Filmmaniak

In my opinion, it is fundamentally wrong to make a film with characters that are unsympathetic and there is nothing about them at all that lets the viewer empathize with them, feel kinship to them, understand their motivations and cheer for them. As soon as they viewers lose interest in them, they know longer care what happen to them, or in the film itself, regardless of its craftsmanship and acting (none of which is bad, but neither is it dazzling). The protagonists in Submergence are drowning in shit and they can only blame themselves for it (the main protagonist is apathetic and passive to her surroundings and to her situation, her father is addicted to heroin, her mother to alcohol), and she does not even really try to change the situation. What the hell is attractive about it, other than the adaptation of the book based on real events? In addition, the film drags and a number of the side plots are unnecessary (see all of the passages in which Peter Dinklage appears). Drugs are bad, yes, but I've learned that from a number of better films...

The main protagonist is trying to get rid of his addiction to cigarettes, without realizing that a rehab clinic recommended by a friend is using really extreme methods to get rid of a person’s addiction. A slightly shorter runtime would suit this attractive theme; the surreal storytelling style and unpredictable mysterious twists are not enough to entertain for two hours on their own. The visual appearance of the film using digital tricks and effective cuts, video passages, the atmosphere of the dirty environment of Mumbai in contrast to the luxurious life of the main protagonists, and the dream trances, all elevate No Smoking into a decent abstinence ride that would benefit here and there from injections of adrenaline. I honestly expected it to be even more rampant and frantic.

A careful, consistent and detailed procedural reconstruction of the real events that shook Mumbai in 1993, when a group of Muslims organized a series of bombings in the city center. The film begins with the explosions themselves and is then framed by police investigations and their pursuit of the perpetrators hiding throughout India and abroad. With each individual caught, another piece is revealed in the massive conspiracy jigsaw puzzle, and the film mixes events before the attacks with events after the attacks. Unfortunately, there are about three dozen important characters in the film and it is not within our powers to remember them all. Because of this (and because of about a million sub-plots), the film breaks into an incredibly complicated story of epic proportions, which must have been incredibly difficult to shoot. Director Anurag Kashyap is incredibly expressive and progressive and is an excellent craftsman when it comes to storytelling, but he still has a long way to go.

You won't find much adventure in this slow and emotional film. The main protagonist is a taciturn loser with a boring and stereotypical life who falls in love with a strangely-behaving girl who takes advantage of his introverted nature and naivety to gently manipulate him. The film deals with the development of the first friendship between the two protagonists, but they are not sympathetic enough for the viewer to care about their destinies. The complete plot of the film might be a thirty-page short story, but here, it is stretched to almost full-length and subjectively seems even longer than it really is. Many of the film’s scenes are not part of the story and the viewer needs to get through them, because they are not interesting in any way. Many unnecessary motifs, useless characters and useless passages make Adventure a rather boring and unattractive affair.

A magnificent documentary, carefully edited from archival materials and shots from the present, which cleverly intertwine and form a very complex image of the personality of singer, actress and freedom fighter Marta Kubišová. The film deals with each topic just enough; nothing is missing in it and nothing is excessive. The main protagonist is not glorified in the film, perhaps also because the modest Marta Kubišová looks back on her life with foresight and wit, even though she often had little reason to laugh. A very good film and one of the most successful and professionally crafted Czech documentaries in a relatively long time. Basically, I'm excited. I didn't previously know much about Mrs. Kubišová, and I only knew two of her songs. And now imagine how the film must affect her fans.

The film works with a very interesting topic: a young Canadian man offering erotic and escort services to homosexuals moves in with an obese, kind-hearted gay baker (without having any idea what his breadwinner looks like). The series of plot lines that takes place after his arrival in the Belgian town do not lack a good dose of occasional humor, but they lack focus and a more dynamic pace. The closer the film gets to the end, the more the comedy decrease and the drama becomes more serious. However, the film stumbles from side to side all the time and ends in a way that leaves the viewer with a number of ambiguities and unanswered questions. The actors in both main roles are excellent, but the characters themselves and their common escapades do not capture the heart.

A post-apocalyptic sci-fi comic film with unusually high quality and which works on an attractive principle - the protagonists move from the rear cars of a long train to the front, with a surprise awaiting them in each car. With its structure, the film resembles a computer game that is fun for almost two hours, especially thanks to quality actors (the cast is incredible), excellent visuals and the director's brilliant performance. In short, an effective, imaginative and intelligent ride with a philosophical subtext, which unfortunately cools off a bit at the end.

This is truly bizarre. It's definitely not a film from the point of view of horses (as the film is presented), although there are more of them in this film than the quirky Icelanders (who are portrayed in the film as really big idiots). Sometimes it's comical, sometimes it's sad or tragic. In any case, it’s weird. However, it is definitely not a film suitable for horse lovers (they would probably run away from the cinema during the scene with the prolapse of the horse's entrails, which happened during the screening I went to). The best prerequisite for enjoying the film is to have a sense of really, really black humor.

A psychological drama that is a difficult-to-digest probe into the thought processes of the characters, their relationships, motivations and conflicts. The excellent acting of Petra Špalková, Jiří Schmitzer and Taťjana Medvecká are combined with the great screenplay of the debuting author and the precise directing of Zdeněk Tyc, who has obviously managed to uncompromisingly realize his vision. The characters are extremely well written and the dialogues intelligent. More than ever, this Czech film is of exceptional quality.

Life wasn't easy in the gay community in the first half of the 1980s. However, Ryan Murphy's HBO drama does not try to play on feelings and plead for gay rights; on the contrary, it quite naturally depicts the mood of the time, the atmosphere and the feelings of those who were there during the first deaths from the new HIV virus. The large number of characters and the length of over two hours is slightly detrimental, but the stellar cast, led by Mark Ruffalo, Julia Roberts and Alfred Molina, makes up for it. One of the homosexuals is even played by Jim Parson (Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory).