POMO

The last third of Switch is overly contrived. The wrongfully accused on the lam and the main cop are not as stellar and charismatic as we’re used to from similar French genre films. Because of this, and for some less-than-believable situations, the film cannot equal the best American thrillers. But as a way to kill some time, it’ll keep you entertained. It maintains the mystery surrounding the main villain long enough and at least one scene will stick in your memory (the chase in the mansion neighborhood).

In the first quarter, Maniac looks like a disgusting, self-serving gore fest, repelling the audience, who then finds it hard to stay interested in it. But it’s helped by the character of a photographer played by Nora Arnezeder, who brings normality and humanity to all the psychedelic disgust. Thanks to her, the darkness and purity are balanced, and by learning the causes of Elijah Wood’s murderous madness, the repulsive slasher movie becomes a thrilling drama. Compared to the trashy 1980s original, it’s a commendable step towards A-rated filmmaking, while maintaining the original’s explicit gore and brutality. It’s original thanks to the ripper’s POV and especially the crazy (but fantastic!) electronic soundtrack. A bizarre affair about which we can be glad it turned out the way it did.

Part III is a great ending of the series, though it lacks a more interesting climax. However, the bonus in the end credits almost completely makes up for it. Great cadence and originality of the jokes. Zach Galifianakis and Ken Jeong dominate the film, as Bradley Cooper and Ed Helms are only their sidekicks. John Goodman is a breath of fresh air. Though I found the first instalment strange, while watching the second part I began to understand the essence of “WolfPack humor”, and the third Hangover made me roll on the floor with laughter.

Had it not been for the success of Drive, Ryan Gosling and Kristin Scott Thomas would’ve never agreed to star in Only God Forgives, a film so anti-audience that I doubt it will get a wider cinema release in the US. A not exactly model American family operating in Bangkok makes a local machete-wielding police chief very angry. Who is related to whom is revealed only gradually, with the steadily rising body count. Everyone is a psycho either raping fourteen-year-olds, dealing drugs or poking people’s eyes out. Omnipresent darkness, deliberately placed lanterns and neon images, dragon symbols in the red half-light, slow-moving figures, dark or psychedelic music, and Ryan Gosling staring into space as hard as never before. The film plays with audience expectations, misleads, hypnotizes, scares, sometimes fascinates, but does not provide any final satisfaction. Vithaya Pansringarm’s cop is a properly demonic sadist, while the mother played by Kristin Scott Thomas is a properly unscrupulous bitch. A strange movie that will make you think, but doesn’t come to any conclusions.

The mechanical, hastily put together screenplay of Fast & Furious 6 is closer to Die Hard 5 than to Fast & Furious 5. Meeting, action, meeting, action, meeting, action and so on. The meetings are not as funny as they would like to be and the action is comically exaggerated and not easy enough to follow, given that Fast & Furious is the most successful action series of today. Furthermore, the sixth instalment does not take place in an attractive exotic environment like the fifth one does and its story has detours that make it unnecessarily protracted and less dynamic (the visit in the jail, Vin Diesel and Michelle Rodriguez racing), and we’ve already seen all of its highlights in the trailers.

The Hypnotist is a decent thriller that focuses on the gradual unraveling of a sophisticated mystery. Some moments are predictable, but the story always keeps some questions unanswered. The married couple’s troubles shouldn’t have gotten so much space, as they slow the film down unnecessarily, although a certain hypnotic slowness is part of the game with the audience. The gloomy atmosphere of Stockholm in winter is not as powerful as the creators had intended, but Mikael Persbrandt excels in the role of the hypnotist. His performance is the best part of the film.

This film introduces us to the unexplored environment of the psychically demanding work of 911 operators and relies on the emotional acting of the Oscar-winning Halle Berry, for whom “her case” becomes very personal. This thriller starts out nicely and is brutal and exciting; the scene with the victim in the trunk of the car offers some original moments. But in the climax, which was supposed to top it all, the movie loses all inventiveness and delivers one cliché after another before coming to a dull ending with zero catharsis. The result is a routine affair, which has nothing to make it stand out among dozens of similar flick about chasing murderers and rescuing kidnapping victims. It cannot hold a candle to films like The Silence of the Lambs and Se7en, that are light years ahead of it.

This theatrical love triangle has lively visuals, but a dull soul. Baz Luhrmann uses all the tricks that worked in Moulin Rouge! but does not come even close to depth of the portrayal of of tragic love achieved in the musical. We get to the character of Gatsby slowly, with great anticipation, and Leonardo DiCaprio looks good in his pastel suits (like everyone else), but his character paradoxically turns out to be the most impersonal and contradictory element of the film. We don’t really care about him, even though the film tells the story of his journey towards his dream, embodied by the beautiful Daisy. Carey Mulligan is merely an ornament, Joel Edgerton as her gruff husband is more noticeable than DiCaprio’s Gatsby. The only natural character is the “representative of the people” played by Tobey Maguire. Moulin Rouge! was energized and brought to life by its original energetic and emotionally engaging songs. The Great Gatsby pulls out Jay-Z’s overused hits (identifying with New York) and futilely tries to add a romantic dimension to a book of opulent pictures by using a captivating song by Lana Del Rey. Such a powerful theme, so many big thoughts ... And the viewer’s eyes will remain dry. ___ Second viewing: The scene of the confrontation of characters in the hotel room – if the whole film was done so intimately, in a psychologically concentrated fashion and dramaturgically sensitively, i.e. without unnecessary formal excesses and, in terms of music, satisfied itself with Lana Del Rey in key scenes, it could have been extraordinary.

A wannabe funny gay-parade farce made by a respected director, who needed to have some fun after the demanding (and excellent) drama The Skin I Live In. Some fun with cocaine, smuggled to the set in his own ass. A film for which, try as I may, I cannot find a more apt designation than crap.

This film is more of Dorota Nvotová’s testimony about one period of her life than a documentary about Nepal or life in Kathmandu. We look into the capital of the country through the lens of Dorota’s charitable activities (helping the kids in the orphanage and on the street), but if the creators used a voice-over to also tell us something general about local life, the film would have more value as a documentary. But comparing the difficulty of being there and in Bratislava through Dorota’s direct and honest narrative, which does not pull any punches, makes the film personal and distinctive enough to get a message across and make you root for the protagonist. The film also has nice music.