erikweijers Reviews

Django Unchained (2012)

Not a single dish of revenge, but a 5 course meal!

[9/10 · 5 February 2013]

If 'revenge is a dish best served cold', then QT serves us in Django a five course meal with a wide range of temperatures.

And that felt great to me as a viewer, to digest the different stages of revenge alongside our hero.

The first time Django gets his chance to avenge the brutality and humiliation he and his woman were exposed to, he furiously and uncontrollably whips and then shoots one of the Brittle brothers. And I felt the same hot blooded passion. When Calvin Candy gets one bullet through his despicable heart, I was surprised, but later thought: serves him well, not waste any other second on that scumbag. And when Stephen and the rest of the household get their share, you laugh at the cool, composed piece of showmanship (panache, anyone?) that Django has come up with. A sweet dessert after a heavy 3,4,5 course meal.

Concerning the N word. Yes, it is used in abundance. But at crucial moments it is absent, and that is what also counts, I think. For example, in the final little flashback when Schultz says to Django something like: 'They will call you the fastest gun in the South'. So in this final assessment of Django's achievement in the movie, Schultz makes no mention of the fact that he is a liberated black slave. He is a damn good gunslinger.

And a damn good gunslinger he was.

Cargo 200 (2007)

Saw this on a sneak preview: had a blast

[9/10 · 9 September 2008]

Now I remember why I like attending sneak previews so much. The absence of expectations from the audience. How does a curious movie audience react to the blackest of comedies slash nightmare? When I entered, some 200 people were in the audience. When the movie had ended, some 120 were left. The people who left, did so in the second hour of the movie, after having giggled the first hour. The talent of the filmmaker. I stayed and enjoyed one of the best movie theater experiences ever.

The Soviet Union, 1984. That can be displayed even more horrible than you thought. It all starts out kind of cute: a boy with a Russian disco hairdo, a professor in 'atheism', a captain of the Russian army, an innocent girl. But lemonade glasses of vodka pass through these people. And not everyone is so kind. It results in a fly plague...

It can't get any worse, but it does. And I kept laughing, although without much joy. I witnessed the people leaving around me. And I wanted to shout: Waiter! More Vodka! More! The best black comedy of the year. I even remembered the name after leaving the sneak preview, which is very rare...

Love Is All (2007)

Finally a Dutch movie that isn't afraid of love

[8/10 · 22 October 2007]

Who wouldn't want to unwrap Carice van Houten from her gift costume? She deserves her prince on the white horse because she comes to realize that she should believe in love. I also liked Anneke Blok, who plays a type that is rarely portrayed in Dutch movies: the busy mother who arranges everything and is heading towards a nervous breakdown. The gay couple is portrayed so matter-of-factly - not as some statement - that you are hardly aware that you are watching two men kiss each other on the lips.

The first half hour of the movie is especially funny. The movie then loses some of its momentum, despite the rapid cuts between the story lines. Some of the jokes fall flat and one extra character is hastily introduced. The finale on snowy Santa Claus's birthday makes up for a lot, although I found it a bit too understated to serve as the climax and bold moral statement that this movie deserves.

The multiple-story-line approach is a real balancing act and I applaud the filmmakers for their guts to set the bar so high. Also, I think to make a positive movie about love is in a way more daring than the cynical approach with a lot of cheap nudity, which since long has been the standard in Dutch movie-making.

Judging by the numbers of visitors, the filmmakers have succeeded in making the audience believe in love, at least for a short while..

Spetters (1980)

Destiny unfolds and each man learns who he is: a tragic hero, a repressed homosexual and an average loser. The men also measure who has the biggest cock.

[7/10 · 5 August 2007]

Writer Gerard Soeteman has called Spetters a modern day fairy tale. Viewed as such, it can be forgiven some of its rough edges and far-fetched plot turns. The three princes/spetters all take a shot at winning the love of the heroine. Destiny unfolds and each man learns who he is: a tragic hero, a repressed homosexual and an average loser. The men also measure who has the biggest cock.

The movie apparently received a lot of criticism from gay and women rights movements of the time. In retrospect, I think this is because the gay character is treated just as cruelly by life as the other characters. Probably a more politically correct movie maker than Verhoeven would have made the homosexual the moral winner. I agree that his story is described in pretty broad strokes, to put it mildly. Of course, in real life, no person will discover his sexual identity after a rape. Still, I would defend Verhoeven here with the fairy tale argument.

The protests of feminists are somewhat less understandable. Were they protesting against the fact that the heroine is a cold-hearted gold digger? But there is also a good-natured female character in the movie. And besides, why should a movie portray an ideal world?

The camera work is great and the staging of the scenes has a nice flow to it. The motorcycle stunts are well done for a movie made on this budget. It is Verhoevens craftsmanship which keeps the movie entertaining all the while.

After the Wedding (2006)

essential flaw in plot

[5/10 · 7 November 2006]

Movies that are plain bad can't hide this for longer than ten minutes. This movie it took longer, which shows that it has good sides as well. The premise is introduced well enough and it wasn't until a long way in the first hour that I first suspected something was going wrong. From that point on, it was like a large pudding that steadily but hopelessly collapsed. In the mean time, the odd good scene restored hope for a brief moment. Jacob (Mikkelsen) was alright, and so were most of the other actors, but actors couldn't save the movie.

Sad thing that in the end I couldn't feel along with the characters (even the little orphan boy). And believe me, I am not immune to manipulation of emotions and I am very willing to surrender to even some good tear jerking.

The flaw of the plot is that at a certain point, we are expected to view a certain character in a different light. But this unexpected turn simply does not work on an emotional level. We no longer believe the character and cannot feel along with him/her.

Hiding and revealing crucial information certainly is an essential narrative tool in crime stories/detective-like plots. However, we are dealing here with drama/tragedy. In this genre one wants the viewer to feel along with the dilemma's of the protagonist and antagonist. And this is not the same as to merely make the viewer understand - in retrospect - a character's behavior. It is too late for emotional involvement at that stage and we shrug our shoulders.

And by the way, close-ups are nice, but the 31st time I saw Mikkelsens mouth or Stine Fischer Christensen's eyes screen wide, it got a little boring.

Masterclass (2005)

A mixture of pseudo documentary and 'hidden' camera

[7/10 · 3 September 2006]

A class of young drama students are led to believe that they are attending an actual masterclass of famous dutch comedy actor Peer Mascini. A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, but to the increasing bewilderment of the students, Mascini confronts them with the most bizarre questions and assignments.

As a satire on drama school culture, Masterclass states the obvious. We already know that some drama teachers are pretentious snobs who use silly metaphors and techniques. As for director and actors' intention to mess around with some innocent students: goal achieved. Indeed, the students' progression from shyness to bafflement (some nice close-ups here) could hardly have been acted. On this level, the movie is an interesting study of acting versus spontaneous behavior. But so is any hidden camera show.

The Hans Teeuwen signature is identifiable for those who are familiar with his brilliant performances as a stand up comedian. Some narrative tricks are used effectively here. For example, in the story of the terrible fate of a former student of Mascinis, the repeated mention of the victim's name, Seth Aalbers, gives the story its hilarious effect. Also, the unexpected and prolonged ending sequence is fresh and funny – an escape from the theater school for both the actors and the viewers.

As a tribute to Mascini, the movie does a good job. Support actor Pierre Bokma is remarkably low key in his role of the underdog.

With his first movie, Teeuwen has proved that he can successfully transfer some of his theater knowledge to the screen. However, one hopes that he will come across a great script that will allow him to reach the same level of emotional urgency of his theater shows.