Stanislaus

Watching Tale of Tales, I couldn't help but think of German Romanticism, the tales of the Brothers Grimm's or the texts of E.T.A. Hoffmann. Matteo Garrone's film is an evocative audio-visual spectacle with many wonderful locations and costumes that take the viewer back to a time long past, to a fairy tale world of kings, servants and various creatures. Each of the three stories appealed to me for its fantastical rawness and unpredictability. Despite its innocent title, this is definitely not a film for the youngest of audiences, children would quite possibly struggle with nightmares after the screening. A truly noteworthy film that, despite its "adult" treatment, retains its fairytale wisdom and lessons, like the struggle between good and evil, boundless selflessness, (un)safe love or the superficial judgement of "a book by its cover".

A slightly funnier continuation of Dji the Grim Reaper's travails, who is not doing so well in his "work" again. Compared to the first one at the hospital, the sequel at sea has more humorous moments, it was brisker and more balanced.

Dji. Death Fails was not (black) humorous enough for my taste, which is a shame considering the premise. Being a grim reaper has its advantages and disadvantages, and this animated flick, in my opinion, fell well short of the potential that offered.

A long-haired Eleven, a safe(?) Bellatrix and a no-nonsense Geralt in a film about the Holmes family, which neglects the figure of the famous detective and puts to the fore his "lonely" sister Enola, who is as fluent in the art of deduction as her big brother. In addition to the excellent cast, I was impressed by the unconventional way of narration, in which the main character directly addressed the audience, which gave the story a humorous edge. On the other hand, though, I have to say that I was probably expecting something more. I felt that its potential was not fully exploited. At times the film was perhaps a little too overtly feminist, but it was still an enjoyable two hours.

Animal Crackers will probably never make a dent in its genre, as it has a somewhat simpler animation, but it offers a fairly original theme, slightly overshadowed by the many clichéd educational scenes, but on the other hand the story does not offend and offers a surprising plot twist at the end. Who wouldn't like to have magic cookies that can turn you into animals? In addition to the humorous moments, the film offers a good dose of action in the last minutes, which, despite its predictable nature, is suspenseful.

The Sword in the Stone is a somewhat forgotten Disney film, which is a real shame, as it is a rather humorous take on the legend of Arthur and Merlin, which surprised me very pleasantly. The character of Merlin was hilariously distracted, while Arthur was more of a naive coward, though both had their hearts in the right place, as did the spiky-eyed Archimedes. I was very amused by the episodes with the squirrels and the desperately hungry wolf, who had similar bad luck to the Coyote with the Roadrunner. I must also not fail to mention the magical battle between Merlin and Madam Mim, which was really imaginative. The musical score was also good.

The Disney classic Lady and the Tramp made spaghetti famous like no other. The film impresses in particular with its beautiful animation and the simple story of the dogs' lives (at times it could be seen as a "prehistoric" version of The Secret Life of Pets). In this case, the humour and the typical music take second place to the romance with a touch of drama. I found this dog story a bit more interesting than 101 Dalmatians, and despite the lack of a prominent villain – which is typical of Disney movies (neither the cats nor the rat had much space) – it was thrilling.

Already at the outset, Unhinged grabs the viewer's attention with a stark but incisive overview of the state of crime and society in the US, a land of unlimited possibilities but limited people. After a brief prologue and introduction to the characters, what follows is pure thriller action, where at times you just stare at the screen in disbelief and outrage, with pissed off thoughts running through your head, wondering if something like this is the order of the day (in America). Russell Crowe inhabits the role of a psychopathic asshole who needs really little to piss him off in a chillingly convincing way, and I was definitely not rooting for him and I wished him nothing but the worst possible ending. Whether Unhinged is a realistic reflection of American society I cannot judge, as I don't live there, but even if it is a universal image, I was indeed impressed. All I missed was perhaps a little more background on Russell's character.

Regardless of how the character portrayal of the Czechs and Germans may bother many people, I liked Shadow Country, mainly thanks to its black and white visuals, the raw (and by Czech standards solid) performances of the actors and the story itself, which in one village during the 1930s to 1950s illustrated the conditions that prevailed at that time. Regardless of whether the plot was more or less true or scripted, there were definitely some scenes that didn't leave me cold, even though it is quite a lightweight concoction in terms of rawness compared to last year's The Painted Bird. It's hard to judge people you don’t know and times you have not experienced, and although Bohdan Sláma's film casts shadows of blame more on the Czech population, on the other hand we can't lump all Germans into one (Nazi) bag. Similarly, it is difficult to judge the pro-German population, did they do it for money, property, status, or just to survive and not get sent to a camp? In this respect, I'm a fairly ahistorical and tolerant viewer, and perhaps that's why I don't feel so irritated by Shadow Country.

The War with Grandpa, which could easily be seen as a kind of spin-off of the Fokers trilogy, will never make a dent in the comedy world, but it is acted and filmed in a likeable way, without it slipping into the nastiness or annoyingly whiny characters that abound in American comedies. The viewer is served a fairly simple story about a grandfather and his grandson, spiced up with solid jokes and non-violent wisdom about the importance of family. Thumbs up for the old guard cast of Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, Jane Seymour and Cheech Marin, they really rocked.