Change Your Image
kruno-f
Reviews
The Kindergarten Teacher (2018)
Ahead of its time!
A wonderful film I highly recommend, although that doesn't change the fact that some passages are a true cringe-endurance test. The film depicts a seriously demented lady with a severe delusion along the lines of "Oprah Show" type of worldview nonsense mainly those which go on to say how children are perfect and growing up and enculturation is a process of ruining them. This leads her to kidnap a child for whom she believes represents the "such an incredible mind" the one she didn't get from her kids who, well, have a mind of their own. It's a great study of smugness and the type of "philosophy" which fuels said smugness. In a way, it is also a cautionary tale of how believing you could or should live your life in accordance of shallowness of a fb quote of the day, is not without its ramifications. In an ironic twist, the kid acts far more mature than the teacher, but does so exactly by not adhering to what she holds sacred.
Mindhunter (2017)
Much more, it gives you much more
Here the genre is being established along with the phenomena. It starts as drama and morphs into procedural/detective narrative. It's a brain candy.
Counterpart (2017)
Turntable lobby and the vinyl bunch
It's all about the turntables, I'm telling you. This show is sponsored by Dual, a company that makes turntables. It used to be big in Germany all the way until the end of 80'. That's why every and I mean EVERY flat, home, apartment, every house has a turntable. Our side and their's. I haven't seen one turntableless home in this show. Dual is planing a comeback. It's all about fighting the Internet piracy. Convince people vinyl is better all the while you're actually trying to get them of the easily replicable mp3.
Blade Runner 2049 (2017)
Probably the worst reboot to this day!
This is a very, very bad movie. It is insultingly dim and makes me want to fight for the cause of some sort of "money-return" policy for cinemas. I simply don't think cinemas should have a blank check for taking people's money for such atrocities. The only way I'd keep any respect for Mr. Villeneuve is if he asked for this movie to be ascribed to Adam Smith. It doesn't get much dumber than this. I would have no problems saying that Phantom Menace does more justice to Star Wars than this movie does to the original Blade Runner. It is as if screenwriter never read anything in his life. I'm happy to see Tyler Perry makes more money than this shame. Mr. Villeneuve, you should be ashamed of yourself. You took the lead from all the Lucas', Spielbergs, Scotts of the world.
Adolf Hitler: The Greatest Story Never Told (2013)
...and untold it remains
In short, for those lacking time, no serious reason should be found to view this dribble. The only one I found, although merely as a hindsight, was to get a notion of how a sentimental, witless admiration and romantic, almost infantile sense of being in love with the Fuehrer began to arise in the 21st century. Ascribe it to what you will.
For those interested in 'whys' and 'whats' of this review; NOTHING new is presented here as far as the information goes, and I write that in caps lock since 'new' is the main weapon promoters of this Nazi propaganda are using to justify the existence of this aforementioned dribble. The failed artist, The First World War, the mother, the father, The Versailles Treaty, the brief economic prosperity
All seen and well documented in numerous books and documentaries which, with no effort at all, managed to escape the notion of pathetic excrement - flirt with Nazism.
What is new is an experiment in which 'fascism admirers', creators of this
thing, are simply trying to transplant the style of an average 'victors discourse' onto scum. What you get is the same speech where, for example, Goebbels boasts of Nazis deletion of the Jews from all walks of life, but this time presented as a success together with, possibly the lamest excuse in the entire history – "Jews brought the modern art and modern art was so unbearable, they simply had to be destroyed" – Disgusting. And just to illustrate, naturally, they don't mention i.e. extermination of sick children.
Also, in the same spirit, they use musical background of the victors while talking about scum, a lot of chorals with "heart warming" pathetic lamentation. And then they use a lot of sinister sounding music while they talk about everything! antifascist.
And this is what an average, illiterate right winged person calls the 'hidden truth'. They still ask why a normal person considers right winged as imbeciles. Dennis Wise, could you inflict what you admire upon yourself? Simply to make a convincing argument.
Grizzly Man (2005)
The Exorcism of Timothy Treadwell
This documentary film is really unbelievable. It is one of the worst and dullest movies I've ever seen. I'm having difficulties grasping what the hell Herzog is doing here. If it's irony, I think it hasn't been pointed out strongly enough. Not that it's necessary to "underline" irony three times, nevertheless I feel it has been left out here. If it's a soft-core snuff movie, no problem, I'd keep my respect for the man.
I doubt it is.
