Circle of Friends (1995)

Synopsis: Three childhood friends in 1950s Ireland go to the same University and get involved with boys. Eve, an orphan, dates Aidan and won't have sex before marriage; Benny has to ride the bus back to her small town every day; she meets Jack in the University and they fall in love with each other; Nan is the most liberated of the three; she starts a relationship with an older man.
Appraisal: Not much to this; the story is predictable, there is one character right out of Dickens (Sean Walsh, after Uriah Heep), the acting is satisfactory, everything is well done.
Rating: 51

Shopgirl (2005)

Synopsis: A shop attendant at a department store begins a relationship with a young man, who then follows a rock band on a tour. Meanwhile she meets a middle aged rich man who wants her for fucking, and gives her expensive gifts.
Appraisal: Poorly written, often ridiculous drama that has an above average leading duo of young performers and a delightful supporting performance (her bimbo friend).
Rating: 12

Postscript on June 6, 2010: After a second viewing, I took back my negative appraisal of this film and raised its rating to 55. See the posting on that date.

Girl, Interrupted (1999)

Synopsis: A girl fresh out of high school is in an emotional mess and is led by parents and therapist to sign the papers for her own commitment in a psychiatrical institution. There she makes new friends and gets in touch with a different kind of reality from her usual one.
Appraisal: I may have overrated this film a bit at my first viewing. I have decided upon viewing it a second time that its veerings into phony sentimentality now and then prevents it from qualifying as a favorite of mine. Still, it is a consistently engaging study about outsiders, with a ring of truth to most of it. It is particularly enlivened by a string of extraordinary performances, particularly DuVall and Murphy - and Ryder most of the time; the rest of the cast is fine too, with the possible exception of the older ones, which I didn't really care for.
Rating: 70 (down from 72)

The Assassination of Richard Nixon (2004)

Synopsis (spoilers!): A furniture salesman is separated from his wife and kids. His attempt to obtain a government loan to start a "moveable" tire business fails, and he also gets fired from his job. Completely hopeless and feeling cheated out of the American Dream, he decides he must change the "establishment" by attacking the man in the highest position of power in the U.S.A.. He plans to hijack a plane and land it on the White House but all he manages to do is kill an airport security guard and a pilot and scare a few passengers before he is put out of his misery.
Appraisal: Based on a true story, with convincing and memorable characters, top-notch acting, and a story that doesn't have too many surprises along the way yet is engaging enough.
Rating: 63

Miss Julie (1999)

Synopsis: A young woman of the aristocracy, coming from a relationship gone sour, develops an atraction towards one of her servants.
Appraisal: Based on a 1888 play by August Strindberg, and brilliantly filmed to maximum cinematic effect. The text itself is somewhat dated and not exactly my cup of tea. Mullan's performance is stupendous; the whole cast is fine, I think.
Rating: 69

Day of the Bad Man (1958)

Synopsis: A judge at a small town faces a difficult challenge when a murderer's death sentence must be passed; he is threatened by the criminal's siblings, and gets wavering support from the town's sheriff and the townspeople; to complicate things further, his fiancée has decided to quit him for said sheriff.
Appraisal: Concise and energetic in the first half, it suffers from some poorly solved conflicts in the second half, and a somewhat abrupt ending; as a low-budget western, it is above average.
Rating: 45

The Governess (1998)

Synopsis: In 19th century England, a Jewish young woman has to work to support herself and her family after her father dies. She finds employment as a governess at a big mansion where a scientist and his family live. The scientist does research in photography, an area by then in its toddling days.
Appraisal: Made with some competence, it drags considerably at its second half, what with all the languid love scenes and the married man's endless inner conflicts; the story borders on the "soapy", the old tale of a minority member that conquers the enemies of her class/race/religion by sheer stint of her intelligence, is then betrayed, and finally learns that it was all a positive experience from which she has profitted both emotionally and materially, though from then on she decides she should stick to her kind.
Rating: 46

The Polar Express (2004)

