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If you like high school comedies and unlikely romances between an outsider and a nice girl who’s not a prickly prima-dona, Spontaneous will give you both, plus a bloody plot with a concept that ranges from the great to the unsurprising all the way to the helpless. Director Brian Duffiled does a decent job and, especially in the first half, delivers an ingeniously executed dose of entertainment, while the two protagonists are also great in their moderation, and their nerdy movie quotes (they mention E.T. and, of course, David Cronenberg, the uncrowned king of exploding heads) are brilliant, too. Unfortunately, the last act doesn’t manage to bring together all the sketched motifs and ends up being a very routine rip-off of generic psychological probes into the torn teenage soul that doesn’t know how to keep its own shape. Katherine Langford is great, though, and if the film managed to stay on the wave of the original narrative style of the first half, it would be one of the best high school comedies ever – and with exploding heads to boot. 65%

A lot of quality craftsmanship and interestingly hinted at ideas and parallels at the service of an unintelligible insane story that doesn’t offer anything. I love the way Miike first lulls the viewer into a fairly easygoing family drama with long static shots, then adds a fun montage during the audition proper and then he speeds up the editing and the unstable framing when it’s no longer clear what the protagonist is about. It’s a pity that in the end this completely scapes the numb viewer, who’s probably legitimately outraged at what’s happening on screen, but without being led to escalate their reaction, also because of what it’s actually happening and why. A cult that I understand but can’t follow. 65%

Interesting. In his own way, Sydney Pollack translates this dystopian premise in an almost unsettlingly detached fashion. The outside world basically doesn’t exist, everything is framed only within the inhuman competition, which itself incarnates the criticised nature of society – tired people plodding around in stereotypical duties, suffering hunger in crisis-stricken times, while serving a decadent and sensation-seeking bourgeois elite. Harder to grasp than most Hollywood productions of the time, the film points to a one-sided depression without providing any clues that could mentally free the numbed viewer. It’s a pity then that, despite all those good things, the film is still too polished and unsurprising; it’s missing a stronger author’s signature and clearer conflicts that would better portray that world with personalities that are falling apart internally. But the message is very strong and Jane Fonda, who has never been so convincing, also has the lion’s share. A strong film for discomfort. 85%

A formally interestingly conceived blend between a naive fairytale about a girl running away from the dominant male order of the Victorian era and a coming-of-age crime drama where the heroine is forced to exploit her innate talent in a Young Sherlock Holmes style. The playful self-aware approach is very entertaining and original at times, while the detective line effectively applies Doyle’s narrative intuition, leading the attention through the deciphering of hidden meanings. What it’s clearly lacking, however, is more balance and zest – the formal tricks soon become predictable and, despite everything, the established format lacks a moment of surprise. It’s also missing the charisma of Sherlock himself, I liked Cavill’s portrayal a lot and it’s a shame that he becomes such a passive character. Millie is of course lovely and carries everything on her shoulders with a cuteness that best characterises the concept as a whole. It’s not as smoothly written and doesn’t have the adult humour of 1980s Spielberg, but it’s nice and contagious in its own way. So, 70%.

Unexpected quality. In recent years I became convinced that the victim-forest-hunter concept has become exhausted, and I didn’t even enjoy this year’s satirical The Hunt, but here they are working on surprisingly fertile ground. 100 minutes may seem too much, but this film doesn’t have a single redundant scene that wouldn’t hold the viewer’s attention. And yet, it’s not a world-class example of psychology and originality, it’s more than enough that the characters maintain the functional characteristics of the archetypes, that the heroine doesn’t behave stupidly and we can root for her, and that the villain is properly nasty in a way that is inconspicuous from the outside (the two telephone calls with his family do a pretty good job). Also, it’s well laid out narratively, the stages of the story are always moving forward without any boring wanderings about in the woods, and the escape from captivity takes place right in the middle of the film, which is also proof that someone thought things out while writing instead of only relying on a proven template. It’s simple, but at the same time simply gripping and effective. The scene with the unfortunate rescuer Robert is brilliantly executed and the final confrontation is also satisfying. John Hyams has made a better film than his relatively famous father has made in the last 30 years. 75%

Pleasantly above-par for the standards of the genre. Fast pace, effectively used settings, solid characters and a firm director’s hand in the approach to the predators, which never become ridiculous or unnatural. It doesn’t matter in the end who will survive (we know it anyway) and the last 10 minutes didn’t really need to be there, but the tension is effective, the deaths demand the imagination of the viewer and the last-second escapes make your stomach turn. You can’t ask anything else from it. 60%

