guisreis Reviews

Sherlock Holmes Faces Death (1943)

A murder mistery movie with some problems but with the perfect Sherlock Holmes

[7/10 · 10 May 2024]

Pace is sometimes a little clumsy, there is a lot of unconvincing overacting, and the very beginning seems too much theatre. However, the film improves when the famous detective finally appears. Basil Rathbone is a perfect Sherlock Holmes. His first dialogue with Watson is exactly what you expect for the characters. I think Musgrave Manor as a whole could have been better explored and shown; the script and edition fragmented too much its portrayal. Anyway, there are some charming atmospheric thriller elements, such as the crow, the ritual and the storm, besides a few funny gags. The ending is also pretty nice.

Phantom Thread (2017)

Feeling the atmosphere of a remarkable dysfunctional relationship

[8/10 · 9 May 2024]

Always fabulous Daniel Day-Lewis portrays perfectly a successful arrogant fussy short-tempered methodical obsessive authoritarian and intolerant haute couture dressmaker, who is often ambiguous about praising or criticizing. Vicky Krieps also shines in a very delicate and precise performance in the role of the unsecure enamored former waitress who admires him and always expects something from him that never comes. Paul Thomas Anderson's competent direction appears not only in their remarkable performances but also in every element that contribute for the recurring atmosphere of tension, oddity, discomfort, imminent disruption in their dysfunctional relationship. It is a movie to slowly feel beyond watching. Will that bizarre relationship have a happy end? Well, how much what is happiness may vary deppending on whom it is applied to?

Dry Ground Burning (2022)

They tried to make a Bolsonaro dystopia in Brazil, but the film fails

[5/10 · 7 May 2024]

The movie intended to be a dystopian fable of Bolsonaro's Brazil with its militarism, fake patriotic defense, widespread charismatic Christianity, and impoverishment of people. However, the excessive long length and terrible pace make it a failure, and the script tries many things without reaching any cohesion. There is the intention of putting peripheric (and formerly in jail) lesbian black women as protagonists in a naturalistic aesthetics such as the recurrent one in films from Contagem, but the script is bad and the references are fragrant and not sophisticated. The grimy aesthetics in a slum in Ceilândia (near Brasília) in the very beginning seemed promising but soon the terrible pace became an obvious constraint. The first 14 minutes could have been two! Together with a lack of events, there is a boring testimony in a documentary style in order to compensate the impossibility of understanding what is going on simply by watching the scenes. After the title of the movie appears, situation does not change for nearly one hour and a half. Almost nothing happen, and pace is sluggish as hell. There are many boring or annoying scenes intending to show that atmosphere, but they are often too long (and recurrently with long bad music). The most remarkable was the bizarre 8-minute charismatic worship ceremony scene, a penalty I believe that spectator did not deserve. The supposedly main plot of the former convict women who composed a gang of oil theft and smuggling is very badly connected with the elections, in which one of the characters is a candidate of fictional Party of the Arrested People, with a platform with many issues directed toward the rights of the poor people. Only when one hour and a half length is over, the references to Bolsonaro's Brazil appear, including explicit mentions to him, in the mouths and T-shirts of his (in the film, always white) supporters. In the radio, it is mentioned (with bad sound) that the regime opposed "criminals and subversives", like in military dictatorship. Policemen use Bolsonaro's slogan as theirs; nothing is subtle in the movie. We also see that the women gang becomes increasingly partner of motorcycle delivery men, who suffer with job insecurity of (also a core issue in nowadays world). Uninteresting naturalistic long dialogues (on lesbian sexuality, life in jail, dysfunctional family background, and so forth), emulating a documentary, occupy a long fraction of the movie throughout it, contributing for its tediousness. To resume, this movie with more than 2 hours and a half length would work better if it were not only shorter, but actually a short film. There is too much time for too little to show. The long dialogues of women who look like belonging to the poor people do not make the film be truer or deeper.

Black Adam (2022)

Among the best superhero movies, despite unfair bad ratings

[8/10 · 7 May 2024]

I am very positively surprised by Black Adam, particularly considering the unfair bad ratings. It is among the best superhero movies, amusing and colorful, with well balanced dark humor, drama and adventure. The very beginning was already very promising, with a visually nice Kahndaq (exciting Egypt-like atmosphere), and the film kept that high level until the end. The story is simple and unpretensious, fitting typically the superhero genre, but is not trivial. Characters are quite interesting, both in their development and in their visual. Only Atom Smasher and Cyclone are in a much lower level, but not enough to damage general outcome. I did like Black Adam, Dr. Fate, Hawkman, Adrianna Tomaz, Amon, Hurut, Ishmael, and Sabbac! It is a movie in which producers had full control of what they were doing all the time.