Synopsis: On Christmas day, a boy takes a train to the North Pole; in it there are several other children; on the way they go through many adventures.
Appraisal: At one scene, a girl looks through the train window to a toy store and says: "Oh, look! It's all so Christmassy, and cozy [...]" That scene sums this film up in what pertains to its text, a veritable ode to everything bourgeois and materialistic as embodied in the Christmas tradition. Even the usual hypocritical discourse is reproduced without flaw (the same girl, now speaking for the virtues of Christmas): "It's a time for giving." Needless to say, everyone in the movie is thinking only of receiving. In the end, every kid receives moral directions issued by the train conductor, which might as well be coming from Mussolini himself: "Lead" to the girl, "Believe" to the boy, and so on. The film proceeds like that, with an unflinching solemnity which relaxes on rare occasions to give way to a clumsy sense of humor e.g. in the sequence with the tap-dancing waiters. The striking visual design, coupled with the technique of reproducing live actors in animated form, is what saves the film from complete worthlessness; if you are willing to disregard the dull text and enjoy the film strictly as a visual entity, it may offer some enjoyment for you.
Rating: 38

An Unfinished Life (2005)

Synopsis: After she receives the umpteenth beating from her boyfriend, a woman leaves him, taking her adolescent daughter with her. She requests the government assistance service to provide them a home out of Iowa (where she has been living up to then), but while she waits for it to be ready she has to find somewhere else to stay; she goes to Wyoming where her estranged father-in-law lives in a ranch and asks to stay there for a brief period. Things are not so easy though, since the old man, who lives with an old employee who is semi-invalid from a bear attack, blames her for the death of his son in a car accident.
Appraisal: Routine family drama that follows the old formula for this kind of film; it is well acted, and, within its severely constrained limits, it maintains a minimum level of intelligence, without resorting to excessively artificial or phony scenes.
Rating: 40

Moartea domnului Lazarescu (2005)

English title: The Death of Mr. Lazarescu.
Synopsis: A 63 year old man who lives alone starts to feel unwell after a fall and phones the ambulance service. The ambulance takes hours to come. He is taken to a hospital but this is only the beginning of a long medical odyssey.
Appraisal: Remarkable for its attention to character and its impeccable mise-en-scène, this is a story that should have been made into a film long ago. Well, better late than never. This film is being read in too narrow terms, as if it were simply an exposé of a defficient health system. In fact, I think it transcends that; its appeal is more far-reaching and it illustrates the human condition by picking an extreme situation. Congratulations to Romania for having given us this gem; here in Brazil, the closest we got to making such a movie was Divina Previdência (1984), a short film about a derelict who passes away before he gets medical assistance.
Rating: 71 (2nd position in 2005's best films)

Une histoire simple (1978)

English title: A Simple Story.
Synopsis (spoilers): Marie is a divorced woman who lives with her adolescent son. She is pregnant from her boyfriend, but the relationship is not well and she decides to abort and end the relationship. She works as an architectural draughtsman (from what I gathered) and there have been some layoffs in the company at which she works. She meets her ex-husband Georges who has a girlfriend who is younger than him. They go out for dinner and upon her return she meets her ex-boyfriend who is waiting outside her house; they argue and he assaults her in a jealousy fit. Some days later she starts an affair with Georges. One day, at a party she attends with some colleagues, Jérôme, an old employee of the company who has been recently given his 2-weeks notice, attempts suicide. Marie pleads with Georges to find him a new position in the company. He does. Some time later Georges tells Marie that Jérôme is not performing well in his new position and that he will be fired. Marie accuses Georges of insensitivity. This causes a strain in their relationship, just at the moment when Georges was thinking of breaking-up with his girlfriend to stay with Marie. A few days later, Marie learns that some other company director called Salinas has arranged for Jérôme to work at the archiving department. Marie phones Georges to tell him the news. By this time, their relationship has cooled off. Maria is seen with another man, but it is unclear whether they are dating; I also couldn't determine whether the man she was with was Salinas. Some time later, Jérôme jumps from a high story in the company, killing himself. Marie is pregnant by Georges. She is no longer seeing him, and decides not to tell him about it, not immediately anyway. She consoles Jérôme's wife and invites her to come live with her. They decide they will raise Marie's child together.
Appraisal: As you could read above, this film's plot is flimsy as a soap opera's. Its acting is good and the dialog and mise-en-scène are of a superior quality; these qualities make it watchable, despite the absence of a more solid storyline.
Rating: 55

Crumb (1994)

