A review of "Norwegian Wood" — 1 year agoQuite fair film, yet uneven. Sadness and loss are the most interesting bits in this film to me, who has never read Murakami; the tempo is too changing and the general feel of the film is uneven. I love the clothes, and the soundtrack is really interesting – go Johnny Greenwood. Still, some moody frames from the film stick with me in a good way.
Elegantly and intelligently edited, directed and acted film where Binoche plays a grown-up woman with intense personal problems who interviews young women who prostitute themselves, all for a magazine article. Some of the classical music was very in-your-face but the scene where The Knife’s “Pass It On” was played, I liked. All in all it paints a portrait on some complexities of life that I haven’t seen before.
A review of "Maid In Manhattan" — 1 year agoWell, I chose to see it. The kind of film that’s made without intelligence, luring people in to think it’s a no-thinker. No, it’s a no-brainer, and nobody should watch this. There are aeons of cutesy rom-coms with more mind to it’s own than a pap smear out there, so hence, please avoid this Jenny From The Block crap.
A lot more similar to Lady Gaga this time around, and less piano-based. Still, some songs are really melodic.
A review of "Hunger" — 1 year agoA film of the times surrounding and of the harsh conditions for some IRA prisoners in 1981, where they hunger-strike. Vulgar brutality, filth and conviction permeates the film and there are a lot of strong scenes. I got a sense that politics also seeped through everything, and of course, these were political prisoners, even though Thatcher wouldn’t recognise that; this is a great juxtaposition to “The Iron Lady”.
A review of "Haywire" — 1 year agoA non-plussed version of the Bourne-films, but with better fight-scenes. Gina Carano can’t really act, and it’s a shame to strew good actors – Fassbender, McGregor – around without using them better. Suspense? Nah.
A review of "If A Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front" — 1 year agoInteresting documentary on people who illegally try to change the course of eco-politics (i.e. terrorists), first through democratically and legally OK protesting, but when the law works intrinsically in cahoots with the corporations, what then? Fires. In total, over 1200 attributed to the ELF (Earth Liberation Front). This is a good documentary focusing on some of the ones who were caught by the authorities in the USA.
The heirs of Silver Sun — 1 year agoPerfect power pop: the song “Waiting For Something”.
The album is radiant. Clear melodies, hard riffs, sweet singing, almost deadpan at times – it’s too good.
Nice analogue melodies — 1 year agoVery warm feel to this complex album! A lot better than anything he’s done prior, methinks.
A review of "Blunderbuss" — 1 year agoSheer melodic rock, where I feel he just loves playing guitar and making tracks that work on their own and don’t need anything special to be played.
A review of "Carnage" — 1 year agoStrong cast and script in this theatre-to-film, where two couples start by sorting out a fight between their kids. What starts out as a simple thing turns complex and funny. Cast is tight and good, but I freaked at Foster’s over-the-top character. The mobile phone scene was my fave.
A review of "Linas kvällsbok" — 1 year agoTypical Swedish everything-often-stated-more-than-bleeding-obvious film directed at teenagers, it does have a few funny/cringeworthy/embarrassing/truthworthy rings to it that makes this a fair film to be hungover and watch.
A review of "Sleeping Beauty" — 1 year agoMuch like “Dogtooth”, this film has it all by not trying to be anything. In the same vein as Antonioni’s “L’Avventura”, there’s really no plot, no Explanation but instead life. It’s a modern film that doesn’t treat the viewer like an idiot. That said, it’s eloquently, quietly presented with subjects that make it stand out and at times made me cringe a little. Like Max Dax once wrote: no beauty without danger.
A review of "Radlands" — 1 year agoBack into the game, Jets! Melodic and funny. And very into Texas and Austin.
A review of "George Harrison: Living In The Material World" — 1 year agoBeautifully and tenderly presented, this two-part documentary on George Harrison’s life shows his music, his spirit, love and friendship that seems to have affected most in his path. Delving beyond his superstardom into growing as a human being, laughing in the face of “being an adult”, this is a very inspirational film to me.
