Thursday, August 30, 2012

Ondskan aka Evil (2003)

Can you ever find the difference between good and evil? Where are the symptoms hidden and what is the final conclusion? This is an amazing film about a teenager, Erik who tries to finish the last grade of the high school. But he has so many problems. Starting from his family where the new companion of his mother uses physical and  psychological violence against them. So Erik has to feed his anger fighting with other students and this will lead him to a private boarding school. At first, everything looks fine but soon Erik realizes that the situation is not ordinary as the senior students control the young ones. Teachers are just there doing their lessons and nothing more. Silverhielm and his council manage students behavior, attitude and manners. There are also seeds of fascism, sprouted with hate, from some teachers and senior students that make younger kids life more difficult. Erik meets Pierre, a peaceful guy who helps him with the classes and they become best friends. But how more can he afford the vicious methods of the council? Excellent performances, social issues and stunning cinematography. A great film from Sweden that will make your stomach hurt.

Monday, August 27, 2012

Saturday, August 25, 2012

Wild Bill (2011)

Bill is free again. He was in prison for some years for doing some illegal business and beating some people. Now on his way back home, he finds his sons, Dean and Jimmy, abandoned from their mother who decided to leave to Spain. The children don't even know him well and Dean isn't very satisfied with Bill's arrival as he think he is a pariah. Bill gets the attention of T, the local mobster and tries to stay away from the troubles but the old time partners can't leave him this way. He has also to face the social services who want to take the kids away. But before that, he has to make his children trust him and this is the difficult point. T doesn't want him in his area and Bill has to take dangerous decisions about his future. But he doesn't know that his younger boy, Jim, is involved into crime business. This is an interesting English production, though it has some cliches. The performances, especially Bill's and the youngsters are really good and the dramatic sequence works fine.

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Miracle Mile (1988)

This was an offbeat experience for sure. A forgotten apocalyptic film from the 80s that becomes so intriguing from time to time. Harry meets Julie. It is a pure and innocent love. When he accidentally miss his third date with her, he answers to a strange call outside of the place Julie works. Someone tells Harry that the States are been attacked and missiles are going to hit Los Angeles. So he manages to escape from there and save Julie and her relatives. But things are not in order and he tries his best in order to stay alive. Panic and chaos rule now and the countdown has already started. This is one of the most thrilling movies I have seen at the last months and the direction as the plot are quite magnificent. You can see people's reaction to unexpected incidents and how civilization could collapse in some hour before a complete destruction happened.

Grupo 7 (2012)

Rafael, Angel, Mateo and Miguel are the members of the infamous unit 7. It's mission is to clear Seville from the drug trafficking. But their methods are not always legal even if the results are quite successful. Rafael used to be the most tough cop but after he meets a young girl and supports her, he starts getting softer. Angel, leader of the unit, has ambitions and becomes violent and corrupted soon as he wants a better life for his family. Mateo has a secret relationship with Mahogany, a prostitute who leads them to the heart of drug dealing and help them with the transportation. The internal affairs are following Unit 7's leader as they are suspicious about the situation. As the team slips off the legal limits, Rafael and Mateo end up on opposing paths. A good Spanish production with fast direction and realistic cinematography. It describes perfectly the environment of the oppressed neighborhood in the south of Spain and the behavior of the people.

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Fubar Redux (2011)

Cats and dogs are fighting again as always. This time the situation is critical as we have a total war between the two sides. Private arm dealers sale more and more weapons to both armies in order to increase their bank account rates. And peace looks like an utopian dream as well.

Fubar Redux from Hasraf HaZ Dulull on Vimeo.

Detachment (2011)

Maybe the best story about the education system ever filmed. Brody plays Henry, a substitute teacher who wants to help the low educated students of a high school that is going to close soon. He has his own personal problems as his grand father is ill at the hospital and he needs extra attention. Henry also helps a young girl who was living on the streets as a hooker, Erica and invites her to live with him for a while until he will find a solution for her. He also has psychological problems due to his mother's death when he was a child. At the class, the situation seems hell and he has to attract the teenagers and win their confidence. Meredith is a talented girl who speaks through her photography art and wants someone to pay attention to her at last. Can Henry help her? A sad dramatic story for thinkers. Brody performs amazingly as always. There are depth on his character and  philosophical issues about teaching and make others understand.

