gcarpiceci Reviews

Shirley (2024)

An idealist or a fool?

[5/10 · 25 March 2024]

A good story doesn't necessarily make a good movie; the old motto applies also to the case of Shirley. I don't know in sufficient detail the story of Mrs Chisholm to fact-check the accuracy of what I just saw, so I will judge the movie simply in its own merit (which by the way is what reviews are for).

Well, the way the movie portrays Mrs. Chisholm is that of someone who decides to run for the biggest job in the world without the shred of a plan, of the necessary resources, of a programme going beyond the rhetoric of "I'm here for you" and other platitudes; someone not listening to any advise except her own even when this leads to questionable decisions.

Essentially the movie makes the not unusual mistake of confusing an idealist with a fool. If - as I suspect- Mrs Shirley Chisholm was the former and not the latter, then this is not a good movie.

The Zone of Interest (2023)

A Crime Against the Art Of Filmmaking

[1/10 · 1 February 2024]

I went to the cinema to watch a movie about one of the the greatest crimes against humanity and what I saw was a crime against the art of filmmaking.

I go to the movies to experience emotions; if the movie is about the holocaust, I expect to be overwhelmed by waves of strong emotions, from horror to rage to compassion. The one thing I would not expect when watching a movie on such a sensitive subject is to feel bored and ultimately irritated; but that's what happened with The Zone Of Interest, and that was the price to pay to a misunderstood notion of cinematic art that many, too many European directors have. They need to look "difficult", different, not mainstream, hard to read; engaging the audience is not as important to the as showing off their artistic originality and eccentricity. It is a sanctimony attitude that ends up alienating many viewers even when touching such sensitive subjects.

This is no spoiler, just a warning for potential viewer: this movie is an empty box, there's absolute nothing in it.

The Billion Dollar Code (2021)

Here is a non-story; and a long one at that...

[3/10 · 20 December 2023]

Why is it a non story? For a few simple reasons: 1. Against all odds, a David attacks a Goliath and, guess what?, he loses...big story uh?

2. You don't need to be a lawyer to know that patent trials are so difficult to be be almost impossible to win; so this is just the story of another one who bites the dust in this arena.

3. Ok then, we are left with the story of the big bad corporation smashing the hopes of a small startup of young geniuses; well, I'll break the news here that the road to Silicon Valley is paved with stolen ideas, or more simply by people pulling together a series of other ideas and making a bigger one out of it.

4. And then, let's face it: the two youngsters were definitely very smart, probably genuinely genius; but let's face it, they were so naive to border dumb, they made an endless series of mistakes, so e of them even gross. And you know what? Life's tough, there are consequences and hoping that you get a free pass just because you're young, you're smart and enthusiastic is just pure kumbaya 5. Last but not least, the performances and the production values of this overlong series are subpar to be kind; maybe the producers embraced the "garage spirit" of the protagonists...

Napoleon (2023)

History is an undesired guest in Mr Scott's movie

[5/10 · 22 November 2023]

History is an undesired guest taking the backseat in Mr Scott's sprawling epic on Napoleon's life.

Mr Scott's craftsmanship is such that it's undoubtedly able to offer the viewer some unique experiences. But stunning battle visuals and great performances by the lead actors don't make up for gross historical approximation.

I have no doubt whatsoever that Mr Scott knows his history and, if he didn't, he surely has a fat staff of assistants to tell it to him; so what he does here (as he did already in Gladiator) is a very deliberate and blatant choice to bend historical reality to the purposes of his own art, which looks like an act of unforgivable artistic hubris.

The Animal Kingdom (2023)

Too many ideas, none fully finished up

[3/10 · 12 October 2023]

Le Règne Animal is a bunch of unfulfilled ideas: it might look like an horror movie but it is not scary enough; it might look like a post-apocalyptic story but then again we are not given to understand where it comes from and where it goes; it might even be a father and son story but that would be rather superficial wouldn't it be? Or might it be a moralistic and politically correct story about diversity and gender discrimination?

Since the movie seems to be wanting to pursue each of the above themes, it doesn't fully deliver on any - and the beautiful photography is not enough to save the day.

Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story (2009 TV Movie)

Selective use of reality for purposes of self celebration

[3/10 · 3 February 2023]

I didn't care much about the artistic merits (or lack thereof) of the movie as my first reaction after watching it was pure outrage; outrage for seeing something very serious and delicate like people's health, the suffering of patients and of their families displayed with the sole purpose of self celebration.

The climax of the movie is the end of the operation for separating two siamese twins, the first of its kind not ending with the immediate death of the patients; this is presented as an absolute personal triumph, among smiles, tears of joy and the eternal gratitude of the parents to the semi-god Dr Ben Carson.

Undoubtedly the operation was of unprecedented difficulty and the fact of taking it up was a sheer act of bravery; and it goes without saying that blaming the surgical team for a possible bad result of such an operation would be unfair.

BUT, what the movie chooses not to show, or even just mention in the post credits, is the aftermath of such operation: one of the twins remained in a vegetative state following the surgery, he never came out of his coma and died a few years later. The other twin recovered to a certain extent but he never learned to speak or feed himself, but he does enjoy visitors, and being taken for walks. The twins' father was emotionally unable to ever handle them, or share in their care, he became an alcoholic, spent all the couple's funds, and left their mother destitute and alone. She was forced to institutionalize them and a few years later she described her sense of guilt for agreeing to the operation that ruined the boys' prospect of ever having any quality of life.

This is the reality, but reality would have hindered the display of personal triumph of Dr Ben Carson, so it was pushed under the carpet.

Make no mistake, the medical skills of Dr Carson are out of discussion and his scientific merits cannot be denied. What I found outrageous is the fact that Dr Carson uses this occasion to brag about his successes (the movie of course is based on his own book), selecting only the part of reality which serves his purposes of self celebration.

The Lying Life of Adults (2023)

A Decent Result For A Difficult Task

[7/10 · 7 January 2023]

Transferring Elena Ferrante's books onto the screen is not an easy endeavour; they are not plot driven stories, actually the plot is at times so thin to be barely perceivable. There's a lot of soul searching, introspection, her prose is harsh as sandpaper, her characters are flawed, tormented (and sometimes tormenting) people. All these - and many more - fine ingredients conjure up pretty unique and atmospheric ambiences. And, as I said, transferring this complex bundle of intangible elements into a movie is hard.

The operation has worked wonderfully once already (with The Lost Daughter, with a superb Olivia Colman) and it is working partially in The Lying Life Of The Adults. The are several remarkable things in this production: the acting is pretty good across the board and it succeeds in bring to life a gallery of strong characters. The portrayal of Naples is very realistic, never falling into clichés of caricatures. And finally, the underlying feeling of uneasiness which pervades the story is rendered very well.

On the less positive side, a good editing would have cut down significantly this production to 4 episodes max. Lastly, I thought the presence of the soundtrack was rather intrusive, it was one song after the other, and I found it detracted from the pensiveness of some situations.

Avatar: The Way of Water (2022)

Avatar's avatar

[4/10 · 14 December 2022]

What I just saw must have been the Avatar's avatar....can't be the real thing.

I can understand that stirring the broth of an old success could be, in the desolation called post-covid cinema, an appealing idea for trying to hit again the box office but this was just "Avatar goes to the sea"... Was it too much to expect at least one new idea? Some surprise? That at least some of the ingredients of the old, stale broth would be innovated?

Apparently yes, if one has call old Sigourney Weaver from the dead it was clearly too much.

And, by the way, did I see some scenes from Titanic? And some others from Jaws? No, I didn't.... Or did I?

So Avatar's avatar, with more water, too many bang-bangs and way too many kids around. For never-ending three hours and twelve minutes....

Vatican Girl: The Disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi (2022)

Vatican Horror Show

[7/10 · 29 October 2022]

Let's get rid of one aspect upfront: as several reviews remark, the documentary drags a little here and there; could've been 3 episodes maybe? Yes probably.

But - is this really the point?

No, I done think so. This is a tragic story and had to be told; and re-told over and over again.

The documentary has the big merit of laying on the table all the facts and the underlying theories, from the most credible to the obviously fake, behind the Orlandi case in a rather objective and lucid manner.

And while, as expected, the documentary offers no culprit, it leaves the viewer with a well documented certainty: whatever the truth is, there is only one knowing it: the Vatican. And the Vatican keeps hiding it; and this is an insult to the family, to the justice system and to their faithfuls.

