Movies
A very literal road movie. If you like the 70s and classic American sports cars, this is a film for you. If not, you might be left wondering what the fuss is about. There isn't much plot, the characters are cardboard and the film fizzles out towards the finale, but the slacker vibe is at least somewhat interesting. Two car freaks cruise through America. All that binds them is their passion for cars, other than that they don't have much to tell each other. They pick up a girl along the way and bump into another man, who challenges them to a race. They oblige, but before they reach their destination they've already moved on to other things. Two-Lane Blacktop is more about the characters hanging out together and driving through 70s America than anything else. I'm not big on the 70s, so I can't see I really cared for the time capsule this film offers. I can see the appeal though, and the sluggish, slow mood isn't the worst, it's just not very appealing.Read all
Venice 70: Future Reloaded
I'm a big fan of anthologies, and this project sounded very promising on paper. Seventy renowned directors give their vision on the future of cinema. With just one minute per short, there isn't much time to make a point, but it's disheartening to see how few of them even managed to stick to the topic. The saddest part was that many of the short didn't even deal with the future, but openly referred to or praised the medium's past. There's also a lot of doom and gloom, with some very basic visions of people not caring enough about arthouse cinema, or playing movies on their phones. Your typical old-man-yelling-at-cloud stuff. There is only a small selection of directors who seem to have understood the brief, and they struggle to make the most of their limited runtime. What remains is a complete mess, with most shorts looking like they were made on people's afternoon off, and hardly anything that stands out. A disappointment.Read all