Saturday, August 18, 2012

God bless America (2011)

Another cool film that could have been much better. Frank loses his job after eleven years of devotion. He is divorced and disgusted from the American society and its humiliating television broadcasts where everybody seeks for fame and money, being arrogant and acting as a small God and cares for nothing except himself. After a pessimistic diagnosis of a tumor on his head, Frank really freaks out and decides to take the situation on his hands and eliminate all these scums who have drove citizens to brainless human beings. On his first mission, taking down Chloe, a stupid rich girl and reality super star, he meets Roxy, another person with the same ideals and they join forces continuing the massacre across the States. As a story it reminds of 'Natural Born Killers' and 'Bonnie and Clyde' but it fails to give depth on its characters and sometimes all these killings seem pointless as the heroes aren't very convincing but it still worths a viewing.

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Eden Log (2007)

A man, Tolbiac, wakes up on a dark environment and tries to figure out what happened and how he was founded there. This place used to be an underground research lab, known as Eden Log. An experiment about new methods of collecting energy from the trees. Scientists and workers started a small revolution and guards had to take them down as they started transforming into mutants. Even the creator of the Rezo labyrinth can't help our hero as he is now a part of the deep roots of the toxic plants. Tolbiac will meet a young botanist and together they will try to escape from this land of desperation. Will they make it? An interesting dystopian film with social futuristic comments, dark atmosphere and cinematography and a working script even if its action was sometime recurrent and maybe slow.

Detective Dee and the mystery of the phantom flame (2010)

In 689 A.D., Wu Zetian was the first known female empress in the world. She wanted to built a 66 m high statue of Buddha to celebrate it. Shatuo was the responsible supervisor. But strange incidents happen as various assistants of the government start dying from a mysterious cause. They burnt alive as something affect their body towards the sun and make it explode into ashes. Wu frees detective Dee who was imprisoned for 8 years, accused as a traitor and orders him to investigate the case. Minister Pei doesn't agree with his methods and tries to interfere into the story. Wu also put her loyal assistant Shangguan to look after Dee so the last one will have a difficult mission in order to protect the empress and find out who is behind the killings. Prince Li Xiao wants Dee on his side to overturn the empress and all this situation confuse the mighty inspector. Tsui Hark directs a bold film with a solid story full of mystery and dynamic choreography even if the plot is more dramatic than active.


Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Sex and violence - Bill Plympton (1999)

Bill Plympton is another great animator who with his unique style and flavor of humor gives us some clever stories of sex, violence, empathy and madness.


Bill Plympton - Sex and violence από baltanar

Cavallette aka Grasshoppers - Bruno Bozzetto (1991)

Enjoy fine work from Bruno Bozzetto. A serious animation made by a minimal form. It's about thirst of human civilization for war and conquers. A single figure stands for an entire group opposite another one and they repeatedly fight and die. It was an Oscar Nominee for Best Animated Short in 1991.

Monday, August 13, 2012

Kurutta ippêji aka A Page of madness (1926)

A forgotten masterpiece that was lost for 45 years and finally discovered back from his own creator in 1971. Then he put an amazing score that really fits and  the result was extraordinary. This film reveals both the frightening and attractive aspects of madness. An old man works as a janitor at a psychiatric hospital. The reason actually for being there was to take care of his beloved wife as also plan to free her. She was a patient there after trying to commit suicide before killing her baby. There is going to be anarchy in the asylum and the old man starts having hallucinations due to the sick atmosphere around him. It is a great example of the perfectionism Japanese are known about even so many years ago. The editing, cinematography and the montage techniques are astonishing. Eisenstein was not alone finally. Enjoy the whole film below.