Considering the huge cost in terms of reputation damage this is causing to the Vatican, the benefit of doing it must be bigger. So it must be VERY big.

All the Old Knives (2022)

For the connoisseurs of the genre

[7/10 · 8 April 2022]

The movie has all the good accessories: sleek production, atmospheric mise-en-scene, glossy photography, powerful soundtrack.

But it's the excellent screenplay (from author Olen Steinhauer) and acting performances that make All The Old Knives a high quality espionage thriller, one made of the good old stuff.

For once the genre is not represented in movies by the usual kiss-kiss bang-bang, car chases, fistfights and the whole James Bond enchilada. This is espionage for connoisseurs.

The Right Stuff (2020)

The Wrong Staff (Disney's) re-writes history for entertainment purposes

[2/10 · 1 April 2022]

The upfront disclaimer was pretty honest: the series was a "dramatisation" of "fictionalised" real events. And, oh man, that it was...

So, that was well understood; yet, there's a big difference between "fictionalising" and completely distorting, or worse inventing, history. But that's what's happening in the TV series; essentially, history is re-written every time the Disney producers deemed it necessary for entertainment purposes.

We are presented a full hour episode on an event that never occurred: Al Shepard's sexscapade to Tijuana and John Glenn's intervention with the journalist to stop the publishing. The "Konakai seance" takes 4-5 pages in the book and there's nothing of all the above; the Disney crew decided to beef it up, transforming it into a full hour episode and inventing from scratch something which simply never happened.

The most remarkable of all this made up stuff? The selection of Alan Shepard as the astronaut for the first mission; history says (and so does the book) that Bob Gilruth made the decision based on a number of objective criteria, among which the peer vote was only one, most likely not even the key one. Not good enough for our Disney eggheads...in a dramatic TV scene Alan Shepard is voted by his peer and based on this he "wins" the first man in space prize. Outrageous....

In front of such abuses of historical reality, what good does to call out the phenomenal miscasting of virtually every role? Or the caricatural interpretations of most characters? Or the plastic production style?

Luckily for the buffs of the genre there's a fantastic series on Apple TV (For All Mankind) and, as sci-fi historical fiction, that is really The Right Stuff....

Notre-Dame on Fire (2022)

A National Shame

[7/10 · 23 March 2022]

Notre Dame Brûle is a crying indictment to the entire system (or lack thereof) that was supposed to protect and preserve from the risk of fire one of the most ancient and beautiful monuments of the world.

How is it possible that the several tons of very old wood that made the roof of the cathedral were not equipped with an extensive state of the art anti fire system? Had any of the cathedral's curators ever took a stroll across what was called "the forest"? Had the idea of what a sparkle could do in such environment ever crossed their mind?

How is it possible that none of the curators ever felt the need to design and put in place a pre-defined plan of intervention that would allow an instantaneous deployment of the fire brigades in case of fire emergency?

How is it possible that no one ever thought it might be a good idea to invest into equipping the cathedral with a modern, reliable, pervasive fire alarm system?

How is it possible that so many of the cathedral's infrastructures, like the pipes supposed to carry the water to the roof, were completely decrepit and unusable?

All the polemics surrounding the crisis management after the fire were simply sterile: one hour after the roof caught fire, the cathedral was doomed, the fire was out of control. All was decided in those 60 minutes when all the outdated, failing systems in place did nothing to trigger a prompt response.

This is no hindsight: the hypothesis of a fire was (should have been) a very real one; but none of those in charge acted upon it.

If Notre Dame is still standing, despite the ineptness of its curators, it is thanks to the superior bravery of a bunch of fire brigades officers who put their lives at risk to go in and extinguish the fire in the left tower.

This incident however will remain a forever stain on France's credibility in its ability to protect its artistic patrimony.

14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible (2021)

I review the documentary, not the project

[4/10 · 22 December 2021]

Let's get this clear upfront: I am reviewing the documentary here, not the endeavour nor its protagonist - they both have my deepest respect and admiration.

Now, the documentary: it's actually bad, pretty bad, brother. I am junkie of mountaineering books and movies and I think I've seen the good, the bad and the ugly of it. 14 Peaks rates rather low for the simple reason that there is very little mountaineering and climbing in it and the very little that is there is not made very interesting.

