POMO

Killers of the Flower Moon is another flawlessly staged Scorsese retro movie with anti-heroes rotten with corruption and deceitfulness that penetrates to the marrow. And the tragedy of the victims, filmed with Scorsese’s typical emotional distance. That is, with the exception of the main character, an Indian woman for whom annihilation isn’t a matter of a brief scene involving a bullet to the head. It is necessary here to have a liking for Marty’s uncompromising narrative style, with which I have always had a bit of a problem. Robert De Niro immensely enjoys playing another manipulative godfather, this time with the face of a kind uncle. DiCaprio entertainingly varies all of his acting trademarks in his portrayal of the ragged halfwit with a negatively curved mouth. And Brendan Fraser shines in his very small role. In her minimalist performance with a spellbinding gaze, Lily Gladstone is fragile, devoted and trusting. The brutally long runtime supports the absolute complexity of this epic film’s plot, but it also increases the number of characters and events happening around them, in which I got a bit lost in the end. The rhythmically monotonous but – thanks to the incessant pulsating music – vivid and ominously escalating narrative of a depressing injustice is invigorated by the appearance of the novice FBI agents with their professional methodicalness. Criminal gangs of deviants were not accustomed to being confronted with such tactics at that time. There is a nice surprise cameo in the solemnly edited epilogue. Oscar nominations are just a matter of time. [Cannes FF]

Testosterone meets character. Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant outshines Berg’s pure-blooded action genre flick Lone Survivor because it is not merely a pure-blooded action genre flick. Ritchie offers a more powerful story, or rather he is able to draw a dramatically deeper spectacle with intellectual reach out of the story that he has at hand. The shooting is of secondary importance. The Covenant is well cast and Jake Gyllenhaal turns in another fantastic performance. The buddy motif with Dar Salim is minimalist in gestures but all the more powerful at its core. Commitments and principles in a bulletproof man code.

Watching this guy work is simply fun! A slacker and entertainer – a singer, a legend of local pulp bars and hotel lounges for seniors on vacation – whose past sins will catch up with him. A superbly captured setting of an Italian beach resort in the ghost-town off-season, shrouded in fog and a dusting of snow. If you like German kitsch pop-folk as much as it deserves to be liked and, at the same time, you enjoy exploring the life stories of weird individuals in and unconventional settings, with Ulrich Seidl you’re again in the right place.

Sisu is an entertaining B-movie from inhospitable Lapland. Stylish, bloody, funny, lively and even a bit cartoonishly fantastical. It’s not exactly innovative in terms of its subject matter, but it is unpredictable and imaginative in some scenes. The presence of Aksel Hennie as a top Nazi was pleasing.

Hardcore is a nicely engaging old-school thriller that draws us into the behind-the-scenes world of the porn industry in all three major Californian cities (LA, San Diego, San Francisco). The pleasant country music in the introduction and conclusion contrasts with the escalating intensity of uncovering the increasingly darker places in which a desperate father searches for his lost daughter. Impressively depicted bad guys, a stifling atmosphere and a statement on the confrontation between youthful innocence and the depraved face of adult society. Today the film is no longer so shocking, but it works superbly by building up a dramatic story and fragile human nuances (the helpful prostitute, dialogue with the daughter). Season Hubley is both beautiful and sensuous. The similarity to 8MM cannot be coincidental, as that more recent film is built on the same psychological pillars. In fact, it’s practically a remake.

For a long time, Amulet remains an unclear and only slightly interesting psychological game, but in the end it is surprising, makes sense and even pulls off a certain winking humor. As a representative of indie horror, it is marked by inexperienced directing, but it is held together by its good subject matter with a higher purpose. Evil, demonism, guilt, repentance and punishment. A-list British actress Imelda Staunton appears in a supporting yet iconic role.

The excellent screenplay precisely conveys the growing tension and seriousness of the events from all points of view of the participants – the humiliation of the suffering “prisoners”, the abuse of power on the part of the guards and the remorse of the concerned observers, or rather organizers of the experiment. At the right moment, a female, more empathetic element enters the scene and describes the situation in the most accurate and human way. The directing and acting are also superb; Billy Crudup excels. This is a better film than I had expected, with practically no weak points.

Evil Dead Rise honors the classic trio of Tapert, Raimi and Campbell and is unrelenting in its intensity, amount of blood and high technical level. For the first time outside of a cottage in the forest, but in the no less inhospitable environment of a social housing complex without a functional elevator or fire escape. The diabolical make-up and behavior of the demon-possessed victims are a proven fan-service trademark of the franchise. The characters don’t act as stupidly as they did last time and their casting and “rock-emo” stylization are properly unconventional and bring to mind the ensemble cast of the last Hellraiser. The mysteriously beautiful Alyssa Sutherland was born for her role as a demon. And we are well aware that this franchise has the most cunning demons ever. And this time, even a little girl is exposed to them! It’s a pleasure to see such an outstanding genre treat made with so much love on the big screen again.

Margaux is a pile of clichés with which the film’s makers do exceedingly stupid work and without any functional context. In terms of filmmaking, it doesn’t offer even a hint of style or inventiveness, and there is no trace of atmosphere. Even the potential of the modern smart house is squandered. The characters are dreadful and there is no concept to the interplay between their relationships. By comparison, House of Wax form 2005 is a solid genre flick.

Courses on cooking, dining and preparing coffee with the sinful Ms. Jeanne. Formalistic minimalism with minor variations in the repetitive content. Jeanne Dielman is a procedural observation of a few days in the life of a woman who takes her son to work in the morning and has dinner with him and says a few things in the evening. In the time in between, she cooks, goes shopping, receives a male visitor for pay, showers and makes dinner... As a look into a private life, the film is so literal and focused on the acting that it is more voyeuristically satisfying than a documentary would be. Academic purity that embeds itself in one’s mind for the entire time spent intimately with a single character.