Description: Documentary about a renowned American cartoonist and his family (or the part of it that agreed to participate in the film anyway).
Appraisal: This documentary has the same problem of the similar American Splendor (2003), namely that there isn't much interest in the subject except for hardcore fans. Surprisingly though, and unlike that other film, Crumb comes off as rather enjoyable, so much so that we forget that it's a documentary from time to time. I think this is so partly because it shows some family background which is always an interesting thing. Maybe it's partly because I am familiar with Crumb's work, and I am not with Pekar's. And maybe it's partly because it's about a left-hander, a fact which adds its own layer of interest to it. Of course, the fact that it is well made has also something to do with it.
Rating: 62

Mean Creek (2004)

Synopsis: A group of teenagers invite a bully for a boat ride planning a revenge for his bullying acts, but things get out of hand.
Appraisal: Very well acted and directed teen drama that owes much to earlier films like River's Edge and I Know What You Did Last Summer. The ending is a bit frustrating but aside from that the film is fairly engaging.
Rating: 58

United 93 (2006)

Synopsis: On September 11, 2001, one of the hijacked planes didn't reach the target, because its passengers tried to regain control of the ship.
Appraisal: The interest for this episode in dramatic form is understandable; the actual experience of watching it, however, is not as compelling as one might imagine at first. There is little complexity here, and the succession of events is fairly predictable. That being said, it is still far from dull, and it competently shows the complete inefficacy at this instance of the American defense. I don't think the film was that well directed; I found it hard to visualize what was going on at certain parts; it either was too fast, or seemed improperly edited, or shaky, or something of the sort.
Rating: 57

Saam gaang (2002)

English titles: Three Extremes II; Three.
Synopsis (spoilers): Segment 1: A man starts having visions about his missing wife; meanwhile, said wife wakes up in the street and tries to get back home. It turns out she is dead and doesn't know it, thus nobody can see or hear her. The ending is ambiguous, as we see images that imply the man killed his wife (because she was leaving him?), followed by a scene that suggests that she actually left him. Segment 2: A puppeteer dies in mysterious circumstances; before he goes he orders that his puppets are destroyed; a former subordinate of his disobeys him; the puppets are said to be cursed and weird things start to happen. Segment 3: A man moves with his infant son to a semi-deserted condominium; the only other people living there are a man, his paraplegic wife and their infant daughter. One evening, the little boy goes out to play with the little girl and doesn't come back. His father goes to the neighbors' apartment to ask about his son; the husband answers the door and says that he didn't see the boy, doesn't have a daughter and doesn't like to be disturbed. The boy's father gets curious and enter the neighbors' apartment without being seen; in there he finds the wife submerged in the bathtub, looking dead. Then her husband returns and explains that she is being kept in that state as part of a therapy and that she will be revived after she has been in that state for three years; this is due to happen in three days, and during that period he will keep the neighbor there as a prisoner. After some time the police comes searching for the boy's father (and for the boy?) and the guy tells them that he went to Macao to gamble. Then the day of the wife's expected reanimation arrives and, just as her husband senses that her body is warming up, he says he will release the prisoner. At this exact moment, the police reappears, and finds the wife and the boy's father; they arrest the husband. Outside the building, he sees his wife being taken in a coffin and in an act of despair he breaks free and runs after the vehicle she is being transported; in the process he is run over by a car and dies. Later, the boy's father talks to a doctor who reveals that he had attended to the dead couple in the past; the wife had liver cancer and was advised by him to have an abortion; the husband said he didn't trust western medicine, so he would not consent to the abortion and would treat his wife with Chinese medicine. The doctor also reveals that the husband had been diagnosed with the same disease three years prior to his wife, and had cured himself with Chinese medicine. Then the boy's father goes back to the dead man's apartment and watches a tape that reveals that he had been through the same process of induced death and reanimation that his wife went through later. Finally, we see the little boy leaving the house to where he had been taken by the little girl; it's a photographer's shop, and we see the owner taking a picture of the dead family: husband, wife and daughter.
Appraisal: Segment 1: Interesting but lacking; its overuse of cheap sound shocks is a minus; the director seems to have some talent though, and the film has some interesting visual elements. Segment 2: Of little interest; crudely directed; the notion of cursed artifacts is antiquated and of little impact nowadays; the use of Thailandese culture as background is a plus. Segment 3: In terms of plot, I actually prefer the first one; this one's is fairly convoluted and at first caused some revolt in me because of its preposterously fantastic depiction of Chinese medicine; a few days after viewing it, however, I decided I was being too realism-biased and acknowledged that in terms of effectiveness this is the best of the three. I still find it lacking though.
Rating: Segment 1: 43; Segment 2: 25; Segment 3: 50.
Average Rating: 39

