POMO

An old New York building with a fire escape, a helpless boy whose life is in danger but no one believes him, and a script that keeps putting various obstacles in his life. This small, unknown thriller is just as engaging as many genre classics. The Window is packed with suspense and anxiety, with a fast pace almost reminiscent of an action movie without any unnecessary detours, and a simple, but all the more efficiently executed dramatic premise. And with a nicely escalated climax.

A delicately played love triangle involving blindly falling in love, lies, abuse and the loss of oneself and everything. Scarlet Street is unpredictable in its storyline and masterful in the portrayal of its characters, while the script is supported by great actors, whose absolute king is Edward G. Robinson. He will captivate you completely and you will look forward to every new scene with him. Robinson was a master of portraying emotions, the most sincere actor depicting the “heart on his sleeve” with facial expressions that I have ever seen in film. I add the fifth star for him.

This movie stays cold, detached and not-so-enjoyable long into its runtime. Only the last third outlines the motifs that give it sense. Nevertheless, it is only slightly emotional and the least viewer-friendly and most minimalistic film in terms of audiovisuals among Jonathan Glazer’s works. This may be on purpose: while the main feature of Glazer’s genius, in addition to original narrative structures, is powerful audiovisuals. Following a crime drama and a romance flick, he surprises us with a minimalistic take on a genre, which is usually held together by rich graphic expression.

This feel-good adventure movie is elevated to the four-star level by multiple aspects and their fresh interaction – frequent moving around nice European locations, more space for Jon Favreau and his nice performance in the mentor role, frequent references to Tony Stark and Mysterio’s impressive technological games, paralleling the very charm of film illusion. And the well-depicted inner struggle of Spider-Man with his own responsibility and the inevitable expectations he has for himself.

The only thing this movie has in common with the F&F franchise is the main duo. It wants to resemble Mission: Impossible, but it most closely resembles G.I. Joe. It’s saved only by its similarities to Moana, but it’s a lot more stupid, which is a paradox, given that it’s intended for an adult audience. Only ten percent of the jokes are funny, the buddy chemistry is poor (the first encounter in the glass office, WTF?), and of all the action scenes, only the last one is interesting.

Crawl has a nice digital setting and, in the second half, a decent build-up of suspense and unpredictable use of the limited stage. Given the seemingly transparent plot that involves a skillful swimmer and her relationship with her father that needs to be healed, it turned out to be quite a profoundly written and directed survival-horror movie. It’s a half-star more enjoyable than the similarly themed The Shallows.

Such an interesting idea and kickoff from a great duo of English filmmakers that resulted in trivial moralizing about life values and love as the most important thing. What, in my opinion, was most astonishing was the completely unused potential of the Beatles’ hits and music in general. This is not a musical film, even though each and every viewer expects it to be. And the key drawback is the unimpressive lead actor, who is outshined by his character’s girlfriend. Is the overall outcome attributable to the film being a quick attempt to ride on the back of the success of Bohemian Rhapsody? That seems so, as it even panders to the viewer in a similar manner as BR. But in this case, a similar recipe produced the almost opposite result.

Long Shot is a textbook romantic comedy centred around a non-conventional couple whose chemistry is nevertheless believable, though just barely. Adult sexual jokes, drugs, occasional straightforward human sincerity and one more thing help to prevent the movie from slipping into the blandness of the genre. That one more thing is Charlize, because looking at her at times makes you stop registering what her character says (and you don’t mind that at all).

The Loft is an entertaining movie with a nice formal side, an interesting cast and a surprising finale full of questions. However, it focuses more on conforming to genre formulas than on creating a distinctive, refined work that would be equally (or even more) interesting when watched again. Alas, it’s a mainstream remake with an almost stellar cast, and such films are only rarely capable of that.

The opening scene with the Warrens gives a good start to the third Annabelle, lending it the true Conjuring drive. The rest of the film is a masterfully crafted ghost story with child characters, which works well with the environment, especially the Warrens’ basement containing a collection of haunted artefacts. However, the ghosts are overly harmless - even the werewolf turns into smoke when slapped with a guitar and the threat has passed. This “safe” haunting makes the movie accessible to a larger audience, which is nice, but it may be a drawback for some.