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Reviews
Sucker Punch (2011)
They coulda been contenders
A young girl is locked in a mental institution. In other to avoid being lobotomized, she devises a plan that involves a series of missions in fantasy territories she must fulfill with the aid of other female inmates.
Zack Snyder has loads of talent for visual wonders. His forte is a breathtaking cocktail of stylized violence and eroticism. He makes bloodshed pretty and sexual. Which is okay with me as long as we don't mistake these dark juvenile fantasies for real life.
The problem is that, as far as one can judge from this his first original script, when left on his own, he simply has no story to tell.
The script feels like a five lines document that was pitched to the studio heads, containing a cool log line ("Alice in Wonderland" with guns, I've read somewhere else on this IMDb page), a sort of mythical structure borrowed from a Christopher Vogler lecture (The Heroine's Journey! wow, wow, this is deep!") and a couple of platitudes supposed to serve as the THEME, which as every how to write scripts manual reminds us is the most important thing in a movie. So here that would be umh... "fight for your dreams", "yes you can", "freedom is good, I guess".... And that was that. They went into production with those five lines. Who needs a full script when we have full lips and bucketfuls of style? I'm being intentionally mean cause this could have been sooo much better. To quote Elvis Costello: All this useless beauty. And the excellent actresses try and try like real troopers, but there simply is nothing to work with. They've been let down by the director/writer.
If Mr. Snyder and co. had cared a bit more about creating good characters and telling a story (a regular story would have been enough), and less about choking the movie with style and borrowed references, this could have been a GREAT fantasy movie.
Oh well, better luck next time.
One last thing. That awful soundtrack. with those sanitized covers of great rock songs. I mean, how wrong can you be? The rest can be forgiven, Zack Snyder, but that is the unforgivable sin.
Red Road (2006)
Watch out. Your past is right behind you.
Jackie works at a city surveillance service in Glasgow. One night she see on one of the monitors a face from her past, a man just released from prison. This causes a major disruption in her bleak and hollow life. We know it has to do with something ugly and painful that happened long ago, and we fear for Jackie, as she starts taking more and more risks in an effort to get closer to that person.
I saw this movie at my local videostore. A few months ago I saw and liked Fish Tank, the latest feature film by director Andrea Arnold, so I decided to give it a go. I was not disappointed. The acting was strong, and the story-telling gripping and thought-provoking.
I find a similar feel in both movies, stories with female protagonists who cope with hurt and glum outlooks. Jackie is a much more extreme character than the girl in Fish Tank, but I'm pleased to find the same warmth and compassion underneath that hard shell.
The world is such a scary place these days that cynicism and hopelessness feel like the easy way out in too many stories. It is refreshing to find narratives were hope is allowed to have the last word.
Keinohrhasen (2007)
Poor attempt at Romantic Comedy
Ludo, A womanizer tabloid journalist must work at a daycare center in order to avoid prison. There he meets Anna, a shy, clumsy woman with glasses who seems to be afraid of men and sex. Ludo and Anna know each other from back in primary school, when he used to bully her with the rest of the more attractive children because of her braces and her glasses.
He hasn't changed that much in his treatment and opinion of women, so it comes as no surprise that she eventually falls for him. Because that's what happens when painfully shy girls with glasses meet attractive but annoyingly vain and superficial womanizers. (And to quote Homer Simpson, THAT was sarcasm).
But hey, he's good with children, so it's all right in the end.
The writer, director, producer and star of this vanity project apparently decided to take a shot at making a stupid, formulaic, romantic comedy, without taking in consideration that even stupid, formulaic, romantic comedies follow some rules of dramatic construction, such as three-dimensional characters (jeez, or at least BI-dimensional ones), causality, sustained conflict and... well, funny jokes.
(A couple of jokes in the movie I found funny, that much I will admit.)
Since this was apparently a box office success, I guess they must have done something right, and I have absolutely no taste. Well, I can live with that.
I was fooled by a cute trailer into renting this thing and sat through this painfully unfunny movie. Two hours of my life that will never come back.
Ficció (2006)
Spend some time in the country with someone you don't really like
That's what I felt while watching this film: why am I spending some time of my life with a guy I don't find interesting at all?
So he doesn't like his life. So he expected more from it. So he fancies the cute woman he meets. So what? And why do they fall in love? What is so great about them? They're thirty-something, they have cool professions(film director, violin player), they're healthy, they aren't that witty, he certainly isn't much fun being around, she's...nice. I think the actors did a pretty good job, considering they didn't have much to work with in the first place. But once more I found that common flaw in love stories: you don't get a sense of why the couple falls in love, other than because the script says so.
Early in the movie the director is asked about the screenplay he's writing. He proceeds to make a pitch of a film so boring and unappealing to me I would have run in the opposite direction rather than go and watch it. That's when I knew I was in trouble.
I really liked the previous film of this director. It was fresh and compelling, and full of interesting characters with all too real problems and desires. I didn't expect such a big disappointment with this film. It's getting great reviews, which probably means I simply didn't get it. I was bored silly during most of it's running time. I thought it was bloodless and spineless. It's supposed to be about those things that are never shown in films....for some reason, I'd dare say. Or maybe it's just a matter of taste.
I did like the last scene. Very much. It was a beautiful scene, well written, well acted, two thumbs up about it. I only wish the rest of the film deserved that last scene...
Cabeza de perro (2006)
Just because your head works different doesn't mean you're crazy
My personal test to know whether I really-really like a film is to find myself halfway through it thinking "wow, this film is great!". Not something that happens to me that often, mind you. Tonight, as I was watching this film, I found myself thinking several times, this is just great!! Great acting, beautiful script, good visuals, at last a film that provides the whole experience. The only other film that matched my expectations this year was Gondry's the Science of Sleep, and if you happen to watch both films you will find some unexpected connections, namely, a strong, vivid and unusual main character, an affectionate look at the "otherness", and a director in a state of grace who has managed to portray visually the point of view of someone who doesn't experience life, reality, you-name-it in the same way than the rest of us. AND it's an oddball love story. What more can you ask?