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This Ain't California (2012)
This movie is not about facts, but about truth.
And the truth is, this is per Definition no documentary.
It rather shows the truth that many encountered in the GDR and the creators merged those stories and it's spirit into one legend.
This legend, as the movie calls it out at the very beginning, is the boy Denis Paracek aka "Panik" whose story gets narrated by old by old friends in revision after his sudden death in a military mission in Afghanistan. Through him they tell the story of growing up in the GDR 80's, skating and rebelling as early part of the skating scene and it's sudden end when the GDR too found it's sudden end.
Visually the story gets told through mostly recreated analogue shots with actors and some real shots and fotographs. They did a extremely good job on the recreated footage and paired that with perfectly fitting soundtracks. Overall great editing.
Many of the showed friends that talk about Denis or growing up skating in the GDR, aswell as the producer and director of the movie, are people that were part of the skating community in the GDR and did live their part of those stories.
Only Denis and the main story tellers remain legend, but this does not diminish the sentimental value of the story that is told.
In the end this is a authentic coming of age movie like no other and it is most definitely worth watching.
Aquaman (2018)
No risk and no fun is what this movie is.
Where to begin..
This genre has become the cashcow everyone wants to slap, and this movie fits perfect into it.
It's no risk and no fun.
The main characters aswell as the storyline are really plain, it's working, but it's really far from unique and demanding. It feels like they put their hand in a box filled with every fantasy and super hero clichee and hold tight to anything they could grab at once. The result is a highly generic story with a utter lack of depth.
The dialoges work just the same way. Not as bad as for example in Thor 2 but the only upside is the ultra manly voice of Aquaman. Besides that it's just another movie where the writers have let the characters articulate the plot.
Visually I find most of the "upper world" scenes well set, and much of the CGI looks pretty good. But there are not just a few flaws where physics look extremely off, the usage of green/bluesreens gets visible or animations don't fit(like the scepter spinning from Dafoe).
The overall lighting is definitely on the pro side.
The design of the atlantean world and especially it's soldiers is probably a matter of taste, it doesn't hook me. Another key aspect of creating a fantastic world in a unusual atmosphere is the proper sound design which, in this case, is not striking at all. It's always a littler too saturated, too heavy to feel authentic and constantly flees into a conglomerate of basic dramatic fantasy sound settings and epic battle music.
The fights ain't spectacular but appropriate.