Change Your Image
rominaferraro
Reviews
Mach die Musik leiser (1994)
Quite tedious
How can a movie that lasts just 85 minutes seem so long? Simply by saying nothing.
I had the fortune of seeing this movie with an Italian girl who had lived in Germany for some time, and she told me it was a very accurate portrait of a generation. I accept that, I can admit that now I know something else about German youth in the nineties, but I think a movie should be something more.
The adolescents in this movie do nothing, and I'm not exaggerating. Far from a lost youth, it's an anemic one that cannot find anything that moves them or compels them: they aren't promiscuous, they do not have much sex (in fact there's not even one single image of them kissing with their partners), they don't do drugs, they do well or bad in school, nobody cares much, they only involve in petty shoplifting, they don't fight or get together in gangs, they don't rebel... And don't get me wrong, I wasn't looking for a sordid movie in which kids are a mess, we've had our share of that. But it's quite disappointing to see kids that don't either fail nor excel, as if there were no reasons for one or the other. Adults don't have a role in this movie, they don't correct their sons and daughters, maybe because they may not see a reason to do it. I can understand them: the kids do nothing but listening to music. Yes, they're that boring.
And, what is worse in terms of the movie, the director/writer doesn't put conflicts in front of his characters to provoke them or even to show they're that static. He just watches them going nowhere. And I think he ended up going nowhere too. In its lack of criticism or even approval, this film has nothing to say.
Crash (2004)
Excellent film
I've just seen the movie and I found it terribly powerful, one of the greatest compositions I've seen. Crash combines fast action, shocking cinematography, great performances, beautiful music, and a very particular kind of suspense, in which you know exactly what's happening but can't help hold your breath anyway. It's fascinating how the movie works as a fantastic essay about contact and communication, and how it conveys its meaning perfectly. The way the film depicts the lack of identity of the characters, and uses cars as the thread to connect the stories to show without flaws its main theme is amazing. Absolutely worth seeing. One of the best essays about racism and duality I've ever watched.
The Order (2003)
Oh my God...
This is by far the worst movie I've seen in a long time. The atmosphere of the movie oscillates between realistic and unrealistic all the time. The characters' retelling of so many past stories breaks the rhythm of the movie. The dialogue is intended to be very serious, profound and poetic but they end up being funny and full of clichés instead. The characters are quite flat. The cause-consequence relations are poor and there are many loose ends. On the whole, it doesn't even make much sense.
The only reason why I don't give it a 1 is that Bënno Furmann is so cute (well, Heath Ledger is quite nice too) that I enjoyed at least that. But my God, what a hideous movie!
Swimming Pool (2003)
Mind-boggling
I saw this movie, found it hard to understand, read a lot about it here in the message boards and saw it again immediately (yes, I had many time to spare), and I still doesn't find any explanation that seem convincing enough. At the same time, any movie that is gripping enough to engage so many people in talking about so many theories has to have some merit. And at the same time too, any movie that leaves so many blanks as to admit so many explanations, no matter how crazy, has to have some flaws.
In this cases when I don't completely understand a movie, I tend to think I'm to blame, but I've read so many different interpretations, and every one of them with at least one scene that doesn't fit completely, that in the end I end up thinking that the director chose to be ambiguous. And I don't think that's something positive. That's why I give this movie a 6 instead of a higher mark.
But I have to admit the movie is gripping and aesthetically beautiful. Worth watching? I think so, after all, such a mind exercise is not common these days.
Cold Mountain (2003)
Not good enough
I was really disappointed in this movie. First of all, it's really long. I'm not saying that I can't enjoy a movie for more than an hour and a half, but the fact that the journey is an ordeal for the Jude Law character doesn't mean that it has to be an ordeal for the viewer too. I've seen long movies before, but these succeeded in keeping the viewer interested. That wasn't my feeling with "Cold Mountain".
The end was a downer too. It was a complete cliché. (SPOILER) I can't stand another movie in which the hero comes back and has sex with the heroine just once, only to die afterwards. And, of course, she gets pregnant! I'm starting to think that waiting for your lover for a long time, having sex with him and having him killed is an excellent method to improve fertility.
What disappointed me the most was that, in fact, the actors did a very good job. And, besides the clichés, the script depicts certain aspects of the war that are not usually shown, like the role of women or the cruelty away from the battlefield. I have the impression that these aspects were treated quite realistically, and that emphasizes the contrast with the glurge in the end.
I have to admit that, in terms of music and photography, it is a really beautiful movie. Nevertheless, that's not enough to make it a great movie.
That's what annoyed me so much: with great resources, Minghella didn't make a great movie.
Deuda (2004)
Beautifully sad
A lot was said about the similarities between Lanata and Michael Moore these days. I have to say I'm absolutely partial to both of them, but the points in common I've seen go, in my opinion, beyond my personal taste. This comparison will serve well to express my opinion of Deuda.
