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The Polish Officer
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It is the late summer of 1938, Europe is about to explode, the Hollywood film star Fredric Stahl is...
Mission to Paris
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It is the late summer of 1938, Europe is about to explode, and the Hollywood film star Fredric Stahl...
Guy Pearce recommended The Godfather (1972) in Movies (curated)
Bali: A Paradise Created
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The Island of Bali--a true paradise is explored in this classic travelogue. From the artists and...
JT (287 KP) rated The Intouchables (2012) in Movies
Mar 17, 2020
Beautifully acted (2 more)
Well-directed
Heart warming
A foreign film that everyone should watch
I don’t think there has been one foreign film that I have watched that I have not liked or one that has not moved me in some way. It’s good to be able to pull away from mainstream Hollywood films and delve into another language.
This time I went for a heartwarming tale about a French aristocrat and a man from the projects who form an unlikely bond. Driss (Omar Sy) struggles in life, he lives at home with a large extended family and does his best to make ends meet.
Looking to show the benefits office that he is trying to find work so he can claim is not the easiest way to make money. On the other side, Philippe (François Cluzet) is dependent on everyone in his life, since a paragliding accident left him paralyzed from the neck down.
During an interview process to find his next carer in which Driss applies for the pair seemingly hit it off, and so begins a wonderful and awe-inspiring story. Driss who has never really needed to take responsibility after being pushed out on the street by his Aunt finds a new companion in Philippe.
Philippe too has found someone to share a smile with again, a laugh and most importantly someone that does not pity him which he feels is the most important. There is no particular story in this to adhere to, it’s about the growing relationship between two different people from opposite ends of the financial spectrum and how important they realise they are to each other.
Driss has to come to grips with the lifestyle that Philippe leads, how he has to be on call at every hour of the day, but living inside the large Parisian mansion he gets a taste of what his life is like to be wealthy and to seemingly have it all.
When Driss discovers that Philippe has an epistolary relationship with a woman he forces him to speak to her on the phone as opposed to the continual writing of letters, even going so far as to set him up on a date. Dris and Philippe force each other to step out of their comfort zones and to realize there is so much more in life.
The film’s serious nature is broken in parts by some beautiful light-hearted comedy, Driss realizing what the rubber gloves are for, and that foot cream is not shampoo. It’s been a while since I genuinely laughed out loud at any film.
When Philippe and Driss decide it is time to part ways there is a deflating sense of sadness that their relationship is over, but both men soon discover that they need each other in their life more than ever. Based on a true story it’s a brilliantly written and well-directed film that tugs at the heartstrings but will have you smiling all the way through.
This time I went for a heartwarming tale about a French aristocrat and a man from the projects who form an unlikely bond. Driss (Omar Sy) struggles in life, he lives at home with a large extended family and does his best to make ends meet.
Looking to show the benefits office that he is trying to find work so he can claim is not the easiest way to make money. On the other side, Philippe (François Cluzet) is dependent on everyone in his life, since a paragliding accident left him paralyzed from the neck down.
During an interview process to find his next carer in which Driss applies for the pair seemingly hit it off, and so begins a wonderful and awe-inspiring story. Driss who has never really needed to take responsibility after being pushed out on the street by his Aunt finds a new companion in Philippe.
Philippe too has found someone to share a smile with again, a laugh and most importantly someone that does not pity him which he feels is the most important. There is no particular story in this to adhere to, it’s about the growing relationship between two different people from opposite ends of the financial spectrum and how important they realise they are to each other.
Driss has to come to grips with the lifestyle that Philippe leads, how he has to be on call at every hour of the day, but living inside the large Parisian mansion he gets a taste of what his life is like to be wealthy and to seemingly have it all.
When Driss discovers that Philippe has an epistolary relationship with a woman he forces him to speak to her on the phone as opposed to the continual writing of letters, even going so far as to set him up on a date. Dris and Philippe force each other to step out of their comfort zones and to realize there is so much more in life.
