Marigold

A horror that doesn't waste time exposing and building tension, which works quite well in the straightforward first third. The idea works, Sandberg tested it in a short, but here he exploits it beyond his means. In the second half you can feel it. Lights Out is unable to tighten, surprise or unfortunately really scare anyone. Formally solid work, but overall dim.

The first half goes by like a frightened cadaver express - building tension / "mandatory" genre scenes in maximum harmony, as well as interesting characters drawn on a small area. The level layout of the wagons and the work with the claustrophobic space add tension. It's a pity that Yeoon can't resist and pulls out the first heart-breaking scene in the middle - with the right character, in the wrong place and with unnecessarily whipped emotions. When he repeats it at the end, it works much better. The social critique of selfish establishment and the highlighting of ordinary people is just straightforward enough, and Soo-an Kim as the main child protagonist is great... The result is a pure nail-biter, which I have not seen from Hollywood for a long time. In terms of Korean films, it's actually an unusually pure genre film, which I really enjoyed.

The first "forensic" half in the style of "conversations at the autopsy table" is very fresh and exciting, the second begins to use on more familiar genre tropes and uses shabby jump scares. Exchanges of views between father and son are sometimes engulfed by rigor mortis, and the final revelation is not exactly from the "what you don't hear about every Halloween" category, but the rather skillful directing and good atmosphere push it through the kiln door with triumph. André Øvredal did not disappoint, just another crunchy story, this time sprinkled with formaldehyde and conducted in a sharp sagittal spirit. By the way, it's a movie that awakens the necrophile in someone. A little bit.

An Iranian horror hyped by Indiewire? What will it be like? Overrated? Yup. Although the film does have a serious socio-political-emancipatory storyline, it is drowned out by awkward dialogues and B-movie horror properties. The atmosphere of anti-aircraft alarms is appropriately oppressive, but the film, like all other motifs, uses it in a terribly tense and superficial way. The protagonist behaves like a model cow most of the time, and some of the actors mumble a lot, and one’s biggest fear is that the film will not end. The camera and sound are good, but it has only about two or three lighter scares. Nevertheless, the use adhesive tape to fight demons is inspirational. The second part has to take place in Yemen, or I’m not playing.

Even a stupid story can be told in a way that doesn't make sense. An unbearably long two-hour apple game, which sometimes disrupts a successful parkour and a scene that reveals that Kurzel thinks of it artistically, but completely counterproductive for a blockbuster. It is difficult to say whether the smooth transitions between history and the present represent any sophisticated commentary on the art of the Gamer experience. I don't have the strength to find out. The screenplay is horribly annoying, the characters have no inner logic and the storytelling has no cadence. I was expecting a cleansing surge of Gamer ecstasy, but this leap of faith ended in a complicated fracture.

The calm atmosphere of Hájíček's texts, tasteful and functional camera, relatively well-used non-guiding music. Unfortunately, Marek Adamczyk acts very flatly (although he alternates his grimace a lot) and the hopeful screenplay feels totally lost and disconcerted. It's neither an extra eventful thriller nor an extra elaborate relationship drama. In the "solid and indistinct" category.

There is some shaky acting and sometimes the series is slightly on the edge of excess stylization, but as a whole it is dramatic, layered, intelligently written and still extremely relevant socially. The People v. O.J. Simpson reveals how the debate on racism can turn into a utilitarian witch hunt in which the same crimes as the one originally opposed are committed. Along with The Night Of, an uncompromising look at the American justice system, which listens to stories rather than evidence.

Guilty beyond a reasonable doubt? But what can happen to you in the meantime before doubts are admitted / dispelled? The oppressive to suffocating atmosphere of the series, which notices the "blind spots" of justice, is one of the experiences of the year. The Night Of is not only an impressive drama about a sharp turning point in life and one personal transformation - it is also a procedural view of how repression can awaken the instincts of a predator in a seemingly peaceful human being. A series in which everyone is a bit of a prisoner in a world suffering from incurable eczema. And the liberating performance of John Turturro.

A disability is not a curse. We are not talking about the two moralizing mentalities who put waste here, of course. A sensitive, open, humorous and receptive documentary about how close "live" and "desire" are to each other. It is not exploitation, because everyone knows what they do and say, and Smržová treats those who do not know this with tenderness and understanding.

The Star Wars universe has never seemed so empty, two-dimensional, and pointless. A film that fills two sentences from the epilogue of A New Hope and fulfills its role mechanically, without enthusiasm, without exciting characters, but with lots of wooden sentences and abbreviations. The film contains disposable heroes - heroes without a past and a future. And if it sounds like a good starting point for a war film on paper, it creates an incoherent hermaphrodite on the screen, which gives me almost physical feelings of discomfort when I watch it. Like 2016, the incredibly disgusting and unbelievable digital resurrection of the two characters in the original trilogy. Episode VII showed that old clichés can have a new life. Rogue One is the corpse that contains the best and most chilling scene in the last five minutes. Until then, you are watching the clashes of opaque and poorly drawn characters in space, which, despite jumping from place to place, resembles someone's cramped living room. A disappointment of galactic proportions, there is no doubt about that. P. S. Bonus points for reviving Forest Whitaker from Battlefield: Earth: This is truly a feat for lovers of recession. Edit: Given this year's Christmas competition, I have to add a third star. It simply does not deserves the same treatment as Assassin's Creed and Passengers.