"Les aventures de Tintin" Le crabe aux pinces d'or (1992)

English title: "The Adventures of Tintin" The Crab with the Golden Claws.
Synopsis: Tintin goes after some drug smugglers. He and his dog Milou board a ship where the drug is being transported inside crab meat cans. Tintin meets Captain Haddock for the first time; he is being used by the smugglers. Tintin, Milou and Haddock are kicked from the ship and chased by a plane. They manage to get on the plane and land on a desert. They are rescued and taken to a town which looks very much like Algiers. There, Tintin reencounters the smugglers and gets them arrested, with inestimable help from Dupont and Dupond, the twin detectives.
Appraisal: First two episodes of a TV series based on the comic book series by Hergé. This story (the ninth in the series) was first published as a comic book in 1941. Good entertainment; the animation is not bad yet could be better. Anyway, there are worse ways to waste one's time. I watched it dubbed in Portuguese.

Grizzly Man (2005)

Description: This is a documentary about a man who lived among bears in a reservation in Alaska and got killed by one of them. His girlfriend was with him and got killed too.
Appraisal: Interesting documentary. It has been advertised (by the filmmaker inclusive, in the film itself) as an 'investigation about human nature', which any film can be said to be; anyway it's a bad move for a filmmaker to be telling his audience what his film is supposed to be. Treadwell was a left-hander, and suffered from a common tendency among left-handers, that of addiction. He somehow found a cure among the wildlife, living with bears and foxes; he probably died much later than he would have, had he stayed in the city drinking and drugging himself. The film wastes precious time interviewing a moronic fat guy (I don't remember what he was) who hints that Treadwell 'deserved to die' among other nonsense, and showing a ridiculous scene where the histrionic coroner hands over the dead guy's watch to one of Treadwell's former girlfriends. That - and the at times corny narration - aside, it's a watchable documentary that evokes some fictional films such as The Blair Witch Project, The Last Cannibal World (I haven't seen its allegedly better companion piece Cannibal Holocaust), the based-on-a-true-story Gorillas in the Mist, and all those films - the first of which may be The Lost World - featuring fierce battles between two huge monsters.
Rating: 51

David Copperfield (2000) (TV)

Synopsis (spoilers): David's father dies and his mother remarries. David is sent to a boarding school. His mother dies. David is taken out of school and forced to work. He flees to his aunt's house. He studies law and falls in love with his boss's daughter. He takes writing on the side. His boss dies and David marries his daughter. She gets ill and dies. David goes on a trip through Europe. He is now a famous novelist. He returns to marry his true love.
Appraisal: In general, this miniseries gave me the impression of being extremely well directed by an extremely competent person. I particularly liked the use of deep focus in the composition of some scenes. The actors were mostly good ones; what is most important, the leading actor played the part well. This is an entertaining story that keeps the interest throughout its 3 hour length. I have never read the 1850 novel by Charles Dickens; I may have read, perhaps not integrally, an abridged version when I was a kid, and I also saw the 1935 film.
Rating: 60

Der Krieger und die Kaiserin (2000)

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The Constant Gardener (2005)

Synopsis: English diplomat marries humanitarian worker. They travel to Africa where he assumes a position and she engages in the aid to sick people. She starts an investigation about a new drug against tuberculosis which is being force-tested on African subjects, and which would be released on European markets despite its harmful side effects, with the complicity of the English government.
Appraisal: The plot of this film is, plausibility-wise, the most idiotic piece of garbage I have ever witnessed in my many years of film viewing; for details, just read the 'hated it' part of the user comments on IMDb; it is the best place to find sensible film criticism in these days. On the level of abstract narrative, it is standard Thriller 101 fare, completely unoriginal and formulaic. Now, to every director who thinks a handheld camera lends an air of urgency and intimacy to a movie, making it more effective and true-to-life: you should be tied to a chair and forced to sit through many subsequent viewings of your movies - with no aspirin available. The film has abundant local color, including a village massacre whose link to the rest of the plot I could not figure out. I am giving it a relatively generous rating given my previous comments, because (1) the color cinematography is extremely good looking, and (2) it kind of entertains, albeit in a mindless way.
Rating: 30

The Blood Oranges (1997)