The film’s serious nature is broken in parts by some beautiful light-hearted comedy, Driss realizing what the rubber gloves are for, and that foot cream is not shampoo. It’s been a while since I genuinely laughed out loud at any film.
When Philippe and Driss decide it is time to part ways there is a deflating sense of sadness that their relationship is over, but both men soon discover that they need each other in their life more than ever. Based on a true story it’s a brilliantly written and well-directed film that tugs at the heartstrings but will have you smiling all the way through.
Charlie Cobra Reviews (1840 KP) rated Ravenous (2017) in Movies
Jul 7, 2020 (Updated Oct 29, 2020)
Some Brief Moments of Uniqueness From This Above Average Zombie Film
Contains spoilers, click to show
This movie was pretty good for a foreign zombie film. The zombies were well done and the blood and special effects were good too. For me the real thing that kept me interested was how they tried to change up the zombies by giving them this new and unique behavior where they started taking objects and stacking them up high in some kind of weird ritual. To me though this never fully pays off as it is never explained why or what they were doing. The movie did do well in its scenes where it built the tension and actually kept things scary, which some zombie films fail to do. I also liked the way they kept the theme on survival and they were constantly running for their lives or looking for a place to hunker down and stay safe. The zombie kills were pretty gruesome and they didn't shy away from the blood and gore when it came to blowing a zombie's head clean off with a shotgun or showing someone's bite wound continue to bleed as they slowly die. Still this movie suffered from their not being a more solid plot or story tying the people together and although some know each other, they never really say how. To me this movie was better than the average zombie movie but just barely. I give it 6/10.
Chris Sawin (602 KP) rated Paprika (2006) in Movies
Jun 19, 2019
The DC Mini was created to not only record and watch a person's dreams, but to actually enter them as well. It was created by Kosaku Tokita at the Foundation for Psychiatric Research and was meant to be a form of therapy to help people find the purpose of manic disorders and other manias such as fear or anxiety issues. But when the DC Mini is stolen and the same dream is being implanted into people while they're awake with chaotic results, then the research foundation takes it upon themselves to try and find out who is behind all of this. Tokita, along with Atsuko Chiba and Torataro Shima, are on the case. But who is Paprika and how does Detective Toshimi Konakawa fit into the equation?
Let me just start off by saying I loved this film. It is weird, it is unusual, and it's creatively original. I think those are some of the best reasons to like Paprika other than the fact that the animation is incredibly fluid and crisp and the story is quite good, but we'll come back to those points shortly. With a film like Paprika that is so complex and so good, there's a lot of key points to mention.
There seems to be so much going on in the film even though it pretty much centers around one dream and it's a dream for the ages. One of the things I love about Paprika is that whenever this dream is implanted into somebody while they're awake, they just start spitting this random gibberish that doesn't make sense until you actually see the dream and see this parade. The way this parade bleeds into not only Detective Kogawa's dream, but into the real world is also a sight within itself.
Over the years I've found that not only anime fans but fans of foreign cinema prefer to watch the film in its natural language with subtitles rather than the English dubbed version. I'm not talking about someone who just watches anime occasionally, but die hard fans. The English dubbing used to be pretty bad on a lot of anime titles, but it's either progressed quite a bit since I last watched a dubbed title or this film is an exception. I had no problems watching the English dub of Paprika. The voices all fit the characters, it was synced up well, nothing really sounded out of place. I'd actually recommend the English dub over the subtitled version. The audio, in general, was very good. The soundtrack also fit Paprika like a glove. The music during the parade dream is a perfect example of this.
The animation of Paprika is where the film really shines. Each surreal dream is illustrated beautifully and each cel of animation flows in an almost realistic fashion. It's some of the best animation I've seen in an animated film that isn't entirely CGI. The story also reeled me in since what started off as something somewhat simple wound up being more complex than what I once thought. Most of Tokita's dialogue where he's describing why he created the DC Mini and it's purposes are a huge mouthful of scientific jargon that's hard to comprehend to its full extent on the first viewing of Paprika. I got more than what I expected story-wise and I was extremely happy with that.
