irinafiruti Reviews

Memoirs of a Geisha (2005)

Enjoyable fantasy

[7/10 · 3 August 2021]

A story about the geishas world, a closed world within the Japanese culture before it has been invaded by the Western culture - all this developed by an American Jew with no personal life experience in Japan, starring Chinese female actors, filmed in the States and Hollywood produced. This says all about how true to the matter this production is.

Aside from this, a beautiful cinematography, great costumes and make up and emotional stuff.

If there's nothing better to do one evening, go for it.

Surviving Death (2021)

The first episode is the only one worth seeing

[4/10 · 25 January 2021]

Been interested on the NDE topic which literally relaxed me in the way I see death. This episode completes what I already knew.

The other episodes are not worth spending time on.

Emily in Paris (2020– )

The same as many here: cliche-ist but fun to watch

[5/10 · 9 October 2020]

Just to help with an opinion: I never went to the States instead I lived in Paris and I happen to know a fair number of French people and met some Americans: I never saw people dressed the way the characters are , whichever side of the Atlantic! I've never visited the Vogue hub though...French people are casually dressed yet with a sense of style (or at least tasteful) which is innate. You want extravaganza? Go in Italy! French people are far more modest in the way they dress. So all these outfits -especially those of Emily are misplaced; also makes you wonder how could the character afford them, changing them every day aso. Lilly Collins has a special beauty ( that evoques that of Audrey Hepburn) which in itself would have sufficed for the charm of the character. Instead her apparitions look more like a Christmas tree and make you also wonder if Gabriel has fallen in love with the person she is or he has been razzle-dazzled by the show she makes each time she appears! This is in sharp contrast with the freshness, the genuine nature and the positive side of the character - which makes the costume choice all the more inadequate.

Quite caricatural acting from the part of Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu which does not compliment the French fussiness.

Interesting to see a character displaying a love for the hard social media (Instagram) and not suffering from narcissism or falling into derision as real-life Instagram VIP's are. Makes you wonder if this is only possible in a movie...

If you want an in-between Legally Blonde - The Devil wears Prada and Sex and the City, this is it.

All in all, for a dull a depressing period like the one we are living, it's worth watching: it's colourful, dynamic, fresh and makes you travel freely and take a blink at a maybe -possible-again normal world.

Against All Odds (1984)

Don't bother

[1/10 · 3 October 2020]

The only thing worth watching is Jeff Bridges body.

Too bad.

The Man Who Knew Infinity (2015)

"An equation has no meaning to me...unless it expresses a thought of God"

[7/10 · 6 September 2020]

I guess the phrase sums the whole movie - aimed to bring to public eye the figure of a brilliant mind largely unknown ( outside of the Mathematics world I suppose). The phrase clarifies the whole modern polemics on the topic of the opposition between religion/faith and science and it is not coincidentally that it is expressed through the mouth and figure and life of an Indian (brahman) - the highest spiritual authority in one of the few traditional societies left at the time of the action ( early 20th century). Science, as well as art or any other activity of the man is only valuable if it is an act of inspiration.

Children of a Lesser God (1986)

"I can't enjoy it ( anymore). I can't, because you can't."

[7/10 · 25 August 2020]

....if this is not the very definition of love, I don't know which is. It's not all about you anymore, there's suddenly the other and that's what makes two.

One of the movies not wilted by the time, one of those movies you'd want a continuation - even 34 years later.

A more interesting version of Marlee Matlin - with curly brown hair and natural eyebrows which emphasize her beautiful eyes.

Great rendition, impressive film. I highly recommend.

A Perfect Day (I) (2015)

Most enjoyable film in a long time!

[8/10 · 17 August 2020]

I haven't seen such a decent film in a long time - first I was happy to watch a war-time film that is not about the eternal WWII or Vietnam but about a war that has been overlooked by the film industry even though it's happened right under our nose. I am living in a neighbour country (Romania) and I can testify it's so real as if it was a documentary. When I said "decent" I meant the deep respect for the athmosphere, of the people living in that area, depicting them exactly how they are, presenting their lives in such terrible times, the destruction and on the other hand the difficulties the foreigners have had in understanding the psychology of the locals, the uselessness of the UN forces, the shortages and many other aspects very authentically depicted. I liked how the locals are depicted as witty, loving a good laugh over anything and in any circumstances - this really is a characteristic of people in the Balkans and it takes a fine mind to emphasize it! Characters are priceless, witty, dialogues savory, humour is used just to enlighten an otherwise heavy topic and to give characters spiciness. Great acting, well done Benicio Del Toro, well done Tim Robbins and the whole team!

