POMO

The stories “Audi vs. redneck” and “a betrayed pregnant girl” are masterpieces – the former thanks to its atmosphere and filmmaking imaginativeness, the latter thanks to its dialogue and brutal escalation of an already hellish situation. The opening pre-credit scene is also great, with an unforgettable transition to the title of the film. The other stories were decent, though the last one could’ve been shorter, as it sometimes gets too long-winded and self-obsessed. As a whole, the movie is inconsistent both in its feel and formal aspects, but always fun enough. Finally, someone aptly filmed our daily social anxieties and disagreements with the system.

If Gareth Evans controlled the characters and dialogues as skillfully as Andy Lau did in Infernal Affairs, The Raid 2 would have been the best action movie ever, even better than the best of John Woo in the fight scenes. But it’s too long, with too many characters and an overly complicated plot. For this to be a pureblood action movie, there are too many dialogue scenes that fill two-thirds of the film and try to build a mega-epic drama. Visually, however, it is perfect – especially the interiors are refined in the manner of Kubrick. A great aesthetic experience on the big screen at Karlovy Vary’s Thermal Hotel.

A young girl subjected to religious brainwashing and a tyrannical mother. Long, still shots without music, well-acted, austere and too cold – as if we were not supposed to sympathize with the suffering character.

A co-production pseudo-Hollywood blockbuster with a message? In places, Snowpiercer is OK (exciting, surprising), in places ridiculous like the later Shyamalan movies (some characters) or this year’s Hollywood flop Transcendence. A weird science-fiction hybrid with a stellar cast.

Corn Island is visual “back-to-basics” relaxation, thematically somewhat close to Malick’s The Thin Red Line. War territory, a small island on the lake, inhabited by a wrinkled grandfather and innocent teen granddaughter. Building a wooden shack, planting corn, fishing. Little music and almost no dialogue. Only an occasional storm, a sailboat with soldiers, and a nearby shooting in the woods contrast with the calm poetics of the film. The film is ingenious in its use of widescreen and, despite the limited space in which the film takes place, it’s never boring. I haven’t enjoyed a film with so little happening in it in a long while. Bravo.

Instructions on how to earn a nice afterlife... The director’s approach to the story is minimalistic, is neither riveting nor surprising, and is sometimes even boring, only to make sense of everything in the end. And then, while finally letting Rachel Portman’s fragile emotional music properly resound, moves you and hits you right in the feels. It was a commendable idea to film such a human destiny.

These high-quality contemporary Russian films are amazing thanks both to their wide-screen visuals that enhance the atmosphere of a vast and cold northern landscape, as well as to their textbook precise narration of the story with a focus on characters. These films are slow and long, but everything in them has its place. They smoothly tell a comprehensible and simple story, but the closer they get to the finale, the more concise and creative editing is used. Remarkable, excellent.

Xavier Dolan impressively captures the psychology and sparks between the characters, through which he heals his own demons. But that doesn’t make for a completely satisfying film experience. Tom at the Farm is a solidly developed relationship drama in which the dark secrets and truths of the past are revealed with escalating tension, but in the end it comes across as empty and turns out to be just an engaging but forgettable snapshot.

A concentrated nothing made into a film. Every such film makes the Czech comedy The Inheritance by Věra Chytilová look more and more like an important milestone of Czech cinema. Nowhere in Moravia doesn’t have a single scene that is actually funny and to the point, whereas The Inheritance is full of them.

“Never ask for what ought to be offered.” Winter's Bone impressively depicts the addressing of the difficult situation of an incomplete family in an already tough life in difficult circumstances (where livelihoods are made by hand in the forest). The driving force of the film is not so much its screenplay as the atmospheric environment of the Midwestern backcountry, where gardens are scattered with the rusty remains of cars and sheds are used to make and take crystal meth. And where the social rules followed by the inhabitants will chill you to the bone. The film rises and falls with Jennifer Lawrence, who possesses a talent rarely seen on the screen. Winter’s Bone feels close to the Coens’ Fargo, just without the black humor. I’m not inclined to take a trip to Missouri after watching this.