Paprika is an extremely well animated, intelligent, trip into one's imagination that I'd recommend to anyone. The best way I can describe the film is by saying it's kind of like Akira with a story that actually makes sense. Track this film down, whether you're a fan of animated films or not. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.
Let me just start off by saying I loved this film. It is weird, it is unusual, and it's creatively original. I think those are some of the best reasons to like Paprika other than the fact that the animation is incredibly fluid and crisp and the story is quite good, but we'll come back to those points shortly. With a film like Paprika that is so complex and so good, there's a lot of key points to mention.
There seems to be so much going on in the film even though it pretty much centers around one dream and it's a dream for the ages. One of the things I love about Paprika is that whenever this dream is implanted into somebody while they're awake, they just start spitting this random gibberish that doesn't make sense until you actually see the dream and see this parade. The way this parade bleeds into not only Detective Kogawa's dream, but into the real world is also a sight within itself.
Over the years I've found that not only anime fans but fans of foreign cinema prefer to watch the film in its natural language with subtitles rather than the English dubbed version. I'm not talking about someone who just watches anime occasionally, but die hard fans. The English dubbing used to be pretty bad on a lot of anime titles, but it's either progressed quite a bit since I last watched a dubbed title or this film is an exception. I had no problems watching the English dub of Paprika. The voices all fit the characters, it was synced up well, nothing really sounded out of place. I'd actually recommend the English dub over the subtitled version. The audio, in general, was very good. The soundtrack also fit Paprika like a glove. The music during the parade dream is a perfect example of this.
The animation of Paprika is where the film really shines. Each surreal dream is illustrated beautifully and each cel of animation flows in an almost realistic fashion. It's some of the best animation I've seen in an animated film that isn't entirely CGI. The story also reeled me in since what started off as something somewhat simple wound up being more complex than what I once thought. Most of Tokita's dialogue where he's describing why he created the DC Mini and it's purposes are a huge mouthful of scientific jargon that's hard to comprehend to its full extent on the first viewing of Paprika. I got more than what I expected story-wise and I was extremely happy with that.
Paprika is an extremely well animated, intelligent, trip into one's imagination that I'd recommend to anyone. The best way I can describe the film is by saying it's kind of like Akira with a story that actually makes sense. Track this film down, whether you're a fan of animated films or not. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.
Bob Mann (459 KP) rated Red Sparrow (2018) in Movies
Sep 29, 2021
Good Lord! How much sex and violence is acceptable for a UK-15 film?
I recognise that it’s a “thing” that I get into periodic ‘ruts’ of ranting about particular aspects of cinema. But it’s not spoilers in trailers this time! No, the most recent rut I’ve been in is concerned with the correctness or otherwise of the BBFC’s rating of UK 15-certificate films, which seems to have been the rating of every cinema film I’ve seen recently! In my view both “Phantom Thread” and “Lady Bird” should both have firmly been 12A’s to attract a broader teenage audience. But here’s a case on the other side of the balance.
“Red Sparrow”, the latest film from “Hunger Games” director Francis Lawrence, has Jennifer Lawrence (“Joy“, “mother!“) as Dominika Egorova, a Russian ballerina, who after a horrific accident (cringe) is forced to serve the State in order to keep her mother (Joely Richardson, “101 Dalmations”) in their Bolshoi-funded apartment and with the necessary medical treatment. She is sent to a spy “whore school”, ruled over by “matron” (Charlotte Rampling), to learn how to use sexual and psychological means to ‘get in the pants’ (and therefore the minds) of foreign targets.
Always elegant. Charlotte Rampling back on our screens as “Matron”.