So what's left is a small-minded American idiot, who of course can do with his life whatever he wants to, but he got another naive soul killed, hence the title above. At one point Herzog, as the narrator, said that there is some remarkable footage in the recordings Timothy left behind. I didn't find any. Even some older documentaries have better scenes. But the main thing is that Timothy wasn't making a movie about the bears; he was filming himself adoring bears. He is practically in every shot, the bears somewhere in the background. In Timothy's own words, this is what this film is about: "If there was a God he'd be pleased with me and the way I'm living my life". This is actually an auto-erotic movie about Timothy jerking off at his life with some bears in the background. It is a tragedy that a living human being can be so two-dimensional to resemble a South Park character. Timothy is exactly the same as Mr. Jefferson (which is actually Michael Jackson) in an episode from the ninth season, saying: "Hello bear, hello, I love you bear, thank you for being my friend. I love you and I love being here, I love you all. I love you fox, thank you fox".
This guy has some serious problems. I mean; the bears are not endangered, they don't need him, or any help what so ever. The bears were perhaps helping him to stop drinking. I hope that Americans won't prescribe this as a regular therapy 'cause, God help those bears! Finally, Timothy and his girlfriend were eaten by the bears. He got what he was asking for (literally, in one point he said to his friend: "I know my message won't be as strong as it would be if I was to die out there), but he second degreed his girlfriend. No one ever answered for that. So what's the "moral of the title"; if you're a religious fanatic like that idiot priest performing his ritual bullcrap on that poor sick girl, or like Timothy patting droppings that came out of the most desirable female bear (that was his Michelle Pfeiffer, by the way), you can kill someone out of recklessness. In America, it's no biggy.
The Thomas Crown Affair (1999)
Making it plain stupid
As a remake, this movie is as poor as can be. This is actually a translation of a beautiful movie in to a language of stupid American half-wits who can't read beauty. Let' make everything corny for illiterate yanks. We have all witnessed the downfall of American mainstream cinematography, but for me personally this is too much. Close to the remake of The Stepford Wives. Someone actually tried to fit slimy, spineless Pierce Brosnan into the shoes of all time god Steve McQueen, and drawer jaw Rene Russo into a thong (I wish I've never seen this), dancing to some cheap Latin rhythm, perking her drawer as though in trance. Instead of Faye Dunaway softly meddling chessboard figures, and moistening her lips until she drives Thomas Crown out of his minds. I don't want to be reasonable about this movie, this is a shame.
Has general taste really descended this low? Does this movie really stand where the original use to? Instead of an absolute genius Michel Legrand playing one of his greatest chanson sung by Noel Harrison, you've been offered some Latin wiggling, absurd flipping of a trimaran yacht, with one goal only and that is to try (desperately) to make Pierce look cool about it, and in the end Rene's drawer jaw face to convince you that she is an intelligent detective. Pierce Brosnan does not look, for one moment, as though he is bored by his wealth and wants to raise the odds by going against the law; he looks like a show-off with extreme lacking of that Chekhovian stroke of superfluity and wastefulness that McQueen wore so naturally, and what is Thomas Crown all about in the end. Why do they do this to movies, why can't they leave it the hell alone? This is poor. My only regret is the score by Nina Simone
Lekce Faust (1994)
Puppets and Clay
This is not a movie that strikes the first time viewer. It asks for some former knowledge. It mainly relies on the epic Faust by Johann Wolfgang Goethe, but since monologue and dialog have been very rare in this one, symbols are probably easier to read if the book has been previously read. For example, the empty egg in the bread which actually contains one's soul according to pagan mythology could be overlooked.
This is as far as the script is concerned. The directory, however, is done by one of the greatest and most influential stop-motion-animation masters and puppeteers, greatly appreciated by the well known Quay Brothers (see The Cabinet of Jan Svankmajer) as well as the others. This means that very imaginative and expressive combination of animation, string puppets theater and acting is expected.
When one thinks about the story of Faust, the question that often pops in one's head is what would be the price on my soul. Faust traded his soul for the absolute understanding which in the end he does not receive. However, the moment of gaining control over his destiny is shown so simply and yet so powerfully the moment of detaching strings, the question that remains is who was pulling Faust's strings in the moment he decided to sell his soul. That was the decision he made former to his strings detaching. The movie swarms with this sort of fractions that trigger bursts of reflections and that's why this movie won't put you to sleep. On the other hand, if you are sleepy go watch something else, this movie deserves attention.
Smilla's Sense of Snow (1997)
Repulsively pure
Personally I think this movie would achieve a far greater impact if casting was done differently. The surroundings provide excellent atmosphere for an uneasy, tensed and yet slow movie narration. White, sterile landscape with lot of light makes a strong contrast for a vicious experiment of exposing people to organisms of unknown origin, which in the end drove a little boy to a fatal dove of a building. White settings for a suspense had their saying in "White Reindeer" (Valkoinen peura 1952 Finland). The very slowness of the movie makes it even stronger emotionally. I simply don't approve Julia Ormond for a leading role. Her Eskimo background just isn't convincing. The boy and Gabriel Byrne did a god job thou.