OlgaGorelik Reviews

Falling for Figaro (2020)

I would much rather watch a movie about two of the supporting characters

[4/10 · 16 May 2024]

The risk in making a movie about opera singers is that the viewer needs to be at least somewhat musically inclined and versed in opera to be able to tell the difference between good singing and not so good. Or maybe it's just me. I found close captions really helpful when they announced "Singing badly" or "Singing competently". And then had to rely on the various on screen jurys to help me differentiate between competent and really good. It didn't help that Max (Hugh Skinner) looked like someone who just got hit on the head with something heavy every time he sang and at other times too. Millie (Danielle Macdonald) is a much more enjoyable and solid presence, both on stage and off. It was hard to believe though that she wouldn't have at least some jitters before going in front of the large audience having never been on stage before. It would have made the performance more interesting too. But one cannot expect a rom com to be completely realistic, right? What is expected though is some good "rom". And to me the chemistry between the leads felt forced, with her being too obvious and him being sabotaged, again, by that hit-on-the-head look. I found some of the secondary characters much more interesting. Joanna Lumley as Max and Millie's voice teacher and, especially, Gary Lewis as the owner of the pub/inn gave their characters more depth in their limited screen time than the leads ever managed. And in the single brief scene they shared there was such great chemistry, I was genuinely disappointed that we never learned more about those two. That would have been a movie I would want to watch.

Ferrari (2023)

Maybe if I understood the world of car racing, this wouldn't feel so paint-by-numbers.

[5/10 · 9 March 2024]

Enzo Ferrari lived a long, eventful life. The movie Ferrari looks at a brief period in his life, in 1957. We learn that Ferrari (Adam Driver) loved women. It's not shown directly, but by the fact that he had a mistress named Lina Lardi (played by Shailene Woodley), with whom he had fathered a child and would often spend a night and his wife Laura (amazing Penelope Cruz) didn't find out for over 10 years because she thought he was just sleeping around. We learn that he loved his two sons. But more than anything he loved car racing. Once a racer himself, he, together with Laura, built a company that made commercial cars as well as race cars, which he now hired drivers to race. Perhaps if I had any interest in or understanding of the racing world, I would have been able to get more emotionally invested and less baffled. It's an extremely dangerous sport and Ferrari mentions on more than one occasion the close friends he lost and how much it affected him. Yet, he admits that he himself went back to racing in less than a week and is pushing his drivers relentlessly. In the movie the stakes get even higher - his cars need to win the race in order to save the company from going under, so his directions to the drivers are to act borderline suicidal. When a driver dies in front of Ferrari, he looks grief stricken for a few minutes before moving on to blaming the driver, and the driver's girlfriend, saying that everyone knows that's part of the deal, and hiring an eager replacement right on the spot. Another driver dies and Ferrari attitude is about the same. I understand that history cannot be changed, but I was hoping the characters would at least act in a way that is somewhat relatable. Instead the whole thing felt like paint-by-numbers.

Poor Things (2023)

Work of art in many ways, but too disturbing for my taste

[6/10 · 29 February 2024]

Visually Poor Things is absolutely stunning. Each frame is like a painting. It also has phenomenal music, which sometimes acts as not just an exquisite background, but an active commentator. Emma Stone delivers one of her best performances as naïve, yet incredibly perceptive Bella Baxter.

The camera work is quirky, with occasional, seemingly random odd angles and consistently unnatural lighting of the supposed exterior shots. I am sure it is very deliberate and I wonder if the filmmakers thought that creating a sense that everything is not quite real would make some very disturbing elements seem less so. The father of the character played by Willem Dafoe was very much a fictional cousin of Dr. Mengele, subjecting his son to horrific experiments in the name of science. The son, nevertheless, grew up worshipping him and followed in his footsteps, albeit focusing more on creating, a la Dr. Frankenstein. He is conveniently named Godwin, allowing Bella to legitimately call him "God".

