POMO

"Driving Mr. Mahershala"? Too bad that Viggo had to fight Rami Malek for the Oscar, as the jury couldn’t give it to anyone else but Rami. Here, Viggo put on a remarkable performance, just like in Eastern Promises. Mahershala is also great. The movie itself, however, is a dime-a-dozen Hollywood template, with a good heart and gorgeous narrative but without a hint of filmmaking inventiveness.

Though the technical aspect is nicely done, Greta remains an unimaginatively plotted thriller with a great actress who is wasted on such a one-dimensional character. Due to her involvement (and also due to the director’s reputation), one would expect more from this than just a minor genre movie. [The Elizabeth Picture Theatre, Brisbane]

With an unremarkable narrative based on an issue created by the Chinese social system, Bends is about a Chinese man and his wife trying to give birth to their second child in Hong Kong, beyond the boundaries of Shenzen. However, the film’s more memorable character is the rich Hong Kong woman who tries to help them while addressing her own existential situation. [Australian Cinémathéque, Brisbane]

The Mermaids is an artsy emotion-based movie with a dense atmosphere that pulls you in. With its details, scenes fading into one another, intense tableaus, a bunch of ingenious people looking for food and shelter in dry prairie and mud, the film is a critique of colonialism through the hopeless wandering of Aboriginal Australian people. [Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane]

There are several similar documentaries out there, including those that meticulously focus on their protagonist’s character. Free Solo stands out slightly due to its visuals and music (Beltrami stealthily turns it into the most suspense-packed thriller of the year) and Honnold’s REMARKABLE performance, which defies common sense and is something much bigger than just sport. Watching it “live” would be impossible. Even being aware of how it’s going to end, I was covered in cold sweat. That the film won an Academy Award in the documentary category made me very happy, if only because for a long time, rock climbing was not acknowledged as a discipline worthy of the Olympics (it appeared for the first time in 2020). But I think it was the other way around - the Olympics weren’t worthy of rock climbing.

“Don’t deal with art, especially art that doesn’t belong to you.” Of course, this was not supposed to be a full-blooded horror movie, but the wannabe dramatic death scenes do not work at all. They’re more like WTF. If you consider it a satire of the world of artists, art critics and art dealers, it is watchable; observing an interesting group of people is fun. But Velvet Buzzsaw doesn’t hit the bull’s eye even in this respect, unlike, for example, Altman’s The Player from behind the scenes of moviemaking. I’m sure Gilroy had greater ambitions for this project.

This fast-paced action sci-fi fairy-tale with heart is held together by Alita, who is surprisingly the most vivid of the characters. Super cute! The nice daddy Waltz was also fine. Other character would benefit from more screen time, as that would give the movie more complexity, which it slightly lacks. And I’m not talking only about deepening the character of super MILF Connelly and similarly important characters, but also about some space for funny supporting types like the cowboy Fahey. He definitely had more space in the screenplay. Anyhow, the movie is a roller-coaster ride alternating emotions with spectacular action, and the fights leading to the transition of a fragile girl into the ultimate fighter will take your breath away. I was completely satisfied and am willing to watch it again in Atmos or IMAX. The Japanese are going to love this.

A film with the very distinctive signature of its creator, Roma tells a story about the fragile aspects of life more through its visual art than through the faces and dialogue of its characters. Though it does work with dialogue and facial expressions (and Yalitza Aparicio is great), it does not offer the audience a universally appealing, traditionally emotional message (the film doesn’t even have any “viewer-manipulating” original music). After using his extraordinary filmmaking talent for the commercial blockbuster Gravity, Cuarón wanted to enjoy some pure filmmaking pleasure, without any obligations to studio investments. Roma is a brilliant piece of art in which I admired every shot (three or four scenes were quite disturbing to me) and perceived and acknowledged all of the social references (class-based society, the extraordinary strength of a woman with a difficult fate), but it did not engage me emotionally as much as Gravity or Children of Men.

A funny intro with Knoxville, an emotional level with a girl-protégé that works and a very fast, halfbaked final reckoning with the bad guys. Polar is a silly pulp movie with too many unnecessary deaths of innocents that are supposed to be funny and bad guys that are supposed to be cool. And the charismatic actor Mikkelsen, who doesn’t fit into this insanity at all, but paradoxically is the only thing that makes it kind of watchable.

Barely three stars. Escape Room is an unnecessary soft variation on Saw without all of the blood and sadism. Conceptually, it is completely same, with uninteresting characters and an even less interesting wannabe Jigsaw. Nothing in the movie irritated me. The filmmaking is alright, but I found nothing in it that was surprising or particularly pleasing. An unambitious throwaway movie for teenagers.