POMO

Though this well-made clip from a feature film is well made, it lacks meaning due to its being taken out of the context of the preceding and following events.

This 15-minute film is more powerful and beautiful than many feature films. Eye movements are more important than dialogue here. In an authentic setting, childhood fragility and innocence come face to face with abominably gray reality, for which pure love is the only remedy.

Dennis is a promising start of an interesting indie feature film, which for some unknown reason ends after 18 minutes and remains only a short film.

Spectacularly filmed “action” climbing on El Capitan and a short trip to Cerro Torre in Patagonia. These climbing delicacies are interspersed with interviews with the Huber brothers right in the filmed locations. The brothers speak about their passion for climbing, the need to achieve what they set out to do, the fear they have to overcome, and especially their relationship with each other – the struggles and rivalries that they have to battle constantly and their codependency. There is also an interview with their mother, who reminds one of them that he has a wife and a small child at home... The film only lets these people talk, without any hint of documentary reflection that we know from the more complex and deeper films of Werner Herzog. But fans of this sport and mountains in general will be happy for its very existence. You won’t see similar shots from El Capitan anywhere else. It would look great in IMAX.

A Prophet lies exactly halfway between the more “commercial” Mesrine: Public Enemy #1 and “artsy” Gomorra, and it has a decent cast (more unforgettable mobster faces – casting is the key element of this kind of film). Tahar Rahim is excellent, and the laws of the criminal world are simple and brutal. I just had a hard time keeping track of all those Corsicans, Arabs and Italians between whom the protagonist flits and who are willing to cooperate with any side in order to destroy the third one.

Sometimes the most beautiful films are the hardest to write about. Because you feel grateful to them. Because they move you like no other more sophisticated films, even though they speak of the most ordinary things. Fish Tank surprised me. With its authenticity, humanity, naturalness and short, poetic slow-motion shots that were a breath of fresh air in all that surrounding hopelessness. In Fish Tank, I grew fond of the character of an annoying teenager to whom I would give a wide berth in real life. Fish Tank moved me with a scene in which a family hip-hop dances in their living room. For me, this is THE European film of 2009.

The White Ribbon is the best possible thesis work of a student of all creative subjects at film school. I am one of those viewers who are able to appreciate this (and I have nothing but praise for Michael Haneke’s art), but a long time ago I fell in love with moving pictures above all for their emotions, and those are lacking here.

A psychological game played out over a period of two and half hours, with peons muddling through in a political system that had no winners and was a cancer on the human soul. Walking Too Fast is built on an excellent script with detailed portrayal of the characters and their twisted encounters, the maximum focus of the actors, and precise direction that might be slow but hits the bull’s eye. Don’t mind the initial slow pace, the lack of famous actors and visual minimalism evoking a TV production – everything, including coldly portrayed housing estates and the monotonous music, which adds tension to dramatic psychological moments, has its place. But it is definitely not a pleasant, audience-friendly film. It’s a very sad film that the current teen generation, untouched by Czechoslovakia’s past, will find hard to believe.

For an action flick, The Book of Eli has too little action (two knife fights that take barely a minute and are more symbolic than physical + one static shootout). It is also too childishly simple for a drama with a message, with a few WTF moments (Denzel Washington’s invincibility, non-sequiturs in the plot and especially the unnecessary extra point in the ending). The post-apocalyptic atmosphere is limited by the film’s budget, and the director’s talent is not enough (the significantly more expensive Terminator Salvation was a lot sexier despite all its stupidity). The actors have nothing to play and the audience finds nothing to entertain them in this movie. As I gave three stars to I Am Legend, which was more engaging and interesting in terms of both visuals and plot, I’ve got to stick with only two stars here.

With its beautiful set designs and quality actors, The Pit and the Pendulum is rather more an esthetic than emotional experience. There’s nothing wrong with the script, which gradually uncovers the mystery, but the film wouldn’t have scared me at the time of its release, much less now. The lack of suspense is unfortunately not offset by any kind of a deeper message, which was present in the best Universal horror classics. B-movie maestro Roger Corman focused more on delivering spectacular formal aspects than on bringing greater depth to the content.