POMO

Based on the promo photos, A Whole Life appears to be just another bit of romantic alpine kitsch. In reality, however, it is the nicest film about life in the mountains, as well as life in general, to come out in recent years. It also offers the nicest alpine panoramas to be seen in a feature film in recent years. The choice of locations and the filmed details (the bus ride) bear witness to the director’s relationship to the mountains and will elicit a feeling of déjà vu in some viewers – we will repeatedly go back to it for the magical fragments in the subconscious perception of the high mountain landscape, where we will find peace of mind. The characters are perfectly formed and stage actor Stefan Gorski does a flawless job of portraying the protagonist. The heart of the film is the scene in which he leads his fiancée to a mountain cabin and shows and explains to her why he has settled there. Another attractive theme of the film consists in the building of the first cable cars and the electrification of the mountain villages – and the fatal injuries that occurred during the particularly hard physical work – associated with it. Great, constantly “floating” camerawork and music that is always perfectly appropriate. And that epilogue...

The exploration of the real world by people coming from Barbie Land is stimulating and original and hints at the promise of a clever, fresh and original satire reflecting the pseudo-problems of contemporary (western) society. But the potential inherent in that is cut dead by the subsequent “gender conflict” and its childish resolution to which the film resorts. And that’s a shame. Even the balance of entertainment for children and adults doesn’t work here, since the movie is not for kids at all. But let’s be glad that audiences are returning in large numbers to cinemas now that the pandemic is over. Barbie deserves thanks for that. And special praise goes to the originator of the brilliant “Barbenheimer” marketing concept, though the hardworking crew around Tom Cruise didn’t deserve to have M:I-7 overshadowed.

The first segment in the apartment / on the street / in the store is congenially filmed paranoia. With goosebumps and my mouth hanging open, I witnessed the beginning of the film of the year, a film that I had been waiting decades for, a film that would put me in a cinephilic trance with every shot, every cut, every expression and every move that Joaquin Phoenix made. The second, laid-back and more comical segment still held the bar high and aroused my curiosity as to what would happen next. But with the segment in the forest, the film began to lose everything from the plot that had won me over and became an incoherent muddle of motifs and metaphors that don’t make sense in the psychological study of the main character. And if they’re supposed to makes sense, the viewer has long since lost interest in figuring them out.

This dark pathological thriller descends into horror not through scares or a sense of dread, but through a chillingly realistic rendering of a disturbing subject. With its atmospherically appropriate setting in gloomy New York, the film features a creepy lead character superbly stylised by Marin Ireland. The film is psychologically balanced, as the motivations of the two doctor characters are understandable despite the definite crossing of ethical boundaries. Only the directorial guidance of the child actress is weak, and the film’s conclusion lazily avoids the escalation of tension that the viewer expected.

An homage to French horror movies of the 1960s and ’70s (e.g. the films of Jean Rollin). Nice retro visuals and an appropriate soundtrack including dreamy vocals. But the film is bland in terms of plot. Two teenagers run away from a Catholic girls’ school to attend a party for adults at a chateau, where they experience their first contact with boys, one of whom happens to be a vampire. And that’s it. Exalted boredom with pseudo-dramatization and criminally underused potential. [Sitges Film Festival]

With its subject matter, You Sing Loud, I Sing Louder is hackneyed low-key, low-budget banality that can’t be faulted much in its details and it’s interesting because it brings Ewan McGregor and his real-life daughter Clara McGregor together in front of the camera as the characters of a man and his daughter. [Karlovy Vary International Film Festival]

A film that knows what it's doing with every scene, character, humorous moment, choreographed fight and unexpected twist. And despite the mix of a serious subject with comedic abstraction, it never slides into cheapness or bombast for even a second. In terms of screenwriting, it’s three times more sophisticated than Sisu and, in terms of directing, there are few other films that are as tasteful and fresh without bigger-name actors.

Woody Harrelson is great, Kaitlin Olson is edgy and there is one joke and an apt one-liner that (of course) I had never heard in any American film before. The rest of Champions is made up only of the most hackneyed clichés of feel-good sports movies delivered in an average screenplay. But could I have expected anything more from Farrelly?

Veganism is out – don’t eat at all and you’ll become a saint. The progressive Jessica Hausner again composes wonderful industry exteriors and interiors, this time with an industrial and pulp touch (the luxury house is incredible), and the story delves into several issues: the dangers of manipulation at the hands of a mentor, pubescent self-discovery and, ironically, the increasing adoption of emerging diet trends. Her abstract world of characters with almost Wes Anderson-esque style is playful while being both funny and serious, but it is still not mature enough to leave a deeper and lasting impression. [Cannes FF]

It’s a shame that the evil is so divorced from reality due to its physical abilities and movements, while the film itself otherwise tries to remain firmly rooted in reality. And it’s also a shame about all of the strange and ill-conceived moments in the characters’ behavior and generally how they are set in the course of the scenes. Because otherwise, this “girl under the stairs from Holdenfield” very interestingly plays with genre clichés and is capable of surprising and delighting the viewer with delicious cinematography, editing and soundtrack treats.