phobophob Reviews

The Nine Muses (2010)

arbitrary

[2/10 · 29 October 2011]

John Akofrah tries to combine documentary and personal essay, which sounds promising. He merges archive imagery with beautifully shot - though heavy post produced - wintry landscapes of Alaska to tell the story of immigrants coming into the UK from the 60s onwards. Sadly, what starts out as a promising experiment ends up being a self indulgent, problematic and almost arbitrary combination of found footage, literature and music, each of them of high quality but all of them together boring and hard to bare. Like a cook who thinks combining expensive ingredients automatically will result in a exquisite dish John Akomfrah is wrong. It makes a mess and in the end you are just sad about the useless waste of the high class ingredients.

Guilty of Romance (2011)

innocence in pissing.

[3/10 · 24 October 2011]

I saw this movie today at the Viennale at an afternoon screening and i had a hard time to sit thru it. it seemed overly pretentious and misogynistic to me. don't get me wrong, i enjoyed visitor q and i realized the Belle de Jour, Vivre Sa Vie references. But Shion Sono was not able to pull of the absurd combinations of violence and sexuality that made these movies work. on the opposite. it seemed like a constant male masturbation fantasy with a few literature references tossed in to justify it. even looking at it from an exploitation angle, it just failed to deliver. the acting was less than convincing and at best as average as the mise en scene and also the use of music was terrible, constantly failing to set the counterpoint as obviously originally intended. in the end it left the bitter taste of a conservative paradigm where women were punished for their sexuality, got their private parts cut of and were kicked in the stomach. anyway, there seems to be innocence in pissing.

Mysterious Object at Noon (2000)

exhausting

[3/10 · 30 March 2009]

i took my girlfriend to see this one after reading a very promising article about it in my monthly cinema newspaper. i regretted it after about 15 minutes of the movie. the main idea to it, to let a story develop by it's protagonists, thus making it a semi documentary, seems promising, but suffers under the usual problems movies have that relay on their actors as directors. they are non. so the movie is constantly on the verge of failure, while thru most parts being plain - i am sorry, but i have to use that word - boring. it is, as the short movies of weerasethakul, heavily based on long steady shots and seemingly unconnected pieces of sound and dialog. this may work as an installative work in an art context but definitely fails to deliver when watching it for about 90 minutes in a cinema. the only refreshing moments of the movie are the ones of self reference. one in which one assistant of the director appears, telling him that the whole thing does not work and that they better should have written a script, and one in which a kid actor is asking if he finally can go home (and if not, if afterwords he at least can get a burger at kfc :). i have to admit i really felt with the kid.

Ten Inch Hero (2007)

embarrassing and predictable

[2/10 · 20 November 2008]

I am sorry to say, that i am really disappointed. first by the movie i had to force myself thru right now, as well as by the amazingly high rating it got on IMDb. And i have to say: i am not at all against romantic comedies or if you want "chick flicks". But this one just had nothing to offer for me at all. It was filled with annoying clichés, the acting was embarrassing and the story totally, and i mean absolutely, predictable. there were so many scenes in the movie that made me feel physically ashamed for everybody involved in this production, that i still feel a bit dizzy. the music was awful and can be only compared to the terribly cheesy pictures the so called "artistic" main character is drawing. but that not enough. after 90 minutes of bugging the viewer how unimportant looks are the only slightly likable character changes his whole dressing and hair style to get the "hot chick" of the store, that seemed to be his friend already for years! It is hard to believe nobody else found that somewhat against the often cited "important message" of this train wreck. sorry, but i recommend to see forgetting Sarah Marshall a second or even a third time instead. the only reason i gave it 2 points is the standard editing you cant feel.

Satan's Brew (1976)

love it or hate it, but please love it, don't hate it

[10/10 · 11 February 2007]

I definitely understand, that this film is not for everyone, but I also have to say it is one of my all time favorites and there are not many movies i have seen that often. In fact every time somebody new steps into my live, I have to watch this movie with him, and i saw every possible reaction meanwhile.

But still, this is my favorite Fassbinder movie and this for several reasons. The most important of these is, that the movie has a rhythmical quality from the beginning to the end. Also there are literally hundreds of remarkable quotes inside. It is black humorous, funny and the overacting is terrific. It is amazing how Fassbinder manages to change the mood radically from scene to scene, how he is playing with emotion, speed and dynamic.

Of course people who are interested in Fassbinders historic post war movies and expect something like that will be disappointed, but if anybody is interested in the absurd elements, that appear in most of Fassbinders movies, Satansbraten gives you the possibility to enjoy them to the fullest. So get some friends, watch this movie and have a good time seeing lots of grown up people jumping around and repeating words for at least three times. Geld Geld Geld.

I Do Not Know What It Is I Am Like (1986)

funny if you take some time

[8/10 · 22 January 2007]

I saw this movie in my movie class on university first and it took me some time to get into it. If you seen some bill viola stuff already you for sure know that it is done on video and that it probably is moving quite slow. Also it is mostly not really narrative. But after some time, when i was focusing on the way the movie was moving forward, how it came from one scene to the next it became really enjoyable. It was a constant searching for the connections to the previous scenes and often pretty funny to find out where it is, as bill viola releases the beginning confusion after a cut not immediately but after some time in a often unexpected way. In a way it was like listening to classic music trying to figure out, were and in what form the motive would appear again and how it was transformed. The whole thing is done really smart, interesting for the eye and and in a way also emotional and sometimes really funny. So take some time, search for the connections and enjoy the birds eyes.

The Devil's Rejects (2005)

it is about the music, not the gore

[9/10 · 22 January 2007]

I've already seen this movie three times with a wide variety of people including my girlfriend that is definitely not on the gore side and i really have to say everyone was really enthusiastic about it. Of coarse the movie contains a lot of violence and but also from the classic movie recipient side i can say it is a beautiful shot (final scene), great cut (coffee/toilett) movie with probably one of the best soundtracks ever (it made me love Terry Reid and Shambala). The dialogs and characters are hilarious and can compete with every Tarantino movie. The movie is constantly breaking thru clichés by being totally ironic and switching between splatter and comedy. Finally it also changes most peoples opinion on Lynryd Skynryd. I have to say it is a really well done, entertaining movie and everybody who likes early Tarantino and great music will love it.