Goldbeater

During the first third of this movie, I was absolutely taken aback by the sheer exhilaration of the rapid-fire attack of preposterous jokes that almost brought me to my knees. The second third of this movie is filled with outrageous irreverent humor, although this is interspersed with moments where it gets a bit sloppy. In the last third of the movie, it all falls apart under the weight of the sheer anarchy with the screenwriting and ends up kind of going nowhere. Putney Swope is a movie that had me laughing much more than at other screenings in recent months, however, I still kind of felt like it did not really work as a coherent and complete movie, as it was just throwing one sketch after another at the audience. Anyway, I have nothing against this movie at all, it was really very entertaining and I am happily going to watch it again, perhaps in a different frame of mind. [KVIFF 2021]

After receiving many accolades from the Cannes festival, I perhaps expected a little more than I got from Compartment No. 6 in the end. It is such a sweet, guileless railway road-movie drama about two lonely souls coming together, and people are certainly not going to find it disappointing, although they are probably not going to find it that impressive either. Sadly, I just have to add that, even after enough of a break from the hustle and bustle of the movie festival, I found this screening just as long and exhausting as the maddeningly long train journey across Russia from Moscow to Murmansk. The one-hundred-and-seven minute running time feels more like one-hundred-and-forty-seven minutes. [KVIFF 2021]

This movie was shot in a single continuous take, hurtling along at a relentless tempo in a restaurant kitchen, where, as expected, everything that could go wrong goes wrong. The filming reaches a high standard, is quite dynamic, and most importantly it is very entertaining and engaging from start to finish. As I look at the ratings so far, Boiling Point was also a pretty significant high-point at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival this year. [KVIFF 2021]

It is very hard to comprehend and describe this multi-genre movie. The relationship between the characters makes it a strong drama, then there are folkloric fantasy elements, preposterous comedy, complete bizarreness, and an all-pervasive intense feeling of ominous horror. I definitely recommend not finding out too much about the movie’s plot beforehand (preferably nothing), because the surprising twists and "WTF" moments are its strong suit. Those who are not going to get discouraged by the incredibly slow start, and get to the finale, may end up with a rather unique experience that will leave them never being able to look at sheep the same way again. This movie is an interesting spectacle. [KVIFF 2021]

Something tells me this review will write itself. Did the two hours spent watching the screening of Nö just fly by? Nö. Did I find the dry German humor in the movie even slightly funny? Nö. Did I care about the characters and their problems? Nö. Would I universally recommend this movie to all audiences? Nö. However, not to cast aspersions, I did find one of the thirteen chapters really funny and it made a good point, and that was the funeral episode. Even so, that was just a small burst of excitement in an otherwise really dry movie that also felt interminably long. On the other hand, most of the people in the theatre were really laughing, so it is probably just not for everyone. Am I eventually going to give it a second chance? Eh. Nö. [KVIFF 2021]

This is the Number One Movie in Heaven. This is guaranteed to hit the spot. Thanks to Edgar Wright, the Sparks brothers are gonna be having me glued to Spotify for a good few days. [KVIFF 2021]

All Eyes Off Me is a very intimate yet completely candid look into the lives of Israeli teenagers, whose behavior is certainly not governed by any experienced, familiar, or comprehensible movie-making techniques. Their behavior is instead completely natural and directed by lightly hinted at emotional motivations. This is an extraordinary movie about ordinary lifes. [KVIFF 2021]

This time Gaspar Noé has abandoned his usual visual flourishes and stroboscopic frenzy and brought to the screen a fairly conventional, human narrative about old age and the loss of vitality. Sadly, after Haneke's Amour and even the recent emotionally devastating The Father, despite Gaspar Noé’s distinctive split-screen with two perspectives approach, Vortex already feels like selling ice to the Eskimos. What is worse, it is also a rather tedious movie, which at times feels very much like it is treading water and much longer than it should be. I have to admit that I have not had such an exhausting screening experience in a long time. If only a hundred of your hairs have turned grey during a screening of Vortex, you are lucky. I have conflicted feelings about it, however, one good thing about it is that legendary director Dario Argento is a natural acting talent who should have been cast in a significant role a long time ago. [KVIFF 2021]

The movie Best Sellers is a real dog’s dinner. The first half of this movie tries to be a goofy comedy, and yet it is almost completely devoid of humor. The second half turns into a supposedly heart-warming drama, although it is lacking any genuine emotional feeling or sufficient connection to the characters. What is more, it drags quite a bit. For me, there is nothing to write home about. [KVIFF 2021]

If we disregard the chosen environment of Pleasure, which offers characters and practices that may be peculiar and unorthodox to some, it is actually a pretty formulaic cookie-cutter movie about a person with ambition and cunning trying to make their way to the top at any cost. This is a subject matter we have seen many times before. Everything in this movie just goes on without any real surprises, and when you get to the finale you realize it does not really make a point. It is perhaps interesting as a peek under the hood of the porn industry, however, there is too much missing in the narrative to make it a satisfying movie. [KVIFF 2021]