Reviews

Damien Chazelle did it again! His Whiplash knocked it out of the park two years ago, and La La Land is everything we can ask for and more. The fabulous score and the skillful direction make this piece a thoroughly engrossing experience. The chemistry between Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone works like a charm. Chazelle shows us how to craft a movie that is as well-tuned as a seasoned jazz pianist's instrument. We can enjoy the harmonious relationship between the cadence of the plot and that of the melodies weaved into the fabric of the story.

La La Land is much more than a musical; it speaks to anyone who lets themselves be awed by high-quality, professional art. The entire movie feels just right in its pacing, its style and, surprisingly perhaps, its message. It is uplifting when a film manages to encourage us to chase our dreams without being naively ignorant of life outside the movie theater. We are told a Hollywood story that rises above itself. It brings value into a frivolous genre with ease, joy, and all the right moves.

The movie is likely to be entertaining for those who have read little to none of Poe's oeuvre, but it fails to deliver for those who know Poe very well. It didn't live up to my expectations, and they were not too high.

Were the stories presented back to back, the whole would be much better than with the cheesy conversation between a crow (shouldn't it be a raven?) that represents Poe and a feminine Death. The bird is poorly drawn and speaks nonsense that would never have left Poe's mouth, making the dumb dialog in the cemetery rather cringeworthy. With a more Poe-like Raven and a more Gothic feel, the tone could have been much closer to that of Poe's tales.

The short story adaptations are OK, although the recording of Bela Lugosi is (understandably) very bad quality, and the last story just didn't feel like a story at all. Naturally, not much happens in the original short story; it has a vivid imagery, full of gloomy impressions. This is why it probably shouldn't have been included in the movie. The other four stories are decently realized. Sadly, at the end, a word of the famous line from The Raven is misspelled: "quot", instead of "quoth", adding insult to injury.

A good effort, overall. It's a pity that the stories were "linked" to each other in such an awkward manner.

Leviathan takes a long, immersive look at the machinations of corrupted power in the lives of the powerless, who desperately struggle to stay the course, hoping against hope to win a losing battle.

A man and his family face off against a politically backed fat cat who wishes to buy the piece of land upon which stands their house, willing to destroy their family nest to raise a modern building in its stead. The grandiose, solemn music of Philip Glass (Akhnaten; Act I Prelude) opens and ends the movie, flanking it like a sturdy front and back cover a fine book from a Russian master's pen. Other than that, the movie is rather stark, musically and otherwise. It is remarkable how effective silent scenes can be. With little music and less sound effects, the film has your undivided attention, reaching emotional heights towards the end. The lack of a musical backdrop further enhances the gritty realism that imbues all the 140 minutes. Relationships between the characters evolve and change significantly over the span of the movie, and though the patterns are somewhat familiar, interpersonal developments are portrayed with commendable subtlety and brilliance. There is a lot of intelligence to the storytelling; much can be understood without words. We embark on a chilling journey into the land and home of ordinary, simple folks, who are kicking and screaming for justice under the suffocating oppression of ruthless power, also blighted by their own frailty.

Leviathan is an outstanding work of art that manages to drive home universally relevant points with sparkling clarity in its refreshingly honest way. A highly recommended piece.

Stellan is stellar in Kraftidioten and so are the ever-neurotic villain and his comrades. Northern comedies are famous for a sort of mocking realism, spiced with irony, complete, as a rule, with a generous amount of black humor (cf. Adam's Apples, Flickering Lights, The Green Butchers). Kraftidioten doesn't fail to deliver on that count, for sure. It is at the same time serious, playful, hilarious, and thus highly entertaining. The plot doesn't have huge surprises in store, but what it does have is of the finest strain. The story is nicely spun; the characters are memorable, and dialogs are well-written and wonderfully witty throughout.

The son of a snow plower driver is killed by drug dealers for something he's not involved in. This sends the father, who is by the way a highly-esteemed citizen thanks to his work for the community, into a paternal rage and on a quest to avenge his son, setting a domino effect in motion in the local mafia's life.

A snow-covered dark comedy that should please a wide variety of movie lovers for all the good reasons. Double thumbs up! 9/10.

Jake Gyllenhaal (yee-lehn-hail-uh) goes for it full throttle in Nightcrawler, and boy, is he something to marvel at! His bulging, leery, obsessed eyes glare sickeningly from their sockets, framed with his cadaverous visage. The unnerving, inhuman character he inhabits is simply impeccable. It's hard to take your eyes off his face when he's on screen, which is really saying something. You just don't want to miss a split-second of him sporting a maniacal stare, smile or grin. His sidekick (Riz Ahmed) also delivers as far as acting goes, though there could have been more chemistry between the two of them. This may well have been the intention of the director (Dan Gilroy), however, to underscore the discord of their radically disparate personalities.

The opening score is mesmerizing; it does a beautiful job transporting the viewer to the place where Nightcrawlers thrive. The story seems unrealistic some times, but frighteningly real at others. The legendary Queen lyrics come to mind, "Is this the real life; is this just fantasy?" The direction is solid. There are several original ideas, which come off excellently.

Witness how someone with a GPS, a video camera, and no morals can work his way to big bucks in the tabloid news casting world, willing to make any sacrifice along the way. A great movie with praiseworthy performance from the cast, especially from J.G. 8/10.

Ba-baba—Dook-Dook! No jump scares are needed to hold your breath when you're watching The Babadook.

You should not expect a classic horror movie. The film is about a woman traumatized since her husband died while he was driving her to the hospital to have their child, and the psychological terror she goes through with her son, culminating seven years after the accident, when he starts to see monsters everywhere and even crafts weapons to protect his mother. The unceasing anxiety of mother and child is depicted through tremendously evocative, pertinent, and meaningful metaphors.

Anyone who likes thrillers and psychological questions, especially about coping mechanisms, should watch the Babadook. The performances are memorable, the plot and pacing are finely-tuned, and the eerie sound effects do justice to this marvelously shot, high-quality movie. A rare and fine experience. 9/10.

David Fincher's latest sleight of hand leaves the viewer spellbound for hours after witnessing this nerve-hitting, raw depiction of a marriage fraught with secrecy. Similarly to Se7en, Fight Club, and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Gone Girl leaves a lasting impression, which is the hallmark of all truly great cinematic performances. The cinematography is captivating, the storytelling is masterful, acting is flawless, and the score sometimes turns into the sort of gut-wrenching throbbing and pounding that not only underscore the scene, but rivet your eyes to the screen and set your heart racing. Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike are both at their best in this picture. They deliver exactly what the audience should expect of a Fincher movie's cast. Rosamund Pike pulls a relentless performance, bringing a cool, otherworldly wife into life on the screen.

Perhaps the only foible of the movie is Neil Patrick Harris. Although his acting is good, he is not on par with the rest of the cast, all of whom perform exceptionally well.

Gone Girl is very nearly a perfect experience that tackles the questions of media abuse, the gullibility of the masses who take everything at face value that comes at them from the TV, and the twisted ups and downs of an intricately irregular, yet hauntingly familiar marriage.

If you fancy an intellectual shudder at something beautifully complex and entertaining, you shouldn't miss Gone Girl.

I give the movie 9 stars out of 10. An instant classic.