Category: Films

My list of watched films

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BlacKkKlansman by Spike Lee

Ok, den her var interessant. En afro-amerikansk politibetjent – Ron Stallworth (John David Washington) – ringer på en annonce som Ku Klux Klan har indrykket i avisen, jep, vi er tilbage i 1970’erne. Eftersom det er umuligt for at møde personligt med klanmedlemmerne overtager en hvid kollega rollen som Ron ved de fysiske fremmøder. Den rigtige Ron tager stadig telefonsamtalerne med klanmedlemmerne og kommer i sidste ende til at have et tæt forhold til en af de øverste ledere indenfor KKK. Den kollega der der møder klanmedlemmerne er af jødisk afstamning Flip Zimmerman (Adam Driver).

Filmen er baseret på virkelige hændelser og derfor ikke en 1:1 fortællingen over hvordan det egentlig gik for sig, ville virkelig gerne se en dokumentrisk udgave af den her historie. Synes det er enormt spændende hvordan det lykkedes de to mænd at få foden indenfor som sort og jødisk afstamning, de to “minoriteter” som KKK vel nok hader allermest. Jeg synes ikke filmen kommer ind under huden på mig. Det er en vigtig film, ifølge efterskriftet i filmen, lever KKK stadig i bedste velgående i USA. En “forening” der mener at hudfarve og religion stadig er et problem.

Fordi filmen ikke rigtig kommer i dybden, ville jeg virkelig rigtig gerne se en dokumentar over Ron Stallworth og Flip Zimmermans bedrift. Filmen får dog vist hvilke konsekvenser det har for Rons privat liv eftersom han ved en fejl oplyser sit eget navn første gang han ringer på KKK annoncen.

The film is directed by Spike Lee.

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The bridges of Madison County – 1995

Last night I watched The Bridges of Madison County for the first time. Absolutely beautiful movie! I’m sorry I haven’t seen it before. Meryl Streep is always a magnificent actress and somehow she always portraits her character so I get goose bumps. The film pictures the four days where Meryls character Francesca meets Clint Eastwood in the part of a photographer Robert who have come to Madison County to photograph the beautfull bridges.

The four days they spend together and they fall so deeply in love with each other, and they way that Meryl Streep and Clint Eastwood gets those feelings out on the screen to the viewers is amazing. You feel the passion, you feel the deep love they have, you feel how comfortale they are with each other, you feel the real Francesca when she is with Robert, you can see the future they could have together, you feel her frustration of not wanting to abandone her family, you feel her pain when she sees him for the last time, you feel her desire to live life, you feel the heaviness of his steps when he has to walk away, you feel that he is not ready to see her for the last time.

And when he says “This kind of certainty comes but just once in a lifetime.” it’s just heartbreaking and you want her – with your entire heart and soul – to pick up her bags and go with him. You want her to live the life that she dreams of and always have dreamed of. You want her to be happy, you want her to laugh and smile and be in love.

At the same time it is not difficult to understand the love she has for her family, her children. She is at the most difficult crossroad of her life: stay with her family which she loves eventhough her dreams are suppressed or to go with the man that can give her her dreams.

I think I may have cried a little after the film. Their acting makes the film so believeable and I was left with a feeling of me wanting to meet a photographer named Robert Kincaid.

Thank you Meryl Strrep and Clint Eastwood for a beautiful film!

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Mrs. Doubtfire – 1993

Watching Mrs. Doubtfire for the first time in ages and it is still as beautiful as the very first time I saw it. For every age I have when I’ve seen the film I see it in different ways. That is why this film truly is a family film. Robin Williams – besides being extremely funny –  has an amazing ability to show his love for his children, the lenght that he will go through to be with his children, the love that he still have for his wife. He is showing the undying love that a parent feels for his/her children.

His look when he looses his children i court, he looks as if someone tears out his heart, the pain that shines in his eyes, his voice is a rainy day sometimes with the hope of a ray of light.

I see that I only speak of Robin Williams, but he really is the main character in this film, he carries the film all the way trough with his feelings on the outside. His feelings are hidden in plain sight for everybody to see. Robin Williams is the film, eventhough I’ve always liked Sally Field, in this one…. Robin Williams brings home the award.

 

 

 

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X-Men – Days of future past by Bryan Singer

Before you read any further the might be some spoilers ahead, so stop reading if you haven’t watched the film yet and plan to.

X-Men has always been favourite films of mine, I completely fell in love with the Marvel, Super hero universe when I watched the first X-Men back in 2000 – also directed by Bryan Singer. Super powers, Wolverines blades, Magneto, Xavier etc. The cast is amazing and I enjoy Jennifer Lawrences performance as Mystique, she really manages to show the emotionel conflict that Raven/Mystique has when confronted by Xavier and Magneto, manages to show her determination when she has made a decision.

However this time travel adventure or what else to call it where Wolverine at the end of the film wakes up to a perfect world where Xaviers school is buzzing with students and Xavier knows that Wolverine saved the world from mutant desctruction eventhough he was not supposed to remenber anything from the alternative future.  Maybe it’s just me getting older while the Marvel superhero film aim for a younger audience.

I start to find them rather boring, the kind of film that can be shown in the telly and you can do the dishes, watch the film, fold you laundry and still keep track of the film.

I would really like to say something good about this film, but apart from the great actors the film is not one that goes over in history. Sorry :-/

 

 

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Blade runner 2049 – Denis Villeneuve

Finally I got around to go to the cinema to watch Blade runner 2049, and I don’t have a single valid excuse for not going as soon as it premiered.

I was told that it follows the first Blade runner in style, universe, speed (or lack of it), however I still think the first one is much more depressing and dark than Blade runner 2049.  Most of the rain have been replaced by snow or what looks like it more a ash or dust kind of snow. It still mostly dark, not a whole lot of sunshine, the sun is always hidden behind a thick cloudy sky, but it gives the illusion of a difference between day and night.

On some level I’m still not quite sure what I think of the film, it’s not “noir” enough to leave a heavyness of dark rainy night on my shoulder. The most depressing room is lieutenants Joshis office, it has this terrible cold, cold, white/blue light, that could drive any man crazy. It makes her look even harder and less human than she might be. The film stick to three colours, darkness (night, blackish) the hoorible white/blue light and a very soft yellow light that soothes yours eyes and makes your forehead relax for a moment, before it again tenses and wrinkles emerge by the next scene. After the film I didn’t get that depressing feeling that I go after the first film, maybe because this film has a replicant in the leading role, and the lack of emotions makes it more distant and difficult to really move me. It is easy to see that he “K” is emotionnel capable or at least something disturbs what he thought was true.

Ryan Gosling is doing a pretty good job in this one, I have no idea why it has taken me so many years to see him. I’ve seen his name numerous times, but for some reason he has never really caught my attention. The way he manages to act as a obeying replicant and at the same time almost as he is becoming aware of what human emotions are. That there is something that he learns but still can’t understand. That awareness is visible in his eyes , and that is pretty amazingly done.

I kindda expected Harrison Ford to have a bigger role in the film, so that part disappointed me, because I’m a big fan of his work.

The film seems to be a bit too long eventhough I can’t really pinpoint where it could be edited. There is just something …. long about the film… It is a really beautiful film visually and the story, well it does as most sequals do, focus on family ties.

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Blade runner – Final cut by Ridley Scott

Many years ago I watched Blade runner for the first time and due to Blade runner 2049 I wanted to watch the first one again to catch up (and also just because it’s a great movie 🙂 )  One of the things that struck me when I watched the film again was the sounds. At this moment I cannot recall if there is any music in the film but the sound of rain, the endless dripping of water, it is as if the darkness makes a sound that doesn’t leave you again.

A friend of mine and I decided that we should watch the Blade runner 2049  together, so I told him that watching Blade runner first and lend him my DVD (yes I have it on DVD :D). After a few days I asked what he thought of the film, he answer was: “I’m only half way through, it’s kind of slow, isn’t it?” I was mortified!! I was speechless, I had to consult a colleague with the fact that we had a “none-beliver” amongst us. Well, I chose to forgive him, he is young and grew up with action movies where speed and explotions are more important than a film which actually has a story. Poor guy 🙂

The future universe that Ridley Scott managed to create visually is dark, depressing, constant rain,  a Los Angeles in decay, powerful people. A limited staff makes the film more intense and “noir”. Rachel is beautiful and human like in any way, and I cant help to want to protect her. She seems so fragile. Harrison Ford again does a wonderful job, eventhough his acting style is very recognisable I am a fan. He never disappoints me and I can’t wait to watch Blade runner 2049, I’ve been told that Denis Villeneuve kept the film noir feeling and the slower tempi of the film.

Can’t wait to watch Blade runner 2049.

 

 

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Suspiria (1977)

In the occasion of halloween the theatres showed a special performance of “Suspiria”  a horror film from the late seventies. I was thinking why not and left home to watch this “most terrifying horror of all times” kind of film. You know when you watch a film that old that the special effect and sound is not what you are used to. There is no way and no reason to try and compare with a recent movie, that would just not be fair.

The set is psychedelic and very seventies with wall paper that makes you dizzy, symmetri that I’m not even sure actually exited but supports the mystery of the film. The sound was high pitched and made you wonder what they were smoking writting music in the seventies.

The story is about a young american woman who moves to Germany to attend a prestigious ballet school. At the same time a serie of murders takes place and she finds out that something is not as it should be at the school. Watching it now it’s more fun than scary, but I can imagine how it must have been 40 years ago when it first came out. The mystery, the scary scenes, the up and close cutting and grusomme murders. When watching “old” films you know that the tempi is not as the latest action/thriller film produced the last decade, it’s slow and dialogue is a whole other level. It absolutely not a bad thing and eventhough the film at some points seem ridicolous and merely funny, I never find it slow or tedious. It is a great example of a good horror film from that time.