It’s very rare to see a festival flick so relatable, with artistic choices that fully support the power of the message and the emotional effect. The three-hour series of details on the faces of actors, whose ordinary activities deliberately don’t deviate from the process of the heroine’s development, may have some passages that are almost unnecessarily long, but the creator would be able to justify them without hesitation. We are not only watching Adele, we are Adele and we are experiencing with her tense moments as participatorily as the film medium will allow. The sex scenes are perhaps too long, but also inevitable, given the consistency of the process of following the internal and sexual development of a fragile heroine, and they are also pleasant for the male viewer (both actresses not only act great but look great, too). Sexuality can be a heavy burden and here we see it unadorned and very realistic. 85%

The “most easygoing comedy” of one of the least easygoing summers of the century relies on a concept that might not be fully exhausted, but certainly has its limits. The two main characters, who are fine and played by likeable actors, discover in a time loop a love that’s been long denied to them and the main thing that makes this special is that this time the apathetic protagonist finds himself in a spiral from the very beginning and has given up on the possibility of being rescued. That’s certainly a good idea that draws the attention to the relationship with the cynical Sarah and the new perspective of a romantic life within that endless loop – it’s a pity that the ending offers very little that’s truly funny or original. Basically, anything could have happened, but somewhere in the middle the film turns its back to the discovery of new paths, choosing the easiest one while failing to properly exploit the promising “mass” murderer played by J.K. Simmons (or exploits him, but in a pretty sentimental way). I appreciate the idea, the setting in sunny California, and the casting, but if it went easier on the rigid speeches and had a faster pace, I would certainly have been more satisfied. 60%

Very good horror for 12 year-olds, and I don’t mean it in a bad way. It has likeable characters and a vicious demon immersed in an original concept, though in the end it surrenders to a well-known template, giving up the chance to surprise or shock. To watch once, though, it’s alright, especially perhaps with an easily scared girlfriend after a glass of wine (I watched it alone after several beers and maybe that’s why I’m not more satisfied). 60%

Top-notch craftsmanship that skilfully handles the balance of the image accessibility, relying on a spatially distinctive framing and on dim lightning that irradiates a darkness similar to the one that can be found in the soul of the society it portrays. Antonio Campos really tries to imprint his specific signature on the visuals and stages the scenes with ingenuity and efficiency. The 1950s and 60s setting in an environment of misery and poverty, where the heroes often seek solace in prayer, looks very convincing and itself builds an atmosphere where the viewer is always ready for the ubiquitous evil. The period soundtrack also works well, it doesn’t stick out too much but completes the film’s aura, while also helping to tell a very complex story with many characters, whose fates must naturally cross paths, and actually do throughout. But even though the story is very interesting and quite rich in the individual conflicts, its development doesn’t have a very strong effect and at times it feels too mechanic and literal. There’s an omniscient narrator, who probably was meant to express a detached god’s perspective, but his role is exhausted soon after laying down the story and the characters. The story then shifts regularly between several main lines that are brought together in the final act, but, especially in the middle part, where the hero is finally established, it’s lacking a dominant narrative direction and impulse – it’s as if it was intentionally shuffling its feet on one spot so the viewer can absorb the ideas that have been sketched so far, but the problem in that sense is that the film is in fact too simple and interpretively bland to evoke those existential concepts. The cards are clearly laid in the middle, the sympathies must be directed at the main character, while the potentially ambiguous ones don’t have much room to affect the story (the again attractive Ms Keough), or lack a better portrayal (Sheriff Sebastian Stan), while the evil ones are downright bad. And even though I appreciate the straightforward questioning of the faith in God as a means to achieve inner peace, I think that for a greater catharsis, it lacked more coherent moral arguments that would provide less universal conflicts and dilemmas to the twists that often arise from the experiences and the beliefs of the characters. Despite all these weaknesses, The Devil All the Time is certainly effective as a jigsaw-puzzle full of interesting images and characters that may be lacking a deeper insight and humanity, even (with the exception of a couple of wisecracks the film doesn’t have any humour, it’s only bleak), but still has the praiseworthy mark of the atmospheric fade-out effects and with a period setting that is not only for effect, but to provide a logical sequence of events that makes sense and holds the attention of the viewer at a decent pace, probably with the exception of the quieter middle part. Next to all the dumb action movies and cloying romantic stories on Netflix, this detour into the redneck world stands out very nicely and, if anything, it encourages to read the source book, which will certainly fix the psychological and argumentative shortcomings of the movie. 70%