mongraff101 Reviews

Automata (I) (2014)

Crappy in all directions

[1/10 · 11 October 2014]

Bad story line, in-congruent, uninteresting scenes, unnecessary details. Bad acting, including Mrs Griffith-Banderas and her terrible face work (gosh, did you have the face-lift in Poland because it was cheaper?). Secondary school philosophy, ideas picked up at Tupperware parties or cocktail lectures, about the future of mankind and technology, nothing unseen or unheard many times before. The sets are deplorable, trying to feed on Blade Runner. Nice desert though, probably because it was not CGI. The robots are bad too, there's already better robotic hardware out there or the CGI solution could have saved the face. Looks like a B soap opera.

Detachment (2011)

We need more of this

[10/10 · 14 June 2012]

Overall, this is a sad movie ("talkie", as Mr Kaye defines it). Sad in the same way slam poetry, for which I have great admiration, is sad when it talks about a certain reality. It's a raw story, a true story that we'd probably need to hear more often, to help us stand up and make a difference. As Mrs Amy Winehouse remarked, the message was cruel but the delivery was kind. Having the reality of this talkie (no spoilers) delivered with such high artistry, makes the message more bearable. A film is the result of a complex and difficult number of task: writing a good script, casting the right actors, editing the best way one can do, all under the magic wand of a director, producer, etc. In all these, Detachment excelled! It is remarkable to see A-List actors playing tiny parts, some even without a line. That makes the team work very palpable, it makes the commitment to the subject very obvious. "The People Speak", another title comes to mind, where contemporary artists address subjects that matter and not just entertain.

If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle (2010)

A minimalistic, yet strong emotional shock-wave

[9/10 · 2 September 2010]

A visual artist knows that adding a little dot of light in the iris could change the whole portrait or even ruin the initial intention. Not adding the right dot, could have the same effect. Finding THAT balance, something needed in everything we do! That balance is written all over this movie! One reviewer from Romania is fed up with "movies about low-end society family problems". I don't know if Romanians make only such movies but this one is certainly not about Romania. And here the balance I was talking about becomes clear: a simple, personal tragedy may look unimportant to others but to the one who is tormented by it, it becomes life itself. The whole movie is feeding on this sentence, if I may say so. It dictates the filming and editing style (kudos for editing!), the choice of characters, dialog (probably improvised) and everything else. The movie is quiet (almost no soundtrack, very long minutes of no dialog, long takes) and yet the tension and ugliness of the personal horror could deafen someone. The hand held camera is also barely noticeable (someone was complaining about it), far from a Dogma head ache. This slight shake is a reminder the story is not a studio pose but a live action. The theme could be illustrated in many other ways, and it's been done before, probably because the theme is so human and unfortunately forever recurrent. But what impressed me the most is the movie as a whole. The film maker, if I can make him "responsible" for the result, must be a very elegant man, in terms of manners. A man that doesn't shout out his empathy but presents it on a silver tray. Bravo!