Othello

Marc Forster has made a film so strange and atypical that the actors don't really know what they're playing. Of course we have to approach Stay differently than other films. We can absolutely ignore any genres. Stay is like a dream, and that's how it should be seen. Just as everyone can find something different in their dream to explain what it came from, so too everyone can interpret this film in their own way. Disregard the spoileroid concoctions of the distributor, what the film is really about is pretty much up to the viewer. Even that alone is enough for an absolute rating, and even if it isn't, the visual gore definitely makes up for it.

Bleh. A rebooted and even spasmodically independent biopic that somehow misses the point. At least I learned how to shop in a jewelry store.

Admittedly an extra-dangerous film currently in every European (crypto)Nazi's mandatory KPZ, but it's not Snyder's fault. A giant hyperbole where mythical monsters threaten the abdomens of Greek übermenschen whose dialogue goes something like this: "I trust that "scratch" hasn't made you useless." "Hardly, my lord, it's just an eye. The gods saw fit to grace me with a spare." Paradoxically, it falls down in the need to emancipate the story with the storyline of Leonidas' woman trying to fight the traitors in Sparta, and these passages are filmed with utter barrenness, but utter earnest. Suddenly all that chauvinism and machismo has the bitter flavor of Vandas' semen, and the blunt theses spouted by Leonidas throughout the film are no longer funny (which they were originally intended to be), but just muscular and stupid. As I say, though, it's not Snyder's fault; instead, he has hereby established himself as America's premier action director/choreographer with his endlessly cheesy aesthetic, which, while it may look terribly pointless at first, does an excellent job of revitalizing the ancient fetish of body and movement with the assistance of contemporary filmmaking devices. This was eventually perfected by Tarsem Singh's Immortals.

Ultimately a 3, even though it's really screwed up potential. I haven't seen such a bunch of losers as bad guys in a long time. The fault of the script, which had a tendency to wrap the carnage in at least some sort of storyline and hopefully point out some contemporary issues, which is just incredibly unnecessary. The fossil who acted as the "father of the family" deserves a special chapter. The script asks him to do such nonsense that it makes the film become truly absurd at times. The downright stupid behavior of the characters ("Now I'm going to kill you!" and the like) and the cretinous illogic (there's always a pickaxe, hammer, or axe lying around when needed; the main character takes several horrible beatings from 150-pound dudes that would simply make a normal person cease to exist, and leave virtually no consequences for her) bring the film down terribly. I would also have a few reservations about the direction. Gens knows how to set a scene and construct a spectacular shot, but unfortunately his filter jerking is all too noticeable and the action scenes are opaque due to overblown editing. The three stars, then, are for the utterly fascinating and well-crafted gore (the axe-and-circular saw scene is one of the greatest fatalities to be seen in cinema for quite some time), which the French simply know how to do.

Michael Mann is a directorial demon, no question about it. Public Enemies mainly tapped into his desire to experiment. However, the importance of this film is undeniable: surely no one will try shooting the 1930s with a digital camera again. It's just incredibly unfitting, and it makes the film look like a wilder Cops and Robbers. The film is also cyclical and undynamic. The viewer feels like they are seeing one scene for the third time. The lackluster or non-existent music doesn't even make it passable. However, the pleasant guitar playing in perhaps two scenes is all the more pleasing. The third thing is the lack of believable relationships between the characters. No spark, no believable flame. You can't buy Depp's love for the sultry dresser because he keeps acting like he just wants to bend her over and send her on the first bus to Mumbai, regardless of the bonds of friendship. I'm using a digital camera to explain it here too. The film simply evokes reconstruction and reconstructions aren't much used to relationships. But otherwise some of the scenes, especially the action scenes, are really great. The sound is perhaps the best I've ever heard in a film. The shootouts are really elaborate and intense. But in the end, there are fewer of them than I would have liked.

The whole film was heading for a three thanks to some of the acting and definitely the need to rise above the different mentality of the film and some of the screenwriting lapses. However, the camera work in this film is so evocative that one is on tenterhooks for some scenes, waiting to see where it’s going to come from. The scene in the elevator, for example, is fantastically horrific, and it gets by without jump scares. The ending is like something out of another movie and *SPOILER ALERT* quite reminded me of The Mothman Prophecies from the same year. However, I think that the burning bodies of people, children, and animals accompanied by a romantic piano melody make the fourth star. And the last shot is really nice.

An absolute mastery of dry, absurdist humor. It's just a question of whether this type of humor suits you.

I divide my life according to the period before I saw Mulholland Dr. and after.

Very nice. The writers clearly didn't have their strongest afternoon, but Mr. Director and the main duo thankfully redeem what they can. It's a shame though, I haven't seen a script with this many holes in a long time. Leaving aside my inability to pick up on Crowe's motivation for what he's doing at the end of the film (an effort to explain was made), why, for example, is everyone only fixated on the journey to the station when the villains could (in my experience of other westerns) just as easily have hit the train? Well, whatever... Crowe is talking, bullets are flying and blood is flowing, what more do you want from a western... well, maybe a little perspective. *SPOILER ALERT*: yeah btw I was quite pleased with the death of Dan at the end – finally the death of the main villain, where he didn't have time to spill his entire autobiography and salute his relatives before his last breath.

A likeable TV adaptation, engaging in its production design, fidelity to the source material, and likeable characters (Kat is sweet). So, basically, all fine except for Germans babbling in English and, for me, a subjective problem with some of the characters' motivations, as I'm simply a modern person and read comics quite a bit. However, a small insignificant point up for the wonderful depiction of the wartime environment.