First of all, when you go to the cinema to watch Deuda or Farenheit 911, you go to watch Lanata or Moore. You know them well, are quite keen on them and share most of their points of view. They became cult authors because they reflect their personalities in their works.
They also share a way of speaking to their audience: they are very colloquial, their speech lacks any superfluous complexity. They want us to understand and don't hide behind pompous rhetoric. They call a spade a spade.
Lanata and Moore speak about things that bother and hurt them. They are in contact with certain aspects of reality that disturb them and they show their discomfort or anger or sadness. They allow themselves to be expressive, even risking to be considered partial by the narrow-minded. And maybe they are subjective, but who can be impartial when reality hurts?
Finally, they are themselves: they allow themselves to be ironic or very straight-forward or emotional. They don't limit their work to be plainly informative, they pose argumentation's, appeal to us to think, to try figure out the answers for ourselves. And many times they ask without knowing the answer, but trying to commit us to find them. Lanata and Moore are reinventing the definition of documentary in an age when just knowing is not enough.
Deuda was very moving and very disturbing. Put my mind in motion. It left me with a sour taste in my mouth: there's no easy solutions, and while we debate who's to blame for the Argentinean economical and political problems, people starve. But maybe the solution of these problems, as those of many other problems, resides in us thinking about them, being more conscious and responsible and critical, and taking a personal interest in current affairs. Even if this doesn't solve anything, it will be good to know we're not blindfolded anymore.
Deuda is an excellent yet painful essay about our place in the world.
Ay Juancito (2004)
Ay Olivera...
Gee, I don't know... why do I not like this movie? There are so many reasons, and none of them is good enough to hate the movie but the sum of them is quite disappointing.
First of all, the main actor is just awful. I haven't seen him in any other movie and, judging by this one, I won't see him again. Why he was chosen, I cannot imagine. Leticia Brédice is not that great either, but that does not surprise me anymore. Anyway, her character is not very good. The story is not amazing, ends abruptly and has no suspense, which is the biggest disappointment, being Juan Duarte's story so surrounded by mystery. Furthermore, there are some moments in which it seems just an excuse to make some remarks against Perón, Eva Perón and their government (I don't know if that's the case, but that's what I felt, even though I'm not a Perón supporter).
And most important of all: if you haven't spent enough money in your fake head, if you have a sorry plaster fake head that couldn't look human even among apes, you must NOT do a close shot of it!!! (sorry but it's true)
Well, now the good part, the part that made me give it a 5 and no less: even when I'm not old enough to have lived that times, I got the feeling that the setting was very good. Inés Estévez was absolutely great, a true diva. And Norma Aleandro was amazing as always. Alejandra Majluf, whom I never saw acting before, was quite good, I don't think she is an extraordinary actress, but somehow her part suited her perfectly, the resemblance is impressive. Marrale and Novoa had their moments. Their lines (especially her lines) are not great and their start is quite shaky, but they're fine. Nevertheless, none of them is good enough to save the movie.
Ay, Olivera, it could have been so much better...
Roma (2004)
Not that special
This movie has been called "the event of the year" in film industry and I am not sure if it is up to this statement. Of course Aristarain knows what he is doing, the cast is really good (even Botto, whom I hated in "Martin (hache)"), photography, edition. It is a very beautiful product indeed. But the plot seemed a bit weak and the pace is quite slow. I didn't get it: if the intention was to pay homage to that great woman that Roma is, it wasn't fair enough, it was too focused on Joaquin; if it was to tell the story of Joaquin, the I couldn't see the point, because I don't think it was a deep story, with any turning point; then, if Aristarain was trying to show the history of Argentina, he was quite vague and used too many time jumps. Finally, if he was trying to do all three things, he of course was being too ambitious! I'm sure a lot of people was waiting for Aristarain's next movie. Will they be pleased? I really don't know. Maybe he reached his peak with "Un lugar en el mundo". What I'm quite sure about is that, if this film was the event of the year, I will be very disappointed in Argentinian film till 2005.
Mystic River (2003)
Didn't get it
I've just watched the movie and couldn't make sense of the ending. Linney's character seems to change dramatically, turning into a more ruthless and (maybe) domineering person. Bacon's loses his strength, his sense of right and wrong or whatever it is called; something is missing. He also manages to make amends with his wife, but it is not very clear why and how. The line "the last time I saw Dave was 25 years ago..." sounds like a cliche. Celeste should know what happened, considering she told Johnny her suspicion, and yet it seems she's not doing anything about it. I couldn't reconstruct anything from the last scenes.
The greatest asset of this movie is actors. Tim Robbins and Marcia Gay Harden are excellent; I even wonder how critics managed to "see" Sean Penn around these two performers at their peak. Even when Penn is great in his performance of a father torn between sadness and revenge, they completely outshone him. The whole cast was very good (Fishburne, Bacon). Unfortunately, I think plot wasn't up to them.