The documentary ends up being a long pep talk, a lot of philosophising (some of it a little cheap) and quite a bit of self promotion.

So, yeah, brother...chapeau to the project but as for the movie, try harder...

Nixon (1995)

Not a great service to the cause...

[4/10 · 21 December 2021]

Despite the usual ruthless fury, Oliver Stone's movie does not do a great service to the task of putting Nixon at the place in history he deserves, i.e. One of the three worst post-war presidents of the US of A (the other two being G. W. Bush and Donald Trump).

The real Nixon provided enough damning facts and evidence to make his depiction as a grotesque caricature not only unnecessary but even counterproductive, as it offers the flank to his remaining partisans for undermining the credibility of such reality.

On a pure cinematographic level, I can only underline the unfortunate cast choice of Anthony Hopkins, who has neither the look nor the accent to be a credible Nixon.

Swan Song (I) (2021)

Slick movie, bland ending

[6/10 · 20 December 2021]

A very watchable and slick movie (reminding a lot the look&feel of Ex Machina), excellent production values and some thought provoking ideas. A large part of the potential was wasted in a rather bland ending....shame.

Hell (2010)

A good movie, but especially a brave one...

[7/10 · 20 December 2021]

What I found remarkable in El Infierno is not much its cinematic qualities, which by the way are not to be neglected: it is a well made movie with very good performances (in fact, there's a good deal of Narcos' actors in it...).

It is especially the courage of portraying the villains in a way that does not make them look like heroes; different from many movies on the same subject, the drug dealers in El Infierno are ridiculous, or idiots, or servants, or weaklings...anyway nothing that risks to create any admiration, even if only at unconscious level.

The Hand of God (2021)

Success can be a trap...

[5/10 · 16 December 2021]

Paolo Sorrentino hit pay dirt with La Grande Bellezza; in that gorgeous, elegant movie Sorrentino succeeded in the magical alchemy of blending the great tradition of Italian neorealism with his own brand of surrealism. The result was stylistically very innovative and cinematically very enjoyable.

Success, especially when it's big, can become a trap and unfortunately Sorrentino has fallen into it. Granted, The Hand Of God is visually very polished, but I'm afraid there's little more; it plays around easy emotions, it offers some cute folkloristic vignettes, it touches the right chords of melancholy but that's it. It does not really provoke, it does not surprise, it does not stir your guts.

The Power of the Dog (2021)

The movie is very beautiful. And very boring.

[3/10 · 1 December 2021]

Beautiful landscapes, beautiful colours, beautiful photography, beautiful acting.

And a very boring story.

The only mitigating element of said boredom being the uneasy feeling of sickness pervading the whole movie.

Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood (2019)

An act of supreme cinematographic onanism

[4/10 · 3 August 2021]

Technically, the movie is undeniably beautiful: superb photography, great camera management, superior acting performances.

Conceptually, it is a supreme act of cinematographic onanism: it is cinema talking to itself about itself. And, as if it was enough, wining at the inner circle of cinema initiated, i.e. Those knowing in detail, among others, the relationship of Jay Sebring with Sharon Tate and Roman Polanski in 1969.... And what is if not supreme cinematographic onanism the final statement of the movie that Hollywood can re-write history as it pleases?

W. (I) (2008)

A Stone in GWB's eye

[7/10 · 14 June 2021]

W. Seems to have disappointed many of Oliver Stone's fans; actually the movie lacks the vehemence, the all-around attacks, the gloomy conspiratorial narrative of most of his documentary films.

Mr Stone might have thought all his usual arsenal was not needed in the case of George W. Bush Jr; in fact, an almost subdued if not moderate tone voice worked best - in my view - to call out the key traits of our hero: a mediocre man, actually a dumbass, an insecure kid turned into an obsessive man, a puppet manoeuvred by a bunch of dangerous acolytes.

Exposing reality as is was more than enough here, actually an over-dramatisation might have proved counterproductive.

I thought it was interesting to compare and contrast W. With Adam McKay's Vice; the very same facts, told from Cheney's perspective and with a totally different style but very consistent, offer a nice complement to W.

