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Xenon242
Reviews
Italiensk for begyndere (2000)
Thoroughly enjoyable and totally devoid of Hollywood-style contrivance
I had the pleasure of seeing Italiensk for begyndere in a pretty small, intimiate cinema, which set the audience up beautifully for this movie.
The characters really drive this story, rather than the film pushing the characters around. What results is a movie that takes its own time to say what it needs to say, and that allows us to gain insight on what really is a broad spectrum of very human, very diverse personalities.
Romantic comedies-dramas, by and large, are pretty hit-and-miss, though more miss than hit if they come from Hollywood. They're bogged down in clichés, saccarine melodrama and characters that don't at all behave like real people. Italiensk for begyndere avoids all that, giving us characters that could just as well be the person sitting three seats from you in the cinema, that's how human they are.
I didn't feel at all cheated with this film, and left the cinema feeling like I saw a film that speaks to people. Superb.
Zoolander (2001)
The only thing this piece of cinematic drivel accomplished ...
... is painfully belabouring the point that Hollywood indeed panders to the lowest common denominator. I'm flabbergasted at the idea that anyone can consider this diarrhoea on film funny. Seriously, I'm all for taking my brain off the hook for an hour-and-a-half and letting a silly movie caress my addled mind, but there's a point at which that stops, and this movie was that point. I can honestly say I'm ashamed that my 7,50$ went to Mr Stiller's salary and the film's profit margin.
And were I Mr Stiller, I would be equally ashamed to look at myself in the mirror every day, knowing I committed this piece of crass, pedestrian, witless and boorish filth and foisted it on the world.
Lola rennt (1998)
This is why I like non-Hollywood films so much.
I really wish I had had the opportunity to see this film in a cinema, rather than on DVD, because I suspect that it would have been really immersive and intense.
That having been said however, I'm glad I saw the movie anyway, because this is the sort of action film I like to see. Any plot reviews would be useless, as there isn't much of a plot to being with and that, believe it or not, is one of the movie's strong points because that is what allows for the idea of multiple endings - bog the plot down too much, and you've got no room to manoeuvre and experiment.
Franka Potente and Moritz Bleibtreu were perfect casting choices; they really come across as two ordinary (if dysfunctional) people caught up in something really life-altering (not to mention life-threatening). Imagine the likes of, oh I don't know ... Jennifer Aniston and Tom Cruise playing the parts, and the film would have been ruined, just on the basis of their polished, fabricated good looks alone (and their crappy acting, too ... ).
Anyway, suffice it to say that it's one of my favourite films. Still wish I could have seen it in a theatre, though ...