Synopsis (spoilers): The film is told in two different time frames, which are intercalated. Here, I will tell the events in a chronological fashion. Cyril and Fiona live on a tropical island with their kids. One day, they rescue a family from a van that flipped and they start a friendship with them. Fiona is immediately attracted to Hugh, a one-armed photographer who seems to be attracted to her but doesn't let it go to a physical level. Cyril, on the other hand, fucks Hugh's wife, Catherine, on their first night together. Fiona begins to feel frustrated by Hugh's refusal to fuck her. They play a game of seduction in which Cyril and Fiona are a completely open couple and try to bring Hugh and Catherine into their hedonistic world. One day at the beach Fiona gets topless and Catherine decides to do the same. They perceive the approach of Meredith, Hugh and Catherine's teenage daughter; Cyril meets her halfway and she manifests her awareness and disapproval of their mutual seduction games. Cyril takes her back to the house. Cyril and Hugh meet Rosella, a local girl who works as a domestic at Cyril's house and to whom Hugh is attracted; Hugh takes nude photos of her. As the situation between Hugh and Fiona doesn't seem to evolve, Cyril decides to have a talk with him; he incites Hugh to yield to his attraction to Fiona; Hugh warns Cyril that there is more going on than Cyril is aware of. Hugh claims that Fiona is in love with him and is ready to leave Cyril for him. Cyril tells Hugh to let love follow its course. One day, Hugh takes the four of them to visit some ruins; they go down into a cave, and in there they find a weird metal object, old and full of rust. They bring it to the surface and find out it is a chastity belt. They all are uncomfortable with it, except Hugh, who seems to derive some pleasure from their discomfort. On the following evening, Cyril goes to see Catherine in her room, but she behaves strangely, and rejects him, sending him away. Cyril refuses to go, and as he touches her, he discovers that she is using the chastity belt; Hugh forced her to put it on. Cyril tells her to stay put and wait for him while he goes out to find Hugh and talk him into his senses. He does that, and has an argument with Hugh, who is angry because he found out that Cyril had sex with Catherine; after some discussion, Hugh finally seems to agree with Cyril's liberal ideas, and decides to yield to his desires toward Fiona, and give Catherine a bit of freedom too. He goes to meet Fiona, and Cyril returns to Catherine and removes the chastity belt from her. As the dawn comes, Cyril leaves Catherine before Meredith awakes. When he gets to his house, he finds Hugh and Fiona fucking. He is glad with it, and stands for a few minutes outside the window, listening to them make love. He does not interrupt them. The next day, all four of them are happy on the lawn, celebrating the wonders of free love. The following night, Fiona alerts Cyril that Hugh is missing. Cyril tells her not to worry, but she is certain that something is wrong, because Catherine is sleeping in her room, and that means Hugh is all alone; she thinks something may have happened to him. Cyril goes out in search of Hugh; he goes to Hugh's photographic studio, where he usually spends hours on his own. When he enters, he finds Hugh hanging from a rope, unconscious. They cut the rope and try to revive him, but it is useless: he is dead; it turns out that he accidentally choked himself to death while masturbating to Rosella's photo (choking oneself while masturbating is known to increase pleasure during orgasm; this practice is shown in other films such as Ken Park (2002), and, if memory serves me, Ai no corrida (1976)). Fiona reasons that Catherine will be in no condition to take care of her kids during some time, due to her state of shock, and decides to leave the island with them, along with her own kids. The following events are shown intercalated with the former ones, during the course of the movie. Cyril and Catherine stay on the island, but separated; Catherine remains in a hospital, or asylum, to recover; she is in such a state that she will speak to no one. Meanwhile Rosella turns down her suitors, perhaps in the hope of being loved by Cyril, but he develops psychological impotence, and doesn't get near her. He visits Catherine often; eventually, she recovers and leaves the hospital. They wait for the return of Fiona and the kids, and perhaps the restart of their lives.
Appraisal: I like the work of this couple of filmmakers, which seems to have a thematic coherence that is not so common nowadays; their films are mostly inspired by literary works (in this case a 1971 novel by John Hawkes), to which they lend a strong cinematic flavor. That being said, I must acknowledge that this is not among their best work to date; much of the film relies on voice-over, which means that they were not able to translate it into cinematic form. We tend to get a little bored, especially in the first half of the film. On top of it, I was not too impressed with the performances; some of them were better than others, but somehow they seemed to be hitting on one single note, which becomes kind of monotonous. The film is not half bad, though. Its theme is the search for pleasure, and I don't think anyone would consider it irrelevant or uninteresting per se; the characters are believable and interesting, yet somewhat underdeveloped. The score and cinematography are very good. The dialog is well written, both in a literary sense and in a functional one, as it illustrates the characters' personalities and spur the evolution of the drama.
Rating: 58