And she turns out to be very good and – without nepotism of course, given that her creepy uncle Egorov ( Matthias Schoenaerts, “Far From The Madding Crowd“) is high up in the special services – she is sent on a mission to Budapest to try to uncover a high profile mole, who’s CIA handler is Nate Nash (Joel Edgerton, “The Great Gatsby“, “Black Mass“). Supervising Egorov’s operation are his two line managers General Korchnoi (Jeremy Irons, “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice“) and Zakharov (Ciarán Hinds, “Harry Potter”). Sucked into a web of intrigue, Dominika needs to use all her skills and charms to complete her mission… which equates to keeping herself and her mother alive.
Now on the tarmac, Joel really wans’t looking forward to his Ryanair flight.
This is an extremely uneven film. In places it is quite brilliant, particularly the twist in the ending which leaves you thinking (like “Life“) that the film is actually better than it was. In fact – subject to a couple of severe reservations discussed below – the script by Justin Haythe (“A Cure for Wellness“) and based on a book by Jason Matthews, is quite sharp. But – man – in its direction the film seriously takes its time. In my book, a film needs to have a pretty good reason to extend its stay past 2 hours, and this outstays its welcome by an extra 20 minutes. Many of the scenes are protracted – leisurely walks across streets etc. – for no particularly good reason.
Pwoaahh – look at those. (I’m referring of course to Joel Edgerton’s buns in those speedos).
And so to those major reservations: the sex and the violence.
I’m no prude when it comes to sex, but some of the scenes in the ‘whore school’ left me feeling like this was less about a “Times Up” initiative of empowering women and more about providing an array of sordid titillation on the screen that just help entrench mysoginistic views about women. (Did anyone else hear Kenneth Williams saying “Oooooh, matron” to Charlotte Rampling’s character?) There were men and women attending this training camp, but did we see – later in the film – any of the men subjecting themselves to sexual humiliation or subjugation in the field: no, we did not. I love a really good erotic film… but this just left me feeling dirty and used.
Who wants to go to the f***ing party? No one seems to have remembered to bring a bottle.
And then there’s the violence. I’m definitely not a fan of the sort of violent-porn of the “Saw” type of films, but heavens – if there was a reason to make this an 18 certificate it was the violence involved. Violent rape, a vicious revenge attack, extreme torture, skinning alive: was there nothing in here that the censors thought, “hang on a minute, perhaps I don’t want a 15 year old seeing this”. I have seldom seen and heard more flinching and whimpering from women in a cinema audience than during this film. If you are adversely affected by screen violence, this is really one best to avoid.
“The Cold War hasn’t ended – it has splintered into thousands of dangerous pieces” intones the matron. Similarly, this film has potential but splinters into many pieces, some good but far more sharp and dangerous. With similarities in tone and content to “Atomic Blonde“, there’s a good ‘post cold war’ spy film in here trying to get out. Unfortunately, it never quite gets both legs over the wall.
“Red Sparrow”, the latest film from “Hunger Games” director Francis Lawrence, has Jennifer Lawrence (“Joy“, “mother!“) as Dominika Egorova, a Russian ballerina, who after a horrific accident (cringe) is forced to serve the State in order to keep her mother (Joely Richardson, “101 Dalmations”) in their Bolshoi-funded apartment and with the necessary medical treatment. She is sent to a spy “whore school”, ruled over by “matron” (Charlotte Rampling), to learn how to use sexual and psychological means to ‘get in the pants’ (and therefore the minds) of foreign targets.
Always elegant. Charlotte Rampling back on our screens as “Matron”.
And she turns out to be very good and – without nepotism of course, given that her creepy uncle Egorov ( Matthias Schoenaerts, “Far From The Madding Crowd“) is high up in the special services – she is sent on a mission to Budapest to try to uncover a high profile mole, who’s CIA handler is Nate Nash (Joel Edgerton, “The Great Gatsby“, “Black Mass“). Supervising Egorov’s operation are his two line managers General Korchnoi (Jeremy Irons, “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice“) and Zakharov (Ciarán Hinds, “Harry Potter”). Sucked into a web of intrigue, Dominika needs to use all her skills and charms to complete her mission… which equates to keeping herself and her mother alive.
