THE UNSTABLE OBJECT II ★★
◆ Directed by: Daniel Eisenberg
◆ Genre: Documentary [Germany/France] ◆ Performances: Marseille Festival.
This film won the Grand Prize in the International Competition section of the Marseille Film Festival last week. There must be someone who does not mind a 203-minute film that does not contain a topic that deals with its viewers, but only with the director's choices of issues that he pursues with stubbornness and interest.
This is the second part of the trilogy. The first film was produced in 2011 in which the director follows the situation of the relationship between man and machine.
Here he depicts French, German and Turkish factories with different products (prosthetic hands from Germany, gloves from France, jeans from Turkey). He lets the camera occupy the same shot for long minutes, and even when he cuts short the seconds look like minutes.
There is no art of presenting, showing, or inspiring issues of any kind, but rather keeping up as if we were in a video lesson on how to make a glove or pants.
Final judgement: For amateurs who are into this genre.
A FAR SHORE
◆ Directed by: Masaaki Kudo
◆ Genre: Social Drama [Japan] ◆ Shows: Karlovy Vary Festival.
In his third film, young director Kudu shows the story of a young wife who works in bars as a hostess for customers. Her life, since the beginning of the film, is miserable and misery hides behind a smile, laughter and good behavior.
But as soon as she returns to her home, we confront with her various facts stemming from an irresponsible husband who is addicted to drinking and who spends his wife's money on himself, and if she does not give him the money, he beats her.
The situation declines after a quarter of an hour and continues to decline, and the semi-happy ending does not save the sadness that concludes the film and its story. The director worked with several filmmakers as an assistant but here he has drawn on his previous two films, his own style that still needs some improvement.
◆ Final judgement: For those looking for films that show women's problems on the screen.
NOPE ★★★★
◆ Directed by: Jordan Peele
◆ Genre: Sci-Fi / Thriller ◆ International Shows.
Directed by Daniel Kaluuya, this film suggests that Earth is still vulnerable to mysterious visitors from space. The actor plays the owner of a horse ranch in parts of California that he runs with his sister. One day, they discover a non-human being and don't know how to act on it. Is he peaceful or hostile? He has a desire to communicate or just carry out the tasks assigned to him.
Why did he arrive, how and what will happen next? The film is progressing well at an exciting pace that could have had better results if the text did not contain many issues and many narrative elements with different directions. Jordan Peele isalso the director of Get Out (also starring as Kaluya).
◆ Final judgement: The best movies of the week.
OUTLAW KING ★★★★
◆ Directed by: David Mackenzie
◆ Genre: Historical Drama [US] ◆ Shows: Netflix.
We turn here to the fourteenth century. A few Scottish warriors, led by Chris Pine, face the legions of the English army in a battle that is steadily prepared. The beginning of the film is a foundation for events taken from reality.
After that is a solid drama of characters and encounters with scenes that Barry Ackroyd better portrayed across Scotland. Sometimes the film tends to get overly violent, and in some cases, it falters in its narrative, but it is based on the style of classic films with confidence.
◆ Final judgement: for history and adventure movie buffs
GONE IN THE NIGHT ★★
◆ Directed by: Eli Horowitz
◆ Genre: Teaser [US] ◆ Global Shows
Winona Ryder (recently less in movies) is here, with her boyfriend, for a vacation at a rented house in a remote area. They are surprised that there is a man and a woman living in it. The husband allows them to spend the night before they return to the city.
The next morning, the film's heroine wakes up alone in her bed. Her boyfriend has disappeared and now she has to look for him. The film is halfway between the effective suspense established by this introduction and the narrative missteps that follow the first twenty minutes of the film.
◆ Final judgement: For genre enthusiasts.
COLLECTIVE MEASURES ★★★
◆ Directed by: Sean Patrick O'Reilly
◆ Genre: Prison Drama / Action [USA] ◆ Gulf Shows.
Another movie starring Bruce Lee just before his retirement, but it is the best of the half dozen films he starred in months before his retirement.
A prison drama of the type that sets the conditions for a massive explosion between the jailers and the inmates, with problems falling within each team.
The director writes a good plot and executes it with some of the best genre in mind. The events take place in one of America's largest and most impregnable prisons, but the director gives the events a critical and in-place reading, which makes the entertainment double.
◆ Final judgement: typical in its genre.
★ weak or normal | ★★: Medium with advantages| ★★★: good | ★★★★: Excellent | ★★★★★: A masterpiece
