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Reviews
Night Sky (2022)
Amazing, fresh, cosy Sci Fi that should have all the seasons it needed
Night Sky has tiny writing flaws, just like any other series these days, but overall it's a masterpiece of sci fi.
Spacek and Simmons produce the most engaging and likable couple of all time - we develope such a tenderness for the fate of those two, as if they were our own grandparents.
The side plots are all good - they deliver little narrative advance but manage to keep us interested. The combination of the two main plots in the end of season 1 makes an unbelievable arc of tension and it's a TRAGEDY that we'll never know more about any of it.
That Night Sky is discontinued while so much crap is produced everyday is just another sign of the intelectual decadence we face in these times.
But we'll keep the memories of that cosy neighbourhood, the portal, the alien landscape and all the amazing characters. Night Sky is unbelievable, like the crazy tales of a storytelling grandfather, but it's the kind a story we'll cerish forever.
Silo: Holston's Pick (2023)
Well picked
In this episode the show really takes off. The screen is once again the heart of the show and i just hope that the script writers are fully aware of this and proceed with this in mind.
Rebecca Ferguson is an absolute magnet - what an actress. She immediatly makes you feel empathic and interested about her fate. And the other characters start to come out aswell.
Mysteries continue to mount and very few things are revealed but all in the right dose. I'm hooked.
Once again, the only issue is with the cleanliness of everything. Not even the bottom levels are dirty and messy. With or without totalitarian powers in command, human beings are messy.
Judicial is looking like an incredibly menacing force.
Silo: Freedom Day (2023)
The screen is where the magic is at
The main premise might seem a dull rehash of previously explored sci-fi dystopia concepts. But the show surely delivers some powerful - very subtle - details that you'll have to watch for yourself.
The runplay is just enough to deliver the necessary ingredients for the narrative to unfold.
Well acted, perfectly scored and it hooked me instantly. The screen is where all the power of this series lies - let's hope they explore it with care.
Just one problem - the settings are too clean and the city looks a bit souless. Nothing seems broken or out of place. Have you ever been inside a 50 year old car or house? 140 years in a silo would make things a bit messier. But well, nothing that can't be fixed as the show runs along.
Overall, bravo. Will keep on watching - eagerly.
The Mandalorian: Chapter 16: The Rescue (2020)
Best Star Wars moment since the The Empire Strikes Back
With this episode The Mandalorian has set a solid foot in the history of Star Wars. This is the best i've seen since The Empire Strikes Back - i jumped out of my seat, i laughed, i felt like a kid again and i cried like a baby.
Grogu and Mando are two of the most powerful characters in the Star Wars universe. The sidekicks, Gideon, everybody has a real feeling and personality. The dark droids were scary af, the fighting scenes were also on the spot.
Ok, i had a hard time dealing with CGI Luke - why tf didn't Disney amp the budget for this?? They could have done much better with the MAIN character in the whole franchise universe. But the way you feel the Force of a jedi just munching up an army of deadly droids is just priceless. I started crying as soon as i spotted R2D2 on the X-Wing.
This was EPIC! Thank you so much to all the people who delivered such a well thought out, filled with love and dedication, piece of storytelling. This lit in me the same magic that i felt when, as an 8 year old, i saw my first lightsaber.
Whoever, as me, dropped Star Wars after The Last Jedi, get back aboard with The Mandalorian and Andor. For real.
Disney, stop playing around and give Favreau and Gilroy absolute creative freedom - FOREVER.
The Mandalorian: Chapter 14: The Tragedy (2020)
Only one issue
I stopped watching the main Star Wars plot midway through "The Last Jedi" because the writing, the acting, everything was getting so, so, bad.
Suddenly "Andor" came along and ressuscitated my faith in the franchise - it was a masterpiece. And "Andor" sent me to "The Mandalorian".
This series just keeps getting better BUT...
...why did you get lazy on the jetpack? Why?
This episode is almost perfect, but how come Mando - the dude that always thinks ahead, that always catches the smallest glimpse of salvation - completely forgot the has some buttons on his wrist that command his jetpack? C'mon, little bad details like this are what's putting fans away from the main franchise.
Still, this is awesome. Star Wars is alive with this, Andor and Rogue One. Amen.
Andor (2022)
Finally, a breath of real Star Wars
Disney, wise up and immediatly promote the Gilroy brothers. Tony's directing is flawless and the best episodes are the ones written by Dan.
This is the best Star Wars material coming out since "Return of the Jedi" - surpassing the second best: "Rogue One".
