bcarlos
Joined Jan 2009
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Reviews8
bcarlos's rating
Midnight In Paris follows a young writer in a visit to Paris with his fiancée where he travels all nights ninety years back in time to get advise and friendship from the literary geniuses of the time. Yes, it's another film from Woody Allen, but this time is not as routinary as You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger or as cheeky as Vicky Cristina Barcelona. This shows Woody Allen at the standard he should be at every year. Original, funny, engaging and with some light meaningful message that we all relate to; what else can you ask from a film?
The colors and cinematography of the film are more of the same of the post-Barcelona Allen, all beige and brownish, but he achieves a beauty in his portrayal of Paris that has not come from him since he first visited London with Match Point in 2005. It's also the most original screenplay he has written since, and the plot works and looks like one of his short stories, as a crazy, illogic and absurd showcase of gags and jokes.
The performances are all fine, nothing stellar though, except for Adrien Brody's magnificent role as Salvador Dalí. Owen Wilson does a very good job but he tries too much to be and act like Woody Allen. The impersonations are all great -Hemingway,Picasso, Buñuel, Fitzgerald- they all look exactly the same than in real life.
This is a film that will surely not disappoint any moviegoer or Allen fan. It's true that it doesn't come close to other of his better films, but it is a step forward from Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Cassandra's Dream, You Will Meet... and even Scoop and Whatever Works. Still, if you want to enjoy some true Woody Allen, go and see Annie Hall, Hannah And Her Sisters, Crimes And Misdemeanors, etc. This is not anything brilliant, but it is very entertaining, amusing and original; and it its a great time spent at the movies.
Midnight In Paris is a surreal and touristic romantic comedy with clever comical gags, a creative story and a beautiful portrayal of the City of Lights.
Rating: 3.5/5.
The colors and cinematography of the film are more of the same of the post-Barcelona Allen, all beige and brownish, but he achieves a beauty in his portrayal of Paris that has not come from him since he first visited London with Match Point in 2005. It's also the most original screenplay he has written since, and the plot works and looks like one of his short stories, as a crazy, illogic and absurd showcase of gags and jokes.
The performances are all fine, nothing stellar though, except for Adrien Brody's magnificent role as Salvador Dalí. Owen Wilson does a very good job but he tries too much to be and act like Woody Allen. The impersonations are all great -Hemingway,Picasso, Buñuel, Fitzgerald- they all look exactly the same than in real life.
This is a film that will surely not disappoint any moviegoer or Allen fan. It's true that it doesn't come close to other of his better films, but it is a step forward from Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Cassandra's Dream, You Will Meet... and even Scoop and Whatever Works. Still, if you want to enjoy some true Woody Allen, go and see Annie Hall, Hannah And Her Sisters, Crimes And Misdemeanors, etc. This is not anything brilliant, but it is very entertaining, amusing and original; and it its a great time spent at the movies.
Midnight In Paris is a surreal and touristic romantic comedy with clever comical gags, a creative story and a beautiful portrayal of the City of Lights.
Rating: 3.5/5.
Catfish follows a young photographer whose Internet relationships with an eight year old girl who paints pictures inspired in his photographs, her nine-teen years old sister and their good-looking mother involves him in an identity mystery, always accompanied by both his brother and another friend who continuously film the whole experience. Despite its interesting and thought-provoking messages about loneliness, the pursuit of happiness and Internet relations, the first thing that popped up and surprised me is that we can't say if the story, the characters and the situations developing on screen are real or not. Even before starting to see the film, we are convinced it is a mockumentary, a false documentary; but as the film develops and our characters develop and finally expose themselves completely to us we can't help but notice it's all too human to be fake. It would take a genius screenwriter to have scripted what goes on on a character's mind whose name I won't spoil.
As I said before, the film also makes statements about loneliness and the ways of achieving happiness while feeling lonely, a matter in which the film expresses itself very clearly and that ultimately reduces itself to what Roger Ebert wrote: ''We deserve to share happiness in this world, and if we supply it in the way it's sought and nobody gets hurt, is that a bad thing?'' It's very difficult to talk about these themes of the film without revealing its main plot mystery, which is what ultimately makes the film an engaging and very entertaining one.