The Emperor's New Groove (2000)
Fun, fun, fun!
Well, I've just watched my brand new DVD of "The emperor's new groove" and, as all the other thousand times I watched it, I loved it. I've always thought (as many other people) that a great children movie is a movie for everybody, and this is the case. This film has every quality to be considered not just a cartoon, but an excellent comedy.
This is my favorite Disney movie, mainly because it is so atypical for Disney. First of all, there aren't only stereotypical bad guys and good guys, you can see all degrees of good and bad. Also, you can see that people (or llamas :) ) are able to change. Secondly, there's irony, a characteristic not very common to be depicted in a children movie. There's even a very subtle sexual undertone in some scenes (Yzma changing assistants for younger ones; Yzma lifting her skirt), subtle enough not to disturb children but to amuse grown-ups. Thirdly, there are plenty of details and gags! In this sense, it reminds of old classical movies and series, always with a twist. But the most important thing is absurd: I saw this film lots of times and I keep finding out-of-place, out-of-time elements that make the setting unique and funny in itself (that reminded me a lot of "Top secret!"). You can laugh for hours just by noting these little things.
The characters are round and quite complex, as I said before. It is also refreshing to see a movie about friendship, not romantic as many other previous ones. And I love that tough, clumsy, very guy-ish kind of friendship, without many words or gestures of affection. The plot is simple but rich, with a nice message for kids and a good depiction of the process of change.
I'd like to add, for English-speaking readers, that I've watched the movie in Spanish too and it's exactly as enjoyable as the original. The Spanish script and voices were very carefully created, and I always appreciated this feature in those Disney movies I saw in both languages.
Basically, and mainly, it's a happy movie, and that's why I love seeing it so often: because it makes me happy every time.
Cóndor Crux, la leyenda (2000)
Oh my God...
Some things I learned by watching "Cóndor Crux":
1) If you cannot afford to make a good animation movie, don't make it. The drawing is simply ugly, and the contrast with the 3-D images makes it look even worse.
2) Don't try to sell a movie with a great soundtrack that has nothing to do with your plot. I remember a scene that wasn't about love with a very romantic song. What's the point? Just using famous musicians?
3) Don't waste your actor's talent with bad voice directing. I know some of the actors from other movies and I know that they're better than that.
4) The importance of naturalness. The whole movie is ankward because of the lack of natural dialogues.
5) Most of all, a movie has to have a good plot!!! I remember having left the cinema ANGRY!
Cohen vs. Rosi (1998)
Pure absurd
I don't think that many people consider "Cohen vs. Rosi" an excellent movie. Me neither. But I just couldn't stop laughing. It's a very simplistic plot, which is great. The funniest thing about the movie are the details: the dialogues, the gags, pure nonsense. The actors are great (and not every day you have the chance of seeing such a cast!).
It smells of "Esperando la carroza" a bit (from the same writer, better movie - if you haven't seen it, you SHOULD!). It is always great to remember those old grotesque movies.
"Cohen vs. Rosi" is one of the most bizarre contemporary movies from Argentina I've ever seen (besides "Soy tu aventura" - pure absurd again). And even if you don't like it, don't you think that the grandparents' kiss scene is worth the whole movie? :)
My Best Friend's Wedding (1997)
Awful
I hated it. I couldn't even focus on the plot, the characters were nauseating. Roberts' is utterly selfish, her boy friend is quite lame, and his fiancée is such a pushover that I wanted to shout at her every time I watched her. Sorry, but I cannot see the fun in an hour and a half of Julia Roberts tripping with almost any object she had near.
I really hope that Hollywood will stop making movies with such awful stereotypical female characters. There are many movies with this male-driven kind of women who seem incapable of having a mind of their own. It would be great to see comedies with female characters that can be funny and smart at the same time.
Lost in Translation (2003)
Nice, but not great
I've just seen the movie and it was fun but didn't moved me.
The movie is about homesickness and not much more. It is a bit predictable and nothing much happens, but maybe that was the directors intention: to present just a bit of the characters' lives, without a very deep analysis.
The best of all were the actors. More than half of the merit is theirs, especially if they, as I've read, improvised some of the dialogues. I also liked some scenes very much, but a sum of beautiful scenes is not necessarily a beautiful movie.
"Lost in translation" reminded me a lot of Doris Dörrie's "Erleuchtung garantiert" (Enlightenment Guaranteed) in many aspects (first of all, the setting, and the general feeling, too). The problem is that Dörrie's film was made in 2000, and the story is so much better than "Lost in translation". At least for me, this movie arrived too late. If you enjoyed Coppola's one, try the other one, even if you find it too similar, and you'll see it's far more complex and fresh.
