J*A*S*M

(50th KVIFF) The surprise of the festival for me. A film that, based on the notes, didn’t look particularly enticing (another indie drama about a mother trying to rebuild the relationship with her son, I thought) and I added it to the schedule only as a possible filler in case of a long wait between more interesting movies. But Shults’s feature début took my breath away. The Jury Grand Prize and the Audience Award at SXSW are neither an accident nor a mistake. A film so formally disarming, so vibrant and full of kinetic energy is not something you see every day in dramas. It has an engaging score that gets very loud at times, with an editing that intentionally, rather than rationally, alternates between several synchronous and diachronic events, and a camera that performs energetic approaches, zooms, and turns. Everything reflects with precision the temperament, mood, fidgetiness and thoughts of the protagonist, Krisha, a quirky and emotionally unstable, sixty year-old woman who really wants to have a second chance, but is afraid to ruin it, and it’s that very fear that actually increases the risk of ruining it. Formally, really one of the most intoxicating films I've seen (not only) this year. It’s a pity that this exceptional work was hidden in the Another View section and in smaller theatres. If this was made by a rookie, with only friends and family as actors, hats off. I can’t wait to see what Shults will come up with next. And it seems that in his next film, It Comes at Night he’ll have a go at horror. 85 %

(50th KVIFF) Together with The Virgin Mountain, an Icelandic combo of old, sad fat men. A film about two quarrelling sheep-farming brothers who have lost their herds to scrapie. The extreme situation gradually forces them to exchange a few of words and re-evaluate their relationship. From Scandinavia I’m more used to dramedies than pure dramas, but watch out, Rams is really very serious and slow, and the humour is present only in trace amounts. More an emotional than a narrative film that filled me with melancholy and sadness. At home in front of the computer, it’d probably be boring, but on the festival screen it was engrossing. 80 %

(50th KVIFF) One of the best three films I’ve seen this year in the Karlovy Vary Film Festival. I’m quite surprised at the complaints that it is emotional blackmail. I didn’t feel at all that the director, in any part of the entire film, was trying to emotionally blackmail or manipulate me. Mustang addresses a very similar topic as last year’s Stations of the Cross: the consequences that the education in a traditional religious society has on young women. Last year, Brüggemann was sharper and more uncompromising, going straight for the jugular. In comparison, Ergüven’s film is more accessible, lighter, and lot sexier, too. But I don’t think that’s a reason to automatically write it off as a disingenuous agreeable pose. Not every festival film addressing serious issues really needs to look like having been made with a cheap camera and static shots, with a protagonist staring at the wall for long times and speaking in heavy philosophical rejoinders, or being silent. The first half is almost unexpectedly funny, considering the theme. But then the plot thickens, yet even during the most intense moments, when the protagonists are suffering the most, I didn’t feel that the director was exploiting their situation beyond the good taste in order to manipulate the public. Or, at least in my case, it wasn’t catastrophically successful enough to give me the impression that such was her intention. The ending, IMHO, is closer to a quality tense thriller than a tearjerker. 90%

(50th KVIFF) It looked quite good on paper. A remote cabin high up in the mountains, a couple, an unknown stranger… I thought the director and screenwriter would deliver conflict, paranoia, tension; that the characters won’t have things very easy. Much to my surprise, the film was about nothing. That couple is just staying in that mountain cabin because they are running away from something, and someone joins them. That’s it. Only the mountain setting looks gorgeous on screen. The soundtrack is also fine, in particular the sounds and noises that generate hopes in the naive viewer that the film will eventually turn into some sort of psychological thriller or horror. It doesn’t. 35 %

(50th KVIFF) An ordinary, unoriginal, but fairly well made short about a young Irish homeless lad who’s got nothing better to do than hanging out at pubs the whole day. 50 %

(50th KVIFF) At first I wanted to write something in the sense that European cinema could do without these new, young Greek female directors, but to be sure, I watched again one of their previous shorts, Pigs, and it was quite interesting in its bizarre surrealist atmosphere, so I won’t write that. Washingtonia is just one of those films that is totally beyond my scope. A moody look at Athens and several small characters, palms and giraffes. It’s incomprehensible and failed to entertain me even a little, in spite of its short run. 15%

(50th KVIFF) One of the three best films I’ve seen in the Karlovy Vary Film Festival this year. A story about a totalitarian world where people must be paired, otherwise they are turned into the animal of their choice. David, the protagonist, has been left by his wife and for that reason he’s been taken to a Hotel were he’ll have about 45 days to find a replacement. After an unsuccessful attempt to pair with an insensitive woman, he escapes to the forest where he joins the Loners, a group who doesn’t acknowledge the rule of pairing, in fact, they observe the extreme opposite and punish any sign of courtship and love. A bizarre feat by bizarre Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos, who already has surprised with Dogtooth and disappointed with Alps. I believe I can say with certainty that The Lobster is his best film so far. The sci-fi label is a bit misleading, the process of turning people into animals is not addressed, it’s simply the portray of a perverted totalitarian regime with ridiculous rules, the breach of which is punished in a ridiculous way; where people have lost their humanity, speak like robots, follow ridiculous rituals and make their decisions based on ridiculous criteria. The film is told in a very detached way. The events are told by a narrator and the characters themselves in a distant and laconic manner. In particular, the first half, which takes place in the Hotel, is brilliant. Lanthimos gets all the juice out of the premise and creates one unforgettable scene after another (by the way, the film is incredibly funny at times, if you are into that thing). But it looses some of its strength when it moves to the forest and the group of Loners. It begins to squeeze into the disturbing satire the development of the secret (and not so interesting) relationship between Farrel and Weisz, which doesn’t mean that the second half is devoid of excellent scenes. 90 %

(50th KVIFF) A true festival hell! And I was looking forward to this film. I believe I’m open enough to mysterious movies with ambiguous outcomes, but here there’s nothing. Just an incredibly annoying leading character who deserves to be slapped, but instead, her father apologises for daring to raise his voice to her. The suicide epidemic didn’t cause any interest or curiosity, even though it’s a topic that on paper drew my attention. This film was almost a religious experience – by the end I was praying for it to finish already. 20 %

(50th KVIFF) A peek into the rotten bowels of the Catholic Church. A house in the outskirts of a small fishing village in Chile where a group of excommunicated priests live; the Church has hidden them there before their transgressions could cause a scandal in the civilised world. They are watched by a nun and the group get over their boring life training a racing greyhound. The turning point comes when one of the priests, accused of sexually abusing little boys, commits suicide. This brings in an envoy from the Vatican tasked with sorting out the situation. But, as it becomes gradually clear, he won’t behave according to his virtuous Christian teachings, either. The Club is an unpleasant and unfriendly film to look at and it requires patience from the viewer. Unlike many other festival films, though, this one has something to say and says it without compromise or watering down. The climax is crushing, though it could have finished a few minutes earlier. 80 %

(50th KVIFF) A more entertaining film than could be expected from a story about gambling addicts. The higher rating is mainly due to the fact that I love American road movies. In Mississippi Grind, two lost souls set on a journey towards happiness. The first one is Ryan Reynolds (whom I’ve already seen in another good film this year, great!), he looks free and cool, but it gradually becomes clear that has some issues, too. The second one is the excellent Ben Mendelsohn, whose character says everything about himself with just one look; he’s the heart of the film, a sad person with a sad fate, whom, in spite of his not few mistakes, you still wish at least a little happiness, even if you know that when he finds it, he will do something stupid to lose it. The film doesn’t show it, but I believe it’s inevitable. 70 %