As for the technical aspect of the film, the hand-held camera is quite irritating towards the beginning of the film, but as the plot develops this becomes a very minor complaint as our interest and attention is solely in the film's story and characters rather in how they are presented. The editing is fast moving and the inter-cuts of computer inserts and Facebook images at the pace of the music are done effectively. I found myself rather frustrated and disturbed as I didn't find the note on the credits saying that all characters and plots are fictional, which appears on all films and false documentaries, and it just made the film's message hit me on a gut level as I actually thought that these people exist, and that such ordinary people are capable of these (seemingly) not ordinary things.
Catfish is an identity mystery - character study documentary with thought-provoking themes, and engaging and moving plot and a disturbing reality.
Rating: 4/5.
As I said before, the film also makes statements about loneliness and the ways of achieving happiness while feeling lonely, a matter in which the film expresses itself very clearly and that ultimately reduces itself to what Roger Ebert wrote: ''We deserve to share happiness in this world, and if we supply it in the way it's sought and nobody gets hurt, is that a bad thing?'' It's very difficult to talk about these themes of the film without revealing its main plot mystery, which is what ultimately makes the film an engaging and very entertaining one.
As for the technical aspect of the film, the hand-held camera is quite irritating towards the beginning of the film, but as the plot develops this becomes a very minor complaint as our interest and attention is solely in the film's story and characters rather in how they are presented. The editing is fast moving and the inter-cuts of computer inserts and Facebook images at the pace of the music are done effectively. I found myself rather frustrated and disturbed as I didn't find the note on the credits saying that all characters and plots are fictional, which appears on all films and false documentaries, and it just made the film's message hit me on a gut level as I actually thought that these people exist, and that such ordinary people are capable of these (seemingly) not ordinary things.
Catfish is an identity mystery - character study documentary with thought-provoking themes, and engaging and moving plot and a disturbing reality.
Rating: 4/5.
Prénom: Carmen follows a young woman as she falls in love with a security guard who works at a bank she and her friends rob. Hiding in a house near the sea, they share a love that is marked by the impossibility of it to be. The film has some wonderful images, music and scenes, but my main problem with it is that I don't know who these characters are, I never connect with them. We have a truly beautiful love story in front of us, but one that feels really empty and rather forced.
A scene that had the potential to be heartbreaking (the scene with the television) remains as a rather laughable and pretentious one. This isn't the actors' fault, actually the performances are excellent, mostly Maruschka Detmers' as Carmen, but it is Godard's fault for not deepening at all in the characters. They come together, they break up, they try to return, but I don't care whether they end up together or not.
The film though has some wonderful recurring images, mostly the string quartet that plays Beethoven often softly often aggressively as the relationship goes through different stages. Two trains cross each other coming from different directions when the lovers come together or apart and constant images of the waves at the sea are also some other recurring scenes. All these images are extremely beautiful, as are all the angles from the normal scenes of the film. The lights are all very carefully thought of and the film, despite its slight pretentiousness and the little interest we have for its characters, manages to be very entertaining and has a hilarious bank robbery scene. Godard also appears as probably the most interesting character. He plays himself and lives in a mental hospital for being the only completely sincere person in the film and doing and saying whatever he wants all the time.
Prénom: Carmen is a surreal impossible love story with wonderful performances and direction, an engaging soundtrack and a love story we don't care about.
Rating: 2.5/5.
A scene that had the potential to be heartbreaking (the scene with the television) remains as a rather laughable and pretentious one. This isn't the actors' fault, actually the performances are excellent, mostly Maruschka Detmers' as Carmen, but it is Godard's fault for not deepening at all in the characters. They come together, they break up, they try to return, but I don't care whether they end up together or not.
The film though has some wonderful recurring images, mostly the string quartet that plays Beethoven often softly often aggressively as the relationship goes through different stages. Two trains cross each other coming from different directions when the lovers come together or apart and constant images of the waves at the sea are also some other recurring scenes. All these images are extremely beautiful, as are all the angles from the normal scenes of the film. The lights are all very carefully thought of and the film, despite its slight pretentiousness and the little interest we have for its characters, manages to be very entertaining and has a hilarious bank robbery scene. Godard also appears as probably the most interesting character. He plays himself and lives in a mental hospital for being the only completely sincere person in the film and doing and saying whatever he wants all the time.
Prénom: Carmen is a surreal impossible love story with wonderful performances and direction, an engaging soundtrack and a love story we don't care about.
Rating: 2.5/5.