Now on the tarmac, Joel really wans’t looking forward to his Ryanair flight.
This is an extremely uneven film. In places it is quite brilliant, particularly the twist in the ending which leaves you thinking (like “Life“) that the film is actually better than it was. In fact – subject to a couple of severe reservations discussed below – the script by Justin Haythe (“A Cure for Wellness“) and based on a book by Jason Matthews, is quite sharp. But – man – in its direction the film seriously takes its time. In my book, a film needs to have a pretty good reason to extend its stay past 2 hours, and this outstays its welcome by an extra 20 minutes. Many of the scenes are protracted – leisurely walks across streets etc. – for no particularly good reason.
Pwoaahh – look at those. (I’m referring of course to Joel Edgerton’s buns in those speedos).
And so to those major reservations: the sex and the violence.
I’m no prude when it comes to sex, but some of the scenes in the ‘whore school’ left me feeling like this was less about a “Times Up” initiative of empowering women and more about providing an array of sordid titillation on the screen that just help entrench mysoginistic views about women. (Did anyone else hear Kenneth Williams saying “Oooooh, matron” to Charlotte Rampling’s character?) There were men and women attending this training camp, but did we see – later in the film – any of the men subjecting themselves to sexual humiliation or subjugation in the field: no, we did not. I love a really good erotic film… but this just left me feeling dirty and used.
Who wants to go to the f***ing party? No one seems to have remembered to bring a bottle.
And then there’s the violence. I’m definitely not a fan of the sort of violent-porn of the “Saw” type of films, but heavens – if there was a reason to make this an 18 certificate it was the violence involved. Violent rape, a vicious revenge attack, extreme torture, skinning alive: was there nothing in here that the censors thought, “hang on a minute, perhaps I don’t want a 15 year old seeing this”. I have seldom seen and heard more flinching and whimpering from women in a cinema audience than during this film. If you are adversely affected by screen violence, this is really one best to avoid.
“The Cold War hasn’t ended – it has splintered into thousands of dangerous pieces” intones the matron. Similarly, this film has potential but splinters into many pieces, some good but far more sharp and dangerous. With similarities in tone and content to “Atomic Blonde“, there’s a good ‘post cold war’ spy film in here trying to get out. Unfortunately, it never quite gets both legs over the wall.
Andy K (10821 KP) rated Parasite (2019) in Movies
Nov 25, 2019
Truly unique filmmaking!
OK I'm going to do something a little different this time since this film is not playing in the UK until January I thought I read somewhere.
-Is it good? Yes
-Is it really good? Yes
-Is it great? Yes
-Is it one of the best movies of 2019? Can't ask me that since I don't go to the cinema often.
-Is it remarkable?...Yes
-Is it phenomenal? .................Yes
-Is it maybe a tad overrated? Yes if maybe only by its IMDb rating. It currently holds an IMDb rating as of this review date of 8.5 which is quite remarkable for any film. Not saying IMDb rating is everything, but when 8.5 is equal to films like Back to the Future, Terminator 2 and Psycho, I'll stick by a tad overrated at this point. I'm sure the rating will settle back down a bit once more people have seen, but pretty impressive as of now.
-Will it receive a lot of Academy Award nominations for 2019? Right now I will predict 7 including Foreign Film (obviously), some technicals, screenplay, director and Best Picture.
-Will it win Best Picture? Early Andy prediction probably not, but would have a shot at screenplay (other than Tarantino) or maybe director (or maybe Scorsese), but very early at this point to predict since I have not seen other films yet.
-Is it what you thought it would be? Not sure since I purposely tried to avoid knowing much going in. I had heard it was a good version of Us, or what people thought Us should be, so I was thinking horror and it isn't that at all. More comedy suspense thriller but hard to categorize.
