Stanislaus

Smash and Grab has its charm despite the weaker animation and its story reminded me a bit of the feature film Wall-E at first. The idea of the film is simple but meaningful. A story that says a lot without using words.

Scrat's space adventures in a hundred different ways, from the origin of the solar system, to the incredibly funny gravity episode, to the perils of teleportation and more advanced species. All in the spirit of Scrat's endless pursuit of his dream acorn. Even though this is the umpteenth Scrat short and basically recycles tried-and-true gags and jokes, it definitely entertains more than the fifth feature.

On the one hand, there is an interesting concept with a dog academy and a nice lesson, on the other hand, there is weaker animation and a bland story. Pip doesn't offend, but it doesn't impress either.

Purl tries to convey the lesson that it is important to be yourself, no matter how you are viewed by others, in a nice, but still obvious way, and if you stand out from the crowd, there is nothing wrong with that, because there are enough monotonous sheep already. It's a nice, but somewhat tired theme.

My Best Friend offers, on the one hand, a quite nicely sketched story about the friendship between two teenage boys from different backgrounds, but on the other hand, I felt like something was missing; I felt a certain emotional incompleteness and brevity. The search for self can be a strong theme, but in this case there was a sense of untapped potential. But I must not forget to praise the beautiful locations and the nice musical score.

In many ways, Land of Storms reminded me of Brokeback Mountain. You witness a relationship gradually emerging, but blossoming in a time and environment that are not conducive to it, whether it be the ubiquitous raised index finger of the church or the disapproving villagers who do not and will not tolerate such relationships. There was some potential here, but I still found the film somewhat flat in terms of dialogue, which is a shame. The climax was surprising and shocking, but failed to pull the story out of the waters of mundanity in which it had been treading for most of the plot.

Shed My Skin has a very decent start and initial conflict, but after the coming out I felt that the film lost its breath a bit. The performances are decent and authentic for a TV movie, but I missed a particularly strong scene that would stick in my mind. I liked that the film didn't just focus on the troubled teenage years, but also the woes of marriage. It is worth a watch, but the film is nothing special within its genre and subject matter.

Border is one of the most bizarre pieces I've seen recently. The weirdest genre mash-up you could ever hope for. A Scandinavian fairy tale about two creatures in love at the intersection of the human and supernatural worlds, with a detective plot and a pervasive critique of human society. The makeup artists did a really good and frighteningly convincing job creating one of the most unattractive couples in film history. Also interesting was the concept of troll mythology, which made for more than one WTF moment. It's definitely a noteworthy film, and I can understand any rating for it.

Something Like Summer failed with me mainly because of the unlikeable lead actor (and character) and a script that was a little too romance at times. The songs weren't bad, they even fit the plot, but I still personally didn't like the musical feel. What I did like, though, is that the story was spread out over a larger time period, with the line with Jaco being the most interesting. I really had to shake my head at times, especially because of the irrational behaviour of the main character. If the whole film had been in a similar vein to the last quarter of an hour, I would definitely have gone higher with the rating. Too bad!

Tom of Finland has undoubtedly an unmissable value in that it presents the life and work of a controversial artist who is not so well known in this country and depicts the conditions and perception of sexual minorities in Finland and California at that time. But from a dramatic point of view, I found the film somewhat empty and lacking any downright memorable or powerful scene. It wasn't even as shocking and overt as one might initially think. A mediocrely made biopic, unfortunately nothing more.