Malarkey

A bunch of girls in an unintersting French town are bored. They have been bored for a long time, so one ‘intelligent’ 16-year-old girl gets the idea that it might be quite fun if she got pregnant. The girls’ lack of zest for living was pretty obvious and I can easily imagine that this very thing is the problem with today’s young people, who do not know how to entertain themselves, so they look for entertainment in nonsense. The film’s premise will attract your attention, but at the same time you cannot expect this to be a five-star gem of a movie. There are too many scenes portraying the endless moments of boredom of the current French generation, who do not know how to value life.

The Italians once again came with a brilliant subject matter. In my opinion, they have a talent for it. I watch a dozen of mediocre Italian movies (often with a lot shouting on top of it), and then they hit me with something I can’t get out of my head even if I hit a wall with it. And there’s nothing wrong with the fact that they’re exploiting time travel here. This is a film about family tradition, about some sort of family spirituality, which is what I liked so much about it. Plus I immediately noticed the Slavia Prague soccer scarf in the living room, belonging to the father with Buffon’s hairstyle, which made me feel even more enthusiastic about the film. Plus, the casting of actresses is also very fortunate – Vittoria Puccini’s acting performance was brilliant and Benedetta Porcaroli was also not bad given her youth. 18 Presents is a sensitive family film that won’t make you cry, but in the end it you will feel so incredibly strange that you will not want to forget it.

It’s fascinating how well Thomas Jane rehearsed his role of a total American redneck, including the melodious but barely comprehensible dialect. Really fascinating. Unfortunately, even though it’s based on a short story by Stephen King, which guarantees the quality of the topic, its execution was too gloomy and horribly slow. Given that the film lasts 101 minutes, nothing much happens in it, apart from one explicit scene. Everything else rises and falls with the atmosphere of 1922, and I must admit that’s very authentic. Undoubtedly an interesting piece, which has its pros and cons but is definitely worth watching. Moreover, you can’t miss several references to the legendary The Shining. For Stephen King’s fans, this film is definitely a must-see.

The Estonian-Finnish cinematography friends once again joined their forces to tell the strong story of the Estonian people on whose territory the Germans and the Russians formed a corridor across Eastern Europe. And personally, I must say that it was some pretty interesting storytelling. You see, I’d had no idea about what was happening in Estonia during World War Two and this movie gave me a clear explanation. It is divided into two parts. One of them is German and the other one is Russian. They are both disgusting and they turn people into killing machines. And Estonia wasn’t even what the war was about, either. Technically, the film was well-made, it only took me a while to get used to the action sequences, which have been shot in a rather aesthetic, but also quite strange manner. On the other hand, this is not the first war movie from Finland/Estonia, so once again we can expect not only the military equipment but also the plot to be of a high quality. Especially the story, which is trying to be as close to reality as possible. Once again at the expense of leaving less space for emotions, but that’s something that I got used to when it comes to their war movies.

A story from the end of the Second World War told with a love of the old, which has a catharsis so strong that when it comes to the Hungarian cinematography, I will remember it for a very long time.

Finns and their special way of telling the story of 21 Ways to Ruin a Marriage. The story was nonexistent. I wasn’t having any fun at all and most importantly, I didn’t even get to laugh. The only thing that was salvaging it was the lead actress and the interesting Finnish language. And also, the polar day setting and the final scene that said a lot about the movie as a whole.

At first I wondered why someone had this story filmed twice, in addition twice in the same year ... well, and then I read the director’s name and it became clear to me – Paul Greengrass. A theme literally made for him. In addition, I would perhaps rate the film even better if I did not see the original one, which was sufficiently shocking and, especially in filmmaking respect, absolutely excellent. But I thought I would try this one, too, out of my respect for this director. And I have a few complaints. Especially about the attack itself, which was done very sloppily. But as it forms only about a third of the film, the other two thirds are able to properly engage the viewer. It milks the audience’s emotions shamelessly, as it shows not only Breivik’s thought processes, which shock you every time he appears on the screen, but alsothe youths who survived his rampage, but didn’t live through it unscathed. It’s definitely some food for thought, but the best thing is the ending, where the victims’ fates are closed by a court proceedings. It could have been about a half an hour shorter, but on the other hand it’s a classic Greengrass, so everything, including the camera, feels so natural that you will feel like the happenings depicted affected you personally.

The first movie was absolutely crazy, so the second one is properly insane. For the first fifteen minutes, I was just staring at the two idiots with my mouth wide open and I wasn’t sure whether I’m supposed to laugh or stare like a stuck pig. It was obvious that it was so overdone on purpose and it all pretended to be awfully stylish, which was also complemented by the dance music itself. The story didn’t surprise me because they didn’t come up with anything new. They just swapped high school for college. But one-liners were plentiful; In fact, there were so many that I think that I must have overlooked a ton of cool and clever references to the 1990s in all that colorful fun. I don’t really like Hill or Tatum, but they were really putting on a show here and so I had good fun, I just had to get used to it.

A mediocre crime investigation movie that tries to be cool but it’s just average. But if nothing else, 84 minutes is a solid time to handle this – at times agonizing – movie. As far as story goes, it was just lacking. When I think about the fact that I don’t know anyone from the movie, I realize that the only memory I’ll have of this movie will be the fact that it was Spanish. It’s not shocking nor intriguing enough. This movie doesn’t have anything to make me remember it. It’s purely average, but a good attempt for Spain. I don’t remember seeing a similar movie they’ve made.

An absolutely average filmmaking job set in a popular environment for movies which aspire to be good.