But neither the fantastical look and feel of the film, nor the matter-of-factly presentation of the atrocities made them feel less disturbing to me. Godwin Baxter may have been a brilliant surgeon, but a nice and kind monster is still a monster. There is no question that Yorgos Lanthimos is a brilliant filmmaker. Poor Things is a work of art in so many ways. But in the end I was left with the images like half-dog-half-pig and a man on all fours eating leaves and I found them hard to unsee.

American Fiction (2023)

Brilliant satire wrapped in a melodrama

[8/10 · 24 February 2024]

There are two movies in American Fiction. One is a fairly basic family melodrama - middle age-ish siblings, victimized by nasty divorces, a deteriorating parent. Not bad at all, just not particularly special. The main character Thelonious Ellison, nicknamed "Monk", played by lovable Jeffrey Wright, described his family as something he would much rather avoid, and I was kind of disappointed because I couldn't really see what was so bad. The second movie is a brilliant satire about race relations. It starts with the very first scene where a white student with blue hair storms out of Monk's class because she is triggered by the n-word in the title of a book her black professor is making her read. It only gets better from there. The first movie serves as a fodder for the second making sure Monk cannot afford to get out of the predicament at the center of the satire. They converge in a movie within a movie kind of way, making me wonder if the family drama is also supposed to exemplify the kind of story Monk would prefer to write, but cannot get published, because, apparently, it's not the type of black story that publishers want. It's got two doctors, a lawyer, an academic. A live-in maid, a beach house, upper middle class financial woes. But if Monk is supposed to be a genuinely good writer, that story doesn't quite showcase that.

Lessons in Chemistry (2023)

Delicious, nutritious, highly satisfying full course meal

[10/10 · 19 February 2024]

I didn't want it to end. Smart, beautiful story, masterfully told. There is so much more to it than "a woman doing a cooking show because men won't let her be a chemist". But revealing even another bit here would spoil a narrative that is truly wonderful both moving forward and filling in the puzzle pieces with the details from the past. Some of the episodes were narrated by different characters, including a dog, but it never felt gimmicky, instead it added to the show's emotional texture. And it was such a pleasure to watch a show inhabited by characters who are genuinely good people. Not all, of course, but most. I am just so tired of series after series centered around protagonists who are at best really messed up and at worst just nasty people. It felt so good to root for characters to succeed not out of sympathy, or worse - pity, but because they've actually earned it. Lessons in Chemistry proves that characters don't have to be messed up to be complex and three dimensional. It just takes good writing and acting. It proves possible to have a powerful feminist undertone without hitting the viewer over the head with a message. And it demonstrates that it's possible to make a feel good show without over sweetening and obvious contrivances.

Yes, it is, ultimately, a feel good show. Not a sugary dessert though, but a delicious, nutritious, highly satisfying full course meal.

Barbie (I) (2023)

Clever and original premise sacrificed in favor of pounding in a primitive message

[3/10 · 9 February 2024]

I kind of liked the beginning of the movie. Not the very beginning with little girls violently destroying their baby dolls - that was rather disturbing. But the introduction to Barbieland was clever and hilarious. Top notch actors, led by Margot Robbie, played these Barbies and Kens with remarkable conviction and made the concept work. Barbie stepping out of her slippers to go into a shower and remaining on tippy toes was one of those moments that were just perfect. But of course, the incessant "Hi Barbie! Oh, hi Barbie!" and every day being the best day can only go on for a few minutes before becoming unbearably boring, so the movie introduces a disruption. In the real world there is a grown woman (America Ferrera) who is still into Barbies, even though her tween daughter Sasha (Arianna Greenblatt) has long stopped playing with them and regards them as hurtful to girls. (She is not wrong!) Well, the mom starts fantasising about Barbies that look like her (cellulite) and think like her (about death) and in doing so opens a portal between Barbieland and the real world. It's not as silly as it sounds and it could have worked really well exploring the questions of life and purpose and beauty and aging and all kinds of things. But instead the filmmakers decided to focus on delivering a message. As a result all the originality and creativity was sacrificed in favor of primitive ideas and an extremely black and white worldview. Men dominate the real world. All of it. But they are bumbling idiots both in the real world and in Barbieland. All of them. Women are sooo much better. All of them. Just because. It's ironic that the only Barbie who is actually capable of something is the one severely damaged by rough play.