6 Years (2015)

If Taissa just kept her fingers out of her hair ...

[7/10 · 25 July 2020]

....cause seing her running them 10 times a minute robbed me of all the attention to their acting which aside from this was great and gave credibility to a very realistic portrayal of a teen-gone-adult relation and it's challenges!

The Bling Ring (2013)

Shocking story. An honest depiction of our society.

[7/10 · 25 July 2020]

I haven't been that shocked about a movie in quite a while:. First yeah I haven't heard this story, I guess as I've been busy with real living or because I don't read stuff like Vanity Fair. People here who have found it boring and shallow and lacking of athmosphere aso...I don't agree with them: I mean what depth and inner conflicts and athmosphere aso could it be expected in such a story?! The movie is a fresque of an empty, immoral, shallow, boring, stupid society where people do not define themselves by what they are or think or do but merely but what they wear. Stupid kids, stupid parents, stupid celebrities and other residents leaving their belongings at anyone's hand. And cupid and perverse fashion world taking advantage of easy money people in search for shallow celebrity and feeding the shallowness in suggestible individuals like these teens. (Pretty surprising from the part of Sophia Coppola herself, which has given her name to a bland Louis Vuitton bag costing thousands of dollars...).

Lolita (1997)

Masterful adaptation of the book

[8/10 · 12 July 2020]

Excellent interpretation and adaptation of the book. Both main characters are heartbreakingly played. The only bemol is Lolita is too tall ( 30 cm taller than the character in the book) which is awkwardly inaccurate with the childishness exhibited. Yet she manages to compensate this with the acting so with a bit of effort you get to forget this.

Bullhead (2011)

An outstanding performance in a devastating story

[8/10 · 31 March 2020]

Leaving the hormones mafia in the meat industry story aside, I find what makes this film unique is an unprecedented ( at least for me) approach of the devastation the loss of manhood can bring. We come into this world either as men or women and this is part of our human experience in such an essential way that when this is disrupted we can see that it leaves us only half human. Jacky Vanmarsenille fills the other half with a bull-like persona which makes him unfit for living among "normal" humans. Simply injecting you a substance normally secreted in the body doesn't restore your wholeness as a manly (or womanly) human being especially if you misuse of it as he does. So he gains size and mass but the emptiness left by the lack of the precise manly dimension is but deepening the more his physical aspect reaches monstrousity. His lack of control over himself adds to this. He is enormously tragic and Matthias Schoenaerts is caring all the tragedy of the character, all the sorrow, in his eyes, in his look, as he always does in his acting - only this time even the eyes are halved as he only has the left one to serve him, probably as a reflection of his all-over halveness. So if you want to grasp all the turmoil the character is living in just don't loose contact with his look! Brilliant!

Some people here where shocked by the ending but at a certain point I was sure this is what was going to happen (the end of Michael Douglas's Falling Down came up to my mind), there was no other possible end as Jackie simply wasn't belonging, simply did not fit "normal" people since long, since that doomed day in his childhood. It's the story of a destruction that starts violently, abrupt one day, progresses through all he does trying to overcome the tragic event, hoping he will trick his fate somehow but fails it .

Bullhead (2011)

Outstanding performance in a devastating story

[8/10 · 30 March 2020]

I think I haven't seen before a film depicting the devastation the lost of manhood can leave. I am a woman, I guess men can seize the story and the rendition even more deeply and feel an even stronger effect. Me, the whole story about the cattle and the hormones mafia, this interested me less ( although I was turned upside down at the sight of those abnormally muscled cattle). But the core story, which is revealed only in the progression of the film is really food for thought: after all, we all come here, in this life,as either men or women ( the other sex variations are not the topic here) and this is what defines us to our innermost way of being. Manhood for instance permeates all the layers of the individuality and simply attempting to replace it through artificial hormones creates a sort of inhumane result with all the distorted outcomes and suffering. At a certain point I was sure the end will be that one - alas, there is simply no place for such a "creature" among "normal" people although his "normal" deep pain ("My whole life I've known nothing but animals... I've always felt just like these bulls here, never knowing what it's like to protect someone. Calves, a herd, like a wife, children... Really having to protect them, cos you have to... cos it's in your nature.") conveying the deep sorrow he was living in only showed him as someone just like us only wearing a deep furrowed mutilation.

