Each year a new Woody Allen movie is released and every year movielovers wonder whether this one will be worth watching as they aren’t always of the same quality. For each Midnight in Paris there is a To Rome with Love. That last movie had Jesse Eisenberg and in this movie it’s him playing the starring role. He’s Bobby, a young man without much experience who has moved from New York to Los Angeles in order to find a job. Continue reading
With Road Trip, Old School, Due Date, Starsky & Hutch and the Hangover movies director Todd Philips has gained a lot of expertise when it comes to comedies, specifically those full of crude humour. So you’d probably expect the same thing when it comes to his latest movie, War Dogs. Seeing Jonah Hill on the poster only seems to confirm so. But War Dogs is a movie which is based on a true story, so you’d think there would be no room for the tone of Philips typcial type of humour. Does he manage to tell this stroy in a convincing way? Continue reading
My journey of discovery of Dutch movies continues with Publieke Werken. A movie which didn’t really appeal to me. Even an interview I watched with the actors also didn’t manage to convince me. So not a film I would be buying in the shop, but when it appeared on Netflix over here I was willing to give it a chance. Especially because this is a Dutch movie which doesn’t seem to target women in the form of a romantic comedy, but tells a piece of Dutch history. Continue reading
How far along are you with your Blindspot movies of this year? Although this movie wasn’t part of my selection (and I have to confess I still have to watch more of my Blindspot films than I should) it does have a link with them. This movie has been directed by Aleksandr Sokurov, who also was responsible for Russian Ark. Which was 99-minute one shot film which used 2000 extras. Impressive to hear, but the film itself wasn’t for me. In my own words: “has no plot and no character development. The actors never felt convincing and as there isn’t any focus storywise the camera just roams around.”. It’s always possible that one movie from a specific director isn’t your cup of tea, so Francofonia was the second chance. Would it be the final one? Lees verder
History is a rich vault of forgotten stories which often are well worth telling. That’s also the case for Monsieur Chocolat (Omar Sy), who was the first successful black circus artist who made a name for himself at the end of the 19th century, but also had to struggle with preconceptions people had. Continue reading
During the first few shots after starting this movie I already got a sense that I was about to watch something special. The high contrast black/white imagery of the Amazonian jungle makes it look different. Not the humid, pressuring green which normally stands out, but a neutral environment the main character moves through. An area of the world which hasn’t been colored in yet, still has lots of things hidden, waiting to be discovered. It is 1900 and the German explorer Theo (Jan Bijvoet) is crossing the jungle together with his guide Manduca. He has fallen ill and only shaman Karamakate is the single person who can save him. Karamakate doesn’t trust Theo though as he is the shaman is the last of his people. The rest was murdered by white discoverers like Theo. Nevertheless, a fragile bond forms between them and they travel down the river, trying to find a rare plant. Continue reading
In all aspects of life compatibility is very important. In you personal relationships you search for people who complement you and with whom you can get along, when it comes to technology you want your laptop or phone to work with accessories you get for it. But it’s also something which is present when it comes to movies. It’s the reason why one person is praising Batman v Superman or Suicide Squad and someone else absolutely hates it. For me I had compatibility issues with this film, which generally was praised in review and which won Hou Hsiao-hsien the price for best director at the 68th Cannes film festival. After struggling through this movie though it’s really hard for me to understand why. Continue reading
When I first heard about The Get Down earlier this year I was really looking forward to it. The first images looked good and also the description of the show sounded interesting:
“The Get Down” is a mythic saga of how New York at the brink of bankruptcy gave birth to a new art form. Set in New York in 1977, this music-driven drama series chronicles the rise of hip-hop and the last days of disco -_ told through the lives, music, art and dance of the South Bronx kids who would change the world forever.
As a fan of hip hop this was a setting that immediately was something I wanted to know more about. Through the years I’ve learned a lot about the music, how it developed and seeing that in the form of a show on Netflix seemed awesome. The show has been written and produced by Baz Luhrmann, who has done things like Romeo+Juliet, Moulin Rouge and The Great Gatsby in the past. Someone who is very capable to show music in an exciting way which is visually pleasing. Besides that, New York in the seventies is a fascinating setting. Gangs were still very active (the documentary Rubble Kings is a good one to learn more about that). There was a lot of crime and buildings were set ablaze in order to collect insurance money. With a budget of 10 million per episode my expectations were high when I started watching this six part first season. Continue reading
Although our bodies eventually will give up on us, we are only truly gone from this earth if no one remembers us anymore. The number of soldiers who died during the second world war is huge. You only have to look at all the crosses on the American military cemetery Margraten in the Netherlands to get an idea as 8301 men and women have been buried there. Although the crosses do have names on them, most of these people have been forgotten, simply because they don’t have any family left. This also was the case for Private First Class James E. Wickline.
That all changed because of Maarten Vossen, who, after seeing Saving Private Ryan, became interested in the second world war and decided to adopt a grave. At age 13 he was assigned Wickline’s. It would be the start of a long search of the story behind the name and the grave. In Ageless Friends he is followed during his final steps in this journey. Continue reading
Sometimes it can be very interesting to fantasize about how some movies would have turned out if other decisions had been made. What if specific actors would have said yes to roles which are now considered iconic? Would that movie still have been a success? You could do the same for big historical events. the Final Countdown does so in a very original way. Continue reading