Sophie Scholl - Die letzten Tage (2005)

English title: Sophie Scholl: The Final Days.
Synopsis: When the prospect of victory seemed to vanish in the horizon, Germans grew restless. A group of students started distributing pamphlets, but - helas - they got caught.
Appraisal: This cold and impersonal film would benefit from some background on the characters that would show us who they were. Anyway the message of this movie seems to be that not everyone in World War II Germany was a lobotomized nazi; I guess this is good for the Germans. Maybe another message is that if you are raised by a brave father, chances are you will be courageous too. And then there are the final photos of the real Sophie, which make for the truly moving moments of the film, and also for the realization that she looks nothing like the actress who plays her like an automaton. The opposite happens with her brother, whose resemblance to the actor that plays him is remarkable. One doubt: if the whole philosophy behind the resistants' actions was that one should follow one's 'conscience', why would they, in their final hour, say 'It was not in vain'? People who act according to their consciences should not worry about results.
Rating: 40

Ae Fond Kiss... (2004)

Synopsis: In Glasgow, we are introduced to a family of Pakistani ascent; the eldest son falls in love with a Caucasian music teacher; the problem is that his family is very closed and does not approve of marriage outside the Pakistani community. The teacher faces some problems of her own, but they are perhaps of a lesser dimension.
Appraisal: Although it manages to address, in a concise, compressed form, many angles of the issue at hand (inter-ethnic love, immigrants, tradition vs. modernity, etc.), I am forced to say that in terms of narrative it is a dreary succession of predictable scenes. What strikes me as odd is the behavior of the white girl; she jumps to the guy's bed in no time at all, even sets him up in a trip to Spain, and when he reveals his previous commitment, she throws a fit. Honestly, I wouldn't want to spend another minute, let alone a lifetime, with such a person, no matter how good the sex was - by the way, this film has the most tedious sex I have seen in a film, ever. After one of their (many) break-ups, she says to him - 'I almost jumped to bed with a perfect stranger, because I was lonely' - big surprise, that is exactly how they started their own relationship. Mind you, I am not saying there is anything morally reppoachable in this, it's just that the attitude she assumes doesn't make sense - not even as hypocrisy. On the side of the guy's family, everyone is a stereotype, so there is not much point analysing them.
Rating: 35

Vanity Fair (2004)

Synopsis: A girl from a poor family is hired as a governess to a rich family and astonishes everyone with her education and intelligence. She changes from house to house until she falls in love with her master's son and marries him. Her husband goes to war, is disinherited by his rich relatives, and goes broke. But she must survive somehow...
Appraisal: I have the book at home, and have never read it; it was written by William Makepeace Thackeray and first published in serialized form in 1847. The book is enormous and I wondered how they would be able to fit so much material into two hours and 20 minutes of film. And indeed they seemed to have left a lot out because the film is full of ellipses and time jumps. So much concision has rendered it shallow and unaffecting; it feels like a long trailer. It doesn't help that the director has a penchant for flashiness and fills the film with songs and exotic dances that add nothing to the story.
Rating: 40

Elizabethtown (2005)

Synopsis: A shoe designer is fired after a sneaker model he designed fails to sell and loses his company a fortune. He decides to kill himself but is interrupted by the news that his father has died. He is commissioned by his mother to travel to the city where his father lived and bury him. On the plane he meets a charming young stewardess.
Appraisal: This film's badness is practically indescribable, so I'll just leave it at that.
Rating: 6

Red Corner (1997)

Synopsis: An American corporate lawyer working on a telecommunications transaction in China is framed for the murder of a model who spent the night with him. His defense lawyer is a good-hearted, principled young Chinese woman.
Appraisal: Preposterous at its core, yet so unashamed in its distortions and so expertly done that it becomes marginally enjoyable for its camp value.
Rating: 35

Sunshine State (2002)

