DaViD´82

A regular village girl and her fairytale rise to fame? Not quite. Hníková proved with her debut that she is good at choice of topic. But she also showed that (at least for the time being) she doesn’t know how to grasp it so that it had some sense of direction and a focus. Zuzana’s story in The Beauty Exchange is basically identical but the result is slightly superior.

Awfully amateurishly handled interesting theme. Technically and in terms of form and message. It is almost unbelievably naive - it doesn’t go into depth, but just tiresomely skims over the surface of the topic. It jumps from one subject to the next and then all storylines apart from one somehow fizzle out... Especially the opening story with the women’s magazines disappears into thin air without any conclusion. It supposedly addresses some problem for fifteen minutes and then goes on to a completely different topic. This theme could have been used to make a hugely powerful documentary. Instead, we get to watch some randomly edited together interviews with no head or tail, not to speak of a common concept, with sound engineers running about in the background and the microphone comes into shot more often than the separate women. It isn’t at all clear who this documentary is aimed at and what the director wanted to achieve by it. She touched on this and that, but in the end she says nothing about anything. Women who live their live according to Cosmo (and other similar mags) will continue doing so. This documentary is equally superfluous as the “Model for the New Millennium" contest that appears in it which takes place twice a year. Do you get that? Nor do I.

The afterlife is full of paperwork. When you are eighteen and living a miserable life deep in depression, then a toilet seat from the MIR space station that kills you is a release in a way. Especially when you find out that “life" after death can be pretty fun but at the same time you have become a grim reaper full of sarcastic comments without a place to live and a regular wage. An unconventional series with a theme tune that reliably puts you in a good mood. Even with a mere two seasons it managed to build a cult status and was canceled in its prime (it’s up to you if you think that’s positive or not). It has lots of excellent ideas on its side, but it must be said that almost every episode has a section that could have been cut, thus stepping up the pace a little. And the genuinely promising potential is not exploited fully. But still, a very original and unarguably quality series.

Nobody disputes that Robert De Niro is a great actor; but there is some doubt in my mind about his being a great director. He proved himself in A Bronx Tale, but that could have been just beginner’s luck. But he didn’t confirm his talent in his second movie, The Score. But now, eight years after his debut there is no even the slightest doubt. He chose interesting and attractive subject matter, brought in lots of outstanding actors and made an almost faultless picture. OK, he has a slightly old-fashioned way of storytelling and the pace is pretty darn peculiar, but if you manage to get on his wavelength then The Good Shepherd will totally engross you. The one blemish on its beauty is perhaps the way that the characters just don’t age over the entire twenty-five years that the movie covers. One of the movie high points of last year and a movie that will achieve deserved recognition sooner or later. Because this is a good piece of craftsmanship that he put not just his talent but his heart into. In other words, something that unfortunately we do not see too often in movies today.

An indie movie that just oozes with cheapness. Not that it necessarily matters. But then the creators would have to be holding a good screenplay in their hands. Which they don’t and, according to what is said and what happens in the course of the movie, I sincerely don’t believe that they had a screenplay at all. The jokes don’t work, the dialogs are painful for your ears, the actors are shamefully unconvincing and the whole thing just fizzles out. The worst thing about it is Gavin Claxton’s dogged efforts at replicating the modern, tough British School in Guy Ritchie style. It’s not funny, it’s just ridiculous. The entire storyline inside the house is pure hell. On the other hand, the scenes with Martin Freeman work as well as they can in this situation, so thanks to the restrained running time, you can live with it. If the above are sufficient “positives", then give The All Together a try. You might not regret it. Might not.

An unrepeatable cast, an experienced director and very good screenplay based on a remarkable book - this all promised a refreshing and mainly an extremely high quality spectacle. Which in the end it isn’t. The acting in The Shipping News is perfect, well-directed and nicely written... But it runs on all cylinders only during the introduction and then it falls into the old rut of other similar movies. Unarguably, this is a higher than average quality picture. But it had the potential to achieve a quality considerably higher than in the end result. Which is a huge shame.

In this small British movie, Ron Weasl... oh, sorry, Rupert Grint proves that he can do other things than just grin into the camera. A movie like dozens of the same. Driving Lessons neither stands out among them nor does it sink below their level. It is simply average in all respects, although I must admit that I found it quite cute.

One room and twelve white men from different walks of life, with different personalities and each with absolutely different origins. Their twelve different perspectives on one court case. Truth isn’t the issue here. It’s about whether the evidence is convincing enough to find somebody guilty on the basis of it, and send him to the gallows. Perfect dialogs, actors and rising tension in the atmosphere. But mainly the screenplay. Twelve Angry Men isn’t just one of many good court movies; it is one of the very best. A feature film debut not equaled by many.

Absurd genius or idiocy unbounded? Hard to say, but David Lynch’s work can hardly surprise anybody anymore. Three actors in costume, an apartment, a long static shot, atmospheric music, frenetic laughter from the audience, a minimum of dialogs and a couple of sounds in the background. And that's all. The main thing is, though, that this is more “entertaining" than most regular comedy shows. And Naomi Watts is especially delicious here.

An unimaginative, mundane B-movie where the best acting performance is from a pack of dogs who you can’t help rooting for in their commendable efforts to eat the bothersome main characters. Even their barking contains more thought than the dialogs full of lines like “They were playing at being God!". The biggest problem is that it has not the slightest hint of atmosphere. If it were at least funny and the viewer weren’t just laughing at the expense of the creators, then this would have been just about acceptable. But not even this can be said of The Breed; this is simply ninety minutes of boredom.