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murakisadao
Reviews
Ahí está el detalle (1940)
The first and maybe the best
Mario Moreno created his trademark character in the thirties. However Cantinflas appeared as a leading role for the first time in 1940 with "Ahi está el Detalle". Near 3/4 Century later, "Ahi está el Detalle" stands proudly as the most representative Cantinflas movie. Yes, most of the ingenious monologues are very difficult to translate, because they are tricky word combinations (for example: try to translate a David Letterman's joke to another language, or more extremely, to another region inside the US, it's absolutely New Yorker!!!!!). However, "Ahí está el Detalle" is a true monument of Comedy, and Cantinflas proudly stands beside Charlot in the Olympus of the great humorists.
Dirty Mary Crazy Larry (1974)
One of the best endings ever made for a racing action movie
More than 25 years passed since the last time I saw this movie. Maybe Bullit and his black car jumping in San Francisco, or Nicholas Cage's turbulent relationship with "Eleanor" in Gone in 60 seconds, or the whole Fast and Furious saga has more dynamic car action scenes. However, I still remember a quarter-of-century later frame-by-frame the last scene, when the County's Sheriff, after the destruction of every vehicle of his Police Department, decided to guide the fugitives to crash with a train. The image of the yellow car crashing and burning is one of the true classical scenes in the history of racing action movies.
The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
TDKR: a logical consequence of TDK
I read both good and bad reviews of TDKR. Personally I'm with the good guys. Also I consider unfair the comparison between TDK with TDKR. I think the last is the logical consequence of the previous. BB TDK and TDKR becomes a solid trilogy, connected with much care. I remember that TDK was a kind of never-ending spiral of unfortunate events, and one can easily feel that it's impossible to become the things worse than this. TDKR shown to me how wrong I was, during the first 2/3 of the movie, almost 120 consecutive minutes of increasing depress and darkness (one can easily remember another masterpiece, in spite of it's different genre: Polansky's The Pianist, and the low-motion-destruction of the way of life of the polish Jews.). Yes, there's one disturbing gap in the movie: the unrealistic last breath of Miranda Tate (unusual in a great actress like Marion Cotillard), but it's not enough to condemn this masterpiece as I read in many reviews. The great message of Nolan's trilogy is: Batman was not alone. Bruce Wayne never could become Batman without the support of Gordon, Fox and Alfred. It's a beautiful statement of friendship and loyalty. Congratulations Christopher. Making another Batman move became a very difficult challenge for the next generations of directors.
Black Swan (2010)
Never cheat on a person with fragile mind, you can destroy her (him)
"Never cheat on a person with fragile mind, you can destroy her (him)" That's my personal conclusion about this masterpiece. Natalie Portman shows to us with true mastership the slow and deep fragmentation and distortion of the personality of the main character. This performance about the obsession in the pursuit of a goal (in this case, the perfect incarnation of a role), is actually her best (we still remember the little girl of Leon the Professional, and other memorable roles in Closer and V for Vendetta). Mila Kunis and her inquiring eyes shows perfectly a strong, secure mind, in opposite of Nina's crystal-like one. She is both seductive and intimidating. Barbara Hershey fits perfectly in her role as the obsessed mother. (She does right, like the real life, not evident at first). Winona Rider is also great in her brief appearances, always in key points of the history. "Never confuse homosexuality with ego" Perhaps is my second conclusion about Black Swan. The so-called sexual scene is absolutely necessary to show the point. Without it, the statement may lose deepness severely. Vincent Cassel also convinced to me with his interpretation of the Balanchine-like choreographer. Darren Aronofsky deserves also the credit of showing everything from the point of view of the distorted mind of the main character, specially using the camera "back of the head of the subject". Specially remarkable is the scene with Nina breathing excited after her outrageous performance of the Black Swan, taking a long time to get rid of the character. It's literally (deliberately exaggerated) what happens in the reality when someone puts the whole of his(her) body and heart to do the best. It's like the after-race walking of a marathon-racer. I read dozens of reviews of this motion picture. I wanted to be as informed as possible before watching it for the first time. And what I saw surpasses everything I expected. It's a masterpiece that shows to us the real meaning of film making. 10/10 score is short to qualify this movie, as the Oscar is not enough to celebrate Portman's performance. Go and see it. You will not be disappointed.