Please let me know what you think once you see for yourself. Maybe I'll write about it again in a few months with more detail. Or shoot me a message if you wish to discuss further.
-Is it good? Yes
-Is it really good? Yes
-Is it great? Yes
-Is it one of the best movies of 2019? Can't ask me that since I don't go to the cinema often.
-Is it remarkable?...Yes
-Is it phenomenal? .................Yes
-Is it maybe a tad overrated? Yes if maybe only by its IMDb rating. It currently holds an IMDb rating as of this review date of 8.5 which is quite remarkable for any film. Not saying IMDb rating is everything, but when 8.5 is equal to films like Back to the Future, Terminator 2 and Psycho, I'll stick by a tad overrated at this point. I'm sure the rating will settle back down a bit once more people have seen, but pretty impressive as of now.
-Will it receive a lot of Academy Award nominations for 2019? Right now I will predict 7 including Foreign Film (obviously), some technicals, screenplay, director and Best Picture.
-Will it win Best Picture? Early Andy prediction probably not, but would have a shot at screenplay (other than Tarantino) or maybe director (or maybe Scorsese), but very early at this point to predict since I have not seen other films yet.
-Is it what you thought it would be? Not sure since I purposely tried to avoid knowing much going in. I had heard it was a good version of Us, or what people thought Us should be, so I was thinking horror and it isn't that at all. More comedy suspense thriller but hard to categorize.
Please let me know what you think once you see for yourself. Maybe I'll write about it again in a few months with more detail. Or shoot me a message if you wish to discuss further.
Kirk Bage (1775 KP) rated Waltz With Bashir (2008) in Movies
Mar 11, 2021
This is the fifth in the series of films I would recommend to an alien to explain humanity. Not, as posted on the Instagram account, #6 – sorry for the confusion, I think I skipped #4 on there when posting for Schindler’s List a few weeks ago. Anyway… today’s choice is Ari Folman’s extraordinary antiwar film from 2008, which combines several forms of animation and live action footage to create a dreamlike landscape of the 1982 invasion of Lebanon, and one man’s journey to reconstruct his own lost memories of events.
I saw this when working at The Cameo Cinema in Edinburgh on release. It was the kind of thing I loved to discover that I wouldn’t normally have paid to see. Its impact on me was immediate, and I went back to see it 3 more times. When it was released on DVD in 2009, it became my go to movie to gift to people who I knew would love it but may not have even heard of it, due to its low profile arthouse origins. It was nominated in the Best Foreign Language Film category at the Oscars, but otherwise went under the radar in many ways. I still doubt it has been seen by a quarter of the people who would immediately say it was one of the most amazing films they had ever seen.
The animation may seem gimmicky at first, but once you identify its utility in this context and understand this is not a film for children, it becomes a transcendent trip of vibrant colour, emotion and… humanity. I would call it as indispensable an antiwar movie as Apocalypse Now, and in many ways so much more moving than that classic. If you have yet to see it, do yourself a favour, pick a time you can reflect and allow the dreamlike quality to carry you away.
I saw this when working at The Cameo Cinema in Edinburgh on release. It was the kind of thing I loved to discover that I wouldn’t normally have paid to see. Its impact on me was immediate, and I went back to see it 3 more times. When it was released on DVD in 2009, it became my go to movie to gift to people who I knew would love it but may not have even heard of it, due to its low profile arthouse origins. It was nominated in the Best Foreign Language Film category at the Oscars, but otherwise went under the radar in many ways. I still doubt it has been seen by a quarter of the people who would immediately say it was one of the most amazing films they had ever seen.
The animation may seem gimmicky at first, but once you identify its utility in this context and understand this is not a film for children, it becomes a transcendent trip of vibrant colour, emotion and… humanity. I would call it as indispensable an antiwar movie as Apocalypse Now, and in many ways so much more moving than that classic. If you have yet to see it, do yourself a favour, pick a time you can reflect and allow the dreamlike quality to carry you away.