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Reviews
My Week with Marilyn (2011)
Go watch any Marilyn trailer
Storyline is weak: young man gets to know and fall in love Marilyn Monroe, but the "real" one, who's insecure and on drugs. All of that is told in a fast, efficient but superficial way, using as a backdrop the movie she did with Olivier – based on a real story, then. The movie unfortunately isn't well conceived, and not at all well directed; it is really hard to relate to any of the characters. Although it has OK to good photography and all tech aspects are well resolved, the story is heavily edited, and do not enhance the idea of a fragile person and the aura of endearment and sexiness that Monroe projected. Acting follows choosing to be very unremarkable except for Judy Dench, who really has star quality; Williams never achieves any iconic or charismatic quality (except on final credits), and doesn't understand her character at all: her Marilyn is at best dumb, and at worst childish. Overall, she lacks life force. Not worth seeing, not even on TV on a Sunday rainy afternoon.
The Wrestler (2008)
Pure kitsch
I had already seen other movies by Arenofsky and really hated them. Everything is carefully constructed, but in a bad way: it is done because the audience is always thought to be stupid it's a case of excessive belief in post-modernity his movies are completely ideological and he leaves no space for thinking. This one was no exception. In every take he's preaching. It is gratuitous and irrelevant at the same time. Decorative while pretending to be meaningful. It gives an epic dimension to kitsch
therefore celebrating America at its worst.
Rourke gets out of the grave to play himself, which must be a feat I guess. And to tell the truth it's a better swan song than Sin city. Marisa Tomei shows her assets. There's not much acting involved
I'd say it's rather a case of editing building up the acting. I bet there'a a huge marketing budget behind this building it all up.
However Arenofsky is no Tarantino; no money will turn this into a good movie. Tarantino really enjoys popular culture
there's real pleasure and spontaneity behind his movies, and they actually are more complex than any of Arenofsky's.
Thank god I'm forgetting is as I write !
Blindness (2008)
Pretentious and decorative
The movie is too long for a weak, weak story, in spite of reasonable acting. It should have lasted about 45 minutes tops and maybe that way it could have been a good movie (but still forgettable).
Although designed to be impressive (in a bad way), and trying hard (too hard) to convey a profound message about contemporary world, this movie failed to move me completely.
There is a huge gap between events and how they are filmed; the camera supposedly tries to express different states of blindness but it is really decorative and related to action only in a very obvious way. It reminded me of the way music videos are made.
Blindness also kind of reminded me of some of Brazilian 70's movies; it has an annoying quality in sound and photography that is very hard to define (and certainly not intended).
Actually while everyone becomes blind (and the ever suffering Julianne Moore doesn't), the director's camera is at the same time decorative and strongly exploitative of every aspect of everything that is shot, something that this director repeats in every of his movies. While pretending to tell us a story, the director makes us consume images without any thinking on our and his part.
Overall I thought it is really pretentious and pushed me to see every aspect of the story like I am blind; I'm not.
But perhaps this director is.
La mala educación (2004)
A perfect movie by the best contemporary director
This movie was badly received because of its subject : religion mixed with sex with minors, and homosexuality. However, it is a great movie : Almmodovar loves colors, and people people of all kinds, and in this movie he adds a narrative twist where reality, past and fiction mix in a delightful way to tell us about male desires. Clearly this director believes that we are fluid, that our minds shape our bodies but they change, and change all the time. What clearly puts off some people is that desire, in his movies, is not followed by guilt, hidden or ignored, even in the case of the child who knows very well what it is to desire and be desired. If you were in a coma by the time this played, go see it!
Farz (2001)
watch it and don't take it too seriously
This was the first Bollywood movie I ever saw and it was incredible - I have to say first that all songs blew me away, action is fun, the dancing is wonderful and Sunny Deol has a lot of sex appeal. His acting is not that good, and he can't really dance, but you keep expecting he'll take off his shirt (which doesn't happen). After all, he's a serious cop. Who gets set up by a terrorist. The story is rather simple, but if you don't take it too seriously (how could I, I laugh at Stallone/Segal/Van Damme/the Rock movies) it's quite enjoyable. I thought of it as a caricature of a Hollywood movie, and you know what? In that sense, movies like Farz are far superior to those produced in Hollywood.