brunoantunes-63048 Reviews

3 Faces (2018)

Unique and profound

[9/10 · 24 June 2018]

This is a brilliant film. Beautiful, poignant, unpredictable, quite harsh yet with a few sparks of humour. The actors (mostly playing themselves) and the screenplay are amazing. It does require a lot of attention and analysis, as it covers several social issues (artists' and women's rights mainly) with subtle metaphors and a peculiar visual "language". Some moments were a bit too cryptic for me, probably due to a cultural gap. You have to respect Jafar Pahani for managing to create such a rich and multi-layered visual story under such hard conditions and constraints. I highly recommend "Se rokh".

A Bit of Fry and Laurie (1987–1995)

Possibly the brainiest and most brilliant comedy ever!

[10/10 · 10 February 2018]

This a unique, mesmerizing series that doesn't seem to be earning the cult status it deserves. The humour is both flamboyant and abstract. Fry and Laurie perform a succession on apparently silly and quirky sketchs, while making you think about social status, power, communication, logic and linguistics. The conceptual complexity underlying nearly every line of dialogue is astounding. Some sketches are quite demanding for the audience, you'll have to put some abstract pieces of puzzle together to get the meaning. Anyone familiar with the Palo Research on systemic psychology and communication will be gratified with unpredictable gags which illustrate paradoxes and power tactics with sheer brilliance. Plus, there is also good (mostly minimalistic) cinematography, great acting (mostly from Fry) and some quite cool parodic music performed by Laurie. "Soupy twist"!

Better Call Saul: Witness (2017) Season 3, Episode 2

Amazing cinematography and plot development

[10/10 · 25 April 2017]

This series is great from the first episode, but this particular episode is just mind-blowing. The plot thickens and several dramatic events push the story further, revolving around many degrees of treason and impulsiveness. The visuals are astonishing! There's vivid color contrast, a use of geometric lines that enhances focal depth, beautiful long sequences building up on tension and nearly funny awkwardness... I strongly recommend this episode to all cinema/TV lovers.

Slack Bay (2016)

Beautiful, funny and quite weird

[9/10 · 19 April 2017]

This movie is quite unique, an unlikely mix of social comedy and gender drama. Cinematography is beautiful, even haunting sometimes. The harsh French Northern landscape is wonderful, providing for a previously unseen contrast of deep blue, beige and grey. Slapstick and dark, bizarre humour are equally present. The plot is quite simple. The bourgeoisie is copiously mocked, while the villagers are depicted as brutal yet somehow faithful. The actors are great, specially Binoche and Luchini, all extravagant and whimsical. Unfortunately the soundtrack sounds sometimes inadequate, the emotion coming from the music doesn't seem to fit in with the emotions displayed by the characters and situations. This is only low point for me (or maybe I failed to understand some subtle intention from director Bruno Dumont). Otherwise, it's a brilliant movie and I recommend to all cinema lovers.