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Reviews
Mondovino (2004)
It's something
This movie shines when little details are captured during interview such as reactions from interviewees or secondary subjects such as animals.
After about an hour mark it all gets repetitive. Another winemaker with this much acres, yet another one with so much acres... And that guy Mondavi is supposed to be some kind of villain or what? I feel it is way to much shoved into your face to dislike Mondavi while all we see is grandpa with big fortune.
All in all it is not a waste of time to watch this documentary. However don't expect to learn much. Just enjoy the scenery and try to dwell on positives on this mess of a film.
Attack of the Hollywood Clichés! (2021)
Wow, they did it again!
Again and again we've been blessed by the 3rd grade critics and irrelevant film workers comment on film classics and put their own agendas upon them.
Dirty Harry - toxic masculinity
The Graduate - stalking
Lethal Weapon - terrible husband
I mean the audacity of these people is just unbelievable. I wouldn't even dare to take such a big number 2 on movies that define the cinema. If they really wanted to explore sociological impact of these movies on modern society, then maybe go interview anthropologist, sociologist and other social scientist that made their careers on pop cultural impact on modern society.
Only then, this load of nonsense would be watchable even with an agenda.
Exactly because such people exist today we never, but NEVER can expect movies like Scarface to get funded again. Just imagine: a Cuban immigrant goes to USA but instead of asking girls for a permission to talk to them he just gropes them, and he's a paid assassin as well, not a regular Joe working 9-5.
Apsurd.
Please let me wake up in 70s.
Cheers.
Captain Jack: Captain Jack (1995)
Euroidance extravaganza
Eurodance at its best. Cheesiness to the fullest:
corny piano melodies, bizarre costumes, nonsense but catchy choreography but all these things are part of the genre.
It was kinda TikTok but in mid-nineties.
Captain Jack and his eponymous song are nowadays considered as one of the classics of Eurodance, at least German Eurodance.
Video is also classic exhibit of the era.
Girls marching in seemingly military uniform but those are only mini skirts in camouflage pattern. Then they go through some kind of "military training" but only to reveal more of their skin. Hot girls bouncing around while Captain Jack overlooks his "troops".
Awesome!
The Hatchet Wielding Hitchhiker (2023)
What would you do?
Tragic and sad story about downfall of internet celebrity Kai the Hatchet Wielding Hitchhiker. The guy who in the span of 3 months went from being a hero and appearing as a guest on Jimmy Kimmel to murdering a guy in Jersey for no apparent reason.
The film doesn't bring anything new. They don't delve deep into his background although they interviewed his mother. Not his father tho, with whom he spent most of his childhood.
The cheap drama music effects are annoying because those plot points aren't that dramatic.
Also, Kai clearly suffers from some kind of mental illness or illnesses and authors just casually mention it here and there. His father said Kai suffered from mental illness most of his teens until he eloped.
I would appreciate if they made points about mental illness being a real problem in today's society especially among homeless instead of polarizing Kai as either a saint or murderer.
The Tinder Swindler (2022)
Should be 1h max
Too much b-roll.
I don't mind dramatised parts, but constant b rolls of airplane, city, sky, landscape do not add to the plot. On the contrary, it makes film less fluid.
Also, it would have been nice to have some insight in criminal investigation of this twerp.
The Chosen (2017)
What show did all these people watch?
I was really confused and surprised to see this show rate so high, both on a score and number of 10 star reviews.
Show's biggest problem is script, especially dialogue. Screenwriters should have spent more time developing the script then reading the scriptures. I understand they wanted to make a modern depiction of what happened, but most of the time it seems like High School Musical Judea.
There's a lot of smaller problems I don't care to mention, but why o why people still make English language series and then some characters speak proper English (Jesus, Rabi, Romans) and others speak with an accent.
Apparently it was crowdfunded series so probably, as one reviewer wrote, those who contributed made favorable reviews.
Acting is horrendous.
It just one tiny bit unwatchable.
Il conformista (1970)
Film is not just cinematography
I was really excited to see this movie. I have heard great things about it and even have read the book beforehand.
Let's just confirm all of the praise the movie gets for lighting, editing and especially cinematography. Storaro is a genius in his own right and this movie is a fine example.
Other things are not as genius.
Directing actors is sometimes really subpar. Not reacting in a way you would naturally expect from the situation. At times it even feels as Bunuel's surrealist and apsurdist drama, which Moravia's original most certainly is not.
The main focus of the book are Marcelo's internal feelings or lack thereof. In the movie his motivation is non existent. He just goes from one scene to another and reacts to his surroundings. Occasionally he is even verbally expressing his desires. What's the point of showing the scene with Lino if it does not affect him in any way during the course of the movie? In the book this is the single most important event of his life influencing many of his decisions both directly and indirectly.
I salute the attempt to twist the modern Italian classic, but to my knowledge this could have been done much more sound and interesting. Still, not a waste of time to watch it.
In Their Own Words: Muhammad Ali (2015)
OK overview of the career
Biggest problem is, as with most modern under-60-min documentaries, interviewing people with no credibility on topic. LL Cool J, I respect him as a pioneer of hip-hop, but he just does not have a place in this kind of documentary. If you want to make a film about Muhammad Ali's impact on contemporary culture, then OK invite artists and other people, but not here.
Also a big problem is opening a bunch of topics as segregation, political instability in 60s, human rights movement, African American pride and then not closing those topics. They just say: "oh he wasn't getting a table in his hometown" and not following up on the issue. Overly simplifying complex topics.