Ophelia (I) (2018)

Too little of Shakespeare, and more invention than it was desirable

[7/10 · 4 May 2024]

The film is visually nice and has good performances. However, I did not like the script. I considered a very promising idea to fullfill the blanks on the story of Ophelia, who appears so little in Shakespeare's Hamlet. However, the movie does much more than it. The inserted parts not only are predictably much less impacting and more generic than the lines wrtitten by the bard, but also made the whole story loses a significant part of its strength. While Claudius and the queen are still interesting characters, Hamlet was turned into an almost minor character, what is bizarre. It is too much the present wave of mainstream cinema (with its core concerns and formulae) and relatively little of Shakespeare.

La belle époque (2019)

Better after each plot twist

[10/10 · 3 May 2024]

Delicious film. The Truman Show meets Amélie Poulan. The very beginning seemed a little tepid but the film improved a lot, becoming even better each plot twist, and it does surprise sometimes. There are many layers and the story is moving, funny but with a recurrent touch of ssadness. Dystopic near future (or present?!), with overwhelming artificial intelligence and the death of paper, merges with nosltalgy full of charming drawings, perfumes, sensations and mood from the 70s. Daniel Auteuil has a great performance as usual, Fanny Ardant is striking in her role too, and, maybe above all, Doria Tiller makes spectator understands perfectly how Victor felt in love for her version of Marianne. Nicolas Bedos has a fantastic direction and script, leading to an unnexpectadly remarkable movie.

The Zone of Interest (2023)

One of the best film on Nazism ever; should have been awarded with the Oscar of best picture

[10/10 · 2 May 2024]

This is one of the best movies on Nazism ever made and incredibly innovative in how it shows the horror of the Holocaust, in the very place of "Final Solution" main extermination camp, one of the most represented historical events in cinema. While it obviously deserved the Academy Awards of best sound and best foreign language film, I consider it also was the best among the nominees for best picture (and the winner was the worst! What a shame!).

A review is certainly not enough for explaining a so deep, complex movie, so attentive to details, so strong without using easy emotional formulae. Dialogues and cinematography are awesome, music score and the sounds in background (sometimes constrasting with the calm beauty of flowers or any other comfort in the opposite side of the wall) are disturbing. Director Jonathan Glazer accomplishes a great work, very clever in showing visually only the tormentors. Sandra Hüller and Christian Friedel have great performances as horrible Auschwitz couple as Hedwig and commandant Rudolf Höß. The script brilliantly explores the banality of evil, the selective love and care, the dehumanization, hatred and revenge combined with opportunism and upward mobility, the marriage without love and full of interest, the military ethos, the usage of part of the prisioners for forced labor and the extermination of the others, the fact that good people may be found everywhere, and the children living in comfort but either silently disturbed by those sounds of suffering and violence or mocking on mass murder in gas chamber (the latter being Klaus, the xenophobic eldest son, I suppose). Distracted spectators may lose important elements which appear, sometimes in background or in discrete details, such as the robbery of properties of killed jews, the Holocaust trains, the smoke caused by the burning of bodies, the Zyklon B, possibly Austrian communist political prisoner Eleonore Hodys, the crematoria technology develipped for mass incineration. It is a mature film with very sophisticated aesthetic and narrative elements which will have a place in the history of the cinema as one of the best movies representing that paramount stain in human civilization.

From Dreams to Tragedy: The Fire that Shook Brazilian Football (2024)

Impossible not to be sad and furious about the horror

[10/10 · 30 April 2024]

Very sad and important mini-series on the fire tragedy that killed 10 teenage football players of Flamengo. Pedro Asberg was very skilled in showing who were those boys and giving space for their famílies to express themselves. Additionally and not less important, the explored well both the irresponsability of the previous club managers not fixing the serious structural problems in the dorm, and the absolute lack of empathy of present managers and their view of people as commodities. People suffered the horror of mosing their children, with all the future ahead, in dire circumstances, and president of Flamengo and his crew made them keep suffering for years. Moving doxumentary that makes cry and get furious.