Hillbilly Elegy (2020)

Sanitised version of the book

[4/10 · 11 May 2021]

What director Ron Howards does with the cinematic execution of Hillbilly Elegy is to take out the "culture crisis" part and focus on the "family crisis" only while the book - as the subtitle suggests - attempts to cover both aspects.

The result is that the movie plays out as a depoliticised version of the book; so, with all the controversial aspects removed, we are left with the dysfunctional family story and all the attached clichés.

Nice photography and some good performance by Close and Adams (anyway more than offset by Gabriel Basso's embarrassing one) are not enough to save the day.

Come Sunday (2018)

What was this about?

[3/10 · 14 March 2021]

So, let's see: what we have in Come Sunday is on the one side an evangelist preacher prey of mystic crisis because he heard God whispering in his ears a different truth from the established doctrine. The preacher does not do much not to get emarginated: he's a self-righteous, impulsive, arrogant dude ready to hurt those who love him (from his wife to a young boy who worships him) and still feel sorry for himself.

On the other side we have a bunch of bigots and zealots who, imbued of the sacred and untouchable doctrine, cast him aside as a pariah, yet showing lots of sorrow for doing so.

So what was this about? I am still not sure. The whole story seemed to me rather irrelevant: any man or woman of church knows that doctrine is at the base of everything and doctrine does not get changed by a single person. So you know upfront what you get into, no surprises; then of course you can have a crisis of conscience (weather God spoke to you or not) but surely the reverend's is no way of handling such a crisis. But then again, I did not really care....

Sergio (2020)

Painful to watch melodrama

[1/10 · 11 March 2021]

I must say I don't know much about Sergio De Mello's life - and the little I've learnt gained him quite a lot of my respect - but I do have a strong suspicion that he would be rather unhappy about this movie. Sergio is a painful-to-watch blend of drama and melodrama (skewed towards the latter), where human tragedies like the war in Iraq, the revolution in Timor East, the refugees from the Khmer Rouges atrocities become just shards of backdrop to the love story between Sergio and Carolina. The movie also suffers from severe miscasting and poor acting; Wagner Moura is a good actor, his performance as Pablo Escobar was remarkable, but Sergio was not his role. Here he constantly over acts, goggling and rolling his eyes and offering exaggerated and fake smiles. Ana de Armas has very little to offer beyond her delightful smile and her lovely eyes; when it comes to express emotions, yeah, well that is a little limited. Should this not suffice, the editing of Sergio is atrocious: the story keeps jumping back and forth in time in a totally disjointed manner. We are in Itaq, somebody mentions Sergio's sons? Cut! Enter scenes of Sergio with sons. We are in the Cambodian jungle, and what crosses Sergio's mind? Carolina! Cut! Enter scenes of Sergio and Carolina exchanging cuddles. Lastly, the prolonged, agonising and highly theatralised scene of Sergio's death with the sole aim of providing filing footage is an insult to his memory. RIP.

Malcolm & Marie (2021)

Beautiful and insightful

[7/10 · 7 February 2021]

If you are a plot-driven person, you are likely to get bored to death by this movie, essentially because it is shamelessly plot-less. If instead you are intrigued by the functioning of the human psyche, by the dynamics of human relationships, by the impact of emotions and of their expression (or lack thereof), then you'll probably like Malcolm&Marie . From a cinematographic standpoint, the movie is sustained by great screenplay and dialogues enacted by superlative acting; so much so that the whole thing might look at times as overdone, hence self-indulgent and self-conscious. But honestly this is an aspect that seem to be annoying for the critics more than for the public. Reality is that I found the movie aesthetically beautiful and also quite insightful.

L'ultimo paradiso (2021)

You can try to stand on the shoulders of giants...

[1/10 · 6 February 2021]

...but if you fall, you crash. The Last Paradiso toys with some classics of the Italian neo realism, from Rossellini to Germi and De Sica but it's like playing with fire if you can't master the stuff. Young director Ricciardulli has taken up a task way above his skills and he gets it wrong on so many levels that it hurts: from a silly screenplay with carton-board dialogues to worn out clichés. But where he fails mostly is with the tone of voice of his movie, which swings randomly from tragic (in the crudely violent scenes of mafia) to sugary lighthearted (in the corny romance scenes) without finding a cohesive unity, and a good photography is not enough to save the day.