 

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It (2017)

Just watched It (2017) and it was absolutelz amazing!! Normally I’m not a big a fan of remakes of already brilliant films – at least the ones where I know the first version 🙂 – but this one is a really really good one.

I was spooked several times and it was just as scary as I hoped to be. The children does an amazing job and Bill Skarsgård …. wauw! I’m a huge fan of the performance by Tim Curry and the It miniseries from 1990, however the new Pennywise is just as scary as the first one. It was funny to hear grown men laughing in the darkness of the movie theatre because they got so scared at several scenes in the film.

Just speechless, I guess I have to come back to this one, when I have gathered my thoughts.

Hello, Im back again. The enire film, the set, the cast, the things I remember from the book and the miniseries are all back in this film. Who doesn’t remember the bloody bathroom where Beverlys father comes in a can’t see the blood and places his hands on the sink. The costume made for Pennywise is amazing and fit the character perfectly. Just the way I imagine a clown.

No matter who I have talked about this film with, everyone is truly blown away by the performance of the children in this film. It is definitely a must-see whether you know the mini-series from 1990 or not. And just a small thank you to Stephen King for being a brilliant writer and story teller to have made this story in the first place. Thank you!!

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Mother! – Darren Aronofsky

First let me say that this post will have spoilers, so if you haven’t watched the film yet and plan to, consider yourself warned.

SPOILER ALERT!

I entered the cinema expecting to get scared, like when I watched It (1990) or The others (2001). Expecting to sleep with the lights on for a couple of weeks, expecting to be introduced to new kind of ghosts, a history of violence in a haunted house. But the film didn’t give me those ghosts and haunted house that I expected and left the cinema disappointed. But…

just because I didn’t find the scary ghosts that I thought I would find doesn’t make Mother! a terrible film. On the contrary, the film forces you to think differently about what are the ghosts in this film, what is the director trying to tell you with this film? Is he trying to tell you anything? Does he want you to make your own conclusion based on his pictures? Is the film based on religion? Is he a narcissistic God or a Devil? What is she? A condemned soul?

Fairly soon after the film starts, it’s easy to see that he is the issue in this house and she really is the heart and soul of the house, she is the mother, she is home. She is nesting, feeling the house, restauring the house, taking care of him, doing her outmost to avid to disturb him. He’s a writer and apparently has a writer’s block and she is trying to say to him that it is okay. She seems to be a girl married to a dominant man. It’s a 3 part film, a sandwich, first she is nervous, his writer’s block and the strangers in their house, then the rosery period with her pregnancy where he manages to write again and publish his book, that lastly turns into a things that just spirals the story downwards. This is where you really gets confused,  because normally there are absolutely no outside persons in their life. No grocery shopping, no mail man, no family visits, no phone calls, and suddenly the doorbell…

For a film that is listed as horror, drama, mystery on Imdb.com I kinda expect to get spooked, and for me that didn’t really happen. As soon as it started to build up a scare, nothing happens. However I would like to watch it again. The film has so many different angles to it, so many ways to see it, and this is one of the few and very rare films where you can make your own conclusions on what you see.

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Logan Lucky – Steven Soderbergh

I saw this comedy Logan Lucky directed by Steven Soderbergh the other day. Packed with hollywood stars, Daniel Craig, Adam Driver, Channing Tatum, I was expecting a good comedy. Something better than the ones you watch half asleep on the sofa Sunday evening.

And I wasn’t disappointed, eventhough the story was like most other heist stories, no surprices here, it somehow made it to the finish line afterall.

Adam Driver I only know from Star Wars VII – The Force Awakens,  here he plays the brother who is convinced to take part in the heist during a NASCAR race. The Logan family Jimmy Logan played by Channing Tatum, Clyde Logan played by Adam Driver and sister Mellie Logan played by Riley Keough. The brothers don’t seem as the sharpest tools in the shed but manages to plot the heist including an escape from prison to free Joe Bang played by Daniel Craig, the bomber they need for the heist.

Well back to Adam Driver, he does an amazing job playing Clyde Logan, he is convincing as the slow brother, who has his own bar after returning from the war. All of the characters plays a convincing role, but I was just especially impressed by Adams performance!

The film has the signature of Steven Soderbergh, it resembles his Oceans Eleven. He manages to get his certain kind of humour out of his actors, they seem comfortable in their roles and delivers a absolutely believable performance.

Logan Lucky is funny, well written, well played and well directed. And eventhough Daniel Craig is mostly (for me at least) know for his role as James Bond, you only think James Bond fr the first few seconds before you just see him as Joe Bang.