POMO

This movie comes from the family of works like The Prowler (1981) and The Toolbox Murders (1978) – it is a brutal splatter slasher, depravedly relishing the most violent murders of randomly selected victims. The film follows the murderer from the first minute to the last and, by making us listen to his constant growling, pretends to be a psychological probe into his mind... ahem. There is one effective scene (the jump on a car with a shotgun), one scene with suspense that actually works (the underground restrooms) and an unexpected, surprisingly good ending – these are the things that salvage this piece of B-movie crap, so I’m giving it two stars.

My platonic childhood love, the funniest or second funniest movie I’ve ever seen. Coincidentally, it is also the bloodiest. Watching Braindead is like watching a 50-year-old horny nun losing her virginity to Rocco Siffredi – the ultimate ride through the sea of decadence and the most perverse humor imaginable. I’m allergic to pets, but there’s one I want to have at all costs – the Sumatran rat monkey. And pudding will never taste the same.

A humanistic journey into the soul of a man who looks like a monster but is beautiful on the inside, The Elephant Man features masterful work with the camera and lighting, as well as extraordinary acting performances. The director’s take on his subject matter is so sensitive that it seems as if he has fallen to his knees before it. A filmmaking event with one of the most beautiful endings ever seen on the screen.

While in Million Dollar Baby, Clint Eastwood never left the boxing ring, here he never leaves his own front porch. Gran Torino is even more intimate than his recent boxing opus and delivers an even harder knockout blow to the audience. Eastwood portrays one of his most interesting characters in an incredibly smoothly flowing movie – the easy-to-follow setting of the simple story emphasizes the seamless continuity of individual scenes composing an intriguing character study of Eastwood’s Kowalski. Everything in this movie has its place and meaning, including a brief lawn-mowing shot. Not to mention the song in the end credits...

A dime-a-dozen American sitcom about a dysfunctional family conceived as a feature-length film. Half of the jokes aren’t funny and the rest are just okay. Before the film is over, you’ll get to know the characters and get at least some of the humor, but most of the time you just won’t understand where the joke is. Frank Oz’s comedy Death at a Funeral uses the same premise, but in a much more imaginative way.

The Last Deadly Mission is a gloomy film-noir crime thriller in the vein of Fincher’s Se7en or Zodiac, with a powerful atmosphere of despondency, the great Daniel Auteuil, the beautiful and fragile Olivia Bonamy, dialogue scenes with dirty napkins in an ashtray with cold whiskey spilled on them. It is a brilliantly made film in technical terms, but the screenplay could have cut down a bit on Auteuil’s drinking. He drinks probably more than Nic Cage in Leaving Las Vegas and it makes the film seem 20 minutes longer than it actually is. But all that diligently constructed gloom still deserves a solid four stars.

As a historical blockbuster for the consumerist audience, The Illusionist features oversimplified characters and emotions created by tacky lighting that blurs the image beyond their faces, like in the worst soap operas. On the other hand, the story is nicely fast-paced and Bratislava and Prague on the background of Philip Glass’s music seem irresistible, almost fairytale-like. It’s a bit surprising that the most remarkable character (and performance) is not delivered by Edward Norton, but by Paul Giamatti. Had it not been for the lame attempt to impress us with the point, which any thinking viewer can guess at least ten minutes beforehand, and especially all the plot holes and half-baked execution, I might have given it a “guilty” four stars.

This film could have been even better if it had focused more on the causes of Lars’s condition and did more digging into his psyche (as in Awakenings). But even the simpler path that the creators have taken, i.e. a visit to a village, full of kindness in the style of Lasse Hallström, when the eccentric protagonist finds the support of his kind, understanding neighbors, has its charms. Their take is original, appealing to the more sensitive viewer and offering charming humor and a subtle balance between reality and a colorful idealist world. And for this, you’d need quite a lot of screenwriting and directing talent. I’m giving this four stars not only for the excellent Ryan Gosling, but for ALL of the actors. It wouldn’t have worked without them. And also for Paul Schneider’s wise definition of adulthood.

In Lucio Fulci’s filmography, spoiled by a few shitty horror flicks, which paradoxically made him “famous” (and branded him as a B-movie auteur), Door to Silence is an extraordinary example of his talent for creating the right atmosphere and doing good work with cinematography and set designs, particularly the exteriors in this case. It’s thus too bad that the point of the film is clear basically from the opening credits and it becomes too drawn-out in the last third. However, these shortcomings are significantly offset by the decent performance of John Savage, who is almost constantly in front of the camera.

This bewitching phantasmagoria simultaneously delights with Neil Jordan’s masterful, emotional direction and annoys with the virginal innocence of its story, which was unfortunately conceived as an irritating tangle of three intertwined storylines. It is an experience that is at once amazing and painful, and definitely a film the likes of which you rarely see these days. Beautiful set designs and a nice cameo by Terence Stamp.