Angela (2023)

Not a biopic, but an underrrated movie on misogyny in Brazil

[8/10 · 26 April 2024]

A good and extremely underrated film on a paramount misogynistic crime (and sexist Judicial system) in Brazil. All actors have good performances (Ísis Valverde is particularly successful in the leading role), cinematography is beautiful, direction is very competent, characters are deeply developped, and there are quite good dialogues. It is almost a sexploitation movie, considering the high number of sex scenes involving Ísis Valverde, Gabriel Braga Nunes, Bianca Bin... Several people criticized the film for not showing many important (and polemical) events of her life, being therefore an incomplete biographic movie. I agree with the diagnisis that it is not enough for a biopic (what the title may suggest), and a serious absence was not including the buzarre murder of the housekeeper after her separation and before she moved from Belo Horizonte to Rio de Janeiro. However, as a movie on violent misogyny and the structural sexism, which had the murder of Ângela Diniz as a turning point case, it succeeds.

Constantine: City of Demons - The Movie (2018)

A great Constantine animated movie

[8/10 · 25 April 2024]

Constantine: City of Demons is a violent, gory and very atmospheric horror and adventure fantasy adult animated film. The movie is full of interesting characters (mostly demons) besides John Constantine. I loved particularly Nightmare Nurse and Angela! There is some dark humor, but also a lot of pure good-quality horror, with several remarkable situations, places and creatures. It is an animated DC Comics movie that engages spectator throughout the story, until the bright ending. The portrayal of Los Angeles was very innovative. Good script and nice animation constitute a formidable combination.

Damsel (2024)

Not bad but formulaic

[7/10 · 23 April 2024]

This is Netflix medieval fantasy movie Is certainly not bad, but deffinitely is not great either. If it were more into horror and less into adventure perhaps it would engage little more. It is not very convincing and atmospheric, despite the interesting general plot and some nice elements such as the light worms. Perhaps what was actually needed for a bettter outcome was an authorial director with a touch of magic such as Terry Gilliam or Jean-Pierre Jeunet or Guillermo del Toro, instead of Netflix producers making a film according their formula. The excess of clichés and the always obvious dialogues annoy.

Jojo Rabbit (2019)

Becomes better in the end, but still overrated and problematic

[6/10 · 14 April 2024]

Making a film on Nazism by combining dark humor with cute magical realism is a seriously bad idea. It is stupid, disrespectful, full of jokes of bad taste, politically shallow, simplistic... It would have been a complete disaster if it had not improved a lot in the last part, when most of that camp atmsphere has been abandoned, and the reletationship between Jojo and Elsa became the core of the story. As a matter of fact, that girl, played by Thomasin McKenzie, is the best of the movie. Anyway, despite the ascending curve, the film is overrated, and should be seen as one more cinema production that contributes for a widespread misunderstanding of what fascism is about and how to notice when it rises again elsewhere.

Clandestine Childhood (2011)

Argentine dirty war in the eyes of a boy

[7/10 · 10 April 2024]

A film on Argentine military dictatorship and dirty war of fascists against Montonero guerrilla is always welcome, as it is a quite important even in the history of Latin America and in the dire days of reactionary oppession against democracy and human rights. Making a film on a military dictatorship focusing the life of a child is also a script decision that often works very well, as I may mention Brazilian "O ano em que meus pais saíram de férias" ("The Year My Parents Went on Vacation"), Argentine "Kamchatka", and Nicaraguan "Princesas rojas" ("Red Princesses"). This Argentine film is not bad and it is visually appealing: cinematography, art direction, the usage of drawn animation... However (and unfortunately), it is too tepid, excessively long and sluggish, and lacks a tighter script. Spectator never gets involved, the movie simply does not make specttor feels or velieves in what is portrayed on the screen.

The Last Metro (1980)

The best film by Truffaut?!

[9/10 · 6 April 2024]

Truffaut was a very skilled filmmaker and, in this movie with a story held in Régime de Vichy, his direction is no less than perfect. It is possibly my favorite film by him. Cinematography, palette, the documentary-like insertions, the script and the pace, the careful development of characters, the way he directed the actors, he had a full control of everything. The story surprises continuously in its consistent plot twists, characters are sophisticated and multilayered, and actors do a great job. I loved particularly the dialogues and interactions between always striking Catherine Deneuve and Heinz Bennet. So strong, so deep, so convincing. It is also among the best films on Nazism, highlighting how it impacted occupied France, in itd authoritstianism and anti-Jewish coercion.

Lost in Translation (2003)

Amazing Scarlett Johansson and Bill Murray, complex multilayered relationship

[8/10 · 5 April 2024]

Two very solitary characters, both with marriage in crisis, bored in Japan and listening people talking all the time a language they do not know. As the woman mentioned either directly ot indirectly, the man is in a mildlife crisis, while she is in a crisis of confidence typical of the youth at its twenties. As they met in the hotel, a strong, acceleratedly intimate relationship, with several complex layers, emerged. The film is delicate and remarkable, and not only because of the good awarded script. It would not have been possible without a competent direction by Sofia Coppola and, I must highlight it, without actors such as Scarlett Johansson and Bill Burray, skilled enough to be able to be so precise in each facial expression of various feelings. Both had unforgettable performances.