It's such a pleasure to see content that brings the Star Wars universe back to life. It's superbly written and directed and the cast delivers some of the best acting i've seen in a while. So many mindblowing performances. Skarsgård is a bomb!
So much attention to detail in photography and wardrobe. So many unforgetable images. This is a MASTERPIECE.
The Social Dilemma (2020)
The most important piece of film ever created.
The dramatizations are completely useless. But the content is unbelievably good - some hardcore philosophy by some extremely clever dudes who know their game pretty well. At least 20 very profound ideas that will slap your brain out.
The thing is, social media has such a disruptive and destructive power that this is, easily, the most important thing a human being can watch right now. Not only that, never in the history of mankind has such an important message, with such a tremendous warning, had such a cirurgical timing. This documentary concerns all of mankind.
We are being eaten alive by tech giants, we're radically polarized, turning violent, autistic, devoid of common sense and logic; our real social relations, our lives, are being hijacked by this subtly perverse technology. And the most dangerous part of it all is that calling social media dangerous will seem to any social media user like the most absurd thing. Such a contrast is very, very fishy. SO WATCH THIS NOW! Get your life back.
Touki bouki (1973)
Totally empty
African visual beauty, just a bit of it's culture (it's so avantgarde sometimes it's not even senegalese), and nothing more. No script, no story to tell, nothing.
Ad Astra (2019)
Be right back, i'm just gonna say hi to my dad in Uranus...
Normally, i can't even watch Hollywood blockbusters anymore - but this one was quite enjoyable and had a little bit of uniqueness. I got, a few times, the sense of unbearable immensity that only space can give - and this is a huge compliment.
However, the writing was just not good enough. Pitt was amazing but his character was just too weak. Or, better yet, too strong - straight from the start there is no reason to suspect that this dude that kicks so much ass is going to achieve whatever mission he stumbles upon. In both "Apocalypse Now" and "Heart of Darkness" the main characters have transparent problems and weaknesses right from the start. Also, as Willard/Marlow go up the Mekong/Congo rivers all the circumstances around them start to collapse - civilization and contact become thinner and thinner, giving a bone chilling feeling of solitude and impossibility to fulfill any task or mission.
Ad Astra's wild westish Moon is interesting, but it's Mars is too solid. There is too much order, too much command, things are too polished. The guy is flying to Uranus but we have the feeling he is late to catch the train home after work. And this spoils everything - it turns a quest that we all take as formidable (impossible, right now) into something of routine.
Harvey Keitel could have easily filled the gap, added depth, but they didn't give him the chance.
Gojira (1954)
Unsatisfying, but with the greatest end scene of all time
The movie struggles between unbelievable timeless greateness and vulgar japanese melodrama. "oh, i broke a promise, oh my..."
The ending, however, is one of the most moving pieces of cinema i have ever seen. Gojira waking up in deep sea, as cosy as a cat in its blanket, and then the stuff that follows. Beautiful imagery. I cried like a baby. I love you Gojira - you were nothing but the right hand of justice and the left hand of precious natural balance.
Contact (1997)
World powers build trillion dollar dome for Ayahuasca experimentation.
Interesting movie with some obvious yet painless flaws in the script.
Jodie kicks ass, but there are some casting disasters.
Sometimes the whole thing dives into this american audience clichéd exagerated content and it gets painful to watch (for example, the mass circus near the antennas).
The whole religious faith crap seems surreal, medieval, as if the inquisition's bonfires where still warm, but then we snap out of it and remember that, yes, the world is still in a medieval state of mind. The US are a curious case because medieval religious darkness co-exist with avantgarde liberal thinking.
The ayahuasca trip and the communication gap between consumer and ignorant audience is a constant in life and there is only one solution: try the ******* substance yourself, ********!
Not a bad movie. Not a great one. But it will be a delight in 50 years.
The religious freak is AWESOME!
Game of Thrones: The Long Night (2019)
We must rebel against this kind of stuff
What a waste of talent! So much good writing and acting just gone down the drain. How can anyone look at this episode and decide to run it?
Narayama bushikô (1958)
a sad yet beautiful ballad
The movie is like a sequence of floating woodblock prints. almost every single shot is of astonishing beauty. the music is equally remarkable and when the narrative, the visual beauty and the music combine, it is too much to handle (i cried as if my own mother was going to Narayama).
i was a bit upset by the immorality of it, by the absurdity of it all. i am familiar with japanese culture and understand their unique relationship with death and honor - but this movie pushes everything to a strange painful limit.
the tremendous performance by Kinuyo Tanaka (Orin) makes the climb a very moving experience. the detail of the new wife's affinity towards the kind woman that is about to leave is just brilliant (the novel must be quite good aswell). Orin shows her the secret trout fishing spot and there is this immense pain that strikes us, this notion of the absurd amount of knowledge that lives inside elders, and of all the time that could still be used to learn and bond if it wasn't for the Narayama tradition.
the photography is just magical. the final scenes, after the warm coloured intimacy of the village, seem like the most desolate scenario conceivable - it makes something like Peter Jackson's Mordor, in LOTR, look like a kindergarden. just beautiful from start to finish. this is a the kind of movie that reminds me of what cinema was all about.
Mugen no jûnin (2017)
has some character, but not enough.
The manga was a delight to the eyes but very shallow for the mind. the movie is more of the same.
but to actually make you sit while someone shreds 500 guys to pieces is, in a way, already quite a decent achievement.
The Florida Project (2017)
a sad yet precise account on the emptiness of modern existence
The so-called "first world" is populated with sad, empty, lost creatures.
people give away their energy and their dreams working like slaves in order to buy useless crap and poisonous food and beverages. their bodies grow fat and sick; their minds numb, filled with hatred and fear.
to ignore this, or to deny it, one must be either bad or ignorant.
the cameras point at the rich and "sucessful" and tell a different story. the governments lie and push us to consume and die, and make us feel priviledged to be slaves inside the safe plantation because outside of it there is nothing but savages and deadly beasts. all bull****.
a movie that starts out in America, in Florida, in the periphery of Disneyland, is a perfect contender to highlight the tragedy of the modern world. it is sad, so terribly sad, because the modern world is a sad place. these are the lives we live - we just experience different types of tragedy.
some have more confort, but the price to pay is to work all their lives, becoming a stranger to their own partners and family, and wasting their hours in front of screens, numbed down by prescribed and socially accepted drugs.
some live with more freedom, like the main character of this film, but are pushed aside by society and forced out the margins of human decency.
this movie is a masterpiece that perfectly portrays our tragedy. viewing it could be a sad and demoralising experience, but it is not. all we have to do, to overcome our sadness, is to open our eyes and say no.
.
the ending is pure genius.
Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi (2017)
Sad
How can there be so much disrespect for the millions of people who grew up with the saga and had such strong connection with the characters? what's with the worthless gags? why is the logic of galactic battles completelly shattered? why is every sort of logic and common sense destroyed in such a clumsy way? why does Luke milk a cow and drink its milk? how can such a bad writer/director even make it to the project?
Star Wars is dead for me - i will NOT see episode IX. **** Disney.
Twin Peaks: The Return: Part 18 (2017)
Pure Gold
something as powerful as the 3rd season of Twin Peaks makes our beautiful and perverted human journey worth while. this is shamanism on pay TV. this is a giant pearl for one billion pigs. few are the pigs in the so called 1st world (the 2nd and 3rd world still have wise-men and still pay attention to dreams and are still knee-deep in the miracle of life) that will be able to appreciate the way the pearl shines because their minds are corrupted by the comfort of special effects, cliffhanging techniques, naked bodies and hollow pretty faces.
if you listen to music recorded before the influence of radio really took hold, and before the great icons of music were solidified, you will find strange unique voices that follow no fashion trends, no economic taboos. such voices are harder to listen to because they demand more attention and patience. unlike music, cinema took more time to be corrupted - because images grab us more intensely, and because cinemas created social and cultural bonds that still allowed filmmakers to produce strange personal visions. but the digital "miracle" and the eminent extinction of cinemas (at least of small independent houses) have finally stabbed the 7th art in the gut. author cinema is bleeding to death. and things like this are the last enlightened shout of an doomed creature.
lets watch this kind of unique creative fire with our minds and hearts clean - free from expectations, prejudice and hate - and rejoice, warm up our souls, be thankful, and believe that the fire will never really die.
my most profound gratitude to Mr. Lynch and Mr. Frost, and to all those involved.
Twin Peaks: The Return: Part 8 (2017)
what television could have been like
this is by far the most precious and beautiful moment in TV history. also seriously disturbing and frightening, but what a pleasure to watch.
because cinema moves so much money, it is the most corrupted of arts (it is on the verge of extinction). people like Lynch are slowly disappearing. may this series be a beacon of salvation. lets not allow the dream and the power of imagination to fade away. lets not allow our balls to shrink in front of computer screens, comfort and impatience. starry skies, old dusty taverns, writing notes to strangers, love, pain, bathing in the sea at night and diving into those who open up their heads and hearts to us. the miracle of being alive.
the most profound thank you, mr Lynch.