The Gilded Age (2022– )

Style over substance

[6/10 · 3 February 2024]

Season 2 of The Gilded Age starts with hats. Ladies getting elaborate hats on and admiring themselves in the mirrors. I haven't seen Season 1, so I don't know what it started with, but Season 2 starts with hats. And hats are the stars of the show. Hats and dresses. Sure, there are also actors, some of whom are truly excellent, and storylines, some of which are very intriguing. I have a soft spot for shows like this - the ones that put fictional characters against the backdrop of various moments in history. And I did enjoy The Gilded Age, but in the end I felt like I'd just consumed a whole bunch of empty calories, an elaborate dessert without much substance. 19th century Kardashians scheming obsessively over their 19th century status symbols. Minor characters' stories are much more interesting, but they are minor. The setup created an illusion of depth, alas it was just an illusion.

Killer opening sequence music though.

Oppenheimer (I) (2023)

Truly a thriller

[9/10 · 1 February 2024]

It never ceases to amaze me when a movie tells a story, the outcome of which is common knowledge, and still manages to be nail biting. We know that the atomic bomb will get made and, tragically, used, yet I found myself on the proverbial edge of my seat waiting to see how the test goes. What's more, I caught myself hoping that it somehow fails.

It never ceases to amaze me when someone manages to make a movie about hard science and complicated history and you don't notice that it's 3 hours long. I loved how the three timelines were alternating, with the second one telling the story of the first and the third one - of the second.

It never ceases to amaze me when an actor morphs from a decent man into a villain over the course of a single scene. As great as Cillian Murphy's understated, yet intense performance as Oppenheimer is, it's Robert Downey Jr. As Lewis Strauss that impressed me the most. There's a lot of known figures in the movie and most came across, unfortunately, rather flat. Notable exceptions are Matt Damon's General Groves and Edward Teller played by Benny Safdie.

The Holdovers (2023)

Simple, yet complex. Sad, yet full of light.

[9/10 · 27 January 2024]

There's an element of predictability in The Holdovers. It's pretty obvious that the mean teacher Mr. Hunham (Paul Giamatti) will turn out to be at the very least not so mean. But what got uncovered about him as the film went along was completely unexpected. The same goes for the young Angus Tully (Dominic Sessa). And the way each layer was peeled off was so delightful. There is zero pretense in the film, yet says so much. It's simple, yet complex. Sad, yet full of light. And I loved how the story of Curtis Lamb that seemed unrelated at first turned out to be the subtle throughline of the film.

Where the Crawdads Sing (2022)

The filmmakers betrayed their heroine

[6/10 · 20 January 2024]

It starts the way most murder mysteries do - with a dead body. The prime and only suspect is a young woman named Kaya (Daisy Edgar-Jones). The only thing linking her to the crime scene is a single fiber from a wool hat. And the fact that she lives alone in a house in the middle of a marsh. The town only knows her as Marsh Girl and just about everyone despises her. One of the few people who don't is a retired attorney (David Strathairn), who volunteers to represent her. She tells him her story, giving the film a segway back to how it all started. We meet Kaya as a 6-7 year old (wonderful Jojo Regina), living in that same house in the middle of a marsh with her artist Ma, older siblings, and short tempered Da, who beat them all up. She couldn't go to school because she got bullied viciously for being dirty and shoeless. One day Ma had enough, packed a suitcase and left. Older sisters followed suit. Then her beloved brother. It was just her and Da, until he too left her to fend for herself. Impressively, she found ways to survive and blossomed into a beautiful young woman. Apparently, she even taught herself to professionally cut her own hair and procure a bunch of adorable clothes that fit her perfectly and looked not only spotless, but pressed. All while living without electricity or running water. I am being sarcastic, but it's hard to ignore the improbability when it's constantly in your face. The murder mystery part of the movie still works because it's a really good story. But I felt it was also supposed to be a story of a misunderstood outsider, who deserves love and respect. Yet the filmmakers seemed adamant that their heroine should look good at all times. It is as if they didn't trust the viewers to love her if she actually looked like someone who has lived alone in the middle of a marsh since childhood. And in doing so, they betrayed her.