The War Wagon (1967)

Magnificent five, but just two giants

[8/10 · 4 April 2024]

It is a nice Western starred by two of the greatest Hillywood icons, Kirk Douglas and John Wayne. It reminds more acclaimed Magnificent Seven, but I considered It better. Here, "five magnificent" are assembled to rob a heavily armed stagecoach. Two of them (you know who) are, however, much more magnificent than the others. That is why the film also reninds another movie by John Sturges: Last Train from Gun Hill. Wayne's Taw and Douglas's Lomax have an unstable relationship in the border between skilled partners and bitter rivals, somewhat like Douglas's Morgan and Anthony Quinn's Belden in aforementioned 1959 Western. The parallel is so striking that the titles both movies received in Brazilian Portuguese were similar: Giants Fight and Titans Duel, respectively.

The Pale Blue Eye (2022)

Visually nice but with no emotion

[6/10 · 30 March 2024]

Not a bad film, but clearly a Netflix production full of flaws which undermine its outcome. While art direction is good, fitting well the intended Gothic atmosphere, other traits do not. I never felt as if those events were happening, the direction was unable to transmit any emotion, nothing compatible with what one expects from a thriller. It is particularly dismal, considering the good cast assembled. Pace is sluggish and script seems to have lapses of unnecessary insertions which lead to nowhere. To resume, the story of investigation partnership between Augustus Landor and Edgar Allan Poe could have worked quite well, and the general morbid plot is interesting (and so is the ending), but the film was not balanced, deep and consistent enough.

Os Condenados (1975)

Dysfunctional romantic triangle in an irregular but better film than other adaptations from Modernist novels

[6/10 · 29 March 2024]

The first adaptation ever to cinema of a novel by Modernist writer Oswald de Andrade, and also an adaptation of his very first novel. The beginning of the movie is quite weird, but it becomes better as it advances, although keeping some drawbacks: theater-like overacting does not fit well, and the script is sometimes too hermetic. However, the film is visually charming, with good art direction, and the dramatic romantic triangle is interesting: the prostitute loves a violent pimp whereas a shy rower loves her, never getting a real chance. The chemistry between Claudio Marzo and Isabel Ribeiro is quite good, and Roberto Bataglin, despite not as skilled, has an appropriate presence as the abusive ruffian. To resume, the film has flaws but is interesting, and I consider it much better (and less problematic) than other adaptations of Modernist novels, such as O homem do pau-brasil (also based in Oswald de Andrade) and celebrated Mucunaíma, both by Joaquim Pedro de Andrade.

Os Amigos (2013)

Many nice moments, but confusing script

[7/10 · 25 March 2024]

The film is a mix of the stories of two friendships (one between kids and another between mature adult man and woman) and a romantic comedy (considering the general structure of the film), with the life of Marco Ricca's character in the core: he is lost and trying to find his way, just like Ulysses (it was ridiculously bizarre that he imvented to the children that Odysseus was a nickname given by Ulysses's close friends!). The metaphors with the Odissey and Hercules and others are numerous, but either very generic or not understandable (at least by me). Indeed, many interesting things happen in the film (including the architecture argument, the scene in the toy store, and the special participation of Alice Braga and Caio Blat), but their connection and the reason to be in the script were not well built or clearly shown. Dialogues also had ups and downs, being too much artificial sometimes. Dira Paes, one of the best actresses from Brazil (Ricca is also one of the best actors), does not have a role where she can show her skills mostly of the time. In the last part, however, she is subtle but striking in portraying the feelings her character had and finally became explicit.

Canção de Baal (2007)

Grimy chaos

[2/10 · 23 March 2024]

I loved to listen the interrogation of Bertolt Brecht by the Fascist McCarthyist "House Committee on Un-American Activities". However, I liked nothing else in this grimy and weird musical, based or inspired in Brecht's play Baal, with an obvious Brazilian element. It is quite poor as cinema, not being a good adaptation. It is still pure theatre, and not necessarily a good one. Its chaotic script makes it hard for spectator to keep his/her attention. Boring and hardly justifiable. Probably just a failed aesthetic experiment. Indeed, in the very beginning a character says that a story that is understood is a bad one. Well, I seriously disagree on that, and also on what Helena Ignez considered that was a good idea for a feature movie.