Det okända aka The unknown (2000)

A 'Blair witch project' stylized film that also can remind you of 'The thing' or 'Body snatchers' a little bit and a cool attempt of the Swedish to spread some horror. Five biologists and friends are going to investigate a fire that burned down a forest. Jacob and Ann-Sofie are in love and seem to be a happy couple. Ingar used to be with Tomas who is the weird guy of the company. Marcus is just Marcus. One day they discover a strange creature and try to find out what is about. But their peaceful trip is going to turn into a nightmare as Ingar disappears and Tomas start behaving more crazy. Paranoia comes out from the characters and a continuous nightmare will lead them to the path of this horrible truth. What is going to happen to them and is this creature responsible for all this? Shot with digital cameras, this thriller sometimes looks like really interesting as the cast give realistic performances and the direction is sometimes creative.

Thursday, August 9, 2012

Freeze me (2000)

Chihiro lives a peaceful life working at a bank and has a relationship with her colleague at work, Nogami. But no one knows about her past life when she decided to leave her hometown after she has been raped by three vicious men. She comes to Tokyo looking for something better but one of them, Hirokawa finds her and enters into her apartment by violence. He kicks her and rapes her again as he waits the two other guys, Baba and Kojima in oder to celebrate Baba's release from the prison. But he doesn't know that Chihiro is going to fight back this time. Nogami is confused by her behavior of the last days but he can't help her as she is trapped into her own world. How will she seek for revenge from the three slugs and what will happen to her at last? Takashi Ishii directed a disturbing as also violent film with a woman trying to escape from a continuous nightmare with no salvation after all. Enjoy hell of a ruined soul as well.

Monday, August 6, 2012

The Raid: Redemption (2011)

Yeah dudes, this is the Action film of the year and it comes from Indonesia. A dark, twisted and really violent diamond. Tama is the ruthless crime lord who owns a building. Jaka is the leader of a S.W.A.T. elite force planning to enter the place and capture everyone. But it is not as easy as they thought. Tama orders all the inhabitants to eliminate the intruders in order to stay there for free for their rest of their lives. He also has two powerful bodyguards, the Mad Dog, a crazy motherfucker who kills for fun using his fists and Andi who prefers to use his brain. Rama joined this team as a rookie and he wants to get there and bring back alive a person. It's his little secret but soon he understands this is gonna be extremely dangerous. Expect nothing but great dynamic battles through the dark halls of the building, fast direction that gives you the creeps and a great cast. Fucking dynamite as we commonly say.

K-Swiss - Kenny Powers MFCEO (2011)

The incredible Kenny Powers becomes the Ceo of K-Swiss company. The results are just tragic. A lot of hilarious moments across the advertising campaign will make you laugh till you drop.


K-Swiss - Kenny Powers MFCEO from Caviar on Vimeo.

Sunday, August 5, 2012

First snow (2006)

Jimmy Starks is a successful salesman, full of ambitions. While traveling, he meets a soothsayer assuring him that his life gonna end soon. Jimmy becomes paranoid and tries to figure out what causes all this mess. His girlfriend Deirdre and his best friend/ business partner Ed try to help him but an unexpected incident will bring back Vince, Jimmy's old betrayed friend. This will make Jim more anxious and as he have to clear the situation between them, his behavior will change and his life will start collapsing. What will be his next move and can fate change or he has to face his destiny? Really good performance from Guy Pearce, working plot and unexpected end for this suspenseful film that connects psychological thriller with drama.


Saturday, August 4, 2012

Some guy who kills people (2011)

Ok maybe this title isn't the perfect match for the story but it is still an interesting gem of an abnormal guy who escapes from reality drawing comics. Ken Boyd was an ex patient of a psychiatric asylum and now tries his best to join back the community working as a fast food employee. Now a series of freaky homicides wake up the town and the local Sheriff tries to find out what happens. Ken thinks of his violent past where some guys used to bully him and make him suffer. But Ken also has to discover about his relationship with his lost daughter, Amy, who have to meet him for eleven years. All the killings evidence point Ken as the main suspect. What will happen after Amy will discover his dark past? A low budget film that delivers a dark, suspenseful sense and some good actors doing their best in order to make this story work for real.