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Reviews
The Light Touch (2021)
A pleasant enough romp through Athens but...
The setting is Athens and we see plenty of it photographed very nicely by Panos Golfis (along with the judicious use of drone shots) and not just the touristic areas. We see working streets, everyday cafes. We see the city from the butchery of the meat market to the graffiti on the trains to the relaxed eateries. It does indeed capture the real feel of the city.
And in the midst of it all we find Duncan Skinner who stole every scene magnificently. Skinner plays a by-the-book British police officer on holiday who is pick-pocketed by Becky (Tess Spentzos in analysis) on the metro. He immerses himself in the role with style and indeed precisely the right touch needed for a film like this. I just wanted to watch more of him.
He was joined in this film by one other stand-out actor: Skyrah Archer (as Miranda, Becky's love interest) who was completely believable as the thoughtful, cultured, pianist fending off unwanted attention from all sides. Her subtlety was always a pleasure to watch.
A pleasant enough romp through the city except it is accompanied by the bitter taste of misogyny and sexual assault as a joke. In the latter case, the victim of the assault suffers no ill effects whatsoever and simply calls on her abuser to help her out of a sticky situation a little later in the film.
I fear the director has issues with women, hence uses them as props here for little more than titillation.
Beckett (2021)
Appalling Dross
Appalling is the word here.
Appalling applies well to almost all the actors. Ok, Alicia Vikander & Boyd Holbrook were both natural and believable... but the rest of the cast were one step out of acting school, frightened in front of the camera, and desperate to say their lines before they forgot them. (The honourable exception was Yorgos Pirpassopoulos who is a brilliant actor but criminally underused here.)
And appalling applies to the story which had more holes than the Albert Hall. The final big stunt? Oh ffs.
But the biggest mystery was how this got onto Netflix... oh wait... ah, I've just read about who was involved and that explains it all.
My advice? Look at a blank piece of paper for 90 minutes; trust me it will be more exciting than this dross.
Juo ren mi mi (2019)
Only the naïve will dislike this film.
It's a well shot film, if a little confusing with film within film and then possibly another layer of film with that film. I would have liked to have seen more clarity but that is a minor point when considering the beautiful way in which it was shot, the subtle camerawork and the excellent performances from the main actors.
What shocks most people are some scenes (not explicit at all!) where the actors are degraded. Being shocked at this is like being shocked that animals die before they appear on your plate.
If you want to believe the world is a pure and happy place, then don't watch this film. If you want to confront reality, then here it is.
Putting this film down because it shows reality is simple naivety. It happens. It's real. Face it.
Zai na he pan qing cao qing (1982)
A Curiosity
I came across this film by chance and it was a curiosity. It's worth watching just for that slice-of-life experience of rural Taiwan in the 1980s. I knew nothing about the country then and this was a nice little learner.
Ok, the story is not exactly engaging, but more a gentle meander. And the denouement is nicely predictable and very neatly wrapped up.
But for a pleasant 90 minutes, why not?