The four short stories, more anecdotes, are arranged to mirror the arc of a life. Its four women simply telling of the moments their lives changed. It’s a nice exercise in story telling as all of the heavy lifting is done by the words and the women. There is some great truths here and odds are you will find something in the mix.
I dare not say more since this is a small gentle film.
I honestly don't know what to make of this film. A weird guy becomes obsessed with a facial cream, and the model pushing it...and monsters.
The pieces of this film are really good. There is a nice surreal/experimental edge to it and the individual scenes work isolated, but there was a point where I stopped asking about what I was watching and just disconnected. There was too much unsaid and unexplained. I never felt they tied together.
But then again, it's got a cool monster and some creepy scenes
Worth a look for those who love weird cinema, all others take a pass
This is a very good story about a part of history that no one talks about. Sue, everyone talks about the death of Che, but what of the men who fought with him?
This is a straightforward tale of what happened in the aftermath of the battle. The film makes no real effort to explain who anyone is if they are not part oof the tale. Yes, Che is part of the story, but he is largely off screen because this is what happened after he was killed. Don’t go into this film looking for a large history lesson.
Beyond this being one hell of a tale, what makes the film work is the fact that the film gives us a bunch of guys we can root for. For the first time we get a sense of who were the guys who fought with Che. What made them risk their lives for an uncertain dream? We find out. It wasn’t just politics, but frequently a sense that the little guys were getting screwed.
I liked this film a great deal. Sure, it doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but it opens our eyes to a great story while making us understand our past better.
Recommended
I liked this but I didn't love it. I'm a behind the scenes Disney stories junkie and I have watched similar You Tube videos and I've read some articles on the subject. For me this was good but not great. The problem is that the film doesn't have enough to it to fill a feature running time. This feels like an expanded episode of a TV documentary series or a YouTube video.
That said if you ever wanted to o behind the scenes at Disney in a non-white washed manner this film is for you.
What a bleak film. Its kind of funny at times and kind of hopeful and then it all dies.
On a technical level this is one of the best made films I've seen in the last few years. Perfectly acted and shot, it has a lovely adult sensibility.
I just wish there was a real ounce of hope in the film.
If you want bleak this film is for you.
I fully expect this film to show up in festivals across the world in the next few months. I'm trying to work out which of the New York festivals will get it (NYAFF, NYFF or Japan Cuts) because I want to see it again on a big screen. There is something about this film and it's ethereal quality that is haunting. I watched the film early in the day and then went away to do other things in order to do other things, only to find I was haunted by the film, so much so that when I got the chance to rewatch the film, I did.
That's a rave.
This is a low key and quiet film that pulls you in and pulls you along. It's a film that doesn't go for big and flashy but quiet and flashy, with colored hair and the occasional flight of fancy. The film doesn't want to bowl us over with the look but with the people and situations on screen. Director Konstantina Kotzamani has made a film that is the cinematic equivalent of a special place in our heads and heart. It's kind of like the world of our dreams.
I was carried away.
This film is a joy. It is the story of one woman's quest to navigate her life and world and somehow along the way it becomes ours.
I love this film and I can't wait to share it.
The film is nominally the story of The Tool Shed a gay bar in Palm Springs California that was turned from a dive bar into a place where anyone could hang out. Its also the story of the gay retirees who moved to Palm Springs and became owners of the bar. It is also the story of the gay community over the last 50 years. It's a glorious tapestry of life and the people who may be driven into the shadows once more.
I was moved to tears several times, beginning with how one woman in the leather scene lost her "family" to AIDS on to the the threats by narrow minded bigots to do terrible things to the object of their hate. Mostly I was moved by how everyone has banded together and found a home and a community in a bar.
This is why I love to cover festivals and just watch everything- because I find wonderous films like this.
Track this film down and see it.
This is a French body horror tale with a dark streak of humor. It's a film that starts off with an uncomfortable throwaway that then shifts to the main narrative thread, which kind of gets lost. Partly the film lose some suspense because of its social commentary about society and the medical profession. Doctors are being pushed to the limit by being forced to do more faster, but in some ways that feels like another movie. The main thread here is disease changing us and our heroine but it doesn't quite feel like the script really understands its own illness I felt kind of lost as if bits of it were being made up as we go.
To be completely fair I never completely connected with the film after a certain point. A large part of it is the fact that once we are in the hospital we leave the real world behind. Yes we see it on TV screens and video clips but the hospital itself is alien. The color scheme of the sets feels fake. This isn't supposed to be ain institute ala Cronenberg's DEAD RINGERS or any other place where weird doctors roam. This is a hospital so the black and red color scheme and dim lighting make this not like any hospital I know of. The film is also trying to stack everyone and everything against Margot and it's too much from the get go.
At the same time director Marion Corroller has a sure hand for the violence and the bloody sequences are shocking in all the right way. She has a stunning eye for horrorific bits. I like her direction and I'd love to see what she does next, especially if she either pushes her next film all the way into fairy tale territory or keeps it real. There are some good things here and I want to see more of her work.