A Storm for Christmas (2022)

Heartwarming, heartbreaking, full of living breathing human beings

[9/10 · 7 January 2024]

A Santa Claus, a priest, and a concert pianist walk into a bar... Sorry, couldn't resist. There IS a bar. And a guy working as a Santa Claus. And an actual priest. And a very indignant concert pianist, whose career is in free fall. There's also a pop star with her assistant and a body guard. A constantly fighting couple with a pre-teen daughter. A young woman meeting her lover. A very nasty female attorney. A girl sitting at the bar, working on a list of things her Dad might want for Christmas. Yeah, it's almost Christmas and all these people and many more are stuck in the Oslo airport due to bad weather.

Yes, it's a very overused setup. But we were browsing through Netflix on Christmas eve and literally all other Christmas movies looked downright ridiculous. At least being stuck at an airport because of bad weather is perfectly realistic. Airports do bring together people from all walks of life. And bad weather is a great equalizer - no amount of money will get you to your destination.

Over 6 30 minute episodes we get to know each of the many characters a bit and some of them get to know each other. Acting is excellent across the board. Everyone is a living breathing human being. This being a European series, there is a lot of sadness, but also a good amount of light. A skinny black Santa Claus manages to grant at least one child her Christmas wish, sort of. And one sugary miracle is forgiven.

Love at First Sight (I) (2023)

Surprisingly original, unpretentious heartwarmer

[8/10 · 2 January 2024]

Love at First Sight is a really lame title. Unoriginal. Uninspired. Lazy. Needless to say, my expectations were pretty low. And I was pleasantly surprised. Sure, the movie follows the old, tired formula - Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, fate gets involved, etc. But it is counteracted deftly by the actual mathematical formulas, like statistical probabilities. Yes, the probability of this particular coincidence is 0.6%, but hey, it's not 0. The movie is peppered with numbers, but that doesn't feel like a gimmick. The boy, Oliver (Ben Hardy) is a self described math nerd, who is studying statistics and loves talking about numbers. And I think the numbers have a grounding effect. The film manages to avoid the pretentiousness and contrivance that makes so many romcoms so cringey. Yes, Fate is an actual character (played perfectly by Jameela Jamil), but she doesn't interfere, she's just there - everywhere - as a ticket agent, a flight attendant, a bus driver, and many more. Every time it takes a moment to recognize her, which I thought was great. Hadley (Haley Lu Richardson) and Oliver meet and lose each other for the same mundane reason - Hadley's apparent inability to make sure her phone is charged. That's not a bad thing, it's the opposite of pretentious. Most of the film takes place in London, but away from famous, touristy places. Oliver's parents are Shakespearean actors, but there are no tacky allegories or anything. Just regular people who happen to be interesting, giving the movie subtle texture. And the leads are almost ordinary looking with an easy, natural chemistry.

May December (2023)

Two utterly unlikable women

[6/10 · 26 December 2023]

I remember that scandal in the news some years ago - a middle school teacher had an affair with a student, went to prison for it, they married after she got out. May December is loosely based on that story. Grace and Joe were working together at a pet store. She was 36, married with 2 kids, he was 13. She went to jail, had a baby, then they got married, had more kids. The movie takes place more than 20 years after their initial encounter, when someone in Hollywood decides to turn their story into a movie and the lead actress named Elizabeth Berry (Natalie Portman) drops in to do some research. So, it's kind of like the movie is about itself. We learn most of the story through Elizabeth's detective work. It's a clever device. It's masterfully executed. And it left a very bad taste in my mouth. I felt duped. I also found both women utterly unlikable. And while volatile Grace (Julianne Moore) is at least three dimensional, as we learn quite a bit about her, nothing is revealed about Elizabeth. Nothing good anyway. What's worse is there's no humanity in her. I sensed nothing behind that beautiful face, nothing but cold calculation.