Synopsis: The issue of real estate enterprises in Florida is tackled in this film, as well as the ecological and cultural changes they entail. Several groups of characters are introduced that have a relation with said issue. A divorced restaurant and motel owner, whose father is a retired diabetic ex-cop and whose mother is a theater coach, and who was married to a rock singer, and who is breaking up with a golf player, and who begins a relationship with a landscape designer for a big real estate company. An infomercial actress who left town when she got pregnant at 15 - from a football player who is now a real estate and car salesman - and then lost the baby and got married to an anaesthesiologist, and is back to visit her mother who is taking care of an orphaned nephew who is facing a trial for arson. A retired doctor who is campaigning against the development of a big real estate project on the island. Some rich golfers who play at a field where once was the island cemetery. An event organizer and host who is married to a suicidal man.
Appraisal: Since we're dealing with real estate here, let me use a related metaphor and say that this film is just like a prefabricated house. Everything is completely schematic and clichéd, and there is not one character that resembles or speaks like a real person. The author effects a didactic exposition of the problems faced by a certain kind of town, using all the techniques of good old "socialist realism". The characters speak like in a play - the most conspicuous instances of this are the ex-cop, the golfers and the retired doctor; but in fact, in varying degrees, this applies to all characters in the movie. Every character is made to embody a certain stereotype that conforms to the author's preconceptions of a certain class of individuals: the reactionary, the rich, the liberal, etc. A film without a single shred of life or spontaneity. It's simply a statement of how well informed the writer is (or thinks he is) about "important" social issues.
Rating: 25

Smilla's Sense of Snow (1997)

Synopsis: A woman starts investigating the mysterious death of a little boy who lived in the same building as she. She finds that a secretive mining company may be behind the killings.
Appraisal: Apart from the initial snow sequence, this film is just awful. The plot is absurd, the characters are poorly written, the visuals are unremarkable, you name it.
Rating: 9

Étienne-Jules Marey: 400 films chronophotographiques (1890-1905)

DVD containing very short films made mostly with scientific purposes, depicting athletes in motion, insects, animals, etc. The technology which was used to make the films predates the inventions of Edison and Lumière. Some of the films are available online. Also in the DVD is a 40 minute documentary about Marey; it is excellent and I intend to go back to it in the future, in order to better understand the narration in French and the technological aspects described.

Hysterical Blindness (2002)

Synopsis: Two best friends are singles in their 30s and go to a bar almost every night in search of a male companion. Beth lives with her daughter and seems to never have been out of adolescence; Deb, who is the main focus of the movie, lives with her mother who waits tables at a diner. Deb is desperate to find a man and in her desperation she is incapable of reading men's real feelings toward her. She meets a guy who is not really interested in her - other than sexually, that is - and starts fantasizing about him.
Appraisal: Modest drama about feminine problems; the female characters are exaggerated, and the male ones are poorly defined. It's not without merit, though; its narrative is fluent and it has a certain amount of insight into women's psychology.
Rating: 48

Afraid of the Dark (1991)

Synopsis (MAJOR SPOILERS! DON'T READ IT IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE FILM): The first 30 minutes or so of the movie show a young boy whose mother and half-sister are both blind; there is a mad man hurting - and sometimes killing? I don't remember - blind women with a razor; the boy wanders around in his neighborhood spying on people; several creepy characters such as the locksmith, the window washer, or his half-sister's fiancé look like they could be the killer. Halfway to the movie we get to know that this was all in the boy's imagination. The fact is, there is no blind person in the movie; the boy himself is losing his eyesight and will go blind if he doesn't go through an operation. His mother is pregnant and delivers a girl on the same day his half-sister gets married. Every time the boy takes off his thick glasses he hallucinates. At one time he pictures a friendly dog as a menacing one and pierces his eye with a knitting needle, killing him. When his newborn sister comes home, he kidnaps her to the cemetery, holding one knitting needle in his hand. The whole truth about the boy's condition then dawns upon his stepfather, who finds his baby daughter is missing and goes after the boy. Next thing we see, the boy has just undergone the operation and is fine. We learn that the baby was rescued safe and sound.
Synopsis: Psychological (perhaps psychiatrical would be a better term to describe it) thriller that is quite atmospheric in the first third, then goes through a plot twist and then goes nowhere. There is some symbolism into the story (blind people = the boy is being neglected, or becomes "invisible"), and it surely gives the film a certain depth, but there is some gratuitousness to the events which prevents it from becoming more than an exercise without much weight or consequence.
Rating: 42

Buffalo Soldiers (2001)