As for SPIECES (they should have stayed with the orignal French title SANGUINE which is a better choice) the film, it's an interesting misfire.
The short take on the film is that it is entertaining. The first two acts are essentially TV episodes on the big screen. The third act it lifts into something more. It's a film that plays fine for anyone, whether you've seen the TV series or not.
Is it perfect? Oh hell no. The story is simplistic, the effects are wildly even (and I am not talking about the retro look, I'm talking about things like compositing in the non-retro sequences). There are way too many puns and references, and the need to go for laughs instead of giving the things happening on screen real weight undercuts everything (and Sigourney Weaver is a tad to laid back). Jon Favreau's direction things fine but much of his script is lazy crap.
And yet the film works.
It works because the characters are strong. There is a sense of back story. Yes, the film hits pretty all of the expected scifi/Star Wars tropes, but it it does so with such joy that you don't mind the lack of weight.
It also works because the film's final act has some weight. There is a sense that maybe things are not going to be okay. I was wondering if they were going to kill off our heroes.
And please forgive me for not saying more, but Disney said don't give details, and having once been on a Disney blacklist for a review they didn't like, I'm not going to risk getting booted.
The one thing I need to mention is that the film has a glorious visual sense. What hooked me early was the fact that the film frequently looks like grand epic paintings. The opening sequence with the walkers absolutely blew my mind since it reminded me of all of the great Star Wars paintings I've seen over the last half century. Additionally, the final third, on the Hutt planet, was all like that. The shots were staged as if they are the paintings that were on covers of the old pulp scifi and fantasy novels of the 1960's and 70's (Mando standing sword in hand facing the dragon snake will live rent free in my head forever). The look and feel of those sequences filled me with joy because they exactly mirrored the greatest science fiction/Star Wars films that have been kicking around in my head.
Should you see it.? Yes. Its entertaining. It's handily the best Star Wars film since Rogue One.
This is a film that shows people standing up can make a difference. This is a film about the basic goodness of humanity since it shows that somewhere in the world civility isn't dead. I say this having seen mere days after ICE in America shot and killed a woman in a car because basically she didn't like what they were doing. I will not get into how what happened on Kenmure Street can no longer happen in most of the US, rather I will say you need to see this film because it will make you feel good and feel hope.
We need that.
Of course it helps that the people of Kenure Street come from a long line of protesters. For generations they have watched each other's back and fought the power when it needed to be fought. One of the great things about the film is that it shows a community that genuinely cares for each other regardless of where they came from.
This film is glorious.
Forgive me for not saying more than that, but I can't say more because I will get off on a rant.
See this film - feel hope in a world where that is in short supply
This is a well-meaning film with a desire to make it clear that we can fix the problems of the world. It is also is an over produced film that is going to beat us into submission and pull us over to its side by throwing everything but the kitchen sink at us in a style so slick nothing sticks. This the glossiest public service announcement you can imagine. Its full of so many rapid-fire facts that most of them fall by the wayside. I completely love that the filmmakers trust their audience to take in all the needed information but things move at such a clip that we don’t have time to process anything. I know much of this material from reading and from other films and I got lost and overwhelemed.
This might have worked but the film gives us zero context for anything. We have facts but no context to hang them on. We are given the facts but nothing to impart the understanding of what they mean in relation to anything.
I got some bits:
The destruction of the environment is bad. Fine.
Thefilmmakers know how we fix it. Okay.
(raises hand) Are you going to tie any of this into the real world in a way that it hits home and hits our guts so we get off our asses and do something?
No?
What what are you going to do instead?
"We are going to give you more facts, and more happy narration by rich celebrities who probably could do more than narrate a film that probably won't get seen widely enough and seems to exist to simply make them feel like they are doing something when they really aren’t doing anything."
I’m sorry for being snarky but this is an f-ing important issue and being made to watch a 100 minute feel good PSA that doesn't grab us by the genitals and make it clear that if we don't act, we are doomed, is not going to save to world.
Again, I'm sorry but while all the facts are here (no really everything you need to know is here), but the presentation thinks more is more, that how fast we are fed all the information doesn't matter so long we are given it and that making it hopeful, doesn't work.
There are other better and meatier documentaries on climate change (and go find one of those instead of wasting your time on this film.
Wildly overlong and kind of empty look at the man and his empire. This is a film that thinks being a successful business man is the interesting part of his life. The reality is boring as all hell and I would rather hear him talk about his cooking and actually talk about his life in detail instead of via cliff notes.
This is a puff piece that you may watch once and never again.
This is a well acted and well made drama that is very much about something. I'm not entirely certain what the film is about, nor do I think the film itself knows but but it wants you to know it is about something.
That isn't a knock on the quality of the film, more to say that the filmmakers never seem to want us to forget that they are trying to say something. As a film on it's own terms I think this film is gangbusters. The performances are first rate and the way the story unfolds is compelling.
Honestly this is the sort of film that other festivals notice and screen. I am so sure of this that I would not be surprised if this shows up at Neighboring Sounds of the NYFF.
Worth a look.
