who shows that apart from being voted as the sexiest man in the world, can only deliver a consistent performance while being trapped in a casket.

Some people can argue that the plot has many holes and the actions of the character are not really consequent, but all in all, the film achieves his objective: to feel the claustrophobic tension and the nerves of being buried alive. Although not having a perfect script, the movie is good enough to keep your eyes fixed on what is going to happen next, And once again, this is not easy to achieve when all the action just happened in a reduced dark space with only one actor in front of the camera for one hour and a half.

Not a perfect movie, but a promising first step for Cortés. After the heat he has been able to obtain with his opera prima, let´s see what he could be able to achieve in future projects with a bigger budget.

Rating: 4/5

The detail: The whole movie was shot in a studio in Barcelona in only 17 days.

Buried – Trailer

If last year we saw Benicio del Toro as Che Guevara, now French director Olivier Assayas brings us the story of one of the most wanted fighters (for others he would be called just terrorist), the Venezuelan Illich Ramírez Sanchez aka Carlos The Jackal.

The movie certainly hooks you up from the beginning. Edgard Ramirez as Carlos gives a great perfomance that exhales a similar aura than the real Carlos should must have had: he can be charming, but also dangerous and merciless when an idea is placed inside his head besides narcissist.

Assayas gives a great portrait of the difficult political board between East and West in the 70s and 80s, as well as how the character of Carlos develops into a shadow of what he used to be with the age and the alcohol; a person lost in older years while the world keeps changing around him.

Although you cannot take all what happens in the movie as true history, Carlos is a good entertainment to understand some important times or our recent history.

Rating: 4/5

The best: Edgard Ramirez

The worst: Rythm goes up and down too much, maybe some scenes could have been deleted to make the film a bit shorter.

The detail: The real Carlos, who is nowadays in a prison in France, got to read the script of this movie and had quite oppose opinions against it.

Carlos The Jackal – Trailer

A new teenage comedy is here, directed Miguel Arteta, and starred by the new king of the genre, Michael Cera. When I saw the cover of the DVD, I had high expectations. The cast was looking superb, but honestly, I had to say I was disappointed. Great actors like Zach Galifianakis, Ray Liotta, Justin Long or Steve Buscemii are just wasted here, with a few minutes on screen that hardly add anything to the plot of the movie.

The plot focuses pretty much on Michael Cera and his double personality as sweet innocent virgin teenager in love, and his dark side as mischievous trying to gain the love of the girl he met on summer. Well, Cera is credible in that role, because basically he plays the same role again and again in almost every movie, but maybe it would be about time for him to change a bit the register. Many people compare him to Jesse Eisenberg, but I think the latter one is making a better choice in his appearances lately, with little jewels like Adventureland, Zombieland or The Social Network, and a wider variety or registers to show.

Apart from a couple of situations, the movie is not funny, when pretends to be. The chemistry between Cera and Portia Doubleday does not work on screen, I would have personally prefer to center the plot at the initial steps, with a shy Cera overwhelmed by the cheeky new beautiful girl, but when the couple is separated, magic is missing.

Although the new wave of teenage comedy is trying to explore deeper humor than the easy jokes about sex and eschatological moments of American Pie, here the makers fail. A pity! It could have given much more to the spectator with such a cast!

The best: The car falling into not so deep water when Cera is trying to escape from police.

The worst: Galifianakis role could have given much more if he had been allowed more minutes on screen.

The detail: Do you also confuse Cera and Eissenberg when you see them on screen? It seems that happens to many watchers who express themselves

Youth in Revolt – Trailer

Adrien Brody and Mark Ruffalo are the best con men in the world, able since childhood to plan amazing scenarios to cheat people around. The beginning of the movie is promising, and the addition of the always sweet and delightful Rachel Weisz adds an excellent touch to story, but I felt a bit disappointed at the end.

It is true that there is nobody better than Brody for this kind of tormented characters, with those big sad eyes always taking control of the scenes. He is a great actor, and shows it once more. His love story with Penelope (Weisz) is beautiful, naïve and intriguing. But sometimes the rhythm of the movie goes down. The scriptwriters seemed eager to add so many notches into the final twist end that I had the feeling everything should have ended half an hour before.

Honestly, I start to feel a bit saturated of these movies offering a threesome of main characters that play tricks on each other, where nothing seems to be what it is, and you always assume that there will be (and therefore there is) a final twist. Sometimes, I would prefer the story to center more on the interrelations among the humans involved there, instead of plotting what new twist to add to make the story even more complicated to decipher. Although the photography of the movie and the clothes the characters display are superb, this left me with a bittersweet taste.