My impression, with all due respect, is that Sofia Coppola can afford to make movies because of her last name. I'm not sure that people would be thrilled about her movies if she weren't Francis Ford Coppola's relative. In my opinion, if I think of "Virgin suicides" (movie that, BTW, I hate, it bored me to death; I didn't get it at all), she is making progress: this is a richer movie, with more flavored dialogues and more round characters. But I don't know if that is enough to win awards. But she is young. Maybe, with time, she'll come to make the sort of movies at least I love.
Paradise Road (1997)
Ethics reminder
I caught this movie on cable when it had started maybe half an hour before. I hadn't watched it before because I thought it would be corny. It wasn't that bad, I think, but even if it were hideous, there was one scene that made the movie worthy: the one in which the Japanese commander sings to Close's character.
I read a text by Umberto Eco about ethics, in which he explained that you failed to respect others' rights when you don't see those others as equals, and this scene was the perfect example. It was beautiful and, at the same time, terrible to see that this man, who almost kills her in other circumstances, has the human need to be acknowledged and approved by her. It is beautiful and terrible to see how he can disrespect her human rights and at the same time respect her opinion so much. And you can see it in Close's face: the perplexity of recognizing for a moment her captor as a human being who is capable of terror and beauty. Eco was absolutely right: music is too human a skill; you cannot listen to somebody who sings and still regard him/her as something inferior. And yet the roles cannot change that easily. Hate becomes harder, but is there anyway.
The scene was very powerful for me, because it summarized a war too well: a chaos where everybody is dehumanized and everybody fights to be human again.
Fuckland (2000)
Cheap show off
I watched "Fuckland" a long time ago. I lied if I'd tell that I remember it in detail; what I remember most vividly is the irritation it provoked me and the feeling of a total waste of precious money and time, not only my time and money invested in watching the movie but also the director's.
Supposedly, "Fuckland" is a critic of Argentinians, presenting us (I'm an Argentinian too) as little people who take credit for and even boast about petty, ridiculous victories, and think we're the best thing that God (who is also an Argentinian) created. I'm not going to argue that. It's probably a true statement about a quite big part of the population (the part I despise, by the way). And even if this weren't true, that's not my point. The worst sin "Fuckland" committed was to express such a statement about its own director.
The continuous impression I received was that the director was too busy trying to impress us for sneaking a camera inside the islands to worry about making a good (even a mediocre) movie. Many of the takes made with a hidden camera are pointless. The director chooses to show off with a silly edition of old war takes and his own ones. And there's no plot at all.
Moreover, this movie proudly presents a Dogme certificate before the opening titles, only to disrespect its principles afterwards (for example, by including the director in the credits - another sign of his pride?).
I found the movie offensive, not as an Argentinian, but as a watcher. I felt underestimated. "Fuckland" is simply one of the worst movies I've ever seen.
Charlotte Gray (2001)
What a pity
It's a real pity that a good actress such as Cate Blanchett (and also her co-stars, whom I don't know from before, but rendered very convincing performances) were wasted by a very weak script.
(OK, from now on, this will be a very long spoiler)
I couldn't understand the motivations of the main character. What's the point of risking her life only to write a fake letter to the boys (a letter they don't miss because they never knew it was written) instead of saving her life and doing something more useful or meaningful? I don't get the romance Charlotte/Julien completely either, because there is no progression of love. It seemed to me that it was just an infatuation, result of the war and its cruelty. The movie could very well survived without that over-sweet ending. And please, somebody tell me how she managed to return to England, when she has little experience in war affairs and has abandoned every chance of help she could!
When the movie started, I really thought that I could see a new angle of WWII, but I ended very disappointed. Hope the ones who make movies will think it better before doing another WWII cheesy film.
Nirgendwo in Afrika (2001)
A delightful movie.
I like German movies very much, especially because if you are a bit overdosed with mainstream Hollywood films, even a mediocre German one will be fresh and have a different flavor. Fortunately, almost every German movie I've watched had something to appreciate, and this is of course one of those cases in which you have plenty to enjoy.
I've seen a lot of movies about WWII. Some of them, like "The pianist", were very well made and very well performed but, at least in my opinion, didn't show new images or tell new stories. With all due respect to the victims of the war, it seems to me that many of these movies have a cathartic value; directors made them mainly because of an internal calling, a personal need of homage, grief and even justice. While the director of "Nirgendwo in Afrika" may have felt this need (I really don't know), this film shows new characters, people that had the chance to watch the war from afar and process the changes in their lives (and other's too) in a unique way.
I found the little girl's point of view very interesting. You can see how different cultures melt in her without conflict, always with a clear conscience of who she is and who she is becoming as she grows up. The Kenya native characters are also wonderful, with their unique vision of their world and their wisdom.
A delightful movie with lovable characters and a great story to tell.