Stanislaus

How much do we really know about our loved ones? And how much do we even want to know about them? At first glance, Perfect Strangers is an ordinary conversational piece with an imaginative primary impulse that slowly but surely crystallizes from an initial childish game to a dense drama in which each successive message or phone call can turn the supposed reality one hundred and eighty degrees. Each new revelation tries to trump the last, and the hypocrite of the year contest is in full swing. The film offers some surprising and emotionally powerful moments (the old men on the balcony), but the biggest surprise comes at the end. Chillingly humorous to the point of being humorously chilling!

Isle of Dogs once again accumulates a distinctive and unique directorial signature, which may not necessarily be to everyone's taste, but I like the horizontal camera movements, the cleverly planned shots, the distinctive framing of the characters and their specifically bizarre speeches. For a hundred minutes we visit an island full of diverse dogs that sneeze, enjoy garbage and at the same time utter relatively meaningful dialogues. Of all the canine characters, I was definitely most impressed by the Boss and the omniscient Oracle. A truly unconventional animated film that addresses, among other things, mass brainwashing. It will more those enchanted by Wes Anderson's rules of the game.

If it wasn't for the supernatural world full of magic, Bright would be just a generic film about cops fighting criminal gangs that also deals with racial issues. It's a pity that they didn't make exploit more the magical potential that hovered over this project. In terms of action and suspense, the film works, but on the other hand there are a lot of flat jokes that fizzle out as soon as they are uttered. The visuals are nice, and the soundtrack perfectly underscored the dirty streets setting, but I still felt that more could have been made of it.

Wind River is a properly raw thriller set in bone-chilling Wyoming, tackling both cold-blooded crime and coping with the loss of loved ones. In the snow and ice-covered landscape, the rules are different from those in the (big) city, ruthless nature and human brutality reign supreme, as a young FBI agent learns firsthand. Together with the investigators, we gradually uncover a crime under a layer of ice, but its boundless and senseless cruelty seeps to the surface and turns the snow red. Jeremy Renner, as tracker Cory, confirms his marksmanship after Hawkeye and makes it abundantly clear that he is not to be walked at gunpoint. Wind River points out what humans are capable of, and that many of their actions exceed the natural behaviour of predators in their cruelty. In many ways, this film is similar to Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri with Frances McDormand, and I think that if it hadn’t been released almost at the same season in theaters, Wind River would have seen some well deserved Oscar nominations.

The raw story of a woman who wanted to achieve justice despite the many sticks that people threw under her feet is a showcase of breathtaking performances (the Oscars are well deserved in this case) and a strong theme that won't leave any viewer cold. The film succeeds in convincingly evoking the atmosphere of a gritty small town where it is perfectly normal to be racist and throw people out of the window without blinking, and where justice is a scarce commodity. I may have imagined the ending a little differently, but I still give it the better of four stars.

I've always had a soft spot for the English countryside, historical costume dramas and stories that could only be written by life itself, so this film with its long and bizarre title was perfect for me. While it's true that the plot is at times borderline romance novel, it's nevertheless told and acted in such an honest and straightforward way that you simply let yourself ride the waves of a story about love, the horrors of war, and the power of friendship wrapped in potato pie skins for a full two hours. In addition to the amazing performances by the cast, the film offers beautiful locations and a very strong story that made the onion concentration rise uncomfortably a few times while watching it. The trip to Guernsey was without doubt my cup of tea and it tasted absolutely delicious. P.S. The Downton Abbey ensemble rules!

At first (and very possibly at second) glance, this is an understated film, which, thanks to its criminal plot, makes the viewer follow it to the end. Eva Green takes on the role of an unhappy and disappointed woman in a convincing way, wonderfully seconded by Shailene Woodley as her daughter. It was interesting to watch their unorthodox and complicated relationship, which defied conventional standards. Thanks to the clues in the form of dream sequences, I was able to form a picture of what had partially happened quite early on, and while the final denouement was somewhat surprising, I also found it very far-fetched. On the one hand, I felt the film had visible ambitions to go beyond the grey average, but on the other I found it somewhat underdeveloped.

In a way, Passengers could be conceived as a futuristic version of the Titanic, with an Overlook bartender on board, plus the modern equivalent of Sleeping Beauty starring a technician from below deck, a first-class intellectual and a giant ship with 5,000 passengers in fatal peril. The film impresses above all with its appealing visuals and the grounded performances of Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence. In addition to the visionary notion of planetary habitation, the film invites us to reflect on the question of human behaviour (a drowning man grasping at straws) and the helplessness of omnipotent technology in a state of emergency (where machines fail, good old human hands come to the rescue). I believe that even more could have been extracted from the subject matter, but I was still satisfied with the final product.

A more minimalist version of Emmerich's disaster movies produced in Norway, which, except for the relatively unadorned fjord setting, offers nothing particularly new within the genre and mostly depicts what has already been seen. Personally, at times I had quite a problem with some of the characters, whom I found exceedingly unlikeable, making it hard to root for them in this fierce battle with nature. On the other hand, I have to mention and praise some solidly suspenseful scenes, especially the ones with the evacuation and the arrival of the destructive wave.

Baby Driver is a milder version of the phenomenal Drive with Ryan Gosling, but it still manages to engage the viewer and make the second half of the film tense thanks to a good dose of action. Baby is a really bizarrely written character and you can see that Ansel Elgort enjoyed it very much. Overall, as far as the cast is concerned, I was extremely happy with the ambiguous Kevin Spacey, the deranged Jon Hamm and Jamie Foxx, and the endearing Lily James. The first half was weaker, but then it all picked up and didn’t stop until the end credits. A weak four stars!