Rating 3/5

The detail: In the end, it is mentioned that the characters will drive to Helsinki, but you never had the chance to see the Finnish capital, just a road with a too good pavement to be Russian, and a too bad pavement to be Finnish…

The Brothers Bloom Trailer

If you like gloomy animation movies, certainly you will enjoy Metropia. From Scandinavia comes a plot that has to do with mind control and a new world order, all set in quite dark landscapes. Director Tarik Saleh achieves the desired effect of feeling comprised in a sad world walked by sad gray people, and you can also notice the hand in the script of Stig Larsson, a very hot name nowadays due to his Millennium trilogy (the part of the daughter from the big magnate abused as a child has his signature all over it).

However, I could not fully enjoy the movie. It tries to be provocative, but falls in a middle way. Same with some nudity and explicit scenes, in the end they seem to be censored so children could watch this, when supposedly should be just an adult animation movie. And I cannot get used to the way the characters are drawn, with small bodies but huge heads. The beginning was promising, but at some points of the film, the lack of energy from Roger, the main character, is contagious.

Worthy a try if you are open for some different European animation with deeper meaning than just killing all what moves around, but I was expecting a bit more from this one. Not as visually and idealistically shocking as it should have been.

Rating 2/5

The detail: Vincent Gallo puts the voice of the main character, Roger.

Metropia Trailer

There are many movies whose main scenario takes place in a concentration camp. Most of them are harsh and touchy, although a few can even explode some sense of humor like in the genial La Vita É Bella from Roberto Benigni, but certainly, In Tranzit offers an idea a bit fresh and different from what you could have previously have seen.

Based on true events, it narrates the life in a Russian transit camp one year after the end of Second World II. The camp, warded by women, receives the unexpected visit of a group of male German prisoners.
The movie turns into a great essay of human nature, where hate, love, hope, and physical need for human contact gets mixed, forgetting about the dark past. I enjoy every moment of it, although most of it is just shot inside the fences of the camp. There is always expectation for something new to happen, and the interactions of the people sharing the camp are fantastic to follow, subtle but deep.

The cast is another strong point here, with both main characters Vera Farmiga and Thomas Kretschmann having a very strong charismatic presence in front of the camera. And if we talk about charisma, what to say about the intervention of John Malkovich… just perfect in his role of sneaky, cruel but witty NKVD colonel. The only actor who does not convince me is Daniel Brühl (who by the way is half Spanish half German). I had the same feeling when I saw him in Tarantino´s Inglorious Basterds; I just do not see him in those roles as tough soldier.

If you like movies about war with an intelligent plot, this In Tranzit will be refreshing. It is true that the end can turn into a bit dissappointing, but all in all, it will entertain you and feel identified with the characters, suffering and enjoying during their stay in Russia, all over the movie.

Rating 4/5

The detail: Kretschmann trained as an Olympic swimmer in East Germany before starting his career as actor

In Tranzit: Scene with John Malkovich

The Nazi Germany has been the topic for thousands of movies during the recent years. Although usually depicted as evil, sometimes we have assisted to the more human side of German Nazis (if not, just look again at Oskar Schindler in The Schindler´s List).

Good is a movie just made to shape the talent of Viggo Mortensen. He fits perfectly a role of a person who can be intelligent, sensitive, but also tough if needed. One of the biggest questions that the humankind ask themselves when the concentration camps were discovered were “How this could happen?”. The movie tries to dig deeper in how good citizens can end up corrupted or assimilated to an evil system, but all in all, Good left me a bittersweet taste after I finished watching it.

It is true that Mortensen´s work is once more flawless, but his relation with his Jewish best friend Maurice is portrayed sometimes in a too sloppy way. I basically enjoyed more the moments when Viggo tries to deal both with his shrinking marriage and her new love for a young student who turns to betray his confidence.

The final is certainly visually shocking, but you are not going to presence anything unique that you have not seen before in other movies or TV series dealing with the holocaust. I had the feeling that the movie was in the end too short, and the characters had to be sketched in a bit of a rush. Not a bad movie if you like Mortensen, but it will not enter the top list of films that deal with the Nazi German.

Rating 3/5

The detail: Mark Strong plays a secondary role as Bouhler.

Good Trailer