Malarkey

It’s actually a rather wacky fairytale about the power of fate, but isn’t it alright for movies to bring joy to their viewers and work as a balm for their souls? A Hallmark standard, but I didn’t mind it.

Adam Sandler and his production company joined forces with Netflix, making one movie after another together. I don’t know whether this cooperation infused him with some new energy, but he’s been making one crazy comedy after another. And even though they’re all kind of alike, I still really like watching his movies. True, it’s been a long time for him to make a comedy that would stand out against the rest, but he maintains a solid comedy standard (even though he sometimes employs toilet humor). So if you like Adam’s humor, this is an absolute classic with everything it entails. Sometimes incredibly funny, at times a bit annoying, but all in all a perfect chill-out, which in the entire contemporary American comedy genre probably suits my tastes the best.

Michael Bay is simply nuts. Moreover he thinks that a movie about a bunch of people who want to save the world but actually kill many innocents is going to be fun. And yes, I can say that the action was fun. I’ve probably never seen it affect it its surroundings as much in any movie. However, the action was the only thing that worked. The boys and girls here didn’t offer anything the audience could relate to. Even a sight of the half-naked Mélanie Laurent left me totally unaffected… and that’s saying something.

This seemed to me like the director was competing with other alternative directors, trying to shoot for example the longest scene of someone putting their clothes on. I also think this movie features the longest scene of someone riding a bike. Moreover, it all felt like it lasted about a thousand hours. I was very surprised that it was actually only two, because I felt ten years older when I finished watching.

I could have been a cool comedy, but it looked like Hannah Montana without the funny parts. And yes, we can say that there were funny parts in Hannah Montana – especially in comparison with this film.

Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano are a guarantee of a powerful life story for me. The Intouchables and Samba are a clear proof of that. At the same time, they had one more job to do here – to prove that Vincent Cassel is not only an actor of villainous or inaccessible, but nevertheless ingenious roles, but also a kind person who can come across as likeable. To support this impression, there is a clip right in the beginning where Vincent thanks the Czech audience for coming to see his film to the theater. At that time it became clear that my relationship with Vincent had undergone an irrevocable change. The days when I perceived him as one of the greatest French actors of today, but at the same time as an annoying dick, were definitely over. The story of The Specials is just so powerful that you can’t dislike the characters. It’s just impossible. An incredibly powerful story, the introduction into the world of autism and people who want to help. And what’s more, they sacrifice their whole lives to this case. Even though it took me some time to understand what this film is about, in its second half I was experiencing true film pleasure, although mixed with sadness that there is such a hole in the system that people who want to help must sometimes do it illegally. I bow down before everyone who does this. Olivier and Eric are great directors and screenwriters. They’re able to make a film that doesn’t forcefully milk your emotions, but still offers you a certain fatal dimension in the story that not every screenwriter is able to pull off, and I am very thankful for that.

Very poetic, with little in the way of dialogues. But there’s no wonder about it. The Bulgarian Sahara is exactly the kind of place that would make its inhabitants taciturn. If you, however, are intrigued by the locations and quiet characters, you’re going to enjoy this. Thirst is an exemplary Bulgarian film, showing that its cinematography is at a rather high level if it can make films like this.

An interesting documentary from today’s Naples. According to the poster, it is clear that it documents the friendship of two guys, but at the same time the director starts to show them to us at a time when a police officer shoots one of their friends in self-defense.In addition, everything is shot on an iPhone camera, so it all looks quite amateurish. But despite this amateurism, I wasn’t bored at all during those 76 minutes. These boys inhabit a place where young people live in a way I will probably never understand. An admiration for the mafia, kids running around with plastic guns and holding them much more expertly than I’d be ever able to. Moreover, we see young people shooting in the air with a stolen gun. It’s hard to stay normal in such a place and even harder to keep your sanity intact.

Apart from the South American panoramas, this drama has nothing to offer. A bland story really cannot be salvaged by a good work with the camera, no matter how hard you try.

There’s nothing special about this documentary. Maybe just the fact that it shows the lifestyle of the Italian youth of today. And because everybody likes to take a peek into somebody else’s life, the creators enable you to do just that here and you as a viewer become quite a stalker.