Ordinary people who end up in extraordinary situations can produce fascinating results in films. And if a film does this well, you as a viewer can imagine that it could happen to you and it will make a film memorable. That’s something like A Simple Plan proved for example. Such a scenario also happens in The Fall of the American Empire, but is this also a good film? Continue reading
The amount of data that we create as humanity is enormous. To put that in perspective: the amount of data we have created over the past two years is more than all the data that we have made in the entire history of humanity. And with such an overload of data, it is becoming increasingly difficult to get attention for a certain topic. When something is in the news, the period in which that subject is forgotten seems to be getting shorter and shorter. When the Pentagon Papers were published in the early 1970s, their impact was great and they kept the public busy for a long time. And although the impact of the Panama Papers in 2015 was there, with a number of senior officials in various countries resigning, it is not easy to conclude that there has been a fundamental change in regulations to make tax havens disappear. Director Steven Soderbergh seems to have the same feeling and tries to draw attention to this subject again with The Laundromat. Continue reading
I think Jesse Eisenberg is an actor who generally has little variation in the type of roles he plays. They are often of uncertain or clumsy types. If you have seen an actor do something a lot, a kind of tiredness can develop. You simply don’t feel like seeing the same thing again. If you look at the trailer of The Art of Self-Defense, that would be enough reason to skip the film. Still, I didn’t and I have to conclude that this is one of my favorite films of the year. Continue reading
The science fiction genre is enormously broad, from futuristic worlds to realistic environments in which only suggestions are made that there is something special. It is that variety that makes it one of my favorite genres, because it can really go anywhere. Ad Astra opts for the realistic approach and is set in the near future. Continue reading
With a broad taste in films, I am open to regularly trying titles from other countries to broaden my knowledge and possibly make new discoveries of something I want more from. Of course there are certain films that are generally seen as classics, capable of having impact on its viewers. Films that have stood the test of time and have not been forgotten. If you make a comparison with art, then they are the paintings and sculputers that everyone knows such as the Mona Lisa (Leonardo Da Vinci), the starry night (Vincent van Gogh) or the creation of Adam (Michelangelo).
Last week, Stalker, by Andrei Tarkovsky, played in the cinema. An acclaimed science fiction arthouse film. It is about a character, who is called the “Stalker”, who guides people through the “Zone”. In this area, which may have been visited by aliens, normal laws of nature no longer apply and one wrong step can mean the end of your life. The goal is to reach a room in that area in which you can make your deepest wishes come true. Obviously a fascinating starting point, but the film itself did not fascinate me enough and was so slow that I fell asleep twice (the show was in the middle of the day). Now there are plenty of other slow films that I have seen, where this was not the case and which I was able to enjoy, but what was the cause here? Continue reading
A confused person. A term that I hear regularly in the news when someone has been violent somewhere. It is an easy-to-process label for a reader/viewer, because you don’t have to think about it. Someone who is confused can do crazy things, so that the act that has been performed has a “simple” explanation, no matter how big the consequences. It does not further incite you to think about how such a person finally got that far. Has he/she had many setbacks in his/her life, too little attention or simply not the right help from family, friends and agencies to ensure that this person was not confused? With knowing that information, you don’t have to understand the action itself or feel sorry for the perpetrator, but it may help you better understand the person and see if changes are needed in certain procedures to ensure that others don’t follow the same path. With Joker, director Todd Philips tries to paint a portrait of a man who will ultimately become Batman’s archenemy. Continue reading
When The Farewell opens with the text “based on an actual lie”, the viewer has no idea what to expect. Does this have to be interpreted comically? Or is that not the intention? It soon becomes clear what is going on. Billi (Akwafina) is calling her grandmother in China. What is immediately noticeable is that they both do not tell each other the truth. The grandmother does not tell her granddaughter that she is in the hospital for an MRI examination of her lungs, Billi tells her that everything is going well with her and meets friends while that is not the case. Lies are a common thread throughout the film. However, the biggest lie is that Billi’s grandmother has lung cancer, but the family decides not to tell her. The whole family travels to China, supposedly for a cousin’s wedding, to visit her one last time. Continue reading
Occasionally there are new developments within film that may have far-reaching consequences for the medium. Consider, for example, the introduction of sound, color and CGI. Still, filmmakers continue to look for new technical improvements to push the experience even further. As a film viewer, I am always curious whether something could possibly mean a next step. James Cameron previously announced that the following Avatar films would use a higher frame rate. Current films are shown in 24 images per second (24fps) and many consider this the look of film.
That speed dates back to the time that a cameraman had to crank the film through the camera by hand and that was a speed that was manageable. The result is a moving image that is actually jerky and does not feel like what your eyes see in real life. A higher frame rate approximates reality more, but what is the impact of this on the film experience? Cinema visitors could experience that a few years ago with The Hobbit trilogy. The films were shown in 48fps and it divided viewers. Some thought it felt like you were watching a soap opera, where costumes didn’t really look real. Others (including myself) saw the benefits. You are able to follow action much better because it is fluid.
Director Ang Lee previously made Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk and shot it in 3D and 120fps. That film was not shown in the cinema over where I am. His latest film Gemini Man is however, if you do proper research to see it close to the way Ang Lee intended. Although the IMAX cinemas show the film in a higher frame rate, they are only limited in 60fps. If you want to see it in 120fps, the Dolby Cinema rooms are the only option (they show it in 2K instead of 4K though). Yesterday morning I visited the film in a Dolby Cinema to experience this new format with my own eyes. Continue reading
My purchasing behavior has changed enormously in recent years. I used to go to the shops for games or household appliances, for example, nowadays I order it online and get it delivered to my home the next day. Very handy of course, but a change that ultimately has had a huge impact on the brick and mortar stores. That convenience appeals though and the result is that many well-known retail chains disappeared.
The number of packages that must be delivered daily is therefore huge and with all the attention for the environment it is easy to imagine that this has also been a negative development since more miles/kilometers are likely to have to be made per product. But I never realized what that means for the parcel deliverers. Of course it has created extra jobs, but what does the life of a delivery person look like? These men and women have to deliver 150 to 200 packages in just 8.5 hours. Director Ken Loach shows what impact that might have in his new film, Sorry We Missed You. Continue reading
When Morgan Spurlock made his documentary Super Size Me in 2004, he wanted to show how unhealthy eating at McDonald’s was. He only ate at McDonald’s for a month, always had to answer affirmatively when asked if he wanted to “supersize” and showed what these meals did to his physical and mental health. With his entertaining way of presenting, he was able to make a film that had an impact (and for which he also received an Oscar nomination), as a result of which certain chains seemed to add healthier options to their range. With this sequel, Spurlock wants to investigate whether fast food chains have really become healthier. He does this by opening a fast food restaurant himself. Continue reading