POMO

Lightweight adventure entertainment that, when looking at the names of the filmmakers in the credits, you expect more from than it delivers. It’s not utterly stupid and it does have some bright moments, but it’s just unimaginative and doesn't make full use of its cast’s stellar potential.

Cronos is an intelligent and absorbing psychological horror movie about a small ancient device that sucks blood and its victim, an old grandfather who gradually succumbs to its seductive destruction. Guillermo del Toro had it together early in his career.

A spectacular music-video-style movie with a Satanic theme and a rhythmic soundtrack. But the enthusiasm elicited by the visuals and sound fades the moment the lights go up in the screening room. And the potential to appeal to the viewer with anything else in cinematic terms remains frozen in place.

A slow, subtle, intimate story of unrequited love, filmed with breathtaking sensitivity and attention. A psychological masterpiece, perfect with every second, every tremor, every gesture and every glance between Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson.

A brilliant theatrical psychological drama that explores the codes of crime, guilt and the ethics of the right to mete out punishment. Generations of filmmakers can learn from what Roman Polanski did here with three actors in one living room. Sigourney Weaver gives the performance of her life here.

Darren Aronofsky’s directorial inventiveness is incredible. Can anyone else ever reflect human feelings so brilliantly using only camerawork, editing and music? The acting is also excellent – Ellen Burstyn’s performance ranks among the best that I have every seen. But still that’s not enough for me. Requiem for a Dream is a devastating mosaic of somewhat gratuitous misery. It is not the deep, existential and timeless philosophical reflection that it could have been. Which, given its extraordinary formalistic qualities, is a shame.

Elegant musical entertainment that has style, flair and tons of energy. But it’s still just superficial and cold entertainment that won’t appeal to you nearly as much as the more powerful and more emotional masterpiece Moulin Rouge!.

Femme Fatale is Brian De Palma’s masterful cinematic plaything that will receive well-deserved acclaim from a limited group of viewers. Outwardly inaccessible and strange, inwardly childishly simple and beautiful. A treat for connoisseurs.

In filmmaking terms, The Order is solidly made darkness for a very narrow range of (dark) viewers. Its plot is similar to that of Stigmata, but less focused on form and more on content. A film with minimal chance of commercial success.

The psychology in City by the Sea is too simple and the film is too chatty. The actors perform more with their mouths than with their eyes. And it’s needlessly long. The story could have been told in eighty minutes as a TV family drama.