J*A*S*M

Atmosphere, melancholic mood, artsy historical jokes, rinse and repeat. It does have style, though.

Reitman shot this nicely and effectively, but his earlier and more cynical movies are more to my taste. This is pure melodrama to poke at your feels. Ew!

Objectively, I have almost nothing to reproach this indie revenge thriller, it’s a solid movie with fantastic cinematography and a captivating melancholic atmosphere. But it was too slow for me, which says something, because in general I have nothing against slow films. The Battery without charm.

Proxy is not lacking in ambition and skill, but perhaps it was a bit too big a bite for a not very experienced director – some of the insecurities and the lack of grounding can be noticed clearly. But it’s still interesting to watch and it didn’t bore me, despite its fairly long run. Thematically, it’s a bold thriller/drama/horror mindfuck that pushes the envelope of what is commonly shown in films (violence against pregnant women and children), and the hardly predictable twists help it to surprise in places where you wouldn’t expect after the first 30 minutes and a read of the synopsis. Its message about the PC environment is also quite controversial and Proxy is not likely to make women and girls jump in joy. Swanberg is cool, though in such company almost anyone would be :-D … 7/10

Surprisingly, pretty good. I hardly remember the first Wolf Creek, I only have the rather hazy impression of it as a dull and average exploitation movie, but I will refrain from an explicit comparison because, as I say, it’s just a feeling. But Wolf Creek 2 sticks fiercely within the limits of the genre without going any further, but what it does, it does very well. Basically, it’s a cross-section of Australian hixploitation (or ozploitation) where, instead of a proper story, we get several different sequences separated by locations and even characters, and the only thing linking them is the villain, a murderous and cantankerous redneck. So, we see a night attack on a tent, a night chase in the bush, road chases, an attack on a house, etc., etc. Something like ozploitation in a nutshell, even the kangaroos have something to do (though Wake in Fright leads in this regard). Considering its moderate run, it surprisingly checks all the boxes and has a solid tempo. Satisfaction.

I rationally appreciate the vibrant enthusiasm that can be seen in this indie found-footage horror, and I wish the creators a lot of luck in their future projects, they do have talent. But Afflicted failed to fully captivate me, and I really don’t know why, because it’s got everything it should and, objectively, it’s one of the most interesting and vibrant found-footage horror movies in recent years.

Another unoriginal found-footage. I’m tired of this :( Theoretically, it’s quite effective in some places, but there’s been too many already…

My feelings towards the found-footage / mockumentary sub-genre could be summarised as “fatigue”. But you can still find excellent exceptions among filmmakers who are able to take on this exhausted format in a relatively creative way, and rookie director Zachary Donohue is one of those exceptions with The Den. Thematically, it deals with the dangers of the internet (in a similar way as, for instance, Megan is Missing). I don’t know if it is really technically possible for an internet attacker to do everything he does to the protagonist, I lack the technical expertise. Nevertheless, what he does to her is nothing nice and the creators successfully manage capture the despair caused by those anonymous attacks. They also stick to the concept of capturing the events through a web camera for at least half of the movie, and it’s amazing how smoothly they are able to tell a comprehensible story with such limitations. Hats off to that. By the end, the notebook’s web camera is replaced by something else… and the ending overall goes to a place that I wasn’t really expecting at the beginning. Thumbs up to that. 7/10, rounding up because it was nice.

It should have been either smarter and more original, or sillier and more fun. But like this it’s mostly boring, unfortunately.

My enthusiasm from the first Nymphomaniac can be summed up with the fact that I didn’t run to the cinema for the second part and waited for it without much interest for four months. And with similar lack of interest I spent two hours watching it, during which I looked at my watch more often that it would be healthy. There is something there, of course, Trier doesn’t make stupid empty stuff, and the climax is quite vibrant, but this time, the rules of his game didn’t work on me.