Log: week 30 / 2021

Julia, Samuel and their two kids move to a gated community, where they'll try to start their lives anew. Julia can't really get used to the place, which appears to be completely deserted. Samuel and the kids don't seem to be bothered by any of it, which further angers Julia, who feels like nobody understands her.

Performances are decent, the presentation is solid, and the mystery is kept alive until late in the film. If you've seen a couple of these films before there won't be any big surprises here, but that okay. The execution is more important and director Calparsoro does a more than solid job. Good stuff.

Lily Houghton is a female adventurer who isn't taken seriously by her male colleagues. She steals an important artifact and travels to Brazil together with her best friend, where she'll try to find a mysterious tree whose petals are said to cure all disease. Together with a quirky skipper, she starts her journey on the Amazon.

The chemistry between Johnson and Blunt is amusing, the villains are cheeky, the setting is nice and though the CG can be a bit obvious, it's never really distracting. A bit long maybe and the music is a bit bland, Collet-Serra is also mostly absent as a director, other than that, a simple but fun blockbuster.

Wiktor is the director of a folk troupe, a group of singers and dancers made up of local farmers. Among them is Zula, a feisty girl. It's clear from the very start the two are destined to be together. But practicalities get in the way, as Wiktor longs for the freedom of the Western world, while Zula prefers to stay in Poland.

The stark black and white cinematography is nice and the camera work surprisingly modern, the 4:3 ratio is a big disappointment though, and the folk music is an acquired taste (read: it was pretty grating). The structure of the film is interesting, but the short runtime makes it tough to care for the two. A shorter intro, a better soundtrack and a tighter focus on their relationship might have done wonders, but it's definitely worth a try.

When Herzog hears a volcano is about to go off on Guadeloupe, threatening to destroy the island, he gathers a crew to document the event. He finds a deserted island, except for one man who decided to stay behind. That sounds like a great story, sadly, it turns out to be somewhat less exciting.

Not so much that in the end the crisis is averted (the volcano never erupts), but the guy they find isn't really all that interesting. He becomes the primary subject of the documentary, but he just goes on about God and whatnot. Still, Herzog shoots some very nice pictures of the island and the deserted towns are pretty haunting. Decent.

The film revolves around Simone, a bitter woman who lives alone in the countryside. She drinks a lot, listens to metal and spends her time trying to write her second novel. One night, driving home wasted, she hits a young girl on the side of the road. Reluctantly, she loads her into her car and lets her spend the night. The girl won't reveal where she's from and even though Simone isn't looking for company, she can't just kick her to the curb.

The Green Sea is a film that thrives on atmosphere. The soundtrack and soundscapes in particular stand out. Not even so much the metal tracks, which are more incidental and little more than background noise, but the haunting melodies and distorted rumbles that give the film a dense mood. Coupled with a grim and desaturated color palette, a lingering camera and sharply edited segments that drive up the tension, it makes for an impressively stylized film.

Plunkett does well to keep the mystery intact while revealing just enough to give the necessary context to the plot. The performances are solid, and the finale is memorable. The Green Sea loses a tiny bit of steam in the middle part, I guess a runtime closer to 90 minutes would've fitted the film a little better, other than that I had no real complaints about this one. I'm already looking forward to seeing what Plunkett will come up with next.

Jenna is 13, but doesn't really fit in with the rest of her classmates. The only person that really talks to her is Matt, but he's somewhat of an outcast himself. Jenna wishes she was grown up already, the next morning her dream comes true. Only then she realizes that she doesn't really like her future self.

Apart from some tedious life lessons that are probably best ignored altogether, the film tries to play up the romance between Jenny and Matt. Ruffalo does a decent job, but Garner just isn't all that likeable. The comedy is pretty poor, the soundtrack is cringe worthy and the film is hopelessly predictable. Not my cup of tea.

Sorini travels to Kazakhstan, where we find one of the first launch sites for space rockets ever built. It's here that the first Sputnik rockets left Earth in search of unexplored territories. It's a doc that explores lost glory amidst barren landscapes, white keeping an eye out for the people that were left behind.

There's very little dialogue or explanatory text, instead Sorini registers and lets the images speak for themselves. It's certainly a pleasant approach, but the lifeless framing and the predictable soundtrack don't have the intended effect. The first 15 minutes were quite intriguing, the rest of this doc turned out to be a pretty big slog.

The film follows the political career of Cheney, as he rises through the ranks, fades back into the background and gets his time in the spotlight when he is asked to become vice president next to George W. Bush. There, he would claim a lot of the power that was usually reserved for presidents only.

McKay's sense of humor is what sets this film apart. The fake end credits and the restaurant scene in particular are real stand-outs. Performances are decent too, but it's not quite enough to keep an otherwise predictable film interesting from start to finish. Then again it certainly could've been a lot worse.

Moe and Pa are two brothers who have lived together longer than they care to remember. Pa is the only one to have ever taken a short vacation, an event that is coming back to haunt the brothers when a boy appears on their doorstep, claiming Pa is his father. The boy moves in, but Moe and Pa have a hard time adjusting to their new roommate.

The bland setting, the boring characters and the predictable comedy don't really work in the film's favor. It's probably more fun if you're the precise target audience of this type of comedy, but I've seen quite a few of these films, and they're all pretty samey. Not funny and absurd enough, all that remains is a sluggish dullness.

Hope Ann was once the hero of the nation, winning a bronze medal after having injured one of her legs. She messed up her comeback and ever since her life has been going downhill, turning her into a downright bitch. Her father, desperate to get his daughter's life back on track, devises a nifty plan.

