Malarkey

I actually never understood in what way one is supposed to celebrate Mother’s Day, but it’s nice that somebody tried to turn this topic into a film. At least I got to see Jennifer Aniston again, who – even a hundred years from now – will look the way she does in this film.

There’s power in simplicity. I guess that’s how I would evaluate this film after watching it. At the beginning, it offers fairly strange opening credits, through which it tries to create an atmosphere of mysticism and I was a bit worried that what I might be getting was another successor to David Lynch. However, I was quite lucky that this didn’t happen and the slow-paced life of the protagonist, who is portrayed by Amy Adams, began to unravel. But then the story jumps forward and I was watching a whole different story penned by Jake Gyllenhaal. And even though the two stories didn’t actually intertwine, there was such an interesting ending that I actually had to admit that the point couldn’t have been any better. The film looks mysterious but in the end it is a very solid drama. And by the way, Michael Shannon is really good in this one!

Maybe I was radiating excessive expectations about this comic book movie that is trying to be different at first sight. What a disappointment it was to me when I realized that not even Benedict Cumberbatch can save a comic book movie that is an absolutely standard comic book movie and that on top of that calls for some pretty strange animations, which were evidently borrowed from the movie Inception. But where I saw the bending of the plane as an original intention, here I see that everything is just a sad effect that is trying to turn the movie into something more than it actually is. It’s a pity. He could have been a unique superhero who has the best catchphrases. But, unfortunately, even Iron Man is cooler than Doctor Strange.

The name of the movie alludes to a cute ambiguity. But that changes nothing about the fact the first half of the film is pretty boring, only for it to move to some good performances in Germany, when it finally becomes somewhat interesting. Unfortunately, even so it is still only an average biopic.

Whether it was The Da Vinci Code or Angels & Demons, these were adventure films that I felt respected the book they were based on. But Inferno pretty much wipes its own ass with the book it’s based on and I can’t understand at all how Ron Howard could have let this happen. I mean the previous films essentially stuck with the idea of the books. In this movie, not only do they not stick with the idea of the book, they essentially completely reversed it so that it would serve the interest of the movie. And I’m sorry about that, really really sorry. Because Felicity Jones has a great character to play in this one. And maybe I see it this way because I simply grew to like her as an actress. But as a whole, I cannot but complain. Inferno is not a good movie. And it would still be average even if I wasn’t familiar with the book. I didn’t like the editing. I didn’t like that the structure of the plot was essentially the same as in the previous films and I didn’t understand at all why the film refers to Dante’s “Divine Comedy” when, at least according to the film, it has no effect on the main idea of the film. And if there is an effect, it’s very fringe. So, personally I think that Inferno is the worst film adaptation of a book that I have ever seen. And seeing all the things that are behind this film makes it even worse.

Denzel Washington is the man, there’s no denying that. But I feel that this movie is a piece of absolute self-masturbation. He’s trying to capture the life of an ordinary Yank in the middle of Pittsburgh and he has no problem getting bogged down in a debate about nothing at all for an endless half an hour. And even though I like dialogue-based movies under different circumstances, here I was getting lost among the black folks and their problems. In terms of acting, Denzel is enjoying the very apex, but I cannot shake the impression that he’s pushing it too hard and while doing that he’s tasting one bad vodka at the fence after another. Fences is simply a slightly strange film. You will only be able to bear with it if you are black. Because under different circumstances, 138 minutes is a lot of hard work.

Lousy Bastards has a certain gift and that is that as soon as you start watching it, you will simply finish it. Whether it’s good, whether it’s bad or whether it’s whatever. But the thing is that it’s really whatever and while watching it, you will at times writhe terribly. The thing is I don’t know what Roman Kašparovský had been smoking, but he alternates good moments with moments so stupid that I have yet to see a worse filmmaking combo in Czech film. For instance, the actors are OK. Jiří Mádl seems to have had a really good time portraying his character. I think Ondřej Vetchý was undoubtedly the best actor, he really fitted in those film shots from Afghanistan. But then this good moment is affected by music that sounds like it was composed by an idiot and a scene that seems to have been designed by a cretin, where they steal Jiří Langmajer’s bag in the subway and you start wondering whether you might be watching some random amateur video on YouTube. Lousy Bastards has a great idea but the execution is so incredibly unbalanced that it seems to be heading towards disaster rather then having me think that what I got is a good-quality film. And that really is a pity because it’s definitely not the actors’ fault. And it’s even worse because the cast of actors is pretty good.

I don’t think I have ever seen a movie that would be this strained and forced. I mean movies about American presidents do contain this type of boredom, but here it was emphasized by the terribly forced performance given by Natalie Portman, whom I really like under different circumstances. But in this one I couldn’t stand her at all. She was showing off in front of the camera and it seemed that she really really wanted to win an Oscar. She wanted it so hard that she couldn’t have been more annoying and less believable I guess. And on top of that, the greatest issue with the movie is that it’s actually about nothing at all. It does have its moments, but I think I could count those with the fingers of my hand. The rest is simply an absolutely worthless movie that is trying to speak to US citizens. I don’t think it makes any sense in Europe.

A movie full of solid acting performances with a plot that cannot be independently understood 100% due to a lack of similar experience. Having said that, the movie at least shows that a human being is an absolutely varied entity that, if they manage to find their path in life, will not leave it until they agree they have come to the end. And for this idea and the life story itself, this film definitely deserves your attention.

I originally didn’t even want to watch this film, but after a while of black catchphrases I recognized that I could give it a chance. In the end, I watched it to the end but not because I was excited about the film, but rather because out of shock at how somebody could live like this. Hip-hop is not my cup of tea, but in this movie the music quite makes sense.