The Beatles: Eight Days a Week - The Touring Years (2016)
Great footage, many distractions
Awesome archive footage.
Nice interviews.
But how do you connect racism in America with early touring of the Beatles?
Not even Whoopi could explain it.
It only distracts you form the focus of the documentary. But I guess today it is not enough to make a concise film, you have to impose certain concepts to make it more educational or something.
Pukotina raja (1959)
Surprisingly good
A nice little gem of Yugoslav cinema.
I read that initial release of the movie was very poorly received. I can only assume it is because it shows decaying moral of (then) modern marriage and brings controversial topics (for those times at least) such as adultery and abortion.
However, the film is very well directed with equally good script. It kinda reminds me of Bertolucci's first film.
Its flashback structure and cinematography give obvious nods towards film noir.
Len Bias (2009)
Sloppy
The music is getting in the way in too many occasions, you just hear it as unnecessary noise as it dramatic effect wanes (being overlong).
There isn't almost any archive material, except few basketball clips and short Bias interviews.
The movie changes focus from Bias to DC drug problem, then to drug legislation and then back to Bias family, not scoring in any of those occasions.
Zappa (2020)
Good in spite of a lot of random montages
Good overview of the life of Frank Zappa.
However, it is too long for the amount of information it puts out. There is only like 5 band members they interviewed.
Also, there are a lot of random montages which my be interesting in the first 15-20mins, but after 30min mark it becomes redundant.
Furthermore, it is weird that for the most part you don't see who exactly is talking on the screen. I would understand this editing choice if it was something relevant to the story, but on top of one topic being discussed there is a video or a series of photos of totally unrelated events. To make things worse, sometimes during these montages, they give names of the band members; the names are not the people talking over it so you get confused whose voice you are hearing in the first place.
Anyways, all of the other things are enjoyable. I think that with a bit wiser editing this could have easily been way better documentary.
The Expanse (2015)
Cliché
About every sci-fi genre cliché you can imagine is stuffed in screenplay for Expanse.
By the end of the first episode I realized where this was going. I watched another episode, just to be safe that I'm not going to skip a cool Sci-fi flick. Huge disappointment, just like Sense8.
The dialog is weak, production design is great. Acting is sub-par.
I wish more emphasis was made on the storyline, characters and generally the script, instead of, albeit very good, producing designs and effects.
If I Leave Here Tomorrow: A Film About Lynyrd Skynyrd (2018)
1 important omission
Good documentary overall. Touched all the main points surrounding all stages of the band's life. Also, there are some nice montages that follow the main plot.
However, in my opinion there is one important omission in this type of straight-to-the-point documentary. There is no mention of further tragedies of Allen Collins. His wife died 3 years later after he survived the plane crash. In 1986, while drunk driving, he crashed the car, killing his then girlfriend and making himself partially paralyzed.
His condition, coupled with severe depression and alcoholism, led him to premature death in 1990, aged 37.
Anyways I think this was an important point to make.
Projections (2013)
Clearly written for the stage
This piece does not translate well to the screen.
The camera aimlessly changes POV from one character to another.
Overlong monologs do not feel genuine, which turn glimpses of acting prowess into uncomfortable exceptions. I would blame directing for that.
The Lighthouse (2019)
When Shutter Island meets Birds (not in a good way)
First off let's list good points about this movie:
+ Awesome performances by both actors (Pattinson confirms his Good Time performance)
+ Cinematography is wonderful. Very thoughtful and atmospheric. Plays with shadows exceptionally well
+ Interesting aspect ratio brings black and white to fashion yet again
Everything else is incoherent and/or pretentious series of sequences which as a whole do not make an art form which we call a film (movie).
Cons
- Film shifts perspective in arbitrary fashion. One moment you follow hyper-realist psycho-drama, and the next you're witnessing D-grade monster flick. Without any point, it should be mentioned.
- Extensive use of symbolism (much like a goat in The Witch). Again, without any point but to fulfill its own purpose - kinda like that line in Ni***s in Paris "Nobody knows what it means, but it's provocative!"
- I do not mind slow films (one of my favorites is Barry Lyndon, not a blockbuster). But pacing in this film is broken only by above-mentioned awkward outbursts of supernatural, which is highly dissatisfying because it is not followed by a scene that would be consistent with its narrative.
One final remark, I don't know whether should have I laughed or not on couple of occasions, but I did.
Covik od svita (1965)
Dalmatian philosophy
The film follows a young man (a prototype of 'galeb', a local word for a womanizer) who enjoys company of tourists and locals, with emphasis on female acquaintances. The first act is fulfilled with traditional wisdom and little things that define Dalmatian lifestyle; such as reluctant attitude towards work, sanctity of mealtime (when a man from canteen is summoned to resolve the fight in the street on which he responds 'what can I do, it's 'marenda' (mealtime)'). This is why the film is probably too difficult to understand for non-Croatian audience.
Act 2 is a classic gastarbeiter story. Our hero was fed up with life in Dalmatia, which was according to him - hectic. After 9 months of living and experiencing Munich he finds himself homesick and eventually comes home.
Technical aspects of the film are really obsolete. The film was filmed during mid 60s and the picture is as was in the early 30s in the USA. Nevertheless, the film brings powerful emotions of living far from home (one of the motifs for Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon).
Money, nostalgia, simplicity, love - this is the order of our hero's reinvention.
All in all, Covik od svita (I do not even know how to translate that properly) is a wonderful film which targets Dalmatian philosophy perfectly.