Macario (1960)

Mexican fantasy between God and the Devil, turkey and death

[8/10 · 16 March 2024]

It is not surprising that this film from 1960 became one of the greatest classics of Mexican cinema, a paramount production from its Golden Age. Very innovative, it is a fantasy drama which addresses hunger, social inequalities, the Catholic Church and it is inquisition. The hungry Macario will make decisions that will be decisive, concerning a turkey, the Devil, God and Death. By the way, I cannot help but mention a curious dark detail: every time Macario says he will not eat anything and prefers to starve than to eat a small portion, his children laugh happily because they will have a little more food. That was funny but also harsh!

Harmonica's Howl (2013)

Mariana Ximenes kisses Leandra Leal; that is the only remarkable element in the movie

[5/10 · 14 March 2024]

It would be a love triangle story, if there were a story. It is a sensorial quasi-silent (the first spoken line happens with 15 minutes of film) tediously sluggish ASMR arthouse lesbian nearly sexploitation movie in beautiful Rio de Janeiro. In the very beginning, after one of the numerous long scenes where a beautiful place with nature is on the screen with no character appearing but the sound of the wind or of the sea, two of the best Brazilian actresses ever, Mariana Ximenes and Leandra Leal, kiss each other and their characters have sex on the beach. In the following scene, Mariana Ximenes eats sushi with the man while the dishes melt. Eventually, all the three play cards; afterwards they blow and touch each other, with a bizarre song. When the movie lasted half an hour, there was the metaphor of the three glasses containing liquids with the very colours of their clothes, and they mixed and drank all the tree, symbolizing they had a fluid sexual affair together. That was the only thing to be understood in the whole movie, if I am not wrong, besides the ending. Then, Mariana Ximenes's character clearly makes her decision, in another symbolic sequence, and then have another love scene on the beach. The movie is supposed to be immersive, but it is not. Beautiful cinematography and the two great actresses do not save it from failure. Showing for a long time a white square, or using bizarre dissonant song and the sound of a table tennis ball also do not make the film more intelligent or sophisticated.

Nossos Mortos Tem Voz (2018)

Very sad and important documentary on the murders of poor people by criminal policemen in Baixada Fluminense, Rio de Janeiro

[8/10 · 13 March 2024]

This is an extremely sad and also quite important short documentary on outrageous murders of poor (and nostly black) boys by criminal policemen in Baixada Fluminense, in Rio de Janeiro metropolitan area. There are several testimonies by mothers and sisters of that assassinated youth, which are very strong. It is simply impossible not to be moved and sickened by the harsh revolting mentioned cases. A scholar from Rio de Janeiro Federal Rural University also explains the changes death squads structure that happened in recent decades, and also the relation it has with militia mob and politicians.

The Bond (1918)

Propaganda film by Chaplin in World War I

[6/10 · 12 March 2024]

I never knew that Chaplin made at his own expense a propaganda film for helping the Liberty Loan Committee for selling bonds in the World War I, against the German Empire. After three sketches about the bonds of friendship, love and marriage (among which I only liked the second one, particularly the gags with the moon and the cupid), the tramp meets both Uncle Sam and German Emperor Wilhelm II in a fourth and last segment. The two-reel film is aesthetically different (quite simple black set) from other short films by Chaplin, and also much less funny than almost all of them. It works, however, as a historical curiousity.

Anatomy of a Fall (2023)

One of the best court movies ever!

[9/10 · 4 March 2024]

This French production, a slow drama thriller, is one of the best court movies ever made. The script is no less than extraordinary, as it makes spectator continuously change her/his suspicion about if it was an accident or if she did murder her husband. Attorneys representing both sides were brilliant in their strategies and arguments, equally convincing. The clues that are gradually added also contribute for spectator's doubt. Interestingly, that is the very case of the boy too, who additionally had symbolic trait of being blind. The fact that she is a famous writer who uses to write about her own life, but in a heightened reality mixing reality and fiction, is a fantastic element too: now there is a crime, and how to know which part of what she says is reality and which is fiction? The contrasting interpretations about what may have happened, given the few known elements, not only make the movie so nice as an investigation of a possible crime, but also unveils a lot how Justice actually works (and it does it more than most good court films do). Characters are complex, deep, humanly fallible, contradictory and not neutral. The couple's argument was a brilliant dialogue and great example of it; information that eventually arise about the background of that violent disagreement makes it even more interesting. Acting is very good, as all actors were able to portray that subtle complexity of their characters very well. Anyway, it is impossible not to praise particularly the boy Milo Machado-Graner's performance. Seeing this movie win the academy awards for the best film would be a serious suprise, but a very good one.