Daily Dose of Sunshine (2023– )

Often felt like a PSA. Luckily, there's much more to it.

[7/10 · 24 December 2023]

Daily Dose of Sunshine is a Korean series about a young nurse at a psychiatric hospital. A lot of it felt like a PSA. Especially early on, when it looked like the show was poised to follow a neat pattern where each episode was dedicated to a particular mental health condition. There would be a patient or two with the diagnosis, and while the creators did a great job showing what the patient was actually feeling (ex. Panic attack as being stuck in the bathroom, rapidly filling up with water all the way to the ceiling), the causes and solutions seemed awfully simplistic and neat. But then it got messy. And that was a good thing because it got a lot more realistic. A seemingly successful treatment backfires tragically. Doing everything right doesn't always work. And sometimes medications can wreak havoc on the body, while still failing to help the mind.

There are some cute if clunky attempts at romance. And a lot of social commentary. People driving themselves mad trying to get ahead or just survive. Overworked AND stigmatized working mothers, stressing out about their kids, as young as 3rd grade, falling a little behind at school, because the consequences for their future can be catastrophic. Kids that study so much, they develop hemorrhoids by the time they are in college. Stress everywhere. Trying to get a job, on the job. Stress causing everything from panic disorder to full blown delusions. And on top of that - cruel stigmatization of mental illness. Maybe that 12 hour long PSA is indeed necessary. Luckily, it is also quite watchable.

The Prom (2020)

I don't know what possessed these great actors to participate in this cringe fest

[2/10 · 23 November 2023]

You can make a musical just about anything. Like, in case of The Prom, a news story. But, I suppose, to make spontaneous breaking into song somewhat more natural they had to add these Broadway actors, who barge into the story in an attempt to generate good publicity. For themselves. So, the musical that is now a movie is not really about a lesbian high schooler struggling for acceptance in Indiana. It's about those actors. And they are insufferable! Over the top, annoying. I kept watching, cringing, trying to figure out what possessed Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman, and James Corden to do this. I kept hoping it would get better. It never really did. It just got a couple of tearjerker moments that made me teary and furious, because I felt so manipulated. These great actors had to have seen something in it. I still don't know what.

No Hard Feelings (2023)

Heartfelt story about two adults coming of age

[7/10 · 20 November 2023]

Sometimes a movie trailer looks really promising. And the movie disappoints. Does it happen the other way around? I guess one good thing about not doing this for a living is that I never have to watch something that doesn't look good. I saw the scene where Jennifer Lawrence's Maddie is trying to convince the parents that she's is right for the "job" of bringing their son out of his shell on Netflix and my reaction was "No, thanks." But then someone recommended it and I decided to give it a try.

Sometimes a trailer has all the best scenes and there's not much good left in the rest of a movie. In case of No Hard Feelings it's the other way around. The trailer covers most of the worst scenes. All that dumb, raunchy, "may I see your wiener... your dog" stuff. And what's left is a heartfelt story about two people coming of age, even though they are both adults and one is supposed to be "mature". Maddie in that scene with the parents is nothing like she is in the rest of the film. Jennifer Lawrence is so good at this gradual, bit by bit, reveal of the vulnerable goodness that hides underneath Maddie's brash, rowdy exterior. She gives the movie its heart. It would be dead without it.

Forgotten Love (2023)

Superbly made feel good period piece

[9/10 · 19 November 2023]

The original title of this film was Znachor, which translates from Polish as "quack" or "medicine man". I suppose it's understandable that Netflix thought it needed something different. But they could have done way better than "Forgotten Love", which is not only cliche, but also not really fitting. Fortunately, that was the only thing I didn't like about the film. Sure, it has its share of worn out soapy elements - amnesia, personal and professional jealousy, inter-class romance. But everything, including those melodramatic parts, is done very very well. The movie never dwells on its period atmosphere, but it's rich nevertheless. Every character, even minor ones, is fleshed out and three dimensional thanks to superb acting. And every soapy bit is promptly grounded, never allowing the film to stray too far from reality.

