July 13, 2020 by Nostra - 1 Comment

Hamilton (2020) – Review

Hype for a certain piece of entertainment can be dangerous. There may come a time when your expectations are so high that something can only disappoint. The play Hamilton, which is about one of the “founding fathers” of America, is something I had heard a lot of praise for in several podcasts. The play was always sold out and ticket prices were astronomical. And considering the subject, I had reservations. When the soundtrack was released I may have played it, but didn’t give it my full attention and that was it. I couldn’t imagine that this play was really that special. When Hamilton appeared on Disney+ last week, I had to see it, however, to finally give this piece my full attention and to form an opinion for myself about this historic musical. And I’m glad I did. Continue reading →

April 20, 2020 by Nostra - 0 comments

LA Originals (2020) – Review

The music world has a lot of artists who are famous for their music and personality. Artists who managed to create something special in their genres and thereby left their mark. Think of Beyoncé, Justin Timberlake, Eminem, 50 Cent, Cypress Hill and House of Pain. However, what all these artists have in common is that they all have tattoos from Mister Cartoon. This Los Angeles artist was involved in drawing and graffiti from an early age. He designed T-shirts for the owners of low-riders. It was only years later that he also put his drawings on the skin of others. And since these people were world famous, he quickly made a name for himself. He partly owed that success to Estevan Oriol, a tour manager for Cypress Hill, House of Pain and Funkdoobiest, who was the only one to start recording gigs on video and taking photos. The two became close friends and together they managed to conquer the world. Oriol wants to show what this journey looked like with this documentary. Continue reading →

April 8, 2020 by Nostra - 0 comments

One Cut of the Dead (2017) – Review

A huge number of films are released every year. Many will never receive much attention and no one will remember them. And even if they get attention, it doesn’t have to mean they’re actually memorable. I myself occasionally see in my statistics on this site titles of films that no longer ring a bell, even though I have written a review about it. Only when viewing the stills do I only remember which one it was. However, the reverse also happens. Films that also came out in a specific year, which received little or no attention, but have managed to build a name over the years. That’s the case for the Japanese zombie movie One Cut of the Dead. I kept reading positive messages about it. After watching the film, those are quite justified, this is a movie made for film lovers to enjoy. Continue reading →

February 1, 2020 by Nostra - 2 Comments

Uncut Gems (2019) – Review

“Never say never”. That was the saying that came to mind immediately after seeing Uncut Gems. A few years ago, after seeing Pixels, I took the decision not to see a single film with Adam Sandler. His comedies are unfortunately bad and I didn’t want to expose myself to those horrors anymore. However, when I heard that he was playing the lead role in a new film by the Safdie brothers, I had to put my decision aside. Their film Good Time was one of those titles which grabbed the viewer and never let go. It showed how good Robert Pattinson is as an actor. When the brothers wrote Uncut Gems, they had Sandler in mind for the lead role. Continue reading →

January 31, 2020 by Nostra - 0 comments

1917 (2019) – Review

That war is hell is of course nothing new. We see it almost daily on the news and war movies and series also show the horrors. Whether that is Vietnam or the second world war. In recent years, the first world war has again become the subject or part of films. For example, Wonder Woman partially took place in this setting and last year Peter Jackson impressively succeeded in transforming the existing jerky black-and-white images into a smooth, colored and narrated document about how the soldiers’ lives in the trench war looked like. And with 1917, director Sam Mendes brings the First World War to the big screen in a way that has never been done before. Continue reading →

January 31, 2020 by Nostra - 2 Comments

Parasite (2019) – Review

I have always had a weakness for Alfred Hitchcock’s films. A director who was able to place ordinary people in special situations and defined what suspense is. It is a feeling that I also got while watching Parasite. The latest film from director Bong Joon-Ho (who previously made Okja, Snowpiercer, Mother, Memories of Murder and The Host, who just like Hitchcock, is a master at making films and offers the viewer a wonderfully unpredictable film in which the tension is constantly increased until it is almost unbearable. Continue reading →

December 17, 2019 by Nostra - 1 Comment

I Lost My Body (2019) – Review

The perspective that we have has a huge impact on how we see the world. This can be based on ideas, but also on a physical level. As a child I was always curious what the top of a car looked like (that turned out to be a disappointment when I was older), but filmmakers also use perspective to present the world differently. In E.T. Steven Spielberg often placed the camera at the level of the children, so that you were experiencing it from their perspective. But also Honey, I Shurnk the Kids or a Marvel film like Ant-Man show how different your world is when you experience everything when you are just as big as an insect. The perspective in I Lost My Body can rightly be called unique, because there are few films that show you what you experience as a hand without a body. Continue reading →

October 9, 2019 by Nostra - 2 Comments

Sorry We Missed You (2019) – Review

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 →

September 11, 2019 by Nostra - 0 comments

The Last Black Man in San Francisco (2019) – Review

The Last Black Man in San Francisco review

It doesn’t happen often, but sometimes there are those movies where, after seeing them, you get the feeling that the real world is boring and gray. And then I am not even talking about the extremes of a Speed Racer or Alice in Wonderland, but simply about the way in which a filmmaker has been able to capture “normal life” in a beautiful way, with each shot looking like a piece of art. A moment that you could frame and hang on your wall.

If a director is able to do that with his first feature film, then you know that it is one that you should keep an eye on. Director Joe Talbot does this together with cinematographer Adam Newport-Berra. He grew up in San Francisco and was good friends with Jimmie Fails. Jimmie told a lot about his youth and how he grew up. It inspired Talbot and they decided to make shorts, which eventually became a Kickstarter and got interest from Brad Pitt’s production company Plan B Enterntainment. Thanks to his help, Talbot was given access to a larger budget to film the story, which is partly based on the life of his friend, with Jimmie playing the leading role. Continue reading →

September 4, 2019 by Nostra - 0 comments

Blindspotting (2018) – Recensie

Whether we realize it or not, from the moment we see someone for the first time we make assumptions about that person, both positively and negatively. We are unconsciously blind to aspects that do not fit with that image and can therefore draw completely wrong conclusions. That is the important idea behind Blindspotting and that results in a very powerful film. Continue reading →