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Reviews
Du som er i himlen (2021)
not boring, and no theme because it doesn't need one
This is an excellent movie all-round. The acting, especially by the main young girl, is fantastic. And the environment which the director evokes -- it's so well done that at times you feel just as trapped as some of the characters are. As in many Nordic films, there is no drawn-out action. Scenes are short when they need to be, like the arrival of the father back, just a little too late. He slaps his daughter, and then there's just a short shot of him hanging around outside. That's all you need to see to know that he's not a stellar parent, that he doesn't take on the responsibilities he should.
I like the realism, too: the blood from the delivery, the quick shot of the state of the woman giving birth.
And finally, I love what was (I think) the complete absence of a sound track. No dumb music telling you how to feel, even in scenes where there is complete silence.
If you think it's boring, you're not paying attention.
Todo lo demás (2016)
Carefully observed
Ignore the reviews here which talk about this movie being boring or assuming that the director imposes their style on it just to be fashionable.
This movie is just excellent. It's like watching a short period in this woman's life -- and, we discover, a period that is likely similar to all the other periods of her life -- watching it with a microscope. There's a scene about a minute and a half long of her washing her nylons from that day in the sink. Look at the details: in the sink; a little bit of soap; rubbing; letting the water out and then running more water to get the soap out; squeezing them as dry as she can make them. A good movie is about highly specific things like this, and doesn't just pass over daily life, especially when the whole point of the movie is the relentlessness of the repetition and loneliness in her life.
Everyone's acting is spot on. This does in fact _look like_ a documentary as the various different characters come to her desk with various issues about ID cards. One woman matter of factly annulling her father's card. One young business guy on his cellphone the whole time and getting angry at her. And so on. Just perfect, perfect pictures.
It's also a telling fact that she works in an ID office, and her own identity is lost to her.
I judge a movie by whether there are any false notes in it, that is, places in it where I can see the hand of the director, or whether I can see the actor _acting_. It never happens in this movie.
And just wait for the ending ...
Clementine (2019)
Well made
I get tired of the reviews that say there's no entertainment or escape here in this film, or that it is boring. If you want escape, try Thailand, and if you can't get through a movie without a car chase or shoot-em-up without finding it boring, well, perhaps movies aren't your thing.
This is a well-made movie about desire, about wanting to be something really badly but not knowing if you even have it in you. The music is understated, which is a rare pleasure, and the acting is good. The characters feel real.
The main character portrays well that feeling after a breakup, when part of you feels liberated, part is angry, part wants to reconcile, and most of you is just spinning a lot, trying to figure out the next step.
Wandering Eye (2011)
None of the cliches were killed though
This is a dumb movie. Stupid contrived premise. Very stiff acting by everyone. Cliches all over the place: my favourite is that the woman in IT _has_ to have big geeky glasses of course. Irredeemable.
The staging is also hamhanded. When they leave the guy alone in the interrogation room, the camera provides a shot of the camera still recording. Which turns out to be unnecessary, as the next shot shows the guys on the other side, and with a monitor showing.
Housekeeping goes into room where the guy is dead. The predictable scream comes.
And on and on it goes. This movie kind of has it all. Except anything any good.
Argh.
C.L.A.B. (2021)
silent like shouting
There's not a single line of dialogue in this whole movie, just a combination of images, flashes of the city, a strip club, a man following another man, the outdoors, day, night -- everything. It's a simple story summarized pretty much in the tagline for the movie -- man gets revenge for those who killed his girlfriend -- but as with all films, everything is about _how_ the director carries out the plot.
This is excellently done. The barrage of colour and fast images, out of focus and then in, far away and then close-up -- and one leading to another. I particularly liked how the shiny bouquets of line-lights in the strip club led to images of fireworks.
It's not haphazard, as some other reviewers have said. It's all connected, showing the mind of a man in pain, desperate, sad, angry, directionless.