When a new Star Wars movie is released, this of course means a lot of hype (and marketing). It meant that the last few months it was next to impossible to stay aways from news about the film (something which I did manage, mostly). A new part in this beloved series also means impossible expectations from the fans. Does director J.J.Abrams succeed to meet them with this seventh movie in the Star Wars saga…or is this the new Phantom Menace? Continue reading
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The Look of Silence (2014) – Review
Everyone sometimes does something which might not be a good thing to do. Despite that knowledge we still decide to go on with our lives because we think of reasons to justify our actions. If someone confronts us on it, we are able to explain why we have done something and often not feel any guilt about it, simply because we tell ourselves that something was allowed.
With his controversial documentary The Act of Killing, Joshua Oppenheimer told us which gruesome events took place in Indonesia in the sixties. More than a million people were murdered because they were said to be communists and Oppenheimer pointed his camera at the men responsible. They openly told stories about what they did and even re-enacted them in a variety of film styles, which made it even more surreal.
In that documentary, the focus was primarily on the perpetrators. Survivors and relatives showed up only briefly. With The Look of Silence the focus is on one family where the eldest brother, Ramli, lost his life in a terrible way Continue reading
Inside Out (2015)
If you look at Pixar’s history, the animation studio has released some amazing movies including Toy Story, Monsters Inc., Finding Nemo, Up, Ratatouille and WALL-E. People were always excited about new Pixar movies, because they weren’t only very original and moving stories but also because the animation was more beautiful with each movie. They have released some movies which weren’t as big a success critically as they might have hoped (the Cars movies immediately come to mind) and last year they didn’t even release a movie, something they did every year since 2006. Pixar now returns with Inside Out. Are they back on top or does the film disappoint? Continue reading
Kung Fury (2015)
Kung Fury is a title I have been looking forward to for a while. It has been written, directed and stars Swedish David Sandberg. His idea was to create a tribute to the action and police movies of the eighties. With a couple of friends he created a trailer for his film and started Kickstarter to make it a reality. The goal was to get 200.000 dollars, which it managed to reach easily. In the end he had 630.000 dollars to start the prodcution: A 30 minute movie which would be available online for free. After being shown at the Cannes film festival to amazing reviews it has now been released online for everyone to enjoy. Within a couple of hours the movie has already passed the one million views and I expect it will become a lot more as the end result really is stunning. Continue reading
Black Mirror – Season 1: National Anthem
During the last couple of years I haven’t watched too many television show and therefore I missed many great shows. This was also the case for Black Mirror. Many people I know told me I should be checking it out, especially because I’ve always had a lot of interest in technology. It made me curious and decided to give it a watch, especially since a season only consists of three episodes. Now I normally don’t like including spoilers in my reviews, but as this is a series I’m going to break that rule. I’m also going to review each episode separately. If the first episode is any indication of the quality of the rest of the season, I’m in for something amazing. If you have not seen this show yet you can stop reading now and check out the first episode, I’m sure you won’t be disappointed. It simply is phenomenal. Continue reading
Her (2013)
Technology is developing at an exponential rate. The machines which once were considered supercomputers and occupied whole rooms now fit in the palm of your hand. That exponential growth does not seem to stop anytime soon and many futurists already try to look ahead and predict where it will lead us. Ray Kurzweil is one of them, who predicts that there will be a moment where our minds simply will not be able to keep up with artificial intelligence, which will end up changing society. He even thinks there will be a moment where we no longer will need our physical bodies anymore and we can just upload ourselves to a computer, basically granting us eternal life and opening up new experiences. It is a subject I have always been interested in, seeing where technology will take mankind. Her is one vision of a future which to me does not sound that far-fetched. Continue reading
Gravity (2013)
There are some movies which deserve the term ‘experience’. They manage to completely transport you to another world or place and really make you forget about the world around you. Gaspar Noé’s Enter the Void was the last movie I used that term, but Gravity is also a movie which deserves that title ‘experience’. It’s one of those landmark movies which only appears once every few years. Continue reading
Obstruction 4: Mr. Nobody (2009)
For my entry for Obstruction 4 in the 5 Obstructions blogathon I decided to rewatch and review (and analyze) a movie which is in my all time favorite top 3 (the other two are Pulp Fiction and Black Swan). There are many reasons I love this movie, but I’ll get to that later. The obstruction itself I though was quite challenging and it did make me look at the movie in more detail, something which I did not mind at all.
Mr. Nobody was the feature length movie Belgian director Jaco van Dormael made since 1996. According to Wikipedia he had been trying to film the movie since 2001. When he finally managed to get financing it turned out that he would be making the most expensive Belgian movie ever made with an estimated budget of €33 million (US$47 million).
When writing the film van Dormael was influenced by movies like Run Lola Run and Sliding Doors. He wanted it to be more complicated than those movies and look at life as a whole and in his words “the abyss of infinite possiblities” that offers and that is exactly was he has managed to do with this movie. It is a movie which unfortunately is not widely known and one I always recommend to people first when they ask me about a movie they should check out. Continue reading
The Act of Killing (2012)
In general I do not seek out movies which have shocking footage in them. I do not enjoy watching such footage even if it’s just make belief. So you will not make me happy with movies like Saw or similar ones. With a title like The Act of Killing you have an idea about what to expect. I decided to watch this since this isn’t fiction, it is a documentary about people who killed communists in Indonesia during the sixties. Within a year more than a million people lost their lives because of it. It was something I had not heard about and I thought it would be important to learn more. What makes this documentary unique though is that the executioners themselves talk about their acts openly. Continue reading
Lost in Translation (2003)
At the beginning of the year one of my goals would be to rewatch more movies than I did last year. In general I tend to prefer watching movies I have not seen yet, but revisiting movies which you have seen is like meeting an old friend you have not spoken to in a long while. You might wonder if you still enjoy their presence as much as before and I had that feeling with Lost in Translation. Continue reading