I only didn't understand why he was supposed to have an injured eye and a deformed nose - these two details mislead me to imagine him at the beggining as being a fighter, a boxer, which was not the case.

Suite Française (2014)

Devastating

[7/10 · 23 March 2020]

The story is almost unbelievable not because there couldn't be love stories between the Germans and French because there were at no surprise. But because it's hard to believe the much too obvious love affair could have been tolerated by the two enemy camps. Matthias S is devastating in his rendition as only him can be, I felt physically hurting the more the movie was going on towards its crushing end.. Michelle Williams is behind him, I can't figure out why it hasn't been cast a French actress,, say Berenice Bejo ( ok, she's not French :)) or someone else, dunno).

I didn't read the book but read a review, it seems the movie has got far from the book which I don't like. Or maybe we sould take it as a different story, one by itself and that's it.

Well done, Matthias S, always a pleasure to see you!

500 Days of Summer (2009)

When the other is just not that into you...

[7/10 · 27 February 2020]

...no matter whether it's a boy or a girl, a man or a woman.

Because that's how things are going between us, humans. No matter how much we love someone, it may be that he/she doesn't get hooked as much as we and it's nothing he/she can do about it. It sucks but that's how things are. And it sucks even worse that usually the one that "loves more", the one that is deeply involve, the one that is fascinated with that person, that one will at a certain point be rejected. Human bloody nature is like this: someone is obsessed with us and we feel he/she is an easy prey and this a put off for us.

:(

Virgin River (2019– )

Only if, like myself, you get through a period of boredom

[4/10 · 2 February 2020]

I don't know if it' s for 12 yo or for after 80. Maybe not even for these two extremes: impecable hairdos at any hour and under any circumstances, women sleeping with makeup, lipsticks that never go ( what brand could they be?), sensitive ex-marines, a great community that works like a fairy tale family aso - too dangerous for a 12 yo to imagine and too unrealistic for after 80. Then what is the target public of this series?!

Oh, and don't look for acting: Martin Henderson is the only one who's performance is worth the name. And still, it looks as if sighing was compulsory to perform in this movie!

So at least it doesn't have violence and false heroes - give it a try if you've seen it all it's worth on Netflix and you can't find anything else, in a time of boredom.

The Shack (I) (2017)

A very childish movie with nontheless interesting themes clarifications.

[6/10 · 19 January 2020]

I honestly hesitated between giving a 5 or a 6. As imdb alas doesn't have an in-between option I chose 6 just because it serves a good cause. But the movie is one for maximum 10 yo. It nevertheless displays some well pointed illustrations over some eternal modern human dilemmas like " all the suffering is incompatible with God's existence". A deeper vision would have taken into account the idea of "free choice" as well. But there's nothing deep in the movie, it just offers one to embrace a wider vision when looking for a justice around.

The Lighthouse of the Whales (2016)

Simply beautiful!

[9/10 · 15 January 2020]

It's long since I haven't seen such a beautiful film: beautiful lanscapes, beautiful story, beautiful love story ( the magnetism of Joaquin Furriel delivers all the emotions behind the scenes and the words) and an open ending that leaves you dreaming.

First They Killed My Father (2017)

Speechless, wordless, Angelina Jolie you're one of a kind!

[10/10 · 13 January 2020]

Not for the heart fainted, I almost threw up - and I'm a doctor! It's beyond anything I saw, even Mel Gibson's war scenes in Hacksaw Ridge were easier to watch and still. Angelina Jolie, why not a film about Soljenitsyne Goulag's Archipel, I think you'd be able to cope with such a project!

The Two Popes (2019)

I'm under the spell of this film...and I'm an orthodox!

[10/10 · 2 January 2020]

A masterwork. A joy and food for thought. No, it's not for true atheists as it goes far deeper than an atheist can go. Catholics may get tricked by the factual side of the "story" yet it's not the facts that matter here. Whatever confession or religion you are you'll be touched by the plethora of deep and heavy themes that abide, existential themes so difficult for us, as humans, to tackle. It's not only about being a Pope, it's about assuming a mission, about adversities and flaws, about humility and mistakes and so much more.