Straight Up (I) (2019)

Great components fail to form a good movie

[6/10 · 11 November 2023]

The movie Straight Up has a number of great components. It sheds light on OCD in a humorous, but never derogatory way. It wonders if one's sexual orientation that is determined and imposed by others rather than by the person themselves, can be trusted. And, perhaps most importantly, can a committed relationship, that never have and never will include sex, survive? There's great dialogue, clever editing, and good acting. But the components fail to form a good movie. The main character has OCD, which includes fear of bodily fluids, making sex all but impossible for him with either gender. So, his sexual orientation is kind of a moot point. Yet there's so much handwringing about it. His "only friends" bully him on the regular basis, so no wonder he is so lonely and lost. But the movie glosses over that. It tries to be realistic, but not too dark and sad, fails at both, and loses its way.

Nowhere (II) (2023)

Improbable, contrived, but holds interest

[5/10 · 17 October 2023]

Spanish film Nowhere is an exercise in imagining and pretending. Let's imagine that a woman finds herself inside a shipping container adrift in the Atlantic ocean. The container has boxes with random goods, but no food. Oh, and let's make her pregnant, so that she is more motivated to fight for survival. How did she end up there? Let's pretend there's severe shortage. Like, so bad that stores closed because they had nothing to sell. I am guessing it was just food since the container is filled with TVs, headphones, and even alcohol. Anyway, let's pretend the country is ruled by a totalitarian regime that is the evilest the humanity has seen since, I don't know, ever. Also the stupidest. Their solution for dealing with the shortage? Kill off its own population. Started with all the old people. When that proved not enough, went after children and pregnant women. All of them. How did things get that way? Who cares. When is this dystopia taking place? Might as well make it now, won't have to invent any new technology or anything. After all, it's all just a pretense to get to the main idea. Kind of like a broken faucet in a porn film.

So, families with pregnant women and children who are still alive are paying the smugglers to put them inside shipping containers bound for Ireland. Among them are Niko and his wife Mia, a meek, quiet young woman, who is pregnant with the couple's second child - their daughter was taken by the regime and presumed killed. Of course the filmmakers needed the woman at sea alone, so they create a mix up that separates the couple. And since you can't exactly hide a truck with a shipping container in the bushes, the refugees are discovered and killed. But meek Mia proves resourceful and spots a hiding space, which helps her escape that fate. Also leaves her alone in the container, which then falls off the ship during a storm.

The story is sewn with a very visible thread. Mia finds a Swiss Army knife on the floor - ok, could have fallen out of someone's pocket. But then there's also an electric drill. Capable of making quarter sized holes in metal. Of course, the drill runs out of battery with just one hole left to make. And the little saw in the Swiss Army knife breaks on the last inch. Those random goods in boxes? Every single one of them will eventually find its use. Although that was actually quite fascinating to watch. But what's most important is that at the center of this contrived, improbable fantasy is a real, living, breathing woman. Anna Castillo plays Mia with such commitment and authenticity, I couldn't help rooting for her. And at one particularly nightmarish moment, when she had to go underwater, I caught myself actually holding my breath along with her. Is that enough to make the movie worth watching? I am not sure.

Wellmania (2023)

Grew on me. Fun, unpredictable, heartwarming ride

[7/10 · 8 October 2023]

The first time I tried watching Wellmania, I couldn't even make it through the first episode. I found the main actress annoying and her character, an Australian born New York food writer Liv Healy, even more annoying and obnoxious. It looked like the whole thing was going to be a trainwreck going nowhere good. Then I realized that the actress, Celeste Barber, was the same person, who created those hilarious videos mocking social media posers, and decided to give it another try. It turned out I stopped just as the show was about to come together. And Liv Healy grew on me. In the beginning she tried to tell the American consulate official (and us) that she "really is a lovely person", but was utterly unconvincing. But as she was forced to slow down from her "fly from New York to Australia for the weekend" lifestyle, she gave herself a chance to reveal, gradually, that she is just that. Smart, talented. And driven by fear of screwing up her life. Her fear is far from unfounded. She appears to have no filter and no impulse control, leading to screwups pretty much daily. And the last episode reveals that she's nursing a trauma of a screwup from her early teens that was so terrible, I felt the show was ill equipped to deal with it.