Synopsis (mild spoilers): An American base in Germany in 1989. Army officials are involved in drug dealing. A new sergeant will try to put an end to it. A corporal is in charge of cooking the drug. He and his friends stumble upon a load of weapons inside some army trucks whose occupants were killed. He snatches the guns and schemes to trade them and make a fortune. He falls in love with the sergeant's daughter.
Appraisal: Funny military satire with a few romantic scenes.
Rating: 59

Bin-jip (2004)

English titles: 3-Iron; Empty Houses.
Synopsis (MAJOR spoilers!): A wanderer breaks into empty houses to sleep, watch TV, etc. He goes away before the owner returns. He doesn't take anything from the house (except the food he eats) and makes small repairs. He also takes photos of himself next to some family picture. One day he meets a woman in one of the houses he breaks into. She is an unhappy wife who is constantly beaten and oppressed by her husband. They start a friendship. When her husband returns she flees with the wanderer. One day they break into a house that has a corpse in it. They bury it. Unfortunately, the relatives of the deceased arrive and the couple is arrested. She is released but he must serve a prison sentence for breaking and entering as well as abandoning a dead body. After some time he is released and avenges himself on all the people that mistreated him. Then he goes back to his beloved one. P.S. did I mention that this goofball has the hobby of hitting golf balls, and that he accidentally kills someone inside a car with one of his balls? And that he is able to climb, lizardlike, prison cell walls? And that the film ends with a caption saying "Sometimes it's hard to tell reality from dream"?
Appraisal: Another uninspired effort from the maker of Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring. Both films received a favorable critical response, go figure. This one was less praised, it seems, and is indeed the worse of the two, a boring and often ridiculous love story with surreal pretensions that trips at its own silliness.
Rating: 28

Clambake (1967)

Synopsis (MAJOR spoilers!): A rich guy quits his job in his father's oil company and rides away in his car looking for a girl who will love him for what he is, rather than for his money. He meets a guy in a gas station who would give anything to be rich. They decide to swap identities. Then they check in at a fancy hotel; the faux-riche is lodged in the presidential suite while the faux-pauvre takes the place of the other guy as a waterskiing instructor. Also staying at the hotel is a boating champion who is the favorite in an upcoming boat race. The faux-pauvre decides to restore an old boat and participate in the race. When he was a chemicals researcher in his father's company, he developed a product to harden wood, which he intends to perfect and use on his boat's hull, in order to prevent it from collapsing under the water pressure, as had happened previously. Not only he wins the race, but he gets the girl too.
Appraisal: Romantic comedy with some moderately entertaining segments, like the waterskiing, the clambake, the boat race, and maybe others I can't recall. Its plot premise is not uninsteresting but the development is generally mediocre. The musical numbers are of varying quality; about one third is good, another third is fair and the rest is static and dull.
Rating: 39

L'adversaire (2002)

English title: The Adversary.
Synopsis (mild spoilers): A man builds a deceit about his life for his family and friends. He claims to be a medical researcher for the O.M.S. but does not work at all. He cons his relatives, in-laws and even an ex-lover into giving him their money for 'investing' and steals it. How far will he go to cover up his fraudulent ways?
Appraisal: This is a chilling story based on real events. The development of the film proceeds in a somewhat mechanical fashion, but that's probably because this is how the main character's mind works, and the film succeeds at making us participate in his own terrifying logic, to which he will abide to the tragic conclusion. Just as I did with Roberto Succo (2001), I praise this film's skill in telling the story of a sociopath and making us believe in it, but, considered as works of art, I find both films a tad limited, serving more as a vehicle for a wonderful leading performance than as a thought-provoking exposé of the dark corners of modern society.
Rating: 63

The 4th Floor (1999)

Synopsis: Jane moves to the apartment where her late aunt lived. Strange things start to happen to her. The main problem seems to be the tenant from the apartment below her who is never seen; Jane starts getting messages allegedly coming from her, complaining about the noise she makes.
Appraisal: This is an easy to watch, well made yet fairly conventional thriller.
Rating: 50

Showdown in Little Tokyo (1991)

Synopsis: Two cops fight a Yakuza lord who intends to establish a drug operation in the USA from Los Angeles's Little Tokyo.
Appraisal: Actioner that features fights, gunplay and a sickening amount of violence, yet has some level of professionalism into it and at least one interesting sequence, namely the breaking into the villains' HQ to save a girl from committing seppuku.
Rating: 30