There is no leading vs supporting role here, Pryce and Hopkins are equally huge, Whatever award should one win, the other should equally receive. Meirelles has done a lacy work and I'm wondering how should I characterize Anthony McCarten's script: someone said " a jewel" - I totally endorse it! A delight, a joy! Great images as well, carefully set to make those heavy themes discussed lighter to our eyes through colourful warmely lighted frames.

Thank you Netflix!

Our Souls at Night (2017)

Sensitive, honest, beautifully acted

[8/10 · 15 September 2019]

How are we gonna live through our eighties if? An exploration of modern possibilities that gives one food of thought and maybe some hopes. Beautiful movie.

The Mercy (2018)

Madness takes many forms

[7/10 · 8 September 2019]

...one of them being having delusions of grandeur or taking things too superficially. This leads to entering in enterprises largely overpowering you and thus to disaster. There is a thin line between daydreaming, being an adventurer and simply being a fool and there's something like common sense that should help one see the difference between. One warning also for the close relatives of such fools that sometimes you simply have to step and say "No". Terrible story.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (2018)

What a surprise! Charles and Mary Lamb's book was one of my childhood's favorites

[7/10 · 26 August 2019]

...so I dearly related to this part of the story. People get connected by all sort of unexpected things, so why not by a good book? Marguerite Yourcenar's " Denier du reve" thread of narration follows the fate of a ...dime handed by various characters that get connected to each other in this way. On the other hand, I also connected to the story of the club itself which is not so singular as it may looks: harsh times have the virtue of bringing people together and, growing up in the Romania's comunist era, I have lived among the members of a group like this, only they were rather tied one to the others through...music. Gatherings were organized ( or spontaneous) semi-clandestine to listen to classical music which was also a pretext to spread news from the free world and listen to free radio channels from the West. There was also a custom to bring somethig to eat and in those times when food was scarce and precious we have not been far from eating something as bad as a potato peel pie! But most of all the air was vibrating of this joy of togetherness and of full support between us. A refuge from the adversities which made those long decenies more endurable. So I fully recognize this experience and I can testify it's authenticity! Back to the movie, the chemistry between the characters is obvious, you can feel the intensity of their emotions far from the screen difficultly fading away after the end. The characters are not fully developped though but as I haven't read the book so I can't say if it's the plot or the book. From this perspective I kept doubting the veridicity of the relation between a writer and a farmer - there can be some exceptions, of course, but the "usual" writer and the "usual" famer live in such different worlds that one can seriously doubt that a deep connection is to be established between the two. Or as far as I'm concerned, a film is art but has to stay true to human nature, otherwise is just someone's fantasy, which I am not interested in.

Chef (2014)

Lighthearted, very enjoyable for a Saturday afternoon

[7/10 · 24 August 2019]

Good vibes, good food, an endearing and mouthwatering insight into the world of cuisine - gives you ideas if you fancy cooking ( like me :)) ) and the cast brings spice to the whole. Good job, Jon Favreau!

He's Just Not That Into You (2009)

An appeal to common sense in a failed comedy

[5/10 · 20 August 2019]

It should be an appeal to common sense, to that old saying "to call a spade a spade" which go against the pseudo-psychological embellishments politically correct meant not to hurt sensitivities - and in this it reaches its goal. But it also wants to be a comedy, which is not - so much the character of Gigi is painful to watch in its idiocy and caricatural acting making you wonder what sort of decent guy she wishes would date her , so much the story is inconsistent ( through the intense but nonsensical relationship between Anna and Ben) .

All in all the film is suitable to maybe 11-12 yo to set some directory lines in relationships, some no-no's and that's all.

Heal (I) (2017)

Worth watching yet leaved me unsatisfied

[6/10 · 16 June 2019]

What started as an overview of alternative therapies to diseases conventional medicine doesn't have an acceptable solution ended ... with no conclusion. Two severely ill cases are presented throughout the whole movie, alongside their therapeutic journey encompassing a wide array of alternative therapies. Yet only one of them is followed until the end of the disease, the other one being somehow lost in the eternal dilemma of choosing between harmful on long term conventional therapies and insufficiently proved unconventional ones.

Also quite bizzarre "match" between the lifestyle that some characters pretend to have ( yoga, ayurveda, meditation - which should balance and put one in deep connection to the real self), and their unnatural look ( obvious plastic surgery, underweight, hair dying in men, elegant hairdos etc).

Basically the movie just touches very sensitive areas of therapeutics without showing you clearly solved cases. It left me in an overall impression of shallowness.

Too bad. The topic deserves a better approach.