Though Rauch's part isn't all that different (apart from being quite foul-mouthed), she's pretty funny and plays well off the rest of the cast. The drama is limited, the comedy doesn't fade away, secondary parts bring the necessary diversity and the film isn't overly long. A solid, entertaining comedy.

A couple of students are cleaning up their classroom. They realize they probably won't see each other again after this, and so they chant an incantation to keep their friendship alive. The incantation isn't as good-natured as they'd hoped, and before they know it they're stuck in an alternate reality where they're hunted down by some rather violent ghosts.

A couple of Japanese high school students trapped in a school building, if you've watched some Japanese horror films it's not something you haven't seen before. Luckily, the kills are pleasantly over-the-top and some shots are pretty awe-inspiring. Not enough to make this an instant classic, but if you're looking for some fun horror filler, Corpse Party does the trick.

A violent serial killer is leaving behind a string of brutally disfigured corpses. He's looking for a girl that suits his needs, but no one seems to meet his requirements. Until he happens upon a female killer who is just as mad as he is. The two are made for each other, but their eagerness to kill leads them into a violent showdown.

For a film that is called Brutal and wants to be in-your-face and shocking, too much is left to the imagination of the audience. Hirose's frantic camera work and two sufficiently deplorable leads are the perfect ingredients for a real nasty splatter fest, but in the end you get a lot of off-camera stabbing and smeared-out blood. It's a good thing the film was relatively short, so at least it never became too boring or repetitive.

Thinking his sister Virginia is back to doing drugs, Leo sets out to find her. When the two are finally reunited, Virginia tells her brother she's been clean for 8 months straight, but a weird cult hexed here. Though Leo doesn't believe a word she says, he wants to support his sister, and they drive across the country to try and find the cult that tool a hold of Virginia.

There are three noteworthy horror/thriller moments, the rest is just two siblings reconnecting after not having seen each other for a long time. The performances are rather weak, the cinematography is shabby and even though the film is short, the middle part really drags. There are glimpses of quality if you look long and hard, but it's not enough to keep this film afloat.

The film focuses on a group of factory workers. They are mistreated by their bosses, but they finally decide to band together and stop work until their demands are met. Eisenstein follows them around as they try to outsmart their masters, which leads to a pretty violent and shocking finale.

The black and white cinematography is rich in contrast and the flashy editing adds a lot of flair to the film. The finale is pretty impressive too. But the revolt of workers against their bosses is rather basic and the runtime too long. Not a terrible film, but I'm a bit bummed Eisenstein went for a more narrative film, whereas his style has so much more potential.

There are remnants of a plot here, personally I'm not familiar enough with local folklore (or simply experimental cinema) to make much of it. It's not difficult to follow the rough outline (a young bride turns dark, causes destruction, which then makes way for rebirth) but that's just me sticking bits and pieces together. Then again, with films like this, I care very little about plot and meaning.

Can't say much about the quality of the dance, but the mix of exotic locations with an atmospheric soundtrack made this a pretty easy watch. There's enough variation, there's a mysterious and fantastical mood that runs throughout, and the runtime is perfect. I didn't expect too much up front, but this film turned out to be pretty solid.

Laura and Martin have been married for four years, but Martin is an abusive and controlling husband. Laura lives in fear of him and sees only one way to escape her dire fate: she fakes her own death. Martin is clueless, until he gets a phone call from one of Laura's friends. He realizes that his wife may still be around after all.

The performances are rather bland, the plot is nothing spectacular. It's Ruben's direction that really fails the film though. For a thriller, it's just not very exciting. At least the pacing is decent, and it never becomes extremely boring, but it's one of those films that didn't really stand the test of time.

Hibiki and Mei are sisters with a dark past. Mei has been able to leave that past behind, Hibiki turned out to be an introverted girl who has trouble adapting to the world around her. When she finds an odd box below their house, connected to Fuji's suicide forest, strange things start to happen to Hibiki and her friends.

The finale is pretty spectacular, a fine mix of horror and fantasy elements, it just takes a long time before it actually starts. Performances are decent, and the setting is very atmospheric. Sadly, the drama is rather bland, and the first 90 minutes are pretty by the numbers. Shimizu can do better, if only he could bring his films back to 90 minutes.

Miss Daisy is a wealthy, older woman who finds it increasingly harder to do the things she used to do all by herself. And so, when she crashes her car, her son hires Miss Daisy a driver. She isn't too happy with the idea and gives the man a pretty hard time, but as they spend more time together, to grow to like each other.

Simple characters, boring cinematography, a sentimental score and predictable drama. Driving Miss Daisy is a typical tearjerker, the precursor to Green Book, but even less subtle. The film's only saving grace is that it is rather short, so at least the pacing is decent. Other than that, not a film that had anything to offer to me.

Xin Qiji is the titular hero. A young boy who rose up to fight the Jin Dynasty. They were ravaging his lands in an attempt to beat the Song Dynasty in the south. With an army of just 50.000 soldiers, Qiji manages to kill a large regiment of Jin soldiers, which immediately makes him a hero to his people.

The battles are decent enough and the focus on the strategic elements is nice, but there's a bit too much melodrama and the film slows down considerably during the second half. Performances are nothing special, and the film struggles to set itself apart from its peers. Not bad, but nothing you haven't seen before.

Eyvind is a criminal on the run from his past. He stumbles upon a farm where Halla lives. The two grow fond of each other and decide to marry, but Eyvind can't escape his past. Eyvind has to come clean to his wife and the two leave the farm behind, fleeing into the mountains, where a life of poverty and hunger awaits.

Like most silent dramas, I feel that the exaggerated performances and constant interruptions of intertitles stand in the way of the enjoyment. Especially when little effort is made to make the film look good. There are a handful of decent nature shots here, other than that it's just a simple plot spread out over 100 minutes of film.