gudaulin

Watching the film, I felt like I was on a roller coaster - my sympathies alternated between 4 and 2 stars, meaning that this film is simply inconsistent. It was probably supposed to be a film in the style of Guy Ritchie's crazy gangster films, but it differs from his famous hits in that it doesn't stick to the style - simply put, the script fluctuates between crazy style with insanely cool characters and serious situations. The script is just such a strange mishmash, where a guy shot by automatic weapons, who looks like he'll be lying in the hospital for a few months, stands in front of a hotel with a bandaged hand in a few hours and is clearly inclined to have a stylish chat with his killer. That is exactly what doesn't sit well with me in films of this kind and why I eventually decided on a lower rating. However, the direction is stylishly energetic and quite skillful, which helps overshadow the problematic script. Overall impression: 45%.

If you compare the globally known pop culture phenomenon Prison Break and this classic black and white film from the 1950s, the film version is clearly better. It manages to deliver a realistic and immensely emotive story of the escape of five prisoners from a French prison on a significantly smaller scale. These are not cheap and convoluted script twists, but a functional and clever screenplay with strong characters and a strikingly cynical ending. The film may not be flawless, but it's just a matter of minor details. The French simply know how to make films. Overall impression: 90%.

The Social Network is not a film about Facebook, the internet, or social networks, and it is not even, in the true sense of the word, a biography of the founder of the Facebook company. It is a film about the desire for excellence, about ruthless ambition, where excess baggage is discarded on the way to success, and friends and loves are lost. It is a film about entrepreneurs who can build an empire out of nothing and who must possess qualities that would exclude them from mainstream society. Success, however, can silence the critics. And that's probably how it goes with big projects. A similar film could be made about Ford or Rockefeller. At the end of that journey, the hero is celebrated and favored, yet lonely and sadly clicking through his Facebook profile, hoping to regain a piece of his past. From a filmmaker's point of view, it is a brilliant film where every detail, from editing and camera work to the music, reveals one of the best directors of our time. It's not a popcorn flick, but more of a film for connoisseurs. Overall impression: 90%.

This documentary is as sharp as a razor and ruthless as the goddess of revenge. The director says at the beginning that he wanted to map out what drives Japanese society. He didn't quite succeed in that, but on the one hand, he came up with a very interesting character and life story, and on the other - and this is mainly what he managed to reveal - what Japan, as a collectivist society where the main requirement is not to lose face, carefully hides. That means the unsuccessful part of its society, poverty, which has its repulsive side and has no support in social institutions. The protagonist of the film lost his livelihood after the economic crash in 1992 and now relies on his partner, and this is a terrifying handicap from the perspective of traditional Japanese values... Overall impression: 85%.

The film is scattered, without a concept, and unedited, so it is difficult to grasp the essence of the documentary. A certain generational statement would be interesting, and the theme is exactly what this film highlights. However, it should have been much more focused, because the few truths that emerge from the confessions can be determined more simply. The young Austrian "European" generation is individualistic and afraid of having children, and when they do decide to have them, they are spoiled only children. They want to enjoy all the possibilities that the still wealthy Europe offers them, but they are afraid of the future and taking responsibility. At the same time, they feel that something is wrong because their parents at the same age already had a secure existence and established families. Overall impression: 45%.

A deeply human, sensibly portrayed independent film that reminded me of the more famous and acclaimed The Station Agent. The story of two salesmen competing for a management position in a newly opened suburban store is filmed in a comedic spirit, but the humor is highly civil and gentle, definitely not provoking bursts of laughter but rather a subtle smile on the lips. It also contains deeper moments that lead to reflection on the value scale and lifestyle. Working in retail is not considered prestigious and offers many opportunities to humiliate the main characters. It would have been possible to fill the film with cheap jokes during clashes with dissatisfied customers or a gang of youths from the outskirts, but everything in the film has a solid level that does not go to extremes. Overall impression: 75%.

The high-quality book awarded with a Nobel Prize is clearly felt in the film, as it is a powerful story whose main advantage is authenticity and absence of emotional manipulations, so well-known from Spielberg's films. This is simply a credible story of a hero who survived extermination concentration camps and returned to find that his former material and emotional basis is in ruins and he must start over from scratch. I liked this film more than Schindler's List for its realism and credibility, but the sobriety with which it is filmed deducts a fifth star. Overall impression: 85%.

Unlike his other films in the Forgotten Transports series, here Lukáš Přibyl gives more space to the former Soviet party, i.e., the local Jews, whose position was somewhat more bearable due to their knowledge of the environment and connections outside the ghetto. He also describes the strong partisan movement in Belarus and the involvement of Czech Jews in it, and he can describe the extremely complex situation when completely contradictory groups participated in the resistance, whether in terms of political opinions or ethnicity. Once again, it is a very strong theme that makes one's blood run cold from the concluding testimony that out of 7,000 Czech Jews, only 22 returned alive. Overall impression: 80%.

From a filmmaker's perspective, the series of documentaries about forgotten transports of the Jewish population to Eastern Europe is not that interesting, because Lukáš Přibyl is primarily a historian, and in his first documentary project, he simply combines the most banal production procedure - alternating talking heads and old photos or visual recordings - but the strength of the documentary does not lie in that. The strength manifests itself in the fact that Přibyl preserves human memory by capturing the last living witnesses of past massacres and conveying their testimony to a wider audience. Had he come up with this idea 10 years later, the living witnesses simply would not exist anymore. Historians know the history of these extermination camps and ghettos, but unlike the tragedy of Auschwitz, this part of history remains unknown to the general public. Přibyl portrays the fate of Jewish exiles in an environment that was permeated with antisemitism and local nationalism. A very powerful documentary. Overall impression: 80%.

I don't remember Machulski's older, more successful films from the 80s very well, with the exception of the recently rewatched King Size, but I can recall that they always had a sense of humor and style. I found the same in Vinci, which thematically follows Hit the Bank or rather Ocean's Eleven and Screwed. It's like a cheaper Central European version, which, unlike Ocean's Eleven, doesn't have the star-studded cast and perfect execution, but for me, it's ultimately more likable and human. The released thief Tsuma decides to steal a highly valuable classic painting and at the same time wants to thoroughly mock the detectives who once sent him behind bars. Machulski manages to delight the audience through the diverse criminal team participating in the audacious heist and shows that he still has a lot to offer. Overall impression: 75%.