POMO

An instance of cinematic poetry with a nice 4:3 composition (which keeps nothing but the essentials in the picture), creative ideas on the part of the director (using the sound of a window banging shut) and an ambiguous conclusion that lets the viewer think. Little Crusader has a slow and lengthy yet harmonious and compact narrative. It is a film made exclusively for the most discerning viewers who are fans of Andrei Tarkovsky or Béla Tarr. P.S.: Why didn’t they choose to shoot in black-and-white? Ordinary viewer will not watch this anyway and playing with light and shadows could have had a greater impact on the target audience.

An action flick for adults that works with characters and emotions as though it was an epic drama, Logan is set in realistic locations overflowing with atmosphere, with action scenes worthy of James Cameron and the most effective, ultra-dark music Marco Beltrami has ever made (though not suitable to be listened to on its own) plus one soundtrack hit from Tarantino’s Django Unchained. It’s only once in a few years that I give five stars to a movie based on a comic book.

This movie enables you to experience a nine-month rowing journey from California to Australia (!) with a group of girls. Two hours of sleep or rest, two hours of rowing, rinse and repeat for nine months. It is an admirable feat both physically and especially mentally. They don’t experience lifethreatening storms and no sharks attack them while they are swimming, but the mental burden that they must bear (and confess to the cameras) lend sufficient drive to the documentary, which is a psychologically intriguing study of a decimated person in an unusual situation. Admirable!

Love and Bullets is a pulpy musical terror, but you have to appreciate its good heart and the filmmakers’ intention to depict Naples and its flaws in nice colors. There is more killing and shooting than in Gomorrah, but also a lot of merry dancing and kissing, and the film often does not take itself seriously. Despite the fact that the storyline and the protagonists’ faces and expressions are straight out of a soap opera, the long runtime, the large number of characters and expensive production with grand exteriors make it a proper feature-length movie. This movie is a bizarre experience somewhere between geeky guilty pleasure and pure torment, which was not helped by my sleep deprivation during a late-night screening at Pragues' Lucerna cinema with its wooden seats. The film just would. not. end.

This lovingly made film works with painted images, carefully directed voices of the actors and Mansell’s characteristically deep music eliciting a sense of fatefulness. Loving Vincent has the framework of a detective story with a gripping mystery and misleading questions, varied with the diverse characters whom the protagonist meets and made beautiful with poetic thoughts from the letters that van Gogh wrote before his death. The heart of the film comprises van Gogh’s life itself, his outsider existence tormented by self-doubt. His was an existence with exceptional perception of life and the ability to transform the positive face of his soul into works of art. His intimately dramatic story as a now celebrated artist is particularly attractive for viewers generally, and not only for people who feel misunderstood and naturally long for recognition and wider acceptance. The film concludes beautifully with the song “Starry Starry Night” performed by singer Lianne La Havas.

An old man chattering about nothing in particular rather than about life. Lucky offers likable characters and an attractive environment, but both are underused. And Lynch spouts one inanity after another, without adding another dimension to the film by linking it to the motifs of his works. I can imagine a more atmospheric, poetic and meaningful version by Jim Jarmusch, for example. And that’s a great idea.

Though definitely not breathtaking, Menashe certainly offer an interesting insight into the rules of operation of the Orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn. The community’s rabbi decides whether a little boy will remain in the care of his father, the main character of the film, who has been a widower for a year and is a somewhat clumsy, hapless individual… [Karlovy Vary IFF]

M.F.A. is a naïve feminist take on a major American issue – sexual violence against women. Given the childish and “cool” approach taken to this serious issue here, the movie takes itself way too seriously. And it is the complete antithesis of the fun movies by Russ Meyer. [Sitges FF]

Though director Vladimir de Fontenay’s depiction of the events in Mobile Homes is sensitive and emphatic and Imogen Poots delivers a perfect performance, the premise is terribly overused: [Spoiler!] A teenage homeless girl with a pretty face and a young son wanders through American countryside. When she finally begins to find some assurances and a potential home, her problematic boyfriend (whom she has recently fled) unexpectedly comes back into her life. And since she still loves him in a way, she lets all her hopes and prospects be shattered… [Cannes]

Molly’s Game is a movie that takes itself way too seriously considering it contains just one short dramatic scene (a beating at the hands of a mafioso) and thinks itself way too clever given that it needs 20 tortuous seconds of dialogue to express something that could have been said in five (without losing the point). If we don’t want to build on superficial grandeur, but rather want to tell a believable story with sufficient social insight and reflection of the its characters’ morality, this film doesn’t completely succeed. It’s like The Wolf of Wall Street without that film’s satirical insight, wit, energy and the human side of its characters. However, it has plenty of sexy costumes and cleavage to keep you from getting bored.