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Reviews
Shutter Island (2010)
A (could be) masterpiece movie
Shutter Island has everything to be a great movie (the set, the director, the actors and the screenplay) but it has failed in delivering a solid movie that impacts and grabs you to the chair from the first minute.
In some moment, it seems like Martin Scorsese exaggerates in Leonardo di Caprio's dreams, and somehow the connection between the viewer and the movie is lost, and even though the last 30 minutes are amazing you end up leaving the cinema without the idea that this is another masterpiece from Scorsese.
In the end it's a pity because Shutter Island had everything to become the top 2010 movie so far.
A Complete History of My Sexual Failures (2008)
Poor Chris
Premiere night in Madrid. Full house to see Chris Waitt himself (and mother) to do the introduction before the movie, with Angel Martin (the guy who dubbed him in Spanish - yes, unfortunately it was the dubbed version). "Meet my voice" said the director/actor with pure irony...
The documentary starts with a simple idea: he had just broken up with another girlfriend and decides to investigate why do women always leave him. So, let's start to call of the ex's! The secret of the movie is the very good editing, the music and the extent at which he mocks himself, even up to the point where we can start to feel some pity for the poor fellow...
In some points, and by being filmed the same way one tends to remember "Supersize me". I guess the auto-documentary is an easy and cheaper way to express!
In the end, we leave the room with some good laughs, maybe even identified with some situations that make up man-woman relationships, but most of all, absolutely sure that to build strong relationships you must give the best out of you and try not to be a childish and selfish pig just like Chris...
Crash (2004)
The Oscars' surprise
I had great expectations to see this movie, after all it was the Oscar award winner for best picture in 2005 and although it came as a surprise (even for the producers I would say) the reviews were great and it had the likings of a very good work. I don't recall the other nominees that year by heart but "Crash" was surely a good winner.
It leaves you with some bitter feelings in many scenes for the realism in which its based and for the most basic feelings of love, hate, racism and discrimination that our society brings. You get to feel anguished with some characters and also with yourself by thinking the same way.
The tiled Los Angeles that we see can be the reflection of many big cities around the world and the "curse" of the evolution of the society. That's just the way it is...
Revolutionary Road (2008)
How revolutionary can you be?
I still have the anguish and distress in my stomach. The same I had when the movie was over and the same I had when I went to bed that night.
Leonardo Di Caprio still looks like the same kid as in Titanic, always good-looking and elegant, but now making the biggest effort to convince us that he is a great actor. The truth is that he is. There is nothing much to prove...
I didn't know much about the movie and never read the book before. My choice was purely based in the quality of the actors and director and maybe a trailer I had seen previously. Fortunately 100 minutes later I was seating with the impression of having seen one of the best movies of the year.
A movie that can describe the suffocation of living a life full of conventionalisms and the frustration from dealing with the impossibility of getting rid of them. Any argument from the Wheeler's in the 50's can be the exact same argument from the Johnson's in the 00's in a suburb anywhere. But "Revolutionary Road" is not only the typical story of a couple who buys a house, has kids, goes out with the friendly neighbor's and one day starts asking "what are we doing around here?"...
Seems like no one knows the answer except a magnificent character, a neighbor's son who has a psychiatric problem. Maybe sometimes you just need to be a little insane to see things as they really are.
No need to tell you anymore. Please go and watch it for yourselves. Devastating but necessary.
Slumdog Millionaire (2008)
20 million rupees
At today's exchange rate Jamal Malik would have won 309.856! Not bad for a country with a monthly average wage of 40.
I went to see "Slumdog Millionaire" after the Oscars so my idea was to give consent to the 8 statues it took back home and for the unanimous opinions of a great film. It was absolutely deserved. It's a non-stop action movie, full of rhythm, love, emotion, humor and suspense. For me, the best is the photography and mostly the edition (the most deserved Oscar!). All the cuts, questions from the TV contest and flashbacks are perfect and give us a clear view to understand why Jamal managed to get all the questions right.
The music, as usually in Danny Boyle's filmography, plays a very important role. "Paper Planes" from MIA was one of my favorites but the whole Soundtrack is worth given a careful look.
The movie is a fight between the importance of money and love. And in the end both win tough in different ways...