anton-duzenko Reviews

Prisoner's Daughter (2022)

Reasonably good

[6/10 · 4 July 2023]

This was unexpectedly entertaining; I think I can congratulate the film makers on successfully breaking out of the infamous Hollywood comfort zone and for a refreshing change trying to show real-world people dealing with the bad choices they have made and the price it cost their families.

Pros:

• characters we could relate to (at last!)
• well paced and believable story

Cons:

• story a bit old and cliched
• shaky camera (not again!)
• female lead's fake lips on top of quite visible makeup that contradicted her role
• too sugary sometimes

I'm rating it 6 but it's actually a compliment coming from me. Most movies these days I don't even bother to rate and turn off after 10 to 15 minutes of runtime.

The Platform (2019)

Ending explained

[7/10 · 21 December 2022]

A lot of people here commented on the anticlimactic ending that was too vague for an average viewer.

I'm going to repeat some points from other reviews first.

We have a system, that is seemingly fair and cost-effective, based on a few rules, some obvious, and other not so much.

1. Every person is sent exactly one food item. Supply and demand, economy 101.

2. Each person has access to the entire food platform, one after another. The access order is "fairly" shuffling every time. So called "swing of the pendulum".

So far so good, right? I mean, we're all adults, civilized people. We can make it work, surely?

Unfortunately for people in this system, there's more than meets the eye.

3. Food items sent down on the platform is not "real food". It's a caprice fancy restaurant "art food" that regular people only taste a couple of times in their lifetime. And it's the same all the time, every day. As such, it can't realistically feed the entire population. The obviously vast resources spent on the food are spent terribly inefficient, producing much less than possible and necessary. Consumerism, anyone?

4. There is no security, guards, no rules and no punishment. Wild jungles, at its worst. Strong eat weak. The second amendment to extreme.

5. It's not spelled out but implied that to get you to the privileged top, your roommate has to die. This is the crucial flaw that undermines everything else. It brings the worst kind of people to the top floors, where they basically set the policy and mindset for everyone under them. Mass culture?

All of the above, combined, produce a classic horror movie with blood and gore all around. Now how does the ending fit here?

From my understanding, the idea here is that it's useless to try and change or fight the system and the only way to cope with it is to escape and ignore it, with a loud message if possible. I don't exactly agree with it, but let's assume that the system is stronger than any two individuals and see where it leads us.

The system only works as long as the people inside it make it work. And the basic hookup for everyone inside seems to be egoism. People on top floors eat other people's food just because it's scarce, people on the bottom eat each other just to survive. Everyone is too busy dealing with their own circumstances to try and see the whole setup.

The hero decides to reject the rules but not being able to destroy it, opts to quit with the bang - send a child to the top floor. The point is, by forfeiting his own self-interest he goes to the society very bottom, where he will not be able to raise again, but in doing so he gets the necessary impulse to give the next generation a little chance for better life.

It's just that, not more and not less. No cavalry coming, no superman saving the planet, no riding into sunset. Anti-holywood ending made almost everyone unhappy but stayed true to life and as such carved a lasting impression.

Dune (2021)

Can be improved

[4/10 · 23 January 2022]

Not long after the movie started it came to my mind that the visual series is basically a music video, and in that regard it's quite good, minus the action sequences. The only thing missing is the music itself. Then there is the duration problem. What I would do is either split the movie in chunks and sell to music video producers. Or replace the audio track (it is quite useless) with a rock opera or something. Just a suggestion. Would be a shame to waste the production dollars and leave it in this messy shape.

Cargo 200 (2007)

bullshit-provoking

[6/10 · 14 October 2013]

All the hype around the 'truth' about Soviet Union is appalling. After Russian movie-makers "broke free" from the "totalitarian hell" there is nothing to stop them from making any kind of black fiction story their imagination can possibly produce. The Hollywood may have self-censorship to not put a maniac into police uniform, but it clearly was not the case with Balabanov. His original idea was apparently create a picture as shocking to the public as possible, and he succeeded well.

All of you guys who still fight the Cold war in 2013 are like that madman who reads aloud war letters in a room with two corpses.