I really hope the album is better than this first single. Please.
Absolute. Bliss.
A film with a cult-tinge that tricks the viewer into feeling that the film was made without any notion of strain or effort while treating you to intelligent conversation: finally! Miraculously directed, written, photographed and acted, I think the film points the finger at the individual, the cult and the non-cult family all the same. More, please.
A review of "The Iron Lady" — 1 year agoSomebody once wrote “If I want to see a decent Thatcher biopic, I’ll see ‘Cloverfield’.” Jokes aside, this film blunders and should have been edited. Yes, Streep’s performance is very good, but the script and direction treats the viewer as a fool unable to think, and every metaphor is extremely over-simplified. Not interesting, and actually not very delving or critical.
A review of "The Baader Meinhof Complex" — 1 year agoThe German avant-garde group Einstürzende Neubauten’s name means “collapsing new buildings” in English; it points to a couple of relevant things as far as the RAF is concerned:
1. They were young, they collapsed.
2. The name can refer to the state of Germany – and/or its youths – to youths growing up just after the Second World War.
The RAF – also referred to as the Baader-Meinhof group – seems to me a desperate yet affectionate bunch of terrorists. They had strong political beliefs, wanted to topple the imperialist establishment with their theological basis lifted from hard-core leftist/anarchist believers who thought theory was of little use; “the gun speaks” is one of their axioms.
In short, a very charismatic leader – Andreas Baader – met Gudrun Ensslin – a preacher’s daughter – and gelled together politically and as lovers. They adopted the feel of the changing times and extreme frustration over the fact that a lot of people talked but did nothing. They started fires in German department stores and conspired further.
I think the very moment they recruited Ulrike Meinhof, at the time a respected and well-known political reporter and documentary film-maker, as she helped to spring Baader from custody and in the process killing a security guard, is the breaking-point where all was let loose for the RAF. Everything must go. The gun spake.
From there, they went underground. And they went abroad, making sure that Baader-Ensslin could rule the band and that very little that was critique against them could escape unhurt – and that went both for people on the inside and the outside.
The RAF assassinated, kidnapped, robbed and created propaganda and terror all throughout their maintenance; against popular belief, the group existed even after the suicides/murders in the Stannheim prison in 1978, when the founding members and additional members were found dead – except for one survivor.
The author does a splendid job at remaining fairly objective while binding facts to the RAF’s belief-system, thus creating a bird’s-eye view of the entire matter. The book is mostly chronologically written, but starts off with the Stannheim deaths in a very strong way.
Did the German government wire-tap the prisoners’ cells during the night of their deaths? Did they in fact allow the guns that killed some of the prisoners to be imported? Did they know of a suicide pact and totally failed to prevent it? Were the prisoners in fact murdered or did they commit suicide? We’ll probably never know.
Aust has also been involved with the screenwriting for the film with the same name as this book, which I think is very good too. The book, however, delves a lot deeper and especially exposes Baader as a more two-faced and hypocritical person than I think the film did.
The RAF did do something, which was their forté; the fact that they killed people at all is despicable, but didn’t the government do the same in the process?
All in all, this is a thoroughly interesting book which could be considered great company with Olivier Assayas’ great three-piece documentary on Carlos Sanchez, titelled “Carlos”.
A review of "I Love You It's Cool" — 1 year agoTheir best yet, I’ll say. Experimental, electronic, reverb-y, groovy and psychedelic. Reminded me of Roky Erickson and The Octopus Project.
A review of "Wonky" — 1 year agoDespite some weird things – e.g. some singers, lyrics, jungle beats that sound more than dated and a non-fitting excursion into dubstep – this is still proof that Orbital is one of the very few groups who can claim Kraftwerk’s throne. Clinically precise electronic music capable of sending the listener into spasms of joy.
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