I really liked Liv's brother Gareth, played wonderfully by Lachlan Buchanan. He got the show's most enjoyable story arc. But Liv's best friend from childhood, now an uptight investigative reporter Amy Kwan (JJ Fong), whose 40th birthday was what brought Liv back to Australia, seemed over the top. And is it too much to ask for the show's set up to be something that can actually happen? Liv gets stuck in Australia after her green card is stolen and then revoked "until she can pass the physical exam", sending her on a literal "get well soon" mission. I found it hard to believe that one's green card can be revoked for health reasons, so I actually googled it. All I found was that maybe, if a person contracts something contagious. But not for passing out at the consulate and having high blood pressure. But oh well, in the end, it was a fun, unpredictable, heartwarming ride.

The Swimmers (2022)

Harrowing

[7/10 · 1 October 2023]

The Netflix teaser showed a scene that doesn't happen until two thirds of the way into the movie. That didn't make those two thirds any less harrowing. The characters half a world away both geographically and culturally are so human and relatable, I felt genuine dread, horror, and heartache for them. The titular Swimmers are real life Syrian sisters - 17 year old Yusra (Nathalie Issa), a driven and ambitious Olympic hopeful, and Sarah (Manal Issa), who is few years older and more interested in partying. They have a younger sister. And a pet bird. When the war starts, they try to carry on. There is a symbolic scene in which the sisters are dancing at a rooftop club. To Titanium. Rockets are falling in the distance. The loud music drowns out the sound of explosions, literally and figuratively. But the war catches up to them. The swimming complex gets hit. People they know are dying. Or going to Europe. The parents make an agonizing decision to let the girls go. With two conditions - they get their male cousin to go with them and they take a land route. The cousin comes, but the land route is quickly dismissed as impractical.

There are a lot of artsy shots in the film. But the most powerful ones are simple. Lifejackets sold everywhere at the place in Istanbul "where the Syrians meet". People quickly counting their borrowed money and handing it to the smugglers, who disappear with no guarantee that they will come back. The promised "boat" carried down to the shore - small and folded. The patches on it. And the sun sinking into the sea as the motor is dead, there's water in the boat and no land in sight.

The girls' journey could have easily looked like reenactment of various news stories from that time. But somehow the filmmakers managed to make it so much more. I felt like I was there, with those people, every step of the way. Unfortunately, that is lost in the last part of the film, after the scene that was in the teaser, and the movie becomes flat and kind of forced.

I don't want to say that it's an important film, but it is. And I am glad it's most important part is as well made as it is.

Happiness for Beginners (2023)

Ruined by the sloppy, stupid, uncreative romance

[3/10 · 2 September 2023]

There is a good movie somewhere in Happiness for Beginners. I know it, because it was right there in the trailer that promised a quirky story about a bunch of strangers on a guided backpacking trip. I know it because even though the characters were written as borderline caricatures, the actors, every single one, played them with such humanity and commitment, that not even countless lapses in common sense and continuity could distract me from enjoying watching this group of strangers, each carrying their own baggage, grow into a family over the course of the trip. I know it because it made me wish I could go on one of those trips.

Why the low rating then? Because it seems the filmmakers decided that all that wasn't enough. Last minute. So, they slapped together a love story, with a sob story, and another sob story, and dumped it all into the film. It looks like it was put together with minimal effort and creativity. And it ruined the whole thing.

I didn't know until I came here to post my review, that it was based on a book. So, obviously, things didn't happen that way, but that was the impression I got.

Saint X (2023)

Solid, satisfying, and with subtext

[8/10 · 26 August 2023]

An upper middle class family goes on vacation to a Caribbean island resort - Mom (Betsy Brandt), Dad (Michael Park), 19 year old Alison (West Duchovny), a confident, opinionated, and flirty Ivy League student, and anxious, shy 7 year old Claire (Kenlee Anaya Townsend). On the last night of the trip Alison disappears and is later found dead. Two resort workers and childhood friends Edwin (Jayden Elijah) and Clive (Josh Bonzie) are suspected to have killed her but never charged. 20 years later Claire, now going by Emily (Alycia Debnam-Carey) is living in New York and has finally gotten her life together after suffering a mental breakdown two years prior, when a chance encounter sends her on a treacherous quest for answers about her sister's death.

The story is told in two intertwining timelines. We watch Alison and family on their vacation, day by day, and as they draw closer to that fateful last night, present day Emily/Claire is unraveling as she gets closer and closer to the answers. Additional flashbacks to the aftermath of the tragedy and to Edwin and Clive's childhood provide some explanations and backstory with potential clues. The placement of the flashbacks seems random, but I actually liked it that way. They felt organic. The filmmakers' intent was never obvious. Clues came in subtly and unexpectedly, and it was impossible to tell what was a clue and what wasn't. And the final resolution turned out to be something completely unexpected. There was a bit of a hole in the last piece in the chain of events leading to Alison's death, but the rest of the chain was so great, so surprising, it didn't really bother me. Even the epilogue was full of unexpected turns.

I have to say, I usually can't help noticing holes in just about everything I watch. I didn't notice any here, aside from that one part.

Added bonus. It's more than just a thriller. It's a story about the toll it takes to pretend to be someone you're not.

Triangle of Sadness (2022)

Brilliance wasted on crude propaganda

[3/10 · 17 August 2023]

Triangle of sadness, apparently, is that spot between your eyebrows that gets deep wrinkles if you spend too much time being sad. And if one are a model, that's a no-no. At the same time they are told to look somber any time they are modeling expensive brands. This is one of the few examples of absurdity that is genuinely ironic. It's a dark comedy, absurdity is to be expected. Ultra luxury cruise ship, scrubbed sparkling clean, with everything a guest might ever possibly want, Nutella delivered by helicopter. And a captain who spends literally all his time in his room drinking. He also turns out to be a "Marxist", and when he finally makes an appearance, he finds himself in a protracted debate with a Russian oligarch about the economics and class struggle. Which takes place, in part over the announcement system, while the ship is being trashed by the rough seas, the dining room is a vomit fest, and those not vomiting are sitting in their lifejackets, waiting for the whole thing to go down.

By the third act absurdity reaches the next level. And it becomes obvious that all of it, from the beginning, is there to serve one purpose - to beat the viewer over the head with the idea that the rich are bad and the poor are good. Oh, and the rich wannabes, be it the ship's white gloved "yes" crew, perpetually shirtless aspiring models, or a model/influencer/aspiring trophy wife and her cretinous model boyfriend, all those people selling their souls and bodies for a chance to make "money-money-money-money" - they are even worse. But you know who is the worst of all - apparently, men.

There are moments in the film that are brilliant. There's a lot of them. And they are wasted on what ultimately comes across as a piece of crude propaganda.

Phantom Thread (2017)

Exquisitely crafted, ruined when it turns incoherent

[6/10 · 19 November 2022]

Phantom Thread is an exquisitely crafted film. Camera work, lighting, sound, music. Quirky, controlling, and slightly freakish dress designer Reynolds Woodcock (Daniel Day-Lewis) meets a meek and clumsy country waitress named Alma (Vicky Krieps). The characters are interesting, their relationship moves in a delightfully unpredictable manner. Until things start to get weird, and not in a good way. Towards the end neither the character development nor their actions make any sense.

Nearly every dress designed by Woodcock in the film was exquisitely made yet had a weird element that ruined it. Maybe it was intentional. Maybe it's just me. But I felt the same way about the film.